Sam Spade's San Francisco

The handsome gentleman in the tuxedo is Angelo Viducic. He's been a waiter at Original Joe's for 45 years and , writing in today's San Francisco Chronicle, tells us that Angelo has decided to retire. (Chronicle photo by Eric Luse)

Retirement from Original Joe's is a major event. It doesn't happen often. Waiter Windsor "Windy" Eli has worked at Original Joe's for 57 years and Dave Davis, who has been there 51 years, is running a close second. The busboys at Original Joe's are the new kids on the block. Manuel Loiasa and Nick Nerdita have only been there 32 years.

Ante "Tony" Rodin opened Original Joe's in 1937. He retired just three years ago at the age of 92. His daughter, Marie Duggan, is keeping the tradition alive and now manages Original Joe's.

Original Joe's is a very original San Francisco restaurant. Herb Caen wrote of it, "very retro, very fine."

I've been going to Original Joe's since the late 1950's. My father loved Original Joe's and took me with him often. I was always anxious to go along because as "everyone" in San Francisco knew, that was Joe DiMaggio's favorite restaurant.

My father's favorite dish was the Saturday Special: prime rib with baked potatoes and fresh vegetables. I usually ordered side-dishes. The plate sizes at original Joe's are enormous. The wrote of the meals, "Even real men may not be able to finish off the oversized and undercharged portions of basic Italian food at this Downtown landmark. " I don't know if I like Zagat Survey's use of "real men" any better than Arnold's choice of "girly men", but I'll not make a big scene over it.

Now, 45 years later, the meals are still too big for me, but every so often I return to Original Joe's in the heart of the Tenderloin, weaving and dodging my way past crack smokers, drunks and zoned-out panhandlers to reach that magical place where waiters dress in tuxedos and olive oil-fired flames leap high from the grill ... which is right by the front door so everyone can watch the culinary show.

Almost invariably I order veal scallopine with fresh mushrooms, tomato, herbs and wine, served with spaghetti and I order fresh vegetables on the side. I can never finish the whole meal, but ohhhh. It is soooo good!

Thanks to Carl Nolte taking note of Angelo's retirement, I consider myself to be properly admonished for being away from Original Joe's too long. I think it's time for a little veal scallopine!


Original Joe's is open from 10:30 AM to 12:30 AM every day of the week. They accept MC, Visa, AEX, Discover, Diners Travelers Checks.

Original Joe's is located at 142 Taylor Street. There is a small parking lot adjacent to the building (and yes, there is someone on duty to watch your car) and with your meal you will receive a $2 voucher to cover your parking.

More questions? Give them a call.

One of the most-loved holiday stories is Frank Capra's classic It's a Wonderful Life. The photo on the right shows Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed in a still from the 1946 film.

Over the years there have been several remakes of the classic film, so it comes as no real surprise that it has been remade once again ... this time for the Internet.

Take five minutes from your daily grind and enjoy this interactive creation. Be sure to turn up your sound before you start. There is both narration and sounds you can add interactively.

So, whether your home prefers a Christmas tree or a Hanukkah Menorah, here is a bit of cheer you'll remember all year!

There have been two fatal accidents in the past two weeks involving MUNI.

Earlier this year the parents of a 4-year old girl who was crushed to death when a MUNI vehicle drove her into the wall of a pizza restaurant at 24th and Potrero, were awarded $15 million.

Experienced San Francisco pedestrians know that when the "walk" light appears to walk across Market Street at an intersection it is pretty good advice to look left and right for MUNI. Almost on a regular basis MUNI buses run red lights all along Market Street. Actually, what they do is more like crawling across intersections on a red light. Usually the drivers have more than sufficient time to bring their coaches to a comfortable and safe stop if they wanted to do so.

Instead they willfully meander across the intersection, against the red light, arrogantly ignorant of both pedestrians and autos who have green lights. I've seen that occur countless times. Once in awhile a police cruiser will be close enough to witness the entire scene, but they invariably just turn a cheek to MUNI and let them do whatever they choose to do.

One of the most dangerous scenarios I have witnessed occured daily on the 15-Third line as it crossed the CalTrain mainline near the new UCSF Biomed Research Center on a detour route during the light rail construction along Third Street. The California Vehicle Code requires all buses - including MUNI - to come to a full stop at all railroad tracks. Many of the 15 line's drivers did not even bother to slow down. They just crossed the tracks without any thought of looking for approaching passenger trains.

