Does the finger have any place in an office?

A friend who took online “Workplace Harassment Prevention Training,” required for all management-level employees at her place of employment, worked her way through the tests, tips and dramatizations of scenes that one might confront.

One such scenario involved two people (let’s call them A and B) engaged in a loud verbal disagreement, which was overheard by C, who was walking past. When the argument was over, C witnessed B walking a few steps away, and then, noticing that A had turned and was facing in the opposite direction, giving the finger to A’s back.

The question, of course, was whether C should report this argument, and you can discuss that among yourselves. The item is that in order to avoid offense in the video dramatizing this incident, the view of the raised middle finger had been blurred.

San Francisco’s Small Business Commission has named Creativity Explored, an art studio for people with developmental disabilities, a San Francisco Legacy Business. The designation is for businesses more than 30 years old; this nonprofit has been in the Mission District for 35 years.

Most of its area on 16th Street is given over to a large art studio, where paintings, drawings, ceramics and more are made. For openings, at Christmas and on weekends, the space becomes a gallery where shoppers can buy art and thereby support the facility. Those of us who go year after year become familiar with the work of the artists, who are present at shopping events and can enjoy praise from art lovers.

This is a subjective (and unsolicited) pitch, but to me, this Legacy Business is the perfect place to buy holiday gifts. “If you like it, keep it,” I tell pals. “But art is subjective. If you don’t like it, pass it on.” Whatever you spent will help the facility and help the artists, who split the proceeds 50/50 with the gallery.

The insider’ s favorite boutique, re purposed Materials, is selling 188,000“bake able brownie trays” that have been rescued from a bakery fire. “There are black and white bases along with clear lids to match. The base is designed to be ovenable,” says the seller’s description. Anyone creative enough to coin “bakeable” and “ovenable” should be able to figure out — especially in

California and Colorado — a profitable way to go into the brownie biz.

As to rules on Muni, Chronicle colleague Michael Gray looked up regulations covering people who bring pets aboard. One of the specifications: “Pet owners or guardians must pay a fare equal to their own, for their pet to ride.” Does this mean a puppy owner or guardian with a senior Clipper card can get the puppy on with a senior fare? And does this mean that while a dog can get the discount available to the guardian, a human companion is not offered the same benefit?

Sharing Nextdoor listings from his Berkeley hood, Tom Walton expresses hope that it was a coincidence that the notice “Snakes in Berkeley?” was followed by “Our cat has gone missing!” But I was intrigued by the notice that followed that: “What is all the noise? Yelling and chanting?” Obviously, it’s snake-shooing.

In the online news site Ozy.com, Cari Shane writes that the newest proposed tariffs — the third round — imposed by the White House will have the most significant impact on women. The story cites Hun Quach of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, who described it as “a baby tax ... a getting ready in the morning tax ... a pet tax, a fruit tax ... a school lunch tax ... a backpack tax . ... Parents will pay more for school supplies. And teachers, too.” The captain of the U.S. chess team at the 43rd Chess Olympiad, finals for which were Friday, Oct. 5, in Batumi, Georgia, was John Donaldson, director of the Mechanics’ Institute chess room.

The Olympiad is for competitors from 18 to 30 years old. Going into Friday’s finals, Americans (champs in 2016), were tied for first place with a Chinese team (champs in 2014), the winner to take home the gold medal. The U.S. team tied with China in the final match, and then China won a tiebreaker. Russia was in third place.

(Among the other results was the lessthan-storybook fate of the Ugandan women’s team, one of the focuses of the movie “Queen of Katwe,” about a chess champ from a slum in Uganda. When the games were over, Ugandan newspaper New Vision reported, “The ladies played their hearts out in round nine against Botswana in a must-win game that unfortunately ended in a draw.” )

PUBLIC EAVESDROPPING Counter person: “Lox should be sliced so thin that you can read through it.” Customer: “I’m not thin. You’re not thin. Why does a piece of lox have to be thin?” Conversation overheard at Zabar’s in New York by Nancy Lipsitz