Rosey Grier tosses hat in political ring

Roosevelt Grier, one of the “Fearsome Foursome” when he was a professional football hero, bodyguard to Robert Kennedy, minister, actor, singer, needlepoint enthusiast and endorser of Donald Trump’s run for the presidency, has announced that he’s planning to run for governor of California.

“I think we can do a lot of good,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “I’ve spent my life serving my fellow man. I thought I would continue doing that.”

Grier, who wrestled the gun out of the hand of Sirhan Sirhan when RFK was shot, told the newspaper that he might have been able to save him, “but it was not my choice. It was God’s choice.” He said he supported Trump because “I felt we needed a businessman in the White House. Our country is turning away from Israel. And you don’t turn away from Israel. Those are God’s chosen people.”

The would-be governor, whose career path demonstrates his self-confidence, realizes that it’s possible he won’t win. But, he said, “if I’m not successful, it won’t be because I haven’t tried.”

It may be, of course, that his candidacy may be motivated by other ambitions. If he runs and loses, he would probably be in fine position to replace Arnold Schwarzenegger, who didn’t get very good reviews as host of “The New Celebrity Apprentice.”

If “an eye for an eye” were the operating principle at the San Francisco Public Library, Grove Street generals would dispatch uniformed squads to delinquent borrowers’ homes to pluck random books from their shelves (“Oh, Harry, have you seen my copy of ‘50 Shades of Gray’?”). But as Lizzie Johnson reported in The Chronicle on Dec. 26, the librarians have decided it’s better to forgive and forget.

Between Tuesday, Jan. 3, and Valentine’s Day, all fees on overdue books are being waived. This is the latest in a series of such amnesty campaigns over the years. Neighborhood news website Hoodline estimated that $2,617,257 in fees are due. The library is expecting the campaign to yield somewhere between 9,459 and 44,178 books, a large range that doesn’t take into account the size of the books. Returning a creased and torn copy of “Goodnight Moon” earns the same size click as returning a borscht-splattered “War and Peace.”

As always — because this is San Francisco — there are naysayers. A commenter on Hoodline asserted that the program “creates an atmosphere of lawlessness. These criminals know that every few years the city will cave and have a period of amnesty . ... I suggest that when someone returns a long overdue book during amnesty, SFPD is lying in wait to put the handcuffs on them and haul them off to jail for an extended period of hard labor.” There’s no way of telling, but I’m guessing this person last borrowed a book by Jonathan Swift. And now, some results: A 1998 amnesty campaign recovered several periodicals that had been published in the 1850s and checked out three days before the 1906 earthquake.

Among the 5,000 overdue items netted in the 2001 amnesty period was “Vale and Other Poems,” by George Russell, published in 1931. The book — virtually a virgin — had been checked out just once; its borrower failed to return it, and it became overdue in June 1931. Also returned then was Gershon Bradshaw’s “A Glossary of Sea Terms,” published by Yachting Inc. in 1927. It was actually a non-circulating reference work, so rather than being “borrowed,” it was actually “ripped off,” a phrase not yet invented in that era.

The 2009 Free2Return campaign led to the return of a copy of George Bernard Shaw’s “Man and Superman” printed in 1947 and borrowed from the Presidio Branch Library, where it was due on Jan. 29, 1964.

This year’s grand old return is “Forty Minutes Late,” a book of F. Hopkinson Smith short stories that might have been subtitled “and 36,000 days overdue.” It was borrowed by Phebe Dickinson Webb 100 years ago; she died two weeks before its due date, April 6, 1917.

Taking a cue from the “Nasty Women New York City Art Exhibition,” Sweetie’s Art Bar, a North Beach saloon, pool hall, art gallery and gathering place, is through the end of January exhibiting the work of “Nasty Women,” in order to “demonstrate solidarity among artists who identify with being a Nasty Woman.” All works are priced under $100. All funds raised will go to Northern California Planned Parenthoood. Featured artists are Lucia Bruer, Marcia Clay, Laura Hazlett, Yasmin Lambie-Simpson, Lei Levi, Flicka McGurrin (who owns Sweetie’s), Robin Rome, Michele Stern and Linda Wallgren.

“Buy the margarita mix! The ones you make are horrible.” Woman to man, overheard at Costco by Tom Atkin