MoJo Photo Blog: Aryan Outfitters: “Coming from five generations of Ku Klux Klan members, 58-year-old ‘Ms. Ruth’ sews hoods and robes for Klan members seven days a week, blessing each one when it’s done.”
The Web is a wonder.
September 19, 2008
September 18, 2008
July 23, 2008
Festival of Sail kicks off with parade of ships at noon today
We live where we can see the water because his nibs wanted to see boats, boats, boats!
And we do.
The Festival of Sail kicks off at noon today with a parade of ships sailing in through the Golden Gate.
I’ll be downtown for lunch with his nibs and will miss the ship parade, but I’ve been enjoying some of the runup this morning.
Shown:
[1] The fire boats serving San Francisco Fire Department from the Bay spray a welcome for an incoming military ship.
[2] Some masts over by the Ferry Building. And a ferry, and a docked dinner cruise ship. The Delta Queen, the largest of the dinner cruise ships on this side of the Bay, has been docked elsewhere to free up some room for the wooden ships to dock. The ships will open for tours starting tomorrow. We’ve been enjoying views of a two masted ship, docked at Pier 19 since we got back.
[3] Another smaller boat.
July 21, 2008
Back.
Working on pics.
I promised the PCV that I’d get my favorite photos pulled together in a more timely manner than norm.
Our guide had backed up a bit when he saw our visitor headed our way, backed up just enough that he cleared the path over to the right that the elephants used to cross the dirt road. Our visitor came within a foot of the hood and veered off to the right.
Our South African companion in the front seat is deathly afraid of elephants. She was not at all amused as the beast got nearer and nearer and nearer.
May 28, 2008
Sailing, sailing, over the bounding main*
Spotted last evening before sunset.
Note UCBerkeley campanille in the east bay hills behind Treasure Island at about 10 o’clock.
*Geoffrey Marks, 1880.
May 27, 2008
Memorial Day weekend guests
Picture taken last night of the cruiser tied up at Piers 15-17 over the weekend. When the Exploratorium takes over Piers 15-17 (Port Authority and City willing), the deal requires that the Exploratorium keep the piers maintained and clear for the occasional Navy ship to dock.
The cruiser leaving this morning with the help of two tugs.
May 22, 2008
May 19, 2008
Some clicks from yesterday’s Bay-To-Breakers — the 97th running thereof
addendum added
We had an invite from long-time friends to watch Bay-To-Breakers at their place down on Fell, about 3.5 miles into the 7.46 mile Bay-To-Breakers “race.”
I use the term “race” because BTB is a serious race and a silly race and a seven-mile stroll and a chance to have an excuse to start drinking at 7AM, if that’s your poison.
We were told to arrive by 7:30A as the street closures start and it gets harder and harder to find parking. We got up a bit before 6A, showered, made coffee (me) and Nilgiri tea (him) and headed off. First stop Columbus and Union, outside Coit Liquors to catch the 45.
Across the street the young woman in her floaty was having problems getting her new Crocs on and dialing a cell phone with shark fins on her hands. She finally took the fins off to dial the phone. She was still waiting for her ride when ours arrived. Off we go. (We kept an eye out for her but never did see her run/stroll by. TOO MANY PEOPLE!)
By 7:06A we were waiting on Market for the 5 Fulton, which would take us up to Fulton and Masonic. Three blocks down Masonic to Fell, hang a left right … whatever and we’d arrive.
While we were waiting for the 5 Fulton, a crew of Vikings and their ship passed us heading east to the race start. Beer cups firmly in hand. 7:06AM.
We arrived. Helped set up the brunch buffet. Waited for the first runners to appear.
Lineth Chepkurui, who won the female division, came through at 8:14. (Women runners were given a five minute lead at the race start.)
At 8:17, John Korir blows through with Ridouane Harroufi on his heels. Korir and Harroufi caught up with Chepkurui on the Great Highway just before the end of the race.
The serious (AKA “elite” runners) were followed by the not so serious.
Little BoPeep and her sheep came through at 8:34A.
We had older runners.
And younger.
