Originally published by the San Jose Mercury News July 24, 2011

By Mike Cassidy
Mercury News Columnist

I think we can all stipulate that there’s no way we’d survive without the wondrous inventions of Silicon Valley.

No, I’m not talking about the computer chip or personal computer or the Internet or Facebook or the iPad. Those are nifty, but they’ve gotten their fair share of attention.

I’m talking about our everyday bread and butter — or batter and butter or bread and pastrami with mustard, for that matter. Like Eggo waffles — invented in San Jose. And Togo’s sandwiches — also born in San Jose. And that’s just for starters.

I blame a rare culinary coincidence for my new found fixation on Silicon Valley inventions that have nothing to do with silicon. Not everything invented here, after all, requires a power cord or battery.

Did you know that 2011 is both the 75th anniversary of the toaster-ready Eggo and the 40th anniversary of Togo’s — our own hometown hero? The original Togo’s shop on William Street with its funky wooden facade is gone, having moved out in 1999. But its memory lives on in a few framed mementos at the nearby Paseo de San Antonio location, one of 242 Togo’s now sating the lunchtime crush.

“We have all the paraphernalia and memorabilia from its founding days,” CEO Tony Gioia says by phone from Togo’s world headquarters on San Pedro Street. “That’s how we memorialize Togo’s.”

And let’s not forget the Oral-B toothbrush and all its bristly softness, which was invented by a San Jose dentist perhaps in anticipation of cleaning up after all those waffles and sandwiches. And first, but not least, there’s the 100-plus-year-old Macabee Gopher Trap Co., a great leap forward when it launched, unless of course you were a gopher.

Maybe you’re like me. Maybe you’ve taken these mundane innovations for granted. Good inventions are like that. They become a seamless part of life. But taken together these products are a reminder that this place has always been on the cutting edge of whatever needed cutting at the time.

“Something about this valley seems to generate that,” says former Mercury News columnist Leigh Weimers, who annually hosts the First Festival, an online celebration of personal and famous firsts in Silicon Valley. “It has for years.”

No, he isn’t sure why. Maybe it’s because for generations, pioneers have traveled west, landed in California and realized, “We can’t go any farther. And shoot, we have to do something.”

Something like the Togo’s sandwich, stuffed with meat, cheese, toppings and assembled with lightning speed, which is what then-San Jose State student Mike Cobler decided to do. Or a toothbrush that cleaned teeth without tearing up gums, which is the call that Willow Glen dentist Robert Hutson answered in the 1950s. These inventors leave behind fast waffles, quick lunches, sparkling smiles, dead gophers and a legacy — a legacy that means something to those who knew them best.

Frank Dorsa Jr. is still proud of his father’s role in propelling waffles into the modern, six-second breakfast era. They’re still making Eggos in the factory that his dad and uncles opened over on what’s now Eggo Way in San Jose. Kellogg’s owns the business now, and earlier this year the company invited the younger Dorsa to the plant for a celebration.

“They were having a breakfast for the employees,” Dorsa says. “You’d never guess what they were serving.”

OK, you would.

Ron Fink, who in 1959 started working at the gopher trap company started by Zephyr A. Macabee, says he feels like the steward of the company’s history. The headquarters is still in the Los Gatos Victorian where Macabee launched his business more than 100 years ago. “It’s an old place with a lot of cobwebs, squeaky floors,” Fink says. “Nothing has changed very much.”

With one big exception: Fink, now general manager, says that in 2008 he moved manufacturing from the Victorian’s basement to China. He put eight employees out of work, which eats at him still. But he’s not sure the company could have survived the competition otherwise. And who really wants a 100-year-old company to go under on his watch?

The grandkids own the business now — grandkids who are in their 80s, Fink says. And sure, they want to see the operation survive far into the future.

Fink likes Macabee’s chances. After all, there will always be more gophers than traps. That’s just nature’s way.

Originally published by the San Jose Mercury News July 24, 2011

By Mike Cassidy
Mercury News Columnist

I think we can all stipulate that there’s no way we’d survive without the wondrous inventions of Silicon Valley.

