FEBRUARY

after 2/5/11 here after 2/15/11 here

is Black History Month

 

Don't be meek!

Make John Coltrane Park

in Potter Creek


2/1/11

Penndorf's Miscellaneous Ramblings

Tony Almeida emails

Ron,

I thought you might like this Dick Cavett column. My older son gave me Cavett's book, "Talk Show" for Christmas and it included this. I love when someone points out the specialness of something you had been aware of all your life, but not appreciated; in this case the poetry of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".

Younger son Bobby (helped move Harold Lawrence) has just been reelected as a State Democratic Party delegate. The day of the election, when State Assembly member Joan Buchanan arrived to speak to the gathering, it was the first anyone became aware of the shooting in Arizona. While votes were being tallied, we all watched a Tuscon newscast via another candidate's laptop.

See you next time I bike-ride up Wildcat and down into Berkeley,

Tony

Like your Miscellaneous Ramblings; ramble on . . .

 

Tony's Jimi Hendrix story page gets a hits-volume second only to Scrambled Eggs.

 

 

our Cameron emails

Hello Ron,

A couple of things ... Claudia and I had breakfast at Gaumenkitzel, the new German Restaurant-Bakery on 2121 San Pablo Ave. (in the old Metro Lighting bldg) - the place was bustling with customers and the light, airy interior was a welcoming environment for a Sunday morning meal. We had baked eggs, great bread, and delicious oatmeal. It's a European style breakfast, light and healthy. For those seeking mounds of home fries and gigantic omelets, look elsewhere. The service is cheerful, though, like all new restaurants, they're feeling their way so don't be in a rush ... for now. They offer an interesting lunch menu as well. This is a delightful addition to the neighborhood.

From thrillist.com "Ze Germans are coming...to Berkeley"

"A new bakery-restaurant called Gaumenkitzel, featuring the cuisine of Northern Germany and helmed by a couple from Hamburg, is opening later this month at 2121 San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley. As SFoodie reports, the name means "tickle the taste buds," and husband-and-wife team Kai Flache and Anja Voth are planning to serve breakfast starting at 7 a.m., including brötchen, German open-face sandwiches with sweet and savory fillings. Service will extend through the day to include an "early dinner" that ends around 6 p.m. After getting fully staffed, they plan to do later dinner service too." is from SFoodie.

Plus, a new Italian restaurant named Luca Cucina Italiana down the street from the Post Office at the corner of Addison (the Jamaican restaurant spot) and it looks like a reasonably priced little gem. Have not tried it yet.

lots happening in the 'hood!

Cameron Woo

ps

One other thing that I though you'd enjoy ... a small tribute to health buff Jack LaLanne - and his dog Happy. Check out the video.

best,
Cameron

 

end Miscellaneous Ramblings

 

 

 

post from the past

2/1/10

VIK's new Chat House opens

Bob Kubik photo

very nice, new spiffy digs for their grocery and restaurant

 

end post from the past

 

 

 

 

"California Watch launches media network" at centerforinvestigativereporting.org.

"California Watch, a project of the Center for Investigative Reporting, today [1/28/11] launched the California Watch Media Network and announced its first members, which include some of the state's largest and most reputable news organizations.

Joining the network are the San Francisco Chronicle, Sacramento Bee, San Diego Union Tribune, Orange County Register, Bakersfield Californian, and the Fresno Bee.

The news organizations that are part of the California Watch Media Network will receive stories and daily news posts from California Watch, the state's largest investigative reporting team. The new group also will work to find ways to collaborate together on investigative reporting projects."

 

 

"Cutting Redevelopment Funds Could Affect a Lot More Than Redevelopment" opines Zusha Elinson of Bay Citizen at nytimes.com.

"Seventeen police officers in Oakland's worst neighborhoods have an unusual and potentially doomed employer: the city redevelopment agency.

A nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization providing local coverage of the San Francisco Bay Area for The New York Times. To join the conversation about this article, go to baycitizen.org.

Facing a police shortage during a 2007 crime wave, Ron Dellums, then the mayor, pulled the officers from their post at Oakland International Airport and moved them into the streets. But the city could not afford the officers' salaries, which had been paid by the Port of Oakland. So officials devised a novel solution: They used redevelopment money to pay the officers.

Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to plug the state budget deficit with the help of $1.7 billion in property tax revenue that now goes to redevelopment agencies has municipal governments screaming foul. The pots of money were created to combat urban blight and pay for things like infrastructure improvements and lower-cost housing. Mr. Brown, during his eight years as Oakland mayor, relied on the funds to spur downtown revitalization. Redevelopment agencies across the state are now scurrying to spend the money before Mr. Brown can take it away.

But what has gone largely unnoticed is how hard-pressed cities like Oakland also rely on redevelopment money to cover myriad other expenses, including some that appear to be only tangentially related to redevelopment. "

 

 

 

 

 

2/2/11

Penndorf's Miscellaneous Ramblings

the Lunar Year of the Rabbit begins February 3, 2011

from art-glass worker Lu Chi

 

 

"Berkeley tests concept of backyard cottage" is a story by Roger K Lewis at washingtonpost.com.

"If you live in a subdivision home, there's a good chance your rear yard could accommodate an accessory dwelling for one or even two people. Visualize a tiny cottage behind your house occupied by a teenager, an adult son or daughter who has returned home, a grandparent, a child-care provider, a housekeeper or a rent-paying tenant. But what are the pros and cons of this idea?

To answer this question and show that this is an idea whose time has come, the University of California at Berkeley reports that a real-world test of the accessory dwelling concept is underway. A prefabricated, 420-square-foot cottage has been built in the Berkeley back yard of Karen Chapple, associate professor of city and regional planning."

Is this the same UC Prof, Karen Chapple whose grad-students wrote a "questionable" study on change in West-Berkeley. A report submitted by our Rick Auerbach at one of the city's stake-holder meetings? Questionable or not, my memory is that the report was withdrawn after some criticism.

 

 

In "City eyes West Berkeley for local startup hub" San Francisco Business Times, Blanca Torres, after quoting Swerve's Michael Goldin, writes "The Goldins would not directly benefit from a change in zoning rules but would so indirectly . . ."

Actually the Goldins would directly and significantly benefit "from a change in zoning rules," not from their ownership of Swerve, but from their extensive west-Berkeley property ownership. And I see no reason why they shouldn't.

 

 

With a significant theme and variations on the story that the Daily Planet "broke," our Becky O's "Berkeley Cannabis Commissioner Applies for Albany Dispensary Permit," the-heart-and-soul of berkeleyside, our Francis D offers "Berkeley exports its cannabis expertise".

 

 

 

Bauer, bummed by Vegas, still manages "Highlights of Las Vegas" at sfgate.com.

"For years friends have been telling me that to find the best food in Las Vegas I needed to get off the strip and try one of the many Asian restaurants, including the Lotus of Siam.  In the last few years, Lotus has gotten about as much press as Joel Robuchon. While I had been to Lotus, I hadn't been to three of the places that Las Vegas food critic John Curtas took some of my colleagues and me to last week."

 

 

Since I've begun posting "Penndorf's Miscellaneous Ramblings" our daily volume regularly reachs four-and five-thousand hits per day. This is up from just over three-thousand.

 

end Penndorf's Miscellaneous Ramblings

 

 

 

 

"Two state legislators push for new pot laws, including restrictions on firing medical marijuana patients" latimes.com.

"The Legislature's two most marijuana-friendly lawmakers told activists gathered in Berkeley over the weekend that they are continuing to press for legislative changes in Sacramento.

State Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) noted that he introduced a bill last week to prevent employers from firing most medical marijuana patients who test positive for the drug, and he pledged to reintroduce a bill to allow California farmers to grow industrial hemp.

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) said he would try again to move his bill to legalize marijuana sales, but that he was also considering a piecemeal approach.

About 300 activists gathered for the conference Saturday sponsored by sponsored by the California chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws."

 

 

 

"Civil rights leaders honor Oakland activist" by Sean Maher, Oakland Tribune.

"Fred Korematsu on Sunday made history a second time, becoming the first Asian-American to have a day named after him by a U.S. state.
The inaugural Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution drew enough people to pack Wheeler Hall on the UC Berkeley campus in honor of the man's fight against the World War II forced internment of Japanese-Americans."

