Pitfalls of being really really idealistic

The Atlantic magazine hosted a “Free Speech (Un)Limited” event in San Francisco last week, during which outgoing Facebook communications honcho Elliot

Shrage talked with Conor Friedersdorf, an Atlantic staff writer.

Friedersdorf asked Shrage whether he had told Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg about the company’s hiring of opposition research consultants whose tactics included trying to discredit George Soros.

“My feeling is that Mark has been an extraordinary leader and has done an extraordinary job across two or three dimensions. One of the dimensions is, he’s identified how to apply technologies to provide extraordinary opportunities for people to connect with each other and share information . ... I think it is also true, and he’s recognized, that while he has been an extraordinary product visionary, he has also been more idealistic than the real world permits.”

In other words, mistakes were made — “My teams were responsible for what happened, and I accept responsibility for that,” said Shrage — but he’s not throwing anyone under the bus.

Haiku seen by Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow, on a sign on Solano Avenue, erected by the Albany Arts Commission: Alexandria/ Ocasio-Cortez is/ almost a haiku.” The credited author is Stephen Lopez.

New Michelin stars are being flung across the restaurant heavens, but in other places, there are other qualifications. In Star, Idaho, Ann Cowmey called the Durty Dawg to see if it served doughnuts. “No,” she was told. “We are a gourmet restaurant. We serve hot dogs and hamburgers.”

When Ishmael Reed introduced award winner Boots Riley at last week’s SFFilm gala, Reed mentioned that he, too, was a moviemaker. In 1980, he was the writer of “Personal Problems,” which was directed by Bill Gunn and cost $40,000.

A few days later, Reed emailed a link to the December 2018 issue of Artforum, in which writer Melissa Anderson selected that movie, recently restored, to her list of the best films of the year. She describes it as a “meta-soap opera” that “abounds with matchless talkers, improvisers and scenestealers.”

The kickoff party for the swells’ holiday season was Wednesday at Harris’ Restaurant, generously hosted by Seth Matarasso and Gary and O.J. Shansby. There was a Santa (Doug McKechnie), elves, carolers and cocktails, as well as extra-thick steaks and extra-slim guests.

Valets were on hand to stow a long line of elegant cars, and I am herein expressing gratitude for extra-quick assistance. If one happens to drive up in a 25-year-old Volvo, the middle of a sandwich with a Bentley on one side and a Mercedes on the other, the professional parkers’ impulse is to hide the filling as soon as possible.

Thank goodness no such strategy applies to the guests. We were happy and grateful to be there.

I talked with scientist and mountain climber Arlene Blum, who as Steve Rubenstein described in a news story was one of this year’s inductees into the California Hall of Fame, about the installation ceremonies Tuesday, Dec. 4, which she said were “awesome.” Also, from her point of view, useful.

“After the awards, there’s an afterparty,” said Blum, whose long campaign is about protecting consumers from dangerous chemicals. “We have been working for 10 years so that flame retardants are not required in building insulation, and the hearing is coming up Jan. 15. So basically I am quite involved in things in Sacramento.” The afterparty gave her a chance to lobby. “I met all kinds of people who could help us. I was really busy talking to people and giving out information.”

Blum stayed at the party at the California Museum, talking to state officials, for quite some time. Eventually, a museum staffer approached and said, “All the other honorees have left long ago. For all the years that we have had this event, no one has stayed as long as you at the afterparty.”

This year’s Hall of Fame class included Joan Baez, Belva Davis, Thomas Keller, Ed Lee, Nancy McFadden, Robert Redford and Fernando Valenzuela. “Most of these celebrities come to the event and people congratulate them,” Blum’s daughter Annalise told her, “but for you it was an incredible opportunity to connect with people who can help.” Annalise herself took the opportunity to tell Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom about her mother’s work.

In this “amazing array of celebrities,” said Blum, “not so many are working in Sacramento.”

PUBLIC EAVESDROPPING “Hey, dude, I just gotta ask you: Is that the sun?” Young man watching the moon rise over the ocean on the beach in Kauai, overheard by Kurt Huget