No, I’m not talking about the computer chip or personal computer or the Internet or Facebook or the iPad. Those are nifty, but they’ve gotten their fair share of attention.

I’m talking about our everyday bread and butter — or batter and butter or bread and pastrami with mustard, for that matter. Like Eggo waffles — invented in San Jose. And Togo’s sandwiches — also born in San Jose. And that’s just for starters.

I blame a rare culinary coincidence for my new found fixation on Silicon Valley inventions that have nothing to do with silicon. Not everything invented here, after all, requires a power cord or battery.

Did you know that 2011 is both the 75th anniversary of the toaster-ready Eggo and the 40th anniversary of Togo’s — our own hometown hero? The original Togo’s shop on William Street with its funky wooden facade is gone, having moved out in 1999. But its memory lives on in a few framed mementos at the nearby Paseo de San Antonio location, one of 242 Togo’s now sating the lunchtime crush.

“We have all the paraphernalia and memorabilia from its founding days,” CEO Tony Gioia says by phone from Togo’s world headquarters on San Pedro Street. “That’s how we memorialize Togo’s.”

And let’s not forget the Oral-B toothbrush and all its bristly softness, which was invented by a San Jose dentist perhaps in anticipation of cleaning up after all those waffles and sandwiches. And first, but not least, there’s the 100-plus-year-old Macabee Gopher Trap Co., a great leap forward when it launched, unless of course you were a gopher.

Maybe you’re like me. Maybe you’ve taken these mundane innovations for granted. Good inventions are like that. They become a seamless part of life. But taken together these products are a reminder that this place has always been on the cutting edge of whatever needed cutting at the time.

“Something about this valley seems to generate that,” says former Mercury News columnist Leigh Weimers, who annually hosts the First Festival, an online celebration of personal and famous firsts in Silicon Valley. “It has for years.”

No, he isn’t sure why. Maybe it’s because for generations, pioneers have traveled west, landed in California and realized, “We can’t go any farther. And shoot, we have to do something.”

Something like the Togo’s sandwich, stuffed with meat, cheese, toppings and assembled with lightning speed, which is what then-San Jose State student Mike Cobler decided to do. Or a toothbrush that cleaned teeth without tearing up gums, which is the call that Willow Glen dentist Robert Hutson answered in the 1950s. These inventors leave behind fast waffles, quick lunches, sparkling smiles, dead gophers and a legacy — a legacy that means something to those who knew them best.

Frank Dorsa Jr. is still proud of his father’s role in propelling waffles into the modern, six-second breakfast era. They’re still making Eggos in the factory that his dad and uncles opened over on what’s now Eggo Way in San Jose. Kellogg’s owns the business now, and earlier this year the company invited the younger Dorsa to the plant for a celebration.

“They were having a breakfast for the employees,” Dorsa says. “You’d never guess what they were serving.”

OK, you would.

Ron Fink, who in 1959 started working at the gopher trap company started by Zephyr A. Macabee, says he feels like the steward of the company’s history. The headquarters is still in the Los Gatos Victorian where Macabee launched his business more than 100 years ago. “It’s an old place with a lot of cobwebs, squeaky floors,” Fink says. “Nothing has changed very much.”

With one big exception: Fink, now general manager, says that in 2008 he moved manufacturing from the Victorian’s basement to China. He put eight employees out of work, which eats at him still. But he’s not sure the company could have survived the competition otherwise. And who really wants a 100-year-old company to go under on his watch?

The grandkids own the business now — grandkids who are in their 80s, Fink says. And sure, they want to see the operation survive far into the future.

Fink likes Macabee’s chances. After all, there will always be more gophers than traps. That’s just nature’s way.

