October 2003
10/31/03
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
École Bilingue Halloween
parade pictures
"More than fifty years
ago, the brilliant and outrageous Saul Alinsky wrote the definitive
work on community organizing, Reveille
for Radicals, and it became a best-seller
in an America determined to translate its highest ideals into
concrete deeds."
Border's Book Description
"First published in 1946 and updated in 1969 with a new Introduction
and Afterword, this volume represents the fullest statement of
the political philosophy and practical methodology of one of the
most important figures in the history of American radicalism.
Like Thomas Paine before him, Saul Alinsky, through the concept
and practice of community organizing, was able to embody for his
era both the urgency of radical political action and the imperative
of rational political discourse. His work and writing bequeathed
a new method and style of social change to American communities
that will remain a permanent part of the American political landscape."
My favorite Alinsky story
goes something like he brought to a head an Eastman strike by
having a Bean-In. Before a Eastman-Rochester concert, he stuffed-full
a good number of concert-goers with a meal of pork and beans.
10/30/03
Do our troops in Iraq have
the proper equipment? Well, there's a vehicle available specifically
for internal security operations and we don't have it. It offers
much greater protection than our soft skinned HUMVEEs. It is the
Reumech OMC Casspir. A writer for Jane's offers "A unique
feature of the Casspir is that it has been designed to give its
crew a high degree of protection against anti-tank mines and for
this reason the vehicle has a very high ground clearance with
the hull having a V-shape to help deflect the blast from any mines."
More information and a photo are at Jane's
Land Forces.
10/29/03
Today
is Republic Day in Turkey.
Always curious about that
unmarked brick-in-earthquake-country building on the corner of
7th and Heinz, I find that it is now occupied by XOMA. For what
XOMA Limited does, check out this Forbes
company detail page. The short version
is biotechnology and drugs. (Ah, will Berkeley's fascination with
drugs never end?) Forbes page gives this data: 2910 Seventh Street,
Berkeley, CA, 94710, Phone; (510) 204-7200, Fax; (510)
644-0539. For investing info, email investorrelations@xoma.com
(If interested in investing in the
drug industry, this is safer than commercial growing, and of course
legal, but probably not as profitable.)
10/28/03
Today is Czech
Republic National Day
and Greek National Day
Adams and Chittenden's
thankfully still-brimming-full hydrogen cylinders almost upright.
And some Adams and
Chittenden hydrogen cylinders actually upright.
(See my 10/24/03, 10/21/03
and 10/16/03 posts.)
People in École
Bilingue's Halloween Parade
Many more people
here
"Bring your bikes: Bicycle
mechanic-teacher Josh Church and the dozen or so students who
are learning repair skills at King Middle School in Berkeley are
running out of bicycles" writes Meredith May in her as-usually-informative
"School
Notes" in the San Francisco
Chronicle.
"The Berkeley harpsichord
maker lives and breathes the music of another era." writes
Jim Doyle of my neighbor in "Harpsichord
Heaven" in the San Francisco
Chronicle. And I thought it was the S. F. Giants and steam-trains.
Remember, "It's the Great
Pumpkin Charle Brown" is on Channel 7 at 8:00 PM, tonite.
(It really is more than a tale of thinking outside the box gone
terribly wrong.)
10/26/03
One of my neighbor's Aunts
has a photo-exhibit at SFMOMA.
Check it out!
10/24/03
The Atlas crew carefully and
professionally righting the hydrogen 6-pack.
(See my 10/21/03 and 10/16/03
posts.)
Ècole Bilingue
is having it's Halloween celebration
today at their playground
across the street
--what wonderful
costumes!
some photos are here
10/23/03
Among Potter Creek's "leading"
citizens who attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison in
the mid- and late-Sixties are; Lipofsky, Regan, Rick, and me.
