Palo Alto Weekly 06.03.2011 - Section 1

www.PaloAltoOnline.com

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Palo Alto, Menlo CCS baseball titles are linked Page 38

2011

Photo Contest winners Local photographers offer outstanding images Page 30

Spectrum 14

Eating Out 22

Movies 25

Home 43

Puzzles 61 N News

Vote for Best Of Palo Alto

City to revamp emergency services N Arts Radio variety show comes to town N Title Pages Summer books for kids

2011

Page 3 Page 17 Page 27

On June 26th

You’re Invited!

Celebrate the 20th Birthday of Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital

Join us for a community celebration Sunday, June 26, 10 am – 4 pm Location: Intersection of Quarry + Welch Roads, Palo Alto, CA There will be fun for all ages, featuring more than 75 interactive booths, musical performances, storytelling, face painting, local food favorites, cupcakes and more. We’ve helped so many children celebrate their birthdays.

Now we invite you and your family to help us celebrate ours. More information at anniversary.lpch.org.

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Upfront

1ST PLACE

BEST LOCAL NEWS COVERAGE California Newspaper Publishers Association

Local news, information and analysis

Palo Alto to overhaul emergency services New Office of Emergency Services would direct city’s emergency planning, support volunteer groups

by Gennady Sheyner

F

or Palo Alto’s grass-roots army of disaster-preparedness volunteers, the long wait for a general is almost over.

Despite budget deficits and staffing reductions, the city is planning to create a $1 million Office of

Emergency Services this year, an addition that volunteers have been clamoring for for years. The office will be charged with coordinating and assisting the volunteer groups and consolidating the city’s fragmented and somewhat convoluted

emergency-response operation.

The new office, which will include a director, at least one coordinator (possibly two) and administrative staff, is the most significant new project included in City Manager James Keene’s proposed 2012 budget. Once approved, it would also be the most dramatic action the council has taken on the topic of emergency preparedness since former Mayor Judy Kleinberg advocated for it as one of the council’s

top priorities five years ago. The council also made “emergency preparedness� a priority in 2010 and this year.

Under the present system, the city responds to citywide incidents by activating its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) — a basement room in City Hall where top city officials and public-safety personnel coordinate information and develop response plans. That’s what happened on Feb. 17, 2010, when a

small plane crashed into a substation in East Palo Alto, killing all three passengers and knocking out power to Palo Alto for most of the day.

According to an internal city review that the Weekly obtained through a Public Records Act request, the city’s response to the power outage was hampered by the center’s “outdated� layout and (continued on page 6)

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Palo Alto’s fiber dreams dealt another blow Consultants agree a fiber system for all residents isn’t feasible

by Gennady Sheyner

P

Veronica Weber

A snowy egret perches Wednesday on a palm tree branch in the migrating-bird sanctuary at the Baylands, where many egrets and herons are nesting. A multimedia presentation about the birds will be posted on PaloAltoOnline.com this weekend.

EDUCATION

Castilleja School to drop science APs Move intended to foster depth of knowledge, collaboration

by Chris Kenrick

I

n what is described as a bid to deepen student learning, Castilleja School will replace its Advanced Placement science classes with a home-grown advanced science curriculum beginning in fall 2012.

The century-old independent girls school in Palo Alto joins about 50

private schools across the country that have opted out of the College Board’s Advanced Placement (AP) program in favor of curricula designed by their own teachers.

The most prominent public school to have done so, Scarsdale High School in New York, replaced its AP curriculum with its own “advanced

topics� classes in 2007.

Castilleja’s shift away from AP classes so far applies only to the sciences, but Head of School Nanci Kauffman said it could extend to other departments in the future. “This has to be a pedagogical decision, not an anti-College Board decision,� Kauffman said in a recent interview.

The impetus came from the science faculty’s desire for a program that would “ignite that passion for inquiry, not memorization,� she said. “It’s not science to get you into college — it’s science to love science and consider pursuing it and going on to become a scientist.� (continued on page 7)

alo Alto’s decades-long dream of expanding its fiber ring to bring high-speed Internet to every home in the city should be deferred, if not abandoned altogether, because of high costs, questionable demand and fierce competition from existing telecommunications giants, two consulting firms have concurred in separate reports.

The reports from Columbia Telecommunications Corporation (CTC) and Tellus Venture Associates were commissioned by the city as part of its effort to create a new business plan for its 41-mile “dark fiber� ring — a network that the city built in the late 1990s that currently serves 68 customers. While both consultants recommend extending the fiber ring to new areas and building new infrastructure to support it, each concludes that a citywide fiber system — known as “fiber to the home� or “fiber to the premise� — would not make business sense in the current economic climate. “There is no compelling case for providing fiber service directly to residents at this time,� consultant Stephen Blum of Tellus concluded in his report. “Palo Alto is served by large incumbent retail video and broadband service providers that enjoy decisive competitive advantages resulting from economies of scale.�

The findings, which the city’s Utilities Advisory Commission reviewed Wednesday night, are the latest blow to the city’s long-held ambitions to spread fiber-based Internet access to its famously tech-savvy masses. The city’s earlier attempt to partner with an Internet consortium on a fiber-tothe-premise initiative fizzled in 2009, when the consortium’s financing collapsed. Palo Alto also joined more than a thousand other cities in apply-

ing for Google’s ambitious Fiber to the Community project, which aims to hook up an entire city to ultra highspeed Internet. Kansas City ultimately won the Google prize.

The new studies are sure to disappoint proponents of a citywide fiber system. But the reports provide an array of recommendations to the city and its Utilities Department for improving the city’s small but lucrative fiber service, which is projected to generate an estimated $3.3 million in the current fiscal year.

The CTC report, which evaluates ways to expand the existing network, recommends a two-phased approach to widening the ring. The first phase would entail building new “access points� at nine existing electrical substations to entice private companies to work with the city on dark-fiber initiatives and to support various other wireless services. This could entail building new cellular towers, which CTC recommends making at least 75 feet tall, at the substations. These facilities would be leased to a variety of telecom companies and would help the city meet the spiking demand for wireless coverage.

This proposal will almost certainly prove a tough sell in Palo Alto, where two recent cell-tower proposals attracted intense opposition from residents at the proposed sites. In one case, AT&T was forced to pull its application for a 50-foot tower at St. Albert the Great Church after a group of residents in the Crescent Park neighborhood pressured the church to step away from its partnership with the telecom giant.

The CTC report acknowledges that its proposed initiative “will not be welcomed by all� but argues that this approach is “both a responsible (continued on page 10)

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Upfront

PUBLISHER William S. Johnson EDITORIAL Jocelyn Dong, Editor Carol Blitzer, Associate Editor Keith Peters, Sports Editor Tyler Hanley, Express™ and Online Editor Rebecca Wallace, Arts & Entertainment Editor Rick Eymer, Assistant Sports Editor Tom Gibboney, Spectrum Editor Chris Kenrick, Gennady Sheyner, Staff Writers Sue Dremann, Staff Writer, Special Sections Editor Karla Kane, Editorial Assistant Veronica Weber, Staff Photographer Dale Bentson, Colin Becht, Peter Canavese, Kit Davey, Iris Harrell, Sheila Himmel, Chad Jones, Kevin Kirby, Jack McKinnon, Jeanie K. Smith, Susan Tavernetti, Robert Taylor, Contributors Aaron Guggenheim, Kareem Yasin Editorial Interns Joann So, Arts & Entertainment Intern

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BUSINESS Penelope Ng, Payroll & Benefits Manager Elena Dineva, Mary McDonald, Susie Ochoa, Cathy Stringari, Doris Taylor, Business Associates ADMINISTRATION Amy Renalds, Assistant to the Publisher & Promotions Director Janice Covolo, Receptionist Ruben Espinoza, Courier EMBARCADERO MEDIA William S. Johnson, President Michael I. Naar, Vice President & CFO Walter Kupiec, Vice President, Sales & Marketing Frank A. Bravo, Director, Information Technology & Webmaster Connie Jo Cotton, Major Accounts Sales Manager Bob Lampkin, Director, Circulation & Mailing Services Alicia Santillan, Circulation Assistants Chris Planessi, Chip Poedjosoedarmo, Computer System Associates The Palo Alto Weekly (ISSN 0199-1159) is published every Friday by Embarcadero Media, 450 Cambridge Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94306, (650) 3268210. Periodicals postage paid at Palo Alto, CA and additional mailing offices. Adjudicated a newspaper of general circulation for Santa Clara County.

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City/Zip: _______________________________ Mail to: Palo Alto Weekly, P.O. Box 1610. Palo Alto CA 94302

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

‘‘

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450 CAMBRIDGE AVE, PALO ALTO, CA 94306 (650) 326-8210

It’s not science to get you into college — it’s science to love science. — Nanci Kauffman, Castilleja’s head of school, on the aim of new, non-AP science curriculum. See story on page 3.

Around Town THE SOUND AND THE FURY ...

Downtown Palo Alto will thump and vibrate with the sounds of jazz, rock, blues, folk and choral music on June 19, when the city holds its third annual “World Music Day.� This year, however, the one sound that will be missing from the cosmopolitan symphony is the honking of cars. That’s because the city plans to take the event to the next level by closing University Avenue to traffic — a proposal that hasn’t always been music to the merchants’ ears. The most notable recent snafu was the “Palo Alto Promenade,� a 2007 event in which the city closed University Avenue between 4 and 10 p.m. on a Friday. The road closure created traffic jams on surrounding streets, including Alma and High streets and Hamilton Avenue. The mirthful street atmosphere was quickly overshadowed by grumblings from disgruntled commuters and frustrated merchants. This time, the city is banking on a different result. For one thing, the event will take place on a Sunday afternoon rather than on Friday during evening commute hours. In addition, staff and officials from the Downtown Business Improvement District are devoting extra effort this time around on outreach to area merchants.

Thomas Fehrenbach, the city’s economic-development manager, said every ground-floor merchant on University Avenue will get at least two, possibly three, visits before the event informing him or her about the closure (which will take place between 3 and 7:30 p.m.). So far, each ground-floor business has received at least one notification, and the reaction has been positive, Fehrenbach told the Weekly. The city is also encouraging merchants to set up extra chairs, tables and merchandise displays.

It is even offering tables and chairs to businesses and restaurants who request extra. “We’ve all been hitting the streets and trying to make sure we get the word out,� Fehrenbach said. “We really hope merchants will have a positive experience and see this as an opportunity to get involved.�

BLUEPRINTS ... Planet Earth may still be recovering from a post-recession hangover, but business at Palo Alto’s Development Center has been picking up at a brisk pace. The center, which processes development applications and dishes out building permits, has been buzzing with applications, according to a new staff report. The number of customers serviced at the center jumped from 930 in April 2010 to 1,178 in April 2011 — a 26 percent increase, according

to a new report from the office of City Manager James Keene. The swell of activity is good news for a hub that is still viewed by many as Ground Zero for the “Palo Alto Process� — a derisive term that officials hope to phase out soon. The surge has come at a time when Keene and the city’s planning staff are overhauling the Development Center’s operations and working to improve counter service. The city’s Deputy City Manager Steve Emslie was recently appointed to direct the reforms and ensure coordination among the various departments involved in this effort.

Vacancies are also now getting filled.

According to the new report, the city is preparing to hire one permanent building technician and one temporary one “until workload conditions stabilize.� The city also plans to hire a new plan-check engineer in the next two months, according to the report.

These reforms are expected to speed up customer service. But it remains to be seen if they succeed in expunging that exasperating phrase from the local vocabulary.

PATS ON THE BACKS ... Not everyone was cheering when three Peninsula lawmakers unveiled in April their plan for “high-speed rail done right.� The plan, proposed by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, and state Assemblyman Rich Gordon, D-Menlo Park, calls for the California High-Speed Rail Authority to abandon any plans involving elevated tracks on the Peninsula, a scaling back of the environmental analysis for the project and a blending of high-speed rail and Caltrain on the Peninsula. The rail authority greeted the plan with a mix of suspicion and confusion, and one state lawmaker, Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani, D-Livingston, branded it the “Great Train Robbery.�

In Palo Alto, however, city officials have been tickled pink by the proposal from their elected representatives.

Last week, the City Council Rail Committee unanimously endorsed a letter to the state and federal officials fully backing the Simitian-Eshoo-Gordon plan. The new proposal, the letter states, is in perfect alignment with the committee’s guiding principals on the rail project. “If this project is to be built it must be done right,� the draft letter from Mayor Sid Espinosa states. “Your joint statement is another step in helping to support this key principle.� N

Upfront

GREAT SELECTION OF CHAMPAGNE FOR YOUR GRADUATION CELEBRATIONS!

BUSINESS

East Palo Alto nonprofits say to bank: Please stay

Wine Special Two Bottles For The Price Of One

California Bank & Trust, the city’s only bank, is set to close Aug. 26

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everal East Palo Alto groups this week reacted to the announced closure of the city’s only bank by saying they won’t let it happen without seeking all alternatives to save the branch.

California Bank & Trust, which opened in the Ravenswood 101 shopping center in 2002, is set to close Aug. 26, according to a bank spokesman. But local nonprofit leaders aren’t willing to accept the decision. “This is the beginning of the discussion. This isn’t a done deal,� said Leah Simon-Weisberg, managing attorney for Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto.

Steve Borg, spokesman for California Bank, said the decision to close the branch was difficult, but that there weren’t enough loans and deposits.

California Bank isn’t a retail bank — it is a business and professions bank that primarily serves large geographical areas rather than having many outlets, he said. The bank does offer services to individuals, including free checking for seniors ages 55 and older, however, he said.

The East Palo Alto branch was never able to attract business from its most profitable neighbors at Ravenswood 101 — the “big box� stores such as IKEA, Sports Authority and Home Depot, Borg said. Borg said the bank made several overtures to the stores, but to no avail.

Those stores bank with larger institutions as dictated by their corporate headquarters, managers at several stores conceded.

The City of East Palo Alto also does not use California Bank, Mayor Carlos Romero said. Bank officials approached the city manager and director of finance about making deposits in the bank, but the city was bound by a fiduciary responsibility to Wells Fargo Bank at the time and was “in no position to just move its banking,� he said. The city moves about $30 million through checks, but it doesn’t maintain a large balance, he said.

Romero said the city will be at a point where it could move its banking to another institution in about a year and had mentioned that to California Bank, “but I think they were at a point where they couldn’t wait that long,� he said. Moving to the local bank also wouldn’t be guaranteed. The city would put out a request for proposals for financial services, and California Bank could apply.

The closure is particularly frustrating for anti-predatory-lending advocates who have seen the city devastated by the residential-foreclosure crisis.

Even before the bank announced its closure, Community Legal Services and other groups were working on ways to increase financial education and decrease “payday� and predatory lending. Their program, called Bank on EPA and funded by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, is still in development, but the program model is being instituted in poor, multi-ethnic communities elsewhere,

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A shopper passes by a man using the ATM at California Bank & Trust, East Palo Alto’s only bank, on Wednesday. such as San Jose.

Simon-Weisberg said the plan is to sign up 2,000 more people with savings accounts this year. Those accounts could support the bank, if it were able to stay open long enough.

She also said Community Legal Services would look into how to get the city to commit to investing in a bank if it wants a bank to invest in the community. The group could also talk to the FDIC, the federal government’s independent bank regulator.

Having a bank in the community encourages people to move in and build community, she said.

Building relationships with a bank also means “you’re not going to be susceptible to a stranger who knocks on the door,� she said.

Prior to the opening of the California Bank & Trust, residents were reliant on payday loans with annual percentage rates of up to 400 percent. And predatory lenders lured financially naïve buyers into loans with enormous balloon payments — some as much as $7,000 a month on a $1,000 per month income, she said.

As banks consolidate, Simon-Weisberg said she fears a practice known as “redlining� will return. Redlining occurred historically when bankers drew a red line on a map to indicate “risky� communities where a bank would not lend, regardless of whether individuals in the community could qualify for a loan, she said. “They would deny people. People wouldn’t be able to fix up their homes.

It’s keeping a community poor if they can’t buy or sell their homes,� she said.

Kevin Stein, who helped draw California Bank into East Palo Alto 10 years ago, said at the time that East Palo Alto was the largest city in the country with no bank branch at all. “East Palo Alto has been underbanked for decades, and that is a reflection of redlining concerns,� said Stein, associate director of the California Reinvestment Coalition.

Preeti Vissa, community reinvestment director for The Greenlining

Institute, agreed.

Not having a local bank “is reredlining a community because it’s forcing residents who still need banking services to go to everyone who’s left, such as ‘payday’ lenders� who charge exorbitant fees or a hefty percentage for cash advances, she said.

She also worries about significant drops in home, small business and Small Business Administration (SBA) lending. SBA loans alone have dropped by 50 percent in underserved communities, she said. “It’s a cycle of a dearth of resources,� she added.

Without having access to financing, a community has no chance of rebuilding its economy, she said. “Mountain View, Palo Alto and San Mateo are heavily invested-in areas.

It’s absolutely two different worlds.

Financial investment plays a large part in the financial lives of a community. A local bank provides opportunities to build wealth and assets and contributes to financial empowerment and financial literacy,� Vissa said.

California Bank is the second financial institution the city has lost since last year. In September 2010, Community Trust Credit Union, located on Bay Road, closed its doors, a victim of the housing implosion, he said. The regional credit union was set up by the nonprofit financial-literacy organization Northern California Urban Development.

On Tuesday, some East Palo Alto residents outside California Bank said they would drive the 8.5 miles to Mountain View; others said they are closing their accounts. “It’s going to leave East Palo Alto in a bad fix,� Candy Maria Hunter said. “It’s part of the community. We feel welcome here. It discourages people if they don’t have a bank in their community,� she said.

At Country Time Market on University Avenue, Aymen Silmi, who works the check-cashing concession, said customers are coming to cash their payroll checks because the bank is closing. “That’s good news for me,â€? he said. N *>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠ7iiÂŽÂ?ÞÊUĂŠ Ă•Â˜iĂŠĂŽ]ÊÓ䣣ÊU Page 5

Upfront

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(continued from page 3)

equipment, an overloaded phone system, and shortcomings within the planning section of the emergency operation. It also didn’t help that the Emergency Operations Center was “crowded, noisy, stuffy, and generally an inefficient place to work.�

Though the new office will not address the city’s urgent need for a better operation center, it could help organize the staffing and planning shortcomings in the citywide operation. The report noted that after the power outage, staff “had difficulty transitioning from their working roles to the assigned ICS (Incident Command System) positions�; that “staff, in some cases, were not trained or, in most cases, were not comfortable with their EOC positions�; and that the city’s existing Emergency Operations Plan is “unwieldy.� The huge number of City Hall retirements in the past two years also impacted the Emergency Operations Center roster and supporting staff resources, the report stated.

The report also points out that when the “proverbial Big One eventually strikes, a key challenge for City Management will be communications with off-duty staff.�

The new director will be expected to bring some order to this chaos.

An independent report issued in April by the firm Urban Resilience Policy identified a series of deficiencies with the city’s emergencyplanning effort and recommended hiring a new director to address these deficiencies. The report cited staff’s findings from the city’s response to the February 2010 outage as evidence for the needed changes.

It concluded that the existing Office of Emergency Services, which is housed in the Fire Department, “does not have the authority to overcome planning and preparedness

deficiencies.� “No single group has demonstrated crisis management or leadership on a comprehensive level, resulting in a fragmented and ineffective approach to response and readiness,� consultant Arrietta Chakos wrote in the report.

City officials see the new office as an attempt to address these deficiencies. They also see it as a good way to support the city’s bustling community of emergency volunteers, which includes graduates of the Palo Alto Certified Emergency Response Team (CERT) course, members of the Palo Alto Neighborhoods (PAN) group, and the Citizen Corps Council, a broad coalition that includes neighborhood leaders, city staff, businesses and employees from Stanford University and Stanford Hospital.

The volunteer groups, while enthusiastic, have expressed frustration over the city’s lack of support for their activities. They have long called for the city to appoint what PAN leader and Citizen Corps Council volunteer Annette Glanckopf characterized at the City Council’s January retreat as a “conductor� for their orchestra of emergency responders.

Their call could be answered on June 20, when the council will vote on a budget that includes close to $1 million for the new Office of Emergency Services. The budget includes the hiring of a new emergency-preparedness director and more than $700,000 for new programs, supplies, planning projects and operating costs. The city also plans to reallocate two existing city positions, including an emergencyservices coordinator and a part-time administrative assistant, from the Fire Department to the new office.

The staffing proposal falls short of the recommendation in Chakos’ report, which recommends a new office with four positions — a director, two full-time coordinators and a full-time administrative

assistant. Interim Public Safety Director Dennis Burns recommended starting the office with three positions (and just one new position) and allowing the new office director to decide whether to hire additional staff.

Keene’s recommendation for the new office also includes a budget of $100,000 for community programs, $165,000 to pay for operating costs (supplies, storage, etc.) and onetime expenditures totaling about $335,000 for equipment and planning efforts. The budget proposal calls for about $500,000 in new allocations and about $500,000 in transfers from the Fire Department budget to the new office.

Glanckopf called the proposed overhaul a “step in the right direction,� but she also called for the city to take additional steps to improve its emergency operations. These include making Burns the permanent public safety director and getting the Citizen Corps Council more involved in all things relating to emergency response. The citizens’ group should be elevated to the level of an official city commission, she said, and should be involved in every major decision relating to emergency response. “I’m optimistic,� Glanckopf said. “We are moving ahead — very, very slowly — but the good thing is we are moving ahead.�

The council’s Finance Committee has already approved Keene’s proposal to create the new office, and the council is expected to do the same when it approves the Fiscal Year 2012 budget later this month.

Keene said creating the office is important to keep the volunteers’ momentum alive. “We do have this tremendous network of community volunteers in emergency preparedness who I think in many ways are in danger of losing steam, losing energy and that network breaking down,� Keene told the committee.