David M. Steele

By Pat Lopes Harris, Media Relations Director

SJSU College of Business Dean David M. Steele has received a 2011 Leadership in Technology Management Award from the Executive Committee of the Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology at Portland State University. He will travel to Oregon August 2 to deliver a keynote address at the center’s annual conference. The address, “Crises in the Middle East and Japan – Implications for the U.S. Economy and Technology Management,” reflects Steele’s academic and professional experiences. He rose through the ranks of Chevron to become president of Chevron Latin America. He had a broadly diversified career track in R&D, project engineering, finance, strategic planning, and IT before moving to senior executive management positions. After leaving Chevron, he was an executive consultant to the founders of four international early-stage ventures, serving as interim CEO of one of these ventures, a software startup. Steele attended Birmingham University in England, receiving B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering. He later completed graduate business training at UC Berkeley and the Wharton School.

Transfer students are welcome to apply now through August 31 for spring 2012 admissions.

San Jose State University is accepting applications from upper division domestic and international transfer students (students with 60 or more transferable semester units and the four basic skills completed) beginning on August 1 through August 31, 2011. Students should be aware that not all programs will be available for Spring 2012.

IMPORTANT! To be considered for Spring 2012 admission, SJSU requires that upper division transfer applicants complete the minimum CSU transfer requirements (60 transferable units and the four basic skills) by the end of the Summer 2011 term. This condition has been posted on info.sjsu.edu and will be strictly enforced for Spring 2012. Adhering to this requirement allows new transfers earlier access to course registration during the shorter Spring admission, advising and registration cycle.

The same impaction policies enforced in Fall 2011 will be applied for Spring 2012—qualified applicants will be ranked according to self-reported information provided on their CSUMentor application and admitted according to the capacity of the individual SJSU major. CSU eligible, local students (Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties) who do not get admitted to their first-choice major will be admitted as undeclared. CSU eligible non-local students who do not get admitted to their first choice major will be admitted as undeclared up to the university capacity level.

San Jose State University is not accepting Spring 2012 applications from first-time freshmen, lower division transfers, or those seeking a second bachelor’s degree.

PLEASE NOTE: Applications are term-specific which means that SJSU will not defer or roll forward applications or admission from term to term. To guarantee review for Fall 2012 admission, apply between October 1, 2011 and November 30, 2011 (a very simple process if you have already filled out an application for spring admission).

Graduate and Special Session Programs for Spring 2012:

SJSU will accept applications for most regular and special session (self-support) professional, graduate level programs offered in Spring 2012. Check the GAPE website for a listing of available programs and specific application and document deadlines. Check the GAPE website in mid-September for a listing of available programs and specific application and document deadlines for the Fall 2012 application cycle.

The first and best place for all applicants to stay informed is via their MySJSU account. To ensure that they remain eligible for consideration, applicants must monitor their MySJSU accounts at LEAST twice weekly and comply with all deadlines from now through January 2012.

Read a related CSU news release.

Originally posted by the San Jose Mercury News July 28, 2011.

By Mary Gottschalk

Tearing through a village along the Mekong Delta with a lady of few words and her flower adorned horse, Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Social work in Vietnam is on a light speed track to success due to outside, developed-countries’ influences (photo by Stan Olszewski/SOSKIphoto.com).

By Stan Olszewski

(Editor’s Note: Olszewski is a biological forensic science major and photography minor who joined faculty and students on a Faculty-Led Student Abroad Program summer trip to Vietnam. Read more about the School of Social Work’s partnership with Vietnam.)

Vietnam is a land of history and youth.  Its history includes decades of war and struggle, fighting the French, Chinese, Americans, and themselves, facing famine and poverty.  The list goes on and it’s not looking good.

Yet a recent reunification and doi moi economic reform promotes an updated and sophisticated Asian nation.  A land of hope and strength, power and courage, independence and unity.  The Vietnamese are strong, proud, people.  They have overcome every speed bump in the road thus far; they will continue to overcome speed bumps in the future.  From what I have experienced, the Vietnamese will charge speed bumps at thirty kilometers an hour, horns blaring, carrying a dozen live, caged, pigs, several bags of rice, and two small children. Beep Beep!

So why were eight SJSU students studying in Vietnam this summer?  Why were SJSU faculty members Dr. Huong Nguyen and Tuan Tran translating lectures by Vietnamese social workers?  For the inexpensive beer of course!