 

 

 

"Thursday Benefit in Berkeley for the Winnemem Wintu Tribe" at switchboard.nrdc.org.

"California's history is written in water. The stories of the Golden's State's agricultural and urban development, gold mining, fishing industry and more are intertwined with the state's liquid gold. But no one has a longer or deeper connection with the state's water than Native Americans. The experience of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe is particularly compelling ­ and it's a story about water. On Tuesday, February 3, you can hear that story at a benefit for the Tribe at the David Brower Center in Berkeley.

Winnemem Wintu means 'middle water people,' referring to the tribe's traditional homeland along the McCloud River, which flows off the shoulder of Mount Shasta and is located between the Sacramento River to the West and the Pit to the East. The Winnemem are a salmon people. Their diet, culture and religion revolve around the annual arrival of the Sacramento River's winter run Chinook salmon.

Like so many tribes in California, the Winnemem suffered since the arrival of Europeans. But the completion of Shasta Dam in 1945 represented a particularly devastating blow."

 

 

 

 

 

2/3/11

Penndorf's Miscellaneous Ramblings

Fancy Mud Pies

The Paintings of Cleo Papanikolas

at

Castle in the Air

1805 Fourth Streett, Berkeley Ca, 94710

February 8 through March 25, 2011
Opening reception Tuesday, February 8, 6 p.m.

In Cleo Papanikolas' novella "Cook Until Desired Tenderness," layers of paintings, sketches, recipe cards, and handwritten notes tell the story of a young gourmand learning to live each day as a banquet, even when things get a little messy.

The tale, with its patchwork presentation, isn't far from the truth. When Papanikolas was two years old her parents went back to the land, launching the family headlong into a world of vegetables, sheep, chickens, and mud. The experience followed Papanikolas into adulthood where - as an artist, cook, and mother of her own young children - she perfected her recipes, both real and make-believe.

With familiarity and humor, the paintings in Fancy Mud Pies capture what Papanikolas calls "the sense of beauty and chaos that is food." Whether picturing canaries perched atop popsicles or a faun encased mid-stride in a luminous serving of Jell-O, her juxtapositions offer a taste of a culinary wilderness which, while reverie, is remarkably recognizable as a metaphor for life.

more here

 

 

 

 

Mary Morris Lawrence

1914-2010

A remembrance by Zennie Abraham at sfgate.com.

 

My collection of Mary's photos are well known and can still be seen here. I rescued them from Mary and Harold's kitchen where, sadly, they were just hanging on the wall collecting schmutz. "They're just old photos. Nobody would be interested in them" She said.

Another collection of Mary's photos can be viewed at the New York Public Library site here.

The USPS Richard Rodgers Commerative

is based on one of the NYPL Mary Lawrence images.

 

 

 

 

Kubik emails a video-link to Theo Jansen's Strandbeests

"This is one clever guy!" Bob Kubik

Theo Jansen

"It's not every day that you run across an entirely new strain of life, which is exactly what Dutch kinetic sculptor Theo Jansen has created.

His Strandbeests are wondrous wind-powered automatons that exhibit an incredibly lifelike dexterity as they cascade in flowing waves down seaside sands. The elegantly articulated creatures are constructed using genetic algorithms and are constantly evolving to better suit their environment."

 

 

end Miscellaneous Ramblings

 

 

 

 

 

posts from the past

2/3/09

Ole Potter Creekers

Bob and Paul visiting from New Mexico

Here, yesterday lunching at 900 GRAYSON

 

After lunch with Bob and Paul yesterday, I posted "Today just before noon, several BPD radio-cars, a BFD rescue unit and pumper responded to an incident at the end of Grayson just before the tracks. Later a. . . helicopter appeared."

This morning sfgate.com posted "Man killed by Union Pacific train in Berkeley" reports Matthew B. Stannard, Chronicle Staff Writer.

