Avoiding heavy lifting for the coming election
As to the weight of the written word, you think Moses did some heavy lifting when he came down the mountain schlepping the Ten Commandments? At least he had only two tablets. This year’s soon-to-be distributed San Francisco Voter Information Pamphlet, expected to be 300 pages long and weigh 0.925 pounds, is supposed to reach 471,123 registered voters. (The California pamphlet is 224 pages; together they’re almost as big — and important — as the Restoration Hardware catalog.)
The San Francisco Department of Elections suggests that you save some trees by opting to read the thing online instead of on paper, an option already chosen by some 5,865 voters. The pamphlet isn’t online yet, but you can make arrangements to switch now by calling (415) 554-4375 or contacting www.sfelec tions.org/viponline.
Fine for the trees, but how about the Postal Service? I asked USPS corporate communications man Augustine Ruiz whether the service is sorry about possibly losing some of its business. “We are no different from any other business where a drop in business, in this case mail, is a drop in revenue. And no business would find this very pleasing.”
As to saving the postal workers’ backs, “Our carriers are accustomed to heavy loads ... (and) wouldn’t have an issue with delivering it.”
P.S.: And as to the value of the written word, who do you think is worth more: the
Dalai Lama or T.S. Eliot? Among the offerings at Friends of the Library’s 52nd big book sale, Wednesday, Sept. 21, through Sunday, Sept. 25, at Fort Mason Center: a copy of “My Tibet” signed by the Dalai Lama and Galen Rowell; and a copy of “The Use of Poetry and Criticism,” signed by Eliot.
(DL handily beats TS; $800 to $250.)
A contingent of San Franciscans is traveling to Washington, D.C., this week for festivities and ceremonies around the opening Saturday, Sept. 24, of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. In San Francisco, the Museum of the African Diaspora, an affiliate of the Smithsonian, will be open on Saturday morning at 7 a.m. for a members’ live screening of the opening ceremonies (and breakfast). In addition, says MoAD director Linda Harrison ,a film about David Adjaye, architect of the new museum, will be shown. It’s not too late to become a member.
“The Art of Fire,” a show of photographs of San Francisco firefighters at work, opened on Saturday, Sept. 17, at the Harvey Milk Photo Center. A poem written for the occasion by Jon Obermeyer describes fire as “the Northern Lights,/ Pink Floyd lasers and the Devil himself/ at 150 decibels, on the back stoop/ of the Lion’s mouth. I will attempt one day/ to describe the heat to you/ but our language is so inadequate.”
Dr. J was walking up Market Street, and between First and Second streets, averted his glance when it fell upon a “man fullfrontally exposed.” His eyes came to rest on an Art on Market kiosk poster: “Greatest Show on Earth.”
Clip-and-save advice for tribute-recipients, testimonial honorees and just about everyone else: There was a gathering last week at the Metropolitan Club in San Francisco to honor Mardi Kildebeck of the Mary Wohlford Foundation. The foundation — which supported mostly reproductive health and rights organizations — is closing, and Kildebeck, its only trustee, is retiring. The honoree concluded her remarks: “I’d like to end with a quote from R.J. Palacio’s book ‘Wonder’: ‘I think there should be a rule that everyone in the world should get a standing ovation at least once in their lives.’ And this is mine!”
The Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio has decided to have its second annual fundraising gala (emceed by Neil Patrick Harris) at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim. A museum spokesperson says it has “a considerable number of members located in the Los Angeles/Anaheim area.”
Reflecting stories about the tilting Millennium Tower, Jeffrey Earl Warren jokes that every pool table in the building is up for sale on Craigslist. But surely, there must be more everyday results of the lean:
Toothbrushes wearing down on the diagonal? Bathtub dive-deep at one end, toe-exposing on the other? Couples tumbling into heaps on one side of the bed (maybe not a bad thing)?