Are there accessories for that great BART toy?

Nina Zhito of Novato sends word of a BART tweet about “squishy” BART car toys on sale in the customer service department at Lake Merritt Station: “Today we sold more than 10 percent of our train toys in stock. We still have hundreds left, but they are selling pretty fast. It’s on sale from M-F 7:30 a.m.-5 p.m. And please ... stop asking us if the train comes with peepee, poopoo, needles and other gross things. The answer is always no.” Furthermore, in response to musician

Jamey Brzezinki’s comments about the beauty of BART wheels’ screeching, Ken

Perkins mentions another sound that intrigues him: “I’ve had two MRIs in recent years ... and each time as I lay listening to the very loud rhythmic banging and buzzing of the machine, I think some DJ should record and remix these remarkable percussion sounds.” Meanwhile, musician and teacher Jan

Jones was struck by the screech, too, particularly “the C to C octave each train ‘sings’ as it leaves the station.” She asked BART engineers why it happened, and her translation of the explanation is that as the motor revs up and electronic frequency is increased, “pulse width modulation” results. “From zero to 3 mph the sound is C5 (one octave above middle C on the piano) to C6 (two octaves above middle C). Sounds lovely and cheerful.”

Of course, you’ve already read about the San Francisco Symphony’s maestro-designate, Esa-Pekka Salonen, whose appointment was announced officially early on Wednesday, Dec. 5. That evening, however, the San Francisco Symphony invited supporters and music lovers to a razzle-dazzle introduction — Champagne and nibbles included — in the Soundbox.

The many expressions of excitement were augmented by dramatic graphics (the conductor silhouetted against the skyline), thank-yous to members of the search committee, an onstage Q&A with Salonen, and a collection of video welcomes from Bay Area superstars (beginning with Mayor London Breed ,of course, and including maestro Michael

Tilson Thomas, composer John Adams, empress of sound Helen Meyer, Symphony trumpeter Mark Inouye, SFMOMA’s Neal Benezra, Warriors coach Steve Kerr and The Chronicle’s own Joshua Kosman).

They know how to put on a concert over there at Davies Hall, but they also know how to put on a show.

Reader M.K. read the fine print in a Vogue profile of billionaire Tom Steyer. The profile pictures the activist and Trump critic (to put it mildly) with his family, and includes written depictions of family fun. But tucked into the story is a note that as it went to press, Steyer informed the editors that he and his wife “were going to try living apart. They will, however, remain a family and work together on the dream of justice that consumes them both,” wrote Rob Haskell.

Allen Zebrowsky describes seeing/hearing Laurie Anderson performing her late husband

Lou Reed’s “The Drones” at Grace Cathedral. “It was as if ‘The Drones’ was like Gelug Tibetan monks, the Tuvan Throat Singers and György Ligeti were all part of a David Lynch soundtrack. This was an only in San Francisco experience.”

This year’s Christmas kerfuffle, all wrapped up with a big bow on top, is about the playing of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” a 1944 Frank Loesser song that has fallen into disgrace because of the #MeToo movement. Radio stations including San Francisco’s KOIT have announced that they will no longer play the song, though KOIT ultimately decided to let its listeners decide the song’s fate.

Piano man Abe Battat — an old-fashioned guy who’s played plenty of love songs during his career — told me about this first, and seemed incredulous about the fuss. “We used to call it ‘sweet talking,’ ” he emailed. “Wake me when the book burning begins. We can start with Nabokov and work our way down to Spillane.”

Mike Lano suggests that there are plenty of other songs that might be banned, the Police’s “Every Breath You Take,” for instance. He says that he and his wife are “standing up,” however, “for the classic 50-year-old Rudolph CBS special,” although others “are calling for it to be yanked because of the reindeer game bullying aspect.”