Costco's Iconic Hot Dog

Around lunch time there are customers who come into Costco just for the hot dog. The hot dog and soda combination costs $1.50, the same price when it was first introduced in 1984. While the direct cost of the material ingredients could possibly be less than $1.50, Costco undoubtedly experiences a loss once one includes Food Court labor, utilities, and the capital cost of the equipment and space.

Instead of a cost-based approach, the Chronicle estimates what the price would be if it had merely kept up with inflation:

What’s still a $1.50 hot dog and soda would be setting you back well over twice as much: $3.96.

..The $1.50 hot dog deal is more about marketing than money-making, said Martha Gimbel, the executive director of the Yale Budget Lab.

“There’s so much that is changing right now in our world. Everything feels very uncertain. It sounds kind of silly, but you can rely on the fact that Costco has a hot dog for $1.50,” she said...

It’s still a soda and a hot dog, but the dog is now made by Kirkland Signature instead of Hebrew National. They were first sold at carts, then in an area dubbed “Cafe 150” (named for the price), though it’s now just known as “the Costco food court.”

At one point, the food court sodas at Costco came in cans from vending machines, but Costco switched to fountain soda to save money....And this summer, the retailer shifted from Pepsi back to Coke in yet another cost-saving move.

Even at $3.96 I would still buy the combo, but the $1.50 hot dog and $4.99 rotisserie chicken have become iconic. They're also a lifeline to those on a shoestring budget, so kudos to Costco for holding fast.

Canada Goose Population Management

"Remote-controlled amphibious device": beware the rubber duckie.

Foster City announced the first steps in its Canada Goose Population Management program: [bold added]

The first phase of this plan will focus primarily on observation and surveillance, which will begin to take place in the first week of October. Though the visibility of this work to the public may be limited, community members could notice goose tracking cameras hung in trees at the previously identified parks, or uniformed Wildlife Innovation staff monitoring the bird population...

Following the observation and surveillance phases, Wildlife Innovation staff will transition to tracking the Canada Goose population in early November. This effort will include banding select birds with GPS tracking devices around their feet and neck. Application and operation of the GPS devices is in no way harmful to the birds. Community members who observe banded birds should not be concerned – federal and state permits have been issued for this work.

Wildlife Innovation staff will initiate bird deterrent activities shortly after the tracking efforts are introduced. All the deterrent methods included in the plan are nonviolent and nonlethal. These efforts will include use of a: trained dog and handler; remote-controlled amphibious device; aerial drone with speaker and lights; audio deterrent; handheld laser; and fogging.

We've been given a heads-up to these solutions for Foster City's goose problem, but your humble blogger thinks the clever birds will discover there's little reason to be fearful.

More drastic, potentially lethal steps will probably need to be tried; for example, given the many leashed dogs we see on our walks around town, perhaps the City could suspend its leash laws in Foster City parks temporarily and see if that puts a dent in the problem. Here's hoping we don't need to go that far.

The Bishop Visits

Today the church celebrated the Feast of St. Francis (the official date was yesterday, October 4th). Coincidentally it was also the date of Bishop Austin Rios' biennial visit to our Foster City parish.

After reflecting on Francis' life of service, the Bishop greeted the beloved animals of the parish as they were brought to him for a blessing.

As two-legged and four-legged creatures mingled during an informal lunch, the tribulations of the world were forgotten.

"A Toaster on Wheels"

Seven years after relocating to Foster City and five years after Amazon acquired it, autonomous-driving company Zoox is introducing its robotaxis in Las Vegas.

Zoox’s first public launch kicks off Wednesday on the Las Vegas strip. The company is offering free rides from a few select locations, with plans to expand more broadly across the city in the coming months. Riders will eventually have to pay, but Zoox said it’s waiting on regulatory approval to take that step.

Amazon is jumping into a market that’s all about the future, but one where Waymo has a major head start, having offered commercial driverless rides since 2020. Earlier this year, Waymo said it surpassed 10 million paid rides, and the company now operates in five cities, with Dallas, Denver, Miami, Seattle and Washington, D.C., coming next year.

Tesla, meanwhile, began testing a limited robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, in June, though with human supervisors on board.