Some of us even lived within blocks of each other, although we
didn't know it at the time. (Rick and I even had the same first
motorcycles-Zündapp 250s.) Our "leading" citizen
went to Marquette in Milwaukee but was raised in Illinois. Regan
went to grad school at Illinois and Lipofsky was an under grad
there and raised in Chicago.
Regan is breaking ground for
his new project on 8th, between Pardee and Carleton. (And, please
don't whine about lost parking. Get the City to build and underground-garage
with a park on top.)
10/22/03
Scrambled Eggs pages received
exactly two-hundred-fifty visits yesterday. Though spirit-guide,
Bruce Henry, was most popular, Jerry Victor's Viper pages attracted
the second-most visits.
Yesterday afternoon a friend
dropped off a loaf of Acme bread. Always ready for a taste of
fresh baked bread, I eagerly cut open the loaf and before cutting
a slice, took a whiff. Surprisingly, I got a hint of the "chemical
like emission" I've noticed when they're baking. "Yeast"
offered a neighborhood scientist, "Starter" offered
another. In the ten years I worked at the Buttercup Bakery, our
breads and baked goods never had a "chemical" hint and
our emissions never smelled like those of Acme. What gives?
Monday about 6:00 PM, while
driving east on Dwight, at 10th a bicyclist blew the Stop sign
and crossed about 12ft in front of my on coming truck. Judging
from his heft, he was one of those rubber people who bounce off
vehicles. But hell, I just washed my truck.
"Enough
to Make You Sick? Something is Killing America's Urban Poor" by Helen Epstein of the New York Times
is worth reading.
The Gas Company is installing
service to John and Suzanne's on Grayson--their block is closed
to thru traffic.
The City is replacing broken
sidewalks on Eighth between Heinz and Grayson. A home owner in
that block was billed $450.00 for part of the work
Thank you, whoever left a
buck and a quarter in front of my door this morning--bought me
one cup of People's Green Tea.
Did Rummy f*&k-up? Read
his
own words.
There are probably no longer
any circumstances in which our General Staff offices will tolerate
what they believe to be a waste of their people by our civilian
leaders.
10/21/03
Bruce Herman immediately
after his extreme makeover.
Bruce was quite traumatized
last week when a six-pack of 6ft hydrogen cylinders was dropped
a mere 8 feet from him. "Boom, boom," he muttered all
during his make over. The hydrogen cylinders dropped-over next
to him at Adams and Chittenden Scientific Glass were the old fashion
Atlas Welding containers, not to be confused with promising but
still impractical hydrogen cells.
Bruce H. has been
with us for some four years now, and feeling well after his makeover,
wishes all a
"Happy Autumn!"
10/19/03
A story about one of my favorite
babes is at MSNBC.com
Harvey-the-mailman dropped
by yesterday afternoon with his son for introductions and tour
of my motorcycle collection--his boy is one strapping, good-looking
young man.
Here tomorrow you'll find
some photos of friend and spirit-guide, Bruce Herman, taken right
after his extreme makeover.
And I'd like to thank Jerry,
the neighborhood recycler, for his morning delivery of the Daily
P.
The Daily P. has a
story on the Cuban Poster Exhibit at the Berkeley Art Center with
a few color photos of the posters including one of the photogenic
Che--I always like to remember that he was a biker, too. The Berkeley
Art Center is at 1275 Walnut Street and their phone number is
510-644-6893
10/18/03
Never a Yankees' fan, still
I have trouble supporting a team named after a fish.
Either there's no crime in
Beat
15 or Berkeley PD isn't maintaining
their Site.
Mike Taugher of the West
County Times offers Bay
Area Officials Deem Air Clean by Federal Standards.
Then just what is that yellow and/or brown haze?
In the San Francisco Chronicle,
Meredith May's Alameda
County's Top Teachers are Honored by Superintendent
doesn't include any Berkeley teachers.
10/17/03
Mike Taugher offers Pollution
Deal Affects Refinery in Richmond
in the West County Times.
I have updated the map on
My Neighborhood's Hazardous Users.
I've added about a half-dozen users.
