Sam Spade's San Francisco

As far as race, ethnicity and ancestry goes, I'm pretty much a Brit Blend. I have historically deep roots in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. It seems my ancestors were all over the British Isles, but never ventured beyond. My ancestral stock reaches right back through historical British arrivals (Normans and Saxons for example) to the Celts of ancient pre-Roman times.

The photograph is a reconstruction of a pre-Roman Celtic house. They were frequently built on stilts in the middle of ponds or shallow lakes for safety. The ponds acted as moats. I can imagine my ancestors huddled inside that dark opening on a cold Halloween night, peering through the doorway on guard for faeries and other spooks in the night. Oooooh.

The romantic vision of the Celtic people as noble savages had its origin in some the popular writings of the 19th century. Some of the works of William Butler Yeats are good examples, particularly The Celtic Twilight (1893) and Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry (1888) among others. Romantic visions were not limited to Yeats or to the 19th century. A popular mythology has gradually developed until today, what most people think they know about the Celtic people, is simply not at all true.

The first historical mention of a people displaying the various cultural traits we associate today with the Celts occurred in northern Italy around 400 bce. According to Livy's The Early History of Rome the encounter went something like this:

The Celtic leaders told the Roman envoys that they had not heard of Rome before, but assumed the Romans must be a courageous people because it was to them that the Etruscans had turned to in their hour of need. And since the Romans had tried to help with diplomacy (something rare in the ancient world) and not with arms, the Celts would not reject the offer of peace, provided the Etruscans ceded part of their superfluous agricultural land, which is what the Celts wanted.

If the land was not turned over to the Celts, they would launch an attack right there on the spot, so the Romans would see how fierce and terrible they could be to their enemies. The Romans then asked whether it was right to demand land from its owners on threat of war and they also pushed for an answer as to why the Celts were in Etruria in the first place.

The Celts defiantly replied that they regularly took what they wanted without discussion; that to the brave belong the spoils.

So, I suspect the original Celts were not very pleasant folks. They were largely devoid of modern concepts of morality or ethics. The more I look back at my ancestral people I see similarities between the ancient Celts and their relationship to the Roman Empire, and, the relationship today between the Iraqi people and the United States.

The Celts were a primitive, barbaric people, who were very proud and independent and generally obnoxious in many modern ways. They found themselves being invaded by the Western world's first Superpower, Rome. The Celts reacted to Roman imperialism in about the same way as the Iraqis are responding to ours. Some things just never seem to change.

One difference between the Iraqi people, however, and the Celts, is that the Celts have given birth to an enticing, slightly sinister and enchanting holiday: Halloween! Samhain is the ancient Celtic feast of the dead that marked the start of winter. Because the Celts are believed to have measured time by nights rather than by days Samhain was the festival that marked the "New Year" for the Celtic peoples. Halloween was Opening Night for the New Year!

So, from one of the older and more decrepit Celts in San Francisco, and therefore a bit closer to the holiday's origin than most, please permit me to wish you an exciting and wonderfully wicked Halloween!

Boo!

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops would be the legislative body of the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S. were it not for the authority of the Pope, currently Joseph Ratzinger, who took the name, Benedict XVI. According to Lumen Gentium, (the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church) which was produced at the Second Vatican Council, "the one Church of Christ which in the Creed is professed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic" is none other than the Catholic Church, which is governed by the Pope and the bishops of the world who are in communion with him. The statement leaves little room for anyone else at the Christian table.

Lumen Gentium makes it absolutely crystal clear who runs the show, "... the college or body of bishops has no authority unless it is understood together with the Roman Pontiff, the successor of Peter as its head. The pope's power of primacy over all, both pastors and faithful, remains whole and intact. In virtue of his office, that is as Vicar of Christ and pastor of the whole Church, the Roman Pontiff has full, supreme and universal power over the Church. And he is always free to exercise this power." There is no question whatsoever that the bishops of the world are quite helpless to create change in the Vatican if the current Pope does not wish it to be so.

