Why you shouldn’t ever trust a bird

As to some of those weekend activities mentioned in my column Wednesday, Oct. 11:

The artist had a theory behind the display of the “Dave Eggers: Ungrateful Mammals” show (and new book of the same name) at the Electric Works gallery in the Minnesota Street Project (until Oct. 28): Inviting the public to rearrange the works on the walls or in bins (picture record store bins) was intended, said Eggers, to “break down the barrier and to move the art and touch it.” All sales of the art — animal drawings and pithy phrases, a familiar genre to Eggers fans — go to benefit ScholarMatch, an Eggers-founded nonprofit that helps make college possible by connecting students to resources, donors and schools.

“Sometimes the animals question their existence or purpose . ... Usually, there exists tension between the animal and an unseen God, and in all cases, I try to bring out the soul of the animal,” Eggers wrote in a preface to the book.

It’s pretty heady stuff, and to bring the conversation down to a level easily understandable, I asked the gallery’s Noah Lang what the works cost. He printed out a price list that indicated some works are sold by the square foot and “paintings of dogs are sold by the pound” and “pictures of untrustworthy birds are $750 each and that is a bargain.” If you’re reading this online, one of these images is reprinted atop this column. (Spoiler alert: If you’re reading it in the newspaper, it involves a member of the Trump flock, and it doesn’t say anything nasty. Sort of.)

Whenever the Blue Angels go over his house in Alameda, emails Mike Lano, the hummingbirds around his garden “immediately zoom into an old birdhouse we have outside. It’s so obvious they and some of our other wild birds here, including towhees, robins, woodpeckers, sparrows and finches, dislike the noise, because those birds zoom into our massive honeysuckle bushes to hide. They often do this at the first remote sign of any Angels noise.”

It seemed that many more music fans arrived at the urban campsite at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass this year schlepping provisions (for picnicking), furniture (chairs), even appliances (a blender for piña coladas). Nextdoor listings in the Lower Haight on Tuesday, Oct. 10, included “Chair found at the bluegrass festival. Sweet red REI lounge chair ... belongs to a family who were sitting in front of us hippies at the Swan Stage yesterday. If you think this is yours, please describe.” The finders could have kept this extra seat for next year’s festival; bravo for trying to return it, an effort in the spirit of HSB.

The spy Carol Fink reports that Barry Bonds was spotted at a recent terrier dog show in Hatboro, Pa. The slugger was there because his sister shows championship schnauzers. This news comes to you because amiable Bonds stopped to chat with the breeders of Skye terriers, who are friends of Fink. (Fink’s own Skye terrier is named Ch Gleanntan Gotta make reservations, because she lives in Yountville and “the French Laundry is our much loved neighbor.”)

In San Francisco, the Complaint Department is always open. A recent Nextdoor listing in a San Francisco neighborhood identified the person who posted it as “recently moved” to the neighborhood. “Mostly see complaints and classifieds on Next Door,” wrote the person, “so let’s change that! What are the best things about this neighborhood?” The responses included the relentlessly upbeat. “If this wasn’t a truly great neighborhood, you wouldn’t see nearly as many complaints when things go wrong. You also wouldn’t see as many neighbors join together to voice those complaints and work on solutions if we all didn’t care.”

P.S. Once, there were 12 flower stands in the Union Square area. The number is now down to five, says Harold Hoogasian, whose stand used to be in front of Gump’s. The history is twisted and complex, as a result of a thicket of city regulations and long-standing animosity between the vendor and the management of the building at 250 Post St. The Board of Supervisors voted 10-1 recently against giving a permit that would allow the stand to reopen after Stockton Street construction. Hoogasian, upset, announced there would be a news conference on Oct. 2.

That Monday, of course, every member of the media was focused on the shootings in Las Vegas. Nobody showed up, he said afterward.