Baghdad By The Bay: San Francisco

I have to start off by saying that my connection to Dave McElhatton is because I because I have a degree in Broadcasting. I met “Mac” when he came to one of my college classes to tell us how be be a good broadcaster. The funny thing is that when you look at the words “good broadcaster” you kind of have to think. How hard is it to sit there and talk to people who aren’t there? Well aside from the homeless people downtown who will beg to differ with you even if you aren’t there, talking to the public via a microphone or camera isn’t as easy as it sounds.

“Mac” was good at what he did and I doubt he ever would have admitted it. He didn’t have the stern delivery of Walter Chronkite or the laughable “what drugs is he on?” of Dr. Don Rose, but Dave McElhatton was the kind of guy you’d want to sit down and have a beer with and just talk. I didn’t realize his long history in radio prior to seeing him team up with Wendy Tokuda for the news on channel 5. He was one of the first inductees into the Bay Area Hall of Fame. I always remembered in college how my teachers would use “Mac” as an example of the way someone should deliver the news. While he retired in 2000 he never sort of left my mind. When i read of his death I suddenly realized that he wasn’t doing the news anymore and he’s probably knocking one back with Walter and Dr. Don somewhere.

I never brought this up before, but I’ve done my time giving lectures. I guess it started when I was asked to give an oral report in school. I liked doing that very much and as a kid I was a sponge soaking up information left and right. I’m glad I’ve kept that up because I find myself learning more now than I did in school which in and of itself could be a lecture. I have a very good knowledge of San Francisco History as well as aquarium keeping and audio recording. If you have a group that would be interested in having me as a guest lecturer email me and we can make arrangements. I’m pretty inexpensive as well. I might even do it for a free dinner.

Here are a few of the lectures I’ve given in the past.

San Francisco’s Sunset District: The Outside Lands.

Why Americans never call themselves Americans.

Why Caucasian is a meaningless term.

Getting your blog noticed.

How to turn your computer into a professional recording studio.

Setting up a planted aquarium.

There’s a podcast I occasionally give a listen to that is from Minnesota where the podcasters talk about sex. Sometimes it’s mildly amusing at other times they’re downright insulting sex nazis. On one of the recent podcasts one of the members said she’d like to move to San Francisco because of how open minded we are sexually. Then one of the other members made a comment that she’d have to be able to afford $7000 a month for rent and that the people here are smug.

Obviously this person has never been to San Francisco. Yes, rent is high here. Probably some of the highest in the US, but you can find deals if you look hard. The smug comment though got to me even more. I think with the economy crash all the techie yuppies that put the smug in San Francisco left to be smug somewhere else. They occupied only a small part of the city as well. If you travel out to some of the other parts of the city you find real community in the people who live there. I used to live west of Sunset Boulevard near Judah Street. Once you go west of Sunset the entire vibe changes. Everyone’s a little more laid back and relaxed. The people who run the stores and restaurants out there know your name and you know your neighbors as well. We all had something in common out there. We learned to tolerate the fog for the few days of beautiful sunshine we’d get by the beach. Over the years I’ve noticed that for some reason the Sunset is getting more sun and less fog which is a good reason for me to have stayed here.

We’re all good people here and I think it would be best to leave the smugness to the people outside San Francisco who like to look down on us even though they act like us or want to act like us. What do you think?

Week 7

I know I’ve been a little busy and haven’t put in an update, but here it is. As you can see the green onions have all died. I don’t know what happened, but they just died. Over the weekend I’ll be pulling out the peat pellets and planting the remaining seeds and see what happens. The peat pellets have been a bit of a problem outside overall.

The initial peas that were planted had a nice little harvest last night to try as appetizers last night with dinner. I’ll be putting in some spikes to hold them up over the weekend as well as spiking the second set of peas. These were all very high yield peas which shows some promise for the future. They had said they didn’t need to be staked as they were a variety of English bush peas, but I think the staking will help.

The Mesclun lettuce I first planted has taken off and I found I had to cut back some of the plants that were actually beginning to flower. The newer Mesclun hasn’t taken off as well, but I’m sure given a few more days they’ll pick up.

As you’ll see down below, the tomato that I had all but given up on has started to bear fruit. We’ve got two small tomatoes at the moment and I’ll see what I need to do the make them turn from green to red. If you have any ideas let me know.

 

peas

week 4

Well this week was kind of interesting because of the heat wave that hit us. I had to water a lot more because of it, but the tomato in the background there wasn’t doing so well and has perked up a bit now that it’s hotter.

The mesclun on the left we did a small harvest on last night and it had a nice spicey taste to it. We’ll have to see how well it comes back and for how long we can keep cutting it and having it grow back. I’ve never heard that before, but I’m willing to give it a try.

The oldest planted peas have only one pod so far, but I haven’t seen much in the way of growth and they don’t like hot weather too much. Because of all the concrete in our backyard the temperature actually hit 109° two days ago which is the highest I’ve seen in a long time. Luckily it’s started to cool off a bit so things are going back to normal.

Week 2

So I’ve decided to keep the urban garden an ongoing thing. Here’s todays shot and you can see how the peas and lettuce have really grown in the last week.

The green onions have finally taken hold and we have new sprouts of mesclun lettuce coming up on the far right. We also have blooms starting on the peas and tomato so it’ll be interesting to see how it goes.

Currently SF is having some warm weather and our backyard is up to 85°. This is mostly because of the fact that the backs of the houses in the Sunset have shingled concrete that absorbs the heat and radiates it back so it’s getting warm out there. 

Not sure yet, but we’re thinking of harvesting some of the lettuce to go with my SF gourmet hamburgers I’m making tonight. Stay tuned for details.

Herb Hamrol

I just discovered that Herb Hamrol died. He was 106. That’s right 106! He’s one of the last known survivors of the 1906 earthquake. I remember him mostly from seeing him at Andronico’s supermarket were he still worked but only two days a week. I remember him telling me once not to drink or smoke or do drugs and then he admitted to quitting smoking at 80. 

Herb liked to talk to the customers and he was one sharp guy for 106. When I first heard him tell someone he was 103 I couldn’t believe I figured he might be in his early 70′s and I’m pretty good with figuring out people’s ages.

I’ll miss Herb. He was a fun guy and one of the reasons I liked going to Andronico’s. To see a guy who was able to keep going and stay sharp for so long and he even remembered back to the 1906 earthquake and used to tell people the story of his mother grabbing him and running down the stairs with him during the quake. Herb was one of those guys that just made San Francisco an interesting place to be. Goodbye Herb.