Myles O’Reilly is putting the wearing of the green back into Green Street this St. Patrick’s Day. After a four-year ban, Myles has been given permission by the S.F.P.D. to close down Green Street in front of his O’Reilly’s Irish Pub & Restaurant to hold a day-long St. Pat’s party again. There’s a new boss at Central Station, Capt. Anna Brown. “She’s much more sympathetic to the concerns of businesspeople in North Beach,” says Chiching Herlihy, who works with Myles. “It’s so encouraging to see someone on our side for a change.” Chiching also says the restaurant has hired a gaggle of wee people, that is, dwarves who can play leprechauns as part of the entertainment. You know the old saying: bad audition, good performance. Something like that.
Chiching held an open call for leprechauns. Some of the "little people" did not like the competition. The exchange of nasty words deteriorated into a physical brawl. There was a donnybrook of dwarves on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. The cops had to break up the melee. Lots of biting, and scratching. That’s entertainment. It will be calmer for St. Pat’s, I’m sure. …
Bobby Mulhern, the general manager of the Golden Gate Yacht Club, is flooded with phone calls from around the world these days since word got out that the club will be the new home for the America’s Cup trophy. This is a really big deal for the little yacht club that could, just down the street on the Marina Green waterfront from the bigger, richer, St. Francis Yacht Club. “There’s no definite date for the arrival of the trophy,” says Bobby. “They have to build a special security case for the thing.” One element of security is to have Larry Ellison on board. “Every time he steps through the doors here,” Bobby explains,” Larry is nothing but a gentleman.” Insiders say San Francisco looks pretty good for being the host to the next America’s Cup race when the challenge arrives. That, in great part, is up to the gentleman from Oracle who walks through those doors at the Golden Gate Yacht Club – with the cooperation of the all-knowing authorities at City Hall. …
That report about DNA evidence linking Trailside Killer David Carpenter to the unsolved San Francisco killing in 1979 of Mary Bennett out at Lands End reminds me of Robert Graysmith's excellent book, The Sleeping Lady, the old Ohlone name for Mt. Tamapais, where many of the murders took place. Graysmith, who also wrote the famous Zodiac book, chronicles the murderous activities of Carpenter, and the dedicated homicide cop who finally tracked him down. The book scared me so much, I was afraid to go jogging for about two years. All right, so I wouldn't have gone jogging anyway. The late, great actor Robert Morley once observed, "Jogging is the most dangerous thing to happen to America since Vietnam." But Morley was talking about the general preservation of health, I suppose, not the hazard of encountering predators like Carpenter. One more word about Robert Graysmith. He is one of the great coffee house writers. He wrote in longhand every day at the Owl & Monkey Cafe on 9th Ave. in the Sunset. Sadly, it's long gone. I hope he's made enough money to buy his own cafe by now. My friend Diane Weissmuller was so fond of Robert Morley (two of her fave films are The Grand Bouffe & The Loved One) that she named her cat Morley: "Like the great actor, Morley's very large, very snooty, and very condescending." Since the cat learned how to get on Twitter, he's been quite incorrigible. …
I heard a coyote may have killed a cat on Russian Hill the other day. Coyotes on Russian Hill? Odd. I thought they were hanging at the Balboa Café, checking out the young bartenders. … Warren Hinckle has yet another signature basset hound to take the place of sweet, loyal, lugubrious Melman. He died recently at age12. Melman did not not succumb to the ravages of second-hand smut at the Mitchell Bros. "No," reports Eric Eckert, a keen observer of the tavern circuit, "Melman was killed by all the hot dogs that the locals would buy him at the Route 101 saloon on Van Ness." He died from a surfeit of sausages. Eric also says that Mr. Hinckle's new puppy is named Hunter, in honor of Warren's great, late friend, Hunter S. Thompson. ... Have you heard those stories about hostile toll-takers on the New Jersey Turnpike cursing at the motorists, and throwing the change into their faces? Ah, the Garden State, where they only grow thorns. Not to worry. Surely this sort of incivility can't take place here in California. We won't be seeing any change being returned to us for a long time. ...
Bruce Bellingham’s new book has a working title of I’m Too Old for Me. We’re beginning to suspect that he’s just been writing titles lately, but it would be too much trouble to confront him on this matter, Maybe you’d like to. E-mail him at bruce@northsidesf.com
Thursday, February 25, 2010
The Final Word, Northside San Francisco, March 2010
Herbert Gold, San Francisco's famous novelist, approached me in the rain on Polk Street the other night. With his wet trench coat, and the rain running off the brim of his khaki hat in the shadows, he looked like a character out of The Third Man. Funny that, the author of The Third Man (he also wrote the screenplay for the classic movie) was Graham Greene. Greene was mad about the Caribbean. That's what Herb Gold wanted to talk to me about. Not about Vienna, where The Third Man takes place, but about Haiti, where Herb's been visiting off and on for decades. He's been there about 35 times. Herb loves Haiti. I've never heard anyone say anything less than glowing about Haiti, in terms of her soul, and her spirit. Herb wrote a famous book about Haiti called The Best Nightmare on Earth. That's a revealing title. It's hard to imagine a place on the planet that has had to endure more suffering. Since the earthquake that hit Haiti, the poorest nation in the hemisphere, killed 200,000 people two months ago Herb's heart has been breaking.