Sometime last summer I sent an email to MUNI about it. They agreed that California State Law required all MUNI buses to stop at railroad tracks and promised immediate action. Baloney. MUNI buses continued to roll across the railroad tracks without the slightest sign of any attempt to stop.

I called the CHP. They assured me that MUNI buses were required to stop at railroad crossings and assured me that any driver violating that law would get a stiff ticket and maybe lose a license. More baloney. To my knowledge the CHP has not issued any citations to MUNI drivers at that crossing since last summer. I don't believe they ever dispatched a CHP cruiser to park along the street and see if an approaching MUNI bus would stop.

Neither MUNI, nor the Mayor's office, nor the CHP seemed to think the matter was important enough to take any action. That crisis has passed, thankfully, without fatalities, but what about current and developing dangers? Are these too not important enough to warrant action - not important enough, that is, until the accident finally happens?

San Francisco is supposed to be a "transit first" city. Unfortunately we are also a "safety last" city.

Who among us needs to die before MUNI, the Mayor, the Board of Supervisors and the CHP recognize and answer to their collective responsibility?

"At almost precisely 5:12 AM local time, a foreshock occurred with sufficient force to be felt widely throughout the San Francisco Bay area. The great earthquake broke loose some 20 to 25 seconds later, with an epicenter near San Francisco... Violent shocks punctuated the strong shaking, which lasted some 45 to 60 seconds. The earthquake was felt from southern Oregon to south of Los Angeles and inland as far as central Nevada." -(Ellsworth, W.L., 1990, Earthquake history, 1769-1989, chap. 6 of Wallace, R.E., ed., The San Andreas Fault System, California: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1515, p. 152-187. An account of historic earthquakes in California)

In four months, on April 18th, 2006, San Franciscans will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire that destroyed most of San Francisco.

The magnitude of the 1906 earthquake is open to debate. The data for the earthquake was often of poor quality or the few stations existing at the time were not in the best locations to record the information needed. There are also a number of different ways to measure the "size" of an earthquake, which because of details of the rupture process for the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, do not necessarily agree, a fact evident even for more recent earthquakes.

M = 7.7
David Wald, Hiroo Kanamori, Donald Helmberger, and Thomas Heaton (Cal Tech and USGS) studied recordings of the 1906 seismic waves made at 96 observatories around the world. Data from 12 of these observatories were of good enough quality to be digitized and modeled, and suggest a surface wave magnitude (Ms) of 7.7. They also found that most of the shaking energy came from two separate areas on the fault -- one between Point Reyes and Fort Ross to the north and the second on the San Francisco Peninsula to the south.

M = 7.9
Wayne Thatcher, Grant Marshall, and Michael Lisowski (U.S.G.S.) have re-evaluated the geodetic data from before and after the 1906 earthquake. The offset on the fault plane produces ground deformation over a broad region around the fault. This deformation manifests itself as changes in the angles and distances between benchmarks in geodetic networks. Using the observed changes, these scientists constructed models of the slip distribution on the fault plane in 1906. Based on the amount of slip, these models suggest a moment-magnitude (Mw) of 7.9.

M = 8.3?
The traditional magnitude of 8 1/4 or 8.3 comes from Richter (1958). However, the seismic observatories that he used to arrive at this value were only located in Europe. Stations in Europe tend to have a bias of about 1/2 magnitude unit for earthquakes in California, caused probably by unusual velocities or attenuation effects for waves traveling along these paths. Similarly, magnitude values determined from surface waves arriving at these stations after the Loma Prieta earthquake yield a surface wave (Ms) magnitude of 7.5, which is 1/2 magnitude unit large than the accepted value of 7.0. This azimuthal bias can be seen in a plot constructed by David Wald.

Still, these are just numbers and collected data. Here is some data that tells the story in more human terms:

• 225,000 San Franciscans became homeless that morning from a population of about 400,000.

• 29,000 buildings in San Francisco were destroyed. The 3-day fire following the earthquake caused substantially more damage than did the earthquake. The area of the burned district covered 4.7 square miles.

To learn more about the Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire visit these sites:

• http://www.exploratorium.edu/faultline/1906/
  

• http://www.sfmuseum.org/1906/06.html

• http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/sfeq.htm
  

• http://www.1906centennial.org/

Want to know when the next big earthquake will strike? Well, the closest we can come to prediction is early warning and you can receive email alerts or add recent quake reports to your RSS reader by visiting this link to the U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program:

• http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/