Let me make it clear.... I had a hard time finding it. In fact, everyone did. One thing I learned from years as a Silicon Valley copywriter - avoid ambiguity. And the location was fraught with just that. Yes, it was just beyond the San Francisco Giants stadium. Yes it was more or less associated with Pier 40. But none of this information was particularly useful. Even describing it as the former home of the San Francisco Harbor Master...well, that was particularly silly. Although it does say something Read more [...]

For years I have worked, that is to say volunteered, with a local civic organization. Our leader – let us call her Christine – has always been volatile. On the other hand, she has accomplished a fair amount, has my general support. And, this is the other thing, I am used to her. We have been colleagues for many years, our shoulders to the same wheel, our eyes on the same results. And yet she occasionally goes off the rails. Such as just the other night when she began, well, railing. The group Read more [...]

Funny how if you just listen, life supplies its own soundtrack. Outside my suburban apartment Fred, one of the loudest human beings I know, is holding forth on the topic of Highway 17. The surface is graded for drainage, he tells one of his construction minions. And why does this observation matter in any way to the feature film itself, that is to say, my own biographical story? Because if you listen, everything converges. Somehow, we have been discussing this matter of Highway 17, Jane and I. Read more [...]

Yes, leaving for the train at 10 AM, then alighting back in Menlo Park at 4 PM, that does almost add up to a workday. In Germany, lunch included, it would only be one hour shy. Look at it that way. But why look at it at all? That is the thing. What adds up, adds up. And it may add up later, that is the other thing. In any case, as soon as I learned that my San Francisco friend Steve had finally gotten his wheelchair, I was off. Moreover, I was even on time. For the way of it is simple enough, Read more [...]

Don't let anyone tell you that writing gets it out of your system. Or, if they do, demand to know what 'it' is. Because by the platitudinous standard, I should not have any more 'it' inside me for the day, perhaps for the week. For, Dear Diary, I really have been cranking up a literary storm this very hour. Decided to write something adventurous and just for fun. Which as we all know is the surest route to madness. Albeit purgative madness. That is the idea. Getting 'it' out. Just as homosexuals Read more [...]

It is a basic fact of paralytic life that when you stand up to dictate, your right elbow knocks the cover off your microphone. Why is this? Why is any of this? The first and most obvious question involving dictation. Speech recognition being the answer, of course. The standing up part? Well, that has to do with general musculoskeletal decline. You have been told to stand. To stand as much as possible. Even if you can't stand it. Take a stand anyway. Take a bow while you're at it. It's all hard work. Including Read more [...]