Results tagged “cal”

Ah, yes, this is what we like: people apologizing for football games. So scary and confusing and lacking climactic eleventh-hour numbers, they are. What are we talking about? Well, actually, it seems Sandy Barbour, Berkeley’s Director of Athletics, sent out a letter, dolling out a huge mea culpa for Saturday's big homecoming game against (the vile) USC. Crowd control was lacking, rendering the game an uncomfortable one for fans.

Brittney Gilbert of Eye On Blogs brings our attention to this little gem: the Cal marching band knocking over an event staff guy at a recent football game. (Also, what's going on with both announcers' eyebrows? As lovely as they are, those enviously manicured brows belong no where near a football game.)

In addition to the now paltry 9.3% fee hike approved back in May, the University of California is discussing raising student fees an additional 32%, which would make "annual undergraduate tuition over the $10,000 level for the first time ever."

Aw, recent college graduates. Aren't they adorable? They're younger than you, they're prettier than you, they believe in things, they can drink more than you, and they will steal your jobs. Take, for example, this recent Cal grad who created an awesome solar-powered graduation cap. But it's not just any solar-powered cap; it's a sustainable, green cap. According to Daily Clog's Christine Borden -- congratulations on the big day, Christine; you will be missed deeply! -- this chapeau comes "complete with grass paper (astroturf probably causes global warming or something), a solar panel, a wind turbine, a small house and a mechanical rising sun."

What with the "skirt creeper" attacking two more females over the weekend, the kids over at UC/Berkeley have decided to hold a skirt rally. According to Christine Borden at the Daily Clog, "the rally’s designed to let women 'feel safe wearing whatever we choose,' which is important considering that the Daily Cal states that the most recent victims were not wearing skirts."

Old hippy dude throwing down with a yuppy at a Michael Pollan talk. In Palo Alto! A small skirmish errupted when the bolo tie wearing hippy was upset by the yuppy not volunteering a saved seat (turns out was saving it for his mom) for an elderly gentleman. Things got good when sunglasses were grabbed, and Stanford students intervened. Isn’t eating well supposed to make you less angry? Oh, and the talk was really good—see him speak at Cal tomorrow, or read his books.

Vulgar, yes, but it will all be half-price come tomorrow. [Nature abhors a vacuum]

Surely looking to turn us all into latter-career, Catalina-vacationing Natalie Woods, it looks like the rain will fall down (and wake our dreams) and won't stop until god knows when. Flooding, high winds, high tides, airport delays, glacial weather, and mass hysteria are all expected to bring us some mid-winter cheer.

50-year-old Chiu Chun Wong of San Lorenzo was killed yesterday after a 15-ton section of concrete came toppling down on him. Ouch. According to the Gate, the fatal workplace incident occurred at "J.C. Steel Fabrication at 220 Michelle Court shortly before 1 p.m. Tuesday." It seems that while Wong and another worker were putting a chain "around the bottom of the 20-foot-by-12-foot wall," the chuck of cement slipped, fell, and struck Wong, killing him instantly.

Not to be outdone by their wicked step-sister, UCLA, who all too tastefully/boringly galloped about in their panties on the streets of LA, UC Berkeley also had its traditional end-of-semester streak last week. But they did it in the raw. Hee.

Omigod people! A genuine Christmas miracle happened on the latest "Project Runway"!? Didja see it? Wasn't it awesome? Let's discuss.

Saturday is what is known around these here parts as "the Big Game," a kinda cute nickname for a game usually not of any importance to anyone other to us NorCal folks. This game, in particular, doesn't have much going for it as Stanford, with the exception of the 'SC upset, hasn't been very good and Cal has been more disappointing than Fred Thompson's candidacy. Nevertheless, the game is always pretty exciting and full of tradition-- all the things that makes college football what it is.

Today's Chron Bay Area section takes a break from covering the plight of lungless salamanders in Korea ( is this in the Bay Area section? Yes, yes, we know, it's because Cal researchers are researching them -- we're asking the question in a more philosophical sense.) to report that: oh no! Ed Jew's state criminal trial has been postponed again, to at least April 08.

Be careful if you're having Thanksgiving dinner near the coast tomorrow. Because if you plan on strolling down the beach afterwards to walk off that dark meat sitting in the pit of your stomach -- does anyone really prefer white meat? why? -- you might get swept to sea. Unusually high swells could reach up to eight feet over the holiday weekend according to the Nation Weather Service. What's more, "swimmers and [well, for...