Enter the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. While the organization seems to have authority and sounds like it may be able to initiate change, it cannot. Read for yourself a description of the USCCB in their own words: Its purposes under civil law are: "To unify, coordinate, encourage, promote and carry on Catholic activities in the United States; to organize and conduct religious, charitable and social welfare work at home and abroad; to aid in education; to care for immigrants; and generally to enter into and promote by education, publication and direction the objects of its being." There is a notable absence of decision-making authority in that statement.

Knowing this, I was a bit taken back when the New York Times published a story this morning with this opening statement: "The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops have drafted new guidelines for ministry to gay people that affirm church teaching against same-sex relationships, marriages and adoptions by gay couples, yet encourage parishes to reach out to gay Catholics who feel alienated by their church."

The Times is accurate, if not a bit misleading. The newspaper does not suggest the bishops have made any definitive or substantial changes, but the article infers that the Catholic Church is making some degree of advance; that the church is actually moving forward, no matter how slowly. That is a mistaken assumption to make. There is nothing new in the bishops' proposal other than continued slurs, insults and injustices heaped on gay and lesbian Americans. The Catholic Church is making no advances whatsoever in their relations with gay and lesbians.

An announcement of The Guidelines for Ministry to Persons with Homosexual Inclination on Catholic Bishops’ Agenda was made by the USCCB Office of Media Relations and may be read here. It is a disgraceful document and should be exposed as such. Here are two examples:

* The Church does not support so-called same-sex “marriages” or any semblance thereof, including civil unions that give the appearance of a marriage. Church ministers may not bless such unions or promote them in any way, directly or indirectly.

* Similarly, the Church does not support the adoption of children by homosexual couples since homosexual unions are contrary to the divine plan.

The USCCB will vote on acceptance of the document at its fall meeting at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel, November 13-16, 2006.

Senator Barack Obama was in the San Francisco Bay Area yesterday. Barack Obama is an amazing man. He has everything it takes to be among the greatest. He is exceptional and he is absolutely right for this time in history. It is his time.

I believe Barack Obama is the best hope for America as we move into the 2008 presidential election. I want him elected President of the United States. We need Barack Obama. America needs Obama.

I was first able to cast a vote in a presidential election in 1968. In the California primaries I voted for Robert F. Kennedy. He won the primary but the next day he was dead: assassinated in Los Angeles. The Democratic nominee was Hubert Humphrey, for whom I voted. As we know all too well, the winner of that election was the Republican: Richard Nixon.

The first presidential election for which I campaigned was for Robert F. Kennedy. That was also the last time I was excited by a candidate whom I really supported without reservation.

Thirty-eight years later: enter Barack Obama. He's a 45 year-old Democrat who is a United States Senator from Illinois. He stood against the Bush Administration decision to invade Iraq and he supports a phased withdrawal of our troops. His ideas on saving America's schools and making a college education available to every American child are impressive concepts. Obama's clear vision for peace in the Mideast and with the Muslim world combined with his mastery of the economics of globalization, an extremely complicated subject, make it clear he is the man who is right for this time.

Read Barack Obama's new book, The Audacity of Hope, which is destined to be discussed in university classrooms for decades to come, particularly after his presidency. The book reminds me of another book once written by a U.S. Senator soon to be elected President of the United States. The book was Profiles in Courage and the author was John F. Kennedy.

Buy and read the Audacity of Hope.

I only ask that you NOT order the book online. Go to a neighborhood bookstore and buy it from the local folks. Keep your money in the community.

An anonymous reader left a link as a comment. I do not want to encourage people to include links in their comments. Such action invites spammers.

However, in fairness to the person who wanted to include the link in the conversation, I used the link and went to a television news web site in Seattle, Washington, where the family of Nick Torrico live. The station has obtained a copy of amateur video of the attempted rescue and has it available to be seen on demand.

Unfortunately the video is accompanied by some very below-the-belt commentary by some Seattle news anchors. The comments are a clear and obvious attempt to fan the flames of anger and discontent among that station's viewers. It's the kind of guerrilla journalism so unfortunately common in many of today's major TV markets.

Let's set the facts straight:

Nick Torrico wanted to kill himself. In the video he clearly resists the attempt by SFFD Lt. Vic Wyrsch to rescue him. He thrashed and kicked and fought. His behavior was distinctly different from the common behavior exhibited by someone being rescued. Nick Torrico was intent on committing suicide.