"An Alameda man was hit by a train and died Monday morning in Berkeley, according to the Alameda County Coroner.
Mir Asadullah Bakhtary, 31, was killed at about 11:43 a.m. near the intersection of Grayson Street and the railroad tracks that run along Third Street, said Deputy Coroner Norman McAdams. He had been struck by a northbound Union Pacific cargo train.
'Our crew saw somebody lying on the tracks,' said Union Pacific spokeswoman Zoe Richmond, who said the crew followed procedure, blowing the horn and hitting the brakes.' "

 

end posts from the past

 

 

 

"UC Berkeley renews the call for grads to join the Peace Corps" is a story-release by Yasmin Anwar, at newscenter.berkeley.edu.

When John F. Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, University of California, Berkeley, graduates Paul Vitale and Kathleen Mossman Vitale were headed to New York to be sworn in as Peace Corps trainees. Instead of abandoning their plans amid the nationwide shock, the couple traveled on ­ ultimately to Ecuador ­ inspired by Kennedy's message "to build a world of peace where the weak are safe and the strong are just."

"He gave his life. So that helped buoy our spirits to carry on," said Paul Vitale, a retired urban planner who worked for the Peace Corps and USAID.

As the Peace Corps marks its 50th anniversary, UC Berkeley is celebrating its unique place in the U.S. agency's history as the all-time top producer of volunteers, and is renewing the call for more graduates to serve.

 

 


"Researchers Crack Argentine Ant Genome" at redorbit.com.

"Researchers from a pair of California universities have successfully sequenced the genome of the Argentine ant, shedding light on exactly why the species has thrived and leading to hopes that the knowledge might lead to the development of more effective pest control solutions."

 

 

 

"A single wild specimen of a rare California plant yields tiny offspring, planted at UC-Santa Cruz" by Lisa M. Krieger, mercurynews.com.

"Rescued from the verge of extinction, a single wild specimen of a rare California plant now has hundreds of progeny -- celebrated Wednesday in a festive planting ceremony at the UC Santa Cruz arboretum.

A reversal of fate at a time of so many tough environmental challenges, the future of the Franciscan manzanita now seems secure.

On a sun-drenched afternoon, two of the precious seedlings were nestled into holes along an ocean-facing hillside, gently covered with soil, then ogled by admirers.

Even UCSC Chancellor George Blumenthal, a distinguished theoretical astrophysicist who studies the origin of matter in the universe, seemed in awe."

 

 

 

 

"For Automakers, Better Batteries Crucial to Success of New Electric Cars" is a Paul Solman report at pbs.corg.

"Paul Solman looks at efforts to make the vehicles more viable -- and financially successful for automakers -- by building better batteries and making them more aerodynamic. It's all part of his ongoing reporting on Making Sen$e of financial news."

 

 

 

 

 

 

2/4/11

sfgate photo

"The Claremont Hotel Club & Spa, a symbol of Bay Area luxury for nearly a century,was one of five high-end resorts filing for bankruptcy on Tuesday, following an ill-fated acquisition by Morgan Stanley in 2007", sfgate.com.

 

 

 

"Justice Sotomayor visits Berkeley elementary school" by Lance Knobel at berkeleyside.sfgate.

"Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor paid a surprise visit to Rosa Parks Elementary School in West Berkeley this morning. "

 

 

"When You Knead, a Friend at the Bread Project Café" by Anneli Rufus at eastbayexpress.com.

"The West Berkeley spot serves cheap meals, succulent sweets - and job training for the marginalized."

 

 

 

"The Bingo Kingpin" by Anna McCarthy at eastbayexpress.com.

"When Berkeley concluded that its only major bingo hall was a scam, it apparently didn't realize who was pocketing the proceeds.

Under California law, bingo is supposed to be a nonprofit enterprise that raises money for charity. The amount of money generated can be significant. At the Gilman Street Bingo Hall in Berkeley, gross revenues exceeded $5.6 million in 2009. However, almost none of that money ever went to charitable causes. Most of it -$4.9 million - ended up in players' pockets in the form of cash prizes. Nearly all of the rest went to so-called "overhead" costs that may have been nothing more than profit-taking."

 

 

 

"Analysis of bread mold genomes demos 'reverse-ecology' tool' " by Sarah Yang, is a story-release at newscenter.berkeley.edu.

"In a demonstration of 'reverse-ecology,' biologists at the University of California, Berkeley, have shown that one can determine an organism's adaptive traits by looking first at its genome and checking for variations across a population."