Burns said at that meeting that the new office’s functions will also include updating the city’s Emergency Operations Plan, training staff for emergencies, starting a new Medical Reserve Corps program (which would enlist local physicians as volunteers during emergencies), planning community exercises and seeking grant opportunities to further enhance the city’s operations.

He said recruitment of the new director would take place in the coming months and be completed this summer. Other staff members in the new office would be hired in the fall.

Councilman Greg Schmid said at the meeting that Keene’s proposal “makes a lot of sense� and that the new office would bring “tremendous leverage� to existing community resources. He joined fellow committee members Greg Scharff and Nancy Shepherd to tentatively approve the proposed budget for the new office. “There’s been a lot of ferment in the community about this — a lot of people urging it,� Schmid said. “It would be a great program to have.� N Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner can be emailed at gsheyner@ paweekly.com.

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Science APs (continued from page 3)

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Nonetheless, before moving ahead, the school tested its concept in a poll of hundreds of college admissions officers from across the country — and specifically those from Stanford University. Admissions officers were overwhelmingly supportive, according to Castilleja’s Director of College Counseling Susan Dean.

This fall, Castilleja science teachers will continue to teach the traditional AP classes while at the same time working to design the new curriculum in biology, chemistry and physics, to be launched in the fall of 2012. “Ever since the school made this decision, there have been no questions, challenges or concerns about the pedagogical rationale behind it,�

Kauffman said. “The only concerns are whether colleges will understand what we’re doing and be able to adequately assess our students.�

To that end, Kauffman convened a May 2 discussion on the topic for Castilleja parents. Panelists included Stanford Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Rick Shaw and Stanford Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Harry Elam Jr., who is also a Castilleja parent.

While saying the AP system “has made a huge contribution to public education� by providing a largesystem structure for evaluating applicants, Shaw said Stanford does not endorse any particular system and works to gauge every applicant in context.

Castilleja “certainly has the wherewithal to move forward with assessing what might work for these young women, and for the school itself,� he said.

Shaw pointed to San Francisco’s independent Lick-Wilmerding School, which already has moved away from APs, saying the

Redwood City - San Mateo - San Jose

From left, Castilleja students Elizabeth Johnson, Stephanie Merenbach, Kylie Holland and Jessica Matthys chat with Head of School Nanci Kauffman in the school’s library last September. school’s new, faculty-developed time for collaborative, project-oricourses aim to “foster authentic ented learning. engagement, thoughtful inquiry “Now, the teacher gives a lecture, and in-depth analysis rather than and you learn the content in the outdated approaches that rely on classroom, and you’re supposed to rote memorization and inch-deep find time to do projects outside,� coverage.� she said.

However, he said, standardized “That puts too much burden on tests “will continue to be important� kids and families, and you’re not as Stanford assesses applicants, in a position to mentor them on the mentioning the SAT, ACT and SAT teamwork and collaboration skills subject tests. people say are critical.�

Elam said many highly accomCastilleja’s curriculum change plished students arrive at Stanford aligns not only with the school’s still needing to be taught a certain strategic-plan goal of producing flexibility of mind. “innovative problem-solvers� but “We have to train them for also with the latest research in how college-level thinking, train them students learn, Kauffman said. to move to a different mode that “Modern neuroscience has shown there isn’t just one right answer,� unequivocally that fast-paced, seElam said. rial coverage of topics is unlikely Castilleja’s move toward project- to produce durable understanding,� based learning parallels some of she said. the thinking behind a study of StanBy press time, the College Board ford’s undergraduate education that had not responded to a request for is currently in progress. comment. N Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can Kauffman said technology makes it possible for students to master ba- be emailed at ckenrick@paweekly. sic content online, reserving class com.

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IT’S NEVER TOO LATE - ENROLL NOW! All High School Subjects Anytime Start Dates

Upfront

Online This Week

These and other news stories were posted on Palo Alto Online throughout the week. For longer versions, go to www.PaloAltoOnline.com/news or click on “News� in the left, green column.

Simitian to discuss state of education Saturday State Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, will discuss Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget and general trends in an “education update� Saturday (June 4) in Palo Alto. (Posted June 2 at 9:48 a.m.)

Bogus 911 calls lead to arrest in Mountain View While investigating bogus 911 calls, police arrested a man outside of a Mountain View car repair shop early Saturday morning (May 28) after he charged at officers, an official with the department said. No one was injured in the confrontation. (Posted June 1 at 4:45 p.m.)

Officer injured in tussle, police dog bites suspect A Menlo Park police officer was roughed up and a San Jose man bitten by a police dog on Tuesday evening (May 31) in an incident in the Allied Arts neighborhood. (Posted June 1 at 2:08 p.m.)

DUI arrests down over Memorial Day weekend The California Highway Patrol arrested fewer drunken drivers in the Bay Area this Memorial Day weekend than last year, but there were more traffic deaths, CHP officials said. (Posted June 1 at 9 a.m.)

Escondido School names new principal Danae Reynolds, a teacher and Palo Alto school district staff member since 2000, has been named principal of Escondido Elementary School. (Posted May 31 at 5:33 p.m.)

Palo Alto’s fiber dreams dealt another blow Palo Alto’s decade-long dream of expanding its fiber ring to bring high-speed Internet to every home in the city should be deferred, if not abandoned altogether, because of high costs, questionable demand and fierce competition from existing telecommunications giants, two consulting firms have concurred in separate reports. (Posted May 31 at 5:28 p.m.)

Menlo Park convenience store robbed at gunpoint The Tri-E-Z convenience store on El Camino Real in Menlo Park lost cash and booze during an armed robbery Monday night (May 30).

(Posted May 31 at 12:35 p.m.)

Stanford professor to become envoy to Russia President Barack Obama will name longtime Stanford Russia watcher Michael McFaul as the next ambassador to that nation, the Associated Press and the New York Times are reporting. (Posted May 31 at 9:45 a.m.)

Officials issue venomous snake warning Anyone who enjoys the outdoors should watch where they put their hands and feet this spring and summer, Santa Clara County fire and emergency officials are warning. (Posted May 28 at 3:41 p.m.)

Trees, grass catch fire behind Gunn High A grass fire broke out behind Gunn High School in Palo Alto at about 4:30 p.m. Friday (May 27). Four fire engines responded and quickly doused the blaze. Gunn 11th-grader Kareem Fawal witnessed the fire. He had just been dropped in the school parking lot around 4:37 p.m. when he smelled smoke. (Posted May 27 at 6:34 p.m.)

Ira Ruskin diagnosed with malignant tumor Former state Assemblyman Ira Ruskin, who represented Palo Alto for six years before terming out last year, has been diagnosed with a brain tumor and is halting his political career. Ruskin, 67, said he was advised by his doctors that the tumor, while not curable, is containable.

(Posted May 27 at 9:57 a.m.)

Man punched by alleged lawnmower thief A would-be thief who was caught allegedly stealing a lawnmower from a Palo Alto gardener was arrested Thursday (May 26) after punching the victim in the stomach and fleeing the scene, a Palo Alto police spokesman said. (Posted May 27 at 9:47 a.m.)

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Palo Alto government action this week

City Council Historic Resources Board (June 1)

1005 University Ave. The board approved a request by Norman Beamer and Diane Taska to designate the property at 1005 University Ave. to the city’s Historic Inventory. Yes: Bernstein, Bunnenberg, Di Cicco, Kohler, Makinen Absent: Bower Abstained: Smithwick

Upcoming Events “HR & Organizational Learning� Lunch Speaker: Esther Kestenbaum “Empowering Recent Hires to Re-enter the Workforce with Maximum Effectiveness�

Utilities Advisory Commission (June 1)

Hosted by Comerica Lunch by Hobee’s Comeri 250 Lytton Avenue Palo Alto June 8 Noon–1:30 pm Must Register at PaloAltoChamber.com

Broadband The commission discussed the creation of a business plan for a citywide ultra-high-speed Internet network. Action: None

Architectural Review Board (June 2)

University Chiropractic—Ribbon Cutting

2080 Channing Ave. The board reviewed a plan to redevelop Edgewood Shopping Center, which includes building 10 two-story homes, renovating three existing retail structures and relocating one of the retail structures. Action: None 355 Alma St. The board reviewed Lytton Gateway LLC, a proposal to build a mixeduse four-story building at the former Shell Station site. Action: None

540 Bryant Palo Alto June 21 5–5:30 pm Refreshments

Business Mixer/Chamber Recognition Event Hosted by Elks Lodge 4249 El Camino Palo Alto June 22 5:30–7 pm Must Register at PaloAltoChamber.com

Public Agenda

Information: 650.324.3121 Reservations: PaloAltoChamber.com

A preview of Palo Alto government meetings next week CITY COUNCIL ... The council plans to discuss and possibly vote on the Final Environmental Impact Report, the development agreement and various zoning changes for the Stanford University Medical Center expansion.

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. on Monday, June 6, in the Council Chambers at City Hall.

CITY COUNCIL FINANCE COMMITTEE ... The committee plans to discuss the 2011 Utilities Strategic Plan and consider policies and guidelines for a renewable feed-in tariff. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 7, in the Council Chambers at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

CITY COUNCIL ... The council plans to hold its annual meeting with U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo. The meeting will begin at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, June 8, in the Council Conference Room at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

PLANNING AND TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION ... The commission plans to consider a conditional use permit to allow renovation of the Roth Building at 300 Homer Ave., the proposed site for the Palo Alto History Museum. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, June 8, in the Council Chambers at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

INFRASTRUCTURE BLUE-RIBBON COMMISSION ... The commission will continue its discussion of the city’s infrastructure backlog and consider ways to pay for the items on the list. The meeting will begin at 5 p.m. on Thursday, June 9, in the Lucie Stern Community Room (1305 Middlefield Road).

HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION ... The commission plans to discuss the Human Needs Assessment, hear an update on World Music Day and discuss a presentation from Generations United on inter-generational communications. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 9, in the Council Conference Room at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

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The council did not meet this week.

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Meadow Wing & Focused Care

a tradition of caring PALO ALTO COMMONS offers a comprehensive program for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in our Meadow Wing. Here, residents enjoy daily walks on beautiful garden paths and a full

LET’S DISCUSS: Read the latest local news headlines and talk about the issues at Town Square at PaloAltoOnline.com

program of activities to engage mind, body and spirit.

Correction

In the May 27 article about veterans, Edward Patton’s age of enlistment and sequence of training were incorrect. He enlisted at 17 and graduated from jump school, after which he trained to become an Army Ranger and served with the 173rd Airborne. The Weekly regrets the error. To request a correction, contact Managing Editor Jocelyn Dong at 650-223-6514, jdong@paweekly.com or P.O. Box 1610, Palo Alto, CA 94302.

For residents in the later stages of Alzheimer’s disease, our Focused Care Program provides for all of the resident’s unique needs. Here, families are assured that their loved one will get the best care in the most appropriate

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Upfront

News Digest

Palo Alto fiber

St. Raymond pastor on leave after incident with teen

form of stewardship of (City of Palo Alto Utilities) facilities and communications assets and a reasonable way to address a highly charged urban problem.� “By developing a proactive cell tower placement program within the confines of existing electric substations, (City of Palo Alto Utilities) would in effect be blending the common aspects of facilities everyone needs and leveraging the common characteristics of both media.�

The second phase in CTC’s proposal involves building 88 “access nodes� throughout the city. Each of these nodes would be able to provide fiber access to about 250 homes and businesses. This “fiber to the neighborhood� initiative would cost about $5 million to build and, if all goes well, entice a private operator to build the “last mile� of the network to each home. The entire fiber project would cost between $40 million and $60 million, depending on the type of system deployed.

The high cost of building a citywide fiber system has deterred the City Council in the past from taking on the project without partners from the private sector. According to the Tellus analysis of market conditions, such a system would not be a financially feasible project for the city to take on.

In its report, the firm lists several cities, including Alameda and Provo, Utah, where citywide Internet initiatives had failed. Both Tellus and CTC also emphasized the dominant role of Comcast and AT&T in Palo Alto’s broadband market — a tough obstacle for the city’s fledgling operation to overcome.

The Tellus report urges the city to instead focus on its core customers — high-tech firms and telecom companies. Tellus evaluated various parts of the city where the existing fiber ring could be extended and singled out the area around East Meadow Circle (home to Space Systems-Loral and Dell Computers) as the “best immediate prospect� for such an extension.

Other potentially lucrative areas for expansion are areas along El Camino Real and Sand Hill Road.

Blum wrote in his report for Tellus that the broadband business model is changing rapidly and that a fiberto-the-home (FTTH) system could “eventually� become economically viable in markets such as Palo Alto. “For the present though, the broadband sector’s turmoil and uncertainty make FTTH system investments less attractive,� Tellus concluded. “The current state of the broadband market does not support a business case for a third, overbuild residential broadband system in Palo Alto.�

The city’s utilities officials are expected to use the two new studies to put together a business plan for the fiber service by this fall. Jim Fleming, the city’s project manager for the fiber utility, wrote in his report that staff will further analyze the reports’ recommendations and reach out to customers in areas the consultants had identified as “underserved.� Staff also plans to “evaluate the feasibility of constructing cellular towers at some or all of the electric substations,�

Fleming wrote. N

Father William Myers, pastor of St. Raymond Catholic Church in Menlo Park, has been on leave since May 27 following an incident with a 17-year-old boy, according to the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Describing the incident as a “boundary violation� that involved no physical contact, the archdiocese said San Francisco police determined there was no criminal activity and that the archdiocese’s independent review board will also evaluate the situation.

The police were called at the request of the youth’s father after he became upset during a trip with his son and Myers to a Ross store in San Francisco on April 19, according to the archdiocese’s spokesman.

However, more than a month passed before the church found out about the incident. Director of Communications George Wesolek said the archdiocese was notified by a source on May 26. “We don’t know,� he said when asked why the delay. “If we had been notified on April 19, we would’ve taken action on April 20.�

Since the police found no criminal activity, Wesolek said, no policy required notification, but the delay was not in the church’s best interest. “It’s one of those things, we have learned that we cannot step back and if there is something like this that’s gone to police, we have to take action immediately and put our process into play,� he said.

Wesolek said that to his knowledge, no other allegations have been made against the priest in the past.

Myers is seeking treatment for a sexual addiction to adults, according to the archdiocese. He joined the parish in 2007, transferring from St. Brendan Church in San Francisco.

The archdiocese asked that any allegations of sexual abuse involving Myers be reported to the police and to its victim assistance coordinator, Barbara Elordi, at 415-614-5506 or elordi@sfarchdiocese.org.

Staff at St. Raymond directed questions to the archdiocese. N — Sandy Brundage

Simitian’s bill to limit cough-medicine sales Joe Simitian’s bid to ban sales of certain cough medicine to minors easily sailed through the state Senate Tuesday afternoon (May 31).

Senate Bill 514 specifically targets medicine with dextromethorphan (DXM), which produces intoxication and hallucinations when ingested in high quantities — a practice known as “robotripping.� The bill was proposed in 2004 by two Palo Alto police officers, Wayne Benitez and Ron Lawrence, as part of Simitian’s annual “There Oughta Be a Law� contest.

Though the bill proved a tough sell the first time around and ultimately died in the Legislature, Simitian revived it this year. On Tuesday, the Senate approved the bill 37-0.

Simitian, D-Palo Alto, said in a statement that the idea of banning DXM sales for minors was “ahead of its time� when initially introduced. Today, he said, the problem is better understood.

He cited a report from the California Poison Control System that claims that DXM abuse calls for children younger than 17 have increased by 850 percent over the past decade, making it the most commonly reported type of abuse in this age group. “Back in 2004 Officers Benitez and Lawrence were on top of an emerging problem,� Simitian said in a statement. “But most of my colleagues had never heard of ‘robotripping’ or ‘skittling,’ and figured if they’d never heard of it, then it probably wasn’t a problem.�

Simitian also noted in his statement that the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, the California Peace Officers Association, the American College of Emergency Physicians and the California State Board of Pharmacy all support the new bill.

SB 514 would make it an infraction to sell drugs with DXM to minors unless they have a prescription. N — Gennady Sheyner

Man killed by train in Mountain View

INSPIRATIONS

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A southbound Caltrain struck and killed a man Wednesday night (June 1) on the tracks south of the San Antonio station in Mountain View, according to a Caltrain spokeswoman.

The man was struck at about 6:50 p.m., spokeswoman Christine Dunn said. The incident remains under investigation, and two hours after the incident officials had not yet determined whether the man’s action was intentional or accidental, she said.

The 400 passengers aboard train No. 382, which operates on Caltrain’s Baby Bullet express service and makes select stops, were transferred to another train that would continue south to the San Jose Diridon station.

Dunn said a bus was provided for passengers on the following Baby Bullet train, No. 386, which was scheduled to reach the Sunnyvale station at 7:21 p.m.

This is the seventh fatality on the Caltrain tracks this year, of which three were determined to be suicides and three remain under investigation. Last year there were 11 fatalities. N — Bay City News LET’S DISCUSS: Read the latest local news headlines and talk about the issues at Town Square at PaloAltoOnline.com

(continued from page 3)

Pulse

Buy 1 entree and get the 2nd one

A weekly compendium of vital statistics

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Palo Alto

,UNCH "UFFET - & s /RGANIC 6EGGIES s 2ESERVATION !CCEPTED

May 25-31 Violence related Domestic violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Robbery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Suicide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Suicide attempt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Theft related Burglary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Commercial burglary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Grand theft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Identity theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Petty theft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Shoplifting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Vehicle related Auto theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Hit and run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Misc. traffic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Theft from auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Traffic/suspended license . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Vehicle accident/minor injury. . . . . . . . . . . 6 Vehicle accident/property damage. . . . . . 6 Vehicle impound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Vehicle stored. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Vehicle tow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Alcohol or drug related Drunk in public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 N&D possession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Miscellaneous Animal/leash violation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Disturbing the peace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Found property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 F&W disposal request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Harassing phone calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Juvenile problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Lost property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Misc. penal code violation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Possession of stolen property. . . . . . . . . . 1 Psychiatric subject. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Suspicious circumstances . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Vandalism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Warrant/other agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Menlo Park May 24-30 Violence related Robbery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Spousal abuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Theft related Credit card forgery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Burglary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Grand theft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Petty theft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Residential burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Shoplifting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Vehicle related Auto recovery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Bicycle recovery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Bicycle theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Hit and run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Suspended/revoked license . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Theft from auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Vehicle accident/injury. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Vehicle accident/no injury . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Vehicle accident/property damage. . . . . . 1 Vehicle hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Vehicle tow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Alcohol or drug related Drug activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Drunk in public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Drunken driving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Miscellaneous Active disturbance/family . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Display imitation firearm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Domestic disturbance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Found property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Info. case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Located missing person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Meet citizen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Missing juvenile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Outside assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Receive stolen property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Returned missing person . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Runaway juvenile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Suspicious circumstance . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Threats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Vandalism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Warrant arrest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

VIOLENT CRIMES Palo Alto Unlisted block Embarcadero Road, 5/24, 9:10 a.m.; suicide attempt/juvenile.

Alma Street, 5/25, 11:22 a.m.; suicide/adult.

2500 block Webster Street, 5/26, 12:06 p.m.; robbery/strong arm.

Unlisted block El Camino Real, 5/30, 4:34 p.m.; domestic violence/battery.

Menlo Park

1200 block Carlton Avenue, 5/27, 5:58 a.m.; spousal abuse.

1800 block El Camino Real, 5/30, 10:39 p.m.; robbery.

369 Lytton Avenue Downtown Palo Alto 462-5903 Family owned and operated for 15 years

w w w. j a n t a i n d i a n r e s t a u r a n t . c o m PALO ALTO CITY COUNCIL CIVIC CENTER, 250 HAMILTON AVENUE BROADCAST LIVE ON KZSU, FM 90.1 CABLECAST LIVE ON GOVERNMENT ACCESS CHANNEL 26 ***************************************** THIS IS A SUMMARY OF COUNCIL AGENDA ITEMS. THE AGENDA WITH COMPLETE TITLES INCLUDING LEGAL DOCUMENTATION CAN BE VIEWED AT THE BELOW WEBPAGE: http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/knowzone/agendas/council.asp

Alfred M. Pepper Age 96, passed away on Saturday morning, May 28, 2011, surrounded by his family and caregivers. Beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, and friend. He was a resident of Palo Alto since 1982, and was pre-deceased by Rosaline Frantz Pepper, his wife of 62 years, in November of 2010. Born in New York City on October 19, 1914, he grew up in New York City as a ďŹ rst-generation American and the oldest of four children of Josef and Sadie Pepper.

He attended City College of New York.

He was a kind and supportive father and husband, who enjoyed his children and grandchildren immensely. A talented dancer, it was a pleasure to watch he and his wife move across the dance oor. Al worked as a retail shoe store manager for over 55 years, and retired when he was 87. He learned life lessons by being observant and reective rather than reactive, and spoke only when he had something relevant to say. He was intelligent and easy-going, who taught love, integrity, humor, and patience through his example. He began playing tennis in his 50’s, and kept playing until he was 89.

In 1941, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, serving as a First Lieutenant in the Big Red One, the First Infantry Division that invaded France on D-Day, June 6, 1944. The invasion started at 6 am, and he landed on Omaha Beach at 8 am. He received numerous medals, including the Bronze Star for bravery. In December 2010, he was awarded the medal of the French Legion of Honor for his role in helping to liberate France. However, he did not deďŹ ne himself as a war hero, and never spoke about the war until 50 years after his service. The picture of health into this early 90’s, he was a true ďŹ ghter not only in his military career, but in his ďŹ nal years.

Alfred leaves behind his loving family including son Donald (and Giulie) Pepper and daughter Janis Pepper. He was the devoted grandfather of Daniel and Jennifer Slate, Andrea Pepper, and Giulene Moller. He is the dear brother of Ralph (and Joanie) Pepper, the late Herman Pepper, and the late Ann Pepper Nelson, and brother-in-law of the late Geri and Robert Shimoff, and the late William Frantz. He is the beloved uncle to numerous nephews and nieces.

