Columnists

“Spell it!” demanded the young redhead, eyes glaring, hands on narrow hips. -more-

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-

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-

It never ceases to amaze me what madness the media and the legal community have created out of a little thing like mold. -more-

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-

The bad news is that Berkeley’s downtown retail district is sick, and Telegraph Avenue is catching the disease. -more-

She’s Got the Paddle and We’re Up the Creek,” screamed last week’s headlines in a local weekly. -more-

Hollywood juniper—Juniperus chinensis “torulosa” or J. chinensis “Kai-zuka”—is one of those trees you know even if you’ve never heard of it. It’s all over the place, one of those Sunset magazine California place markers, the twisty green thing waving its arms outside half the apartment buildings on the West Coast. It’s a city feature like pigeons, and like pigeons you hardly ever see a dead one. -more-