Our freshly minted Monday is unfolding in mysterious ways for some and like a blues song for others as the finance minded among us try to handicap our bucking stock market and others shake off the after-effects of what, by some accounts, appears to have been a pretty wild weekend.
Readers who embarked on the Grand Tour of Europe this summer are filing reports of their exploits abroad, one Danville traveler writing to say his summer reading consists of “How To Speak Canadian” after he quickly learned that our neighbors to the North are treated more warmly than ‘Mericans traveling abroad, at present.
“We’re undercover,” he said. “And I’ve learned to try and order a Molson as soon as we walk into a pub to establish my Canadian credentials.”
Apparently the time-honored Travel Trick of informing Europeans you’re from San Francisco isn’t much of a help anymore, either. Dropping the name of your hometown used to get you a pass in certain circumstances – until now.
“They know you’re American right away,” one expat wrote. “They shake their heads in disapproval, tell you they’re sorry for what’s going on back home… I bought a maple leaf tuque and wear it just so there wouldn’t be as many problems.”
We frankly don’t get the current enmity between the U.S. and our Canadian cousins. They’ve stepped up and helped us when no one else would in the past – insulting them seemed unwise. But there it is.
Homeless – And Angry
Perhaps it’s the weather but we’re also getting an increasing number of reports from readers encountering folks who are “residentially challenged” – the latest euphemism to be used when describing our local homeless population.
We have no data to back it up but readers suggest there are more folks on the street of late, and many of them are not happy. Recent tactics have included asking people for money and then challenging them to fight if none is forthcoming. Some are setting up outside local businesses – sometimes in the doorways of those businesses – in order to force the business owner into giving them something to get them to move along or to get them to call the police.
We’re just going to say there have been incidents and we hope things don’t escalate. Summer heat can make people irritable.
“Augustus Owsley Stanley III, Is That You?”
The man who defined the production and use of LSD in the 60s has been dead many years now but apparently there is still some of that White Lightning floating around. A woman attending the Pride Parade in San Francisco Sunday dropped “something” someone gave her only to have it kick in in a car on Moraga Road Sunday night.
We’re not sure what she was seeing but it took more than one police officer to get her calmed down.
La Finestra Bows Out
Moraga’s hope to have a “linen tablecloth” restaurant on site at the Hacienda de las Flores by summer’s end appears to have evaporated as owner Jeff Assadi did the math and found that the cost of prepping the site for his new, revitalized La Finestra restaurant was prohibitive.
Assadi and the town have been talking about relocating the restaurant, burned out of its Lafayette location, since February and the town was prepared to cut him a sweet lease agreement in order to cement the deal but every penny counts in the restaurant game and the owner is carefully avoiding unnecessary expenses.
Our relatives are in Paris. They say the same thing.
Big Hair Band – how I miss the Eighties!
And they were helped along by the Purple One, No? This is his song, most of it anyway.
Right. Prince helped them along and gave them this one. It did pretty well.
Whooa oh!
Beware The Bear! And if you’re old enough to catch the reference you’re really really old!
Lately I’ve seen some sketchy looking (presumably) homeless people getting off at Lafayette BART and walking down the path towards Mt. Diablo Blvd.. Not sure where they go
Yes, RIF… we’re getting a lot of similar reports and inquiries and can say that some of these people appear to be riding here (and other East Bay stations) and then filtering into adjacent towns to panhandle or, sometimes, engage in petty crimes. You’ll note that accounts of this type of activity are not well received and have been called out as pejorative. We just can’t think of any other way to report what we are seeing.
Eek! My poor stocks are taking a beating but of course the one I sold is going through the roof.
As a pal said: “My 401K is on the way to being a 201K!”
I’m pretty adventurous but I don’t think I’d drop anything some random person handed me one day in San Francisco! That’s kind of asking for it if you ask me.
Loved that song. Brings back a lot of memories!
Good ones we hope!
I always wanted to be Susanna Hoff.