Public Comment

SMITHEREENS: Reflections on Bits & Pieces: SmitherDips&Doodles

Gar Smith
Monday September 26, 2022 - 03:40:00 PM

Putting Words to a Quake

On September 13, twin jolts rocked the ground in Santa Rosa. A 4.4 magnitude quake and 4.3 aftershock had been triggered by a tectonic twitch that occurred 3.5 miles below a section of the Hidden Valley neighborhood. The temblor reportedly "knocked picture frames off walls, cracked water pipes and rattled nerves."

The best description was provided to the Chronicle, as follows:
"15-year-old Charlie Scoby was watching 'Rick and Morty' on TV when the whole house shook 'like it grew legs and started to walk.'" 

Artists, Meet-ups, and Weed Wine 

On September 23, ActivSpace (the block-long West Berkeley building where I have an office) hosted an "Open Studio" so tenants could meet their neighbors and show off their wares. 

Office Manager Chandra Thomas presided over the event from a ground-floor studio bedecked with posters and balloons. Inside, a gallery of small oil paintings were on display. The paintings were signed by artists representing themselves as "Bart Simpson" and "Laffy Taffy" and they bore truly unbelievable prices that included "$5," "25 cents," and "for a nice smile." 

Management had prepared a bountiful table of snacks, along with several bins of iced sodas, and a selection of wines. 

The label on a bottle of Weed Cabernet Sauvignon caught my eye. It promised "a luscious palate of cherry, blackcurrant, and savory black plum [that] sing harmoniously with velvety vanilla." But given the recent wildfires that have scorched northern California (and laid waste to the town of Weed), the part of the label that stuck in my mind was the line that promised: "aromas of coffee, clove and charred wood." 

Karmic Strips 

Like Charles Schultz' Peanuts, Garry Trudeau's daily Doonesbury strips have been in re-runs for years. This allows the artist to spend more time creating new and timely strips for the Sunday Comics. 

But the daily time-warp hit an unexpected speed-bump on September 12 when a strip that originally ran in 1997 showed a character named Joanie Caucus returning to Berkeley for a reunion at Boalt Law School (now UC Berkeley School of Law). 

Joanie's friend Ginny laments "the end of affirmative action" at UCB. "The incoming class has only one black student out of 14 admitted," she groans. "The year before, Boalt admitted 75 blacks! Great message, huh?" 

Metaverse-Adverse 

The cover of a recent issue of TIME Magazine was devoted to an exploration "The Metaverse" (aka Marc Zuckerberg's secret fantasy hideaway). The accompanying essay concluded with the following sentence: "The idea of the metaverse means an ever-growing share of our lives, labor, leisure, time, wealth, happiness, and relationships will be spent inside virtual worlds, rather than just aided through digital devices." 

Somehow, the idea that our collapsing planet can be saved if only more people spent time at home with their heads stuck inside brain-entraining VR buckets doesn't convince or comfort me. My response to the Metaverse boils down to the first key syllable of the loathsome word itself: "Meh." 

Fashion Plates 

A dark Honda with a New Jersey plate reading: K11 GRK (Judging from the nearby Hawks sticker and the declaration "Spartan Pride," I'm guessing this is a Spartan sport fan's competitive vow to devastate the Spartans' major opponent. Hence: "Kill Greek") 

A little blue VW: FIZZ (A cute match) 

A black Chevy sportscar: HRDCGAM (I'm at a loss here. Any ideas? "Hard to See a Leg"?) 

How Earth Island Almost Had a Floating Office 

On September 21, the Chronicle ran an article headlined: "A 1925 ferry returns to S.F. with a big rooftop garden." It was about the nostalgic homecoming of The Klamath, a Bay Area treasure, to its old home in the waters off San Francisco. John King's Chronicle article was filled to the gills with tangy historical details but it didn't cover the Klamath's near-moment as a floating office for environmental Archdruid David Brower's newly launched activist organization, Earth Island Institute (now celebrating its 40th anniversary in the eco-friendly David Brower Building at 2150 Allston Way In downtown Berkeley). 

As a member of the radical Friends of the Earth contingent that became the activist-based Earth Island Institute, I was pleased to receive the following email recollections from John Knox, Executive Director Emeritus of Earth Island Institute. 

That mention of The Klamath jogged some memory marbles but I couldn't quite reassemble the events that nearly gave our feisty crew of eco-activists our very own armada. 

I wrote to John, thanking him for stepping to the podium with an email version of a tidy TED Talk. In my note, I mentioned: "It's rare good news that such a storied ship gets reborn (reberthed?) in home waters, so this is a cause for gratitude." With The Klamath's return to the Embarcadero, I suggested, we might want to host "a future celebration of Earth Island onboard the boat. We could gather at the stern for a group photo. It would be a ferry-tale ending." 

(Here's John Knox's memoire, reposted with permission.) 

Dear Islanders of Various Vintages, 

It's been a while since the early days of Earth Island back in the 1980s, so I'm not sure how many of you might know about a unique and challenging opportunity that came up for Earth Island in 1990 or so. Walter Landor had sold his famous design firm Landor and Associates to Young & Rubicam, and his family was left with the equally notable ferry, The Klamath, which had been Landor's corporate headquarters (and party venue) but which was left out of the sale. (Here's a little about Walter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Landor.)  

