Addendum to the Iraq War

Angelika In San Francisco, everything was turned upside down. After Ari Fleischer, the now-resigned White House Press Secretary, casually informed the public with a brief statement on March 19 that the first bombs had fallen in Iraq, thousands of war opponents took to the streets in San Francisco the next day. Civil disobedience was the order of the day. Groups of demonstrators disrupted traffic at major intersections with sit-ins and human chains, starting at 6 a.m. in the Financial District. For two days, the city came to a halt.

On the first day of protests, the police in San Francisco temporarily arrested 1,300 people. Temporary prisons were set up at the piers along the Bay. On Market Street, the main traffic artery through downtown, there was no way through, not even for public transportation. During the evening rush hour, the demonstrators eventually tried to get onto the Bay Bridge. The Bay Bridge connects San Francisco and Oakland, and even on normal days, traffic moves slowly on it. Pedestrians and cyclists are not allowed on the bridge.

The police, for their part, now formed human chains to block the protesters from accessing the bridge, fully aware that just a handful of people on the bridge would be enough to bring traffic to a standstill for hours. This time, the police prevailed. The activists wanted to disrupt normal life in San Francisco while innocent civilians in Iraq were facing the consequences of war. I think there’s something to that argument. Of course, there were also complaints from frustrated drivers who didn’t find any of it amusing. Our mayor, Willie Brown, was outraged, pointing out that this kind of civil disobedience cost the city of San Francisco $400,000 a day due to the increased police presence. The protesters, however, were unfazed, since that’s the price of a single Tomahawk missile, thousands of which were being fired daily in Iraq.

Support Our Troops

Now I have to admit that blocking intersections was a bit too risky for Michael and me, because being temporarily arrested isn't ideal for a Green Card holder at the moment. However, we were there in person at the first peace demonstration after the outbreak of the war.

Criticism of Israel

Michael By the way, I am surprised that the American army is allowed to mislead young adults on television with sensational commercials (see Rundbrief 03/2002). I would strongly advocate for requiring at least fine print at the end of such commercials, stating something like "Even though this all looks very great, there is still the possibility that you might end up dead in a body bag" -- similar to how cigarette manufacturers nowadays disclose the truth so that no one can sue them later.

At the protest, interestingly, the radical left repeatedly criticized America's support for Israel sharply. And, we could hardly believe our ears, a few times the speakers praised the fact that an alternative grocery store called "Rainbow Groceries" had banned all Israeli products from its shelves in protest. Corresponding bumper stickers are also becoming more common, such as "Stop Israel's Apartheid," or similar slogans, but mostly on rather low-quality cars typically driven by a politically left-leaning group of people. Thus, the circle between Möllemann and communism is completed -- only in America!

Demolition work on Highway 101

Michael It's hardly remembered now, but the "Loma Prieta" earthquake fourteen years ago caused parts of a highway that then ran halfway through San Francisco to collapse. At that time, Highway 101 led into the city, but the structures supported by thick concrete pillars could not withstand the forces of nature. Bam! As soon as the highway became impassable, residents began to ask themselves: Hey, do we even need it? This sparked a heated debate between frustrated commuters, who had to take side streets, and the city residents.

To put it briefly, the dispute lasted fourteen years. For that long, semi-derelict highway structures were standing around in San Francisco. What remained was a completely confusing and asymmetrical expressway network, where once you took an exit, you couldn't get back on because the corresponding entrance was missing. Or vice versa. Now the city has decided to tear down the highway remnants and not rebuild them; instead, palm trees are to be planted. This calls for creativity in navigation and intensive studying of city maps if you want to get ahead!

San Francisco Views: SoMa

Michael Every year, millions of tourists come to San Francisco, amusingly always visiting the same attractions: they go to Fisherman's Wharf, eat a hollowed-out sourdough bread bowl filled with clam chowder, and get startled by the homeless man who, for years, has been startling people by jumping out from behind a bush>http://www.anvari.org/photos/200305c/Bush_Man_4.html>jumping out from behind a bush.

Then they take a look at the seals in front of the Wharf and head over to Alcatraz, if there are still tickets available. With the Cable Car, they go back to Union Square, where all the department stores are located. They buy a pair of Levi's jeans in the store on Powell, where the salespeople now even speak German, and stroll into the Virgin MegaStore to purchase a CD that would actually be cheaper in Germany. Finally, they squeeze into the Hard Rock Cafe to add a "Hard Rock Cafe San Francisco" shirt to their T-shirt collection at home. That's all well and good, but it's far from everything San Francisco has to offer.

