Randy coyotes could use help from Miss Manners

Be on the alert: Love-starved coyotes are on the loose in the North County.

They are especially numerous on and near San Bruno Mountain, as well as Sign Hill, and their immediate environs.

That’s the word from Everything South City, a South San Francisco neighborhood blog that focuses on matters important to that North County community.

Apparently, it’s mating season for the wily creatures who roam that suburban territory. The owners of small, vulnerable pets are being urged to protect them from aggressive male coyotes on the prowl for females.

The amorous males have been known to try to mate with local dogs without even a proper introduction. Talk about a lack of normal dating etiquette. Hello, Miss Manners. We need some help.

Similar options

With the closure of the Oasis Beer Garden on El Camino Real in Menlo Park announced for next week, some loyal customers are hoping that maybe a financial angel can be found to preserve the dining spot. If not, all is not completely lost.

There are at least two nearby options of similar wrinkled style and grizzled atmosphere: The Dutch Goose on Alameda de las Pulgas in Menlo Park and the Alpine Inn Beer Garden on Alpine Road in Portola Valley.

The latter has been in operation, in one form or another, since the mid-19th century; the former is more than 50 years old. So, go for it. We’ll miss the Oasis if it is shuttered as scheduled. But there are other options, at least for now.

Pending sale

Coastside residents got some good news last week when it was announced that the venerable Half Moon Bay Review, a prizewinning weekly newspaper that focuses like a laser on that bucolic area, is in the process of being sold to local interests, with Lenny Mendonca said to be the lead investor.

Now 120 years old, the lively publication has a reported circulation of about 7,500. It is owned by Wick Communications, an Arizona-based media company.

The Review publishes coastal magazines in addition to its weekly print offering. It also owns a building in downtown Half Moon Bay half a block off Main Street.

Another doofus

Still on the Coastside, the inexorable March of the Mighty Morons seems to know no bounds. A recent San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department note from Half Moon Bay tends to verify that thesis.

A careless fellow reportedly walked into a Coastside business, grabbed dough from the cashbox and walked out. One problem: He left his cellphone behind. Oops. Thanks very much.

The gendarmes tracked him down with relative technological ease and arrested him shortly after the commission of the crime. No muss, no fuss.

A steak saga

Thanks to Al Schwoerer via Facebook, who points out that you could purchase a complete, seven-course New York steak dinner at the Cliff House in San Francisco for the princely sum of $2 in 1938. Still, that was a lot of money during the Great Depression. Now that tab, courtesy of inflation, might get you a large order of fries at your favorite fastfood emporium.

Coastal passing

Very sorry to report that one of the inhabitants of that Half Moon Bay homeless encampment, located behind a Safeway store on the banks of Pilarcitos Creek mentioned in last week’s effort in this space, died last week, according to a coastal resident familiar with the tragic matter. The cause of the man’s death was not specified. The makeshift camp is scheduled to be cleared, cleaned and decontaminated in March.