Funeral services were held June 2, 2011, at Congregation Etz Chayim, Palo Alto. In lieu of owers, please make a donation to your favorite charity.

SINAI MEMORIAL CHAPEL PA I D

(TENTATIVE) AGENDA-SPECIAL MEETING-COUNCIL CHAMBERS JUNE 6, 2011 – 6 P.M. CONSENT 1. Request for Approval of: 1) Agreement Between the City of Palo Alto on Behalf of the Joint Powers and the Midpeninsula Community Media Center, Inc. for Public, Education, and Government Access Channel Support Services; 2) Amendment No. 1 to Agreement No. C05111535 Between the City of Palo Alto and Midpeninsula Community Media Center, Inc. in the Amount of $25,000 for Cablecasting and Other Production Services Through June 30, 2011 for a Total Amount Not to Exceed $125,000; 3) Agreement Between the City of Palo Alto and Midpeninsula Community Media Center, Inc. in the Amount of $100,000 for Cablecasting Services from July 1, 2011 Through June 30, 2014; and 4) Authorize the City Manager to Execute Amendments to the Cablecasting Services Agreement Between the City of Palo Alto and the Midpeninsula Community Media Center, Inc. for Additional Services in an Amount Not to Exceed $25,000 Per Year 2. Approval of Contract Amendment No. 1 to Add $48,510 to Contract No. S11136318 with R3 Consulting Group, Inc. for a Total Amount Not to Exceed $133,190 for Completion of the Refuse Fund Cost of Service Study 3. Approval of Letter to Congresswoman Anna G. Eshoo, Senator Joe Simitian and Assembly Member Rich Gordon to Authorize the Rail Committee to communicate with the Peninsula Cities Consortium (PCC), the California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) and Related Interests as Necessary, Regarding the City’s support of the April 18th, 2011 Joint Statement on High Speed Rail ACTION 4. Approval of Contract with Sherry Lund Regarding Mid-Year Reviews of Council Appointed OfďŹ cer’s and Recommended Change in Criteria for City Attorney Performance Evaluation (continued from 5/9/11) 5. PUBLIC HEARING-QUASI JUDICIAL: CertiďŹ cation of the Final Environmental Impact Report for the Stanford University Medical Center Facilities Renewal and Replacement Project (SUMC Project); Adoption of a Resolution Containing California Environmental Quality Act Findings and a Statement of Overriding Considerations; Adoption of a Resolution Amending the Comprehensive Plan to Permit the SUMC Project; Adoption of an Ordinance Amending the Zoning Code to Establish a New “Hospital Districtâ€?; Adoption of an Ordinance Approving a Thirty–Year Development Agreement; Adoption of a Record of Land Use Action Approving a Conditional Use Permit for the SUMC Project; Adoption of a Resolution Commencing Annexation of an Approximate 0.65 acre Site from Santa Clara County; Acceptance of SUMC Area Plan Update; and Adoption of a Resolution Approving Architectural Review Board Findings CLOSED SESSION 6. Cubberley Community Center (TENTATIVE) AGENDA-SPECIAL MEETING-COUNCIL CONFERENCE ROOM JUNE 08, 2011 - 4:00 PM 1. Joint Meeting with Congresswomen Anna Eshoo STANDING COMMITTEE MEETINGS The Policy and Services Committee Meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 7, at 6:00 p.m. regarding 1) Procedures & Protocols, 2) Anti-Smoking Ordinance, and 3) Binding Arbitration Models and Options The Finance Committee Meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 07, at 7:00 p.m. regarding 1) Utilities Advisory Commission Recommendation to Approve the 2011 Utilities Strategic Plan (continued from 3/1/2011), 2) Approval of Policies and Guidelines for a Renewal Feed-in Tarriff, and 3) Required Auditor Communication Regarding External Financial Audit

O B I T UA RY

*>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠ7iiÂŽÂ?ÞÊUĂŠ Ă•Â˜iĂŠĂŽ]ÊÓ䣣ÊU Page 11

Terrence James Donohoe On February 11, 2011, surrounded by his loving wife and family, Terrence James Donohoe, took his last breath. Terrence was a devoted husband, a caring brother, a loyal friend, and a remarkable son.

Terrence was born March 4th, 1971. He was the youngest of 5 children raised by Lani and John Donohoe in Sunnyvale, California. Lani revered Terrence as her prettiest baby. Terrence, along with his siblings, always and hastily agreed.

Growing up Terrence attended St. Cyprian Catholic School in Sunnyvale and St. Francis High School in Mountain View.

Terrence was eternally curious about everything and everyone. His whole life he displayed a desire and an ability to connect with people of all backgrounds‌ electricians, baristas, engineers, plumbers, surgeons, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers.He forever wanted to know how it all worked.

Medicine and surgery naturally fascinated Terrence from boyhood. By the time he was in high school, he was volunteering at Stanford Hospital.

He attended UC Berkeley – and while there sought out hospital work in Oakland at a hospital the military uses to train surgeons to handle gunshot wounds.

After graduating from college in 1993, he found work in a laboratory at UCSF researching the developmental genetics of fruit ies. He was the lead author on a paper in the journal Nature, on the ies’ eye development. At least one friend recalls receiving fruit y larvae in the mail – in a container, with the necessary nourishment so one could witness the ies’ development for themselves.

After a few years of research, a career in medicine became his ultimate focus. He applied to several universities – was turned down by all, but was still waiting to hear from Boston University so he moved there and found a research job. He spotted the Dean of the BU Medical School walking across campus.

He told the Dean that his application would be crossing his desk any day – and that he wanted to meet him personally. Before this meeting had ended, the Dean offered Terrence admission to the medical school, on the spot, application unseen.

After medical school Terrence made his way into a surgical residency at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh.

Early on a surgeon told him that he didn’t think Terrence had what it takes to make it through residency. But Terrence was in his element and he knew it. He was ever determined, solving problems, and making things work better.

If you asked him why he liked surgery he’d tell you it was because he liked to ďŹ x things. He never congratulated himself with the fact that he wanted to help people, to save lives, but this was ultimately at the root of it all. He became known for that ability of his, to connect – with scared and difďŹ cult patients. He would give them his personal phone number, nap in the empty bed beside them. He wouldn’t say this might “pinchâ€? or “sting a littleâ€? he would say straight out “This is going to hurtâ€?.

He was honest with them.

When he was assisting on a surgery and a ďŹ re broke out on the table – apparently it happens sometimes – Terrence quickly and calmly did exactly the right thing. The same surgeon (to whom Terrence was assisting coincidentally) who’d said he wouldn’t make it praised his calm reaction, and admitted he’d been wrong about his earlier judgment.

One day at Mercy Hospital, a young nurse named Angel was handling a particularly difďŹ cult patient – who happened to be a Department of Health Surveyor whose job is to assess patient care, and who’d already gone through three nurses.

Angel saw Terrence striding down the hall and asked for help with the patient. “Please be careful,� she said – “She’s a Surveyor.�

Terrence won over the patient – convincing her to relax her demands, charming her, and adding that she was very lucky to have this particular Page 12ĂŠUĂŠ Ă•Â˜iĂŠĂŽ]ÊÓ䣣ÊUĂŠ*>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠ7iiÂŽÂ?Ăž

nurse, Angel, coming up with this story that she’d recently won the “Nurse of the Year� award and had the plaque to prove it.

In the process, he won over Angel as well. And as far as Terrence and everyone who loved him was concerned -- though none of us could know it at the time -- Angel would become the “Nurse of a Lifetime�.

Half a dozen years ago – in March of that ďŹ rst year of his surgical residency at Mercy Hospital -- Terrence was diagnosed with the Primary Progressive form of Multiple Sclerosis. He was then just 34 years-old.

The disease made him unable to complete his residency and so Terrence poured himself into those he loved – Angel and her young son, Doug. Terrence and Angel married the next Spring, in April 2006.

He became a devoted husband and father and computer geek. He home-schooled Doug, and took on massive home remodeling projects They had another son, Diego, in June 2009.

All this while the disease was eating away at his body, but not his mind. Terrence would say, “We live like kings!�

Keeping busy was of paramount importance to Terrence. He wrote an on-line ordering program for the pizza delivery business. He ran a laptop repair service from his home. At one point Terrence became physically unable to perform work tasks and with his eyesight weakening, everything became a blur. He kept at it by having computers brought to his bedside where he would instruct Doug – then 9 – and Angel on how to perform the repairs.

He kept working with tradesmen to improve the house. He was still connecting with people, the way he always did – now in part because he was totally honest about his own disease.

Terrence devoted his last years to the people he loved. Getting it all in order. Thinking through every detail. Making how-to and advice lists for his family, for after he was gone. Preparing.

Without remorse. He never once complained about this disease that made him blind and left him in agonizing pain for years.

He wouldn’t take serious pain medication. He knew it would blunt his thinking. If you closed your eyes and talked with him, you wouldn’t know he was sick.

When he felt he’d prepared as well as he could, he ďŹ nally decided to ease all of that pain and bring in hospice care. After nearly six years it was too much.

His breathing was incredibly labored at this point.

He could manage short conversations – bursts of speech, really.

He was constantly exhausted but his mind was as sharp as ever. He’d say, “Somebody say something funny – it’s too sad in here.â€? About his eulogy he directed â€œâ€Śmake it funnyâ€?. He told a joke the day before he died “Why was Jesus born in a manger?

Because he had Kaiser-Permanente�

Hospice arrived.

But Terrence was ready to go. He was at peace.

These were his exact words: “I’ve lived a rich life.

And I have no regrets.�

He was surrounded by family and friends in the last days of his life. We recalled childhood stories, argued about PC’s vs. Macs, told more jokes, and said countless I love you’s.

In his last hours Terrence lay in the arms of Angel and Doug. At 1 in the morning, Angel carried Doug to his bedroom, and returned to Terrence’s side. And at 3am on the morning of February 11th, Terrence died in the arms of his Angel.

We love Terrence and we will forever miss him.

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Transitions

Deaths

Marguerite Saegesser Marguerite Saegesser, 87, a longtime resident of Palo Alto, died April 1, 2011.

She was born May 27, 1923, in Bern, Switzerland. She lived and worked as an artist in Palo Alto from 1976 to 2004. She was represented by Smith Anderson Gallery and exhibited her work locally and nationally in such venues as the Cantor Art Center at Stanford University, the deSaisset Museum at

Santa Clara University and the Basel Art Fair in Switzerland.

In addition to painting and sculpture, she was also a musician, dancer and poet, according to her friend, Smith Anderson Gallery’s Paula Kirkeby.

Friends, family members and fellow artists loved to gather at her home for lively discussions, and she will be missed as an artist and friend, loved ones said.

(More obituaries on page 29)

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Visit: www.PaloAltoOnline.com/obituaries

June C. Jenke June 8, 1925 – May 23, 2011 June Jenke passed away on May 23, 2011, after a short illness.

June was born on June 8, 1925, a third-generation San Franciscan, and the youngest of the four surviving children born to Jesse Harrison Howell and his wife, Henrietta Cecilia (Weber) Howell. Growing up during the Depression, the family moved many times during June’s childhood, living in San Francisco, Reno, and ultimately, Palo Alto. June fell in love with Palo Alto.

She graduated from Palo Alto High in 1943, then took a job in the ofďŹ ce of Southern PaciďŹ c Railroad in San Francisco, where she met John Jenke. They married in 1948 and had three children, Janis, John and Jim. June and John bought their ďŹ rst home in 1953, on what is now Park Boulevard in Palo Alto. Built on a former walnut orchard, every house in the new neighborhood had a walnut tree. It was on the outskirts of Palo Alto at the time, and June had to walk to the Old Barrel Market on El Camino if she wanted to make a phone call!

June worked for a dentist, Dr. Ellertson, and then took a job with the Palo Alto School District. She was an assistant in the hearing testing trailer, and then worked as a part-time assistant in the ofďŹ ce at Fairmeadow and Ohlone elementary schools. She achieved a childhood dream of learning to play the piano. After her retirement from the school district, June took up watercolor painting and became a member of the Peninsula Watercolor Group. June loved her family, her home, her garden, Stanford girls’ basketball, and the San Francisco Giants.

June is survived by her children, Janis Poet of Concord, CA, John Jenke (wife Mary Lou) of Winchester, MA, and Jim Jenke (wife Kathy) of Los Altos, CA, and ďŹ ve grandchildren: Kyle Jenke of New York City, Elizabeth (Libby) Jenke of Durham, North Carolina, Jack Jenke of Los Altos, CA, and Colin and Eleanor Jenke of Winchester, MA. She is also survived by her nephew, Stephen Hare (wife Julie) of Napa, CA, and his family, and her sister-inlaw, Sharon Foss (husband Ken) of Rio Vista, CA, and her family, and the three remaining members of the Sewing Club, Toni Carter, Gwen Rinaldi, and Lil Overton.

Friends are invited to a celebration of June’s life on Wednesday, June 8, at 1:30 p.m. at Roller Hapgood & Tinney, 980 MiddleďŹ eld Road, Palo Alto, CA (650.328.1360). In lieu of owers, contributions may be made to the Children’s Health Council, Attn: Advancement Dept., 650 Clark Way, Palo Alto, CA 93403 (www.chconline.org) or to a charity of your choice.

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Palo Alto Medical Foundation Community Health Education Programs Mountain View, 650-934-7373 Palo Alto, 650-853-2960

June 2011

For a complete list of classes and class fees, lectures and health education resources, visit: pamf.org/register.

Lectures and Workshops Advance Health Care Directive Senior Center Lectures Presented by Betsy Carpenter Sunnyvale City Senior Center, 550 E. Remington Dr., Sunnyvale Wednesday, June 22, 1 to 2 p.m., 650-934-7373

Effective Parenting Dr. Marvin Small Memorial Parent Workshop Series Presented by Susan Stone Belton, ParentsPlace 701 E. El Camino Real, Mountain View Tuesday, July 12, 7 to 8:30 p.m., 650-934-7373

Good Food PAMF Healthy Screenings Film Series Panel discussion after ďŹ lm led by Ed Yu, M.D., PAMF Family Medicine 701 E. El Camino Real, Mountain View Friday, June 24, 7 to 9 p.m., 650-934-7373 An intimate look at the farmers, ranchers, and businesses that are creating a more sustainable food system in the PaciďŹ c Northwest.

Cancer Care – Eating Tips During Cancer Care Treatment – Exercise for Energy – men and women’s group – Expressions – Healing Imagery

– Healthy Eating After Cancer Treatment – Look Good, Feel Better – Qigong – When Eating is a Problem, During Cancer Treatment

Childbirth and Parent Education Classes – – – – – – – – –

Baby Safety Basics Breastfeeding Childbirth Preparation Feeding Your Young Child Infant and Child CPR Infant Care Infant Emergencies and CPR Introduction to Solids New Parent ABC’s – All About Baby Care

– – – – –

OB Orientation PAMF Partners in Pregnancy Prenatal Yoga Preparing for Birth/Fast Track Preparing for a Second Birth with Yoga: A Refresher – Sibling Preparation – What to Expect with Your Newborn

Living Well Classes – Mind/Body Stress Management

– Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction

Nutrition and Diabetes Classes Mountain View, 650-934-7177 s Palo Alto, 650-853-2961

Time For a Checkup. Doc, What Am I Due For? Presented by Alireza Shafaie, M.D., PAMF Internal Medicine San Carlos Library, 610 Elm Street, San Carlos Monday, June 27, 7 to 8:30 p.m., 650-591-0341 x237 We will review preventive health recommendations based on age and sex and review the reason for these recommendations.

Understanding Vitamins and Herbs – Harvesting the Evidence!

Presented by Kathy Orrico, PAMF Pharmacy Coordinator 795 El Camino Real, Palo Alto Tuesday, July 12, 7 to 8:30 p.m., 650-853-4873 This talk will review recent updates about the known beneďŹ ts and harms associated with vitamins and herbal supplements commonly available in your neighborhood drug store. We will present tips for selecting reliable products and keeping your healthcare providers in the loop!

– Diabetes Management – Healthy Eating with Type 2 Diabetes – Heart Smart (cholesterol management)

– Living Well with Prediabetes – Sweet Success Program (gestational diabetes)

Weight Management Programs – Bariatric Surgery Orientation – Healthy eating. Active lifestyles. (pediatric programs, ages 2-6) – HMR Weight Management Program

– LifestepsŽ – New Weigh of Life – Take Charge of Your Body

Support Groups – – – – –

AWAKE Bariatric Surgery Breastfeeding Cancer Chronic Fatigue

– – – – –

CPAP Diabetes Drug and Alcohol Kidney Multiple Sclerosis

Let’s connect! facebook.com/paloaltomedicalfoundation twitter.com/paloaltomedical *>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠ7iiÂŽÂ?ÞÊUĂŠ Ă•Â˜iĂŠĂŽ]ÊÓ䣣ÊU Page 13

Editorial

Approve disaster preparedness plan City should move ahead with wide-ranging plan to upgrade the Office of Emergency Services f a city is going to get a failing grade in key area, it should not be disaster preparedness.

But that is exactly what happened in April when a consultant hired to assess the city’s Office of Emergency Services took a close look at how the city would cope if a major disaster occurred. And she found little that measured up to a level that would make residents comfortable that someone at a high level in the city could take charge if something really big happened.

In a wide-ranging report, consultant Arrietta Chakos found the city’s emergency-preparedness staff to be fragmented and disorganized and not ready to coordinate responses with other departments at City Hall.

She said the current Office of Emergency Services “does not have the authority to overcome planning and preparedness deficiencies.�

The report laid out numerous other improvements that need to be made, but the core recommendation was to hire a director for the department, someone who can coordinate the numerous volunteer groups who are the backbone of the city’s emergency-response operation.

Sunnyvale, Santa Cruz and Milpitas are among other cities mentioned in the report that have a full-time emergency services coordinator.

The report’s message hit home with City Manager James Keene, who made it one of the key planks in his 2012 budget, and if approved by the City Council as expected later this month, will fulfill one of the council’s top five priorities for the 2011. Keene has drawn up a $1 million budget for an improved Office of Emergency Services that will pay for a new director and transfer one, possibly two additional personnel from the fire department, who together can organize the army of volunteers who are eager to serve the department if disaster strikes.

In testimony before the Council Finance Committee, which approved Keene’s proposal 3-0, Interim Fire and Police Chief Dennis Burns said he envisioned hiring the new director over the next few months with other staff members for the new office coming on board this fall.

According to Burns, the new director and staff will update the city’s Emergency Operations Plan, train staff for emergencies, start a new Medical Reserve Corps program to enlist local physicians to volunteer their services during emergencies, plan community exercises and look for grant opportunities to enhance the city’s upgraded department.

We are concerned about the ongoing financial impact of the new department, although only about half of the $1 million cost is newly allocated funds while the other $500,000 comes in transfers from the Fire Department budget. But this is a commitment the city needs to make if it is to get its emergency preparedness house in order before a major disaster strikes. One need only consider the multiple disasters occurring in the U.S. and Japan to see the need for the city to move forward on this issue.

Much of the city manager’s proposal follows the recommendations in the report. If passed by the council, it will include funds to hire a new director and transfer one full-time coordinator (effectively a transfer from the fire department), and provide for some administrative help.

It is a commitment of resources that the city’s extensive community of volunteers should welcome, including graduates of the Palo Alto Certified Emergency Response Team (CERT) course, members of the of the Palo Alto Neighborhoods (PAN) group and the Citizens Corps Council, a coalition that includes neighborhood leaders, city staff, businesses and officials from Stanford University and Stanford Hospital.

Annette Glanckopf, a PAN leader and a CCC volunteer, called the proposed improvements “a step in the right direction.� But she also said the city needs to do more, including making Burns the permanent public safety director, rather than the interim title he holds now, and getting the citizens corps council more involved in all emergency response activities. The CCC, she suggests, should be elevated to an official city commission and be involved in every decision concerning emergency response.

Having persons with first-hand knowledge about delivering services to Palo Alto citizens during an emergency in policy-making roles is a worthy idea and should be considered.

An internal review of the city’s response to a February 2010 plane crash that knocked out power to the city for most of the day clearly illustrates the shortcomings of the current Office of Emergency Services.

Material obtained by the Weekly through a Public Records Act request (See story on Page 3) shows how city workers struggled with outdated equipment in the Emergency Operations Center activated soon after the plane crashed into an East Palo Alto substation. The report described poor working conditions, communication deficiencies and a wide range of other problems in the center.

Even with an updated department with a new director, the city will continue to encounter challenges in building an effective emergency preparedness team, but the proposals that come before the council in a few weeks are long overdue. We strongly endorse their adoption.

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Spectrum Editorials, letters and opinions

Stanford hiking trail

Aggressive urbanization

Editor, Several years ago Stanford University was given the right to develop its foothill properties in exchange for public-access amenities such as hiking trails through its property. On May 21 I saw the result: a trail to nowhere, an insult to the community with which it pretends to want good relations, an upraised middle finger to the residents of the Peninsula.

This 1.1-mile hiking trail parallels Page Mill Road. It is never out of site and sound of traffic. It is inaccessible from the central part of the campus. There is no parking at the trail head. There are no bicycle hitches and certainly no “facilities.�

There is no connection to the Arastradero preserve or any other foothill trail. It just ends.

This cannot go unchallenged. The Stanford Hospital expansion is up for final approval by the City Council. Tell Stanford that the approval is on hold until they come back with an access plan providing at least 20 miles of hiking trails north of Page Mill with connections to the local open space preserves. Tell them they must provide hikers with a way to walk from El Camino Real to the coast through Stanford property and connections to existing trails. Then demand a binding contract with severe penalties (e.g., the university’s endowment) for non-performance.

There are a lot clever people at Stanford. Put some fear into the administration and I think they can come back with the above in a matter of days.

