Berkeley Reporter

by Steed Dropout
Oct. 26, 2014

For the last several years, I have told people that I will be buried at Lincoln’s Tomb. This is not much of an exaggeration when my burial plot is just around the corner from Lincoln’s. “I’ll post a sign: drop in in nearby to visit Dropout,” I have boasted.

My apartment on Berkeley’s South side is far from Lincoln’s Tomb, at Oak Ridge Cemetery on the Northern outskirts of Springfield, Illinois.

I recall the tomb from four-score childhood visits with the Boy Scouts. Illinois license plates advertise, “Land of Lincoln;” Lincoln’s hometown vacated downtown Springfield to make room for a Lincoln presidential library, even though Lincoln left few papers.

Lincoln's Tomb.

Continue reading “Bury My Heart at Lincoln’s Tomb” »

by Steed Dropout
Oct. 18, 2014

The Poynter sisters drummer visiting Berkeley’s oldest espresso-pull, identified the Med skeleton as “Eric,” from Morgus (sci-fi-horror films) Ch2, New Orleans. “He scared me when I was a baby.”

“Alas poor Eric, I knew him, Horatio,” a Med-head alluded.

That Halloween skeleton ($14.29 Costco) playing the piano at Berkeley’s notorious Caffe Mediterraneum has now been identified as “Eric.”

Alas poor 'Eric,' I knew him Horatio--Shakespeare. Photo by Ted Friedman.

Continue reading “Dead Berkeley Bones ID’d” »

by Steed Dropout
Oct. 8, 2014

Berkeley’s radical skeptics, call them immaterialists if you must–live in a world where reality is suspended.

“If you say so,” these skeptics say, or, “according to you.” Or, “that’s what you think.”

After several years of this, I could take it no longer. “Look!” I spluttered, “who else but me could be speaking my words?”

“Moreover, I investigate my factoids,” I continued. “I’m a reporter,” perhaps exaggerating the investigation-angle.

“I’ve been a reporter myself,” the skeptic claimed.
Continue reading “Berkeley’s Radical Skeptics” »