Columnists

“Mary Poppins” was written by P.L.Travers, a native Australian who spent most of her life in England. Disney made an entrancing movie, with Julian Fellowes adapting the story for the stage with the award-winning Sherman Brothers supplying the music and lyrics. Their delightful music and words fascinated and gave the world a charming gift.

Kurt Drückler was a heavy smoker. For many years, the German gentleman ran a tobacco shop on the corner of Alexandrinen and Sebastian streets in the heart of Berlin. A few months after I was born, he died from emphysema. This lingering and painful disease, caused by years of inhaling tobacco smoke, prevented him from traveling to the United States in 1966 to see me, his newborn grandson.

As an Arts and Culture Commissioner for the City of Gilroy, I look forward to the enthusiastic interaction of commissioners and student representatives at monthly meetings. For the past two years, Julianna Vanni has represented Christopher High School, reporting the school’s art activities with enthusiasm and passion.

The many thousands who regularly use the state’s large and varied park system were among the most distraught of Californians when legislators and Gov. Jerry Brown last year imposed cuts and closures on the system, with 70 parks scheduled for shuttering early this summer.

In January of 2011, I shared data from the Search Institute indicating that 35 percent of 4th to 6th graders in Santa Clara County felt the adults in their communities valued children and youth and only 18 percent of our middle and high school students felt valued by the adults in their communities. I urged community members, “let’s ask ourselves what we can do to build positive relationships with our youth.” I am very happy to report that many of our community members and organizations have answered the call.

Immigration is a topic of heated discussion in the United States. The current presidential campaign has provoked fear, distortions, outrage and scary stories; a case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court seeks to resolve how much control states can have over non-citizens living within their borders.

Webster’s definition for understudy: an actor who learns the part of another actor so as to serve as a substitute when necessary. Here is where prolific, Pulitzer Prize nominee, author and playwright Theresa Rebeck (recently creator of TV’s “Smash”) lets the fall out of what it means to be an understudy in this wacky, witty rendition of a Broadway play within a play by (wait for it) Franz Kafka.

I vividly remember the day she adopted me, me driving home with her 5-month-old paws on the dashboard, face tilted downward and pressed against the windshield. I remember wondering if I had made the right decision: Was I ready to take on a dog? We’d had family dogs when I was young, but I was an adult now, living on my own. She would be all mine.