I am sorry for his family in Seattle, but their grief should not encourage a television station to twist the truth, color the news, and perpetuate the anguish of a family that has just lost a young man to suicide. It is unquestionably unfortunate that Nick Torrico is being remembered as a troubled young man with a possible alcohol problem. The memory of Nick Torrico deserves much more. He was, as I am confident his family would tell us, a wonderful young man in many ways. It is obvious he is deeply loved. To dwell on the last two-days of his life at the exception of all the rest of his human experience is horribly unjust to his memory and to his family.

Still, it will not ease their sorrow or make the grieving process any easier for them to crucify the one person who really tried to save Nick's life.

Nick Torrico committed suicide. That is the truth. It may be hard, blunt or even shocking. It is certainly very, very sad. However that cannot in any way change the facts. Nick Torrico died because he chose to die.

It is not uncommon for people who attempt suicide to change their minds at the very last moment. Unfortunately those people often change their minds a second or two too late. That may be precisely what happened. The video certainly suggests it.

Forget the inflammatory dialogue from the ratings-hungry Seattle news station and focus on the video itself. You will see very clearly that when Vic Wyrsch grabbed the young man, Nick Torrico fought his rescuer with all his strength. He kicked and twisted and pried and squirmed. Then he slipped out of Vic Wyrsch's grasp. At the moment he was hanging over infinity holding on to Lt. Wirsch with one hand, he seemed to become calm. At that very moment in time he may have been jolted into realty, become scared, and no longer wanted to die.

Unfortunately for Nick Torrico he made that decision a few seconds too late.

That's not a pretty story and it has no happy ending, but it is the truth. History should be re-told, not re-written.

UPDATE:

Much of the news coverage about Nick Torrico's suicide has focused negatively upon SFFD Lieutenant Vic Wyrsch. This is irresponsible journalism and sensationalism of the lowest and most diminishing variety. Likewise, some City officials have fallen victim to the hysteria. Their weakness speaks volumes about the lack of their own sense of duty, honor and fidelity to the San Francisco Fire Department and to the firefighters who keep the people of this City safe, alive and healthy. Those politicians (and we all know damn well who they are!) should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves just as I am disgusted by their spineless behavior.

Let me make something crystal clear to everyone: I am not now nor have I ever been associated with the San Francisco Fire Department as a firefighter or employee of any description. I have no relatives employed by the SFFD. I am, however, a San Franciscan, and not a recent transplant from some other place. My family first came to this City in 1849. I am approaching 60 years of age and I hold an advanced graduate degree. My opinion is not that of someone with a vested interest in either Lt. Wyrsch or the SFFD. I am speaking as a citizen of San Francisco. This is my City and my fire department, and, by God, I'll stand beside my own when I know them to be right.

I have brought this story to the top of the blog once again because there have been so many people contacting me and voicing their support for Lt. Vic Wyrsch. I am definitely among those San Franciscans who support Lt. Wyrsch and defend his actions, his professionalism, his sense of duty, his selflessness, and his extraordinary heroic nature.

Thank you, Lt. Wyrsch and thank you also to everyone who has added a comment to this story in support of this San Francisco Hero. Your thoughts may be left by clicking on the comments link at the end of end of this story.

Here, then, is the original story:



Nick Torrico was a troubled 26-year old who arrived in San Francisco from Seattle on October 11th and committed suicide the following day. His sister said he had been struggling with alcoholism.

On October 11th he had a fight with his father in Seattle. Instead of showing up for a job interview in Seattle he flew to Oakland. From there he came across the Bay to San Francisco and went to Grace Cathedral where he talked to a priest. A few hours later he was standing precariously on the edge of a roof of an apartment building at 900 Powell Street threatening suicide.

Lieutenant Victor Wyrsch, a 15-year veteran of the San Francisco Fire Department, has saved the lives of four people who attempted suicide. In each case he saved those lives using the same procedure as he used with Torrico. In dealing with jumpers, there is a point in time when the signals are strong that the jumper is going to go. At that point a firefighter will put his own life and safety on the line, reach out, and make one heroic and valiant attempt to save the jumper's life.

