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Used bookstores should come in at least two kinds. There are the ones big enough that the books reach a critical mass and bend spacetime around themselves so that it turns into a weird labyrinth of...
Used bookstores should come in at least two kinds. There are the ones big enough that the books reach a critical mass and bend spacetime around themselves so that it turns into a weird labyrinth of literature. Then there are the ones small enough to fit in your pocket, with really excellent and totally useless books and nothing in between, run by weird people out of a hole in the wall that you can't believe will stick around for more than a month. The Book Zoo is the latter, carrying mainly books you can't believe exist, and run with intense quirky independence. My favorite thing about them: they stamp all their dollar bills with "Book Zoo: Used, Out of Print, Buy. Sell, Trade"" and their address, and when you get those dollars as change and bring them back to spend there they are worth TWO dollars each. It is so awesome! and such a brilliant publicity idea. I have two sitting on my desk right now - that's four dollars at the Book Zoo, enough to buy a whole book or maybe two!
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Kabuki is quiet, dark, and heavenly. For twenty dollars on weekdays or twenty-five on weekends, you can stay as long as you want, floating between the dry sauna, the wet sauna, the hot tub, the cold...
Kabuki is quiet, dark, and heavenly. For twenty dollars on weekdays or twenty-five on weekends, you can stay as long as you want, floating between the dry sauna, the wet sauna, the hot tub, the cold plunge, the free pitchers of lemon or cucumber water, the little cups of free salt you can use to scrub yourself down in the wet sauna, free towels (for there only) and the benches and chairs for in-between chilling out. Tuesdays are co-ed, swimsuits required; Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are women, clothing optional, and Saturdays, Mondays, and Thursdays are men, clothing optional. And they have a lavish array of massage and facial types of treatments for around $80.
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SIA has flyers that show a tree with all these things like addiction and depression in its branches and then sexual abuse at the root, and it says, "When you want to 'root out' the problem...." It's...
SIA has flyers that show a tree with all these things like addiction and depression in its branches and then sexual abuse at the root, and it says, "When you want to 'root out' the problem...." It's a good place to learn about the myriad and pervasive effects of any kind of abuse, and about how to rebuild your life and replace everything that your parents managed to leave out of the equation so you can have a really healthy and joyous adult life. More specifically, it's a good place to learn about sexual abuse of any kind (they define "incest" as broadly as you can imagine) and how to recover from it, in a peer-led (no creepy power dynamics) and free forum. Local meeting schedules and online meetings can be found at this http://sia.fabglitter.org .
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There's already a Narcotics Anonymous program, right? Why Marijuana Anonymous? Well, because pot is considered to be such a "lite" drug, because it's considered to be non-addictive and even...
There's already a Narcotics Anonymous program, right? Why Marijuana Anonymous? Well, because pot is considered to be such a "lite" drug, because it's considered to be non-addictive and even considered to be almost healthy, a lot of people who are addicted to pot feel like they don't get what they need out of meetings geared toward "harder" drugs. In reality, you can be addicted to anything; people can use anything to try to fill that hole inside themselves. I've never been to MA, but my sponsor started out there and she is a total wise insightful genius with a ton of recovery - so it must be good. More information can be found at
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/Issues/2006-01-18/news/resolutions4.html
and http://www.madistrict2.org/ .
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Despite the name, like most twelve-step programs Overeaters Anonymous actually deals with both ends of the food spectrum - with any kind of dysfunctional relationship to food and eating, whether...
Despite the name, like most twelve-step programs Overeaters Anonymous actually deals with both ends of the food spectrum - with any kind of dysfunctional relationship to food and eating, whether it's anorexia or bulimia or compulsive overeating or something else entirely. It's a free (but they pass the hat for totally voluntary donations), peer-led, supportive environment where people come share about their problems with food and the tools that have helped them. And along the way, people learn tools for a healthy life.
