Halloween 2016

Even allowing for an increase in trick o'treaters from last year's thirty-four (34), the bulk bag of 120 wrapped candies should have been more than enough. The door bell began ringing at 6 p.m.. I dispensed three pieces to each ghost and goblin, but quickly cut back to two apiece as I was answering the door every 5 minutes.

By the end of the evening we had 65 visitors and all the candy was gone. Well, better them than me. (Scientists now claim that sugar is "toxic." Like tackle football, Halloween candy for kids will likely be severely restricted in a few years.)

Counting for a Lot

The Grand Scheduler was kind this year. October 30th was our last Sandwiches on Sunday for 2016, and we would not be due to serve lunch at the Fair Oaks Community Center until 2017. (In most years we would be assigned to Thanksgiving weekend or the weekend between Christmas and New Year’s Day---not that there’s anything wrong with that!)

Our cooks prepared a lunch of baked chicken and rice, salad, doughnuts, and bread. There were 30 people waiting in line at the opening, and the count eventually grew to 50. We had prepared enough food for 80-100 diners, and there were no leftovers. Lunch-goers helped themselves to second and third helpings and took home the rest in plastic containers that we had saved from restaurants and grocery stores.

For over 13 years our Episcopal parish has been one of five churches on the rotation. (The lead sponsor, St. Pius Catholic Church, makes up bag lunches every week for diners to take home--hence the name Sandwiches on Sunday.) It may not seem like much, but to some members of our community being able to count on a hot meal and a bag lunch every Sunday at noon, rain or shine, counts for a lot.

Close to the Breaking Point

Stuck for hours on the streets of San Francisco (SF Gate)

Friday morning's Bay Bridge big-rig crash was in the counter-commute (SF to Oakland) direction, but the transportation system is so easily disruptable that streets and highways quickly gridlocked. Northbound 101 feeds into the blocked eastbound lower deck and backed up for miles, forcing Peninsula commuters to exit early.

San Mateo Hwy 92 crash (SM Daily Journal photo)

Bay Bridge drivers from the East Bay in turn were stymied by the clogged surface streets, with some drivers claiming that it took 45 minutes to traverse one block.

Meanwhile, close to where we live, another big rig crash closed the major East-West artery Highway 92 for three hours.

If you can make ends meet by quitting, retiring or taking a lower paying job closer to home, do it. The aggravation ain't worth it.

The Truth Hurts

Lately I've been awaking in the middle of the night....

(Screen shot from GoComics)

Government in the Dark: A Good Thing?

A vibrant nightlife is a mark of a thriving city and brings in tourists, jobs, the arts, and restaurants. It also creates problems that inconvenience residents. Management of cities-than-never-sleep requires special skills, hence the creation of the positions of Night Mayor in Amsterdam and Night Czar in London.

The night mayor’s job is to breathe life into cities and to create a space for culture to flourish after offices close.

Amsterdam Night Mayor Mirik Milan:

Mr Milan argues that every city larger than 200,000 people would benefit from a night mayor, and that it might help mid-sized cities hold on to young creative people. “People move to the big city because there are more jobs, but also because it’s more fun,” he says. “They are not coming to London for the weather.”

Ed Lee: not a party animal (Examiner photo)

San Francisco is one of the top destination cities in the world, but its nightlife isn't what it used to be. San Franciscans are fond of the current mayor, but nightlife management is probably not in his wheelhouse.

A San Francisco Night Mayor: now that's one government expansion that might draw enthusiastic bipartisan support.

Every Cat Has Its Day

Cat shelter built so strays would come back. (WSJ photo)

Sometimes circumstances are sufficiently dire that one considers actions that run contrary to one's principles, for example a pacifist buying a gun to protect her family, or an anti-drug crusader dispensing free needles to reduce the spread of disease.

Not on the same level as life and death, but important to sufferers, is the plague of rats that Chicagoans are experiencing and the solution that seems to be working [bold added]:

Chicago is awash in rats. A mild winter last year allowed broods of baby rats to survive, leading to an explosion of the critters, terrorizing residents as they run around their yards and dumpsters. By September, there had been 27,000 rat complaints, a 40% increase from 2015.

This is turning the alley cat, once considered a rabid urban menace threatening small children and pets, into a prized possession.