That's what Lt. Wyrsch did. He reached out and tried to grab Torrico in a bear hug. Four other times it worked and Wyrsch saved four lives. This fifth time time the jumper slipped through the firefighter's grip.

Nick Torrico's death was a terrible waste and the entire City feels sorrow for Nick's family. However, the SFFD was presented with a emergency situation when a young man from Seattle who had been in the City only a matter of hours, with a history of alcohol abuse and evidence that he was deeply disturbed at the time, decided to climb up on top of a roof and began threatening to jump. The San Francisco Fire Department responded and did everything possible to save this young man's life.

Nick Torrico's death was tragic, but it was not the fault of Lieutenant Vic Wyrsch and it was not the fault of the San Francisco Fire Department. Make absolutely no mistake about this: Lieutenant Vic Wyrsch is a hero to the people of San Francisco and he has saved more lives in attempted suicides than many firefighters in America can only dream about doing.

If Nick Torrico's family wants to look for the reason for the young man's death and place the blame somewhere, don't look at the San Francisco Fire Department. If Nick was having problems with alcohol abuse as his sister suggests, the problem may likely be found there.

It's easy to distance ourselves here in San Francisco from the politics of Washington, DC or the rantings and ravings of those publicly panicky Republicans because we don't have any (or many) GOP's in The City.

But That doesn't mean that we are safe. That half-wit George "Stay-the-Course" Bush is bringing the entire world to the brink of a world-wide civil war. Muslim extremists are launching into a terrorist war that will bring bombings, murder and mayhem to the world's greatest cities. The war is rapidly expanding out of Iraq to Paris, London, Madrid, New York and ... who's next? This clearly impacts San Francisco, the No. 1 top tourist destination in the United States and No. 2 (behind Sydney, Australia) in the world! (Read the story here).

Now, the Republican Party is repeating the tactics of the Lyndon Johnson campaign when the GOP aired a soundly-criticized political ad on TV showing the mushroom cloud of an atomic bomb - scare tactics. Isn't the scare tactic the principal weapon of terrorists? Don't terrorists really want to terrify you with the thought of death and disaster? As Olbermann suggests, the key to terrorism is not the act, but fear of the act. If the GOP is airing scare tactic commercials, doesn't that make the Republican Party a terrorist organization?

The Muslim extremists have a new and powerful advertising agency: the Republican Party in the United States.

Wow! What a sad set of circumstances create the need for a statement like that.

Damn those Republican bastards.

The Man of the Hour is Keith Olbermann, host of MSNBC's Countdown. Last night I became quite animated as I watched Olbermann's broadcast, Special Comment: Advertising Terrorism: the key to terrorism is not the act - but the fear of the act.

I highly recommend Keith Olbermann's report which may be seen in video here.

Great Balls of Fire, have you read this one?

Until now I have been of the opinion that Jet Blue is a pretty good airline. The people I know who regularly fly Jet Blue seemed pleased ... BUT ... what lurks just below the surface of the image?

Kristin Philiposki, writing in her blog, Bodyhack, and printed in Wired Blogs, writes this: "Jet Blue wanted to squeeze just a few more working hours out of its pilots but it needed the facts to prove that a change in FAA regulations wouldn't lead to a spate of crashes and flight errors. Its solution? Hook up 30 odd pilots to monitoring devices and make them illegally work in excess of FAA protocol in a makeshift clinical trial. Not only does such an experiment violate every ethical law in the book, it also makes hundreds, if not thousands, of passengers unwitting participants in a clinical trial that could possibly end in a fireball on the tarmac."

Ouch! Read the rest of Kristin's story here.

In August I wrote a global warming piece for this blog titled The 42 Islands of San Francisco. In it I discuss the impact on San Francisco of a sea level 21-feet higher than it is today.

My, my! How things can change from August to October. The predictions made in the August story are not only coming true ... the news is even worse!

This morning while reading my RSS feed from NASA's Earth Observatory I was faced with little jolt. The news is dramatic! Here are the headlines as I found them and links to the appropriate stories.