The Hooter next door (who was a big hit with people who wanted to have their picture taken with him):
Four hours into the race, the Yellow Submarine with the Fab Four strolled by
We had the kilted guy next door
D, offering his homemade hummus and whole grain pita to participants.
We had folks with beads
And folks without
Five hours after we’d seen them last, the Vikings were spotted again. Much the worse for wear after dragging their ship up Hayes hill.
The gang had a great time and, time and stamina willing, I’ll pull all the photos together in a gallery.
Later … we’re off to the Ferry Building for a Commonwealth Club panel discussion on raw cheese. Tasting too!
Addendum: (originally written in the comments on View from the Hill commenter Don’s blog)
Snapped a pic of a float I thought you’d like.
We watched from a perch off the panhandle, at about the halfway marker for the race.
The last runner/walkers came through about 1P with motorcycle cops flushing the rest of the crowds off the street. (A bit later than usual. The weather was fine and the crowds were huge.)
We swept the piles of litter out in the streets for the street sweepers that immediately followed the cops. We piled plastic bottles and beer cans and bottles on the sidewalk for the scavengers who took them away for their CRV value.
Lucky for the runners, the temps were considerably less than the 95dF they’d been just a couple days before. I can’t imagine running up Hayes, pulling/pushing a float in that kind of weather.
A good time was had by all. I caught a bit more sun than I should’ve. Mellow crowd. There were a few people with gumby bodies, needing the support of three friends to stand upright. There were a few more people we had to shout at to stop them pissing against the house or the Alfas in the driveway. Even people acting like jerks.
May 16, 2008
Spit and polish for a Seattle icon | KOMO-TV – Seattle, Washington
Spit and polish for a Seattle icon | KOMO-TV – Seattle
First deep cleaning of the Space Needle since 1962 opening.
Pictures!
Acrophobia, me? Eeeks!
[via Laughing Squid]
May 13, 2008
Bits and bytes
It seems to have been all Twitter and no Blogger for far too long. (For the Twitter bits, look over to the right sidebar …) A brief wrapup of my long weekend.
Saturday morning I walked down to John’s Grill on Ellis for a lunch meeting of Mystery Writers of America/Northern California chapter. Along the way I came upon a crowd of “anonymous” with face masks and disguises, gathering near the Transamerica Pyramid for their May 10th swipe at the Scientology headquarters nearby. “Ask me why I’m wearing a mask.” read one sign. Jason Beghe showed up on Saturday and mingled with the anonymous undisguised. What more harm could he fear? Search for /anonymous scientology/ for the scoop and the YouTube videos.
Guest for the MWA-NorCal lunch was agent Elise Proulx (Frederick Hill Bonnie Nadell Associates on Union Street in our fair and bucolic ville), who has just become a member of board of Litquake. She talked of this and that, but my notes are elsewhere. Most of what I remember was nothing ragingly new to anyone who read Miss Snark back in the day, or who has read her archives since, but a fair number of the unpublished in the audience obviously hadn’t had that experience.
Proulx did say that she hates synopses as a matter of course. She’d rather get a three-para query letter with a overview para, a short synopsis para and a who-are-you-the-author para. If she likes that, she’ll ask for a partial. If she likes the partial, she’ll ask for a full. She’d rather be reading a partial or a full than a synopsis. Her percentages of how-many-queries become how-many-partials become how-many-fulls become clients weren’t terribly encouraging.
Proulx also said that there’s a site out there (you may know which one I mean — she didn’t remember the name of it) which sends out queries for writers. She says she gets these e-queries with her name there next to a cc: for a LARGE bunch of other agents in the A-F category. She deletes those queries; she considers them spam. Be forewarned.
Funny stories about queries? Proulx had them in spades. Gaffes? Those too. Note: Do not send a query to her headed Dear Ms Hillnadel. Yes, her e-addr is elise_hillnadell-at-sbcglobal.net, but that doesn’t mean she’s changed her last name.
A good time was had by all. My chicken caesar salad was excellent. My $3 worth of raffle tickets won me a book of my choice from those donated at the table on the east side of the room. I picked Louise Ure‘s latest, The Fault Tree. Had her sign it. Started it over the weekend. Intriguing sleuth. Interesting setup.
