A Bake-sale vs. a Buffet
Gar Smith
A Bake-sale vs. a Buffet

Page One

Bake Sale Generates Debate, Peaceful Protests

By Jeff Shuttleworth (BCN)
Wednesday September 28, 2011 - 10:47:00 AM

A bake sale by Berkeley College Republicans yesterday that was aimed at satirizing race-based admissions generated heated debates and counter-protests but no major problems. -more-



Baked Goods and Arguments Retailed on Sproul Plaza

By Steven Finacom
Wednesday September 28, 2011 - 10:20:00 AM
The “bake sale” table was a crowded center of discussion and debate much of the day.

Demonstrations come and go on the UC Berkeley campus. They’re sometimes amusing, periodically profound, occasionally irritating. For half a century they’ve been a fixture of Sproul Plaza and have become so commonplace that most don’t attract extensive attention. -more-



Editorial

What's the News Today, and Why?

By Becky O'Malley
Wednesday September 21, 2011 - 02:26:00 PM

The eternal paradox about what is commonly called journalism is why so many people who commit it manage not to see what’s going on before their eyes, even as a reasonable number of others, in and out of journalism, do.

Ever wonder about what’s happening in the global economy? Well, here it is, a summary which could fit on the back of an envelope, and it’s even perversely funny:

“Quarterly GDP data don’t, on the whole, tend to make the person studying them laugh out loud. The most recent set, however, are an exception, despite the fact that the general picture is of unrelieved and spreading economic gloom. Instead of the surge of rebounding growth which historically accompanies successful exit from a recession, we have the UK’s disappointing 0.2 per cent growth, the US’s anaemic 0.3 per cent and the glum eurozone average figure of 0.2 per cent. That number includes the surprising and alarming German 0.1 per cent, the desperately poor French 0 per cent and then, wait for it, the agreeably frisky Belgian 0.7 per cent. Why is that, if you’ve been following the story, laugh-aloud funny? Because Belgium doesn’t have a government. Thanks to political stalemate in Brussels, it hasn’t had one for 15 months. No government means none of the stuff all the other governments are doing: no cuts and no ‘austerity’ packages. In the absence of anyone with a mandate to slash and burn, Belgian public sector spending is puttering along much as it always was; hence the continuing growth of their economy. It turns out that from the economic point of view, in the current crisis, no government is better than any government – any existing government.”

(From an opinion article by John Lanchester in a recent London Review of Books.)

That paragraph alone is worth column inch after column inch of sententious pieces in the American press attempting to convey what the hell the U.S. Congress is up to—yes, even in the New York Times, most of whose staffers appear not to read what Professor Paul Krugman writes on their own op-ed page. We’d be better off without this current Congress, wouldn’t we, so why not just say so? This is not an endorsement, by the way, of the Tea Party anti-government ideology, just a glum statement of observable fact. -more-


Columns

My Commonplace Book (a diary of excerpts copied from printed books, with comments added by the reader.)

By Dorothy Bryant
Wednesday September 28, 2011 - 11:31:00 AM

A fine artistic production expresses the vision, the conviction, and the insistent presence of one person. It is best when it is undiluted by artistic cooperation, when it is not characterized by any of the seven (or more) deadly virtues: fair-minded, well-balanced, accommodating, unassertive, cooperative, and so forth. —from A Life, by Elia Kazan (1909-2003), Distinguished actor/director -more-


Cartoon Page: BOUNCE: Internet Gnomes

By Joseph Young
Wednesday September 28, 2011 - 10:09:00 PM

Cartoon Page: Bake-sale vs. Buffet

By Gar Smith
Wednesday September 28, 2011 - 02:42:00 PM

Cartoon Page: Odd Bodkins: The Miracle

Dan O'Neill
Wednesday September 28, 2011 - 02:21:00 PM

Arts & Events

Opera Review: Gounod's Romeo et Juliette at Livermore Valley Opera

By Ken Bullock
Wednesday September 28, 2011 - 10:08:00 AM

Charles Gounod--best-known for his Faust--had a different sense of adapting Shakespeare to opera than Verdi. It's closer to Delacroix's renderings of Hamlet. In Romeo et Juliette, now at Livermore Valley Opera, the sprawling action and passion is concentrated into a few scenes of melodic, lyrical grace. -more-


Film Review: Raul Ruiz's Mysteries of Lisbon at Shattuck Cinemas

By Ken Bullock
Wednesday September 28, 2011 - 10:01:00 AM

Raul Ruiz's extraordinary and original films have been shown at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, notably a retrospective during the San Francisco Film Festival in 1984, and a program of short films, with Ruiz's appearance, in the 90s. Time Regained, his 1999 adaptation of Proust's final novel, with Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle beart and John Malkovitch, among others, is maybe his best-known work, one hailed on release as high among postwar masterpieces. -more-


Book Review: Heart of a Soldier

Reviewed by Dorothy Snodgrass
Wednesday September 28, 2011 - 10:25:00 AM

This September marked the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 World Trade Center attack, the worst attack in American history! Who can forget the horrific images of the burning Towers, people jumping out of windows, and dazed workers who managed to escape the building, soot-covered but uninjured, running through the rubble covering the ground? -more-


