The Leaping Ellipsis: Three-Dotting Our Way Through Another Saturday Night

Tip of the Fedora and a picked-up bar tab for our fellow scribbler Herb Caen as we ankled our way from swell joint to swinging nightspot Saturday, dodging the over-served, the occasional stray cougar and revved-up anti-Mandater – taking the air, copious notes, and anything else we could find along our route.

Burglars and bartenders were at work with equal fervor last night, bent to their tasks, the masked mingling with the unmasked, the question of the evening not “Come here often?” but rather “Did you go for Pfizer or Moderna?” and “Have you had the booster?”

There’s an odd, unsettled feeling out there – people looking for a drink and a good time but with these almost visible question marks hanging over their heads, just a little bit of doubt still in their eyes.

Dedicated fans of conversation and words we initiated a few, most perfectly fine but one descending into convoluted thinking, then an apparent but veiled paranoia and ultimate request for money. (“Not much, just enough to get me through to next month…”) We’ve heard there’s a lot of this out there, this last year marking people in a strange new way, leaving them vulnerable and damaged.

Finding an out-of-the-way shelter where we could put our backs up against the wall (old habits dying hard and all) we checked the phone to see what the newsroom was up to, reports of the night’s mishaps and oddities filtering in, separated by ellipsis.

Folks out in Antioch on hand for the debut of Midget Car Racing at Antioch Speedway last night were chastened by the rollover crash and injury of Western Midget Racing driver Tyler Slay, who was airlifted to the hospital for treatment of his injuries…

… a driver for a ride-hailing company got a shock when a young woman he picked up after a local wedding reception suddenly broke from his car screaming about magic mushrooms and how everyone in the immediate area was going to meet a violent end if they didn’t leave – the driver thinking it was an elaborate way to beat a fare but calling for help anyway after the modern-day Cassandra returned to reinforce her warnings…

… apparently a woman watching her child play at a soccer field in the San Ramon Valley Saturday had her purse picked (now, who would do that?) with the thief wasting no time using her credit cards to cash in at local stores. Sheesh…

… and lots of people talking about the “Freedom Loving Mother Luvvers” (not their chosen name) setting up shop on local overpasses and downtown street corners to cite their version of the Constitution and tout their political views on certain ex-presidents, Big Steals, and overall future of the Republic, etc. Many of the trademark red hats and blue flags of the early years have disappeared but messaging and tactics remains much the same, with some troubling overtones. Folks we talked with said some members are local teachers, a realtor – claiming friendly relations with local police – and steadfastly proclaiming their own patriotism while vowing to fight perceived government overreach and intervention. Guess we’ll just have to see where that takes us… they don’t seem to be going away.

That’s it for now. We’ve exhausted our supply of ellipsis. Catch you around town. Dot Dot Dot.