When this book trailer, purporting to be a video promoting Gary Shteyngart’s new novel, Super Sad True Love Story, hit the Internet, it immediately went viral.

With cameos by actor James Franco, writers Mary Gaitskill, Jeffrey Eugenides, Edmund White and Jay McInerney, and bevy of beautiful blondes, the trailer is a hilarious send up of Shteyngart’s inadequacies.

He can’t read, thinks teaching writing at Columbia includes a lecture on how to behave at a Paris Review party, and doesn’t know what to do when three debutanates from Mount Holyoke walk through his door.

In short, the trailer has little to do with the book. That’s why it was such hit.

Super Sad True Love Story only came out nine days ago, but it is skyrocketing up the bestseller lists.

As the novelist Jess Walter put it in a review for the Chronicle:

“Super Sad True Love Story” is surely literature’s first dystopian epistolary romantic satire, and as such, it’s a bit of a Frankenstein monster. The tone shifts recklessly, the action sometimes seems grafted on, and the structure – old-fashioned diary entries, instant messages and e-mails – is at times unwieldy.

Doesn’t matter. It’s a wildly funny book that hums with the sheer vibrancy of Shteyngart’s prose, and that holds up a riotous, terrifying mirror to a corrupted American empire in decline.”

Shteyngart is coming to Berkeley tonight to read from his book. He will be at Books, Inc. on Fourth Street at 7 pm.

It should be fun.

Berkeleysider Michael Schaller writes in with what he reckons is a tiny bit of behavioral economics, as popularized in Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein’s book Nudge:

I’m interested in creative ways to solve social problems (à la the book Nudge). As a dog owner living near Ashby and Telegraph, I noticed the Whole Foods there now has a “dog hitching post”. I assume this is in response to complaints about people tying dogs to the bike rack and walkway.

Anyway, a creative solution — especially since I know other places have banned dogs all together in similar circumstances.

I’m not sure this is a “nudge”, so much as a small bit of cleverness in response to a little problem.

The Berkeleysider who lives near the Adeline store notes:

I know there are many neighbors in our area that are opposed to this. It is interesting to note that there are many outlets to buy wine and beer in our area although the majority of them close relatively early. Walgreens is open til 12am and no doubt will do the overwhelming majority of business after Berkeley Bowl closes (between 8pm and 12am). Our neighborhood has enough problems as it is and having late alcohol sales does not seem wise and just exposes us to more treacherous conditions.

What do other West Berkeley residents think?

Update Laura Menard writes in the comments clarifying the Walgreens stores at issue.

Senate Republicans delay appellate court decision on Berkeley’s Goodwin Liu [The Hill]
Chile’s Michelle Bachelet gives “extraordinary” speech at Cal [Santiago Times]
Biotech incubator opens up at UC Berkeley [SF Business Times]
Venture capital firm Claremont Creek sets up shop near UC [SF Chronicle]
City looks at rezoning Telegraph to allow some 3am closures [Berkeley]
Berkeley considers cutting 77 city positions to save money [Daily Cal]

Photo by Alex Rez/Berkeleyside Flickr pool.

If you live in Berkeley, you will have seen the Buy Local Berkeley logo around — in shop windows and on websites. The organization has been going for two years and is gearing up for a new phase of activity with a beefed-up executive board and some new ideas on the drawing board about how to implement its mission.

Amy Thomas, founder of Pegasus Books who sits on the BLB board, defines that mission as supporting independent local businesses and encouraging consumers to patronize those same businesses. She cites research conducted by Stacy Mitchell, author of Big-Box Swindle, and a senior researcher with the New Rules Project, which shows that 62 cents of every dollar spent at a local business stays in the communitiy versus 42 cents when you shop at a chain store.

“It’s not just a feel-good factor,” says Thomas. “You are putting your money where your home is and contributing to a multiplier effect — it’s not just the local store owner who is benefiting from your money, its her staff, lawyer, advertising agency and all the non-profits she donates to.”

There is no membership fee for businesses who want to join Buy Local Berkeley, but they need to qualify — there are five criteria including being based in the nine-county Bay Area and being in control of one’s marketing and purchasing decisions. BLB receives funding from the city of Berkeley’s Economic Development department

Thomas says as a bookseller she knows first-hand what it’s like to battle the chains — such as Barnes & Noble like Amazon — and that local businesses are the engine that drives the country. “During the recession it was the small businesses that protected Berkeley and kept it going.”

BLB is considering the idea of a consumer loyalty card which could be used across its member businesses and may develop an interactive search engine of local businesses which could be a useful tool for economic development executives looking to assess coverage and help plug gaps.

