December 02, 2005
Routemasters
Next week marks the last regular run for the bus emblematic of London: the double-decker Routemaster. Some Routemasters will continue to circulate on so-called heritage routes, but most are being dismantled for parts or repurposed as tourist buses in other cities. And some of the legion adoring fans of the red double-decker (the first LEGO kit I built, in fact, was of a Routemaster) have made the best tribute site ever. For Routemasters, that is. Back on the domestic front, a new less-than-admiring site about MUNI promises the lewd low-down on a lifestyle reliant on MUNI (is'n't that tautological? style and MUNI?). Can municide's author, Doug, pull off anything to compare with munihaiku dot com? With anonymously-contributed gems like "Waited forever. / And then you showed up for me. / Seven in a row.", it's hard to top for the title of "Best Onling Writing About Public Transit". For non-Lower Haight residents, those 17 syllables can only describe the ineffable 22-Fillmore. SFist notes that it's more fun to walk in the rain than stand around waiting for MUNI in the rain. Word to that. To MUNI's credit, the agency is working with the community around Geary Boulevard to determine whether bus rapid transit will work. Forgive me for stating the obvious, but yes!, it will work: the 38 Geary is one of the most heavily-used lines in San Francisco (and thus, the Bay Area), and used by commuters, tourists, and vagabonds alike. It cuts across the entire northern part of San Francisco, and provides access to key densely-built and populous neighbourhoods (Pacific Heights, Japantown); business areas (Downtown, Civic Center, Tenderloin); and the beach. It runs on a wide roadway. This route is an ace in the hole for rapid transit. Politicos, planners, and plebians alike will all win big if this is built. Rapid Transit along Geary Boulevard will make people happy; in fact, it has the potential to change the way the city moves, for the better. But it will never be, because this is California, USA, and the agency in charge is MUNI, San Francisco MUNI, which cannot maintain its headways, cannot fit into its budget, and reduces service while increasing fares. Buses all over the country honoured Rosa Parks, who died recently, with black ribbons and posters, as well as by designating the front seat of the bus as a quiet, symbolically empty, space. MUNI put up very nice posters on buses a few weeks ago, but they were all stolen within minutes of installation.... Read more
October 27, 2005
Paul Pena
Paul Pena, the subject of the energetic Genghis Blues, died earlier this month after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer.... Read more
October 15, 2005
Edmund Bacon
Edmund Bacon died: His 1967 book "Design of Cities" remains one of the key texts for architecture students. Bacon, born in Philadelphia to a staunchly conservative publishing family, maintained his influence long after his retirement as the city's chief planner in 1970. At 90, he lashed out at city leaders for banning skateboarders at a park adjacent to City Hall, saying, "Show me a skateboarder who killed a little old lady and I'll reconsider."... Read more
October 12, 2005
In which there's someone who knows and trips you when you fall
The San Francisco Museum of History screened Trina Lopez's short documentary, A Second Final Rest: The History of San Francisco's Cemeteries. The film garnered awards at the Womens Film Festival and at the Documentary Film Fest. Afterwards the film-maker answered questions -- she has great poise, and the Q&A session was as informative as the film itself. Beginning in '01 with a Health Ordinance, San Francisco city fathers began pushing the various burial grounds: first westwards, and then south'ards. The public rejected the first official edict, in '14, to clear out completely, but by the mid-century all the interred had been moved to Colma ("City of the Dead"), a necropolis with its own BART stop. Several years ago, I began writing a story in which the citizen of Colma, some 2 million strong, rose up and persecuted the grey-bearded city fathers, and especially "Sunny Jim" Rolph, who worked the hardest to shoo all them bones. San Francisco still has bodies in The Presidio, a military graveyard; in the church-yard at Mission Dolores; in the Columbarium; and a one-off, Thomas Starr King, interred at the church on Franklin and Geary. Jim Blackett's San Francisco Cemeteries is a handy reference site; Ms Lopez drew her inspiration from Dr Weirde's Weirde Guide to San Francisco, now online at sfgate.com.... Read more
October 03, 2005
August Wilson
The New York Times has a special and colourful obituary of August Wilson. I saw several of his plays at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, and my father gave me several beautiful editions of his plays when I was growing up in an entirely different part of Pittsburgh from where Mr Wilson's plays are set.... Read more
August 31, 2005
Goodbye, Kepler's.
