Monthly Archives: June 2016

Free Bicycle Helmets!

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I was looking at my tenant’s bicycle helmets in the bike shed that we share, and I was shocked at what I saw. Several helmets looked really beat up. Even worse, 2 of them were missing parts designed to hold the helmet onto your head. If you would like a free brand-new bicycle helmet, I will pay for it! This is – as they say – a limited time offer. If you buy a new bicycle helmet between now and September 1, bring me the receipt, and I will reimburse you up to $75 in cash. That should be enough to buy a good bike helmet. If you don’t need a new bicycle helmet, I will pay up to $75 for the purchase of bicycle safety equipment instead, including lights, reflectors, locks, pumps, repair kits, and pressure gauges.

P.S. – You don’t have to point out that this offer is pure paternalism on my part. I am aware of that. I am sorry if anyone is offended by this offer, but on the other hand, I don’t know of any other landlord in town who is giving away free bicycle helmets.

Do Landlords in Berkeley Discriminate Against Irish Students?

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The short answer is No. There have been a lot of claims in social media and the press that landlords in Berkeley will no longer rent apartments to Irish students because of the balcony collapse at Library Gardens downtown that resulted in the deaths of 6 Irish college students. These stories are untrue. I have been a landlord in Berkeley for over 40 years, and nearly all my tenants are U.C. Berkeley students. I know a lot of other Berkeley landlords, and none of them blame the victims for this tragedy. It is true that there were far more people on that balcony when it collapsed than was prudent; however, engineering reports showed that the cause of the collapse was poor construction resulting in wood rot and that had the balcony been properly built, it could have supported the weight of those students. The sympathies of all the landlords I know are with the families of these students. Yes, it is hard for Irish students to rent apartments in Berkeley for the summer, but not because they are Irish. There is a severe rental housing shortage in Berkeley, and because of our local rent laws, most leases in Berkeley prohibit sub-leasing. The Irish counsel general in San Francisco has investigated claims of discrimination against Irish students in Berkeley and has concluded that these stories are baseless and has said so publicly.

Have You Ever Heard of a ‘Fatberg’?

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fatbergLast month, I had an article about flushable products in this newsletter. Somebody who read that article suggested that I look into ‘fatbergs’. Although I think I have a fairly good vocabulary, I had never heard the word ‘fatberg’ before. A fatberg is a congealed lump of kitchen fat and flushable products. Flushable products are products that manufacturer claims are safe to flush but which do not dissolve in water like toilet paper. Fatbergs have been found in sewer pipes all over the world. They are often round and get bigger as more and more flushable products become incorporated in them, much the same way that a snowball gets bigger as it rolls downhill. Fatbergs can clog up even the biggest sewer pipes. In New York City, a fatberg weighing 10 tons was removed from a sewer pipe. Try to picture that – a hard round ball made up entirely out of kitchen fat and used baby wipes and sanitary napkins and weighing 10 tons. How would you like to have the job of removing something like that from a sewer pipe? Major cities all over the world are spending huge sums of money removing fatbergs from their sewers. Recently, a fatberg the size of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet was removed from a sewer in London! Below is a photo of an 8 ton fatberg that rolled into a turn in a sewer pipe in Sydney, Australia, sealing off the flow of sewage. I have been looking at photos of fatbergs on Google images, and I must admit that some of them look strangely beautiful. Of course, I am looking at them at a distance. I strongly suspect that fatbergs are not as pretty to look at (or smell) up close.

The word ‘flushable’ has no legal definition. Right now, any manufacturer can say that any product is ‘flushable.’ I think Congress should create a legal definition for the word ‘flushable’ just as they did for the words ‘organic’ and ‘gluten-free.’ To repeat what I said last month – never, never flush so-called flushable products.

A Trip to the Egyptian Museum.

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I collect exceptionally badly written essays from my students. Here’s a goodie from the past:

“My family visited the Egyptian Museum in Cairo last summer. The thing that impressed me the most were these 2 giant statues of some pharaoh. There was a doorway between them. The statues were identical, especially the one on the right. I think the statue on the right must have been made first. That’s because even though the statue on the left was identical to the one on the right, the statue on the right was even more identical.”

Hmmm. I have a couple of cousins in Cincinnati who are archaeologists and who have been to the Egyptian Museum. I’ll check with them and see what they say. They are professionals, so I’m sure they will know which of these statues is ‘more identical’ than the other.

New in the Chocolate Room.

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California Granola. I am making a new granola mix. It contains almonds, raisins, walnuts, and dates. I call it California Granola because nearly all of all the almonds raisins, walnuts, and daCaliforniaGranolates grown in the United States come in California. I have it in 8 ounce and 16 ounce jars. Most people, even people here in California, don’t realize how much of our nation’s food comes from California. Nearly 100% of the following crops come from California: apricots, artichokes, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, figs, garlic, grapes, kiwifruit, nectarines, olives, clingstone peaches, pistachios, plums, pomegranates, and strawberries.