"Of course I want to go back," says Herb, "but I'm not sure if I wouldn't just get in the way. I'm a writer, not a doctor. I know people, friends of mine, who were killed. It's very difficult. Newspapers won't send reporters down there like they used to because of the economy. That could help, bringing more attention to this catastrophe."
Herb suggested I get in touch with a friend of his -- Dr. Yen-Len Tang, a pediatrician who works at Kaiser Hospital in Hayward.
I did.
Dr. Tang has been going down to Haiti since 2004, and left again just the other day for a month. His plans? To take care of sick, and injured Haitian children who are hospitalized out in the countryside.
What is so compelling about Haiti? Why does it have such a magical effect on so many who visit?
"Haiti is about chaotic growth, and decay at the same time," says Dr. Tang. "It's really quite magnificent.”
These are such mysterious signals, such contradictions.
"Many more people will die before the recovery happens, but I have to go back. During normal times, Haitians demonstrate incredible patience, show deep friendship, produce wonderful music, and food.”
Dr. Tang is paying his travel expenses, using vacation time he’s accrued at Kaiser. His will be living at Hospital Albert Schweitzer, an American-financed operation which provides health care for 300,000 people in central Haiti.
I wondered if he might be worried about his personal safety. He’s not, mostly because he will not be in the capital, Port-au-Prince, as things get grimmer. They will get grimmer before they get better. He also can speak Creole, the local lingo – a mix of French and the region’s ethnic African dialect. He’s divorced, and his kids are terribly proud of him. Dr. Tang went to Johns Hopkins Medical School, and trained at UCSF.
Will this journey into the post-earthquake darkness make him become a better doctor?
“I think so,” says Dr. Tang. “Obviously I am going to encounter children who are far sicker, far more badly injured that I would see in Hayward. I also see Haiti, a third-world country, showing signs of first-world problems, such as childhood obesity, and diabetes while the poor diseases, such as malnutrition, are rampant, too. They need our help, the help of the NGOs. I certainly get a lot out of being there.”
Herb Gold says there have been a lot of stupid things said about the disaster in Haiti – the vicious, and vile things that Pat Robertson, and Rush Limbaugh have said. Robertson said Haiti asked for the quake by making a pact with the devil all those years ago in order to gain independence from France.
“But,” added Herb, “for all of the putrid blathering from these morons, we still have someone like Dr. Yen-Len Tang, who shows real class, real kindness. That’s important to remember.”
Bruce Bellingham also writes for the Marina Times, the sister publication. But Bruce doesn’t have any sisters. Perhaps this experience is good for him. Let him know one way or another. E-mail him at bruce@northsidesf.com
###
"Of course I want to go back," says Herb, "but I'm not sure if I wouldn't just get in the way. I'm a writer, not a doctor. I know people, friends of mine, who were killed. It's very difficult. Newspapers won't send reporters down there like they used to because of the economy. That could help, bringing more attention to this catastrophe."
Herb suggested I get in touch with a friend of his -- Dr. Yen-Len Tang, a pediatrician who works at Kaiser Hospital in Hayward.
I did.
Dr. Tang has been going down to Haiti since 2004, and left again just the other day for a month. His plans? To take care of sick, and injured Haitian children who are hospitalized out in the countryside.
What is so compelling about Haiti? Why does it have such a magical effect on so many who visit?
"Haiti is about chaotic growth, and decay at the same time," says Dr. Tang. "It's really quite magnificent.”
These are such mysterious signals, such contradictions.
"Many more people will die before the recovery happens, but I have to go back. During normal times, Haitians demonstrate incredible patience, show deep friendship, produce wonderful music, and food.”
Dr. Tang is paying his travel expenses, using vacation time he’s accrued at Kaiser. His will be living at Hospital Albert Schweitzer, an American-financed operation which provides health care for 300,000 people in central Haiti.
I wondered if he might be worried about his personal safety. He’s not, mostly because he will not be in the capital, Port-au-Prince, as things get grimmer. They will get grimmer before they get better. He also can speak Creole, the local lingo – a mix of French and the region’s ethnic African dialect. He’s divorced, and his kids are terribly proud of him. Dr. Tang went to Johns Hopkins Medical School, and trained at UCSF.
Will this journey into the post-earthquake darkness make him become a better doctor?
“I think so,” says Dr. Tang. “Obviously I am going to encounter children who are far sicker, far more badly injured that I would see in Hayward. I also see Haiti, a third-world country, showing signs of first-world problems, such as childhood obesity, and diabetes while the poor diseases, such as malnutrition, are rampant, too. They need our help, the help of the NGOs. I certainly get a lot out of being there.”
Herb Gold says there have been a lot of stupid things said about the disaster in Haiti – the vicious, and vile things that Pat Robertson, and Rush Limbaugh have said. Robertson said Haiti asked for the quake by making a pact with the devil all those years ago in order to gain independence from France.
“But,” added Herb, “for all of the putrid blathering from these morons, we still have someone like Dr. Yen-Len Tang, who shows real class, real kindness. That’s important to remember.”
Bruce Bellingham also writes for the Marina Times, the sister publication. But Bruce doesn’t have any sisters. Perhaps this experience is good for him. Let him know one way or another. E-mail him at bruce@northsidesf.com
###
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