Peeping traveler snoops on fellow passenger
The corn was as high as an elephant’s eye and vacation was wonderful, but getting ready for re-entry on the flight home, there may have been an omen. Eyes down, I was reading a book when the man in the seat next to me whipped out his iPad.
I kept my head down, but I couldn’t help snoopily directing an occasional gaze at his reading material. It seemed to be providing tips on undertaking. Among the questions addressed: “What about the condition of the body?”
Furthermore, with August full upon us, Labor Day is looming, and the email inbox has provided some preparatory materials: “From spreading bogus rumors online and off, deleting work from colleague’s computers ... to hiding coworkers’ possessions and eating their food to allegations of sexual harassment when it was, in reality, a consensual love affair,” a labor and employment attorney is available to speak about measures to counter “revenge” and “seeking personal retribution and work.”
The good news is that here at the office, while we, like many other corporate employees, have taken both security training and anti-harassment training, it has not been deemed necessary to study the prevention of food stealing.
Relatives were visiting from Portland, Ore., so Karl Robillard took them to a Giants game at AT&T Park a few weeks ago. Robillard is director of marketing and communications for Meals on Wheels, and the Giants were featuring the nonprofit in their Community Clubhouse.
After the game (the Giants won), there was a crush of fans rushing from the ballpark to Muni. Robillard was a few steps ahead of his guests — parents, niece, nephew — who upon reaching the gate, fumbled around looking for their passes. A police offer stationed there “recognized our plight and gently responded to us, ‘I’m not one to separate families. Just go ahead. This ride’s on us.’ ”
“In this time of enormous political despair for us liberals, it’s the little things we can do to compensate,” wrote Robillard. “So happy to be living in this fabulous city.”
1 As to birds of a linguistic feather flocking together: Ben Stiegler was amused that just off Ashby Avenue in Berkeley, Donato is cheek by jowl with doughnuts. That’s Donato & Co., a new Italian restaurant, and Dream Fluff Doughnuts, a stalwart of the neighborhood. He’s hoping that the two business achieve perfect synchronicity when the former sells holes created by the latter.
After watching the fourth episode of the first season of “Nash Bridges,” made in 1996, Eric Londgren reports that the story involved “Bridges protecting the African American woman mayor of San Francisco . ... It only took 22 years for life to imitate art.”
Bumper sticker seen by Ken Howard at the Red Hill Shopping Center in San Anselmo: “Make America Not Embarrassing Again.”
Tim Savinar sure was pleased to get a pat on the back, in the form of a smiley face, from his friends at PG&E, for using 38 percent less energy than would be expected for his house. Inspired by the praise, he looked through the note to see if he could find ways to improve even more. One item — illustrated with a pic — suggested adjusting his thermostat. The model one in the note was set at 78 degrees. (Perhaps this was a tip borrowed from some other region of the country, someplace with a tropical/summer climate, where such a high temperature would prevent the homeowner from enabling air conditioning to go on automatically.)
San Francisco Symphony maestro
Michael Tilson Thomas is just back from leading the Youth Orchestra USA, which is under the umbrella of Carnegie Hall, on a monthlong tour of Asia. The 15to 17-year-old musicians “are amazing talents who play like pros,” he says.
The tour began with a Carnegie Hall concert, then went east to Taipei, Shanghai, Beijing and Seoul. The players, Thomas emailed, “have been tremendous ambassadors in this troubled world.” Only about half of them are planning careers in music, many heading off to college to focus on medicine, computer science and humanities.
The cool thing: Many of the young musicians are Americans of Asian descent; a corps of uncles and cousins came out to see the young Americans play. The uncool thing: It was 104 degrees in Seoul.
“It has been a totally inspiring and restorative time for me to be with these young people, filled with such positive energy and hope,” said Thomas.