Columnists

Undercurrents: Taking a Moment to Analyze the Situation in Oakland

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Thursday January 15, 2009 - 06:24:00 PM

In a situation as fast-moving as the Oscar Grant BART shooting death and its aftermath, it’s important to continue to collate and evaluate information on the run, even as we move forward. Such evaluation is going to be imperfect, of course, both because many things are still unknown, and we don’t yet have the historian’s benefit of the time and space needed to trigger the clarity of hindsight. But if we don’t take a breath and look around and make some preliminary conclusions as we go, there are many important things that will be forever lost. -more-


Dispatches From The Edge: Voices On Gaza

By Conn Hallinan
Thursday January 15, 2009 - 06:24:00 PM

Words have power, particularly when they confront each other. These are some words on the current crisis in Gaza: -more-


The Public Eye: Bush’s Day of Reckoning

By Bob Burnett
Thursday January 15, 2009 - 06:23:00 PM

When Barack Obama becomes the 44th president of the United States, he’ll face daunting challenges: a shattered economy, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and global climate change, to mention only three. -more-


Wild Neighbors: In Search of the Wild Parrots of Berkeley

By Joe Eaton
Wednesday January 14, 2009 - 06:47:00 PM
Mitred parakeet in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

A couple of weeks back, I got an e-mail from a reader suggesting a column about the Berkeley parrot flock. In trying to pull that column together, I was struck by how little I knew about these birds—in contrast to their celebrity cousins in San Francisco. -more-


About the House: What It Means to Say a House Has Good Bones

By Matt Cantor
Wednesday January 14, 2009 - 06:45:00 PM

During inspections, I often hear people refer to old houses as having “good bones.” This is such a trigger for me that I have to duct-tape my mouth shut to keep from launching into a harangue on what is good and bad about old houses. Luckily for me, when I sit down to my computer, I can digitally rant all day long. There’s no duct tape on my keyboard. So here goes: -more-