After I wrote about the approved compromise deal in the Berkeley High science lab flap, commenter Maureen Burke replied, “Color me unimpressed… This new procedure is cumbersome and most kids are being steered to not sign up for science labs. And guess what? Next year we will hear that there was no demand for science [...]
Posts under ‘Comment’
Comment: the truth about the pools bond
Yesterday, Berkeleyside published an anti-pools bond comment by Marie Bowman. Robert Collier, co-chair of the Berkeley Pools Campaign, writes that there were numerous errors of fact in Bowman’s comment and he feels he’s in a “closed loop” where every statement requires immediate correction: In Washington, D.C. and around the country, conservatives are hoping they can [...]
Where’s Berkeley’s 24-hour pharmacy?
Berkeleyside reader and Berkeley resident David Lerman wonders why there’s no 24-hour pharmacy in Berkeley: My latest Berkeley rant is regarding the limited hours of pharmacy service in our city. Pharmacies keep banker’s hours. There is no 24-hour pharmacy in Berkeley. I don’t think there is one in Oakland either. Oakland has a 24-hour Walgreens, [...]
What we talk about when we talk about Berkeley
With no apologies for having special access to Gina Welch, we asked the author of the newly published In the Land of Believers to write for us about outsiders’ perceptions of Berkeley. Since my book In the Land of Believers came out a couple of weeks ago, most of the articles covering its release have made [...]
“Lone Star in the People’s Republic: Off leash”
By now, gentle reader, you have no doubt found it tedious and predictable, these clear juxtapositions of seeing the world in such black and white, Texan vs. Berkeley terms. So I would like to devote this column to a place of tail-wagging communion between the two republics. There are few moments I feel more at home [...]
“Lone Star in the People’s Republic: On latkes”
For those raised in “Political Incorrectness”, the holidays pose many challenges. Some of it has to do with finding a way for private nostalgia to co-exist with currently accepted norms. Did I really live in a place where all media (count ‘em, three television stations) uniformly covered “Santa Sightings” with as much intensity as they [...]
Science at BHS: an open letter
Photo/Jeremy Franklin We wrote last week about the debate over science and the achievement gap at Berkeley High School. There’s a stream of comments on that earlier post that are well worth reading, if you’re concerned about the issue. Priscilla Myrick, a former Berkeley High School Governance Council parent representative and mother of two BHS [...]
“Lone Star in the People’s Republic: on potty training”
There is perhaps no other realm of living in Berkeley that is as challenging to those of us raised in “Political Incorrectness” than the arena of parenting. While others enjoy a sunny day at the park, we watch in stunned silence as a mother runs after her toddler shouting: “Hamlet, Hamlet, come back and finish [...]
“Lone Star in the People’s Republic: on not rushing the bonding”
Some might say I grew up in the most politically incorrect place in the world: Fort Worth, Texas, where the main road is “White Settlement” and “The Petroleum Club” still holds regular meetings. Yet now I reside in what must surely be the most politically correct place in the world: Berkeley, California, where the parking [...]
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Our (not so) excellent Chez Panisse adventure
Michelle Vaughan and Felix Salmon are Berkeleyside friends who live in New York City. Michelle is an artist and Felix is a finance blogger for Reuters. They’re passionate about their food so when we heard they were coming to Chez Panisse for the first time, we asked them to record their thoughts. Here’s their tale: [...]