David Lieberman Kingsley Avenue Palo Alto

Editor, The recent creation of a hospital zone and approval of the massively oversized Stanford Hospital complex will be the catalyst for aggressive urbanization of the city of Palo Alto.

More than any of the other large developments that have been flying through the approval process in the past years, this will be the bellwether project that will radically change the future density of Palo Alto and the look and feel of our community.

After approving this massive 2 million square-foot hospital complex it will be impossible to stop the call for the 12,000 housing units that ABAG insists on and the developers relish. From an outsider’s viewpoint, why would the city of Palo Alto approve a massive medical complex that is larger than those in dense cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles and then not expect to provide the surrounding growth to support it? Developers are probably already drawing up plans for housing developments to complement the 130-foottall hospital towers. Approval of this project was a foregone conclusion.

Early meetings about this project

National spending Editor, There are three things that our elected officials can do to help the so-called “budget deficit� and help Americans.

1. Support work for common-sense ways to reduce health care costs, like cutting $200 billion by letting Medicare negotiate drug prices. Canada is allowed to negotiate prices, why can’t we Americans?

2. If Congress has billions to spend on overseas wars, then either stop that sort of wasteful spending or put it into jobs here.

3. How about taxing the oil companies? California would be wise to start having Chevron pay property taxes instead of blaming Prop. 13 homeowners, but that’s just exactly how the oil companies get out of paying their fair share of property taxes. Just exactly how does that work? Do the oil executives get to claim corporation property as their “personal homes� for the waiver of property taxes?

Donnasue Jacobi Haight Street Menlo Park

years ago were really presentations of what Stanford was going to build, complete with the breakdown in size for all the departments. There was never any debate about the scale of the project. It was clear that Stanford would get what they were asking for. All of the “close to a hundred� public meetings were mostly about how much Stanford would have to pay for what it wanted. Not one of our appointed or elected representatives was looking out for the future of Palo Alto residents.

This project is awful for the environment of the community. It is poorly placed for usage by the bulk of people who will drive to it. It will use millions of tons of natural resources to build and because of its size, will always use more resources.

It will gridlock nearby streets and add to our population thousands of people that our inadequate infrastructure cannot support. This project hastens the destruction of the Palo Alto that we enjoy today and makes it impossible for this city to make any claims to wanting to be a “sustainable� community.

Tina Peak Palo Alto Avenue Palo Alto

YOUR TURN The Palo Alto Weekly encourages comments on our coverage or on issues of local interest.

What do you think? Do you think a new Office of Emergency Services will make Palo Alto better prepared for the Big One? Submit letters to the editor of up to 250 words to letters@paweekly.com.

Include your name, address and daytime phone number so we can reach you.

We reserve the right to edit contributions for length, objectionable content, libel and factual errors known to us. Anonymous letters will generally not be accepted.

You can also participate in our popular interactive online forum, Town Square, at our community website at www.PaloAltoOnline.com. Read blogs, discuss issues, ask questions or express opinions with you neighbors any time, day or night.

Submitting a letter to the editor or guest opinion constitutes a granting of permission to the Palo Alto Weekly and Embarcadero Media to also publish it online, including in our online archives and as a post on Town Square.

For more information contact Editor Jocelyn Dong or Online Editor Tyler Hanley at editor@paweekly.com or 650-326-8210.

Check out Town Square!

Hundreds of local topics are being discussed by local residents on Town Square, a reader forum sponsored by the Weekly on our community website at www.PaloAltoOnline.com. Post your own comments, ask questions, read the Editor’s blog or just stay up on what people are talking about around town!

Guest Opinions There really are dangers from wireless emissions

By Molly Rose n his recent guest opinion, Leon Beauchman, director of a wireless initiative, assures us that wireless emissions are safe and well below established federal standards. I am not reassured. Even a brief Internet search of scholarly journals raises many questions regarding the health effects of these technologies. In addition, history has shown that federal “standards� and the EPA’s history with regard to health and toxicity confer little protection or safety. (Remember the thalidomide tragedy and DDT.) Early studies on the safety of commercial products are rarely definitive, often biased and paid for by the same commercial interests. We have seen repeatedly that where there are powerful economic forces at work, there is little or no concern for truth or the health and welfare of citizens.

While advocates trivialize citizen concerns regarding wireless technology, calling them the “high tension wires of our time,� others have referred to cell phones, Wi-Fi, and electrosmog as the asbestos and secondhand smoke of 2020. It is natural to wonder that if wireless technology such as smart meters can disturb sensitive electronic devices in homes, what they will they do to sensitive organs and systems in our bodies, especially the brain and nervous system, which are themselves electromagnetic systems.

The fact is people do experience symptoms, sometimes debilitating, in proximity to these devices. Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Syndrome (EHS) does exist, is well documented in Europe, and is estimated to affect 5 percent of the population, though those numbers are sure to rise as the level of electrosmog in the environment increases. Consider the possibility that such people may be today’s “miner’s canaries� and that their suffering may be the future for all of us who live in this “mine.�

I

Humans aren’t the only ones affected. It turns out, all living systems are extremely sensitive to low level electromagnetic fields. Animals avoid cell phone towers and electromagnetic fields, trees die back, and cows, where farmers have been paid to keep cell phone towers, have increased cancers, immune disorders, miscarriages, birth defects, and lower milk production.

Many studies can be found with serious implications for human health. I direct the reader’s attention to Bees, Birds, and Mankind, Destroying Nature by Electrosmog by Dr. Ulrich Warnke, a world renowned bioscientist at Saarland University, specializing in environmental and biomedicine and biophysics. His research shows how and why wireless technologies disrupt the orientation and navigation of birds and bees.

Advocates do not take into account the cumulative effects of 24/7 exposure to the ever increasing levels of electrosmog in our daily environment.

Also, many of the studies referenced are old, conducted when cell phone use was much lower.

Instead we should be asking a lot of questions.

What goes into the manufacture and production of a technology and its products? What are the energy usages, toxicity, waste, and labor practices involved?

What are the possible hazards or dangers posed to the physical, psychological, and social health of human and non human communities, indeed the whole natural world?

Only when we can answer these questions can we decide if it is truly worth having this in our world, and if so, how to make it safer, provide full disclosure to citizens with concerns or special needs, and preserve their right to maintain healthy environments at home, and in public areas. N Molly Rose has worked most recently as an early child educator and as an administrator for a nonprofit. She lives in Palo Alto with her family.

A clear view of the new trail

By Larry Horton he clear view from Santa Clara County’s new Matadero Creek Trail stands in sharp contrast to the fuzzy and critical depiction of the trail and its location presented in the May 20 Weekly editorial.

The new hiking trail section runs from Page Mill Road and Foothill Expressway over to the pedestrian and bike path along Arastradero Road, and offers expansive views of San Francisco Bay, local foothills, and the Santa Cruz Mountains.

One of the first hikers, Monty Gibson, a visiting tennis coach from Texas A&M, described the trail as “absolutely gorgeous.�

The location of the trail route is defined by Santa Clara County in the 1995 Countywide Trails Master Plan Update.

The plan describes several sub-regional trails, including the “S1 Matadero Creek/Page Mill Trail passing through Palo Alto, Los Altos Hills from the Bay Trail to the Bay Area Ridge Trail.� The approximate 1.5-mile section recently opened is part of this larger S1 Trail.

Stanford’s 2000 General Use Permit and a subsequent, 2006 Santa Clara County/ Stanford Agreement for Trails Easements and Construction, defined the parameters for completing this section on Stanford lands.

Trail routes often pass through more than one city and involve multiple landowners and permitting jurisdictions. The countywide trails master plan identifies the challenges this poses: “Developing the trails network is like putting together a jig-saw puzzle ... it must be accomplished one piece at a time as the

T

opportunities arise.�

The editorial raises a question about another trail section that would connect to the Arastradero Preserve and the “jigsaw puzzle� issue applies here as well.

The Matadero Creek Trail connects directly to the C2 Adobe Creek Trail, which runs along Arastradero Road and eventually to the Arastradero Preserve.

An uncompleted section of the C2 trail, which is in the Town of Los Altos Hills, could be built now to connect to the Arastradero Preserve. Stanford has offered more than $1 million to the Town of Los Altos Hills to improve this onemile connecting section. This would allow a hiker to use the new Matadero Creek trail, connecting to the Adobe Creek trail, to arrive at the Arastradero Preserve. The town is conducting further environmental review and gathering additional community input and is expected to make its decision in the upcoming months. Stanford is working with Los Altos Hills to support the town’s decision on this pathway.

Disappointingly, the Weekly ignores the county’s explicit designation of the Matadero Creek Trail route as the trail segment Stanford was required to construct. Other routes were examined, but the trail that just opened is the one the county voted to approve after five years of consideration.

Stanford is very pleased that the Matadero Creek Trail section on its land is open to the public and we believe the trail will become popular with the community. N Larry Horton is Stanford senior associate vice president for public affairs.

Streetwise

What advice do you have for recent college graduates?

Asked on California Avenue, Palo Alto. Interviews and photographs by Kareem Yasin and Aaron Guggenheim.

John Gleed

Retired Loma Verde Avenue, Palo Alto “Take the first job that comes along, work at it and make some money. You might not get your dream job.�

Kimberly Veck

Baker Blue Oak Lane, Los Altos “Use any and all connections that your parents have.�

Rob Daniel

Business Developer Sheridan Avenue, Palo Alto “Follow your passion. Don’t follow the money.�

Chrissy Wallace

Manager California Avenue, Palo Alto “Good luck finding a job. Keep the one you have.�

Debra Love

Retail Ceredo Drive, Redwood City “Persevere and be yourself.�

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Arts & Entertainment A weekly guide to music, theater, art, movies and more, edited by Rebecca Wallace

Out there on the

by Rebecca Wallace

air

Lawrence Gay

’West Coast Live,’ a radio variety show that broadcasts from far and wide, comes to Palo Alto

Clockwise from top: Sedge Thomson interviews author Jane Smiley at a past show; Thomson and actress Dyan Cannon, seen from behind; Thomson gets rhythm with a dancing guest.

W

Thomson, the creator of the weekly variety show “West Coast Live� on KALW 91.7 FM, is bringing his program to Palo Alto this month for two live broadcasts. The program is based in San Francisco, but it sure gets around. Thomson has broadcast from such diverse locations as a Tlingit longhouse in Alaska, the Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

And when Thomson speaks to a Weekly reporter about his upcoming Palo Alto shows, he’s talking via Skype from Rome, where he’s (continued on next page)

Lawrence Gay

Lawrence Gay

hen you’re a reporter interviewing someone who interviews people for a living, the whole thing turns into a sort of dance. You have your questions; he can’t resist his own queries. There’s a lot of laughter and redirecting of the conversation. You wonder why you’re talking so much about yourself.

Fortunately, when your interviewee is the radio host Sedge Thomson, the experience is so entertaining that you probably won’t mind.

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‘West Coast Live’ (continued from previous page)

visiting his son. “If you hear me suddenly drowned out by Italian, don’t take it personally,� he says.

With a background of sirens, car horns and Continental chatter, Thomson talks about how he’s looking forward to bringing his show back to the Peninsula. This despite the fact that he fell off the stage at the Lucie Stern Theatre at the last big Palo Alto show in 2002. “It’s taken me nine years to recover to make it back,� he says, laughing.

Before long, the conversation turns to the Peninsula arts scene, and how this reporter is involved in the arts. The reporter finds herself telling Thomson that she just appeared in a play set in Italy. “That reminds me of a Guido Sarducci joke,� Thomson says, referring to the priest character created by comedian Don Novello.

Novello, Thomson says, was introducing him at a broadcast once and said, “His show goes coast to coast, which in Italy is no big deal.�

Thomson quickly wonders aloud whether he can broadcast his show from Europe. “Can I phone this in from a terrace cafĂŠ?â€?

In the show’s early days, a cafĂŠ broadcast would have been more technologically difficult. Thomson started the program in 1984 as the half-hour “Breakfast Jam,â€? then expanded it to “West Coast Weekendâ€? the next year on KQED. In 1994 he ventured on his own with “West Coast Live,â€? distributing the

show nationally, and later globally online. All along he has focused on interviewing authors and musicians. “When I started doing the show, there were few opportunities for writers and musicians to be on the radio together. Most of the authors who could be on radio did how-to books or exposĂŠs. They weren’t novelists. So I started inviting my friends who were writers,â€? Thomson says. That included the Bay Area writer Anne Lamott, who was one of his first guests and has been on the show several times.

When Thomson expanded to a broader audience, he says: “I wanted to give the wider world a sense of Bay Area voices. So much of public radio comes from the East Coast or from the Midwest. ... I also wanted to focus on the Pacific Rim.�

As a result, “West Coast Live� line-ups have featured some interesting juxtapositions. For instance, the May 14 broadcast from San Francisco’s Ferry Building included jazz singer Wesla Whitfield, authors Armistead Maupin and Bharati Mukherjee, and David Winsberg of Happy Quail Farms in East Palo Alto.

Many guests are also known outside the Bay Area. The long list has included Arlo Guthrie, Lyle Lovett, Amy Tan, Robin Williams, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Allen Ginsberg, Gloria Steinem and Julia Child (who confessed to a love for Pepperidge Farm goldfish).

One of the show’s biggest jumps in technology has been when it

KC Kratt

Arts & Entertainment

Two of the guests scheduled for upcoming live “West Coast Live� broadcasts in Palo Alto: author Amy Stewart, left, and musician Marshall Chapman. started using ISDN lines in 1996, Thomson says. Suddenly the “West Coast Live� team could broadcast anywhere it could get a phone line. “That allowed us to do a show from Camp Curry in Yosemite, and other bucolic places,� he says.

Still, much about the show’s technology looks the same to the audience members who attend the live Saturday-morning broadcasts, Thomson says. There are cables and microphones, audio engineer Mitchell Holman sitting on stage with a mixing board, musicians setting up. A vintage radio and a glowing ON AIR light reflect the enduring attraction that radio has held for Thomson ever since he was a kid listening to variety shows and baseball games on his transistor radio. “Intellectually, while I understand the process, it’s still magic to me. And it’s still magic that at 10 o’clock sharp when we start our show we have access to all these listeners wherever they may be,�

Thomson says. “And our guests have the ability to reach into unknown places. Yet we retain the intimacy as if we were right in someone’s home.�

Later this month, listeners, wherever they may be, will be hearing “West Coast Live� broadcast from Palo Alto’s Oshman Family Jewish Community Center.

On June 11, Thomson is scheduled to interview Amy Stewart, the author of “Wicked Bugs: The

Louse that Conquered Napoleon’s Army and other Diabolical Insects� and “Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities�; and David Shields, whose books include “The Inevitable: Contemporary Writers Confront Death.� Pianist Joshua Raoul Brody will be sitting in for the show’s usual pianist, Mike Greensill.

On June 18, Greensill will be back on stage along with blues/reggae band Current Swell and Nashville singer-songwriter Marshall Chapman. Authors scheduled to be interviewed are: Stanford professor Paul Ehrlich, author of 1968’s “The Population Bomb� and the new “Humanity on a Tightrope�; Pulitzer Prize-winning author Oscar Hijuelos (“The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love�); and shortstory writer Daniel Orozco (“Orientation�). “They seemed to represent a panoply of the interests of Palo Alto: the intellectual, the universityrelated, the gardening,� Thomson says. “It’s always a matter of trying to figure out the balance and a theme that will hold it (a show) together.�

Besides having interesting guests, the show is also known for its level of audience participation. For example, people are asked to fill out cards answering the question “How did you happen to be at the broadcast today?� They can interpret it any way they choose.

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Audience members and guests respond to each others’ energy, and Thomson is kept on his toes by the unpredictable ebbs and flows of interviews. After researching his guests in advance, he tries to get them away from any standard lines they might often give reporters. “Part of my job is to try to move people beyond what I call their interview tapes,� he says.

Thomson’s mission has attracted many volunteers who have worked on the show for years. The number includes Lawrence and Cassie Gay of Palo Alto, who have hosted broadcasts in their living room and kitchen.

Lawrence Gay has been involved with the show for nearly 20 years, he recalls in an interview with the Weekly. As a listener, he says, “I was very impressed with the integrity and the quality of the show ... exposure to arts and literature without any of the pretense.� He started going to broadcasts, then began volunteering.

Over the years, Gay estimates, he’s encountered some 5,000 guests. Many tell him how comfortable they were with Thomson as an interviewer. “They can trust Sedge and be themselves,� he says. “He draws out the real person that’s there.�

Gay documents the broadcasts in photos and video, but he’s also done everything from sweeping the floor to producing. Once, when the show traveled to a remote location near Highway 1, Gay ran a line across the road, then put up a sign that said “Data Crossing: Please Slow Down.�

That line worked, but there have certainly been hitches over the years, such as a chair breaking, or a dog walking across the stage, or someone in the audience falling and fracturing an arm. “All these things have happened, and the show goes on,� Gay says.

Indeed, “West Coast Live� is a bit like live theater; all the world’s a stage, whether the broadcast is from a concert hall or a ferryboat.

On the line from Rome, Thomson ponders the combination of theater and radio, and the concept of bringing both of those things to the wider world. “I think that’s what we get to do. I did so many years of radio in studios,� he says. Then once, years ago, he hosted a television broadcast of an opera in the park, and a different vision of broadcasting opened up to him. “I did the play-by-play in Golden Gate Park, sitting at an outdoor desk with a giant sunhat,� Thomson recalls, a smile in his voice. “And I thought, ‘This is marvelous.’� N What: “West Coast Live� does a live broadcast with author and musician guests.

Where: Oshman Family Jewish Community Center, 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto When: June 11 and June 18, from 10 a.m. until noon (guests are asked to arrive at 9:30) Cost: General-admission tickets are $20 at the door and $15 in advance, and $15/$13 for seniors. Kids under 18 pay $5.

Info: Go to wcl.org or call 415-6649500 for tickets.

Arts & Entertainment

A turbulent flight Theatrical tale of a rescue pilot is weighed down by clumsy metaphors and set design

by Kevin Kirby

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very script is a complex problem-solving exercise for the theater company that chooses to produce it. Finding the right actors, costuming them appropriately, creating a believable physical environment on stage, producing the needed special effects (anything from a ringing doorbell to the sinking of the Titanic), and blending all of these elements into a well-paced, stylistically seamless whole: These are a few of the challenges that directors and designers face on every outing. And often, for small theaters especially, the most daunting piece of the puzzle is how to accomplish all of this with limited resources.

With its current show, Ellen McLaughlin’s “Tongue of a Bird,�

Dragon Productions has solved most but not all of the script’s challenges. The opening-night performance felt like a nearly-there dress rehearsal, with the reasonably talented cast still grappling with the playwright’s language and undercut by a set design that is marginally functional at best.

McLaughlin’s language is complex, her story layered and oblique.

The central character is Maxine, a young search-and-rescue pilot whose never-give-up attitude has led to a 100 percent success rate.

Returning to her childhood home to search for a 12-year-old girl who has vanished into the snowy Adirondacks with her unknown abductor, Maxine finds herself once again living with her Polish-immigrant grandmother, Zofia, who raised Maxine after her mother’s suicide.

To the delight of Zofia, who has made a lifetime habit of throwing away anything that might weigh her down, Maxine seems to have brought all her worldly possessions — apart from her plane — in a duffle bag. But Max has also brought something else that she does not disclose: ghosts. She is visited more and more often by the ghost of her mad mother, who comes wearing the iconic garb of lost flyer Amelia Earhart. And now there is a second

THEATER REVIEW spirit: a young girl — perhaps the missing child whose fate is still unknown, or perhaps the spirit of Max’s younger self.

Actress Kateri Rose has her work cut out for her in the role of Max. On stage almost continuously and often alone, she is burdened from the start with page-long soliloquies, poetical language and metaphors that stick out like metaphorical sore thumbs. Rose does some lovely work throughout the evening — not letting Max’s emotional distress peak too early, and really delivering the goods in her final, heartrending scenes — but she never quite gets a handle on the language. As a result, the words sound more like McLaughlin’s than Max’s, and the metaphors feel artificial.

(When Max explains that police roadblocks forced the kidnapper up into the mountains where he couldn’t get out, we are supposed to recall her earlier observation about a fly buzzing higher up a windowpane when it cannot escape. The problem is, our awareness that we are supposed to make this connection takes us away from the scene.)

The actor who does the best job with McLaughlin’s writerly prose is Sandy Pardini Cashmark as Zofia.

She finds the perfect “throw away� delivery for even the most blatantly crafted lines (which is fitting, as Zofia counsels her granddaughter that we should be able to throw even our most precious possessions into the sea). That talent, combined with an unwavering Eastern European accent and a world-weariness befitting a woman who survived World War II, make Zofia a thoroughly believable character.

The other standout performance comes from Heidi Kobara as Dessa, the missing child’s mother. At turns frantic, resolute, wrung out and stoic, she has an energy that zaps the play to life and an emotional jeopardy that strings us along. When the subject of Max’s

mother’s suicide arises during one of Max and Dessa’s many talks, Kobara’s matter-of-fact delivery of “I’ve been thinking about pills� is simply chilling. A later scene in which Max allows Dessa to join her on a nighttime fly-over is effective in cementing the characters’ relationship, even if the pair don’t quite reach the right note of giddy exhaustion when the conversation turns momentarily funny.

Rounding out the cast are Leah Kolchinsky (subtly unsettling as the “ghost� child) and Kerry Michelle Smith as Max’s mother. Smith’s early scenes — all flighty madness and sugary-toned nonsense — add little to the production. By the second act, though, she has stopped playing madness and begun to play a specific character, and her final scene with Max is genuinely touching.

Sadly, that last scene — the moment of emotional reconciliation toward which the entire play has built — is nearly ruined by a setdesign failure that also mars several earlier scenes. More on that in a moment.