Greenland Ice Sheet on a Downward Slide

NASA and NOAA Announce Ozone Hole is a Double Record Breaker

Shrinking Ponds Signal Warmer, Dryer Alaska

Severe Thunderstorms Over the Southeastern United States

Beating the Coming Heat in the World's Biggest Cities

Defying Dry: Amazon Greener in Dry Season than Wet

Paleoclimatology: Explaining the Evidence

Earth's Big Heat Bucket

Blue Marble: The Next Generation

Stop complaining about the Howard Street closure!

The Man Behind the Closure

The man in the photo is Larry Ellison. He's a San Franciscan. Larry lives in the City, but works a little south of here where he runs a company he created and developed.

Of course, a man who has $81-billion is likely to have an extra home or two and Larry is certainly no exception. In addition to his Pacific Heights mansion, he has a $200-million retreat at Woodside and paid another $65-million for a place along Malibu's Carbon Beach.

In the beginning, Larry gave his company the right name: Oracle. According to the dictionary, an oracle is a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel. Today, Oracle is the world's largest enterprise software company, providing software and services to enterprises around the globe.

Ellison was born in New York City and grew up in South Chicago. After leaving college, Larry headed West to California and settled here in San Francisco. He lives here today when not at one of his other summer homes or traveling aboard the Rising Sun, his $200-million yacht which is the third largest in the world. The royal yacht formerly used by Queen Elizabeth II, by example, is 412 feet in length. The Rising Sun is 453 feet in length.

San Francisco Closes Howard Street for Larry

Howard Street between Third and Fourth Street will be closed to all traffic for eight days, starting today. The street will be closed to accommodate Larry Ellison's Oracle convention.

Oracle is filling the massive Moscone Convention Center and filling Moscone West, the huge new addition to the center on Fifth Street. More than 40,000 conventioneers are expected to be in San Francisco for those eight days. Nearly every hotel room in the City has been booked. Tours, restaurants, theatres, limousine services and countless other local businesses will be ringing the hell out of their cash registers during Oracle Open World '06.

Mayor Newsom estimates that we will rake in more than $60-million during the eight days from the Oracle spenders. On top of it all, Larry Ellison is paying the City for the extra police protection needed and has offered to pay for all associated city workers overtime during the convention.

We're in the Entertainment Business

San Francisco is in the entertainment business. We have been in the entertainment business since the mid 1800's. My family first came to this City in 1849. In those days and well into the 20th century the Barbary Coast on Pacific Street offered fandango parlors, whore houses, noisy saloons, dance halls, restaurants specializing in beefsteak dinners, and lots of hotels everywhere. San Francisco was like a huge arcade and the people of San Francisco ran the business.

Today we still do run the business, collectively, as a community. A lot of people don't understand this because they haven't been in San Francisco long enough to become part of the inner fiber of the City. They are still newcomers in one sort of sense or another. These folks think it's somebody else who is responsible and it is somebody else who needs to contribute to the overall effort. Well, folks, the somebody else is us ... the people and citizenry of San Francisco.

Whether you are a newcomer or native-born with a San Francisco genealogy, the fact of the matter is that we, the people of the City of San Francisco, operate an entertainment business. In fact, we run the most popular entertainment destination in the United States.

ka-Ching! ... that sweet, sweet sound.

Entertaining the 40,000 Oracle guests is extremely important to our bottom line and to the future of our City. Any true, real San Franciscan will be absolutely delighted that we have booked a big party like Oracle. Ka-ching. It's money in the bank!

So, for those of you newcomers (and long-time residents who have never really become true San Franciscans) who feel imposed upon by the Howard Street closure, I have absolutely no sympathy at all. If you don't plan to be a part of our City's growth and development, then please get the hell out of the way.

