the people sleeping on the traffic islands.

I was told they were early earthquake warning detectors employed by the state.

Just thought of another fun place to visit – if you happen to be down near 4th St the East bay Vivarium for all your reptilian needs – where the staff look a lot like the product

At the weekend take a kite and go…

The funny thing is that "sweltering hot" in Berkeley is pretty rare – there's a tongue of fog that sneaks across the bay in the evenings – a natural air conditioner...

Hmmm... I guess Antarctica would be the equivalent natural air conditioner in Dunedin...

Stewart wrote:

Which…

apropos of my little snippet of Greek knowledge, muni (the Greek word) is pronounced "moo nee" with a slight rising inflection. Which led me to ponder that Barry Humphries' locating of Edna Everage as coming from Moonee Ponds was probably exercising a modicum of Greek knowledge himself. It would…

Bob (or 'Thunderbird 2', as he prefers to be known these days) and I have been exploring hither and yon — we're having a lovely time .

Swelteringly hot here at the moment. Another long night of writing/illustrating ahead of me; I feel…

... Bodega Bay (where The Birds was shot)

And where my most magnificent 40th birthday party was held over four fabulous days.

Don't forget to detour inland and drink some wine.

The locals laugh at the tourists in their shorts and tee-shirts freezing on the streets – summer is fog season – take some warm clothes, don't expect to enjoy the water at the beach in Northern…

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…

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…

What ever you do don't take a car – in SF Muni is the way to go:…

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…

FX: Cue X Files lick.

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!

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…

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.

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."

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…

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…

Why would anyone waste their time writing and illustrating something like this — let alone reading it?

I know of at least one person who…

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…

So in the spirit of responding to our readers' wishes...