Visit S. F., get some cash souvenirs
On 10th Street outside the San Francisco Costco, reports Roland Popp, was a couple with two small children, panhandling. “I went over and gave the woman some money, and asked her if she knew about the programs the city had to offer.
“She told me they don’t live here. They are visiting from Italy. I was so surprised, I could only wish them a happy vacation.”
Harry and Margot de Wildt, longtime pillars of San Francisco society, often featured in Herb Caen’s column — Harry was Sir Lunchalot — are leaving town on June 1, moving from their apartment at the Brocklebank on Nob Hill to a house in a gated community in Rancho Mirage.
De Wildt, who was born in Holland but has lived here for 48 years, said the climate in the Southland will be better for his health, and the way of life there will be less stressful. What he’ll miss most, he said, are Friday lunches at Le Central. “But life changes,” said de Wildt, who’s looking forward to living in the land of palms, bougainvillea and orange trees, a landscape he says is “for Europeans, the epitome of life in California.”
Regrets about his years in San Francisco? “I should have bought every house that was for sale,” said de Wildt ... and somewhere in heaven, his old pal Herb is probably writing that line down.
Last week, during the glorious skirmishes in the war between the Giants and the Dodgers, Eva Ben- Ora overheard a woman commenting on the brooms many fans were toting to games. “It must be some kind of OCD floor issue.”
Larry Bain, who rides around town on a Scrappy PupCycle tricycle dispensing Scrappy dog treats, was the victim of a crime. Multiple Kryptonite locks were snipped by thieves who grabbed the 200- pound specially outfitted PupCycle, which was parked outside Bain’s Glen Park home. Anyone with information should call ( 415) 377- 3813. Bain sent out an e- mailed notice about this on Friday, and later that day received a call from a customer who said at 7: 30 that morning she had seen “a large man, smoking a cigarette and pedaling the PupCycle down Folsom at 23rd Street. ... Sheesh.”
Tad Friend’s New Yorker profile of Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen says he “tweets 110 times a day, inundating his 310,000 followers with aphorisms and statistics and tweetstorm jeremiads.” He told Friend he does this because Twitter allows him to broadcast to reporters, who love the medium. The day after he first met his wife, Laura Arrillaga- Andreessen, he sent her 17 e- mails.
A recent poetry/ fiction reading event on the roof of the Convent Arts Collective on Oa Street, celebrated the latest edition of Fourteen Hills, the San Francisco State University Review. The readings were engrossing, even after the sun set, when rapt listeners wrapped themselves around the outdoor heat lamps.
Engrossing, too, was the list of useful raffle prizes in the back of the program printed for the occasion. Among the items raffled off: a Netflix gift card and a case of beer; one hour of computer repair and a University of Iowa Center for the Book 2015 Ladies Typographic Union Calendar; “Wicked Grounds Tea Party & Rope Bondage Lesson for 6”; plus a Green Apple Books gift card.
Man- about- town Adda Dada went to last week’s Green Apple Books event for John Waters, whose new book is “Carsick.” Dada says Waters “should give a class on how to be a celebrity.” Praising the writer’s “wit, generosity and graciousness,” Dada says “if one was an admirer before, one became a true fan afterward.” Some Watersisms he jotted down:
“As a boy, I was on the ‘ Howdy Doody Show’ and I quickly realized that TV was all a lie. Then and there, I decided, ‘ Now, this is what I want to do!’ ”
“Advice for life? Be witty. Telling jokes sucks.”
“The only reason I read ‘ Hard Choices’ by Hillary Clinton was because the title sounded like a porn book.”
“I am not a good commenter on the Baltimore riots. I was filming ‘ Alvin and the Chipmunks 3’ when all that went down.”
“All our pals purchased grave plots near Divine. We will all be buried next to each other. We really should call it Disgraceland.”
PUBLIC EAVESDROPPING “Look, I am just trying to help you deal with what it is I want.” Teenage girl to parents, overheard at a farmers’ market by Michael Feiner