Columnists

When Mayor Bates ran for re-election last year, he said the protection of West Berkeley artists and artisans was one of his top priorities. But when confronted with appeals for help from real, beleaguered artists and artisans, the mayor and his allies, who make up the current council majority, merely wring their hands and shed copious crocodile tears, if that. In 2005 the city did nothing to halt the destruction of the live-work artists’ community at the Drayage, nor did it help the evicted tenants find new space. In 2006 the Bates council ignored the artists evicted from the now-defunct Nexus Institute. -more-

Thursday’s Senate vote on funding for Iraq sets the stage for an epic battle between Congress and President Bush; a struggle with the dramatic elements of a Shakespeare play: a headstrong emperor who claims God gave him absolute power battling a stalwart band of democratic solons. -more-

A couple of years ago (have I really been doing this for a couple of years?) I wrote about the sneaky reproductive tactics of the brown-headed cowbird, one of a handful of bird species that are brood parasites. Instead of building their own nests and raising their own young, they dump their eggs in the nest of a host and go away. Apart from the New World cowbirds, avian brood parasites include Old World cuckoos, some African finches, African and Asian honeyguides, and the South American black-headed duck. Opportunistic egg-dumping occurs among swallows, waterfowl, and others, but these guys are pros. -more-

EDITOR’S NOTE -more-

When the Bush administration recently unveiled its new African military command—AFRICOM— Deputy Assistant Sec. of Defense Teresa Whalen said that the initiative was aimed at “promoting security, to build African capacity to build their own environments and not be subject to the instability that has toppled governments and caused so much pain on the continent.” -more-

“There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house,” Lewis Carroll writes in Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, “and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea in it; a Dormouse was sitting between them… The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it. … Alice … sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table. … ‘I want a clean cup,’ interrupted the Hatter [after they had eaten for a while]: ‘let’s all move one place on.’ He moved on as he spoke, and the Dormouse followed him: the March Hare moved into the Dormouse’s place, and Alice rather unwillingly took the place of the March Hare. The Hatter was the only one who got any advantage from the change; and Alice was a good deal worse off than before, as the March Hare had just upset the milk-jug into his plate.” -more-

On February 23, 1924, the weekly newspaper The Courier announced that the rapidly expanding American Bank, headquartered at 16th Street and San Pablo Avenue in Oakland, had purchased the College National Bank of Berkeley. American Bank was headed by Phillip E. Bowles, a University of California alumnus and regent from 1911 to 1922. Bowles Hall, UC’s first student residence hall, would be endowed by his widow in his name. -more-

Having had the unhappy occasion to take an airline flight recently, I got to feast my jaded eyes on something called “Skymall.” This is a catalogue one finds stuffed along with the airline’s house magazine and a leftover napkin into the pocket of the seat ahead, pressing on one’s sore knees even if one is, as I am, built like a fireplug. -more-

I recently visited Tokyo. What a wonderful experience in so many ways. Too many to touch on in a single article, but one thing that did strike me again and again was the use of and respect for space. Japanese people tend to live in much smaller spaces than we take for granted and they endeavor to use each space as efficiently and richly as possible. It alters the aesthetic. Also, there’s no shame in packing things in to these tight spaces. On the contrary, I think that the Japanese view a waste of space or living in unnecessarily large quarters as egregious misconduct. -more-