Childrens is Learning

That headline appeared in my local paper's website a while back. It refers to a blog post by some guy who ranked a bunch of major cities by college graduate density. Now maybe the appalling grammar and quote marks around "smartest" are intentional. Just one paper's dig at a very progressive city that's become a favorite conservative whipping post.

Unfortunately, my local paper is actually The San Francisco Chronicle. So much for smarts.

Naughty Bits

I was in my beloved San Francisco last weekend, taking the boy on a Muni ride. He doesn't really care where we go, just as long as we're on some form of light rail. I don't really care either, just as long as I have hand sanitizer.

So we're on the N-Judah rolling through the Castro when we pass Out of the Closet. For the uninitiated, OotC is a thrift store operated by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. They describe themselves as "the world's most fabulous thrift store." There in the OotC display window was a fabulous display of racy and risqué apparal for the sexed-up set. You know, assless chaps, leather bindings, and, the most eye-catching male mannequin leaning back, hips thrust out and wearing only a sutdded leather thong (and me without my camera).

Now, I'm all for consenting adults to get into any sort of kinky mischief they want to. It beats the hell out of violence and hatred. And I don't even care that my 5 year old boy rolled past this window display. He didn't even see it and if he had it would have been meaningless to him. No, the thing that really gave me creepy heebie jeebies is the idea that somebody out there may be willing to purchase used thongs and chaps from a thrift store.

In the Next World

I'm a fan of cemeteries. Many people have no concept of how a person could actually like cemeteries and I get that. But to me, they're amazingly peaceful places full of art. Last spring, I had the opportunity to visit the Columbarium in San Francisco. Among a century's worth of memorials, I came across the ashes of A. Buck. What good is a buck when you're deceased? What does it mean when a buck moves on? Kinda makes me wonder.