Comments:
1) Our former neighbor two houses away used to let her pet cat roam free at night. It kept the whole neighborhood rat free, but now that she's moved away we've sighted the occasional roof rat (thankfully, not at our house).
2) We've been longtime supporters of the Homeless Cat Network (HCN), which traps, neuters, and returns feral cats to the wild. HCN also feeds the cats in their Bay habitat and has a perhaps-surprising ally in the Audubon Society due to the reduced killing of Bay wildfowl.
3) It's in a way unfortunate that HCN has been so successful---we have no cats to export to Chicago.

O, to be Young Again

LinkedIn regularly e-mails a list of Bay Area jobs that its computer thinks---yes, I'm anthropomorphizing---I'm qualified to do. (This particular e-mail didn't filter the list.)

The number of opportunities causes me to wish that I were 30 years younger. OTOH, I'd probably have a hard time affording the rent.

An "Enlightening Election", But Keep Your Perspective

Discussions often end up by calling the other side "Hitler" (Godwin's Law)

Time columnist Joel Stein thinks that the disgust that many feel over the 2016 Presidential campaign is misplaced. Discussions over defense, tax, health care, etc. policies may be calm and rational, but they're also boring. [bold added]

this time we’re addressing core issues that divide us: racism, sexual assault, Islamophobia, immigration, elitism, anti-Semitism, authoritarianism and whether to require drug tests before political debates.

(Okay, the last was an amusing aside.) Joel Stein says that historian Douglas Brinkley agrees with him:

“This has been a hellbroth of stew that’s been tacky and tawdry, but the reason a lot is coming out is because we’ve been avoiding the big conversations,” he said when I called to talk about the election. Now, he said, we’re discussing what our culture should be like, how unfiltered we want to be, if we want to engage other countries and whether our institutions are trustworthy.

Therapists say that airing our differences is healthy, but experience shows that's not always true. Long-time married couples know that it's often better to back down or remain silent than to risk breaking the relationship.

Speak your mind if you must, but do so in a manner that doesn't inflame people who disagree. After Election Day you will have to go back to working with some colleagues who voted for the other person. Your vote really didn't matter, but your job, marriage, and friendships do.

A Lout and a Liar

Archbishop Charles Chaput

The Philadelphia Archbishop's take on the election: [bold added]

a friend describes the choice facing voters in November this way: A vulgar, boorish lout and disrespecter of women, with a serious impulse control problem; or a scheming, robotic liar with a lifelong appetite for power and an entourage riddled with anti-Catholic bigots.

Comments:

1) Hey, nobody's perfect.

2) What happened to hate the sin, love the sinner? (In other words she's a liar is a greater condemnation than she lies.)

3) It wasn't me, I'm only quoting a "friend."

4) Can't wait till it's over.

If You Have to Axle, You Can't Afford It

Brandon S.: home is where the gearbox is (SF Gate pic)

Factually correct, but misleading headline:

South Bay techie says he saved $100k while living in his truck for 16 months.

Even in the current bubble, the rent saved should be around $1,500 per month, not the $6,000+ that the headline implies. What he really said: [bold added]

"The going rate for a one-bedroom studio apartment in South Bay is anywhere from $1,500 up, so a minimum of 16 months x $1,500/month = $24,000 in rent. But since I'm also living more simply, I've avoided having to buy random furniture and home-fixings that I couldn't care less about, and that's much harder to quantify. In total, my investment nest-egg just passed the $100,000 mark a few weeks ago, but where it would be if I hadn't opted for the box truck is hard to nail down."

People who live out of their cars do so by necessity. "Brandon S." does so voluntarily. The fact that he has socked away $6,000 per month indicates a healthy income. He's a Google engineer and 24 years old. And girls....he's still single.

Come Back When It's Up To My Neck

(Image from BBC News)

I plant myself at Starbucks a couple of times a week; this Hong Kong gentleman, however, is growing roots. Even Typhoon Haima doesn't disturb his morning routine of the newspaper and a cuppa joe. Betcha he's a Gold Status member.

Or maybe he's just being rational. Who wants to wade in the water with all that electricity crackling about?

Hey, Ah Sook, are you done with the sports?

