Seeking a helper who could ‘hike up’ skirt

Amid the recent tsunami of #MeToo accounts by victims of sexual predators, reader Elizabeth Platt forwarded a job listing she found on Craigslist. The person being sought, in the Marina/Cow Hollow district, was described as a “multi-tasker/assistant.”

After specifying that this job would be right for someone “looking for more adventure in life,” the notice asked: “Are you an attractive, motivated young woman looking to expand your horizons?” There was a bit of blather about professional skills and street smarts, and then, “Are you ready to use your sexuality as an asset in a safe environment and professional etiquette?”

The company seeking this employee described itself as a “SF Investment Firm ... looking for an open-minded self-starter who is responsible and is interested in bringing fun into different projects all the time ... Typical day at the office may include: answering the phones or procure carburetor rebuilt kit or hike up your skirt and flirt with potential clients.”

Was this for real? Her, too? I tried to answer the ad, but no one returned my call. I wrote to Craigslist and even Craig Newmark, with no response. After a couple of days — perhaps the job was filled — the ad had been taken down. Its message, however, lingers.

P.S. At Richard Stephens’ memorial gathering, I ran into actress Diane Baker, executive director of the Academy of Art University’s School of Acting. She has long experience working in Hollywood, so I asked her about the “me, too” phenomenon. “I’m not shocked,” said Baker, “... But it’s a great thing because every man who has tried something is shaken.”

She said that while “women in strong positions of power” can afford to say no, “it’s the defenseless we have to fight for.”

As to her own experiences, “For years, I could have talked about Hitchcock,” she said. “But Tippi did it and I didn’t need to.”

A few months ago, when in response to Nordstrom dropping Ivanka Trump’s clothing line, Kellyanne Conway and the whole White House crowd seemed to be hawking the first daughter’s wares, Modern Appealing Clothing filed a class-action suit claiming that was unfair competition. People who didn’t like Trump cheered them on. But many Trump supporters, less favorably inclined, responded by calling the store and sharing fashion criticism of MAC’s often avant-garde offerings.

Last week, owners Ben and Chris Ospital opened “Have a Bay Day,” a monthlong exhibition of artists’ works reacting to those responses. Just by the front door, for example, is Sam Tripodi’s “Potato Sacks for Whores,” a table set for a tea party with porcelain plates decorated with mincing lords and ladies, adorned by Tripodi with quotes from critics describing the clothes (as “potato sacks for whores,” for example).

The legal action came to naught, but the exhibition is in its fightin’ spirit. To quote the revered political activist Flo Kennedy, “When you spit in someone’s eye, you’re not trying to drown them. You’re just saying you don’t like them.”

A solo show of works by Wayne Thiebaud will be at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum at UC Davis next year and “Wayne Thiebaud: Land Survey,” opens at Allan Stone Projects in New York on Thursday, Oct. 26. The artist’s first major solo show was in 1962 at the Allan Stone Gallery, which — along with its heir, the Projects gallery — has held 27 Thiebaud exhibitions since then.

Jim Hannah saw the T-shirt on a customer waiting in line for ice cream at Bi-Rite: “Peace is not healthy for generals and other killing things.”

On the middle island of Lombard Street, Doug Kroll spotted a panhandler with the sign, “Donations needed for DNA test. My partner may be my sister.”

Abe Battat says his British houseguests told him they “couldn’t find Lou Rawls in the bathroom” (a rim-shotworthy joke that may have been passed down through a generation or two of comedians).

A sign Richard Delman saw stenciled on the rear bumper of a pickup truck: “Grow your own dope. Plant a politician.”