The City and County of San Francisco, will conduct a public auction on December 12, 2006, at 9:30 a.m. in Room 408, City Hall (1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place), San Francisco, California for the purpose of selling four properties listed below:

1. 1648 Pacific Ave., San Francisco (former San Francisco Fire Department Station 4)
   A two story unreinforced brick building containing approx. 6,790 square feet plus a basement containing approx. 960 square feet. Zoned: NCD Polk Neighborhood Commercial District
   Minimum bid: $900,000; APN: 574/11
   Inspection dates: 1-4 p.m. Wednesday, October 25 and November 15, 2006
   
   
2. 2350 19th Ave., San Francisco (former vehicle storage and maintenance yard)
   A 12,500 sq. ft. lot improved with a one-story office building, containing
   approx. 557 sq. ft., and a concrete carport containing six double bays. Zoned: RH-2
   Minimum bid: $1,800,000; APN: 2347/4G
   Inspection date: 9:30-11:30 a.m. Thursday, October 26, 2006
   
   
3. 425 Mason St., San Francisco (former SF Water Dept. administrative offices)
   A seven story office building with a rooftop penthouse and full basement, containing
   Approx. 34,500 sq. ft. Zoned: C-3-G
   Minimum bid: $4,850,000; APN: 306/2
   Inspection dates: 1-4 p.m. Thursday, October 26 and November 16, 2006
   
   
4. 849 Cesar Chavez St., San Francisco (former railroad right-of-way)
   An 8,862 vacant lot. Zoned: M-2
   Minimum bid: $157,500; APN: 4357/5

For more information contact: Jerry Romani, Real Estate Division, 25 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco, CA 94102; telephone: ; and fax: . For your convenience, you may download and print bid packages for each of the four properties stated above from the following website:

www.sfgov.org/realestate.

Bid packages will also be available for pick-up at the below address for a fee of $20.00 each. Bid packages will not be mailed. Each bid package will contain an Invitation to Bid, a copy of City’s Offer to Purchase Agreement and a copy of a preliminary title report. In addition, some may also contain hazardous materials disclosure information, property condition assessment report excerpts or a form of conservation easement.

The woman speaking at this year's Labor Day Barbecue in the Village of Lombard, Illinois is Tammy Duckworth.

Tammy was born in Thailand and grew up in several countries in Southeast Asia where her father, Franklin Duckworth, worked for the United Nations and international companies. Tammy's mother, Lamai, was a native of Thailand. At 16 Tammy and her family moved to Hawaii where she finished high school and received her bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Hawaii and her master's degree in International Affairs from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She was working on a doctorate in political science at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb when deployed to Iraq.

Tammy joined ROTC in 1990 as a graduate student in Washington, D.C. and was commissioned to the Army Reserve in 1992 in Illinois. She decided to become a helicopter pilot because it was one of the only combat jobs available to women. Tammy holds the rank of Major in the Illinois Army National Guard. Her late father fought as a U.S. Marine in World War II and Vietnam.

On November 12, 2004, Tammy was co-piloting a Black Hawk helicopter north of Baghdad when a rocket-propelled grenade struck the cockpit of her aircraft and exploded. The two pilots struggled to bring the fatally-injured Black Hawk down. Then, once on the ground, Tammy passed out. Ten days later, when she woke up at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Maryland, she learned that the explosion would cost her both legs and had shattered her right arm.

She said that if not for her catastrophic injuries, she would like to return to duty in the Iraq war she believes George Bush and the Republican-controlled House and Senate have completely botched. "When the people of the United States allow us to send their loved ones in to harm's way to support the national interest, it is with the understanding that our policy makers will exercise good judgment, and not expend a single life needlessly ... from a policy perspective, invading Iraq was a mistake. We should have focused our military resources instead on pursuing the terrorists who attacked our country and on capturing Osama Bin Laden. Not only did we misdirect our human and financial resources; we squandered an enormous amount of international goodwill that we acquired after 9/11."

So, Tammy is running for Congress!

She's running for the seat vacated by Republican Representative Henry Hyde, who held the seat for 32-years. Hyde is best remembered as the Chief House Prosecutor (Inquisitor) in the attempted impeachment of President Bill Clinton. If Duckworth, a true American War Hero, wins this long-held Republican seat for the Democratic Party, she will also raise the bar in the battle to defeat George Bush and his Republican Roundup.

This November, on the second anniversary of her injuries in Iraq, Tammy Duckworth may very well be a member-elect of the United States Congress.