One of the greatest problem-solving challenges in bringing “Tongue of a Bird� to the Dragon stage fell to set designer John S. Boles. The action alternates rapidly among the cockpit of Max’s plane, her bedroom in Zofia’s house, the airplane hangar and Zofia’s living room.

To avoid lengthy scene changes, Boles’ design leaves elements of each location on stage at all times.

The idea is right, but the execution

is awful. The cockpit (simple but believable), Zofia’s ratty overchair and a combination refrigerator/ vending machine are crowded together in an aesthetically displeasing jumble, surrounded by off-blue drapes that are presumably meant to suggest the sky but actually suggest drowning. For some scenes, the cockpit rotates out of sight, revealing Max’s bed in its place. One is tempted to call the raised turntable “small,� but it takes up nearly half of the tiny Dragon stage.

To complicate matters further, the script calls for ghosts — ethereal, flickery, out-of-nowhere ghosts — to appear in both the bedroom and the cockpit. These magical comings and goings take place behind a scrim: a sheer fabric that is opaque when lit from the front but translucent when lit from behind.

One moment, there is a blank wall behind Max; the next moment, with a simple lighting shift, there is a ghost hovering above her.

The effect would work well except that someone — either McLaughin or director Lessa Bouchard — has decided that the ghosts should occasionally become substantial, step forward out of their ghostly light, and sit down alongside Max. To accommodate this, the ghost actors must take hold of the edge of the scrim, unfasten the velcro that holds it taut in its frame (“Skrrrrrrrrik!�), shove it aside and step through. (At the end of one scene, poor Kolchinsky is even required to step back over the sagging scrim and reattach the velcro behind her before she

can “mysteriously� vanish.) This, for the record, is the special effect that nearly ruins the final encounter between Max and her mother.

Despite a few examples of unsatisfactory problem-solving, “Tongue of a Bird� is an interesting and moving piece of theater. One assumes that the actors will become more comfortable with the text as the run goes on, and that McLaughlin’s poetry will sound more natural. No amount of repetition, however, will make the velcro scrim anything less than monumentally distracting.

Audiences should ignore it as best they can and pray that Bouchard and Boles will find a different solution before the show closes. N What: “Tongue of a Bird,� a play presented by Dragon Productions Where: Dragon Theatre, 535 Alma St., Palo Alto When: Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., through June 19 Cost: $25 general admission, $18 for students and seniors Info: Go to dragonproductions.net; for box-office help at any time, call 800-838-3006.

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The jambalaya at Nola.

Timid spicing mars effort Nola in Palo Alto is authentically New Orleans in every respect but food flavor

by Dale F. Bentson

I

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t didn’t taste like chicken. It didn’t taste like fish, or pork, or beef either. It was chewy with a slight aggressiveness to it, somewhere between mild and gamy. I’ve eaten alligator in New Orleans and had the same reaction. Gator is its own entity in the pantheon of meat flavors.

On this recent visit to Nola, I was eating gator that had been made into sausage, then infused into dumplings ($8) along with crawfish and shrimp. The dense but snappy shiitake mushroom-ginger sauce overwhelmed both shellfish and dumpling, though.

A lighter sauce would have better showcased both seafood and reptile.

Nola, just in case you haven’t solved the cypher, is an acronym for New Orleans, La. The Palo Alto restaurant occupies a notable Pedro de Lemos Spanish Colonial Revival building on the historic Ramona Street corridor. Nola has a lovely recessed arched entrance, interior open-air courtyard, hand-painted ceramic tiles, fireplaces and wrought-iron railings and grills.

Nola features two stories with nine intimate dining areas, and boasts a large collection of Southern folk art. It’s a fun space with all sorts of interesting nooks and crannies. Best of all, the bar is in a self-contained room, and while there is sports playing on TV screens around the restaurant, no TVs are obtrusive.

Opened in 1996 by Greg St. Claire, Nola is part of his Avenir Restaurant Group. St. Claire sponsors a range of charitable events through Nola and has been particularly generous to the Ronald McDonald House in Palo Alto.

On one visit to Nola, I started with the chicken andouille gumbo ($5 cup, $8 bowl). It was a hefty affair.

The gumbo was poured over a heap of white rice, tableside. The concoction of sausage, chicken and okra didn’t have enough spiciness to register much on the flav-o-meter, though. Like many dishes I ate at Nola, it was tame.

The four black & blue ahi tacos ($11), though, were excellent. The wasabi-avocado cream sauce added serious punch to the two-bite tacos. The tuna was first-rate, barely seared and laid over jicama slaw, with pickled ginger and serrano chili rings. It was one of the more successful plates at Nola.

However, the crispy Cajun calamari ($9) wasn’t crispy at all. It suffered the same fate as all the fried foods: a too-salty batter that was elastic, not crunchy, to the bite. The addition of blue lake beans, okra and artichoke hearts helped. Both the red creole remoulade and the Meyer lemon aioli sauces were tasty.

The “make no bones about it� fried chicken ($17) featured two large pieces of buttermilk-dipped, boneless, free-range chicken. The limp skin made me wonder if the chicken had been fried at all; it had the texture of oven-baked. The country gravy and mashed scallion potatoes would have been even better had the chicken been crusty. The collard greens were almost gray in color, overcooked, sweet and unappealing.

Like the gumbo, the “spicy� jambalaya ($18) lacked intensity. The waiter asked if I wanted it extra spicy.

I did, but there was not a hint of fieriness to the stew.

I was disappointed because the menu made the point of “spicy jambalaya� and reiterated with “finished with a spicy sauce.�

There is a difference between heat and spice. The bottled hot sauces on the table did not equate with cooking with spices — food is masked rather than imbued.

The pulled-pork barbecue sandwich ($12) with smoky house-made barbecue sauce was served on a soft roll. The sandwich had too much pickled red onion, which overshadowed just about everything.

The pork was tender but the barbecue sauce failed to distinguish itself. Fried jalapeno rings added a dash of piquancy.

The Big Easy fried shrimp po-boy ($12) featured “flash fried� shrimp, again not very crispy, with tomato, bell peppers, the same smoky house barbecue sauce and a Cajun version of remoulade sauce with choice of fries, slaw or greens. Frankly, I thought the best part of this oversized sandwich was the soft roll that housed it. Had the shrimp been crisp it could have changed the world.

And then there was the jambalaya ($18). The Nola version of jambalaya was made with roasted tomatoes, garlic, the holy trinity (onions, bell peppers and celery), andouille sausage, tasso ham (a Cajun peppery ham) chicken and shrimp — and, gasp, salmon.

Jambalaya can’t be almost anything, not traditional New Orleans jambalaya. I’ve never seen salmon in jambalaya. Yes, of course you can, but you shouldn’t.

Here, the salmon was off-putting: wrong color, wrong texture, wrong flavor. The best part of this jambalaya was the sausage.

Desserts continued in “the almost, but not quite� vein. Bread pudding ($7) was a spongy brick of oozing butter and sugar. It was perfectly Southern in that way. The maple-brandy sauce and creme anglaise only added calories.

The Southern pecan pie ($7) was just sweet enough, with nutty, chewy, delicious flavors. Alas, there was almost no crust and the dish was more pecan crumble than pecan pie. What crust there was was mushy.

The New Orleans-style beignets ($7) would never

be described as dainty little things.

They were five rectangular donuts, about an inch thick, dusted with cinnamon-sugar and served with three dipping sauces. Of the sauces, only the chocolate-caramel fudge didn’t make my teeth shiver. One can only imagine sugary gut-bomb donuts dipped in syrupy maple-brandy or the saccharine raspberry sauce settling atop Nola’s signature 24-ounce hurricane cocktail ($8.75).

Nola features a lengthy menu of cocktails, martinis and specialty drinks. That 24-ounce hurricane is also available in a fishbowl-sized 60-ounce ($20) that has four rums, pineapple, brown sugar and a special “bug juice� mix that would leave one thinking “Mardi Gras,� if one could think at all after drinking it.

The less-successful wine list is one of those something-for-everyone menus that has reasonable prices but little depth.

Nola is a pretty place, but like so many area theme restaurants, it serves dumbed-down food. The menu reads well and the food looks good, but there are no guts to the dishes, nothing that makes the experience authentic. The food can best be summed up as: no guts, no glory. N

ShopTalk MEAL MARKETPLACE ... Busy Silicon Valley professionals often turn to fast food and takeout. Ooshma Garg, founder of Gobble.com, was also in the same boat and missed home-cooked meals. “Basically, I was hungry,� Garg said. Fed up with eating takeout, she decided to do something about it — Gobble was the answer.

The word conjures memories of a warm, traditional meal at Thanksgiving, she said, and this is the spirit behind Gobble: “a marketplace for fresh meals from neighborhood chefs,� according to the website. For $8 to $20, diners can have what’s billed as “homemade, elegant, high-quality food� for lunch and dinner cooked by chefs in the Bay Area.

Garg, a 23-year-old Stanford graduate, studied biomedical engineering but fell in love with Internet companies in college, she said. Garg got the idea for Gobble last August and posted ads for chef interviews on Craigslist: The interview was cooking a meal for two. Garg scheduled chef interviews at the times she needed to eat, and invited friends.

The business got its start as Garg

Nola 535 Ramona St., Palo Alto 650-328-2722 www.nolas.com Lunch: Weekdays 11:30 a.m.2:30 p.m. Dinner: Mon.-Thurs.

5:30-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 5:30-11 p.m.; Sun. 5:30-9:30 p.m.

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City Lots Full Bar

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matched up the chefs with her friends’ companies.

Now there are 30 chefs, who draw influences from various cuisines in their cooking, Garg said. Meals include Chef Ingrid Rohrer Downer’s Californiainfluenced chicken and black bean pie ($12) and Chef Alisa Chotibhongs’ Thai noodle dish, pad see ew ($16). Chefs deliver the food as one would receive it from a friend: in Ziploc containers, for example. Clients can pick up meals at three locations: in Palo Alto, Mountain View and San Francisco. Delivery to one’s doorstep is also available for a flat rate of $10. For details, go to Gobble.com. N

— Joann So FOCUS ON HUMMUS ... Scheduled to open in the second half of June, Oren’s Hummus Shop at 261 University Ave. is characterized by its owner as a casual, sit-down eatery whose menu centers on a key ingredient of Middle Eastern cuisine: hummus. The restaurant will occupy the space that was occupied by the Zao Noodle House, with a casual environment and emphasis on the Middle Eastern dip, owner Oren Dobronsky said. “Hummus is one of my secret passions,� said Dobronsky, an Internet entrepreneur who immigrated from Israel 11 years ago.

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Eaten at the restaurant or bought in containers from a takeout station, the shop’s hummus, tahini and labneh (or strained yogurt) are made from organic ingredients, he said. “Our hummus is made fresh and we import many of our ingredients from Israel, like the chickpeas and tahini.� The hummus can be topped with mushrooms, fava beans or even meat. Dobronsky says it’s best enjoyed scooped with fresh pita —

which he plans to bake — rather than with a knife and fork. Side dishes on offer will include salads such as tabouleh, and Israeli pickles. N

— Kareem Yasin Heard a rumor about your favorite store or business moving out, or in, down the block or across town?

Shop Talk will check it out. Email shoptalk@paweekly.com.

CITY OF PALO ALTO NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARINGS ON URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT PLAN AND URBAN WATER USE TARGETS

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Palo Alto City Council will hold a public hearing at the special scheduled meeting on Monday, June 13, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. or as near thereafter as possible, in the Council Chambers, 250 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto for the following purposes: 1. To consider the City of Palo Alto (City) adoption of the draft 2010 Urban Water Management Plan (Draft 2010 Plan) in compliance with the California Urban Water Management Planning Act; and 2. To allow community input regarding the City’s implementation plan for compliance with the California Water Conservation Act of 2009 (SBx7-7), consider the economic impacts of its implementation, and adopt a method for determining the City’s urban water use target as required under SBx7-7.

The California Urban Water Management Planning Act requires the City to review and update its Urban Water Management Plan every ďŹ ve years. The City’s Draft 2010 Plan includes an evaluation of methods to comply with the requirements of SBx7-7. The Draft 2010 Plan is available for public review and comment through the end of the public hearing described above. The Draft 2010 Plan is available online for public review at www. cityofpaloalto.org/uwmp, in print at the City libraries, and in the Council Chambers of City Hall.

DONNA J. GRIDER, MMC City Clerk

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Janta Indian Restaurant 462-5903 369 Lytton Ave., Downtown Palo Alto Lunch Buffet M-F; Organic Veggies

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Spalti Ristorante 327-9390 417 California Ave, Palo Alto Ă?ÂľĂ•ÂˆĂƒÂˆĂŒiĂŠ œœ`ĂŠUĂŠ"Ă•ĂŒ`ÂœÂœĂ€ĂŠ ˆ˜ˆ˜} www.spalti.com

Chef Chu’s (650) 948-2696 1067 N. San Antonio Road on the corner of El Camino, Los Altos 2010 Best Chinese MV Voice & PA Weekly

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Ming’s 856-7700 1700 Embarcadero East, Palo Alto www.mings.com

New Tung Kee Noodle House 520 Showers Dr., MV in San Antonio Ctr. Voted MV Voice Best ‘01, ‘02, ‘03 & ‘04 Prices start at $4.75 947-8888

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Enjoy the freshest pasta, salads, seafood, veal, chicken and lamb attractively presented with the experience of dining in Italy.

THAI

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Thaiphoon Restaurant 323-7700 543 Emerson St., Palo Alto Full Bar, Outdoor Seating www.thaiphoonrestaurant.com Best Thai Restaurant in Palo Alto 5 Years in a Row, 2006-2010

www.Spalti.com

MEXICAN

Authentic Szechwan, Hunan Food To Go, Delivery

Scott’s Seafood 323-1555 #1 Town & Country Village, Palo Alto Open 7 days a week serving breakfast, lunch and dinner Happy Hour 7 days a week 4-7 pm Full Bar, Banquets, Outdoor Seating www.scottsseafoodpa.com

Spalti Ristorante serves delicious, authentic Northern Italian cuisine, in a casually elegant, comfortable and spacious setting.

Palo Alto Sol 328-8840 408 California Ave, Palo Alto Ă•}iʓiÂ˜Ă•ĂŠUĂŠ œ“iĂƒĂŒĂžÂ?iĂŠ,iVÂˆÂŤiĂƒ Oaxacan Kitchen Mobile 321-8003 2010 Best Mexican We have hit the Road!

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Siam Orchid 325-1994 496 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto Organic Thai Free Delivery to Palo Alto/Stanford/Menlo Park Order online at www.siamorchidpa.com

STEAKHOUSE Sundance the Steakhouse 321-6798 1921 El Camino Real, Palo Alto Lunch: Mon-Fri 11:30 am-2:00pm Dinner: Mon-Thu 5:00-10:00pm Fri-Sat 5:00-10:30pm, Sun 5:00-9:00pm www.sundancethesteakhouse.com

Search a complete listing of local restaurant reviews by location or type of food on PaloAltoOnline.com

Movies OPENINGS

X-Men: First Class ---1/2

(Century 16, Century 20) Those anticipating “Harry Potter� withdrawal can take heart: “X-Men: First Class� is every bit as good as any of the “Harry Potter� films.

Matthew Vaughn’s franchise prequel turns out to be a superb, stylish piece of modern mythology.

In 2000, director Bryan Singer delivered the comic-book-based “X-Men,� a mutant superhero action-adventure that also served as cleverly subversive sociopolitical allegory. Broadly dealing with the universal adolescent desire to “fit in� (while reflecting the angst of closeted youth), “X-Men� also posed the philosophical difference between peace-seeking Professor X and “by any means necessary�

Magneto as mutant-civil-rights counterparts to MLK and X. All of those themes get full play in the Singer-produced “X-Men: First Class,� with the added frisson of making text out of what once was sociopolitical subtext.

The climactic crisis to which “First Class� builds is the Cuban Missile Crisis, which turns out to have a hidden history involving one set of mutants plotting mass destruction and another planning to prevent it. Before we get there, the film deals with Nazi war crimes and secret CIA research into the paranormal. As for the superhero history, fear not: The film starts pretty much from day one, rewarding geeky foreknowledge but not requiring it.

Concentration camp survivor Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) will not rest until he hunts down the Nazi scientist — Kevin Bacon’s Sebastian Shaw — responsible for his greatest trauma.

Meanwhile, child of privilege Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) becomes an expert in genetic mutation. Both gifted with powers demonstrating the evolution of the human genome, Erik and Charles will one day be supervillain Magneto and superhero Professor X. But first they will meet, bond and be tragically torn apart by their unmovable cross purposes.

In a large-scale action sequence, Charles saves Erik from disaster, and they form a tentative alliance to pursue the shadowy Shaw, who has been manipulating events on the world stage. The loose-cannon Erik doesn’t play well with his CIA handlers (Rose Byrne and Oliver Platt), but he comes to an understanding with Charles.

Charles’ childhood friend Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) is already on board. So is young scientist Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult) — aka Beast — who gives the telepathic Charles the technological boost he needs to find more mutant recruits: Alex “Havok� Summers (Lucas Till), Sean “Banshee�

Cassidy (Caleb Landry Jones), Armando “Darwin� Munoz (Edi Gathegi), and “Angel� Salvadore (Zoe Kravitz).

This “first class� of X-Men gets a first-class origin story, as directed by Vaughn and scripted by a bevy of writers including Vaughn and his regular co-writer Jane Goldman. Above all, this is a story of self-actualization through selfdiscipline and self-understanding, a message that will particularly resonate with young viewers finding their own paths. But it’s also about choosing a relationship, collaborative or adversarial, to the political and typically oppressive forces that rule our world. With carefully wrought emotional contexts, the characters are moved to action in moving ways.

Okay, okay, and it’s fun, too.

This is the witty, winking ‘60s chic version of superhero adventure, with enough globetrotting, swingin’ nightclubs and Ken Adam-style lairs for a Sean Connery Bond marathon. More power(s) to them: Here’s hoping this reborn franchise makes a mint.

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, some sexual content including brief partial nudity and language.

Two hours, 12 minutes. — Peter Canavese

The First Grader --1/2

(Palo Alto Square) I can’t quite decide if “The First Grader� is overwritten and overdirected or underwritten and underdirected, but something is ... off. And that’s a shame, since this inspirational drama is based on a true story with a necessary message.

Written by Ann Peacock and directed by British filmmaker Justin Chadwick (“The Other Boleyn Girl�), “The First Grader� tells the tale of 84-year-old Kenyan Kimani Maruge (Oliver Litondo). In the 1950s, Maruge was a key Mau Mau resister to British colonial rule, but in 2004, he’s a wannabe first grader, better late than never. As the story makes clear, both pursuits qualify him as a hero in the way he meets adversity with moral strength and endurance.

Clutching a newspaper headline announcing the Kenyan resolution to provide “free elementary school education for all,� Maruge shows up at his local school. He’s summarily dismissed. The classrooms are overcrowded as it is, and what if everyone came asking? But Maruge is determined to learn to read. Told that only students with school uniforms can attend, Maruge pulls together his own schoolboy outfit.

This sight is more than young teacher Jane Obinchu (Naomie Harris) can resist: She takes Maruge into her class. But there

NOW PLAYING The Double Hour --1/2

The following is a sampling of movies recently reviewed in the Weekly:

is hell to pay from administrators and politicians, who feel the heat from angry citizens worried about resources being taken from their children. Teacher Jane’s husband tells her, “Stick to the battles you can win,� and a bureaucrat reminds her, “The children are Kenya’s future.� But there will be no taking “no� for an answer for the young woman or the old man, and they will protect each other to the end.

The film never answers the fair question of limited resources or explores any real consequences of that issue; rather, Peacock focuses on building up Maruge as a loveable special case. A survivor of imprisonment and torture, the forgotten hero deserves this small grace. The filmmakers put Maruge’s past traumas alongside his present challenges: The sharpening of a pencil is the occasion for a flashback to torture.

Obviously, everyone deserves the right to an education. The strength of “The First Grader� is in its unequivocal celebration of learning, and its reminder not to take what is unfortunately a privilege for granted (also, Chadwick shoots in Kenya, with a mostly Kenyan cast, for a crucial dosage of authenticity).

The weakness of the film is in its blandness of character and obviousness of storytelling. It’s all kept storybook-simple, though even kids will wonder: “Why won’t they just let the nice man learn? And why won’t they just leave his nice teacher alone?�

(Aquarius) The new Italian suspense picture “The Double Hour� is a slippery piece about slippery characters with slippery identities and slippery states of mind. In Turin, Italy, hotel chambermaid Sonia (Ksenia Rappoport) must deal with the suicide of a stranger. There, she meets ex-cop Guido (Filippo Timi) a man contending with his own ghosts of relationships past. Before long, hot and heavy appears to turn serious, but then the unexpected happens.

And keeps happening. Not MPAA rated.

One hour, 35 minutes. — P.C. (Reviewed May 27, 2011)

(continued on next page)

Fri and Sat 6/3-6/4 The First Grader 2:15, 4:45, 7:15, 9:50 Everything Must Go 2:00, 7:20 The Conspirator 4:30, 9:45 Sunday thru Thursday 6/5-69 The First Grader 2:15, 4:45, 7:15 Everything Must Go 2:00, 7:20 The Conspirator 4:30

BWQYSba O\R AV]ebW[Sa OdOWZOPZS Ob QW\S[O`Y Q][

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Other classes at more advanced levels are also offered.

A full brochure is available at Gryphon.

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“MARVELOUSLY ROMANTIC. A CREDIBLE BLEND OF WHIMSY AND WISDOM.�

-A.O. Scott, THE NEW YORK TIMES

“A JOYOUS DELIGHT! IN THIS BEGUILING AND THEN BEDAZZLING NEW COMEDY, NOSTALGIA ISN’T AT ALL WHAT IT USED TO BE— IT’S SMARTER, SWEETER, FIZZIER AND EVER SO MUCH FUNNIER.�

-Joe Morgenstern, WALL STREET JOURNAL

“EXHILARATING! BRIMS OVER WITH BRACING HUMOR AND RAVISHING ROMANCE – INFUSED WITH SEDUCTIVE SECRETS. OWEN WILSON IS PITCH PERFECT. MARION COTILLARD IS SUPERB.�

-Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE

Rated PG-13 for some disturbing violent content and brief nudity. One hour, 43 minutes.

