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No Surprise Whatsoever

This map is a good indicator of where the new countries will form when this one breaks completely.

So my friends…how does it feel to be living on the cusp of a Second Dark Age?

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How Could They Know?

“The problem isn’t that they ate the fruit, it’s that they disobeyed God.” How would they know that disobeying your god is “wrong” without the knowledge of right and wrong, good and evil?

“They didn’t know that eating the fruit was wrong, but they knew deviating from the instructions would be unacceptable.” And how would they know that god-acceptance is a good thing, and god non-acceptance is a bad thing without the knowledge of good and evil, right and wrong?

“Well, they should have just obeyed God.” Same problem – how do they know that obeying your god is “right” and not obeying your god is “wrong” without that knowledge?

“Because they should have listened to God and not the serpent.” You’re really not getting this. How would they know that listening to your god and ignoring the snake is the “right” thing to do? And why did this god warn them about the fruit, but not about the snake?

“Be… because it’s written on everyone’s hearts.” So you’re actually trying to say that people are born with the knowledge of right and wrong, good and evil “on their hearts.” So obtaining it from the fruit was redundant. And tormenting them merely an act of capricious abuse.

Furthermore, they were (supposedly) the first people ever in the world. Nobody had any experience with anything. How would they even comprehend “lest ye die” as consequences, when nobody had ever died, ever? And didn’t even happen (i.e. was a lie). Without the knowledge of right and wrong, good and evil, how would they know that paying attention to this heart-writing was the right thing to do?

The mental gymnastics to try and salvage this stupid fable about their omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient god’s omni-incompetence are Olympic-grade.

Spoiler alert: the bible makes no sense. And we’re only up to page three.

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From the Analog Archives: Around the Hood (and Beyond)

We’ll call this “Hell on Fell” and leave it at that.
Hickory & Laguna (the green space to the right has been replaced with…you guessed it! CONDOS!
388 Market, my favorite building in The City
The Shaklee Building – If Walls Could Talk
“Tweezer Towers” aka The Manarin Hotel
My View From “Hell on Fell”
Hermann Street, Across from the US Mint
Page & Buchanan, Northeast Corner
Lily & Buchanan, Northeast Corner
Haight & Buchanan, Northeast Corner (Google tells me the building is much more colorful now.)
Duboce & Church Looking Northwest

San Francisco, September 1993

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Early Digital Photography: My Morning Commute

A photographic record of the morning commute from my apartment to the Levi Strauss Corporate Headquarters, San Francisco October 2000. Taken with a Sony Mavica digital camera that used a floppy disk for storage (hence the poor quality).

I didn’t take the underground with this gig because the surface trolly would basically drop me at Levi’s doorstep. I would, however, often transfer to the underground on the way home.

Did I ever mention that on one of those evening commutes, while still on the trolly (coming as it was from the tourist destination Fisherman’s Wharf), Mark Hamill—Mr. Luke Skywalker himself—and his family were on board? AND HE FLIRTED WITH ME?!? I think I displayed an incredible amount of self-control and respected his privacy by not asking for an autograph. Were his family not there, however, who knows what would’ve happened? It might’ve been a story for the ages!

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Since We’re on a Trip Down Memory Lane…

Definitely years prior to my arrival in San Francisco, but what I happen to be listening to at the moment.

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1886 Burritos

As promised, a story I promised some time ago…

I stumbled upon Rosie’s within months of arriving in San Francisco in 1986. I was in the Castro on a Saturday morning, looking for a place to grab lunch and as I walked down 18th Street I came across Rosie’s and it looked intriguing. I remember I ordered the California burrito, and from that first bite I knew I was in love.

San Francisco burritos (no matter where you get them) are a very distinct and unique breed. Some say they’re the best burritos to be had anywhere. Not having lived that many places over the course of my life, I can say unequivocally however that they are the best burritos I’ve ever had. I’ve found a few that come close, but fail to meet the San Francisco standard.

Over the course of the sixteen years I lived in The City, I must’ve conservatively eaten at Rosie’s 1886 times, based on 1-2 times a week for those entire sixteen years. I used to joke I would want a Rosie’s burrito to be my last meal.

Rosie’s in long closed (now longer than the entire time it was originally open), so I’ll never have another opportunity to enjoy a meal there, but it doesn’t matter. All I have to do is close my eyes and I can taste those delicious burritos. (To be honest, everything on the menu was excellent, but I gravitated toward the burritos more often than not.)

The owners of Rosie’s also had a burrito shop on Haight Street (the name escapes me at the moment)—which, for some reason I never knew of until I started going to Amoeba Records. I often ate there when I was in the neighborhood, but it wasn’t quite the same.

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You Know…

…that if he motioned for you to follow him into a public loo, you would. And you’d be on your knees before he even got the last drag out of his cigarette.