She charges that much, because she can. Details on this trivia

Yesterday's lunch honoring an 80-something-year-old friend from church was good small-town San Francisco, another reminder of why living here feels so right for us. Our friend Bernice received the annual Eleanor Roosevelt Award from the local Democratic Women's Forum, and the banquet room of Castagnola’s on Fisherman's Wharf was a perfect place for the homily flawed, home-town celebration. The class tourist views during yesterday's sun fest were straight from the Chamber of Commerce brochure.  The plate-glass windows gave each speaker a backdrop of Coit Tower or other spectacular landmark.  Among the 100 or so people who showed up were two [...]

A friend was killed while crossing the street in a crosswalk during daylight yesterday. She was older, and hadn't made it across wide 19th Avenue before the light turned. Someone — apparently a 47-year-old man without a license — zipped out of the line of backed-up traffic and sped into an open lane and into Alice. She died at the scene. (Examiner news story) (Chronicle news story) I've known Alice for over 20 years. Sweet, endlessly complimentary, and, oh yeah,... feisty. Someone to miss. I normally worry about the pedestrians on the cell phones who jaywalk out into traffic without [...]

apparentparadox’s post about his “Partly Cloudy” experience at the recent squaredancing convention rekindled my musings about the state of that “friendship set to music” hobby. I had a “mostly sunny” convention, but understand how Tim experienced the same event so differently. There is a fundamental dichotomy in the squaredancing community. For some (“Dancers”), the joy of getting through – or at least nearly through –  complicated sequences is paramount. For others (“Socializers”), playing with their fellow dancers while testing/straining their personal limits is more important. Very few people can both play with and in their squares while dancing extraordinarily well. [...]

The 24th convention of the International Association of Gay Square Dance Clubs is over!  We arrived home after an uneventful flight talking about how this year we're going to start dancing regularly. Must have been a good convention. Slideshow from the Grand March and Opening. (Static Version) Earlier slideshow of Denver. (Static Version)

I felt like the much talked-about visitor from Mars observing local customs during our trip to Denver yesterday.  Instead of traveling 100+ flights as I did in 2000, yesterday's plane ride was the first for me in 2007. I don't go to airports often, especially not during mid-week peak business travel times.  So, yesterday's field trip to the human's air stations was fascinating anthropological study. The number of zombies roaming down the halls astounded me.  Way past the security checkpoint these automatons bumbled into each other and into other strangers queued up in the various cost-saving lines.  Mumbling or talking animatedly [...]

Harlan has joined the cult: He rolled into our driveway yesterday evening with his Silver Pine (light green) Prius hatchback and took us on an environmentally sensitive test drive around Noe Valley and the Castro.  Very nice car with a comfortable back seat (where else would you put me?). Well made and the dazzling electronic displays of fun information are standard.  Congratulate him!  (But, if he doesn't back off from his self-righteous spouting of carbon output information, we are going to have a problem!) Slideshow or Photo Set

At least 150 people came and celebrated Mother's Day this morning on our church steps.  Rev. Gregory Stewart talked to us of the historic meaning of the day. War veterans, war resisters, and Assemblyman Mark Leno spoke.  Karen Meredith was heartbreaking as she spoke of the last Mother's Day she was able to share with her son Ken before he was killed in the Iraq War. KCBS-AM, KGO-AM, KTVU (Channel 2), Channel 11 (NBC), KPIX (Channel 5), www.Friction.TV, the Unitarian Universalist Association, and The Chronicle covered the public witnessing with reporters who identified themselves to me (I was the designated [...]