But unlike Waymo and Tesla, Zoox’s electric robotaxi doesn’t resemble a car. There’s no steering wheel or pedals, and the rectangular shape has led many in the industry to describe it as a toaster on wheels. Zoox co-founder and technology chief Jesse Levinson says, “We use robotaxi or vehicle or Zoox.”

Our driving skills have been eroding, and in 3 to 5 years we foresee being in the market for a self driving vehicle. Waymo and Tesla would've been at the top of our shopping list, but we'll take a look at Zoox. I wonder if they'll give a hometown discount to local customers?

2018: Zoox prototype (Bloomberg photo)

Foster City: Once Awful, now Admirable

View of the houses across the lagoon from our neighborhood

Foster City gets some love from Peter Hartlaub, the Chronicle's culture critic:

The Bay Area, a land where natural beauty confronts us on nearly every hill and bend in the road, had a condescending reaction to the Peninsula’s first planned community...But I recently returned at reader request — exploring by bike, foot and personal watercraft — and discovered a small town filled with appeal and outdoor fun...

As we weave around a bit drunkenly [on a kayak] through the lagoons, Foster City’s appeal emerges. The backs of homes face the water with beautiful succulent gardens, colorful play structures and easy access to launch a paddleboard, kayak or small electric boat. We see scores of small watercraft at every turn...

I cruise by [on a bicycle] Foster City’s suburban Eichler homes — there are more than 200 of the low-slung modernist residences created by famed developer Joseph Eichler (far from Temko’s “crass and anarchic” corporate construction) — and find Brewer Island Elementary, with its endearing New England architecture and a kid-size widow’s walk. We keep running into the city’s 24 parks. Erckenbrack Park with its small playground and beach, far east of Leo J. Ryan Park and well inside the labyrinth, is a great picnic spot.

But the best detour is Foster City’s new nearly 2-mile seawall that my colleague John King wrote about, which now frames the city with an elevated bike and pedestrian path.

Its new $90 million seawall and goose-poop problem have made the news, but it's nice that our town of 33,000 is being appreciated for the simple pleasures of living here.

These Geese Will not be Cooked

Ryan Park in July, 2022

We've been writing about Foster City's Canadian-goose problem for years. The NY Times covered it in June. Here's the Chronicle's take: [bold added]

Welcome to Foster City, home to 24 parks and more than 160 acres of open space that collects some 300 pounds of goose poop a day.

Foster City has received national attention for its troubles with Canada geese. Each goose — the city estimates it has between 300 and 400 of them — can produce one or two pounds of droppings a day, turning a park into a minefield. The goose poop requires regular power washings and has contributed to high E. coli levels in parts of the local lagoon. During nesting season the birds can become aggressive, even chasing off small dogs and children.

Non-lethal solutions are being tried.

Earlier this month, Foster City took its most comprehensive action yet, with the city council approving a roughly $400,000 contract with a wildlife company to deter the geese at seven “high impact” parks. Starting sometime in the next month, the company will begin using drones, lasers, balloons and — eventually — dogs to scare or “haze” the birds. The contract, which is active through June 2026, approved nonlethal measures only.

Foster City residents and officials alike are waiting to see whether their latest efforts will make the geese think twice about nesting at a local park. Previous attempts have been mixed. When the city tried strobe lights, residents seemed more bothered than were the geese. Adding fencing around the lagoon kept geese out for a while, but the geese eventually found ways around it. Egg addling — shaking or otherwise damaging newly laid eggs to prevent the embryo from developing — keeps the population from growing too rapidly, but that doesn’t affect the living geese, which can survive for more than 20 years.

I don't have much hope that these methods will put a dent in the problem.

The geese aren't scared of us, though most geese still fly away when humans or dogs chase after them (I speak from personal experience). However, the cost of live geese patrols is prohibitively high. Robot hunters offer promise, but that solution is years away. Meanwhile, Foster City residents should keep looking down when they walk.

Don Peter

Don Peter (1938-2025)

Donald Gene Peter was a bear of a man. 87 when he died last month, he still looked the part of the offensive lineman who pushed aside linebackers for Stanford. We were on the Farm in different decades--he in the '50's and I in the '70's--but they may as well have been in different centuries. When Don played, Stanford's mascot was an Indian, the school was part of the Pacific Coast Conference (one of the predecessors to the Pac-8), and face masks on helmets were not required.