Best of luck, Tammy!

For the past fourteen years Condé Nast Traveler magazine has been asking its readers to name the Number One Travel Destination in America and for all fourteen years the overwhelming choice has been: San Francisco. This year 21,000 experienced travelers voted and San Francisco edged out No. 2 Santa Fe and No. 3 New York City.

Condé Nast Traveler also names the best overall travel destination city in the world. Last year we were edged out by Sydney, Australia which earned a score of 88.8 to San Francisco's 86.8

You can see the complete results in the November issue which will be on news stands October 24th or go to www.cntraveller.com

The United States Mint at San Francisco was founded in 1874 as the first branch of the U.S. Mint in California. Known as the “Granite Lady”, the Old Mint is one the most important historic structures in San Francisco. The building sits on a concrete and granite foundation, designed to thwart tunneling into its vaults, which at the time of the 1906 fire held $300 million , fully a third of the United States' gold reserves.

It is one of the best Classical Greek-Revival style buildings in the western United States and was the only major financial institution to survive the great earthquake of 1906. The Old Mint played an integral role in the rebirth of San Francisco by providing desperately needed money for the rebuilding effort.

Mayor Gavin Newsom recently signed legislation to begin the renovation and reuse of the Old San Francisco Mint located at 5th and Mission Streets. The solid granite building will be restored and converted to a museum celebrating the history of San Francisco.

San Francisco is home to the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and its plethora of research institutes and centers, including the UCSF AIDS Research Institute, the California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical research (QB3), and 29 other research intitutes, clinics and programs.

AIDS researchers, activists, health educators and others working in the field will enjoy seeing these images of public health AIDS posters from around the world. The posters illustrate attempts by a variety of institutions to educate and warn their citizens about AIDS and offer advice and information in visual form about the still deadly autoimmune disease.

Visit the AIDS Poster Collection from the UCLA Library Digital Collection. Browsable by subject or searchable by keyword. Note: many of the posters may be seen only in small size. Larger versions to download are not yet available, but coming soon.

The revelation that former Republican Congressman Mark Foley is a chicken hawk who was raiding the Congressional Page dorms for cute young teen boys is a story too juicy to dry up and blow away. This is a headline story that will carry right on through the November elections.

So, how much do we all really know about Congressional Pages? I suspect most Americans don't know a lot about the program. For example, did you know the House has 72 high school juniors working as pages? Each is paid $18,817 per year. Perks include a room in the House Page Dormitory near the Capitol and they attend the House Page School in the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. Unfortunately, some of the boys also received another not-so-nice perk: Mark Foley Fondling.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) fact sheet, updated in August 2006, describes the selection and duties of the Pages who "serve principally as messengers" in the U.S. Congress each year.

The University of California, Berkeley (UCB) is the preeminent public research and teaching institution in the nation. From classic literature to emerging technologies, the curricula of Cal's 130 academic departments span the world of thought and knowledge.

Now, videos from UCB's campus seminars, courses, events and lectures are online and ready for you to view them at Google. Topics include Physics 10 (Physics for Future Presidents), Internet search engines (with Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google), poetry readings, the China-U.S. Climate Change Forum, Chemistry 3B, and much more. Browse through pages of video offerings at

It has been said that nothing can kindle a fire in the imagination like a good story.

It's Saturday and on weekends I think of issues quite different from those weighing on my mind during the work week. I work for a San Francisco law firm and weekdays are full of issues and cases and questions and challenges. The weekends, however, are available for me to think about anything I choose.

There is a small following of people who have deep, internal connection to the works of William Shakespeare. For me the reasons are clear. I am an historian at heart and I hold a grad degree in history. I am also a Brit Blend ... a mix-match of English, Scot and Irish. Shakespeare not only commanded the language of my ancestors, but he tells delightful tales of life in my ancestral homeland as well.

Shakespeare's works are as delightful to me today as they were to those who attended his plays at the Swan Theatre in the 16th century. If, perchance, you are like-minded I heartily recommend this site to you: Shakespeare Searched.