Advice from a Champion

Eddie DeBartolo introduced Charles Haley at his 2015 HOF induction

Local sports talk radio station KNBR interviewed Hall-of-Fame linebacker and five-time Super Bowl champion (three with the Cowboys, two with the 49ers) Charles Haley about his new book Fear No Evil. Not one for fancy erudition, Mr. Haley gets his point across.

Q: You must be dismayed at what you're seeing on the field. Why aren't they [the 49ers] winning, Charles?

A: Winning is a tradition. Winning is an attitude. I tell the guys, I know the secret to winning. Do you know the secret to winning? (pause)
Do your effin' job and win!

(Yes, he had the presence of mind to say "effin'" on AM radio.)

Charles Haley was known both for his tremendous talent and wild bouts of behavior (one of the most highly publicized--and tamer--episodes was urinating on a teammate's car). After football he was diagnosed with and received treatment for bipolar disorder. He now coaches, teaches, and engages in charity work.

From his Hall of Fame induction speech:

My life spiraled out of control for years, for years, but today, guys, I am getting back into the locker room, to my teammates, and tell them guys the mistakes that I've made, and that the only way that you can grow is that you've got to ask for help.

I walked into the league a 22 year old man with a 16 year old inside of me screaming for help, and I would not ask for it. I would not ask for that help. But today, guys, I take my medicine every day, and I try to inspire others to do the same, and that's because I finally listened and thank you.

What Charles Haley did during his playing days was impressive, what he did after is inspirational.

Stop It Because There's No Going Back

Whenever prices rise rapidly in an important market (e.g., housing, medical care, gasoline) one may expect to hear a call for price controls. And so it is that five midsize Bay Area cities, Burlingame, San Mateo, Mountain View, Alameda, and Richmond have rent control on the ballot on November 8th.

At the root of the issue is that there isn’t nearly enough housing for all the new jobs. Between 2008 and 2015, the four counties that make up the heart of the region added 400,000 jobs, while permits were issued for just 86,000 new housing units.

Rents for an average apartment in the San Jose region have jumped 37% in the past five years to more than $2,700 a month, according to research firm Axiometrics.

Rent control has been debated in the United States for nearly one hundred years, and I'll spare you, dear reader, a rehashing of the arguments pro and con (I'm con, by the way, though I do have sympathy for and would like to help some renters).

There are some significant exemptions in the San Mateo proposal:

Single-family homes, condominiums and owner-occupied duplexes as well as [those with secondary units where the owner occupies either the primary or secondary unit] are exempt from the proposed law.

If approved, the law would not apply to any future developments or new housing. Per the Costa-Hawkins Act, all apartment buildings constructed after Feb. 1, 1995, would not be subject to the proposed rent stabilization measures; however, residents of existing multi-unit dwellings would receive protection against being evicted without cause.

Despite its limited applicability, these initial rent control measures are the camel's nose under the tent. Rent-control bureaucracies will be created, and regulations will be issued. From historical experience bureaucracies and regulations only expand and never go away.

The examples that engender the most sympathy--elderly and/or disabled renters who are "marked to market" after their leases expire--deserve help. It's far better to render means-tested assistance directly to these groups than to promulgate rules to a diverse and dynamic market (For example, rules will limit rent increases on some tenants who are wealthier than their landlords).

Besides, there are signs that a real-estate slowdown is approaching.

Price Pique

New appliances...but $4,600 a month?

We could not believe how much landlords were rumored to be charging, so at the beginning of summer we decided to check out new apartment buildings in Foster City. The rumors were false: the rents were much higher than we expected.

The two-bedroom we walked through had state-of-the-art electronics and appliances, but $4,600 a month!?! Sure, it had a nice gym, pool, and rec room, along with secured lockers for Amazon and UPS deliveries, but still...the daily cost was $150, which not that long ago was the tariff for a nice hotel room in the City.

Update: maybe the market is cooling. The website popup now advertises six weeks of free rent (probably for a one-year lease).

No Vision

One of the strange aspects of this political season is that the economy, jobs, and government deficits are afterthoughts in the national conversation. The most likely reason--aside from the pull of talking about emotional topics and celebrity personalities--is that the candidates and their experts don't really know what to do. The usual tools, i.e., government spending, tax cuts, low interest rates, haven't worked. Like peace in the Middle East, economic growth has proved elusive no matter who's been in charge.