After a 10-month protest atop an oak grove next to Memorial Stadium, a judge ruled on Monday that UC Berkeley can now start removing up-in-a-tree protesters, as well as their ground support, even if police can't identify the protesters by name. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Richard Keller amended his ruling from a month ago. At that time, his decree gave authorities the power to strip the environmental activists off of the UC-owned land,...

the best place to get a parking ticket in S.F.

We were super-excited when we got the chance to talk with Alex Ross, the New Yorker's resident classical music critic (and blogger). Ross's writing has profoundly affected the way we think about music and music writing in all its genres and forms, and his twin enthusiasm for new classical music of the 21st century along with his deep love of the profoundly musical Icelandic pixie that is Björk always liven up our weekly periodicals reading list. (Thanks for helping set it up, M.C-!)

Poor Cal-- so close yet so far. Our theory about what happened is that the idea of Cal having the #1 ranked team in the country was so crazy that even in this year (decade, actually) of sports craziness, the God of Sports deemed that just too crazy and set the upset in motion. Of course, we're also looking at the Rockies in the World Series, so whadda we know?

Last week's winner, the Bay Guardian. Tim Redmond says the Navy is the gayest armed services branch. Well, sure. Cars are worse than homeless people, says a letter writer. Halloween will suuuuuck. A former director of Intersection for the Arts died in a car crash. The new crackdown on homelessness, and why aren't people more upset? Cover article: Our pals at SwapSF make the cover! About the whole freetail trend! Yay SwapSF! (and other freegans!) Annalee Newitz loves to IM. This Woggles concert sounds like fun ("I go to a lot of shows where dudes in hoodies stand around, solemnly head-bobbing with their hands in their pockets" -- but the Woggles won't be one of those!) Okay, the band name Eat Skull caught our attention. Damon and Naomi are coming to town. Is a Chinese restaurant filled with non-white people really better than the other option? And L.E. Leone wishes she were an alcoholic.

Now we're just picking on the poor guy: in today's edition of the Examiner, the largest-font front page headline screams, "Pot club in Jew family's building is under review," going on to say, "Jew's pot-club tenants probed" (hee!) on page five.

Serialized gem / siren song Tales of the City drew many folks to SF. Well, it brought us here, anyway. And the character of Mary Ann Singleton acted as a temporary stand-in until many of us arrived. To wit:

Oh, Berkeley law professor and torture-sanctioner John Yoo's not going to be happy about this (or maybe he will be!) -- Cal has tentatively agreed to accept a controversial collection of paintings by Colombian artist Fernando Botero, based on the Abu Ghraib photographs that repulsed the world.

Hey, everyone loves a list, right? Especially those ranking institutions of higher learning. The yearly U.S. News & World Report list is out -- any wagers on how local schools did? And, really, how much would it affect your choices? We remember mulling the 1991 list saying "can't get in there, can't get in there, nope, not there either . . ." But it's still fun to see how stuff measures up, we suppose. Unshockingly, Stanford University was high on the list, reaching No. 4 this year, undoubtedly driving the next generation of Azia Kims.

-- 8.8-foot-long Smart Fortwo cars in SF. Squash. [Chron]

From the SFist Tips line: yet another daytime shooting yesterday, this time at 23rd and South Van Ness around 1:45 p.m, by the post office, and fatal. In a particularly brazen act, the shooters then drove by the SFPD Ingleside Station to drop off the body about an hour and a half later. You'll all be pleased to hear that the cops did at least manage to catch the person driving the car.

-- 4.2 tremor slightly moves the Bay Area, donuts. [Chron, Yahoo, Examiner, FCJ]

Campus tree residency news! At Cal, it turns out those people living in the trees to protest the UC's plan to cut them down themselves did significant damage to the trees in question by cutting off the tops of the trees to put in their sleeping platforms. Ah, the sweet smell of irony. Meanwhile, at rival Stanford, they've finally evicted a veteran who's been living in the tree grove off Palm Drive for almost 10 years. (Does anyone actually pay to live at Stanford anymore? Goodness.)

--One person is dead after a Caltrain hit a car in Palo Alto this afternoon. [CBS 5, Merc News.]

Well, that was a grim Daily Californian homepage yesterday. The top six stories: pedestrian hit by car on Telegraph; Berkeley summer camp evacuated due to Tahoe fire, body found near the Berkeley Marina, beloved local activist hit by train, Cal student to be tried for killing David Halberstam, and memorials for the local murder-suicide family. On the bright side, the other article on the home page is that Cal basketball star DeVon Hardin has decided not to enter the NBA draft.