Let’s hear it for the love of guncles
Thanks to Guncle Jim for spreading the word: Aug. 14, today, is Guncle’s Day, set aside for the appreciation of gay uncles.
My friend Charly Zukow and his partner, John Ferrara, have been together for 24 years. Just last week, John’s brother’s daughter, 24, and her husband, 34, were houseguests. For years, “We’ve been part of their lives,” said Zukow.
As to the duties of a gay uncle, “Quite honestly,” said Zukow, “it’s the same as every other family member. You’re there to support, you’re there to encourage, you’re there to help them grow into being wonderful human beings . ... And to give fashion advice.”
When Tina Martin arrived for a test at Kaiser Permanente the other day, she “was surprised to hear live piano music,” she emailed. She asked about the pianist and was told he is a security guard who plays mornings before the start of his shift. The musician is Benjamin De La
Cruz, and the piano is on the third floor of Kaiser’s 2238 Geary Medical Office Building. De La Cruz has worked there since June 2009. A longtime pianist, he noticed the instrument there and asked for permission to play. He’s partial to love songs, the kind of music sung by Frank Sinatra and Kenny Rogers, and some classical music.
As to why there’s a piano at a medical facility, it was donated by retired employee Nancy McDevitt, who used to be manager of KPSF Linguistic Services. When she left her job and moved, she donated the piano, which, wrote Kaiser’s Joe Fragola, “can be clearly heard in the lobby with the large open area of the third floor.”
Patients have said its sounds are soothing and many have been reminded of shopping at Nordstrom, says Fragola. No complaints. Fragola says the administrators are hoping to find more volunteers among staff members — physicians as well as others — to play.
As to the old Goodwill flagship store on Howard Street, fondness for which was mentioned herein a few days ago, Theresa Laquey says she “met my first husband there. We were both talking about starting punk bands . ... I had just found the most wonderful bright green shoes.”
Robert Gumpertz notes that it’s only fair that the eclipse of the sun happens on Aug. 21, because August is the only month without any federal, state or religious holidays. “No need to buy a greeting card, a gift, send an email or feel guilty because you forgot.”
Although the two blocks of Pacific Avenue between Webster and Laguna have been “quietly and beautifully repaved,” emails Abe Battat, “the rest of Pacific is still a mess. Some of the potholes are going to have a gift shop.” Wondering who had the juice to get this done, Battat figures “it must have been Getty or Ellison, and they got the address wrong.”
Matt Steen and Jessica Evans have been arguing with Rec and Park about plans for a 4,500-square-foot park on Guy Place, a loop street at Folsom and First on Rincon Hill. Opposing the city’s plan for the park, the two, and neighbors, have proposed an alternate plan that would include official recognition of the hummingbird/butterfly habitat they say has been there for a long time.
According to Steen, the city bought the property to “create a meditative space for office workers in a place where office workers would never visit.” This plan included chopping down the three trees in the park — two avocados and an ash — and replacing them with concrete columns over which vines would grow. “But hummingbirds have nested in those trees for decades,” said Steen, who says that the plan would violate federal laws about disturbing natural habitats.
The newest Rec and Park plan cut the number of columns to three. Steen, Evans and many supportive neighbors say the columns have not been seismically tested; and also object to the planned elimination of the trees. “They cut everything else down in the neighborhood. Everything else is gone. This is the last they get to cut, and I’m not going to let them.” said Evans. “The neighborhood is totally against it.”
At a Wednesday hearing of the city’s Board of Appeals, Steen and Evans successfully argued for shorter structures; the height of at least one column was set at “no higher than 10 feet.” Evans says this is a triumph, and is hoping it’s “one step for stopping them cutting down the trees.”