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Troy

Sunday, May 18, 2014 0 Albany, Berkeley , , , , Permalink 0
Troy

Completely focused on keeping the bile from making an appearance on my expensive desk, I jumped when the phone rang.  It was a 510 area code unknown to me. Since the big dollar deal I was working on as a newly minted attorney (the reason for my queasiness) involved only people in the 650 area code, I answered it. “Hi, this is Ted. From next door to your son’s daycare?  He is here with me...” Damn. Most mornings I took my son into the daycare.  Now that he was five, I sometimes dropped him off and watched him walk in. That morning, ...

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Box and Bells

Thursday, March 20, 2014 0 Ballin', Oakland , Permalink 0
Box and Bells

POP! Flu addled, I teetered unsteadily to the microwave to investigate.   “Eewww,” I screamed.  There was a kidney or some other organ poking out of the arroz caldo (chicken/turkey rice porridge) my husband was reheating for me as a salve for my illness. He came into the kitchen grinning sheepishly, “Sorry.  I guess I didn’t get all the ‘parts’ out.” It was a conversation rehashed in many forms during the time we were together.  As a white girl growing up in the 60s and 70s in relative affluence, I cut my teeth (literally) on prepared, often prepackaged and pre-cooked food.  He was ...

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Maykadeh

Tuesday, March 11, 2014 0 Ballin', San Francisco , , Permalink 0
Maykadeh

We braved the bridge and tunnel crowd on a Saturday night to visit North Beach in the Westbay (San Francisco). Maykadeh has been serving up amazing Persian food for 35 years. We were so glad we declined all the offers to "come and do some shots" from the gentlemen on the street and actually made it to dinner. This place was worth the hardship of refusing those tempting offers...

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Eureka Burger: Flavorhood Berkeley

Tuesday, January 7, 2014 4 Berkeley , , , , , Permalink 0
Eureka Burger: Flavorhood Berkeley

There were unintended consequences of the cultural revolution. Growing up in Berkeley and Oakland in the 60s and 70s  meant coming of age in  the eye of the storm of the country's civil disobedience. We felt special. Our generation was to be the enlightened one, free of the prejudices and narrow mindedness of our parents and grandparents.  We thought we were riding the wave of something big. In retrospect maybe not, but the time was heady. I'm grateful for the legacy of an open mind, but haven't forgotten the underbelly of the revolt.  There were a lot of drugs easily available (and ...

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It’s Hella Cool Here

Thursday, December 5, 2013 4 Oakland , , , Permalink 0
It’s Hella Cool Here

On November 6, 1973, Oakland School Superintendent Marcus Foster was shot and killed with cyanide-encrusted bullets by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) as he walked to his car after a school board meeting.  The SLA killed him because they (mistakenly) thought he supported a student ID program and the placement of police in schools. Dr. Foster, the first black superintendent of schools in Oakland, was a visionary who put his focus for reform not only on schools but on the social and economic forces that shaped them.    His death was a huge loss for the future of Oakland schools. I remember ...

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FuseBOX

Sunday, November 17, 2013 0 Oakland , , , Permalink 0
FuseBOX

Inexplicably, my car slid sideways across College Ave into the path of oncoming traffic. The guy on the radio (live 105) shouted “There’s broken glass all over 9th street…” seconds before the station went dead. All the way down College people were streaming out of their houses, faces tight. People I recognized as natives. Native Bay Area people like to take earthquakes in stride. We smile at the freaked out newcomers and say “that was fun.” Not this one. I’ll never forget the creeping, sick feeling I had watching early helicopter footage of the Cypress freeway running through West Oakland. The anchorman ...

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Taqueria Sinaloa

Sunday, October 13, 2013 5 Broakland, Oakland , , , , , , Permalink 0
Taqueria Sinaloa

Maybe it’s just me. I’m tired. The news used to energize me and spur me into action, not make me want a long winter nap. But things seem so bleak now, with our dysfunctional government (controlled by slack jawed fanatics hopped up on personal ambition and bigotry) handing over the crown jewels, the welfare of the american people, to the robber barons. It makes me extremely angry. I want to fire everyone. Being this angry all the time makes me tired. When cynicism threatens to take over, I look around this place. The restored wetlands on the bay waterfront, the ...

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