Friends and neighbors work together to help prevent another fire like the 1991 Firestorm that destroyed 3000 homes. All ages are invited to join vegetation management efforts throughout Garber Park in Claremont Canyon. Removing invasives also enhances the park’s lovely walking trails.
A number of work parties are coming up this month.
In fact, one is scheduled tomorrow TUES April 1 (not a joke).
Contact garberparkstewards@gmail.com and feel free to visit www.garberparkstewards.blogspot.com
It was a clear, sunny day — and a great day for Oakland. More than 10,000 people of all ages came together yesterday for the 5th Annual Oakland Running Festival. They participated in the following events: individual marathon, relay marathon, half-marathon, 5K or kids races. Cheering crowds offered their support including live bands, recorded “Rocky” theme music, cow bells and edible treats.
The full marathon with more than 1000 runners included some running for the first time. On the other extreme, a SF man said he’d run at least one marathon in every state in the US, which totaled 221 marathons! Rob Nachtwey — someone I hold near and dear (my son) — finished second (for the second year in a row) at 2:41:00. Naturally, I volunteered to be head cheer-leader among our family and friends.
All and all, everyone was a winner. But the biggest winner of all was the City of Oakland. The well-organized event ended at Snow Park by Lake Merritt, for celebration and the award ceremony. The Festival successfully show-cased many positive aspects of Oakland, such as community, diversity, and a strong sense of civic pride.
http://tinyurl.com/oaklandmarathon
To commemorate Presidents Day, the U.S. Census Bureau recently pulled information from its geographic database to determine the most popular place names. The last names of three presidents took the top four spots on the list: Washington (No. 1), Lincoln (No. 3) and Jackson (No. 4). Although never a president, founding father Benjamin Franklin’s last name was the second most common place name.
Known as the “people’s president,” Andrew Jackson was the first self-made man to be elected president. Among many things, Jackson was a hot-headed, bad-tempered dualist who was shot twice with lead bullets that he carried in his chest for the rest of his life.
Jackson’s nickname was “Old Hickory.” His soldiers dubbed him “as tough as old hickory wood” on the battlefield. Other notable presidential nicknames: James Madison was called “His Little Majesty.” At 5′ 4″ he’s the shortest person to serve as president. And Grover Cleveland was referred to as “His Obstinacy” because he vetoed more bills than the first 21 presidents combined.
Enjoy Thanksgiving
with Family and Friends of all ages!
Best wishes,
Julie
Would an app have saved Trayvon Martin?
Can humans survive mass extinction?
Is the Constitution broken? Are we born racist?
These are just some of the provocative issues on the program at Uncharted: The Berkeley Festival of Ideas, the Bay Area’s first ideas festival which takes place on Oct-25-26 in downtown Berkeley. Uncharted, organized by Berkeleyside, is about cementing Berkeley as the natural place for dangerous thinking and boundary-defying ideas. Go to http://www.berkeleyideas.com for full details.
Some of the world’s most interesting thinkers will be there — including UC Berkeley’s new Chancellor Nicholas Dirks, food guru Mollie Katzen, Autodesk CEO Carl Bass, Annalee Newitz of science and science fiction site io9, Daily Kos’ Markos Moulitsas, UC Berkeley poverty expert Ananya Roy, winemaker Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon, National Center for Lesbian Rights’ Kate Kendell, tech entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa, and architect of the new Bay Bridge Donald MacDonald.
As well as enjoying grappling with “dangerous ideas,” Uncharted festival-goers will engage with speakers, roll their sleeves up for some fun, hands-on workshops, and, last but not least, attend a fabulous party with delicious wine, beer, food and live music at the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive.
Uncharted is much less expensive than TED, a whole lot easier to get to than the Aspen Ideas Festival, and, someday, you will be able to say, “I was there, at the first Uncharted!”
Visit http://www.berkeleyideas.com for more information and to register. Use code BerkeleyFriend for a 15% discount on tickets. Tickets are available for the two days of Uncharted, or you can buy Friday-only or Saturday-only tickets (Saturday includes the Friday evening party).