“Nationally there’s a lot of talk against the chain store model and for local sourcing and sustainability,” Thomas says. “If this is going to be a revolution, it has our name on it.”

The gentleman at the check-out (you know the one I mean — he’s distinguished-looking, always works the “15 items or fewer” register), was probably taken aback at how excited I was to see paper bags with handles this morning when I ran in to the Claremont Safeway to grab some groceries.

It niggles me the way that store pushes shoppers to use plastic bags — often a ridiculous over-abundance when they bag for you — by only offering as an alternative “handle-less” paper bags, which are near to useless. (Of course one’s own recycled bags are best — I don’t need reminding.)

But today’s appearance of bags with handles was a mirage of sorts as I was informed it was due to a mistake — these bags were destined for a San Francisco store and were mis-directed.

Why the Claremont store can’t have them too, I do not know. According to Mr Distinguised, the store did try to ban plastic bags a couple of years ago with an Oakland ordinance (similar, I presume, to the San Francisco one), but “the plastic bag companies sued and we went back to plastic”.

The paper or plastic debate has not been resolved more broadly, but it seems to me we are not even being given a genuine choice here.

Ever since Berkeley Bowl West opened last June, it’s been my supermarket of choice. What’s not to like? The fruits and vegetables are beyond compare, the prices are reasonable (if I don’t get tempted by some of the French cheeses or some of the more expensive fish), the layout is intelligent, and the parking is generally easy.

Yesterday, however, I thought I’d save a bit of time and dropped into Whole Foods Market on Telegraph. It was certainly a quicker trip, but two things struck me after a very long absence.

First, there were tons of parking spaces. I can’t recall ever going to Whole Foods and finding it easy to park. Perhaps I just went at a charmed time on Monday afternoon, but I suspect Berkeley Bowl West has grabbed a good number of Whole Foods’ former customers.

Second, it was such a dull shopping experience. Whole Foods is a far smaller store than Berkeley Bowl West, so there was far less choice. Worse, the quality of the produce to my eyes just didn’t compare.

A trip to Berkeley Bowl West probably adds a minimum 20  minutes to my journey time (often more, because of the many temptations that keep me in the store). But I won’t be going back to Whole Foods if I can help it.

If you’ve been patronizing the Elmwood’s Summer Kitchen & Bake Shop since it opened last Fall, you’ll probably know that it’s already gained a loyal following.

The lunch-time line attests to its popularity — and unscientific observation suggests people are coming from far afield to order up its pulled-pork and slaw sandwiches, wood-fired broccoli and green garlic pizzas and lemon meringue cupcakes.

The Kitchen  is a beautiful spot with top-notch foodie credentials — run by husband and wife team Charlene Reis (a former Chez Panisse pastry chef) and Paul Arenstam (Hotel Vitale and Americano in San Francisco).

It was recently asked to remove some its tables because it only has the city’s OK to operate as a take-out restaurant — Elmwood having filled its quota of sit-down restaurants. This is mildly irritating for those of us who would prefer to eat from a plate and at a table rather than from a cardboard box at the Kitchen’s otherwise very lovely marble counter.

And the development lends a certain irony to the fact that the Kitchen has just been nominated for a Slow Money Award (slow money having something to do with the principles of slow food and  ”bringing money back down to earth”, apparently). In our minds, slow food (and the spending of slow, or fast money, to purchase it) is best consumed from a china plate in a leisurely and convivial manner around a table.

Any Berkeley city folk like the bend the rules just this once?

Sufficient Grounds, the fabulously named sandwich and coffee shop on Durant Avenue at Sather Lane will serve its last latte on April 20, reports the Daily Californian, after nearly 30 years in business.

Owner Anthony Tasoulinh cites  a poor relationship with his landlord, what he terms the “unreasonable” $7,500 monthly rent and a drop in the number of student customers.

“The rent is ridiculously high,” he said. “I can’t put myself personally in debt.” The shop, which is located within spitting distance of the Cal campus, gets most of its business from UC Berkeley students, according to Tasoulinh.

Rhapsody at the Bowl — Berkeley Bowl West that is [Weird Combinations]
Lance Williams lukewarm about creek plan for street outside his window [Cal Watch]
2020 Vision to kick off pilot programs for minority students in July [Berkeley Voice]
Anatomy of a housing crash: high end Berkeley home heads to auction [SFGate]
Series of car burglaries reported on campus [Daily Californian]

Photo: Wells Fargo building by Wnewton1948/Berkeleyside Flickr pool.