The historic pains and recent changes have uncovered social issues in Vietnamese communities.  Issues America dealt with fifty years ago, but Vietnam only began to address yesterday.  Issues including poverty, drug abuse, elder abandonment, water purification, and unemployment.

Enter social workers. Enter San Jose State.

American social work developed early in the 19th century to repair Industrial Revolution socioeconomic issues.  Less than a decade ago, Vietnam started to recognize social work as a profession.  To develop Vietnam’s new social work infrastructure, collaboration took place this July.  SJSU students shared their thoughts regarding social issues in Vietnam.  Vietnamese social workers, lecturers, and students shared their experiences and expressed their concerns.  SJSU helped Vietnam understand issues from the outside in, from the perspective of a developed country, from a school with a well-established social work curriculum.  Vietnam showed SJSU where work is needed and the difference one person can make.  It was productive and inspiring.

Vietnam is inspiring.

The 2011 winner of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest featured wind turbines and birds. Photo courtesy of Danish Wind Industry Association.

By Sarah Kyo, Public Affairs Assistant

Wind turbines combined with “sparrow-like thoughts” won over judges of the 29th Annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Writing Contest.

Professor Scott Rice of SJSU’s Department of English and Comparative Literature founded this competition, which celebrates purposely bad writing. Contestants from around the world write and submit original opening lines of fictional novels.

The contest is named after Victorian author Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, who began his 1830 novel “Paul Clifford” with the famous phrase, “It was a dark and stormy night.”

Sue Fondrie, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, wrote this year’s grand prize winner: “Cheryl’s mind turned like the vanes of a wind-powered turbine, chopping her sparrow-like thoughts into bloody pieces that fell onto a growing pile of forgotten memories.”

Visit the contest’s official website to read the entries of the 2011 winners, runner-ups and “dishonorable” mentions, and to find out how to enter next year’s competition.

Mark Hubbard won two tournaments in his senior season including the 2011 WAC Championship.

Superiority on the course and in the classroom have earned San Jose State University’s Mark Hubbard his second Cleveland Golf/Srixon All-America Scholar award from Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA).

To be considered a Cleveland Golf/Srixon All-America Scholar the individual must be a junior or senior academically, compete in at least two full years at the collegiate level, participate in 70-percent of his team’s competitive rounds, have a stroke-average under 76.0 and maintain a minimum cu¬mulative grade-point average of 3.2.

As a senior, Hubbard led the Spartans with a 72.33 stroke average in 2010-11 and finished first individually in the Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational and the Western Athletic Conference Championship.

The three-time San Jose State Scholar-Athlete was also a 2011 Academic All-Conference honoree, an award he won in all four years wearing a Spartan uniform.

The Denver, Colo., native and 2011 WAC champion is one of three players in the conference to receive the award. Gaston De La Torre and Timothy Madigan of New Mexico State are the other honorees from the WAC.

Hubbard is one of just 138 Division I men’s golfers in the nation to receive the honors in 2011.

Click here for the full list of 2011 Cleveland Golf/Srixon All-America Scholar award winners.

Alumnus and actor Omar Benson Miller autographs a camper's T-shirt before attending the July 29 performance of the Magic Carpet Theater's "The Pied Piper." (Photo by Michelle Terris)

By Amanda Holst, Public Affairs Assistant

For the month of July, children ages 5-14 got a chance to express themselves and improve their performance skills at the Magic Carpet Theater, a four-week camp offered by SJSU’s theatre department.

“The whole purpose is to build self-esteem, make new friends, and develop creativity,“ said Professor Buddy Butler, the camp’s artistic director.

According to Butler, the theater strays away from the usual models and puts a twist on the productions.

“We don’t do Disney,” Butler said. “We are multiculturally diverse in the makeup of the staff, the play, and the campers.”

Magic Carpet Theater introduces kids to the basic principles of theater. Classes are offered in acting, dance, voice, and puppetry. The program is broken up into three groups, called acts, according to age.