Kepler's bookstore in Menlo Park has closed, after fifty years. Bookstore closings bring sadness: "It's like a relative in the family dying," Roy Borrone, owner of Cafe Borrone next door to Kepler's, told the Weekly late Wednesday morning. He said he relocated his restaurant from Redwood City to Menlo Park to be adjacent to Kepler's when it moved across El Camino Real to its present location in the late 1980s. Neil Gaiman remonstrates us: "Remember, if you have a local bookshop you like, buy your books there. Otherwise it could happen to you." I say that this goes for any local shop: flowers, groceries, clothes, whatnot.... Read more
June 08, 2005
DIA baggage-handling automation
United Airlines will finally abandon the automated baggage-handling system that has plagued them for the past decade at Colorado's second-largest art collection Denver International Airport.... Read more
May 26, 2005
Ismail Merchant
The first day I cut school was in ninth grade, ostensibly to watch a video-tape of A Room With A View. Ismail Merchant, one half of the team that made the film, died yesterday. A noted patron of the arts, cook, and producer, he epitomised high-low film-making.... Read more
April 12, 2005
Did they pour one on the kerb as well?
Graff memorials for JP II: http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2005/04/12/remembering_the_pope_streetstyle.php; http://www.taleoftwocities.org/2005/04/pope-moves-to-spanish-harlem.php (name-checked by CNN); http://www.curbed.com/archives/2005/04/11/pope_john_paul_ii_in_the_les.php.... Read more
March 20, 2005
As good as gold*
John De Lorean has died, just as the futuristic car he developed in the 80s sees a resurgence in popularity. I first heard his name when my third-grade teacher, Dr Martin, announced that one of the fifth-graders (Jason Galbreath? John Galbraith?) had won a DeLorean and a year's subscription to Playboy by correctly answering a tricky math question (or it may have been a DeLorean filled with Playboy bunnies). --- * stainless steel... Read more
March 03, 2005
February 04, 2005
I got it, I'm gone.
Raiford Chatman Davis, known to the world as one half of Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, died today.... Read more
January 05, 2005
Into heaven he goes
H. David Dalquist, creator of the aluminum Bundt pan, the top-selling cake pan in the world, has died at 86. January 5, 2005 Creator of Popular Bundt Pan Dies at 86 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 2:05 p.m. ET EDINA, Minn. (AP) -- H. David Dalquist, creator of the aluminum Bundt pan, the top-selling cake pan in the world, has died at 86. Dalquist, who died at his home Sunday of heart failure, founded St. Louis Park-based Nordic Ware, which has sold more than 50 million Bundt pans. Dalquist designed the pan in 1950 at the request of members of the Minneapolis Chapter of the Hadassah Society. They had old ceramic cake pans of somewhat similar designs but wanted an aluminum pan. Dalquist created a new shape and added regular folds to make it easier to cut the cake. The women from the society called the pans ``bund pans'' because ``bund'' is German for a gathering of people. Dalquist added a ``t'' to the end of ``bund'' and trademarked the name. So all Bundt pans and Bundt cakes stem from Dalquist. For years, the company sold few such pans. Then in 1966, a Texas woman won second place in the Pillsbury Bake-Off for her Tunnel of Fudge Cake made in a Bundt pan. Suddenly, bakers across America wanted their own Tunnel of Fudge cakes. The Bundt pan is the biggest product line for Nordic Ware, which sells a variety of pots and pans and other kitchen equipment. More than 1 million Bundt pans are sold each year. Dalquist founded Nordic Ware after returning from duty with the Navy during World War II. He graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in chemical engineering. He is survived by his wife, Dorothy Margerite Staugaard Dalquist, four children and 12 grandchildren.... Read more
November 14, 2004
Wu-Tang are for the children!
I suppose this article answers the question: "How do you write an obituary for someone named Ol' Dirty Bastard?" Short Answer: You refer to him as "Dirty", not "Mr Bastard".... Read more
October 26, 2004
October 19, 2004
She loved to argue.
Margaret Sloan-Hunter died last week. I met her on the 71 Haight bus, when she boarded at the Fillmore St. stop and began chatting with me.... Read more
October 14, 2004
October 05, 2004
The sincerest form of flattery
Janet Leigh died this past Sunday, which also saw the "Itchy and Scratchy and Marge" episode of The Simpsons reappear in syndication. Janet Leigh appears in three of my favourite films: Touch of Evil; Psycho; and The Manchurian Candidate. Of her chilling rôle in Psycho, she remembered Hitchock saying, "Whatever I put you in, the audience would immediately think of 'Psycho.' It wouldn't be fair to the picture or the character." That scene has been parodied almost as often as Grant Wood's American Gothic. And the Simpsons episode has a go at the famous shower scene from Psycho.... Read more
September 25, 2004
Razzmatazz in peace
Ed Zelinksy, whose Musee Mecanique brings old-tyme laffs and joy to San Francisco, died Thursday.... Read more
September 10, 2004
Spinning in his grave
Donald Leslie, inventor of the speaker of the same name, died at the age of 93.... Read more