 

 

 

Autoweek TV presents a special report on traffic cameras.




 

 

Penndorf's Miscellaneous Ramblings

our Annie Kossof emails

It's your neighbor Annie.

(I'm glad to see you're still blogging, you were a blogger before I knew what what the word meant!)

I thought if any of your readers are horse lovers they might be interested in a blog I'm writing these days.

Enjoy the sunshine, bye for now.

 

Thanks, but actually I'm not a blogger--don't much like the word and am not sure about the concept.

I edit a newsletter.

 

 

our Darryl Moore emails

In a dazzling performance Actress Linda Kenyon brings to life one of America's most beloved First Ladies in "A Life of My Own: Meeting Eleanor Roosevelt."  Follow Eleanor's evolution from uncertain young bride to an American woman of strong opinions and towering influence. 

All proceeds for this event benefit homeless women and children at Berkeley Food & Housing Project.

"A Life of My Own: Meeting Eleanor Roosevelt" is being performed on Tuesday, February 15 at 8:00 p.m.
at the Marsh Theater, 2120 Allston Way in Berkeley.

Purchase your tickets through Brown Paper Tickets.

 

Eleanor Roosevelt

photo by Mary Morris Lawrence circa 1930s

 

 



In an appreciation of, and tribute to, the Chinese noodle, I link "Chinese chef forms noodles by hand--Pretty damn amazing."

 

 

 

end Miscellaneous Ramblings

 

 

 

 

 

 

2/5/11

post from the past

2/1/07

CIA analyst, John T. Whitman at SALT II

 

Carol Whitman's Dad--Carol of Potter Creek's Carol and Bob--was a CIA Soviet analyst during the Cold War. In his role as a Soviet analyst John was a CIA representative at the SALT II talks. This month, some of his poems and memories

 

DOCTOR DEFOE

Doctor Defoe
Has a mouth like a bow
And a medicine bag full of samples.
If your nose has turned green
He will tell you he's seen
Simply dozens of examples.

 


He's got pills for the pox
In his medicine box.
And powders for after-your-binges.
But if you want shots, Why, he has lots and lots
In his little prefilled syringes.

From John T. Whitman's privately-published memoirs--John was a CIA Soviet analyst during the Cold War.

The Cuban Missle Crisis

The Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 took me and my colleagues completely by surprise. As a Soviet expert, the CIA operators of this project had scant reason to bring me into the planning. But my fellow political analysts who specialized in Cuban affairs were kept equally in the dark. It was the rule in those times -- and remained the usual custom for a long time even after the rules were changed -- not to expand the chance of leaks by consulting analysts from the analytic side of the Agency. Nor was it a time when potential nay-sayers were gladly sought out. Thus we shall never know whether those analysts, freed of operational responsibilities, would have given emphatic warnings that little support for the invasion could be expected from the Cuban populace or armed forces. Given the operators' commitment to the project:, it seems unlikely that, were such warnings given, they would have been heeded. At any rate, I knew nothing more about the Bay of Pigs than the average newspaper reader and nothing more thereafter, save for an early indication, from an enraged planner, about John Kennedy's crucial perfidy in withholding air support from the stranded exile brigade.

Not so with the Cuban missile crisis in October of the following year, which posed entirely analytic tasks. The first reconnaissance photos of missile bases under construction came in on a Sunday, and I was summoned to an urgent meeting on Monday to look at them. We were all astonished, including myself. In fact, two of my senior colleagues, older and more experienced, spent the entire day arguing the photo interpreters conclusions. It seemed beyond belief that Khrushchev could hope to ship these missiles across the Atlantic, on open decks, construct their Cuban launch sites, and deploy them against the US Bay of Pigs fiasco and Kennedy's willingness to endure some bullying at their Vienna summit earlier in the year to mean that Washington would stand by powerless.

In fact, we were right to be astonished. Khrushchev's venture was in fact foolhardy and ended disastrously. Within two years it had entered the category of "hare-brained schemes" which the Soviet press used to explain and justify his ouster.But in the heat of the moment we could only surmise that the Soviet missile deployment be-spoke not only an extreme aggressiveness but also a dangerous contempt for the Americans.

