Wicklow Court nostalgia

Just wanted to throw up some pix that Brad took today during our pilgrimage to Walnut Creek. As we posed for the pic out front, we were quickly greeted by the new occupants of 1523 Wicklow Ct. and even the next-door-neighbors who live in the Galindo’s old house. Super-friendly, they invited us in to relax and look around. Andrew played with some fellow little-ones and Brad was reunited with the window he used in his notorious escape to Longs by way of Big Wheel. This was my first look at the house’s inside since 1982– it’s changed remarkably and is totally renovated inside. It’s great to see such nice people taking care of the old place.

Returning home

discovering a historic artifact

before the CVS takeover

finally.. an image to put fear into Julie

Visitors

We had the pleasure of the Provo Krueger Barbers company today. They are in town to see the Frida exhibit at SFMOMA. We had oppresive hot weather in the morning (80+), and then spent the late afternoon cooling down in a surge of fog that rolled into Golden Gate Park and later prevented us from seeing even a speck of the GG Bridge. In addition to Frida, we cruised the mission, enjoyed some Bi-Rite ice cream and gallery-hopped (ok, to one gallery). Story still developing….

[oh.. and on an unrelated note– too tired to make a separate post– wasn’t that Dem convention fantastic? We had a blast at Peter’s last night watching history being made in Denver’s stadium. We’re still riding that high]

Andrew enjoys one of Frida's early works

Hat shopping

New Utopia

I just told Dan that we are going to have to start looking for a flat in the Mission, because I want to be able to visit newly open Four Barrel Coffee every single day. Each day I am not able to have one of their delish Americanos will be a little diminished. Visitng 4BC, I will never have to worry that too much hot water will be added and turn the Americano into coffee-flavored tea. I mean click on that pic, blow it up, and *look* at that cup! Perfection. My understanding is that owner Jeremy Tooker is a previous partner from Ritual Roasters who has opened up his own place down the street– at Valencia and 15th. I actually think of him almost everytime I make a French press now, after watching his how-to video a few months back.

The salted-caramel donut doesn’t hurt either.

Heaven on earth

Sadly, the lines will only get longer

Del Martin

One of our city’s living legends passed away earlier today. Del Martin (along with her partner Phyllis Lyon) lived a truly remarkable life. I mean really– what a life. From being a pioneering, “out” lesbian in the 1950s to witnessing marriage equality (firsthand–– Phyllis and Del were the first legally married queer couple in California). Hats off to Del. My in-box has been flooded with remembrances and tributes all day long. I’ll post a short portion of her Wikipedia entry below.

Del Martin (May 5, 1921 – August 27, 2008)^[1] and Phyllis Lyon (born November 10, 1924) were an American lesbian couple known as feminist and gay-rights activists.

Martin and Lyon met in 1950, became lovers in 1952, and moved in together on Valentines Day 1953 in an apartment on Castro Street in San Francisco. They had been together for three years when they founded the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) in San Francisco in 1955, that became the first social and political organization for lesbians in the United States. They both acted as president and editor of The Ladder until 1963, and remained involved in the DOB until joining the National Organization for Women (NOW) as the first lesbian couple to do so.

Both women worked to form the Council of Religion and Homosexuality (CRH) in northern California to persuade ministers to accept homosexuals into churches, and use their influence to decriminalize homosexuality in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They became politically active in San Francisco’s first gay political organization, the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, influence Dianne Feinstein to sponsor a citywide bill to outlaw employment discrimination for gays and lesbians. Both served in the White House Conference on Aging in 1995.

They were married on June 16, 2008 in the first same-sex wedding to take place in San Francisco after the California Supreme Court‘s decision in In re Marriage Cases legalized same-sex marriage in California.^[2] Martin died on August 27, 2008 at the age of 87.

Civil rights heroes

Fictional roommates?

So, Troy and I were doing a Saturday New York Times crossword puzzle together, as is our wont. And the clue was “One of a pair of fictional roommates” … 4 letters. We had _E__, and then we had _ER_, and then we had _ERT. But still, the answer eluded us …

You, dear reader, must surely know the answer by now. But you see, when we finally got the correct answer (“Bert”) we were both incredulous. Bert and Ernie aren’t “fictional!” I mean, the “Odd Couple,” they were fictional. Bob Saget and friends, on TV’s “Full House,” they were fictional.

