... like a Santa Francisco bar crawl!
Walked down to the hardware store, and ran into this...
I would have hung around bit was not appropriately dressed.
If I wake up in time. And the Weather is clear. And Twin Peaks is not in the way. Then we might see an interesting sight from our terrace. From the Chron:"Early risers Saturday will see a total eclipse of the moon low in the western sky, and if the Bay Area's clear weather persists, the sight should be spectacular. "The full moon should appear even larger than normal when the eclipse is total because it will be so low in the sky that Earth's atmosphere will magnify it into a blood-red monster," said astronomer Andrew Fraknoi of Foothill College in Los Alto Hills. The partial eclipse will begin at 4:45 a.m. and will become total at 6:05 a.m., Fraknoi said. Totality will last until 6:57 a.m.After totality, however, the moon will be setting and too far below the horizon for Bay Area viewers to watch as it emerges from Earth's shadow. "To watch it all as the eclipse becomes total, you'll need a clear view of the moon as it nears the horizon in the west," Fraknoi said. "Even from my house in San Francisco there's a big hill that will block my view, so I have to climb the hill to watch it."
UPDATE:"U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ruled that the frog population had actually increased in the area in the past 20 years, and that there has only been one confirmed case of a snake killed on the course six years ago.Some of the speakers who attended today's committee hearing in opposition to the proposal cited the judge's ruling and said the environmental impacts of the golf course are overblown.
Others, including Mike Wallach, a San Francisco resident of 25 years, said the course is a historical resource that must be maintained. The course was designed by Alister MacKenzie, who has also designed several world-famous courses, including Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.
"Sharp Park is a gift to the people of San Francisco," Wallach said. "It's a historic landmark by any standard, and doesn't belong to the Board of Supervisors, it belongs to the people."
Several other speakers cited it as one of the few cheap, full-sized golf courses in the area, referring to it by its nickname, "the poor man's Pebble Beach."
Along with opposing viewpoints among the speakers, things got chippy during the hearing between Avalos and fellow committee member Sean Elsbernd, who opposes the plan.
Elsbernd accused Avalos of "gamesmanship" by only calling up supporters of the proposal in the first dozen or so speakers."
"Sharp Park does not belong to the Board of Supervisors and Sharp Park is not a political chip to be disposed of by an ambitious board supervisor.
As a practical matter, common sense informs us that giving away 400 acres of beautiful and valuable coastal park land that belongs to the people of San Francisco is not in the interest of the people of San Francisco.
A vote to give away this historic landmark legacy of the people of San Francisco is nothing less than a betrayal of our City and the past, present, and future citizens who live here. "
Yeah - that's what I wanted to say.
END UPDATE
=================Urgent! Attend Public Hearing Monday, Dec. 5, 10 A.M., S.F. City Hall, RM. 250: Oppose Avalos Ordinance To Close Sharp Park
The long-threatened public hearing on Supervisor Avalos' Close-Sharp Park Golf Course Ordinance, is scheduled for public hearing Monday, Dec. 5, 10 a.m. in Room 250, S.F. City Hall, before the City Operations & Neighborhood Services Committee. (Room 250 is the big legislative chamber at top of the grand staircase).
The Avalos Ordinance would direct the Rec & Park Dept. to offer to close Sharp Park Golf Course and enter exclusive negotiations with the GGNRA to take over Sharp Park. The GGNRA has already announced it will not operate a golf course at Sharp.
NOW is the time for golfers and their friends and families to come to the aid of affordable public golf and the legacy of Alister MacKenzie at Sharp Park.
Bring your friends, family, and foursomes. Be early.
If you plan to attend, PLEASE RSVP via Email by clicking here. Please include your name and phone number.
Spread the word!
Save Sharp Park!!
RSVP: info@sfpublicgolf.com
Possibly the worst single example in the long history of 17th Hole Portraits on this blog.
This one makes up for it. By request from the newbie.
"Federal Judge Susan Illston today issued an Order Denying Plaintiffs' Motion for a Preliminary Injunction at Sharp Park Golf Course. The plaintiffs, "a collection of non-profit conservation groups" led by the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, had sought an order to halt mowing on Holes 9-18 and to halt winter flood-relief pumping at the 80-year-old golf course. Noted architect Robert Trent Jones, Jr. submitted a declaration to Court, saying that if granted, the relief sought by the plaintiffs would effectively mean destruction of the Alister MacKenzie-designed course.
In a 15-page ruling, Judge Illston said she denied the motion because she found that the plaintiffs "failed to establish the likelihood of irreparable harm" to the California red-legged frog or the San Francisco garter snake. Judge Illston, a veteran Federal Judge who last year presided at the Barry Bonds case, heard oral arguments in the Sharp Park case on November 18. Trial in the case is scheduled for July 16, 2012.
To read a copy of Judge Illston's opinion, click here [PDF]."
"John Avalos is advocating giving Sharp Park away to the federal government. This is political suicide, or should be. Where else in the world could a politician run for mayor on a platform of giving away 400 acres of incredibly valuable and beautiful coastal park land that contributes millions in revenue to the city and belongs to the people of that city?
Sharp Park is a unique gem that belongs to the people of San Francisco. We choose to share our park with the Bay Area and the world.
The 80-acre golf course was designed and built by Alister MacKenzie, the game's most important architect. The 400-acre park itself was landscaped by John McLaren, the godfather of San Francisco parks. The park was a gift to the city in 1917 and represents a historic legacy entrusted to the people of San Francisco. The park and golf course are important historic landmarks by any standard.
This civic jewel of a park is a treasure that is our common San Francisco heritage and is a legacy for us to leave to future generations of San Franciscans.
Unless some clueless politician manages to give it away."
A spectacular rainbow on display from our terrace this afternoon.“One can enjoy a rainbow without necessarily forgetting the forces that made it” - Mark Twain
“After fifteen minutes nobody looks at a rainbow” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high, There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby” - Lyman Frank Baum
"My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky.” William Wordsworth
“If I traveled to the end of the rainbow - As Dame Fortune did intend, Murphy would be there to tell me - The pot's at the other end” - Bert Whitney
“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” - Dolly Parton
... I had the Beggar's Banquet for lunch at the Market Bar right across the Embarcadero at the Ferry Building. Soup of the day was clam chowder.
Recommended. I raise my glass of draft Drake's Amber Ale in solidarity to my fellow 99 percenters across the street.
After The San Francisco Examiner detailed complaints from Ferry Building merchants about the Justin Herman Plaza camp, the Building Owners and Managers Association of San Francisco shot off a letter Friday to Lee demanding action. “I am aware that you have received a number of communications from members of BOMA citing the vandalism, theft, public urination and defecation, physical altercations, business interruption, etc. that the public has had to endure with increasing frequency... The right to public assembly and ‘free speech’ is NOT a license for such irresponsible, uncivil, unhealthy behavior — and it must not be tolerated.”
