Publishing tall tales, as told with a laugh

Chronicle Books celebrated its 50th birthday on Wednesday, June 21, with a party for staffers and writers, who gathered round to listen to speeches by McEvoy Group Chairman and CEO Nion

McEvoy and President Jack Jensen. Attendees also crowded round to refresh themselves with drinks and generous food. Literature and invention are wonderful concepts, but inspiration needs fuel.

Jensen cited San Francisco for inspiring “creativity and imagination” and noted that while publishing has faced challenges over the years, Chronicle Books (which is no longer affiliated with the newspaper), which publishes about 300 books a year, “has thrived.” McEvoy, resplendent in lavender kurta, heaped gratitude on the staff, and read a proclamation from Mayor

Ed Lee. However welcome, the speeches and proclamation are the standard stuff of a corporate celebration. They don’t do justice to the company’s spirit.

On the way out, every guest was given “Chronicle Books: The First 50 Years,” a book filled with proud language that also contains, on Page 52, an “employee handbook” prepared by staffers in the mid-1990s, a period when the staff more than doubled.

“Parental Leave: Because the entire staff at Chronicle Books is of parenting age, the leave policy is limited. Only under the specific circumstances below can leave be granted: (a) You are the parent of a child conceived at Chronicle — one month paid leave. (b) You are the parent of a child conceived at Chronicle during working hours — two months paid leave.”

“It’s been a party for 50 years,” McEvoy told his guests. And more family affairs: TV host and executive producer of “The Real Housewives” franchise Andy Cohen was on Seth Meyers’ show the other day, and talked about being a Deadhead, as well as friend and confessor to the real housewives of the Dead. A photo of Cohen dancing at a Dead & Company show next to Caryl Hart, Mickey Hart’s wife of 27 years, was shown. Mickey Hart says the picture confirmed his wife’s status: “She said she is now a serious Deadhead.”

Candidate for lieutenant governor Eleni Kounalakis has been endorsed by Mayor Lee (as well as Sen. Kamala Harris). Kounalakis’ Facebook posting about the mayoral endorsement featured her two sons, Eon and Neo, 15 and 16, who began taking Chinese lessons when they were 3 years old, thanking the mayor in Mandarin.

Ellen Newman first whispered the word, and then a story in the New Fillmore confirmed it: Moses and Hatsy Yasukochi, owners of the Sweet Stop bakery in Japantown, have passed down to their grandson the recipe for their famous Coffee Crunch Cake. The grandson, Kenji Yick, is a graduate of the French Culinary Institute.

Sam Green, whose genre is “live documentary, a combination of story-telling, music and film,” is working on “A Thousand Thoughts” about the Kronos Quartet. At the home of Mary and Tony Conrad on Tuesday, June 20, there were inspiring words, friendly introductions and a live performance, as there will be during “showings” of “A Thousand Thoughts” (many, including Sundance, the Barbican and NYU, already booked).

The quartet has played good music for a long time, said Zane Vella, who welcomed guests. “They’ve also been having a great time.”

Filmmaker and subjects seemed invigorated by the match, and hearing the unamplified music in a private living room was a rare experience. Remarking on that, founder David Harrington recalled noticing, during a long-ago home concert, that the side of his bow hand was wet. “Eventually, I grabbed a quick look and saw the little boy of the house with his tongue out, doing what anyone would like to do: messing with the violinist.”

July 20 is “Game of Thrones” night at AT&T Park, and Dan St. Paul thinks that every time a Giants pitcher gives up a home run, “we get to yell ‘Shame! Shame!’ ” I don’t think that’s on the official agenda, but a House of Pence bobblehead sure is.

At the Great Highway near Lincoln Way, George Barantseff saw a parked Humvee, and noticed that “it fit in just right when it straddled two compact car spaces.”

At the Menlo Medical Clinic, Sheryl Nonnenberg overheard a girl of 6 or so jumping out of a Tesla and proclaiming to her mother, “Look, Mommy, we are the only Model X in the parking lot!”