High school and college football was just the start of a lifelong devotion to sports:

Along with teaching history, Don coached football at Downey, Mills, and Burlingame High Schools. He also founded and coached the Burlingame Rugby Club that won the national championship.

It's cliché, but up until the very end Don was giving to his extended family, to his church, to his community, and public education:

Don's parents instilled in him the importance of contributing to his community. In the 1970s, he oversaw the conception and building of two creative playgrounds at Herbert Hoover Elementary in Burlingame with his first wife, Sally. He organized dozens of reunions and hosted backyard parties with his second wife, Elizabeth.

At the memorial service on Saturday we arrived a few minutes early but had to park at the shopping center across the street. The church was filled, and we sat in the overflow room in the back. His children said how much they loved him and will miss him. I will, too.

A Golden Year

Your humble blogger has had a number of health scares over the past year, to the extent that it was problematic whether I would see this day. Well, I, we, are still here.

We commemorated our anniversary by asking the lady minister to bless our union. After she did so, some members of the congregation, which had supported us during our time of trial, applauded.

I spoke to them during coffee hour and let them know how much I appreciated their prayers and being part of a community that believed in the primacy of the Word, before which concerns of the world are secondary.

The recessional hymn was "Be Not Afraid," which has comforted many who are facing the unknown. We who are in the winter of our lives are asking questions whose answers are all-important and don't come with guarantees that satisfy the scientific mind. In the end we are forced to trust the One who said "Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid."

Lucky Leaves But We May Have Lucked Out

The former Lucky location has been vacant since April 29, 2025

During the 40+ years we have lived in Foster City the Edgewater Place Shopping Center has always had a supermarket, first Alpha Beta, then Lucky Market, then Albertsons, and finally Lucky again. There never was a vacancy during these changeovers, however, because all the aforementioned stores are brands owned by or related to Save Mart Companies. Over the last several years Save Mart has been closing Bay Area stores that it calls "underperforming," which include Lucky's in Fremont, Millbrae, and Foster City.

The Foster City store, less than a 15 minute walk from our house, has been vacant since April 29th. Many of us had "there goes the neighborhood" fears, because having empty storefronts is a strong predictor of blight. But we were overly worried.

Osaka Fremont (Mehta/Chronicle)

The Osaka Marketplace is moving in.

A Japanese specialty grocery store is expanding with a new Bay Area location, becoming the most recent entry in a flurry of Asian supermarket openings in the region.

Osaka Marketplace has signed a lease in Foster City at the Edgewater Place Shopping Center. The location is the vacant 35,000-square-foot space at 919 Edgewater Blvd., where a Lucky supermarket previously operated. The incoming retailer is best known for its selection of Japanese and Asian goods, as well as fresh seafood and prepared foods.

The store is slated to open in November. This will be Osaka Marketplace’s third Bay Area location, with its other stores located in Fremont and Pleasant Hill. The company is currently working to expand in Northern California and Arizona.

The 123,000-square-foot Edgewater Place is currently in the middle of a capital improvement program to refresh its common areas and parking lot, among other amenities. The shopping plaza has attracted a variety of Asian dining options such as Chinese restaurant Rickshaw Corner, Yemeni Coffee house Sana’a Cafe and Ritha Indian Restaurant.

“We’re thrilled to join the Foster City community and bring our authentic Japanese grocery experience to Edgewater Place,” Osaka Marketplace owner Kazuhiro Takeda said in a statement. “From fresh produce and seafood to prepared meals and pantry staples, we’re looking forward to serving the community and celebrating the tastes and traditions of the neighborhood we now call home.”

The incoming store is located not far from San Mateo, known for its Japanese American heritage. It’s also the latest in a wave of Asian specialty supermarkets across the Bay Area that looks to satiate ever-increasing demand, as seen in the recent opening of the Korean grocery store Jagalchi at Daly City’s Serramonte Center, which drew hourslong lines. Future Asian grocery store arrivals include Tokyo Central at Emeryville’s Bay Street mall, T&T at San Jose’s Westgate Center and the long-anticipated H Mart in Dublin.