“ROMANCE, FANTASY, LAUGHS, AND A WHOLE LOT OF STARS!�

-David Germain, ASSOCIATED PRESS

— Peter Canavese

OPENING NIGHT Cannes Film Festival

SCAN THIS FOR MORE INFORMATION

Midnight in Paris Written and and Directed Directed by

by Woody Woody Allen Allen Written

Kathy Bates Adrien Brody Carla Bruni Marion Cotillard Rachel McAdams Michael Sheen Owen Wilson

WWW.SONYCLASSICS.COM

NOW PLAYING! VIEW THE TRAILER AT WWW.MIDNIGHTINPARISFILM.COM

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Movies (continued from previous page)

) . / 0 1

The Hangover Part II -(Century 16, Century 20) Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis reprise their “The Hangover� roles for this comical romp through the streets of Bangkok. And while the leads serve up terrific performances and plenty of humor, “Hangover Part II� is so similar to its predecessor — right down to the “hurry up and get to the wedding� climax — that the story feels stale after about the first 30 minutes. Rated R for language, sexual content including graphic nudity, drug use and violent images. 1 hour, 42 minutes. — T.H. (Reviewed May 27, 2011)

Midnight in Paris ---1/2 (Guild) Owen Wilson plays Gil Pender, an American in Paris beguiled by the notion that “every street, every boulevard is its own special art form.� Gil is a successful screenwriter who grinds out movie scripts but longs to write literature. Then with a magical stroke reminiscent of “The Purple Rose of Cairo,� the admirer of 1920s Paris becomes immersed in his favorite period.

Gil interacts with expatriate icons of the Lost Generation and the artists who contributed to the legendary time and place.

Rated PG-13 for sexual references and smoking. 1 hour, 34 minutes. — S.T. (Reviewed May 27, 2011)

MOVIE TIMES

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42nd Street (1933)

Stanford Theatre: Fri. at 7:30 p.m.

A Star is Born (1954)

Stanford Theatre: Sat.-Mon. at 7:30 p.m.; Sat. & Sun. also at 2 p.m.

Babes in Arms (1939)

Stanford Theatre: Fri. at 5:45 & 9:10 p.m.

The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)

Stanford Theatre: Wed. & Thu. at 7:30 p.m.

Bridesmaids (R) (((1/2 Century 16: Fri., Sat. & Mon.-Thu. at 12:50, 3:40, 7 & 10:05 p.m.; Fri. & Sat. also at 10 a.m. Century 20: 11 a.m.; 12:35, 1:55, 3:35, 4:55, 6:30, 7:50, 9:25 & 10:45 p.m.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (G)

Century 16: In 3D Fri., Sat. & Mon.-Thu. at 11 a.m.; 1:40, 4:05, 6:50 & 9:30 p.m. Century 20: In 3D at 12:05, 2:20, 4:35, 7 & 9:15 p.m.

The Conspirator (PG-13)

Palo Alto Square: 4:30 p.m.; Fri. & Sat. also at 9:45 p.m.

The Double Hour (Not Rated) ((1/2

Aquarius Theatre: 2, 4:30, 7 & 9:30 p.m.

Everything Must Go (R)

Palo Alto Square: 2 & 7:20 p.m.

Fast Five (PG-13)

Century 16: Fri., Sat. & Mon.-Thu. at 7:30 & 10:25 p.m.

Century 20: 10:40 a.m.; 1:45, 4:40, 7:40 & 10:35 p.m.

The First Grader (PG-13) ((1/2

Palo Alto Square: 2:15, 4:45 & 7:15 p.m.; Fri. & Sat. also at 9:50 p.m.

The Hangover Part II (R) ((

Century 16: Fri., Sat. & Mon.-Thu. at 11:30 a.m.; noon, 12:30, :30, 2, 2:30, 3, 4, 4:30, 5:10, 6:10, 7, 7:30, 8, 9, 9:50 & 10:10 1 p.m.; Fri. & Sat. also at 10 & 10:50 a.m. & 10:40 p.m.; Mon.-Thu. also at 11 a.m.

Century 20: 10:50 & 11:35 a.m.; 12:10, 12:45, 1:30, 2:10, 2:45, 3:30, 4:05, 4:40, 5:20, 6, 6:40, 7:20, 8, 8:40, 9:25, 10:10 & 10:40 p.m.; Fri. & Sat. also at 10:50 p.m.

Incendies (R)

Aquarius Theatre: 2:30, 5:30 & 8:30 p.m.

International House (1933) Stanford Theatre: Wed. & Thu. at 6:10 & 9:10 p.m.

Kung Fu Panda 2 (PG) ((1/2

Century 16: Fri., Sat. & Mon.-Thu. at 11:20 a.m.; 12:20, 3:10, 4:20, 5:40, 8:15 & 10:05 p.m.; Fri. & Sat. also at 10 a.m.; In 3D Fri., Sat. & Mon.-Thu. at 1:50, 3:50, 6:30, 7:15 & 9 p.m.; In 3D Fri. & Sat. also at 10:50 a.m. & 1:10 p.m.; In 3D Mon.-Thu. also at 11 a. Century 20: 10:30 & 11:50 a.m.; 12:55, 3:20, 4:50, 5:40, 8:05, 9:40 & 10:25 p.m.; In 3D at 11 a.m.; 1:25, 2:15, 3:50, 6:10, 7:10 & 8:30 p.m.; In 3D Sun.-Thu. also at 10:50 p.m.

LA Phil Live: Dudamel Conducts Brahms

Century 16: Sun. at 2 p.m. Century 20: Sun. at 2 p.m.

Midnight in Paris (PG-13) (((1/2

Guild Theatre: 2, 4:30, 7:15 & 9:55 p.m.; Sat. & Sun. also at 11:30 a.m.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Century 16: Fri. & Sat. at 12:10, 3:50, 7:30 & 10:35 p.m.; Mon.On Stranger Tides Thu. at 12:10, 3:50, 7:05 & 10:10 p.m.; In 3D Fri., Sat. & Mon.(PG-13) ((1/2 Thu. at 1:10, 4:40 & 8:05 p.m.; In 3D Fri. & Sat. also at 10 a.m.

Century 20: 10:45 & 11:40 a.m.; 2, 3, 5:10, 6:20, 8:35 & 9:35 p.m.; In 3D at 12:50, 4:10, 7:30 & 10:35 p.m.

Rio (PG) ((

Century 16: Fri., Sat. & Mon.-Thu. at 11:10 a.m. & 4:35 p.m.; In 3D Fri., Sat. & Mon.-Thu. at 1:45 p.m. Century 20: 11:25 a.m.; 4:20 & 9:30 p.m.; In 3D at 1:50 & 6:55 p.m.

The Rocky Horror Picture Guild Theatre: Sat. at midnight.

Super 8

Century 16: Thu. at 12:01 a.m. Century 20: Thu. at 12:01 a.m.

Thor (PG-13) (((

Century 16: Fri., Sat. & Mon.-Thu. at 4:10 & 9:50 p.m.; Fri. & Sat. also at 10:20 a.m.; In 3D Fri., Sat. & Mon.-Thu. at 1:20 & 7:10 p.m. Century 20: 10:40 p.m.; Fri., Sat. & Mon.-Thu. also at 11:30 a.m. & 5:10 p.m.; In 3D at 7:55 p.m.; In 3D Fri., Sat. & Mon.-Thu. also at 2:30 p.m.

X-Men: First Class (PG-13) (((1/2

Century 16: Fri. & Sat. at 10, 10:40 & 11:40 a.m.; 1, 1:50, 2:50, 4, 4:50, 6:10, 7:20, 8, 9:40, 10:30 & 11 p.m.; Sun. at 10 a.m.; 1, 4, 7:20 & 10:20 p.m.; Mon.-Thu. at Sat 11 & 11:40 a.m.; 1, 2, 2:50, 4, 5, 6:10, 7:20, 8, 9:40 & 10:20 p.m. Century 20: 10:25, 11:10 & 11:55 a.m.; 12:40, 1:25, 2:10, 2:55, 3:40, 4:25, 5:15, 6, 6:50, 7:35, 8:25, 9:10, 10 & 10:45 p.m.

( Skip it (( Some redeeming qualities ((( A good bet (((( Outstanding Aquarius: 430 Emerson St., Palo Alto (266-9260)

Providing innovative financial solutions and service.

Century Cinema 16: 1500 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View (800-326-3264) Century 20 Downtown: 825 Middlefield Road, Redwood City (800-326-3264) CinĂŠArts at Palo Alto Square: 3000 El Camino Real, Palo Alto (493-3456) Guild: 949 El Camino Real, Menlo Park (266-9260) Stanford: 221 University Ave., Palo Alto (324-3700) Internet address: For show times, plot synopses, trailers and more information about films playing, go to Palo Alto Online at http://www.PaloAltoOnline.com/

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Title Pages A monthly section on local books and authors, edited

Book Talk LOCAL AUTHORS ... Pearl Karrer of Palo Alto and Lynore Banchoff of Menlo Park are among the contributors to the anthology “Child of My Child,� featuring literary poetry and prose about grandparenting.

The book was named a finalist in the 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. “Drop by Drop,� a new thriller by Palo Alto writer Keith Raffel is available as an ebook from Amazon or Smashwords. Raffel, author of “Smasher� and “Dot Dead,� has been a judge in the Palo Alto Weekly’s annual Short Story Contest.

AUTHOR TALKS ... Upcoming Kepler’s author events, at 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, include Melissa Marr, “Graveminder�

(June 3, 7 p.m.); Patrick Schwerdtfeger, “Marketing Shortcuts for the Self-Employed: Leverage Resources, Establish Online Credibility and Crush Your Competition� (June 6, 5:30 p.m.); Michael David Lukas, “The Oracle of Stamboul,� and Ann Packer, “Swim Back to Me,� presented by Zonta Club of Silicon Valley (June 7, 6:30 p.m.); Patricia Albers, “Joan Mitchell: Lady Painter, A Life� (June 9, 7 p.m.); Ron Hansen, “A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion� (June 13, 7 p.m.); Lauren Kate, “Passion� (June 14, 7 p.m.); Ann Patchett, “State of Wonder�

(June 15, 7 p.m.); Daniel Orozco, “Orientation and Other Stories�

(June 21, 7 p.m.); Alice LaPlante, “Turn of Mind� (July 6, 7 p.m.) and Ellen Sussman, “French Lessons: A Novel� (July 12, 7 p.m.). Information: www.keplers.com.

MORE TALKS ... Upcoming authors at Books Inc. at Town & Country Village in Palo Alto include Matt Richtel, “The Devil’s Plaything� (June 21, 7 p.m.) and Meg Waite Clayton, “The Language of Light� (June 28, 7 p.m.). Information: www.booksinc.net. N

Items for Book Talk may be sent to Associate Editor Carol Blitzer, Palo Alto Weekly, P.O Box 1610, Palo Alto, CA 93202 or emailed to cblitzer@paweekly.com by the last Friday of the month.

by Chris Kenrick

4VNNFSUJNF TVNNFSUJNF MPUT PG books with humor and heart SFBEJOH UJNF New delight the young reader in everyone

In “LaRue Across America,� a clever pup has a roadtrip adventure.

by Debbie Duncan ummer’s on the way, and with it the down time for families to enjoy reading together. Looking for suggestions?

Visit a bookstore or library, or look online. These recently published books are a terrific place to start. “LaRue Across America: Postcards from the Vacation� by Mark Teague; Blue Sky/Scholastic; $17; ages 3-8.

Pity poor post-card scribe Ike LaRue. With his doggy heart set on a cushy cruise to Mexico, his mistress offers instead to take a hospitalized neighbor’s cats on a long car trip. His schemes to get rid of the felines fail at every stop. Ike’s correspondence describes and the illustrations show typical, chuckleinducing back-seat squabbles among siblings. Kids will get a kick out of watching the cats and Ike trick each other as they wheel their way across America to (surprise!) a cruise waiting for them on the other side of the

4

country. “Interrupting Chicken� by David Ezra Stein; Candlewick; $17; ages 3-8.

Plucky little Red Chicken loves Papa to read to her at bedtime. Her problem? Though she knows she shouldn’t interrupt, she can’t keep from jumping in to save the characters from impending disaster and

skipping directly to “The End.� So her worn-out Papa turns the storytelling over to her. She’s pretty good at it, too. “Marty McGuire� by Kate Messner, illustrated by Brian Floca; Scholastic; $6 paperback,

$16 hardcover; ages 6-9.

Marty McGuire is a bullfrogcatching tomboy in a dancingprincess world and a terrific new character on the literary landscape.

Much to Marty’s dismay, she’s assigned to play a princess in the (continued on next page)

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Title Pages

Monday, July 4th, 2011 Noon to 5 pm Mitchell Park, Palo Alto Chili Teams compete for over $3,000 in cash and prizes!

Activities for children and families.

Deadline to enter is June 13th

For a Chili Team Application or for other information call the Chili Hotline!

650-463-4921 Summer reading (continued from previous page)

Sponsored by

third-grade class play. “That is so not fair.� Then Marty learns how to improvise and, along with the boy who plays the prince, comes up with and carries out a plan — and

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an improvisation — that steals the show. Improvising also helps Marty navigate the changing roles among friends and classmates so typical of this age.

Young readers can look forward to more adventures starring Marty, beginning in early 2012 with “Marty McGuire Digs Worms.� “The Trouble with May Amelia� by Jennifer L. Holm; Atheneum/Simon & Schuster; $16; ages 8-12.

Foster City author Jennifer Holm’s sequel to her Newbery Honor “Our Only May Amelia� continues the compelling narrative of a whipsmart girl living on a farm “in the middle of nowhere� on Washington State’s rainy Nasel River in 1900.

May Amelia holds her own in a family of seven brothers and a father who believes “girls are useless.�

May Amelia can, however, translate English to Finnish when Papa asks her to. Yet by doing so she puts her family front and center in a get-richquick scheme that leaves them and their neighbors homeless. (Who knew there was a foreclosure crisis at the turn of the last century?)

Holm spares none of the gory details of the difficulties of life on the river in logging country, including wild-animal attacks, crushed limbs and demented, shotgun-wielding neighbors.

But May Amelia has her teacher and friends and extended family in the big city of Astoria on her side.

She’s also full of sisu, the Finnish term for “guts,� that keep readers cheering for her until the last page. “Nature Girl� by Jane Kelley; Yearling/Random House; $7 paperback; ages 8-12.

Take a sarcastic, lazy middle schooler dependent on cell phones, TV and the Internet, have her artsy family spend the summer in the Vermont woods where none of the above is available, and then have her get lost on the Appalachian Trail with her little dog, and you could have a recipe for disaster — or a fresh, contemporary survival story.

When Megan realizes the Trail leads to her estranged best friend’s summer home in Massachusetts, she decides to go for it. “I’m tired of quitting and failing.� Not that she doesn’t consider turning around, or allowing various rescue parties to find her. She sends messages back to her family that she’s OK and never loses her self-deprecating humor.

Title Pages

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June 27-August 5 Located on six wooded acres in Menlo Park, Peninsula School offers a fun and exciting Summer School program for children ages 5-13. All classes i“…>ĂƒÂˆĂ˘iĂŠVÂœÂœÂŤiĂ€>ĂŒÂˆÂœÂ˜ĂŠ>˜`ĂŠvĂ€Âˆi˜`ĂƒÂ…ÂˆÂŤÂ°ĂŠ …ˆÂ?`Ă€iÂ˜ĂŠ learn in an atmosphere of informality and fun.

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For applications and information: www.peninsulaschool.org, 650-325-1584 or summer@peninsulaschool.org

Five days on the Trail give Megan time to think about how she can be a better friend to Lucy, whose mother has cancer. The hike gives her a new purpose in life. “I don’t want to be a cautionary tale. I want to be an INSPIRATION,� she says. Indeed she is. “Smile� by Raina Telgemeier; Scholastic; $11 paperback; ages 9-12. “Smile� is a laugh-out-loud graphic novel based on the author’s experience as a San Francisco sixthgrader who fell and knocked out her two front teeth. (She already needed braces!) Middle school is difficult enough for most teens. Raina had the added horror of being teased for looking like a vampire or a 6-yearold. Then she dealt with years of dental repair work and orthodontia. “I didn’t even know there were this many kinds of ‘dontists.’� Raina’s drawings bring out the humor in the most difficult situations, whether they’re about her teeth or her crushes on boys. Add in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and Bay Area kids will find much to love about

this book. “Liar, Liar� by Gary Paulsen; Random House; $13; ages 9-12.

Clever and smart, eighth-grader Kevin is also a self-described liar, and good at it. He concocts a series of fairly harmless lies to get out of classes so he can get to know Tina, “the prettiest girl in the world,� and convince her that he’s “the world’s greatest boyfriend.� He has a harder time lying at home, where he’s the youngest kid in a family coping with change. And he must tell the truth about divorce to the kid he babysits.

When his lies begin to unravel, he knows he has to begin the “Kevin Spencer Apology Tour� and accept the myriad consequences. This slim, funny novel by a distinguished and prolific author is especially appealing to middle school boys. N Debbie Duncan’s middle-grade novel, “Caller Number Nine,� will be available next month as an eBook. She has reviewed children’s books for the Weekly since 1997.

Her complete reviews are available at www.debbieduncan.com.

Austra Anderson July 28, 1920-May 19, 2011 Palo Alto, CA Austra Anderson, 90, passed away peacefully surrounded by her children on May 19, 2011, in Palo Alto, California. She was predeceased by her loving husband of 53 years, Marvin B. Anderson.

She is survived by a son, Edgar B. Anderson of Los Angeles, and three daughters, Lila Hillard of Larkspur, CA, Lydia (LJ) Anderson of Menlo Park, CA, and Lisa Kelley, also of Menlo Park, and seven grandchildren.

Austra was born Austra Udris, to parents Janis and Alise Udris, in Riga, Latvia, on July 28, 1920, and was a graduate of the University of Latvia School of Dentistry. In 1944, along with hundreds of thousands of other Baltic people, she and her mother, father, and brother Oskars ed to the West in order to escape a second brutal Soviet occupation of their homeland. In 1946 they immigrated to the United States and settled in Los Angeles. Austra met her soon-to-be husband Marvin at a dance at USC, and they were married in 1948. They lived in Pasadena from 1951 until his death in 2002. The next year she moved to Palo Alto to be near her daughters.

Austra was active as a leader in politics--as President of the East Pasadena-Sierra Madre

Republican Women’s Club and Vice President of the Los Angeles County Federation of Republican Women. She was an enthusiastic golfer and a longtime member of the Eaton Canyon Golf Club.

Austra was a strong and courageous woman, a loving and devoted wife and mother, and a refugee from Communism who was eternally grateful to have had the opportunity to live out her dreams in a free country.

Burial will be private at Forest LawnHollywood Hills. A public memorial service and celebration of Austra’s life will be held at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 4, 2011, at Pitcairn House on the campus of Westridge School, 324 Madeline Street, Pasadena.

In lieu of owers, donations may be made in her memory to the Latvian Center of Southern California, 1955 Riverside Drive, LA, 90039; or Spiritual Care Service, Stanford Hospital & Clinics, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford, CA 94305.

PA I D

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O B I T UA RY

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Dick Chang peacefully passed away on May 6, 2011 surrounded by his family. A longtime resident of Menlo Park, Dick was born in Shanghai, China and grew up in Hong Kong. He received a B.S. degree in physics from CalTech and his Ph.D. in applied physics from Stanford University.

He joined Hewlett-Packard Company in 1967 at HP Labs and went on to hold various managerial positions within the semiconductor products group of HP. Dick became the Vice President and General Manager of the semiconductor products group of Agilent Technologies (which was spun off from HP) in 2002. In 2005, when the semiconductor products group was acquired and launched as Avago Technologies, Dick served as President and CEO, then went on to serve as chairman of Avago until he retired in March of 2010. He continued to be involved in the technology industry, serving as advisor and board member for various companies both here and in Asia.

Dick was an avid collector of wine and was

inducted into the Society of Bacchus America in 2008.

He shared his love of ďŹ ne food, wine and travel with his wife of 36 years, Christine (Wong).

Dick is also survived by his sisters Elizabeth (Jeffrey) Fong of Maryland, Margaret (Thomas) Chen of New Jersey, Nancy (Warwick) Grew of England, Alice (Harry) Wong of Vancouver, Canada, Mimi (Chinn) Wong of Sunnyvale, CA and Ethel Chang of San Francisco, CA and many nieces and nephews.

A private family service was held. For those who wish, donations may be made in Dick’s memory to Avenidas (450 Bryant Street, Palo Alto, CA 94301), to the Palo Alto Humane Society (520 Santa Cruz Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 94025) or Pathways Hospice (585 North Mary Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94085).

PA I D

O B I T UA RY

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Cover Story Cover Story

Worth a thousand words 2011 Photo Contest winners showcase compelling sights

by Karla Kane

A

s they have for the past 20 years, local photographers this spring submitted the best that their portfolios have to offer to the annual Palo Alto Weekly Photo Contest, co-sponsored by the City of Palo Alto’s Division of Arts and Sciences.

And now, the judges have made their decisions. The award-winning photographers will be honored at a reception on Wednesday, June 8, at 5:30 p.m. in the Palo

Alto City Hall lobby, 250 Hamilton Ave. An exhibition of the photos chosen as finalists will be shown in the lobby from June 8 to June 28.

The Weekly would like to thank the local sponsors of this year’s contest: Bear Images Photographic Inc., University Art, Palo Alto Art Center and Keeble & Shuchat.