10/16/03
At around 5:00PM last night,
an Atlas Welding crew at Adams and Chittenden Scientific Glass
picked up a dropped-on-its side six-pack of Adams and Chittenden's
hydrogen cylinders. It took a augmented crew of three about twenty
minutes to carefully and professionally right and load the tipped-over-on-the-concrete-drive
six-pack onto their truck. (Photos at 10/24/03 post.)
Mike Taugher of the West
County Times offers a
view of Governor-elect Schwarzenegger's environment policy.
10/13/03
Today is Thanksgiving Day
in Canada.
10/12/03
A guy emailed me from France,
he thought the readers of Scrambled Eggs would also enjoy his
Web Site, France
Resources. Certainly the È cole
Bilingue staff, students and parents will. And personally, I've
always loved the French--they're also just renting.
10/9/03
Francis
often rides his Honda CBR600 to work in Potter Creek.
Francis
can also be seen at our local bank behind his desk with shirt
and tie .
10/7/03
Who are these people?
They are some of Potter Creek's leading citizens and their guests.
Potter Creek and The Bark's Claudia and Cameron and their
new book were featured on NPR last week, but my understanding
is that their interview was not carried in the Bay Area because
of "election" coverage. Their new book's title is the
motto of their magazine: Dog Is My Co-Pilot: Great Writers on
the World's Oldest Friendship. NPR's Morning Edition spoke with
three of their contributors, Ann Patchett, Maxine Kumin and Stephen
Kuusisto. Ann and Stephen read from the book, while the Pulitzer-prize
winning poet Maxine Kumin read an unpublished poem. After the
piece aired the book soared to #7 on Amazon-the highest ever for
a dog book. You can find the book at Borders-Amazon
Site.
It seems that there is a pastel miniature-poodle newly,
now-and-then, in Potter Creek.
In talking to Dave Kruse yesterday,
Dave offered his favorite lunch-restaurant and dish. The restaurant
is Phnom Penn House in Oakland at 251 8th Street. And his
favorite dish is Chicken and Broccoli with spicy peanut sauce.
Their phone number is 510-893-3825. And it seems that Kruse' facility
was built over an active well that they capped those many years
ago. Kruse also helped design and build the Scharffen Berger chocolate
factory and he still thinks of it as a particularly fine job.
A chef at one of the restaurants on College Avenue offered
that the best enchiladas are found at El Huarache Aztec at 3842
International Way in Oakland. Their phone number is 510-533-2395.
A friend, the former manager of the Buttercup Bakery, says
that the best tamales she's ever had are found at Borinquena La
Mex-icatessen, 582 7th Street, Oakland. Their phone is 444-9954.
The Potter Creek version of Mike and Richards Haley's California
Breakfast can be found at the Westside Bakery Cafe at 2570 9th
Street. For a personal history of the California Breakfast read
my 8/8/03
post The
Buttercup and The California Breakfast. The Bakery Cafe is
a Potter Creek institution, has hardy, fresh food, makes its own
baked goods, and is a hang out. If you haven't already, go there!
Kavi's new landscaping was vandalized, the vandals making
off with nine plants. This property--his former home--is now for
rent-- with newly replaced plants.
10/3/03
Today is Germany
National Day
The Potter
Creek Hazardous Material Users Map now
has one-third of our neighborhood's users posted. There appear to be three times more.
Notice that the school playground
on 8th and Grayson is surrounded.
10/1/03
Today is Cyprus Independence
Day and People's Republic of China National Day
A Potter Creek neighbor forwarded
this news clipping.
"A man claiming to be
carrying a gun robbed a pedestrian late Saturday night at the
corner of Eighth and Grayson Streets. According to police, the
victim was searching for a house party when the robber approached
him, threatening to shoot if he didn't hand over his wallet. The
victim complied and the robber escaped in a blue Chevrolet Astrovan."
Perhaps it's time to form
a Potter Creek safety committee? Or we could just continue to
whine about crime.
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