About eight years ago our next-door neighbor died of breast cancer.  She had felt a lump and was too afraid to have it checked out.  The first symptom that she couldn't ignore was the broken foot she suffered when she stepped out of the car.  By that time the cancer had spread to her bones, and her foot couldn't support her weight. Last week her 60-something widower had a lump on his breast removed and examined.  Cancer. According to the American Cancer Society breast cancer is 100 times less common in men than in woman. But, 1 in 1000 men are [...]

You know how Jessica  always discovered who done it by catching the bad guy knowing something only the killer knew? So this vendor responds to my email flame which complained about a series of his failures to return calls to me. I'd listed a number of calls which failed to generate a response.  I asked him to call me or to give me the name of a contact in his company who's available to help me. He's very apologetic in his call to me. He said that my early calls were assigned to someone who was supposed to take care of me. And, [...]

Richard was born in Montana and served in the US Army before moving to Perth, marrying, becoming an Australian citizen, and living there 30 years.  The US didn't recognize dual citizenships then, and he had to relinquish his US Passport and, supposedly, his citizenship. His wife died a few years ago. Last winter he fell in love with a US man and has decided to move to San Francisco. The US now allows dual citizenship, and Richard was told he could reinstate his US citizenship simply by applying.  He did, and months passed without his citizenship status getting updated. Months. Last week his partner [...]

You'd think that Barry Bonds' ingestion of steroids matters in our daily lives. The media Bonds vortex is sucking oxygen and intelligence out of the airwaves up and down the dial. KGO's anchors last night found an expert to interview who was hyped and ready to compare the damage to Bond's reputation to the damage caused to OJ Simpson by OJ's trials.Let's see.OJ was found responsible for 2 murders.Barry is charged with lying under oath and obstructing justice.President Clinton was impeached for the same issues.  The Senate decided that Clinton's behavior did not disqualify him to be President.Lying under oath [...]

97%ALCOHOLICexcessor, a fellow 97%'er, and I can tear up bars together... so long as we have the appropriate designated driver.

I can write passionately and articulately about social, political, and moral issues.  The media’s preoccupation with across-the-world child molesters, Senator’s bathroom habits, and the rescue of little children who’ve fallen down wells get me ranting about our seemingly endless ability to focus on the myopically sensational and tragic-yet-unimportant in life.  These stories can really get me going and eager for time at the keyboard. My theology, on the other hand, isn’t a cause I can either march or type for. I just finished a six-week course at church designed to help us think about our personal theology.  The final exercise [...]

One of my reoccurring San Francisco political thrills is the appearance of political office seekers at a Sunday beer bash at a gay bar. When I moved to The City 25 years ago, there were few other cities whose politicians would openly court gays and lesbian voters. Certainly the city council members of Long Beach from where I just escaped wouldn't have even had their campaign literature in such places! But in San Francisco I got a charge out of swilling beer on a warm day while an earnest -- and sometimes nervous- -- looking man would step on stage to [...]

At cocktail hour on Halloween redozdachs and I went out to 440 Castro to watch the military parade on Castro Street. If police uniforms counted, most everyone was in costume... there were battalions of them!  Otherwise, no people in the streets, at least while we were out. We hung out until past 7 when David, Harlan, and blurkerbear arrived in their 3 Little Schul Girls frocks: I've posted comments elsewhere agreeing with The City's decision to close down the neighborhood this year.  I understand the grumbles, but instead of 10 shooting victims like last year, this year there were only 6 arrests [...]

The minister and his family lounged by the hotel pool during the day and ate in the fine dining restaurant in the evening.  Later that night the hotel called four police officers to demand entrance into the family's room to investigate the report of child molestation suspected by another guest.  The questions were forceful, unapologetic, and revealed no more information than was already on file on the room registration card. The oldest son was concerned by a teacher and another student at his public school in liberal San Francisco.  They told him that his family was going to hell because of what [...]

This 75-year-old woman was arrested for busting up her local Comcast customer service office when that company delivered its infamous service. I know it's wrong of me to feel a twinge of pride that she is both a secretary of her squaredance club and a Unitarian Universalist. The Washington Post story on Mona The Hammer