Daily Archives: June 14, 2011
The Berkeley Wire: 06.14.11
Ippuku brings the izakaya scene to Berkeley [Bay Area News Groups]
Berkeley Rep artists at the Tony Awards [Berkeley Rep Blog]
Cal road warriors on two wheels: Behind the scenes [UC News Center]
Berkeley VC Dan Miller talks clean energy at lunch, June 15 [DBA]
UC Botanical Garden’s “Green Gala” fundraiser, June 18 [UCBG]
Vegetarian/vegan speed dating at the Saturn Café [Veg speed dating]
Werner Herzog eats his shoe — prepped by Alice Waters [Bay Citizen]
Photo: Our flag’s out!, by berkeleyhomesdotcom/Berkeleyside Flickr pool.
Last week we reported that four chickens — a New Hampshire Red, a Buff Orpington, a Barred Rock, and a Wyandotte – had been scooped up by Berkeley High School security staff after being found on campus. The officers took the birds to a neighbor, Shirley Carrie Brewin, who keeps chickens, and they were then taken to Berkeley’s Animal Shelter. Two Berkeleyside readers — Emma and bhs-student — left notes in our Comments saying they believed the chickens belonged to King Middle School.
Mossberg collected the birds from the animal shelter. He said the chicken coop had been broken into on the night of June 8. “We are relieved to have found them. There are no suspects at this point,” he said.
Fire drills at Berkeley High disrupt final exams
A fire alarm, leading to an evacuation, today on the Berkeley High campus disrupted the school schedule at around 11:00am, which includes final exams today for many of the students. There was also an evacuation on Monday after the fire alarm was set off. [Thanks to citizen reporter Kim Aronson for the photos].
A yarn-bombed seat on the Berkeley-San Francisco BART
Just as BART is considering how to design new seats for its trains — including what covers to use — local yarnbomber Streetcolor has come up with a suggestion.
Streetcolor, whose most recent major Berkeley installation was the looped bike rack outside the downtown Berkeley Public Library, said she wanted to knit “something really big and ambitious” and hence came up with the BART idea.
“I had been reading about how scary the Bart seats had gotten and I could see for myself that the seats covers were drab and depressing. I thought it would be startling to see really bright clean knitting on a seat instead,” she wrote on her Streetcolor blog.
The Bay Citizen recently ran a series of stories on BART seats, highlighting how unhygienic, even potentially unhealthy, the old seating stock is. It kicked off its coverage on March 5 with a piece that revealed lab tests showing seats contained fecal and skin-borne bacteria resistant to antibiotics. … Continue reading »
Over eggs, toast, First Lady seeks campaign support
Over eggs poached with fresh morels, shaved asparagus, and fresh berries, a crowd of 250 Barack Obama supporters cheered on The First Lady as she made a pitch at the Claremont Hotel Tuesday morning to support the President’s reelection.
Lamenting the fact that she didn’t get to eat the breakfast prepared by Alice Waters and numerous high-profile alums of her Chez Panisse restaurant – “They don’t let me eat at these things. I have to keep moving,” — Michelle … Continue reading »
Willard students cook with a passion in Iron Chef contest
By Gary Alinder
You’ve all watched the Food Network’s Iron Chef: two chefs have an hour to prepare five dishes based around a secret ingredient, and three judges award points based on flavor, originality and presentation.
Last week I had the privilege of being a judge at an end-of–term Iron Chef contest at Berkeley’s Willard Middle School. Berkeley has the reputation of being a wacky place, but some great things happen in that singular East Bay City. I find it remarkable that, in a program funded mostly by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Berkeley students learn healthy cooking and gardening beginning in kindergarten.
I’ve been an Iron Chef judge at Willard before, and I’m always impressed by how much effort and skill these kids bring to the contest. They take it seriously. In addition to the criteria used on the TV show, Willard students are also judged on teamwork, recipe writing and clean-up. … Continue reading »
Berkeley moms add business owner to their resumes
By Andrea Buffa
Stereotypes about Berkeley women die hard. Ask an out-of-towner what Berkeley women are known for and the answer might reveal visions of a Birkenstock-wearing, organic-food loving activist.
As complimentary as we may find that list, there’s another descriptor that should probably be added: small business owner. That’s because more than a few Berkeley women — particularly women with children —have discovered that 9-to-5 work isn’t always all that it’s cracked up to be, and that starting a small business is an exciting and rewarding alternative.
“I’ve really enjoyed learning a whole new set of skills, and just feeling much more rooted in my community and doing work that is much more tangible,” says Ladan Sobhani, 36 years old, the co-owner, with her husband, of Auto Glass Express.
It’s not that Sobhani hated the type of work she did before she dropped out the world of stable, full-time employment to take on the customer service, marketing and accounting for her auto glass company. In fact, she worked for nonprofits like Global Exchange and Green For All doing work she felt was helping change the world.
“I’ve always had jobs that I felt very passionate about and grateful to have because they were the kinds of jobs that other people would volunteer their time to do,” Sobhani says. “But there’s always this culture at nonprofits that you’re so lucky to have a job that’s intended to change the world that you have to work extra hard – and you want to work extra hard because you feel passionate about what you do.” … Continue reading »