This is a search engine designed to provide quick access to passages from Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. Search results can be viewed by topic (such as love or death), work, and character. The site includes options to view surrounding text of the passages and citations. The text of the plays is courtesy of Moby Lexical Resources. Shakespeare Searched, which is completely free to use, is from Clusty Labs.

Enjoy!

The glum-looking fellow on the right is wondering what to do next. He just blew his chance at being elected California's Governor. Here's what happened today:

When Phil Angelides snubbed Willie Brown's Breakfast of Champions political power breakfast this morning here in San Francisco he all but publicly announced that he is giving up and handing the election to Arnold Schwarzenegger. More than 950 local and statewide political power brokers and elected officials attended the breakfast event hosted by former San Francisco Mayor and former Speaker of the California State Assembly, Willie Brown.

Everyone in the high-stakes politics game was at the breakfast this morning: Senator Barbara Boxer, Senate President Don Perata, Mayor Gavin Newsom, Jerry Brown and even Governor Arnold Schawrzenegger. Angelides was invited a number of times directly by Brown, but he failed to show.

Gavin Newsom, trying to be as diplomatic as possible, said, "He chose not to be here, he could've been here and I objectively think it's a mistake. But you know, it was the choice he made. He feels his time could be better used somewhere else instead."

Seasoned political observers recognize this as the biggest blunder of the faltering Angelides campaign and has led a number of observers to conclude: Angelides just gave away the election. Schawrzenegger is going to be re-elected. After decades of being a faithful lap-dog for the California Democratic Party, when given his chance at the brass ring, Phil Angelides fell flat on his face.

Phil Angelides is history.

Welcome to October, the harvest month ... and what a harvest we have this month!

First of all we have the spectacular theatrical performance of Mark Foley, the Florida Chickenhawk who has just emerged as the GOP's Pied Piper ... he's leading the Republicans out of the Congress and back to their districts to scramble like maniacs to keep their seats. Thanks to Miss Foley, the Republicans will likely lose the House and their family values argument is shot to hell.

Running a close second to Foley is our own Phil Angelides, who seems determined to shoot himself in his left feet. I remember meeting Angelides years ago ... back in the 80's. He was a Democratic Party worker in those days. We were both members of the California Democratic Party State Central Committee at the time and Phil tripped over himself trying to help and be of service wherever he could. He was Phaithful Phil.

Angelides was like a scrawny Jimmy Olson, the not-quite-sure-what's-going-on news boy for the Daily Planet. He was eager and under everyone's feet, always around and ready to help. Nice qualities for a grocery store bag boy, but not much use for a leader.

Now we fast-forward to 2006 and Phil is running for governor. We always knew he wanted to be governor. Phil Angelides has lusted to be governor for 30 years and he has been paying his dues to the Democratic Party every step of the way. The Dems owe Phil a chance to score a home run. This is his one time at bat.

Unfortunately, Phil is still - well - a gray-haired and slightly distinguished-looking Urkel. He's still not quite sure what's going on. That's why it's been so easy for Arnold to bitch-slap Angelides as successfully as he has been doing.

In November we play the Big Game. We have Phaithful Phil at bat, Bonds on drugs and Alou just got fired. We face the dreaded Dodgers with the Terminator pitching to the bitch. Looks like game-over.

Congratulations may soon be in order for Nancy Pelosi. She may become the next Speaker of the House. That would put her two heartbeats away from the Presidency of the United States.

The Mark Foley scandal has captivated the attention of the entire nation. It has made a joke out of the Republican catch-phrase, family values, and it has sent the entire Republican Party into disaster control mode. Very soon the balance of power may shift in the Congress and Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi may become Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Congratulations, Nancy!

We owe a particular debt of gratitude to Paul Pelosi, Nancy's husband who met his future-wife at at Trinity College in Washington, DC. It was Paul who convinced Nancy to move back home with him to San Francisco.

Thanks, Paul.

And in a weird sort of way ... thanks also to Dennis Hastert, Tom DeLay, Dick Cheney, Trent Lott, Mark Foley and, of course, George W. Bush ... who by publicly being the kind of people they really are, have collectively crushed the election hopes of the Republican Party.

Keep up the good work, boys.