The Klamath was in the stripped and skeletal condition of an elderly ship waiting for its next life. It sat in its historic berth at Pier 3-1/2, not far from our 300 Broadway offices. 

I don't recall clearly how we got the very flattering offer from the Landors — among other facts, the Landors knew about the Browers, and vice versa, and I knew Walter slightly — but I became the primary party to represent Earth Island in considering their proposed gift of The Klamath for Earth Island's use. 

There was a lunch between Dave and Anne Brower and Walter and Josephine Landor at Green's, all very cordial and positive. But the formidable work that it would take to make the boat worthy for habitation turned out to be too much for young Earth Island to undertake, and eventually the boat was sold to Duraflame and moved to Stockton. Walter and Josephine came to Dave's 80th birthday party at Green's in 1992, not long before his death. 

I sought out The Klamath in Stockton a few years ago, and it had devolved into being an isolated (fenced off) conference and party venue. 

As the Chronicle article details, The Klamath is back with a bright new life on the Embarcadero, now at Pier 9. The Bay Area Council, a think tank with strong business ties, took on the challenge of bringing it back. I definitely want to go for a look, in part to revisit the fantasies of a floating home for a very young group called Earth Island. 

Biden’s Hypocritical Take on 'Taking Countries by Force

In a recent appearance before the United Nations General Assembly in New York, President Joe Biden condemned Russian Leader Vladimir Putin for his invasion of Ukraine. Biden barked that it is understood by all civilized nations that you "can't take a country's territory by force." 

In making this statement, Biden must have left many members of the UNGA shaking their heads and whispering the word "hypocrisy!" 

As Dr. Gideon Polya pointed out in a Countercurrents article (recently reposted on my website, Environmentalists Against War), Biden chose to ignore Washington's own history. As the headline on Polya's long and extensive history of America's foreign aggressions put it: 

The US Has Invaded 70 Nations Since 1776
– Including 50 Nations Since 1945
 

From the end of the Korean conflict in 1950 to a spate of military attacks on Libya and Syria in 2015, the Pentagon dropped bombs on more than 30 foreign nations representing one-third of the planet's human population. Among the countries bombed: Afghanistan, China, Congo, Grenada, Guatemala, El Salvador, Kuwait, Lebanon, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Panama, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, and Yugoslavia. 

The US Empire was built and expanded by "taking countries by force." In addition to seizing native lands, the US seized Western lands from Mexico, seized the islands of Puerto Rico and Hawai'i, and continues to control a seized portion of Cuba known as Guantanamo. 

The Hot Tub Guy 

The SF Chronicle noted Deward Hasting's passing with this description: "For almost 50 years, he was known as the 'hot tub guy,' a former hippie in Berkeley who ran a semi-secret hot tub in his backyard that tens of thousands of locals — and travelers — were free to dip into, if they knew where to look, or had the code." Back in the mid-1960s, Deward "was a press operator, putting ink on paper — first for UC Berkeley's Free Speech Movement and later as Berkeley Free Press." 

The East Bay Times saluted Deward in a recent article titled: "‘Bastion of Weirdos’: Berkeley mourns Hot Tub Guy after nearly 50 years of free soaks." 

I got to know about "the tub guy" when I was working at the Berkeley Barb. Several Barbistas had access to the secret code that controlled the locked gate that granted access to the tub in the backyard of the home on Essex Street. 

I never met Deward but I enjoyed lots of soaks in the hot tube (one of the hottest I've ever stewed in, it was set at 113.5 F). There was only one rule at the tub, and it was an odd one: Whether others were already in the tub and/or others arrived during your soak: "No conversation, please." 

I recall a nice bonus. After leaving the tub, we were free to silently run around beneath the huge redwood trees in the backyard — in the buff. 

Deward was also an activist whose support for the Free Speech Movement triggered some recollections among members of the FSM Archives (www.fsm-a.org). 

FSM vet (and author) Barbara Garson writes:
"When the FSM was still back in the age of mimeography, Deward Hastings helped excavate and repair a photo-offset press. Working on it for days without a break, Deward had it ready for the first issue of the FSM newsletter. 

"When I expressed concern about his hours without sleep and rapid movements someone explained that Deward was a 'speed-freak.' I couldn't tell then nor do I know now if that were true.
"At the Berkeley Free Press, the machine he restored went on to turn out hundreds of thousands of beautifully printed leaflets for left groups in the Bay Area. Deward was there before there was any press in the Berkeley Free Press." 

Another FSM vet recalled:
"Good Lord, don't you remember Deward? Skinny, self-important but very quiet redhead? He tried to replace FSM Central with a place called 'Nexus' and route all FSM communication there, for whatever obscure political reasons, or maybe just social ones. Kind of a technocrat. 'Nexus' lasted about half a week, if I remember." 

And one last recollection:
"What I mainly remember about him was that he wanted to store 'acid'-laced sugar cubes in the FSM Central refrigerator and I wouldn't allow it. He claimed they weren't illegal, and I told him that I didn't want ANY reason for the police to invade." 

Deward's demise was poetic. He passed away while soaking in the tube that had provided a blessed retreat for generations of neighbors, travelers, and strangers. 

Only Love Matters: Vicki Elson