Three Acts

Act I, ages 5-7, attend half-day classes and work on pieces for their showcase performance, while Act II (ages 8-10) and Act III (ages 11-14) attend full-day classes consisting of more specific acting techniques and a chance to practice their part for their end-of-camp production, “The Pied Piper of Hamelin.” Fourteen-year-old Morgan Thompson, a third-year veteran to the program, will be the Pied Piper.

“The easiest thing about camp is acting in front of all of the friends that you meet,” Morgan said.

Field trips include visits to the Tech Museum and the Puppet Theater at Happy Hollow. Guest artists for the camp include a storyteller, a dance group, and Magic Carpet’s very own staff performing “Little Red Riding Hood.”

Magic Carpet Theater collaborates with King Library’s literacy program, Partners in Reading, which promotes learning through literacy and a love of books. Each year, the camp pulls and reads a story or piece from classic literature.

Past performances include “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “Puss in Boots,” and “Cinderella.” This year’s camp is made up of 34 children, 12 staffers, and 4 counselors, including high school student Patrick Thompson.

“It’s a very good experience in getting to know children and helping them discover what they really believe they want to do when they grow up,” Patrick said.

A Hollywood Visitor

Actor Omar Benson Miller, best known for his work in “CSI: Miami” and “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,”  will be in “The Pied Piper” audience to support his alma mater’s theater program. Miller recently released to DVD his film, “Gordon Glass,” about an aspiring actor who moves to Los Angeles to pursue his dreams.

“The Pied Piper” will begin at 2 p.m. Saturday, July 30, at the Hal Todd Theatre. General admission is $5. #

Originally published in the San Jose Mercury News July 23, 2011.

By Annette Nellen
Special to the Mercury News

Some people wonder why California’s sales tax rate dropped on July 1 despite the state’s fiscal problems. What we should be wondering, though, is why the rate is still so high.

The temporary 1 percentage-point increase in the state sales tax rate expired as scheduled, returning the state to a 7.25 percent rate (8.25 percent in most of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties). Even with this lower tax rate, California’s sales tax rate remains highest in the nation, where a rate of 4 percent to 6 percent is more common.

California’s sales tax system is a relic of the early 20th century. One reason it has not been modernized to reflect today’s ways of living and doing business is that it is easier to change the rate than do the harder work of changing the base — what the tax applies to. When the base of a tax is flawed, raising the rate just intensifies the effects of the flaws and the state suffers.

Two changes are needed to modernize California’s sales tax. First, the base must be changed to reflect what people buy today rather than what we bought in 1933 when the tax was created. Second, business exemptions are needed to reflect the reality of greater interstate competition today. These changes, explained next, are also justified by good tax policy.

A sales tax is a consumption tax, so it should tax what we consume. In 1933, we mostly consumed tangible personal property and that was the tax base. Today, our consumption of services, entertainment and digital goods is higher than what we spend on tangible goods. This trend started around 1970 and continues. Thus, our tax base is eroding. Trying to make up the declining revenue with a rate increase is fighting a losing battle that further weakens the tax system.The sales tax base should be broadened to include today’s personal consumption items — digital goods, personal services and entertainment. There is no reason to tax a physical book, but not its digital counterpart; in both scenarios, you get a book to read. This base broadening for consumers must be accompanied with a drop in the tax rate.

The second change requires adding exemptions for business purchases of equipment. The majority of states already have such exemptions. For example, if a business buys $1 million of manufacturing equipment in Texas, no sales tax is owed. In California, the business must pay a sales tax bill between $72,500 and $97,500, depending on the county.

When businesses pay sales tax, it usually ends up in the prices they charge, and we have a tax policy flaw — a tax on a tax. Sales tax exemptions for business equipment would not only be better tax policy, but would send a message to businesses that California wants them.

These are significant changes, but necessary ones. They should be implemented on a gradual basis, perhaps phased in over a period of two years.

California’s tax system, economy and business climate suffer when we only look at the rate of our outdated, inefficient sales tax and ignore the base. It is time to modernize the base and lower the rate. We will all benefit.

ANNETTE NELLEN, CPA, Esq. is a professor of accounting and taxation at San Jose State University. She wrote this for this newspaper.