It's difficult for shopping centers to replace long-term anchor tenants who leave because they're experiencing profitability problems--look at San Francisco. It's even rarer to have a tenant upgrade. Foster City may have lucked out.

Happy 102nd, Helen

Mother's Day, 2025

This evening we called to sing Happy Birthday to Helen to celebrate her 102nd birthday.

She said that it was a beautiful day in Honolulu, and we responded that the Bay Area was beautiful, too. It's been a cool summer, and air conditioning has been unnecessary in Foster City.

From her balcony on the hills above the University of Hawaii campus Helen likes to watch the planes take off.

Lately she's been humming Blue Skies, Irving Berlin's 1926 hit. She was delighted when we sang it to her over the phone, out of tune but with enthusiasm. At 102 very simple things give her pleasure.

Below is a nice rendition of Blue Skies by Norah Jones and Seth MacFarlane.

Wild Turkeys in our Future

Stopping traffic in Alameda (Oda/ Bay Area News Group)

In addition to the wolves, coyotes, mountain lions, bears, and pigs that are returning to the Bay Area, let's not forget about the wild turkeys.

Today, there are around 250,000 wild turkeys throughout California. They can be found in 49 states across the country – the only state without wild turkeys is Alaska.

“They are a species that can adapt for really anywhere,” said Sebastian Garcia, the California regional director for the National Wild Turkey Foundation.

Several factors may influence the movement and presence of wild turkeys in urban and suburban areas.

For one, when female turkeys nest, they often search for places that are easily concealed by bushes or other vegetation, according to a University of Minnesota study. This may attract them to urban parks or leafy neighborhoods with ample undergrowth.

Additionally, the turkey diet ranges widely, including insects, seeds, fruits, and even mice. Wild turkeys in human-populated settings were documented using available resources for food, such as bird feeders, food plots, acorns, or fruit trees.

The study also found that despite female turkeys’ need for natural spaces, many turkeys actually rely on human-populated, developed areas during the autumn and winter.

Another key factor that draws wild turkeys to urban settings is a sense of safety.

“If they have less bobcats or mountain lions or coyotes – other predators – chasing them, they notice they’re a little bit safer in these neighborhoods,” Garcia said.

March, 2023: "Tom" on Foster City Blvd.

2¼ years ago Foster City was home to a wild turkey. We never did find out what happened to him, but no worries: we are likely to see more of his relatives in the near future.

A Cool Name, But That's All

At the old India Cash and Carry, 2013

When the Charter Square shopping center was demolished to make way for the Beach Park Elementary School, only two tenants were viable enough to relocate, the Foster City post office and the India Cash and Carry. In their new quarters close to City Hall. Foster City's sole post office in our town of 30,000 residents has a captive audience, while India Cash and Carry caters to the burgeoning South Asian population of tech and medical personnel.

"Cash and carry" evokes a simpler, 19th century way of doing business, where obligations are settled on the spot with cash and the goods are carried out, not delivered. Of course, the business doesn't operate like that at all with credit cards being the primary payment mechanism and delivery options readily available.

Nevertheless, the name sounds cool.

AI: Filling a Need for Seniors

(Pinterest image)

On Saturday we posted concerns about out-of-control artificial intelligence. Today we note how AI can make a big difference in the mental health of seniors: [bold added]

Research shows that phone calls with an empathetic listener can help reduce loneliness among older adults, leading to improved mental health. In-person interactions are even more effective. But nursing-home residents don’t always get many visits or calls.

The first Meela test phase, involving 23 RiverSpring Living residents, produced promising results, giving hope to the idea that AI can be used for a lot more than workplace efficiency and homework help.

Meela was founded by Josh Sach, a former tech product manager who was inspired to create a solution to the loneliness epidemic after seeing his late father-in-law experience isolation. The name of his companion bot comes from the Hebrew word “mila,” meaning “word.” He and his team listened to more than 2,000 voices before choosing a soothing-sounding, middle-aged voice actress.