Some say that this is a return to the old normal. The long post-World War II boom was super-normal, the result of a special confluence of factors: [bold added]

The workforce everywhere became vastly more educated. As millions of laborers shifted from tending sheep and hoeing potatoes to working in factories and construction sites, they could create far more economic value. New motorways boosted productivity in the transportation sector by letting truck drivers cover longer distances with larger vehicles. Faster ground transportation made it practical, in turn, for farms and factories to expand to sell not just locally but regionally or nationally, abandoning craft methods in favor of machinery that could produce more goods at lower cost. Six rounds of tariff reductions brought a massive increase in cross-border trade, putting even stronger competitive pressure on manufacturers to become more efficient.

The initial wave of technology adoption created jobs, but now technology is inexorably grinding them away.

What some economists now call “secular stagnation” might better be termed “ordinary performance.”

The advent of genius machines will render unnecessary the skills of two-thirds of the workforce. In other words, Average is Over:

America is dividing itself in two. At the top will be 10% to 15% of high achievers, the "Tiger Mother" kids if you like, whose self-motivation and mastery of technology will allow them to roar away into the future. Then there will be everyone else, slouching into an underfunded future of lower economic expectations, shantytowns and an endless diet of beans.

For the record, your humble blogger does not subscribe to this bleak vision. Seemingly under our noses a new space age is dawning.

Humanity may currently be viewed as superfluous, redundant, and inferior (to intelligent machines), but as they migrate to the stars 7-10 billion human beings are each unique, irreplaceable, and valuable in an infinite universe. Cheers!

167th Diocesan Convention

L to R: Rev. Joseph Peters-Matthews, David Franquist, Christoper Hayes, Rt. Rev. Marc Andrus

The 167th Diocesan Convention (October 14-15, 2016) was devoid of true argument. To be sure, speeches displayed passion, but since everyone was in agreement it was largely preaching to the choir.

The Episcopal Church is a religious organization, but it is like other non-profits in that it must have an annual meeting to listen to reports, approve budgets, elect officers, and vote on resolutions. Of course, at Convention there's also worshipping, singing, praying, and sermonizing, but those are adornments. Without the legal requirements, IMHO, we probably wouldn't have this large a gathering of laity and clergy. How do I know this? In past years no official business was conducted on the Friday portion of Convention and was much less well attended; it's a hassle for the majority who don't live in San Francisco to head into town on a Friday.

Hard to read, so I just listened.

Jottings:

The 167th Convention - I wonder what event in 1849 resulted in the Episcopal Church having sufficient numbers to form a Diocese.

The "Diocese of California" encompasses only 6 counties--Marin, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, San Francisco, and Santa Clara--out of California's 58. You get naming privileges when you were there first.

This was the first paperless Convention. Binders full of documents have been replaced by PDF files.

Putting the hymns on Facebook or Twitter ("search for hashtag diocal167") was taking electronic downloading too far, though. The majority either gave up looking or found music too hard to read on tiny smartphone screens.

In this rancorous political season the Church leadership asked everyone to pray for reconciliation. Meanwhile, one lady asked the Convention to vote for the anti-gun violence resolution now in case a "vile Supreme Court" results from the elections.

One of the highlights of the weekend was Friday night's sermon by the Bishop of Cuba, Griselda Delgado del Carpio. Her mystical style was well-suited to the theme of caring for the earth.

It rained. Hallelujah.

The Pain from the Rain is Our Gain

Before leaving for SF, I set out the splash block

The drought had frayed everyone's nerves, not to mention their formerly green lawns, so the weekend's storm was as welcome as it was surprising. We had heard it before---wet weather was coming--but more often than not the drizzles fizzled.

My umbrella, unused for four years, fell apart when I opened it on Market Street. Hair soaked like Gene Kelly's, I nevertheless had a glorious feeling.

At the Fairmont

After morning meetings in the Financial District, I headed up the hill to the annual meeting; it was convention time for the Episcopal Diocese of California (last year's reflection here).

There were a couple of hours to kill, so I took shelter from the season's first rain in the lobby of the Fairmont Hotel.

The Fairmont still is the place to see and be seen, with beautiful people coming and going throughout the day.

The description is not meant pejoratively. No one was flashy; the typical dress was expensive California casual, and most were thin, tanned, and moved with quiet elegance.

