Columnists

The Public Eye: Telegraph Avenue’s Hope: Buzz, Not Busway

By Michael Katz
Tuesday June 06, 2006
The good news is that Telegraph Avenue and the Southside commercial district are doing just fine. -more-

Understanding The Shoes of North Oakland

By Susan Parker
Tuesday June 06, 2006
Three quarters of the miseries and misunderstandings in the world would finish if people were to put on the shoes of their adversaries and understood their point of view. -more-

The Bluebird of Hostility: Getting an Evolutionary Edge

By Joe Eaton, Special to the Planet
Tuesday June 06, 2006
Unless you’ve been living in a cave since 1979, you have undoubtedly seen the Mad Bluebird. It was captured by aspiring wildlife photographer Michael L. Smith on a cold February day in Maryland. The subject, a male eastern bluebird, feathers fluffed out, sits on a fence post glowering at the camera. The Mad Bluebird has been very good to Smith, enabling him to quit his day job as an electrician. Over 100,000 signed prints have been sold, and the image appears on calendars, coffee mugs, and all kinds of tchatchkes. The royalties by now must be considerable. -more-

Column: The View From Here: The Roots of a Problem: Looking at Oregon Street

By P.M. Price
Friday June 02, 2006
“Spell it!” demanded the young redhead, eyes glaring, hands on narrow hips. -more-

Column: Undercurrents: Two More Innocent Bystanders Die in High Speed Chase

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday June 02, 2006
We didn’t do anything about it when it happened the first time and so, perhaps, that is why it has happened again . . . a high-speed police chase, supposedly from an East Oakland “sideshow,” ending in the death of innocent bystanders. Saturday night, it happened on 90th and MacArthur Boulevard. -more-

Column: The Public Eye: Enemy of the People: Al Gore or George Bush?

By Bob Burnett
Friday June 02, 2006
It’s unlikely that the producers of the documentary An Inconvenient Truth thought that they were producing a sequel to Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People. But it’s impossible to see this 96-minute film about Al Gore’s single-handed fight to educate America about the dangers of global climate change and not wonder how different things would be if he had won in 2000. -more-

About the House: On the Case of House Mold

By Matt Cantor
Friday June 02, 2006
It never ceases to amaze me what madness the media and the legal community have created out of a little thing like mold. -more-

Garden Variety: The Place to Look for Unusual Garden Tools

By Ron Sullivan
Friday June 02, 2006
One of my favorite places to look for—or just look at—esoteric, obscure, clever, or kinky garden tools is Hida Japanese Tools on San Pablo, across from REI and a few doors down from Ashkenaz. -more-