The OA East Bay website, http://www.oaeastbay.org/, has information about local meetings and about deciding whether OA would be useful to you. Every meeting is different; try several to see what kind you like.
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Socca Oven
Category:
Food & Dining
1511 Shattuck Avenue #B Berkeley, California 94701 (510) .54-8.6001
Socca, as it turns out, is a kind of Provencal pancake that's been around for nearly two hundred and fifty years. Here, they are covered with delicious and alluring items. For $6.75, you can get one...
Socca, as it turns out, is a kind of Provencal pancake that's been around for nearly two hundred and fifty years. Here, they are covered with delicious and alluring items. For $6.75, you can get one slathered in slow-roasted pork and flavored with a mushroom duxelle and truffle oil. Now, truffles are popular around here, but rarely do I see them on something so reasonably priced. Plus, it comes in the fancy Gregoire's take-away box, an octagonal cardboard affair that I think you can bring back for a discount on your next dish. Best of all: they cook with fire and you can watch!
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Alegio is located in the Epicurious Garden building in Berkeley. They are awesome. In an area that is filling up with specialty chocolate stores, they manage to have unique products - by shipping...
Alegio is located in the Epicurious Garden building in Berkeley. They are awesome. In an area that is filling up with specialty chocolate stores, they manage to have unique products - by shipping them in from Barcelona! One wall of this chocolate nook is filled up with brightly colored cubes filled with stuff that - if you can read Spanish - turns out to be chocolate-covered corn, chocolate flavored with espresso, and about eighteen other kinds of chocolate snacking wonders. The store owner, Panos, is awesome and apparently French and ships his partner's handmade chocolates in from Manhattan every week, sighing about how she left for love and she'll be back here someday. And every week, he features chocolates from a different local chocolatier, and will sample them with you and share his opinions of their skill.
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KTEH
Category:
Entertainment & Arts
1585 Schallenberger Road San Jose, California 95101 (408) 795-5400
You know, I've heard it said that KTEH just carries the same stuff that the richer PBS stations around here do, only a little later on. Seems to me that's a plus - what if I missed it the first...
You know, I've heard it said that KTEH just carries the same stuff that the richer PBS stations around here do, only a little later on. Seems to me that's a plus - what if I missed it the first time? KTEH is more than that, though. They have themed nights of funny shows, like Red Dwarf and The Office and other stuff all stuck together. They used to (and maybe still do) have Sci-Fi Sunday, which at the time had Red Dwarf and my beloved Doctor Who. They were the last station in the US to carry Doctor Who after it was cancelled (and before it was revived), which earned them a place in my heart forever. Even if their fundraising department IS completely in chaos and won't stop contacting me no matter how many times I tell them to leave me alone.
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When I was in college, I used to take the Mills Van down to U C Berkeley and scarf a slice down here really fast in between cool stores. They've never done me wrong, because all I want is a giant...
When I was in college, I used to take the Mills Van down to U C Berkeley and scarf a slice down here really fast in between cool stores. They've never done me wrong, because all I want is a giant piece of cheap pizza with a ton of cheese. Nowadays I might not like it as much, having developed a taste for such things as artichoke hearts and flavor. But then again, maybe they have those (ok, one of those) and I just never tried.
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Filippo's does a good solid job: bruschetta, deconstructed Italian salads of fresh mozzarella and basil and tomatoes, and plenty of different kinds of linguini and fettucini and capellini for you to...
Filippo's does a good solid job: bruschetta, deconstructed Italian salads of fresh mozzarella and basil and tomatoes, and plenty of different kinds of linguini and fettucini and capellini for you to enjoy. They don't dabble in any fancy stuff that you have never heard of, or at least that I've never heard of (though I am Italian), they just do the regular good old Italian-American restaurant stuff super-tasty-good for decent prices. The only downside I've experienced in my several trips there is that the restaurant is small, so while we've always gotten seated sometimes we could wish for a little more space from our neighbors!
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