My middle-class neighborhood on the Peninsula is only a few miles south, but it's a world away.

Counter-Intuitive Driving

Everyone knows from experience that one driver can cause a traffic jam. The extreme example is a bad accident during peak periods, when traffic is delayed for many hours.

(WSJ Graphic)

But the opposite is also true: [bold added]

An individual driver, by preventing bottlenecks and maintaining a steady speed, can sometimes single-handedly ease or break up a traffic jam.

The techniques are simple, though some of them—such as leaving a large gap between your car and the one in front and freely letting other drivers cut in—feel counterintuitive to most drivers.

The approach is common-sense but requires the sublimation of territoriality ("it's my lane"), impatience, and pride ("aggressive" driving is still a complimentary phrase). Also, un-jamming methods are futile when the number of cars is overwhelming.

According to Seattle engineer William Beaty,

His techniques won’t work if you’re already locked in bumper-to-bumper traffic and can’t find anywhere to open a gap, Mr. Beaty says. Also, some congestion is irreducible, when the volume of traffic exceeds the capacity of the road.

A couple more comments, if one wants to adopt this method of driving:

1) Allow the gap to open in front, but don't drive so slowly that cars behind you are always changing lanes to pass. The risk of an accident increases as they cut in front of left-lane speeders.

2) When your frustration builds, do a quick thought experiment: imagine the potential cost in $$$ and/or bodily injury by driving aggressively and measure that against the potential time savings, normally a few minutes. It's a sobering comparison, so relax, breathe, and pity the Type-A drivers who are damaging their health, whether or not they get into an accident.

A Surprise Nonetheless

California is one of the states with the strictest gun control laws (see graphic below), and anti-gun sentiment is strongest among coastal redoubts like the Peninsula.

Your humble blogger had to look twice at the display in the Foster City Costco. First, that was a lot of inventory. Second, the big-box retailer only sells products for which there is brisk demand.

This strange political year has been filled with unexpected revelations about our fellow citizens. Ammo boxes at Costco may not have been the biggest surprise, but it was a surprise nonetheless.

Graphic from Slate.com

It's the Law to Stall Progress

At one of my favorite holes-in-the-wall in the Sunset District the signage on the Men's and Women's restrooms has been changed.

They're getting a jump on the new law. Two weeks ago Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill requiring "that businesses and governments post non-gender-specific signs on single-occupant restrooms by March 1, 2017."

There is a beneficial side-effect to the new signage: greater efficiency. Often I've observed ladies waiting outside "their" restroom while the Men's room was unoccupied. Everyone can now use either restroom, and overall wait times should go down. Progress.

Shooting the NBC Messenger--But They Do Deserve It

At the 2nd debate (ABC News)

Donald Trump has a snowball's chance of being the next President; I suppose that's still a probability greater than zero, so we'll have to wait until November 8th to be absolutely sure. He has only himself to blame for the lack of discipline, the ad hominem attacks, etc. etc. But the nail in his coffin was last week's release of a vulgar 2005 video soundtrack, recorded long before he ran for President and ironically while he was still a Democrat.

NBC sat on the video for 11 years. Clearly they knew what they had; the content was explosive and could fatally wound his candidacy. If NBC News purported to be any kind of news organization, it would have published this information when Mr. Trump began campaigning, long before Mr. Trump had won the nomination. He wouldn't have gotten far, and the Republicans would have fielded a much more credible, seasoned Presidential nominee.

Mrs. Clinton might have still beaten Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Ted Cruz, Scott Walker, or any candidate other than Donald Trump, but the country is measurably poorer for not only having a choice of a better Republican nominee but also a more enlightened discussion about the future. For not having this opportunity I do blame NBC. Such gamesmanship would be expected from political partisans but not from a news organization. I guess they really are Democratic operatives with bylines.

[Addendum: Wall Street Journal -- NBC Plays Defense After Trump Recording Surfaces.
The focus in the WSJ article is the impact on the career of Today host Billy Bush, Mr. Trump's interlocutor on the controversial recording. Sounds like a misdirect to me--the real consequence was the torpedoing of the whole GOP nominating process.]

Before the Fall

Jennifer Weiner, Princeton '91

The Wall Street Journal interviews six "luminaries" about making---and recovering from---mistakes.

