Critters have been prancing around the Rooney Bin roof lately, and they aren’t Santa’s reindeer either. More …

Do you remember the final scene from “A Christmas Story,” when the family, whose Christmas meal was ruined by the neighbor’s marauding dogs, is sitting down to Peking duck and a serenade of… More …

If you are a challenged cook unable to put together a holiday meal, you may have limited local dining options come Christmas Day. Not many restaurants in Willows and Orland will be open Friday, so you should eat hearty on Christmas Eve or stock up on… More …

Because the holidays are even jollier with good food (and drinks), here are a few more places that will be open on Christmas Eve: •All five Casa Ristorante Italiano locations will be open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday for holiday carry-out orders only - but orders must be placed today. More …

If it feels like summer just ended and your kids’ Halloween candy is still lying around the house, then you probably can’t believe that Christmas is a mere five days away. But it is and chances are you might then also find yourself with too little time and too many gifts left to buy. More …

The Berkeley bastion of punk hasn’t sold out. More …

The Wales Town Board announced the impending retirement from town government of Shirley Schiltz, the longtime receiver of taxes and refuse clerk. Her resignation was accepted “with regret,” with Town Supervisor Rickey A. Venditti and fellow board members praising Schiltz for more than 22 years of service to Wales. More …

Maoming Lu now. To think how different it looked ten years ago. Photo by JustLikeEddie In a city like Shanghai, new openings are aplenty and sudden closings even more so. It seems that the evanescent disposition of the city’s restaurants and bars make it so that when something stays open for over two years, it ought to be counted as an old stand by. We are, of course, talking about expat … More …

Dr. Martens boots, black coats, shaved heads, pimples, ponytails and enough irony to pave West Berkeley. Sounds like another night at 924 Gilman, the punk club named after its address. More …

Paying it Forward - Editor: My 4-year-old son, Patrick, and I went to the Chit Chat Cafe on Monday for a hot chocolate and lunch. As we were walking out, he dropped his hot chocolate and watched it run down the sidewalk with a full pouty lip and a tear in his eye. More …