News from Berkeley: The Alameda County Fair, Pick-N-Pull & Chez Panisse

If you are having trouble trying to keep from being driven completely nutso by all the grim, horrible and terrible national and international news headlines that just keep pouring down on our heads, then perhaps it's time to take a break and focus in on some of the good things in life instead. And there actually are a lot of good things happening here, locally, in my own home town -- which happens to be Berkeley.

One good thing about living in Berkeley is that you can never get bored.

For instance, a friend of mine just started working at a new Japanese grilled-chicken restaurant called Ippuku, and on July 15 at 7 pm, I'm going there for dinner -- so that I can compare their grilled chicken kebabs with all those chicken kebabs that I ate daily while in Iran for a month back in 2008. Iran is the Queen of too-dry chicken. Will Ippuku do better? They have to! Here's a review of Ippuku (which is the Japanese word for "Take a break"): http://www.umamimart.com/2010/07/sneak-peak-ippuku-berkeley/

I also have plans to spend the night at Arnieville on Russell Street and Adeline, camping out with the disabled people there who are protesting Governor Schwarzenegger's rather foolish budget cuts to salaries for their home-care workers. Will let you know how that goes.

And here's a trilogy of articles I just wrote about Berkeley -- or at least the East Bay area. Hopefully these places will cheer you up too:

The Alameda County Fair: "We had fun!" http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2010/07/alameda-county-fair-we-had-fun-lets-go.html

Pick-N-Pull: America 50 years from now?
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2010/07/pick-n-pull-america-50-years-from-now.html

My Birthday at Chez Panisse
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2010/07/my-birthday-at-chez-panisse-american.html