More information, including all finalists’ photos,

judges’ biographies and artists’ statements, is available at www.PaloAltoOnline.com. N

The judges s s s s

Veronica Weber, Palo Alto Weekly staff photographer David Hibbard, nature photographer Angela Buenning Filo, landscape photographer Brigitte Carnochan, photographer and educator

Adult

Bay Area Images Judge’s comments The Bay Area Images category brings together a group of diverse photographs that have each captured a moment in which the formal elements — composition, light, color, form, pattern, texture, viewpoint and timing — come perfectly together. Dan West’s figure, in an almost-fetal position surrounded by womblike architectural elements, is the striking first-place winner. Aaron Meyers’ bee, happily immersed in pollen, gives us a unique close-up of the natural world. All the judges were moved by the serenity of the boat, adrift in a Winslow Homer setting,

First place

Lily Above the Coast Dan West It’s a trippy place for a photo,� Dan West said of the location for his prizewinning picture. “But it was pretty hard to get to. You have to follow a narrow trail along the cliff side and, well, let’s just say it was an adrenaline rush getting there.�

But that’s just the way he works, said West, who does both nude and landscape photography under different names. “Typically, I’ll just go out ‘into the wild’ and find locations that I find interesting.�

“

Second place Hungry Bee, Aaron Meyers (Left)

Third place Serene Lake Lagunita, Josh Newby

Honorable mention Wedding High Jinks, Brant Wenegrat In Her Master’s Wake, Greg Gatwood Page 30ĂŠUĂŠ Ă•Â˜iĂŠĂŽ]ÊÓ䣣ÊUĂŠ*>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠ7iiÂŽÂ?Ăž

shot by Josh Newby. And Brant Wenegrat’s photographers and photographed is both amusing and layered in nuance. How could anyone resist Greg Gatwood’s fearless flying canine, or Dorothy Cichon’s mysterious perspective, or the intensity of the texture and colors in Mark Kay’s leaves? Frances Freyberg and Libor Kovarcik have captured two different but equally idyllic moments, while Tara Laidlaw’s affectionate cows exemplify Cartier Bresson’s “decisive moment.� Kudos to all. N — Brigitte Carnochan

Shot above Rodeo Beach in the Marin Highlands north of the Golden Gate Bridge, the black-and-white image captures a model named Lily in a battered bunker. “There was a small, formerly windowed area near the back that was a bit difficult to get to, and it looked like there had once been some sort of gun or turret placed there,�

West said. He imagines it might have once been used to target ships during the war. “There was such a great view; you can see the whole ocean from up there.� “I’ve worked with Lily on about eight or nine other shoots. I’m so bad at titles, which is why this one is ‘Lily Above the Coast’ — pretty self explanatory,� he said. “When I found out I’d won, I just hoped the title I’d sent in with it was something I’d be happy with.�

Though he has been photographing for more than 30 years, he keeps the activity strictly as a hobby. “I thought at one point I wanted to be a photojournalist, but that never happened,� he laughed. Instead, he went to engineering school and currently works for Stanford University. “I think that if I had to do photography for a living, it would probably take some of the fun out of it.� N —Kareem Yasin

Cover Story Youth - Bay Area Images

Adult

Judge’s comments In photographing the Bay Area, this year’s winners all brought fresh eyes to familiar scenes. Jeffrey Lu finds an interesting elevated vantage point from which to capture the blurred rush of a MUNI train and the stillness of a solitary waiting passenger. Artificial light sources combine to shift the colors in the photograph and give the scene an eerie glow. In her photograph “Reach,� Petra Carlos-Arzate captures one

First place

Just Keep Waiting Jeffrey Lu

S

ometimes, looking back can be just as valuable as looking forward, as little moments can go unnoticed.

For Jeffrey Lu, it was in looking back that he was able to capture an image filled with both tranquility and movement. Lu, a junior at Palo Alto High School, was leaving the MUNI train at the Van Ness stop in San Francisco when he saw a man sitting alone.

Lu waited on the ledge overlooking the man and managed to get a shot of the still man and the hazy, fast silhouette of the zooming train. “I waited for the train to move,� he said.

of those authentic moments on the street so worthy of photographing but that can be so difficult to catch. It’s impossible not to smile at the sight of one boy lifting up another to reach what lies inside of these books. Caroline Ebinger encourages us to stop and contemplate a quieter subject and to be inspired by the simple beauty of color and texture in perfect light. N

Portraits Judge’s comments I and the other judges were amazed by the variety of subject matter, creativity and composition of the portraits submitted this year. Anywn Hurxthal’s playful modern take on the Hindu goddess Kali in “Cali

— Angela Buenning Filo

“I thought the contrasts of dark and white, and the moving train and the waiting man, were interesting,�

A Boy Scout leader introduced Lu to photography in the sixth grade. He and his troop took a trip to Washington, D.C., and one evening they went out to photograph the monuments. “My Scout leader showed me the workings of a camera,� Lu said, adding that he’s preferred to shoot on his own “ever since I’ve learned.�

Lu is a journalist for the Paly Voice and occasionally shoots photos to go along with stories, but he said he also relishes the experience of taking photos independently, when the spirit strikes him. “I shoot for fun because I get more freedom to take what I want,� he said.

Lu explained the importance of photography in the midst of the rush of life. “Photography allows us to see things in a different light where we can pause and reflect on a moment of our lives,� he said. “It’s very powerful and valuable.� N — Joann So

Second place Reach, Petra Carlos-Arzate

Third place Untitled, Caroline Ebinger

Honorable mention Through the Car Window, Julia Vais The American Dream, Lauren Wong

Kali — A Tribute to Motherhood� made us pause to discuss its symbolism. We were amused by the photographer’s creativity in illustrating the fine balances motherhood requires. Steve Goldband’s beautifully toned black-and-white diptych “Ritual at Dawn, Udaipur� also received much of our attention. The image is a quiet and serene capture of a man bathing in the river, carefully soaking face and feet in suds in the soft morning light. I enjoyed how the photographer kept the man’s face hidden so he remains an anonymous figure.

Maya Maniar’s captivating “Behind These Eyes,� a close-up portrait of a girl, also stood out to us. The tightly cropped image draws us right into the subject’s eyes and poignant expression, capturing her personality succinctly.

We also really liked Steven Shpall’s humorous image of a man trapped in the confines of his French press, the soft hues and framing of an accordion musician in Greg Gatwood’s “Jena,� the sweet moment between whispering girls in “Rachel and Catalina Sharing a Secret,� and the bold portraits from Randy Mont-Reynaud and Susan Neville. N —Veronica Weber

First place

Cali Kali — A Tribute to Motherhood Anwyn Hurxthal or her winning image of modern motherhood (a self-portrait of a woman equipped with six arms, balancing kids, pets and more), Palo Alto resident Anwyn Hurxthal took inspiration from ancient sources, including the multi-armed Hindu goddess Kali. “We’re living in a society that doesn’t put a lot of value on parenting and family, but we balance so much,� she said of her photo, which combines the current and the classic and includes themes “both sacred and mundane.�

As a mother of two young children, Hurxthal said she often wishes she had multiple arms with which to physically and emotionally juggle “kids, food, toys, life� but that her photo also reminds her of her successes in balancing the demands of a family.

To capture the image, and to tie it in to its ancient inspirations, Hurxthal said she posed with several symbolic items (a skull, for mortality; an ostrich egg, for potential; a snake, for health), along with her kids and even the family’s pet chicken. She took

F

the individual photos using a remote trigger, then combined the shots together using Photoshop. Because of her hectic home life, “I had about a 20-minute window� in which to take the shots, including wrangling her kids into the frame.

Despite what she called less-than-optimal conditions, she said: “It came together in a way that symbolized what I was feeling.�

She’s not a professional photographer, but “I’ve had a camera in my hand since age 5,� the Kenyan-raised Hurxthal said, describing a childhood spent photographing the African wildlife her father researched. Years spent traveling the world working with a humanitarian organization also gave her a range of international photo opportunities and encounters with other cultures that influence her use of symbolism. She’s studied visual anthropology and graphic design as well and is a jewelry designer, with an online shop at www.plumitajewelry.com.

For her next project, Hurxthal said she’s interested in creating an anthropological photo essay documenting family life and dynamics, ideally involving other families in the community and again incorporating symbols from cultures around the world. N — Karla Kane (continued on page 34)

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Cover Story

Photo contest (continued from page 31)

Adult - Portraits continued

Youth

Portraits Judge’s comments

Second place Ritual at Dawn, Udaipur, Steve Goldbland

This was my favorite category of the entire competition this year — the quality of the images made it a complete joy to judge. Six photographers have been honored, but even with all that competition, the photo deserving of the top prize had no trouble standing out. Just like the ballerina she is photographing, Katelyn Weingart’s photo, “Pointe of View,� displays precision, control and elegance. It is refreshing to see a young person choosing to work in black and white and using it to such great advantage. I

Third place

First place

Behind These Eyes, Maya Maniar

Pointe of View

Honorable mention

Katelyn Weingart

Caffeine Nightmare, Steven Shpall

n a late afternoon, Katelyn Weingart and her close friend went to a park nearby for a photo shoot. Weingart, a freshman at Menlo School, made her way up to a structure to shoot her subject and friend, Sabrina Karlin, who just started pointe (dancing on tiptoe) in her ballet class this year.

Dancing en pointe is no easy feat, but the photographed Karlin is more comfortable on a familiar, softer bed of grass. Her expressive arms extend out from her body, and there’s a subtle smile on her face.

The portrayal of a ballerina in a uniform of tutu, pointe shoes and tiara has an added accessory. “She’s pretty delicate, so I thought of the idea of balloons,� said Weingart.

A personal connection is present in most of her subjects — “the photos I take are of friends.� Her photography page on Facebook has albums, feedback and requests

Selected for exhibition at Palo Alto City Hall (adult) s An Enigmatic View (of a Common Place), Dotti Cichon s Purisima Creek, Frances Freyberg s Time for an Adventure, Libor Kovarcik s Leaf on Leaf, Mark Kay s Mother and Daughter, Tara Laidlaw s Jena, Greg Gatwood s Working, Randy Mont-Reynaud s Rachel and Catalina Sharing a Secret, Richard Adler

O

could imagine Stephanie Engle’s portrait “Daydream� in an advertising campaign, so compelling and seductive is the mood of this image. Her use of selective focus is spot on, and the details of this photograph — from her subject’s swirling hair to the clasp of her necklace — keep drawing my

from friends who want their pictures taken.

Weingart started photographing flowers around the yard when her mom bought a nice camera two or three years ago, she said. She learned the manual functions at a summer camp last year.

In the past few years, she’s moved on from flowers to people. For Weingart, portraits are a great chance to practice taking photos. She uses donations from the photo shoots to help fund the Awaso Academy, in Ghana, Africa. This summer, Weingart and her family will go to the city of Awaso to help build a school.

Weingart’s passion is evident in her upclose and personal portraits of people and nature. “I just really fell in love with the camera.� N —Joann So

Honorable mention Burned, Renee Singh Free-Spirit, Soham Tikekar Fuerza Bruta, Lauren Wong

eye back. Allison Yuen has also created a photograph that continues to unfold. The glowing orb is mysterious and mesmerizing, and I find myself wanting to know more about the young woman cradling it in her arms. N —Angela Buenning Filo

Second place Daydream, Stephanie Engle

Third place To Chase the Darkness with Light, Allison Yuen

s Lean Years, Susan Neville s Ford Versus Elephant, Sanjay Hortikar

Selected for exhibition at Palo Alto City Hall (youth) s Spiderweb, Gina Scarpino s Holi, Carmen Roberts s For God So Loved the World, Katherine Gaffney s Untitled, Grace Arnold

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Adult

Views Beyond the Bay Area Judge’s comments An ethereal landscape of clouds and mountains, an abstract view of a chair and window blinds, and a powerful evocation of man’s effort to harness the forces of nature — these three subjects reflect the creative diversity of the entries in this category.

Deven Hickingbotham’s “Mountaintops in Clouds� takes us far beyond the hustle and bustle of everyday life to a serene place.

We were struck by the elegant simplicity of this image, especially the delicate rendering of the clouds. One would not normally think that an office window looking out on flat brick surface would provide much of a “view,� but Ellen Konar’s “Filtered Light� makes much out of little. We loved the strong, graphic quality of this image: the contrast of light and shadow heightened by the play of diagonal lines against verti-

cals. David Gollick’s “Rock Power� is all about opposing forces. His choice of a long horizontal format is effective here, as it opposes the vertical thrust of the smokestacks against the massive solidity of the rock and the sweeping flow of the clouds. Danny Colligan’s “Salty Conversation� intrigued us. Here are two people talking, which is (continued on next page)

Cover Story (continued from previous page)

not very remarkable in and of itself, yet everything around them is extraordinary: the white billowy clouds, the floating clumps of salt brine and that vast lake, so shallow that the conversationalists seem to be standing on water. Why, we wondered, are they there?

Steven’s Shpall’s “Dance� captures perfectly the fast, lively pace of a flamenco dance.

The slightly off-kilter camera angle, the blur of the dancer’s skirt, and the expressions on faces of the musicians all contribute to this effect. N —David Hibbard

Youth - Views Beyond the Bay Area Judge’s comments This year’s winners in the Views Beyond the Bay Area category all took elements of nature as their subject matter but to very different effect. First-place winner Caroline Ebinger got in close to her subject to create a striking composition combining fallen leaves, weathered wood and rusty metal.

Tim Aiken stepped back to create “Carrizo Sunrise,� a sweeping view of a sea of yellow flowers under a surreal sky. And in the aptly titled “Ghosts,� Lauren Wong depicts a pier enshrouded in fog with apparitions who appear to be walking over the surface of the sea. N —Angela Buenning Filo

First place

Mountaintops in Clouds Deven Hickingbotham

A

lmost entirely placed third.� He added that the competition drained of colgives him “motivation to capture unusual or, two mounand artistic images that stand out from the taintops rise above crowd.� the clouds. They are Hickingbotham plans to travel to more spotted with thickets scenic locations and attend photo workshops of dense, dark trees to help further hone his photography skills. that alternate with And sometime in the future, he harbors anpatches of bare white other ambition. snow. The rest of the “As a culmination to all these efforts, I’d landscape remains like to together an exhibition,� he said. N — Aaron Guggenheim obscured, further bringing out the mountaintops as isolated islands among a sea of white, buoyant clouds. When all of these elements are put together, they make for an iconic and captivating photo.

Palo Alto resident Deven Hickingbotham has always possessed a passion for photography. He started during the late 1960s when he was in the eighth grade, working in the darkroom in his home. His hobby later became a career in professional sports photography, and his work has been featured in national magazines and newspapers. He has photographed sports events ranging from cross-country running to football, including many at Stevenson High School in central Second place California, where his daughter and son both Filtered Light, Ellen Konar attended school. He said he now primarily focuses on photographing alpine ski races. In addition to his professional focus, Hickingbotham also has a keen interest in landscape scenes. “Mountaintops in Clouds� was taken in the Donner Summit area near Tahoe around Christmas last year. Hickingbotham was skiing at Sugar Bowl when he saw he had “certain weather conditions Third place that covered everything but a few mountain tops. ... It was a Rock Power, David Golick composition that was clearly attractive.� He pulled out his Nikon B40 and snapped the photo.

Honorable mention Hickingbotham said that winning first place this year “fulfills a goal I’ve had since Salty Conversation, Danny Colligan 2004, when I first entered the contest and Dance, Steven Shpall

First place

Urban Decay Caroline Ebinger

W

hat may have looked like junk to someone with a less artistic eye became a thing of beauty in the hands of Caroline Ebinger, who made a close-up shot of the decaying ruins of a demolished park in Pennsylvania the subject of her winning photograph. “My mom used to go there as a kid,� she said of the park, which she visited while on a family trip. “There’s only rubble left. Bases of rides, basketball hoops, old park equipment.�

While she first took overview shots of the whole landscape, she decided to take a few more detailed pictures as well to capture the texture and color of the rusty metal and scuffed wood amongst the fallen leaves. “I thought it would be interesting to take close-ups. I liked what was on the ground,� she said.

The Palo Alto High School junior said she’s been interested in photography “for as long as I can remember,� adding that she took a photo class in middle school and a few others on how to use her Olympus DSLR camera.

She writes feature stories and takes pictures for one of her high school’s magazines, and though she’s interested in journalism, she said she prefers taking artsy shots to news photos. “My favorite type is nature and landscapes,� she said.

She said she is considering majoring in architecture and design in college, or possibly business, but that she wouldn’t be opposed to taking her photography hobby on a more

professional route, should anyone take an interest in future photos. “If anyone would buy them, that would be great,� she laughed. But whatever the future may bring, Ebinger, who also won thirdplace in another category, plans to keep on shooting. And of her success in this year’s contest, she said: “I’m honored that I was chosen.� N — Karla Kane

Second place Carrizo Sunrise, Tim Aiken

Third place Ghosts, Lauren Wong

About the cover: Anwyn Hurxthal’s “Cali Kali — A Tribute to Motherhood� earned first place in the Portraits category in this year’s Palo Alto Weekly Photo Contest.

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Third baseman Robert Wickers (facing center) finds himself in the middle of the celebration mob after his putout wrapped up Menlo School’s 4-0 victory over Santa Cruz in the CCS Division III title game.

The Palo Alto baseball team enjoyed the special moment after the Vikings edged San Benito, 5-4, for the CCS Division I title last weekend during a rain-marred finale in San Jose.. It was the program’s first CCS title.

(continued on next page)

Reed provides relief for Stanford baseball Cardinal junior reliever could have a key role in NCAA regional at Fullerton this weekend

by Rick Eymer hris Reed went from afterthought to spotlight over the course of a summer and he’s been saving the Stanford baseball team all season.

The lefthander was named the Atlantic Collegiate Summer League ‘s top prospect after going 3-2 with a 1.09 ERA in 11 appearances. That came after spinning his wheels for two years at Stanford, walking 17 and striking out 15 in 23 innings. He was 2-0 with a 7.04 ERA. “He’s always had potential,�

Stanford pitching coach Rusty Filter said. “He was a different kid in

C

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the fall. He came back a little more aggressive.�

Reed turned that potential into production this season, striking out 48 and walking just 14 in 48 innings while compiling a 6-2 record and 2.61 ERA. He also recorded eight saves, one more than Drew Storen saved in 2009, when he was a firstround draft pick by the Washington Nationals. It was the most saves by a Cardinal in a single season since Matt Manship had nine in 2003.

Reed, whose fastball has been clocked as high as 96, created some buzz with his summer output and put himself on the map with a solid

spring. He’s projected as a late first or second round pick when the FirstYear Player Draft begins Monday at 4 p.m.

Nationally No. 21 Stanford (3020) will depend on Reed’s arm as it opens regional play in Fullerton against Kansas State on Friday at 4 p.m. “A lot of it, with him, has to do with getting into a routine,� Filter said. “He’s a big, strong kid who went out this past summer, kept working hard, and had some success.� (continued on page 40)

Zach Sanderson/Stanfordphoto.com

ON THE AIR

by Keith Peters or those who know their local baseball history, it should come as no surprise that the Palo Alto and Menlo School each won Central Coast Section championships on Saturday. After all, they were years in the making.

It was three summers ago the Palo Alto Babe Ruth 14-year-old all-stars won the Pacific Southwest Regional for the first time ever and advanced for the first time to the World Series, held that year in Quincy, Mass.

Playing on that Babe Ruth all-star were eight players (it would have been nine had Ozzy Braff not been injured) who competed for Palo Alto and Menlo last weekend at San Jose Municipal Stadium, where the No. 3-seeded Vikings (28-9) won the CCS Division I title with a 5-4 victory over No. 5 San Benito and the No. 3-seeded Knights (26-5) captured the Division III crown with a 4-0 triumph over No. 8 Santa Cruz.

The Babe Ruth grads playing for Paly, which captured its first-ever CCS title, were B.J. Boyd, Drake Swezey, Kevin Kannappan, Graham Marchant, John Dickerson and Jacob Lauing while Freddy Avis and Jake Batchelder played for Menlo, which won its fifth section title.

Many of those players began their journey, which led them to San Jose last weekend, as 9-10 Little League all-stars. They enjoyed historic success at that level. “Amazing accomplishment by all of these players,� said Mike Piha, who was the president of Palo Alto Babe Ruth in 2008. “A talented group of players from Little League all the way through high school. I always thought this group of players had something special, and really expected most of them to have successful high school baseball careers.�

F

Special to the Weekly

COACHING CORNER . . . Palo Alto Knights Youth Football is seeking experienced head and assistant football coaches for the 2011 season. Contact: Mike Piha 269-6100 or mike@ in2change.com. . . . Sacred Heart Prep is seeking frosh-soph and freshman football coaches as well as a girls’ junior varsity volleyball coach for next season. All interested applicants should contact SHP Athletic Director Frank Rodriguez via email at frodriguez@shschools.org or by phone at (650) 473-4031.

Palo Alto and Menlo featured players who played in World Series

Keith Peters

NATIONAL HONOR . . . Stanford junior Ashley Hansen was the only high school player invited to the U.S. Olympic tryouts, along with a handful of former Stanford softball players. The story goes how Cardinal coach John Rittman prodded a few of his former players to gauge Hansen’s interest in attending Stanford. It turned out Stanford had been her dream school for a long time and she was thrilled to know the school was interested in her. It’s turned into a pretty good match. Hansen was named USA Softball’s Collegiate Player of the Year, the Amateur Softball Association of America (ASA) announced Tuesday.

Hansen becomes the first Cardinal to earn the honor and just the second non-pitcher in the 10-year history of the award. “This is huge for Stanford and our program to have someone recognized as National Player of the Year,� Rittman said. “I am so proud of Ashley and all her accomplishments.

