Journo Frances Dinkelspiel on starting over after Oakland hills fire

Author and Berkeleyside co-founder Frances Dinkelspiel is asked to talk about her favorite things in a Chronicle piece that’s a little out of the ordinary—at least for Dinkelspiel. She lives in the Berkeley hills in a home that replaced the one destroyed by the 1991 Oakland hills fire. “Some of my favorite things are now just memories,” she tells freelancer Louise Rafkin.