That first meeting broke up with an agreement- -with two abstentions --that strategic missile deployments were in fact occurring in Cuba and a decision to produce a daily report on the progress-- locations of missile-carrying ships at sea, state of construction of their launch sites in Cuba, indicators of the presence of nuclear warheads, operational readiness. This report would include the most sensitive categories of intelligence and would be restricted to members of the ExCom, an ad hoc group of the President's most trusted advisors, set up to manage the crisis. Upon returning to my office, I check out a faint memory. Sure enough, I found in an editorial published some three weeks earlier in Pravda a long diatribe about Berlin, filled with dire threats if the West did not recognize East German sovereignty and allow it to regulate access to West Berlin. At the very end was a short paragraph, also couched in the blustering tones of Soviet propaganda, demanding that the United States keep its hands off Cuba.

Neither the tone nor the content of this editorial was unusual. What was odd was the mixture of two subjects, the abrupt swerve from a routine piece on Berlin to the topic of Cuba. It was this which had caught my eye at the time, but when no explanation offered itself I simply dismissed it and went on. Now its significance became clear. We had been given, inadvertently or not, a glimpse of an overall strategy. Since Khrushchev lacked the power and, confidence to confront us directly in Berlin, at the heart of Europe, he meant first to cow us in Cuba, bring new nuclear firepower to bear on the US itself, and in these dramatically changed circumstances, force his will upon us in Berlin as the first application of the new correlation of forces. This may well sound arcane to many, but it was an established method of analysis by Western Sovietologists. The extreme secrecy practiced by Moscow forced outsiders, and ordinary Russians as well, to search for seemingly far-fetched clues to Soviet policy between the lines, not only in Pravda and Izvestiya, but in many other more obscure publications as well.

Allen Dulles was able to make a great impression on President Eisenhower in 1953 when he reported that the name of Beriya, the secret police chief, was missing from a long list of Politburo members who had attended the opera; Dulles could not predict Beryia's fate, but it did not look good for him. Within a week Pravada announced that the traitor Beriya had been unmasked and shot.

This, of course, was a useless tour de force; there was nothing the US could do with Dulles' information, though it did contribute to his reputation within the administration.

Pravda's Berlin-Cuba linkage, on the other hand, was freighted with grave policy significance, and I cursed myself for not having seen this at the time, though I would have been unable to convince others of anything on such sparse evidence. Such are the frustrations of Sovietology.

A better opportunity arrived on the second day of the crisis when Pravda gave the first Soviet public response to Kennedy's challenge to the Soviet deployments. The United States was excoriated for concocting a crisis, for fabricating evidence and dragging the world to the brink of nuclear war. Toward the end came the key: in the face of this dastardly scheme, "The Soviet Union will not be provoked. Instead, as always, it will fight to expose the plots of the imperialists and struggle to preserve world peace."

"The Soviet-Union will not be provoked." I recognized this as a time honored formula employed when the Soviet Union, having itself provoked, found itself over-extended and forced to draw back. It was guidance to the Party elite and foreign Communists that a retreat would be necessary and should be portrayed as a contribution to peace, with Moscow's opponents branded as warmongers restrained by the wise policy of the USSR. From that moment I never doubted that the crisis would be contained, that Khrushchev knew he was outmatched and would find some way to satisfy US demands.

Later that day I was named as the CIA member of a small group of Soviet specialists, drawn from State and the Pentagon, to provide a daily intelligence analysis of Soviet intentions. There were five or six of us, and we all read Pravda the same way. Our conclusion was delivered to the ExCom by our chairman, who worked for Walt Rostow in the NSC Staff. I never knew how seriously it was taken--a common frustration for intelligence analysts-- but when, a day or two later, the Soviet missile ships stopped dead in the water, the meaning of "the Soviet Union will not be provoked" became clearer.

That evening I came home, tired and snappish, to discover that my childrens' school had conducted an air raid drill. Carol, Stephen. and Davie had all spent five minutes, with their classmates, crouched under their desks. They wanted to know why. I was furious. Why should all these children be frightened and bewildered? What sort of overreaction was this? Didn't everyone know that Khrushchev was going to back down, that there would he no war? It took me a while to realize that our school administrators didn't read Pravda. But more generally, I have never been able to shake the feeling that the Administration's stance on the crisis was partly intended to magnify the danger in order to heighten the President's credit in meeting and winning it. Granted that these were rattled men, confronted initially with a challenge that seemed both mortal and inexplicable. But the subsequent memoir-writing of Kennedy's associates has done little to curb this excess.