She is such a team player and very deserving of this honor.� Hansen collected career offensive numbers as a junior this season. She leads the nation in doubles per game (0.45), while ranking third in batting average (.495) and tied for ninth in on-base percentage (.558). The 2011 Pac-10 Player of the Year, Hansen leads the conference in batting average, on-base percentage, hits (95) and doubles (25).

Hansen picked up another honor on Wednesday when she was named a First Team Louisville Slugger/NFCA All-American by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association. For Hansen, it’s her second career All-America honors. The selection brings Stanford’s total All-America award count to 29 honors spread over 14 players.

Stanford junior Chris Reed is now the team’s bullpen ace.

Despite suffering another injury, Paly’s Anderson will run at the State Meet

by Keith Peters

A

Forrest Carmichael

CCS baseball

(continued from previous page)

Other members of the Babe Ruth 14s who didn’t attend Paly or Menlo included Travis McHugh (Bellarmine football), Matt Eastman (Sequoia baseball), Jordan Piha (St. Francis baseball), Tucker Jorgenson (St. Francis soccer), Cam Winn (Menlo-Atherton baseball) and Sam Falkenhagen (Menlo-Atherton baseball). “This group of players was just a bunch of winners at all levels, I guess,� said Paly coach Erick Raich, who along with Menlo coach Craig Schoof didn’t know this history that they inherited. “Pretty cool that all of those players played together at such a high level but, then again, that’s probably why they know how to win.�

Palo Alto and Menlo both reached CCS finals last season, as well, but not with the same group of players who helped bring home titles last weekend.

Once informed of their previous successes, Schoof wasn’t surprised to see it pay off Saturday. “Yes, there is a very obvious correlation,� Schoof said. “One, of course, the talent of all those players.

Two, winning is a habit and these

kids just expected to win every time they take the field. When you expect to win, you find ways to win.�

Palo Alto and Menlo did just that in tough semifinals, where the Vikings eliminated No. 2 Mitty, 5-2, and the Knights ousted No. 2 Carmel, 9-8, in nine innings.

That set the stage for the championship games, where Paly and Menlo were the favorites — at least on paper. Neither game, however, was a breeze for either champ as unseasonable wind and rain marred the contests.

Palo Alto had to withstand a nearly two-hour rain delay followed by a 2 1/2-hour game before adding to what has been an historic year in athletics for the school.

With the score tied at 4 heading into the bottom of the seventh, Paly’s speedy B.J. Boyd led off with a grounder that was thrown into the Paly dugout along the first base line with Boyd advancing to second. Up stepped fellow junior Ozzy Braff, who lofted a fly ball into short rightcenter field.

A lackadaisical effort by the San Benito centerfielder in retrieving the ball allowed Boyd to race around third and score the winning run as Paly pulled out its historic victory.

For the Vikings (28-9), not only was it the first CCS title in program

Special to the Weekly

Palo Alto junior pitcher Ben Sneider was all smiles after his team’s 54win over San Benito gave the Vikings their first CCS title.

not as bad as we expected. He’s fine.

I went by his house on Wednesday night and he was in good spirits.

Morphine does wonders for you. “He wants to run. Once the adrenaline hits, he should be fine.�

Anderson runs anchor on the fastest 400 relay team in school history. The Vikings’ team of junior Tremaine Kirkman, senior Maurice Williams, junior Morris Gates-Mouton and Anderson broke a 31-year-old school record of 42.74 by clocking a 42.07 at last Friday’s Central Coast Section championships at Gilroy High. “We have been looking to beat the school mark and we think we can do even better,� Williams said. “It’s something that keeps us working hard.�

Anderson said the group wants to break into the 41s and gain some revenge on Gilroy and Bellarmine, who finished ahead of the Vikings.

“All three teams that placed broke school records,� said Fung. Gilroy won in 41.77 with Bellarmine second in 41.99. “I thought we could have beaten Bellarmine,� Fung said. “We could have gone faster. The first handoff was botched. That’s usually our best handoff.�

Kirkman reinforced that notion, saying the team works particularly hard at the relay and could likely make the hand off in their sleep for as often as they practice the crucial exchange.

The state meet will mark the last time they will race the event together, as Williams and Anderson graduate.

Palo Alto goes in as the No. 10 seed. Roosevelt of the Southern Section is the fastest at 41.16 while Gilroy is No. 7 and Bellarmine is No. (continued on page 42)

Keith Peters

Paly’s Miles Anderson (right), taking a handoff from Morris GatesMouton, helped the 400 relay set a school record at CCS.

fter struggling with football injuries during his high school career, Palo Alto senior Miles Anderson finally is getting a chance to perform at an elite level. That opportunity arrives Friday when Anderson and four teammates compete in the CIF State Track and Field Championships at Buchanan High in Clovis.

Anderson, who missed playing in the state championship football game in the fall due to injury, nearly saw his chance of anchoring the 400 relay team in the state prelims ripped away by a weightlifting accident on Wednesday.

Just before finishing his final rep, a pin in the equipment slipped and his right hand was pinched. Anderson lost a fingernail and some skin on one finger and Paly coach Jason Fung feared the worst.

But, Fung said on Thursday, “It’s

The Menlo School baseball team celebrated its second straight CCS Division III title following a 4-0 victory over Santa Cruz last Saturday. It was the Knights’ fifth section baseball championship. history in the 44th year of CCS baseball but it was also the fifth section crown in Palo Alto baseball history.

The Vikings, who have been playing the sport for at least 112 years, previously won North Coast Section titles in 1899, 1908, 1913 and 1927.

Paly also won a state title in 1899.

For Boyd and other football players on the baseball squad, it was their second CCS title of the season.

The Vikings won the Open Division crown in football this past fall. The four CCS team titles in 2010-11 are the most ever by Paly in a single season. “What an unbelievable season for these players, especially the one who played both football and baseball,� Raich said. “The players deserve all of the credit and I couldn’t be happier for them.�

For Boyd and Braff, it was a nice turnaround. Both were at St. Francis last season. “B.J. and Ozzy were definite game-changers,� Mike Piha said.

Added Raich: “Heck yeah I’m glad Ozzy and B.J. came back to Palo Alto. We aren’t where we’re at this year without them.�

Raich, who said afterward that the

game “will stick with me forever,� now has guided the Vikings to a 5713 record in his two seasons as head coach and back-to-back CCS titlegame appearances. The Vikings took a No. 1 seed into last season’s Division II final, but suffered a 7-4 upset at the hands of Burlingame.

Paly also lost in the finals in 2004 and 1991.

Palo Alto more than made up for that on Saturday night as seniors George Brown, T.J. Braff, Jeff Cohen, Cory Tenanes, Sam Maliska, Christoph Bono, Jake Payne, Will Glazier, Swezey, and Marchant walked off the field as winners.

Earlier in the day, Menlo didn’t have to worry about the weather — just No. 8 seed Santa Cruz.

The Cardinals put up a fight, but couldn’t touch Menlo’s one-two pitching punch of Avis and senior Jake Bruml, who held true to the team’s season-long motto that “Individuals win games, teams win titles.�

Avis and Bruml teamed to limit Santa Cruz to just four hits. Avis pitched the first 5 2/3 innings before reaching the 10-inning limit for the week. Bruml took over for the

final 1 1/3, creating a little excitement in the top of the seventh when the Cardinals loaded the bases and had the tying run at the plate. Bruml got the final batter on a grounder to third baseman Robert Wickers, who tagged the runner heading to third and setting off a wild celebration by the Knights.

Avis and Bruml combined to win 20 of 23 decisions and record four saves this season. They also each drove in an insurance run in the sixth inning on Saturday.

Batchelder and freshman Mikey Diekroeger also drove in runs for the Knights, who scored 82 runs while finishing the season on an eight-game winning streak.

Menlo won its second straight CCS title and its fifth overall. The Knights went back-to-back for the first time since 1988-89, Wickers, Benton, Bruml and fellow seniors Philip Anderson, Kamyaar Butt, Sam Fancher and Jack Suiter will leave some holes, but the return of Avis, Diekroeger, Batchelder, Marcus and Dylan Mayer certainly give the Knights a solid foundation as they set about the pursuit of a three-peat next season. N

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Club ing Club | www.avenidas.org ening (650) Club 289-5400 z Needlework Club z Movie Club ge Club z Improv Club z Harmonica Club z Che

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NCAA TENNIS

ATHLETES OF THE WEEK

Stanford is all set for future Doubles title a good way to end women’s season and prepare for next year

by Rick Eymer o matter who plays at the top of the singles ladder next year, she will have earned it.

The Stanford women’s tennis team will not be lacking talented players.

Case in point: Sophomore Stacey Tan reached the championship match of the NCAA singles tournament and she normally played at No. 5 singles, with some appearances at No. 4.

Tan, who won 11 of the 13 threeset matches in which she was involved this year, was as unlikely an NCAA finalist as, say, Hilary Barte claiming the No. 1 spot as a freshman.

Tan lost in the finals to California’s top-ranked Jana Juricova, 6-0, 7-6 (7-2), but it was an experience she can use when the Cardinal venture forward. “I loved the energy and the support,� Tan said afterward. “College tennis is such a different atmosphere than junior tennis.�

Tan became the lowest ranked (No. 43) player to reach the championship final since 1998, when No. 51 Ania Bleszynski of Stanford lost to Duke’s Vanessa Webb 6-3, 6-4.

She was the 10th unseeded player to reach the final in the 30-year history of the event.

N

Ozzy Braff

Jake Bruml

Palo Alto High

Menlo School

The junior drove in the winning run in a 5-4 victory over San Benito as the Vikings won their first CCS baseball title and was a defensive standout during a 5-2 victory over No. 2 Mitty in the section semifinals.

The senior pitched 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief in a 4-0 victory over Carmel in the CCS Division III finals after getting two hits and tossing 4 2/3 innings of relief to get the win in a 9-8 nine-inning win in the semis.

Honorable mention Phil Anderson Menlo baseball

Freddy Avis Menlo baseball

Tim Benton Menlo baseball

Christoph Bono* Palo Alto baseball

B.J. Boyd Palo Alto baseball

Henry Liu Gunn badminton

Stas Della Morte Menlo-Atherton track and field

Erin Robinson Gunn track and field

Ben Sneider Palo Alto baseball

Drake Swezey Palo Alto baseball

Maurice Williams Palo Alto track & field

Jack Witte* Palo Alto baseball * previous winner

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(continued on next page)

NCAA baseball (continued from page 38)

Reed, who had one start to begin the year in which he gave up seven earned runs, has a 1.85 ERA as a reliever. Mark Appel was slated to be the Cardinal closer but an injury to lefthander Brett Mooneyham forced changes in the pitching staff.

It turned out well for Reed. “You never know when things click for players,� Stanford coach Mark Marquess said. “They develop at different times. He was inconsistent and he struggled with his command. He was a middle reliever.

Chris worked hard and it all came together. Now he’s a first-round draft pick.�

Appel (5-6, 3.02) worked out well for Stanford too. He became the staff ace. He also marvels at Reed’s progress. “It’s been awesome to watch him grow to where he is now from when he first got here,� Appel said. “You see him in the weight room and you see him working on the field. He deserves his role and whatever happens in the draft.�

Reed earned honorable mention on the All-Pac-10 Conference team.

Brian Ragira was named the Pac-10

To see video interviews of the Athletes of the Week, go to www.PASportsOnline.com

Freshman of the Year, and Stephen Piscotty was named a first-team selection. Kenny Diekroeger, Jake Stewart, Tyler Gaffney, and Austin Wilson also were honorable mention.

Stanford swept California in its final Pac-10 series last weekend, winning 3-2 and 4-2 and was leading 7-1 in the third game before getting rained out in the fourth inning. The Cardinal enters the postseason with eight wins in its past 11 contests. “Over the years you learn it doesn’t make much difference who you play,� Marquess said. “At this time of the year you know you’re playing a good team.�

Fullerton (40-15) and Illinois (2825) meet in the other first-round game of the double-elimination tournament at 8 p.m. All games will be televised on ESPNU. Gaffney, a sophomore, brings a 17-game hitting streak as Stanford, which has won 11 of its past 15 games, makes its 30th trip into the postseason. Stanford hopes to make its 17th trip to the College World Series.

Gaffney has seen his average rise to .320, third on the team behind Piscotty (.361) and Ragira (.321).

Wilson (.313), another freshman, also has been a surprise.

Menlo School grads Kenny Diekroeger and Danny Diekroeger also have made an impact for the Cardinal. Kenny has started 51 games, is hitting .298 with two home runs and 29 RBI. Danny has worked his way into the lineup as a left-handed designated hitter. He’s hitting .276 and has appeared in 16 games, most of them in the second half of the season. He had two RBI wiped out by rain on Saturday.

Stanford is 13-9 against the tournament field, which includes games against national seeds Vanderbilt, Texas and Rice. The Cardinal played all three of them within its first 11 games.

Stanford finished fifth in the Pac10, which have six schools heading to the postseason. Arizona State, Oregon State and UCLA each host a regional while California plays at Rice and Arizona heads to Texas A&M. Kansas State, which won the Big 12 tournament, makes its third straight NCAA appearance. The Wildcats have won eight of their past 11 and finished sixth in their conference.

Jason King brings a 16-game hitting streak into the fray for Kansas State. N

Sports

NCAA women

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“It’s been a long week. Each match is really tough,� Tan said. “It’s just tiring and exhausting and taking it one day at a time really does help, especially knowing that you put 100 percent of what you have out there every day, doing what you can to recover from the match and getting ready for the next day.�

Tan won over 76 percent of her matches (32-10) this season, and had an 81 percent success rate (13-3) against nationally-ranked opponents. Barte had similar numbers as a freshman.

Barte and sophomore Mallory Burdette (who played at No. 2 singles) are the NCAA doubles champions after beating Clemson’s Josipa Bek and Kari Wong, 7-6 (8-6), 6-0, in the finals.

It was a fitting climax for Barte, who also won the doubles title last year with Mallory’s older sister, Lindsay Burdette. “I couldn’t be happier to leave on top,� said Barte, who will play professional tennis during the summer and then plans to go abroad in the fall to finish her degree. “To go out on top in my last match in a Stanford uniform; I couldn’t write a better script.�

Barte and Burdette, who won their final 15 doubles matches in succession, became Stanford’s 14th doubles titlists, and the seventh since the since the NCAA adopted its current format in 1982. The duo

won 30 of their 36 matches and was 19-5 against ranked opponents. “This is great,� Burdette said. “After losing the deciding match it’s like nothing worse could happen. I’m convinced it’s about how much hard work you put in.�

Freshman Nicole Gibbs is another candidate for the top spot in singles.

She reached the semifinals of the singles tournament, beating Barte in the quarterfinals to do so. Gibbs took Juricova to a third-set tiebreaker before losing. “I’m excited about the way I performed this week,� Gibbs said. “I can see myself winning the NCAA tournament. I want to see another Stanford-Florida championship match next year. We have the means to get there and the means to win it.

We will be equally as solid.�

Barte agrees. “There are so many great things to come in the future,� she said. “I can’t wait to be in Athens next year cheering them on.�

Freshman Kristie Ahn is another potential No. 1 singles player for Stanford. A sprained ankle kept her from competing at full strength during the postseason.

Ahn and Gibbs were both undefeated in dual-match play, with each dividing their playing time between No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 singles.

They will be joined by blue-chip prospect Ellen Tsay, a product of Monte Vista High in Danville. She is ranked sixth in the country. She is Stanford’s lone recruit, though she gives Stanford the seventh-highest rated recruiting class in the nation. N

Stanford’s Thacher, Klahn will use doubles loss at NCAAs as a positive step forward

by Rick Eymer

S

tanford juniors Ryan Thacher and Bradley Klahn will be taking divergent paths this summer, with a possible reunion sometime in September. Some of their plans remain in a state of flux.

Wherever they may venture, tennis will always be a part of their journeys. The tandem has played 114 matches while representing Stanford over the past three years, winning 94 of them.

They’ve also appeared at several pro events, including the SAP Open in San Jose this past February, where they won in the first round.

Their latest achievement came Monday, when the pair took on Texas A&M’s third-seeded duo of Jeff Dadamo and Austin Krajicek in the finals of the NCAA doubles tournament at Taube Family Tennis Center.

The Aggies captured the crown, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, beating the Cardinal combo for the third time this year.

And while there was some disappointment for the Stanford duo, both players realized it was simply one more step further along their tennis path. “We ended on a great note,� Klahn said of his team. “We ripped off 13 straight and pushed an undefeated Virginia team to the brink. It was

certainly a tough loss but also serves as a reminder that we’re right there and we can carry that momentum over to next year.�

Thacher, who turned commentator for a day during the team tournament, thought reaching the team quarterfinals was a step in the right direction. “It was bittersweet but we finally got the hump and got past the Round of 16,� he said. “Over the last month or so guys started playing their best tennis. They are a lot of good things ahead.�

While Klahn will hit the road with a traveling college team and participate in pro circuit events, Thacher will be concentrating on summer classes at Stanford.

Klahn heads to the USTA Summer Collegiate Team training camp in Florida beginning next Thursday.

The program is designed to provide players with exposure to the professional circuit in a team-oriented environment.

The top six American players from the season-ending ITA national singles rankings are eligible for automatic selection to the camp.

The remaining players are selected

by USTA Player Development staff in conjunction with USTA and college coaches. “It’s very similar to last year,� said Klahn, who won the NCAA singles

crown as a sophomore. “Just start playing and gaining experience.�

The men’s team will be coached

by Alabama assistant Bo Hodge and Notre Dame assistant Ryan Sachire.

Last year, Klahn traveled with Krajicek, USC’s Steve Johnson and Tennessee’s Rhyne Williams among others.

Thacher figures to keep track of his partner’s progress while staying on campus. He also plans to enter a few local open tournaments on weekends. He could also get together and play a few tournaments with Klahn in September, but that has yet to be decided.

The experience of playing in front of a large crowd at HP Pavilion helped the pair prepare for the NCAA tournament, and playing in front of a raucous home base. “It does help to have played on this stage, and at HP, in terms of environment and playing in front of lots of people,� Thacher said.

Klahn and Thacher, who reached the semifinals in last year’s NCAA tournament, completed the season with a 43-8 record, 19-3 in dual matches. They won a pair of tournament championships: Pacific Coast Doubles and the Sherwood Cup. Klahn and Thacher were 16-7 against nationally ranked opponents. N

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Sports

CCS track

Paly’s Williams, who placed fourth personal best of 10:48.79 ran at last in 22-3. year’s CCS finals. “Last week I had to worry about Gallagher earned her second finals and finishing school,� Della berth at the State meet despite tak9. No other section in the state has Morte said. “The last couple of days ing fourth in the 800 at CCS in three teams among the top 10.

I’ve been able to relax. We’ve mostly 2:16.02. Gallagher brought the sec“We have a chance (to make fi- been watching movies in class.� tion’s top mark into the finals and nals),� Fung said. “That’s all I asked That still didn’t keep him from was in control of the race most of for. If they run well, I think we can getting anxious. He has some trou- the way before she was caught in the run under 42.00. I have confidence ble getting sleep Thursday night as final 40 yards. in these guys; we’ve got nothing to he went over the long jump in his “I think I was nervous because I lose.� mind time and again. started to worry about finishing in The Vikings have plenty to gain. “I was over thinking everything,� the top three,� Gallagher said. “I One big carrot dangling out there is he said. “I just wanted to be ready.� started losing a little confidence.� the 41.83 time that CubberDella Morte goes Gallagher learned she ley High ran in 1979. That into Friday’s prewould make the trip to Cloteam, anchored by former lims ranked 13th. vis when Aptos’ Nikki Hiltz 400-meter national recordThe top qualifying and Mountain View’s Alliholder Bill Green, ranks mark is 24-10. son Sturges both dropped No. 10 all-time in CCS hisWilliams, who the event to concentrate on tory and is No. 1 all-time in finished the 100 in the 1,600.

Palo Alto.

10.90, just off his “I didn’t want to get my “We’ve got something personal best, was hopes up because I realto run for on Friday,� Fung gaining on Gilroy’s ized they both earned it,� said.

Jourdan Soares, Erin Robinson Gallagher said. “I’ve been Sam Parker Joining the relay team in who won the event having some trouble getting Friday’s prelims will be sophomore in 10.66, as they crossed the finish nervous before races and I was dishigh jumper Victor Du. He finished line. appointed in this race.� fourth at CCS, losing a jump-off at “That’s a pretty fast group,� WilRobinson said she has been strug6-3. Du was added to the state roster liams said. “It was all speed.� gling most of the season, with only a when second-place finisher Dalyn Williams is seeded 19th for the couple of good races to show for her Pacheco of Serra dropped out.

100 prelims. Soares is No. 5. efforts. Fortunately one of her best Also competing this weekend Menlo’s Parker also qualified for races was in the final. at the State Meet will be Menlo- the state meet for the first time in “I would have liked to PR but I’m Atherton senior Stas Della Morte, his specialty with his second-place happy with what I did,� Robinson Menlo School senior Sam Parker finish in the 800 in a time of 1:57.27. said. “Up until now I haven’t had plus Gunn senior Erin Robinson and That makes him the No. 27 seed a good race . . . My training has junior teammate Kieran Gallagher. in the prelims, with No. 1 being been going well but it seems when Della Morte won his first CCS 1:50.50. it comes to the races I get locked up. title by taking the long jump at 22Gunn’s Robinson earned a sec- I wish I could have gone faster but I 10 1/2. Della Morte put a stressful ond straight trip to the finals of the do have state.�N week behind him to out jump the 3,200 after taking second at CCS (Rick Eymer also contributed.) rest of the field, which also included in 10:48.86. That was just off her

Page 42ĂŠUĂŠ Ă•Â˜iĂŠĂŽ]ÊÓ䣣ÊUĂŠ*>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠ7iiÂŽÂ?Ăž

Forrest Carmichael

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Menlo-Atherton senior Stas Della Morte is seeded No. 13 in the long jump for the state prelims after winning CCS at 22-10 1/2.