I was particularly struck by writer Jennifer Weiner's reflections on one of the deadly sins, pride ("arrogance"), that on rare occasions troubles your humble blogger:

Arrogance is a mistake that many people make when they’re younger. I went to Princeton and graduated summa cum laude—I thought I’d be one of those 22-year-old hot young things with a book deal. But my first job out of college was as an education reporter at this small daily paper in central Pennsylvania. Part of my job was typing the lunch menus for five school districts. Every Monday, I’d be typing, ‘Hot Dog in Bun, Milk.’ I was so mad—I wanted desperately to be in New York City working at a magazine. But, honest to God, it taught me humility. I was in a different part of the country outside of my comfort zone; I had to find stories to tell. I couldn’t be snotty about who I thought was interesting and who wasn’t. In retrospect, I’m so glad that I was 31 and not 21 when my first book came out, because I would not have handled it well.

She learned in ten years what took me thirty.

The Protestant Ethic in a Fortune Cookie

"He is the Mark Zuckerberg of Guns"

(WSJ photo)

18-year-old Kai Kloepfer

has spent the past four years designing a handgun with a fingerprint reader built into the grip, and he deferred his acceptance to MIT after winning a grant from the Smart Tech Challenges Foundation in 2014. His startup, Biofire, is just a few months from a live-firing prototype, which, assuming it works, will be the first gun to unlock like an iPhone. [bold added]

Young Mr. Kloepfer has spent years designing a gun that not only looks and feels like a regular Glock 22 but also addresses the concerns that caused previous smart-gun prototypes to fail: speed of activation, reliability, and battery life.

When you pick up the Biofire gun, it wakes up from a low-power mode and activates the microprocessor and sensor. Processing your print requires roughly a second and a half; Kloepfer says he can get the delay down to less than half a second with more work on the software. Assuming your fingerprint is a match, the circuitry releases an internal trigger lock. As long as your middle finger remains in place, the pistol is ready to fire.

The firearms industry is wary of the technology. What if a smart gun can be shut down by a hacker (government or otherwise)?

There’s no way to access the tech in Kloepfer’s gun without taking it apart. The USB plug is just for charging; it doesn’t connect to the internet or even a smartphone app and can’t be controlled remotely. The gun is a “single-purpose application,” he says—more like a toaster than a smartphone—that makes it much, much more difficult to hack or for the government to control.

Another objection: government will mandate the technology once it comes to market, just as once-optional seat belts and motorcycle helmets became required. (This is not pro-gun paranoia: the New Jersey Childproof Handgun Law requires the use of smart locks on new guns within three years after the technology is introduced.)

IMHO, the gun lobby is not thinking strategically. Two-thirds of Americans don't own guns, and the reasons are not necessarily ideological. If safety concerns could be reduced through technology, that might bring in thousands, perhaps millions of new customers, some of whom would pay membership dues. Dealing with the lawmakers could be complicated, but that obstacle has been managed before. Don't resist the technology, embrace it.

Cracking It Open: Not All It Was Cracked Up to Be

Sergei Skorobogatov (BusinessInsider)

Remember the brouhaha over the FBI trying to force Apple to unlock a terrorist's iPhone? (Though there were only 10,000 possible four-digit codes, ten false tries ran the risk of wiping the iPhone's memory.)

In March it was revealed that the "FBI paid under $1 million to unlock San Bernardino iPhone". (An earlier estimate had been $1.3 million.) It now looks like the FBI overpaid. Cambridge University professor Sergei Skorobogatov performed the feat using equipment costing less than $100 [bold added]:

NAND mirroring makes a copy of a phone’s memory in its undisturbed state. Using an iPhone of his own, Dr Skorobogatov was able repeatedly to overwrite its memory with the copy he had made before he began his guesses. This caused the instrument to forget that he had made any guesses at all, avoiding any temporary lockouts and ensuring that the data would never be wiped clean. That, in turn, permitted him to brute-force the PIN six guesses at a time, resetting the phone to its original condition between each batch of guesses.

Dr. Skorobogatov first came to popular attention in 2012 when he claimed that a "backdoor" had been built into U.S. military systems' computer chips made in China. These claims were denied by the defense industry. His work, including the iPhone demonstration noted above, since that episode has only enhanced his credibility, while U.S. government systems have proved to be wildly insecure.