After the MWA-NorCal lunch, I walked down to the Embarcadero and met up with his nibs and moseyed over to the long line of people waiting to get into KFOG Kaboom! at Piers 30-32. Cost this year: $15 each plus service charges. The sound system was better than years past when things were free. There were more porta-potties. I assume that’s what all the money goes for. Wish it were still free. Howsomever. …
The gates opened early and we found a great spot right at the edge of Pier 30. Mellow people abounded. We ate roasted corn and Philly cheesesteak and crabcake and all sorts of the equivalent of stuff on a stick while listening to Matt Nathanson, Collective Soul and Los Lobos through the afternoon. As dusk drifted in, so did the fog. Trails and trickles, ohpleasedon’tgetanythicker fog. We watched the tugs pull FIVE BARGES FULL OF FIREWORKS into place. If you click on the Kaboom! link above, you’ll see video of the fireworks. Unfortunately, a bit diluted by a bit of fog. Next year!
Sunday, we drove over to Aptos and had lunch with the older younger guy and his partner. After lunch we all piled into the Honda with 105K miles on it and drove to Santa Cruz with gifties for the matriarch in honor of Mother’s Day. We drove the guys back to Aptos where I got my MD’s present (a box of delish chocolates from Richard Donnelly Chocolates in Santa Cruz. Sweet!)
From there we drove south to see what wildflowers were still left to see, to Carmel and east over the hills to King City where we checked into the Motel 6 (they’ll keep the light on for you.) Big spenders: $46.03 including taxes and all =and= a senior discount.
We had dinner at Alexander’s, which was suffering pains with new management. Staff all seemed new. No liquor license yet. Uproar. Not staffed up for all the folks showing up for Mother’s Day dinner. Loads of patrons. Few staff. (We’d forgotten it was Mother’s Day dinner time when we decided to head over there for dinner. …) Was this the =first= day under new management? Might’ve been. It was =that= discombobulated. I won’t list the woes, but that meal was in the Top Five Woeful Dinners we’ve had in the past thirty years. Here’s hoping things shake out as they get settled in.
Next morning we had breakfast at V’s Diner, the little diner next to the Motel 6, where you couldn’t just ask for corned beef hash, you had to order breakfast, which meant two eggs anywayyouwantem, corned beef hash, hash browns or fruit, toast or muffin or pancakes. … well, you get the idea. The corned beef hash was excellent. There was too much food to finish.
We checked out and headed off, first to Mission San Antonio de Padua, the very cool mission in the middle of Fort Hunter Liggett, on the old Hearst Ranch property that the Hearsts sold to the military in 1940. Mission San Antonio is the best mission I’ve ever visited. We first visited back in 1990 when the older younger guy was in fourth grade and studying California missions. The mission is still stuck out in the middle of nowhere because it’s surrounded by Hunter Liggett, and so seems to be closest to what it might’ve been when his nibs’ great-great-great whatever came up with the DeAnza expedition in 1776, tugging on his mom’s skirt hem, asking, “Are we there yet?” Lovely spot.
From the mission, we headed back to King City and then east to Bitterwater where we caught Airline Highway and wandered through places and off to the end of Willow Creek Road
and back onto the highway and on to Paicines, up Panoche Road toward New Idria. We turned around before we reached the mines but gosh, it’s lovely country out there.
The last time we were here, we came a different route and earlier in the year.
This year we had to cut out earlier than we would’ve liked because we had to get to the outlet shops in Gilroy before they closed because I needed some new walking shoes. (My current pair are worn to the nub and the outlet shops are too far from home to justify a special trip, but if we happen to swing by on the way home from the far southlands …)
Home again, home again and a lovely time we had. Next time we will head out earlier in the spring for our wildflower trek. Although there were still some blooming, the spectacular shows that look like someone spilt watercolor paints over the hillsides were weeks gone past. We hadn’t had a spare duo of days to make the trip earlier this year, but what we found was beautiful too.