Back Stories

Opinion

The Editor's Back Fence

Yet Another Schedule Update 09-25-2011

Speak Out on Issues for Tuesday's Berkeley City Council Meeting 09-24-2011

New Feature: "The Week" Button 09-23-2011

About the New Schedule 09-22-2011

Cartoons

Cartoon Page: BOUNCE: Internet Gnomes By Joseph Young 09-28-2011

Cartoon Page: Bake-sale vs. Buffet By Gar Smith 09-28-2011

Cartoon Page: Odd Bodkins: The Miracle Dan O'Neill 09-28-2011

Public Comment

Press Release: UC Students Stand for Diversity, Reject Affirmative Action Bake Sale, Push for SB185 From Darius L. Kemp, Director of Organizing and Communications 09-26-2011

Why the Berkeley College Republicans are Wrong By Thomas Lord 09-26-2011

Perry's Claim to Fame By Ron Lowe 09-26-2011

Join "Tax the Rich" Demonstration in Berkeley on Monday Evening By Julia Ross 09-25-2011

Response to "Laura's Law in A Nutshell" By Jack Bragen 09-25-2011

New: Letters 09-22-2011

News

Bake Sale Generates Debate, Peaceful Protests By Jeff Shuttleworth (BCN) 09-28-2011

Baked Goods and Arguments Retailed on Sproul Plaza By Steven Finacom 09-28-2011

Flash: Berkeley City Manager Phil Kamlarz
to Retire on November 30
By Becky O'Malley 09-26-2011

Report on Berkeley City Employee Costs, Proposed Savings and Action Plan Released:
An Updated Comparison of 12 Greater Bay Area Cities
09-27-2011

UC Berkeley Groups Debate Affirmative Action at Campus Bake Sale By Hannah Albarazi1 (BCN) 09-27-2011

Alta Bates Summit, Nurses' Union Dispute Responsibility for Patient's Death after Replacement Administers Wrong Medication By Jeff Shuttleworth (BCN) 09-27-2011

"Parking Day" Comes to Berkeley By Steven Finacom 09-27-2011

Green Schoolyards: Creating A Greener Generation© By Stevanne Auerbach, PhD 09-26-2011

Patient at Alta Bates Summit Dies from Lethal Dose Allegedly Given by Temporary Nurse By Bay City News 09-26-2011

Unofficial Mayor of Telegraph Released from Jail Saturday by Ted Friedman 09-26-2011

Early Rain on Telegraph Stroll By Ted Friedman 09-26-2011

UC Berkeley Graduates Detained in Iran Expected to Return to U.S. Today By Bay City News 09-25-2011

Nurses at Alta Bates in Berkeley and Other Hospitals Told to Stay Away Until Thursday By Sara Gaiser (BCN) 09-23-2011

Two Arrested During Protests on UC Berkeley Campus By Patricia Decker (BCN) 09-23-2011

Fall Budget and Fee Protests Begin at UC Berkeley By Steven Finacom 09-23-2011

9/11 in the Comics By Gar Smith 09-23-2011

New: Protesters in Berkeley March against Tuition Hikes, Occupy Classrooms By Scott Morris (BCN) 09-22-2011

Press Release: Bayer Biotech Workers in Berkeley Send Company a Stinging Rebuke From Craig Merrilees, ILWU 09-22-2011

New: "Unofficial Mayor" of Telegraph Busted for "Interfering" with a Cop As Medheads Get Front-Row Seats By Ted Friedman 09-22-2011

Updated: California Nurses Strike at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley and Elsewhere By Laura Dixon, Bay City News Service 09-22-2011

Nurses Strike Throughout California By Bay City News Service 09-22-2011

Just Another Berkeley South Side Crime Story: Who Killed People's Park Activist Gina Sasso? by Ted Friedman 09-22-2011

Mark Coyote By John Curl 09-22-2011

Columns

My Commonplace Book (a diary of excerpts copied from printed books, with comments added by the reader.) By Dorothy Bryant 09-28-2011

On Mental Illness: Cigarettes, Coffee and Metabolic Syndrome By Jack Bragen 09-27-2011

Setting Limits With Obama By Bob Burnett 09-24-2011

New: Dispatches From The Edge: Arms, China & the Obama Administration By Conn Hallinan 09-22-2011

New: Laura's Law in a Nutshell By Ralph E. Stone 09-22-2011

Senior Power… The Only Disease By Helen Rippier Wheeler 09-22-2011

My Commonplace Book (a diary of excerpts copied from printed books, with comments added by the reader.) By Dorothy Bryant 09-22-2011

New: On Mental Illness: Something for Nothing By Jack Bragen 09-22-2011

Arts & Events

Opera Review: Gounod's Romeo et Juliette at Livermore Valley Opera By Ken Bullock 09-28-2011

Film Review: Raul Ruiz's Mysteries of Lisbon at Shattuck Cinemas By Ken Bullock 09-28-2011

Book Review: Heart of a Soldier Reviewed by Dorothy Snodgrass 09-28-2011

Free Speech Day Is October 1! Two Unique Ways to Celebrate By Gar Smith 09-27-2011

"Jobs Not Cuts" Rally in Oakland October 15 By Zipporah Collins 09-27-2011

Despite Rain, the Show Goes On at Free Cal Performances Day By Steven Finacom 09-26-2011

Berkeley Arts Festival Concerts this week 09-26-2011

Farmageddon: America's War Against Small Farmers Reviewed by Gar Smith 09-25-2011

Architecture, Dance, Music in Berkeley This Weekend By Steven Finacom 09-23-2011