On the other hand, why should we believe a Russian-surnamed English guy over the American government?

Peak Bay Area Sports

Signing autographs at Lefty's in 2012.

Our young Giants fan got his autograph in 2012.

We watched him hit his first grand slam home run in 2014. (He hit two in 2014, more grand slams than Yankee future Hall-of-Fame shortstop Derek Jeter hit in his entire career.)

Before last night's Wild Card single-elimination game against the Mets, Madison Bumgarner was already one of the best postseason pitchers in baseball history.

After he completed the shut out against the Mets, baseball observers could only marvel:

Bumgarner showed again that he absolutely owns the postseason. This four-hitter was not even his first in a wild-card game; he also did it in 2014 in Pittsburgh....In his last nine postseason games, Bumgarner is 6-0 with a 0.79 E.R.A., and that very big [five-inning save against the Royals in Game 7 of the 2014 World Series].

With the Warriors and Sharks about to begin a season where both teams are expected to be championship contenders, with the Giants entering a playoff run, and with all-time great players like Madison Bumgarner and Stephen Curry playing for home teams, Bay Area sports fans have never had more to look forward to (and please, don't let's talk about the 49ers).

As Mother Said, Don't Slouch, Don't Mumble

Not very warm and fuzzy (Wisdom Times image)

CEO's make a lot of money. On the other hand they're scrutinized more closely than ever, and mistakes are often recorded for posterity. They have to be "on" all the time. And that's over and above getting the facts right and making good decisions.

New research shows that striking the right balance of power and authority with warmth and empathy is essential. If executives’ body language conveys too many power signals, they appear aloof. But too much warmth can prevent them from setting themselves apart and commanding the attention of others.

Some of the public speaking tips per the WSJ article are:

Keep your head straight.

Eye contact: not too little or not too much and don't lower your eyes (take it from me, Asians have a hard time with this one).

Point with your hand, not your index finger.

"Move around on stage...to convey energy and engage audiences."

Personally, I like moving-while-talking, because it means that the speaker does not need a teleprompter and knows the subject matter cold. For video productions, though, unless you have a cameraman who tracks the speaker, stifle excess, distracting movement.

As looking good becomes ever more important, the hardest part, IMHO, is the discipline to get enough sleep and hit the gym. Too bad they never taught me that in business school.

Let's Roll

News we oldsters can genuinely use - Martial-Arts Move May Lessen Impact of a Fall on Hip. Researchers analyzed seven falling techniques:

Martial-arts rolling, which involves bending the knees and rotating slightly backward during a fall, was the only technique to significantly reduce impact on the hip.

Perhaps stating the obvious: if one has the reflexes to perform the move, one is unlikely to lose one's balance in the first place. Also, it seems to this observer that the move could endanger the back of one's head. On the other hand, I do know several people for whom injuries from a fall were devastating, and here's hoping that this information results in fewer hip fractures.

Blessing of the Animals, 2016

Threatening clouds and stiff breezes dissuaded pet owners from venturing out, and there was only sparse attendance at today's Blessing of the Animals.

No matter, every two- and four-legged creature that did show up today knew what it was like to give and receive love, and blessings were conferred upon their bond.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace, Where there is hatred, let me sow love. --Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

[Update - 10/3/2016: the service held at the mother ship (ark?), also known as Grace Cathedral, blesses a large variety of animals:

Former Dean Alan Jones led Grace Cathedral’s Blessing of the Animals for 24 years. He blessed snakes, birds, cats and even San Francisco Police Department horses, which got spooked by the organs.]

You Are Your Aspirations

If "Christian" means aspiring to be "Christ-like" , do Marxists want to be Marx-like? From a new biography of Karl Marx:

Marx was often impossible to deal with, as one of his fellow radicals wrote: “Everyone who contradicted him, he treated with abject contempt; every argument that he did not like he answered either with biting scorn at the unfathomable ignorance that had prompted it, or with opprobrious aspersions upon the motives of him who had advanced it.”

If Marxists are trying to be like their hero, I'd say many of them are succeeding. (Tip: practice saying "middle America" or "bourgeois values" with dripping scorn and you're halfway there.)