Columnists

New: Jane's Web Log: Spending the Night in Arnieville

By Jane Stillwater
Friday July 16, 2010 - 02:07:00 PM

Cold & Hard: Spending the night in Arnieville -more-


Dispatches From The Edge: Africa: No Butter but Lots of Guns

By Conn Hallinan
Sunday July 11, 2010 - 09:56:00 AM

The developed world has a message for Africa: “Sorry, but we are reneging on our aid pledges made at the G8 summit at Gleneagles, Scotland back in 2005, but we do have something for you—lots and lots of expensive things that go ‘bang’ and kill people.” -more-


Senior Power : “Noah’s Ark Was Built By Volunteers”

By Helen Rippier Wheeler
Sunday July 11, 2010 - 09:35:00 AM

(The complete quotation, according to Energize, Inc- Especially for Leaders of Volunteers, is “Don't ever question the value of volunteers. Noah's Ark was built by volunteers; the Titanic was built by professionals.”) -more-


Wild Neighbors: Tales of the Lone Parrot

By Joe Eaton
Tuesday July 13, 2010 - 10:08:00 AM

I got a handful of interesting responses to a column earlier this year about what I believed to be the last survivor of the wild parrots of Berkeley, a species known to the pet trade as cherry-headed conures and to ornithologists as red-masked parakeets. One writer bridges a gap in the story regarding the fate of the penultimate parrot. Another suggests that there may be another flock out there. -more-


Restoration Comedy: Phoning It In

By Jane Powell
Sunday July 11, 2010 - 04:59:00 PM

Having returned from Indiana to a typical East Bay summer (i.e. fog, or what a friend refers to as “barbeque in a parka” weather), I’m a little testy. As I’ve grown older I’ve come to actually like heat— not that I’m thinking of moving to the other side of the hill or anything. Nope, still attempting to hold on to my house. So I had another appointment at NACA last week.

-more-


News from Berkeley: The Alameda County Fair, Pick-N-Pull & Chez Panisse

Jane Stillwater
Tuesday July 13, 2010 - 10:53:00 AM
The Alameda County Fair: "We had fun!"

[Editor’s note: This is just a sample of Berkeleyan Jane Stillwater’s free-range blog. For the full treatment, complete with photos, click on her link at the right side of this page.]

If you are having trouble trying to keep from being driven completely nutso by all the grim, horrible and terrible national and international news headlines that just keep pouring down on our heads, then perhaps it's time to take a break and focus in on some of the good things in life instead. And there actually are a lot of good things happening here, locally, in my own home town -- which happens to be Berkeley. -more-


Corruption in the Repair Industry

By Jack Bragen
Tuesday July 13, 2010 - 12:12:00 PM

I worked as a television and video repairman in the 1980’s, was employed by several small repair shops and was self employed at it. I was pretty good at troubleshooting the circuitry in TV’s and VCR’s, yet some of the jobs were more stressful than I would have liked. -more-


Inside Northside's Fabled Spring Mansion

By Steven Finacom
Tuesday July 13, 2010 - 09:58:00 AM
The main façade of the mansion faces west, where the grounds step
                  down in a formal terrace below the house.

Scores of curious sightseers—and perhaps some serious potential buyers—wandered this past Sunday through the closest thing to a residential palace in Berkeley, the John Hopkins Spring mansion. -more-