Jan

29

Emergency — Please help Book Passage

January 29, 2006 | Comments Off

Please help our good friends at Book Passage, who are facing what appears to be stiff and unfair competition. Details — including who to express your opinion to — are below.

Forwarded from:
Book Passage Special Fortnightly
The Bay Area’s Liveliest Bookstore
January 23, 2006

We try to limit the number of electronic newsletters that we send to our customers, but we feel the need to bring people up to date on an issue of importance to us. The Town Center in Corte Madera is apparently planning to lease a very large space to Barnes & Noble, and the situation surrounding this has raised all kinds of questions. Below is some information that we feel is important. Thank your for your patience.

1 “Bookstore Giant Alarms Fans of Small Bookseller”
2 Response to Stan Hoffman, Town Center manager
3 Book Passage and the Local Economy
4 Where to Write

Some concerned people have also put together an emergency website with information about this issue: www.omnibusol.com/ccsib.html

See extended entry for the rest….

Read the full post . . .

Jan

8

Guatemala on the Gringo Trail

January 8, 2006 | Comments Off

Hello from Laurie Weed (12/25/2005), who sends greetings from “Copan Ruinas, a sleepy colonial town about 10 kilometers east of the Guatemalan border. It was misty and cool here when I arrived, but today the sun is shining and it’s a tropical 75 degrees. There’s a breeze ruffling the palm fronds, marimba music in the streets, and I think the kids next door may have finally run out of firecrackers, so it should be a tranquil Christmas night.”

Guatemala: A Subjective Best-Of List:

- Peering into the sulfurous mouth of Pacaya, one of Guatemala’s 3 live volcanoes (see November’s email).

- Hiking from San Pedro out to La Finca (the Ranch) and spending the day lazing at Lake Atitlan on a private, palapa-covered dock.

- Eating hot pupusas (flat bread fried around local cheese, then smothered in mashed avocado and chile sauce) at the street stalls, followed by a cup of azole (sp?), a sweet, warm drink made from maize that tastes like runny corn pudding. Yum!

- Swimming in the brilliant green pools at Semuc Champey, surrounded by pristine rainforest.

- Admiring the hypnotically bright, intricately woven cloth made and worn by indigenous women in the highlands.

- Traveling among Guatemala’s amazing variety of cultures, from diverse Mayan villages in the highlands to Garifuna-Creole settlements on the Caribbean coast.

(Read on: learn about Laurie’s adventure swiming through a cave with a candle, and learn to identify a jungle chicken….)

Read the full post . . .