Finally, the role of Ted Walker deserves to be memorialized. Ted was the funniest man I ever knew, with an inexhaustible fund of down-home stories about the eccentric inhabitants of Cepawlpa, Oklahoma, where he was raised. Ted was assigned to the team which produced the daily intelligence report on the status of the deployments. Each issue contained a map of the United States, across which arcs were drawn to indicate the range of each missile site as it became operational in Cuba. For reference purposes, a few cities were indicated on this map--New York, Washington, St. Louis, New Orleans. On about the fifth day yet another arc appeared. It ran directly through a small circle identified as Cepawlpa, Oklahoma.

Years later, Ted Walker met a strange and sad end. He was working on the annual estimate of Soviet military strength, a complicated and hotly contested document which directly affected the size of the military budget that the Pentagon would recommend. It was a grueling process; one of the military participants regularly took a month's leave after its completion because, as he confided to a colleague, "all that Iying he had to do tore him up real bad." One afternoon, during a particularly fierce argument, Ted suddenly dropped dead of a heart attack at the table.

The End

 

 

end post from the past

 

 

 

 

 

"Yoga Mandala Changes To Nonprofit Status" is a press release at prweb.com.

"Authentic and traditional yoga studio in Berkeley eschews commercialization by changing to 501c3 status and moving towards community center model. Informational Open House on Friday February 18, 2011 from 7:30pm - 9:00pm PST at 2807 Telegraph Avenue near Stuart Street, in Berkeley, California."

 

 

"Portable solar generator produced by Berkeley company" by Alex Gronke, contracostatimes.com.

"Four years ago, Jeff Lipton was a guest at a wedding on a Northern California beach. As he celebrated with his friends, he noticed that the party's sound system was plugged into a strange contraption covered with chicken wire, balancing precariously in a rusty wheelbarrow. Lipton was intrigued, but wary of getting too close. The thing looked dangerous.

A sleeker (and safer) descendant of that device is now an East Bay entry into what analysts predict could be a $10 billion global market.

Based in Berkeley, Coyle Industries builds a portable solar generator that can be hitched to the back of a vehicle and towed anywhere a truck (or a mule) can travel.

'It's a replacement for a gas or diesel-based generator,' said Lipton, Coyle's president. 'It can be used for recreation, camping, pumping water in remote areas, disaster relief, rural developments in the Third World. It has military applications as well.' "

 

 

 

 

 

Penndorf's Miscellaneous Ramblings

Just south of Potter Creek "a brawl at Kitty's bar early Friday . . . spilled onto the streets " by Harry Harris, Oakland Tribune.

"Up to 180 people involved in Emeryville bar brawl" by Harry Harris, Oakland Tribune.

A brawl at Kitty's bar early Friday involving up to 180 people spilled onto the streets, prompting overwhelmed Emeryville police who were being punched and having bottles thrown at them to call for mutual aid before order finally was restored, authorities said.

'It was an ugly scene,' Emeryville Sgt. Fred Dauer said.

One Emeryville officer was injured, and at least two people were arrested. At least 30 officers from Oakland, Berkeley, the California Highway Patrol and UC Berkeley police responded to assist the five Emeryville officers on the scene, that department's entire contingent of officers on duty.
The chaos began about 1:25 a.m. when acting Emeryville Sgt. Richard Lee was flagged down by security guards at the bar at 6702 Hollis St. The guards reported a large fight inside involving patrons with knives and guns."

 

 

 

" 'Cheerful News' on Crime Data and the Integrity Thereof" by Al Baker nytimes.com.

"The three panelists Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly tapped to evaluate the integrity of his department's crime-recording system will be visited on Friday by a longtime academic, author and criminologist: Prof. Franklin E. Zimring of the University of California, Berkeley.

