The Buzz 08.21.14

WHO’S IN TOWN?

There are 20 frog species known as Xenopus, native to sub-Saharan Africa. They click instead of croak, and as good swimmers with webbed toes and slippery skin, they are mostly aquatic. The 15th annual International Xenopus Conference in Pacific Grove is not a convention for frogs, or frog aficionados. It’s for geneticists, fond of studying Xenopus, which has long been a model in biomedical research. The sessions are open only to scientists and members of the Genetics Society of America.

The International Xenopus Conference happens Aug. 24-28 at Asilomar Conference Grounds, 800 Asilomar Ave. For more, visit www.genetics-gsa.org.

LOCAL TRIVIA

Which of the following isn’t true of raccoons:

• a. They eat almost everything except corn.
• b. They give birth in trees.
• c. They hunt with their hands, not their teeth.
• d. They can solve complex puzzles.

(Last week’s answer to “Where did John Steinbeck write Sea of Cortez?” d. The Guest Inn Cottage in Pacific Grove.)

OVERHEARD

“Reg! Get some sushi before it runs out!” 
—Aug. 13, at the Jet Center’s McCall Motorworks Gathering, from local chef Christopher Caul to MLB Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson, as the sashimi and maki rolls dwindled.

GOOD WEEK / BAD WEEK

GOOD: We were all a little sniffly when Monterey Bay Computer Works, the Weekly’s go-to place for computers and iPads and such, closed its doors on July 3. For those who believe in shopping local/buying local, Computer Works was the ultimate – open for three decades, in Seaside, with staff that remembered customers’ names. But following the death of owner Greg Pickert last year, it was hard to keep the doors open. Good news last week, then, that Shane Williams reopened the beloved Computer Works under the name of MacSuperstore, with the same staff, same manager and some new items too (pre-owned Macs in like-new condition? Hells yeah.) Williams, a Central Coast native who opened his first MacSuperstore 16 years ago, operates three other MacSuperstores, in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Colorado Springs.

BAD: Oh the woes that have befallen the Monterey Herald. To recap: the paper in the past two years has outsourced its ad production to India, its copy desk to Chico, sold its building and moved to a rental, and shares an editor, publisher and ad director with the Santa Cruz Sentinel. The Herald also has lost a half-dozen top notch staff members in the past year too (see Squid, p. 15). The the ones who remain are increasingly fed up with corporate master Digital First Media’s refusal to negotiate a measly 2.5-percent raise and better contributions to health care costs. The result of the unhappiness? An astounding one-day byline strike on Aug. 20, during which Herald writers who are members of the Pacific Media Workers Guild refused to allow their names to appear on stories they had written. Instead, there was this: “By staff.” Could a real strike be in the works?