Category: Berkeley

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Palm, Tower, Norfolk Island Pine

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Went on a long, unorganized walking tour of a small part of San Francisco on Saturday with a visiting Chicagoan. Through gentrified SoMa to the Giants’ ballpark, then up the gentrified waterfront to the gentrified Ferry Building (is there a theme here?). Then through the deserted Financial District to Kearny, up across Broadway to Telegraph Hill, to Montgomery and the Filbert Street steps (above; nearby, we spotted the wonderful Art Deco apartment building at 1360 Montgomery, below). That’s a Norfolk Island pine in the left center, I’m pretty sure; didn’t notice it when we were at the spot. We hiked up to Coit Tower, set a Saskatchewan native straight about who is depicted by the statue on the summit (Christopher Columbus; he’s on the wrong coast; on the other hand, he’s where he belongs as far as San Francisco’s Italians are concerned). Then down to North Beach, back through the Financial District, and a quick stop at the Palace Hotel (where President Warren Gemaliel Harding died in 1923). Four hours, some number of miles, countless nearly-to-the-point anecdotes.

After 30 years out here, San Francisco is still fresh to me; I never take a walk in the city without happening across a surprise.

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Groundhog

Pre-coffee groundhog colloquy (a play for two voices and dog):

Early riser: It’s Groundhog Day.

Later riser: Mmmph … Scout, go out and tear the ass off a groundhog. ‘How’s your shadow look now, groundhog?’

Early riser: ‘Yeah, you ass-less groundhog.’

All exeunt, chortling.

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Ready for ’07

You can say this about 2006: It didn’t go quietly. Here’s a prayer for something like peace, or at least sanity and common sense, in the new year. And for everyone who’s shown up to read these scribblings the last 12 months: Thanks for reading (and responding), and here’s hoping you have a great 2007.

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Random Xmas Moment

Overhead:

Voice A, reading aloud from a recently unwrapped book: “…’When people speak of ideas that revolutionize society, they do but express the fact, that within the old society, the elements of a new one have been created, and that the dissolution of the old ideas keeps even pace with the dissolution of the old conditions of existence.’

[Pause]

True dat.”

Voice B: “True dat, Karl.”

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Street Hawk

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An immature sharp-shinned hawk (or possibly an immature Cooper’s hawk; the bird references I’ve used, Petersen and Sibley, say they’re sometimes impossible to tell apart) in front of the neighbor’s house this morning. These hawks hunt other birds, but this one might have been angling for a squirrel meal; when we (the dog and I) surprised the bird, which was on the neighbor’s front fence, a squirrel scurried away from the same area.

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Luminaria Streets

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Here’s what it looked like last night on our street and some of the streets in our neighborhood. If you added up all the blocks that are putting out luminaria around us now, there are miles of streets lined with the lights. My impression from doing a late-night tour was that there was one major expansion–a one-third mile stretch of Curtis Street, to the west of us. Later, I’ll post a map of what we saw last night. For now, here are some pictures I took on Holly Street and surrounding blocks.

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Hot Xmas Eve Bag Action

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The epicenter of the neighborhood luminaria fest that started on Holly Street in the early ’90s has moved to the corner of California and Buena. A woman up there–Betsy, don’t know her last name–started organizing her block around ’98 or ’99. Other blocks followed, usually organized by people Betsy knows, until now there are 30 or 40 blocks involved.

Anyway, the California Street tradition is a little different from ours just a block to the west. The folks get together in the mid-afternoon, fold bags and put them out on the street. In fact, almost all the blocks except ours on Holly are done and ready to light by sundown. Last year, in fact, people were coming by our street and asking if we did the luminaria any more. Anyway–very cool to see the activity spread to all the places it has.

(Picture above is the luminaria get-together in front of Betsy’s; picture below looks up California to Rose from Buena.)

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Calling All Mycologists

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In Chavez Park at the Berkeley Marina earlier this month. It’s a big, hairy mushroom (this one was a good 8 inches tall). I had no idea what it was, but eventually got around to showing it to my mycologically inclined neighbor Jill. She immediately called it a “shaggy mane” (Coprinus comatus) ; it’s edible, and she and her family were going to go down to where I found it and look for more.

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Today’s Quake

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Another one, at 9:21 a.m. (nine minutes ago as I write this). It was just a little shake; the earthquake authorities peg it as a 3.5, in just about the same place as the other two we’ve had since Wednesday evening–near the Claremont Hotel (I wonder how the shaking felt in that rambling old edifice).

You don’t know when an earthquake is coming. You know they can be devastating, so they’re always in the back of your mind. Even if you go for months or years without feeling one, you know what it is as soon as it strikes. And especially if you haven’t felt one for awhile, three in less than three days makes you a little nervous.

Prepared? What’s that?

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Alpha Beta Day

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What am I missing here? Any ideas? These are as handsome an A and a B as you’re likely to find gracing a holiday lawn anywhere. And maybe I should just embrace this display on that level. But I’m not getting the reference or the joke or whatever it is. I guess I’m going to have to knock on the front door and ask.

In other news, mere minutes (eight, exactly) after this exclusive picture was shot on Berkeley’s Monterey Avenue, the dog and I were walking down our street when the ground gave a little shudder and there was a deep, thundering noise; an earthquake, the first I recall hearing outside. Key stat for the event: Magnitude 3.68, epicenter about three miles to the south and east, in the hills on the Hayward Fault, up the street from the Claremont Hotel; there was a 2.2 aftershock about 20 minutes after the first jolt, just perceptible here. I’m sure the hotel guests had something to talk about (and this is the second temblor to hit up there in the last 51 hours; Wednesday evening, there was a 3.67 at virtually the same location).