Why - some right-leaning law and order types might wonder - would a trio of Kelly appointees, former federal prosecutors all,  seek out the wisdom of an academic from the West Coast? Simple: The professor has already carried out what one police official called "a pretty remarkable" analysis of the city's historic crime decline. A draft of his findings (see also below) will be published in Scientific American in the fall, with a book to follow.

(The 38-page draft of the article was distributed by the New York Police Department's public relations arm, which tickled the professor, who voted in 1972 for Senator George S. McGovern for president.)

The book - working title: 'The City That Became Safe: What New York Can Teach America About Crime Control' (Oxford University Press) - has been years in the works. Professor Zimring relied on police statistics, and he had cooperation from the department's hierarchy. He studied crime in three categories: homicides, robberies and automobile thefts. And he compared data from across the last two decades.
In a nutshell, his findings are that the crime drops depicted in the police statistics are, as Professor Zimring put it, 'real.' "

 

 

Steven Donaldson emails

Ron

You may have heard that Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotamayor was in Berkeley at my kids school Rosa Parks.  My son Liam and his mom, Simone, wondered why all the cop cars, hubbub, guys who looked like they belonged in the movie Men in Black (Secret Service) and general fuss. 

Ms. Sotamayor turned up making a quick stop in his Kindergarten class. She liked their drawings. Kids didn't really know what or who she was but definitely got that she's a big wig since she had so many police cars  and dudes with sunglasses with her.

My question is did she eat lunch in West Berkeley?

Steven

Not at any of the eateries or watering holes I go to.

 

end Miscellaneous Ramblings

 

 

after 2/5/11 here

 

 

from my log

1/29/11--7:48 AM--SERIOUS irritant in warehouse front and front of warehouse, dirty dry air, burning watery eyes, blurred vision, burning mouth and throat, overrides HEPA filters, wear respirator. Similar, off-and-on all afternoon.

These have recently become regular occurrences and symptoms, making the warehouse often uninhabitable. To the best of our knowledge, these occurrences and symptoms are intermittent 24/7.

 

 

Eternally useful links

 

Bay Area home prices from sfgate.com

 

Bay Area foreclosures from sfgate.com


Our City Council update is here.

 

Our Planning Commision update is here

 

 

You can find more information about our current weather conditions than is good for you at www.wunderground.com

Want to see weather coming in, going out, beautiful sunsets, and much, much more? Check out http://sv.berkeley.edu/view/ This very hip site was in an email from reader and contributor, Tony Almeida. Read Tony's Jimi Hendrix story on the only page that routinely gets more hits than Scrambled Eggs.

 

Best gas prices in 94710, as well as all of US and Canada, are here at gasbuddy.com

Kimar finds Costco routinely has the lowest price.

 

Richmond Ramblers' motorcycle club member, Cliff Miller emails a very

useful link

If you ever need to get a human being on the phone at a credit card company or bank, etc., this site tells you how to defeat their automated system and get you to a human being within a few seconds.

http://gethuman.com/

 

Markets is not just a reference for Berkeley-Hills radicals with 1.5 mil homes and considerable portfolios.

 

Our City of Berkeley Boards and Commissions page is here--redone and friendly.

 

 

Berkeley Police reports at insidebay area.com are here.

 

Our Berkeley PD Site with crime statistics and more is here.


Crime Log for 94710 is here

This site is NOT affiliated with Berkeley PD.
Take time to report crime!

 

All reports of crime-in-progress should first go to Berkeley PD dispatch--911 or non-emergency, 981-5900. THEN make sure you notify EACH of these City people.

The contacts are below:

Our Area Coordinator is Officer Karen Buckheit, Berkeley PD - 981-5774 kbuckheit@ci.berkeley.ca.us

AND check out BPD feature "Who are these Crooks."

 

Angela Gallegos-Castillo, City Mgr Off - 981-2491 agallegos-castillo@ci.berkeley.ca.us

Ryan Lau, aid to Darryl Moore - 981-7120 rlau@ci.berkeley.ca.us

Darryl Moore, City Councilman dmoore@ci.berkeley.ca.us

 

More Scrambled Eggs & Lox, here

and

Stories about Berkeley and stories about recorded-music

are at

Journal of Recorded Music 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

 

ronpenndorf@earthlink.net

The original owner of all posted material retains copyright. The material is used only to illustrate.