Living on the Edge of Ripeness
Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 Posted in Books, Economics, Environment, Politics, San Francisco, The Arts, labor | No Comments »
Over Labor Day weekend, Slow Food came to San Francisco. That's Slow Food, capitalized, as opposed to fast food, lowercased. Its arrival was preceded by a petition calling for a ... Read more..Doing the Palin Polka
Monday, September 8th, 2008 Posted in Books, MediaWatch, Politics, The Arts | 3 Comments »
Hey, guys! John McCain really did a number on you when he selected Sarah Palin as his running mate. And he’s been jerking your chains ever since. Why did you ... Read more..A Frame for Mission Dolores
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 Posted in Books, Politics, San Francisco, The Arts | 1 Comment »
I’ve been reading George Lakoff’s new book, The Political Mind. Lakoff set progressive politicians aback several years ago when he told published Don’t Think of an Elephant. He suggested then ... Read more..A Prayer for Saint Samuel
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 Posted in Books, MediaWatch, Politics, San Francisco, The Arts | 2 Comments »
It’s hard for the City of San Francisco to get a fair shake these days, either in the media or among the general American public. Its image precedes its reality. ... Read more..Death in the City — A Grave Talent
Monday, May 19th, 2008 Posted in Books, Fine Arts, MediaWatch, Politics, San Francisco, The Arts, Uncategorized | No Comments »
In case you were worried, it's still a man's world. In spite of Hillary Clinton's campaign for the presidency, sexism is still alive and well in the United States. If anything, ... Read more..Death in the City — Runoff
Monday, May 12th, 2008 Posted in Books, MediaWatch, Noodling, Politics, San Francisco, The Arts | No Comments »
Once upon a time, there was a mayoral election. One of the candidates was the mayor's "hand-picked successor." Young and handsome, [the candidate] was a political moderate: he was popular with ... Read more..Of Samurai, Sex, and Spiders
Monday, April 28th, 2008 Posted in Asia, Books, San Francisco, The Arts | No Comments »
When the world was too much with samurai in 17th- and 18th-century Japan, they headed down to the Yoshiwara district of low-city Edo. Last week, in a similar mood, I ... Read more..Tripe à la Mode de Caen
Monday, April 21st, 2008 Posted in Books, MediaWatch, Politics, San Francisco | No Comments »
WANNA WIN an easy bet? Next time you're walking down a busy street in SF, wager that most of the people there have never read Herb Caen. Go up to ... Read more..Fishing for the Truth
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 Posted in Books | No Comments »
Some people would say it's been a bad month for the truth, especially literary truth. First Misha Defonseca's best-selling Holocaust memoir, Misha, turns out to be a fabrication. Then a gangland memoir, ... Read more..The Obama Phenom
Thursday, February 28th, 2008 Posted in Books, Politics, San Francisco | No Comments »
Like much of the United States, I am fascinated by the trajectory of Barack Obama's candidacy. In an odd way, the response of his supporters, particularly his younger supporters, brings ... Read more..