Southerly: Bay Area Blues
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Okay, so a bunch of people have emailed to say that they also want a discussion thread here. Fair enough!
So in the spirit of responding to our readers' wishes...
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You can cut&paste the remark I emailed you about - it was for general discussion before there was a 'Discuss' button...
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Stewart explains all:
Name: stewart
Email: [withheld]Message:
You won't be surprised to hear that "muni" in Greek is a word for 'cunt'.Not sure of its true spelling (cyrillic alphabet, etc) but you can bank on that one. So maybe it wasn't the Latin they used for it, but the Greek, to portray their customer-service.
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I found the MUNIs on the LA buses incredibly courteous, and I was probably the most inept customer they had encountered in quite a while.
Why would anyone waste their time writing and illustrating something like this -- let alone reading it?
I know of at least one person who intends to waste his money buying it, so shut up.
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David: I can't wait to start wasting my time reading your new book.
I would recommend a trip to Oakland (maybe during the daytime), to visit Jack London's Tavern, and see the freight trains trundle down the middle of the street past the Jack London Inn. There is a great farmer's market there too (on Friday, I recall).
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giovanni tiso wrote:
I found the MUNIs on the LA buses incredibly courteous, and I was probably the most inept customer they had encountered in quite a while.
Yes, admittedly I've had loads of super-nice bus drivers as well. In fact, this has been the only objectionable person that I've met in six weeks of California. But naturally, this encounter is the one that makes for retelling.
Geoff Lealand wrote:
I would recommend a trip to Oakland (maybe during the daytime), to visit Jack London's Tavern.
Oh, that sounds good -- will do...
And thank you both for your affirming words on the book. I think you may have averted today's crisis-of-confidence.
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Then later, I experience horrible moments of clarity when I ask myself: "Why am I writing this?", "Who will read it?", and "Have I finally flipped?"
I suspect there might be a profitable side-line in Writer Patting. "No, really, sweetheart, it's funny/kind/sad/awesome, you rock, you really do, have another coffee."
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I suspect there might be a profitable side-line in Writer Patting.
I demand micro-payments for my kind words. It's an area of human expression that is unaccountably un-monetised at present.
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I'll give you a micro-discount on the new book...
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Ok David, we know you're only in it for the MUNI.
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What can I say, don't give up your night job.
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yes but SF MUNI in particular is known for it's particularly, umm, aggressive drivers - mind you I've seen some pretty aggressive passengers too .....
But don't let this discourage people from taking it SF has a quite functional public transit system, despite the drivers it works well and goes almost everywhere - and besides there's virtually nowhere to park
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BTW that part of down town Oakland is quite safe at night too - good restaurants - the Jack London thing is a bit of a tourist trap IMHO - oh and you can take the ferry to SF during the day.
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Methinks it was the Spanish Inquisition!! Totally unexpected!
Come on the second Book. Significant Other even chuckled in bed over the first one!
Walk the Bridge. Stay out from UNDER the freeways.
and....agggghhhhhh....Have a nice day!
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all the 1950s double decker freeways like the one that collapsed (and I normally should have been on that day at that time - went to work a day early that week) have been torn down at this point - the bridge that partly collapsed is due to be replaced very soon now (next month I think?).
Mind you you're still at ground zero - the next "Big One" is due for the Hayward Fault - just your side of that hill above Berkeley - check out the football stadium above Cal - the fault passes through it - you can see the gap they have in the wall to let it move
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The HAYWARD Fault?? Typing error on the geologists part. They KNEW he was coming. The Bog. The Bart. It is a sign.
FX: Cue X Files lick.
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Bound to be - more like likely some lawyer getting ready for the post quake law suits "It's Haywood's fault ...."
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BART is great. You fly into SF, get on BART, and the next thing you know you've been met at the appropriate Berkeley station (well maybe you changed trains along the way) and you're eating at Fat Apples.
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BART is great
Why thank you Dinah :).
It did however cause me some confusion when I first went to SF.
We visited SF several times when we were living in Davis and found it quite hard to find. It such a big city that you can drive/bus/BART/walk around for ages and still miss seeing the good stuff. We did enjoy crab cakes on Fisherman's wharf - however cliché'd. Great Yum Cha at a place called Yank Sing. The Legion of Honor is so cool with it's bronzes. Eventually we figured where to go in SF. But the best part about SF is it's so close to Sanoma and Russian River with their yummy wines.
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As this thread is something to do with America I thought I'd post this here. Scuze me.
The sending of "our troops" to Afghanistan has raised some interesting points, in my head at least. Phil Goff was being interviewed on te news last night and just before they cut the segment I heard a reporter ask, "Is it too dangerous for them" meaning the SAS, a point made by Mr Key the other day. Well la de friggin' da. Nothing is too dangerous for our mighty SAS, Chuck Norris would quake in his Ugg boots if confronted by our boys in Khaki. The real point though is. Why are we involved in a fight to prevent a mountainous desert region from worshiping a different God? Oh... hang on... it's the same God, just a different book. As far as I can recall the Afghanis have had an Islamic bent since time immoral (as my Mum would say) so we are plumb out of luck on that front.
Afghanistan sits smack in between Iran and Pakistan, two major Islamic states and also, if the Americans get their way, Iran would sit squarely between American Iraq and American Afghanistan. This, in my humble opinion, does not bode well for a stable situation.
I'll get my flack jacket. -
BART's not for getting around SF though - it's really a wide area transit system - makes a single pass through a lot of cities - more like a train than a subway.
What ever you do don't take a car - in SF Muni is the way to go: buses, streetcars (trams) and cablecars (for the tourists) - get a bus map - take a 6/66/71 bus out to the Haight - walk down Haight St and into Golden Gate Park, visit the De Young art museum or the museum of natural history - downtown visit MOMA - take a 31 to Chinatown - get some dim sum (yum char), walk into North Beach and find a nice cafe - or continue on the bus (or take a cable car) to fisherman's wharf, don't go in there, it's a horrible tourist trap no local would be seen dead in, instead walk west along the bay towards the Golden Gate bridge - if you get that far visit Fort Point (civil war fort right under the bridge) then climb up and walk across - or stop in the Marina District and visit the Exploratorium (possibly the best, grubby, science museum you'll ever visit - where you can touch and play with everything)
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My kids went to the usa a while ago, they got to go to disney land, las vegas, knoxberry farm etc etc.
The thing from their trip to america which stuck in their minds the most was......... the people sleeping on the traffic islands.
The people walking with all their worldly possesions heaped up in a shopping trolly.
The wounded and disabled of American society get to live in the street.
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The wounded and disabled of American society get to live in the street.
The photo I show my students is one I took in the Fisherman's Wharf area of SF, of a guy crammed into a corner rubbish bin (head and arms just visible), waving a cardboard sign which read "White Trash". He was getting quite a bunch of money--probably for his audacity.
As Leonard Cohen sings.."America .. the home of the best and the worst"
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I've always wanted to go to SF. Something about it just really draws me to it. One of these days.........
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Got room in your luggage for a stowaway?
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