Orchids now in bloom
Giving a lift to the Senator
It’s not every day you have a United States Senator in your car.
The featured speaker at last night’s monthly Fireside Meeting at the Hillside Club was former Alaska senator Mike Gravel. I work nearby his home, so I volunteered to give him a ride to the Club. We had a very enjoyable chat on the drive over, and we arrived in Berkeley early enough for me to give Mike a quick architectural tour.
Gravel served two terms in the Senate from 1969-81, and is remembered for his attempts to end the draft and for reading the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record. There was a pretty good turnout for Mike’s talk, and he answered many questions both supportive and skeptical of his ideas. I fall into the skeptical camp, but if there’s any lesson to be learned from our polarized times, it’s that learning to be friends with those with whom you disagree is a great virtue.
Farewell to Mr One-Paw
We lost our handsome tabby cat Fuller on Friday; he had cancer and went downhill quickly. We often called him “Mr One-Paw” because of his distinctive pose. Among the things I’ll miss about Fuller:
- Kill the Catnip Mouse. Fuller fancied himself the Mighty Hunter, and although he had many mouse toys his favorites were “Calico” and “Treyf.” He would bat them around, take them in his mouth, and begin a distinctive moan we called “yowling,” which was loud enough to be heard from the backyard.
- Keyboard Laps. Fuller enjoyed visiting me at my computer. He would sit on my lap, rest his paws on my wrist pad, and purr away.
- Pawing at the water dish. For some instinctual reason, many cats paw at the ground just as they start to drink water. Fuller never failed to do this, and often seemed like he was trying to dig a trench.
- Cuddling with Gilman. I had never lived with a bonded pair of cats. Fuller and Gilman were very affectionate with each other. They also had marvelous play time, when they would seem like they were trying to kill each other.
Burial was in the family feline plot, next to Ariel. He is survived by his brother Gilman and housemates David and Arlene. We all miss him terribly.
Here is another piece about Fuller that I wrote for the Kaddish Project.
And here is my Paul Elder feline-themed “weekly spotlight” in memory of Fuller.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Giants are the Champions of the World
About 1968, a father starting taking his son to Giants baseball games at Candlestick Park. It was a long drive so we didn’t go that often, which made it a very special treat. I learned to root for the home team, and if they didn’t win it was a shame. I watched Willie Mays and Willie McCovey hit home runs. I learned to drop my peanut shells on the concrete, and how to watch the outfielders instead of the ball. As the years went on, the Giants continued to not win, and it was always a shame. The 1970s and 1980s were, with a few exceptions such as 1978 and 1982, a wasteland of poor teams, forgettable players, and cold night games at the Stick.
The tide began to turn in 1987, when the Giants won their division for the first time in 16 years and lost the pennant by a whisker. In 1989 they won the pennant that had eluded them since 1962, only to lose to the A’s in the earthquake Series. In 1993 the Giants did not get sold to Tampa. On 29 September 1999, I attended the last night game at the Stick (the final game, the next day, had been sold out for months). The next spring, an utterly delightful new ballpark appeared. What a spectacularly fine place to watch a ballgame. Everything that the concrete tureen of Candlestick was not.
But still we couldn’t break through. In 2002 we won the pennant again (thanks to the ridiculous rule that is the wild card), only to have the title wrenched from our grasp with eight outs to go.
And now, a group that I thought would barely make the playoffs has won it all. This little boy was moved to tears when the last batter struck out, and the Giants stormed the field in delirium. After watching my team for 42 years, they had finally done it. A generous man bought champagne for everyone at the sports bar where I was watching the game. I raised my glass and, echoing broadcaster Vin Scully’s famous proclamation in 1955, said to the room “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Giants are champions of the world.”
What I learned from my Dad at baseball games
I started going to San Francisco Giants baseball games with my family in the late 1960s. Willie Mays was my favorite, but I thought Willie McCovey was pretty good too. Last week I was at a Giants game, eating some peanuts, and I remembered something my Dad said at another Giants game decades ago. It occurred to me that I could make a list of things I learned from Dad at the ballpark:
- When eating peanuts at a game, do not be neat and tidy. Drop the empty shells directly onto the concrete.
- Don’t look at the fly ball to see where it’s going, watch the outfielder who’s trying to catch it.
- People arrive at the ballpark at different times, but everybody leaves at once.
- Janitors do not make good money.
- The first person to touch a foul ball is almost never the person who ends up with it.
- Always bring a thermos of hot chocolate to a night game at Candlestick.