rant

I lie to anyone younger than I am when congratulating them on the exciting youth they enjoyed because the truth, the secret I keep silent about, is that for anyone growing up in the 60’s life was incomparably more interesting than it is now. We had music, art and political/spiritual detonations not seen before or since. […]

Rain, rain go away. The last two months’ downpour has definitely killed any fantasies I had about moving to Portland. I have no statistics on the increase in local outbreaks of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) but cabin fever is an issue. As is safety. When I drive around I see banged up cars all over town. […]

You thought diamonds took billions of years to be created from carbon-containing minerals. You are wrong. There are now labs that take cremation ashes and, under high pressure, turn them into actual, certified diamonds. So your kids can have mom in a pair of earrings and dad in cufflinks. Google this ghoulish jewelry if you […]

Please save your complaints about our summer fog for someone else. I kind of love it. Cool and bracing as a crisp martini, its saline, marine breezes always remind me that the mighty Pacific is rolling a few miles away. It turns a hike through Mt. Tam redwoods into a dreamscape. The city softens, blurs, […]

Spring never gets old. Everything is exploding thanks to our El Nino winter drenching. The trails in the hills are banked with brilliant poppies. Dead lawns are coming back to life. The garden looks like it’s ready for a wedding. Though reservoirs are 100% of normal and it’s still snowing, don’t be fooled. Even if […]

I mark the New Year by celebrating, in a world of pain and horror, the detonation of joy that is the Golden State Warriors. The godlike Curry, Green and Thompson are possessed with a level of talent that renders me speechless. All I can do when they work their magic and make another impossible shot […]

What do you think about calling a moratorium on any conversations about traffic? No more detailed discussions of the 40 minutes you sat on the Bridge, the 2 hours it took you to get to the 49ers, or the increasing bicycle threat? Who cares? Even the most epic backups are never reported in the paper […]

A little spritz of moisture last week and every meteorologist here was predicting a sloppy, wet, El Nino winter. Pardon me for being a bit skeptical. My general sense is that weathermen frequently get their predictions wrong and that meteorology does not qualify as a science. I was suckered in by one of these prognosticators […]