Sach declined to say which tech company’s AI model powers Meela, but he said it already had strong safeguards and that his team added additional guardrails to ensure Meela doesn’t give medical, legal or financial advice. While it isn’t intended for clinical mental-health treatment, Meela is designed to deliver cognitive behavioral therapy—validating residents’ feelings and suggesting solutions to problems.

Meela remembers prior conversations with residents, who have to consent to their conversations being recorded and transcribed. Sach says the transcripts are retained for the duration of the account, unless someone requests their deletion. They aren’t available for users or their families. And where applicable, the recordings and transcripts are handled in accordance with HIPAA, a federal patient-protection law, and the care facility’s instructions.

In the first phase, participants’ depression and anxiety levels were measured before talking to Meela and 30 days after. Those with moderate to severe depression or anxiety were found to have demonstrated notable improvements after speaking with Meela at least once a week.

Participants spoke to Meela for an average of 10 minutes at a time, but some talked for more than an hour. Staffers also noticed that study participants were engaging in more social activities after talking to the bot, says Dr. Zachary Palace, medical director of RiverSpring Living’s nursing home.

Part of our church's ministry is to visit nursing homes and engage with residents. Many do not have any visitors and are happy to converse with complete strangers, even for just an hour. AI doesn't get tired, and it's clear that carefully tailored AI can provide regular mental health benefits to our senior citizens.

The Deep Lagoon

It was unusual for the lagoon to be deep enough for water skiing at the beginning of summer, but one speedboat was going back and forth yesterday afternoon. The dog had never seen a skier before and stopped to watch for ten minutes.

It was also deep enough for a pod of pelicans, which is a rare sight in an often-dry area that has no fish. Ducks and geese are common, but these were pelicans, so it was my turn to watch.

We got back to the house after an hour had elapsed. The family said the dog was probably tired after all that walking. I looked at him, and he wagged his tail. I gave him a treat. It would be our secret.

Trinity Sunday 2025

On Trinity Sunday, 2025, I reflected on the changes in my life since Trinity Sunday, 2017. Both my parents were still alive, I had not been diagnosed with any chronic diseases, and I was making travel plans to visit places on my bucket list. Our rector was three years from retirement and gave a sermon about the DC superhero trinity of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. It was a simpler, more frivolous, pre-pandemic time. Below is the post from eight years ago.

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On Trinity Sunday the minister sermonized about the big Three of DC Comics---Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman---whom he followed, er, religiously as a child. (He also rhapsodized about Wonder Woman, which by all accounts is the first great movie of the new "DC Universe.") Well, when we talk about abstract concepts like the Trinity we grab any metaphors that people can relate to.

The minister didn't dwell too long on the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit---in the modern world if you can't explain it in 144 characters or less, why even try---but did say that it was a mystery over which scholars had debated for centuries. Yes, your humble blogger remembers the Sunday School lessons about Trinity--three aspects of the same God, none greater than the other--but that's about the extent of it.

I stopped trying to understand when all references to "Holy Ghost" were changed to "Holy Spirit" throughout the Liturgy in the 1970's. From the comics (see how I brought that full circle) I knew that there was a big difference between a ghost and a spirit; if the church can make such a word change so blithely, I knew deep theology wasn't my forte.

At least they didn't change the great hymn of Trinity Sunday.

Pentecost, 2025

The liturgical color of Pentecost is red,
symbolic of the Holy Spirit's "tongues of fire"

Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 2:

And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Pentecost is often called the church's birthday, when the Holy Spirit came to Earth.

Will the church be around for its 4,000th birthday? Will humanity even exist? I like to think that by then we'll not only have survived but will inhabit other planets and that Christianity will have adapted its theology to accommodate that reality. Deo volente.

Diane Robertson

Diane Robertson and her signature roast pork,
with Jerry Brooks of Hope Lutheran, San Mateo

My friend Diane Robertson passed away on Thursday after a short illness.

I was the coordinator for the church outreach program, and for 20 years Diane cheerfully gave her money and time to the dozen or so activities we supported. She manned the church's booth for the Foster City summer fair, made sandwiches for Sandwiches on Sunday, and bought Christmas presents for immigrant families.

She was one of the stalwarts for Home and Hope, a consortium of Peninsula churches and synagogues that provided emergency housing at their facilities. Diane liked to roast a pork shoulder or ham for the Home and Hope families, and I always went back for seconds of her dish.