But Bert and Ernie are REAL puppets. Muppets, even! We’ll be composing our letter to Will Shortz this week …

Non-fiction

Under the Sea

Today was the long-awaited “Sing-Along Little Mermaid” at the Castro Theater. We met Noe, Siobhan, their parents and grandparents in the Castro along with a sea of little 3-7 year-olds. We were surprised that Ariel herself was there to take our tickets and hand out a goodie bag full of props to use during the movie. It was both Noe and Siobhan’s first experience with a real movie theater and they started a lifetime of movie-going in style at the beautiful movie palace that is the Castro Theater.

The movie was fun, though it seemed a bit dated now –––maybe because of Buddy Hackett’s voice. Noe did great, belting out the tunes, especially when you remember that she can’t even read the words they put on screen. They let the little girls, almost all of whom had come in costume (as Ariel, of course) parade on stage prior to the show, and even though Noe had not arrived in costume, she bolted for the front as soon as they announced the parade of princesses. She told the emcee that she was “Princess Noelani.”

Glow-sticks look good in movie theaters

Someone's looking goofy

Waiting in line

Crossword plague?

It’s hard to know where to start with with this article by Ron Rosenbaum in Slate. It seems he became annoyed one day that the people sitting next to him at Starbucks were doing crosswords and sudokus. So he spends several pages deflating the pretensions of puzzle solvers:

I know that I’m a partisan divider, but to me it seems that puzzle people are fleeing from real puzzles—fleeing the complexity, the fear of the unknown, fleeing from the messiness of life that cannot be contained in a box, fleeing to an illusion of mastery and control. They’re control freaks seeking control of something worthless: “I can fill in a bunch of boxes with letters!”

Apparently, we should all be reading instead (imagine!) or thinking deep thoughts. And don’t get him started on Will Shortz: he might be the anti-Christ (Barack Obama will be relieved).

And yes, it’s meant to be funny. But it never occurs to him that puzzles are, you know, fun.

Post-call post

I never got around to writing this last night, so I’m writing the next morning on the bus to work. Just a quick report of my post-call activities. I had a nice lunch down at Crissy Field and did some walking along the tourist bicycle course that passes thru that part of the Presidio on the way to the GG Bridge and beyond. The giant globes were part of an exhibit about global warming and maintaining our beautiful planet.

In the evening, we returned to Orson with Dan’s parents for their monthly special dinner. It was infused vodka cocktails and BBQ this time. And delish as always. I’m not sure what the star of David on the sausage was all about. Food Network Canada was there following Elizabeth Faulkner around, so look for the back of our heads on cable TV in a country near you soon.

I also watched some “Big Love”, but i won’t bore u with pix of that- just bore u with this entry about it.

Soda State/Pop State

Dan will kill me for beating him to this nugget of gold. Ordinarily, I would send this around in a spam e-mail, but I’ll try posting it here instead. Have you seen this map from Strange Maps? Based on an extensive survey, it maps the counties where people use “soda” or “pop” to refer to “soft drinks.” Apparently, there are some confused people (ahem) who refer to cold drinks as “cokes.” Questions come to mind, like:

Do Southerners simply have a regional loyalty to the Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Corporation?

What are all those Southerners doing in Trinity County, CA?

Why the strikingly round island of “soda” around St. Louis?

What “other” term is being used in central New Mexico and North Carolina? Is it really true they call soft drinks “dope” in the Tar Heel State?

Strange Maps’s commentary is great, too. For example:

“The word ‘pop’ was introduced by Robert Southey, the British Poet Laureate (1774-1843), to whom we also owe the word ‘autobiography,’ among others. … Even though it was introduced by a Poet Laureate, the term ‘pop’ is considered unsophisticated by some, because it is onomatopoeic.”

My first iPhone dream

I try not to bore too much with tales of my dreams.  But this was a milestone, my first iPhone dream.  To echo Brad, it really has been the best money i’ve probably ever spent (other than the NYTimes online crossword subscription).  My dream:  I was with Noe and Siobhan, trying to play some of the phone games, but could *not* navigate to the proper screen to start up “Bubbles”.  You are famliar with the anxiety– can’t quite seem to get to your destination?  Oh, and of course, Noe seemed to know how to use the phone better than I did.

It was just a dream….