She was a retired stewardess (don't call me a flight attendant, she said) for United Airlines, and she was fond of recounting the glory of air travel as it used to be.

Though we grew up thousands of miles apart---me in Hawaii and she in Canada--we found common ground in our humble origins and marveled how good our lives had turned out to be. We also shared a deep gratitude that prompted us to give something back.

Goodbye, my friend, till we meet again.

Good Friday, 2025

The Good Friday service is a meditation on Jesus' death and sacrifice. This evening the chaplain's homily emphasized a topic that I had not heard before: that Jesus taught us how to die.

In this world as his death was coming, Jesus reacted with serenity, truth, courage, and compassion. We are taught a great many things when we are growing up, but many of us are not taught how to respond to pain and suffering, the deaths of our loved ones and how to approach our own deaths.

I see many people in the hospital on their deathbeds. Some are tormented and cannot be comforted unless someone is with them at all times, and even then sometimes that’s not enough. Sometimes nothing helps.

And then there are those who know how to self-soothe and are mindful and are serene in accepting while in great pain and tragic, traumatic circumstances and even if isolated and forgotten by loved ones.

Jesus knew pain, but he also knew how to care for his soul while he was in the middle of it. He practiced self-soothing in a deep spiritual embodied way. He cared for his own heart so that he could continue to give of himself. He did this in many ways. Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. When the pressure grew too much, when the crowds kept coming to see him, when he was low in spirits, Jesus stepped away. He didn’t numb or distract himself. He got quiet and still. Jesus didn’t escape to avoid the world. He withdrew to be refilled with the presence of God.

He was honest when he prayed… In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus doesn’t fake it. He lets them fear the weight of his circumstances. He cries, he sweats blood. When he prays, he speaks truth to the father. He opens his heart completely…

Jesus trusted the bigger picture. He was able to accept and surrender, not using avoidance or distraction. In Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah the servant is not frantic. He is not reactive. He is silent and aware and surrendered, not from fear but from focused concentration. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb that went to the slaughter he had inner clarity in the middle of chaos. “Into your hands I commit my spirit.”

Jesus is in control.

Circumstances allow many of us to come to the realization that our death is imminent and that there's nothing we can do about it. It's a seeming paradox: everything is out of our control when are most helpless, yet we can still be in control. Jesus is the Son of God and part of the Holy Trinity, but in the end he was also a great Teacher

Palm Sunday, 2025

In her homily the lady minister meditated on the highs and lows of Holy Week--Jesus' triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, the betrayals and despair of the Crucifixion, and the joy of the Resurrection, the foundational event of Christianity.

Don't just skip to the happy ending; the journey, not just the destination, is important.

The church's worship area looks especially beautiful. The purple of Lent has given way to Palm Sunday's red, and the green palms and blue-white stained glass festooned the sanctuary with color. Enjoy the journey this week.

Green Shoots

Passing the peace

Your humble blogger is an inveterate optimist. Young families are starting to come (back) to church, and I wonder if a decades-long declining-attendance trend has finally been reversed. Could this be another Great Awakening? America experiences a religious revival every century or so.

I'm also confident that the stock market will rebound, though it's likely not going to happen this week. We underestimate the resilience and adaptabiity of American companies, who will be able to ride out this storm until tariffs are reduced, either through negotiation or pressure from the President's own supporters.

It's been less than one week that the new tariff policy has been in effect, and if someone had said that a Presidential announcement of a non-military nature had erased $6.6 trillion in stock market value in two trading days I wouldn't have believed him.

Tariffs have been called a self-inflicted wound; well, if it could be done by one man then it could be undone by him if the pain becomes unbearable.

Speaking of self-inflicted wounds, I am glad to see that Americans are coming to their senses about decarbonization. The need for energy has escalated dramatically because of the artificial-intelligence boom, and it's futile to decommission clean-burning natural gas turbines while China is bringing on stream two coal-fired plants per week. We'll need the electricity so that our AI and robots can overcome China and other countries' advantages in labor costs.

Amidst the stock market "wreckage" (still above the levels in 2022) I see green shoots.