As a tourist, you naturally don't have the time, perspective, or coolness to explore the more quirky neighborhoods -- and that's why, starting today, the newsletter is introducing the new series "San Francisco Views," in which the intrepid reporters fearlessly comb through the lesser-known districts and present some unusual perspectives of this fascinating city.

Today: "South of Market," the neighborhood south of Market Street -- or SoMa, as it's called by the natives. However, just to reiterate: Don't get the idea of calling San Francisco "Frisco" -- it's so frowned upon that if someone tells me they've driven into "Frisco," I innocently ask for an explanation of what they mean by that.

The SoMa is a warehouse district with some medium-sized industry. It borders a harbor area and the somewhat more residential "Potrero Hill" neighborhood. Wandering around on foot in SoMa can be a bit tiring because the cross-street distances are much larger than in the downtown area. However, it's incredibly fun to ride a bike around the flat district, especially in the evening of a sunny day, as the light is incredibly beautiful then.

I'm not entirely sure what fascinates me so much about these run-down low-wage joints. These unadorned industrial buildings seem to remind me of something--probably the fact that I often worked as a laborer in such companies during my school days. Or perhaps they remind me of Bukowski's stories, where he got by as a dockworker and slaughterhouse employee.

During the dot-com boom of the late nineties, it was incredibly trendy to live in SoMa. Yuppies rented lofts, which were factories converted into apartments. Alongside the yuppies came fancy shops and excellent, albeit expensive, restaurants. However, since questionable crowds also tended to hang around in SoMa, the shops usually closed at nightfall and let down heavy iron grates.

The restaurants and bars struggled with the problem that the large limousines, in which the yuppies arrived, were sometimes damaged or maliciously scratched. It was once even reported that two petty criminals had posed as valet parkers (Rundbrief 06/1999)!.

With the collapse of the dot-com economy, the yuppie crowd disappeared, and many of the restaurants and shops had to close down. But a few held on, here are two insider tips: the "Southpark Cafe" and "Bizou," both French restaurants in SoMa, a bit pricey, but really good.

The architecture in SoMa is incredibly ugly -- a comparable neighborhood in Germany would have no appeal to me. However, in San Francisco, even the plainest industrial design is charming when the sun shines. And it's only the untidiness, the makeshift nature, and the latent criminality that make SoMa attractive -- for those who like it.

The SoMa is my second favorite neighborhood, only surpassed by the "Mission," the Mexican neighborhood around the corner from us. But we'll save that for a new episode of "San Francisco Views." Until then, I'll give you the homework of studying the many distinctive street names and their origins in the nice summary San Francisco Street Names.

Learn To Speak English With the Pros

By the way, if you want to receive a daily email from Wordsmith, you can sign up at wordsmith.org. Sign up. It doesn't cost anything, but you always get smarter from it and eventually can speak English in a way that would leave any high school teacher stumped.

Hogan's Heroes

Michael Recently, an American colleague told me that as a little boy, he used to watch "Hogan's Heroes" on TV, a popular and funny early evening series about a group of US soldiers in a German prisoner-of-war camp during World War II. For research purposes, I programmed it into our TiVo--and what do you know, the 1960s series was repeated on some obscure channel at an ungodly hour and successfully recorded by the TiVo. These episodes are truly hilarious!

The Germans in the series speak English with a terrible accent, are all extremely obedient to authority, and incredibly stupid. The prisoners, on the other hand--English, French, and Americans, led by the American Colonel Hogan--are secretly running the camp. They use hidden tunnels to the outside, radio equipment, steal tanks, and won't escape simply because so they can continue spying and pulling strings behind the scenes.

The German camp commandant Klink (played by a recently deceased German actor named Werner Klemperer) and the good-natured but simple-minded Sergeant Schultz just pretend to care, but ultimately they have given up against the cunning prisoners and grant them unusual freedoms. This way, if a car with swastika flags and a pompous SS officer arrives, they can rely on the camp appearing exemplary.

The typically American historical mix-up is, of course, hilarious: Pickelhaube helmets were no longer around in the Second World War, and there were probably hardly any commanders like Klink who wore a monocle. But, hey, if it's supposed to be German, then go all in; all that's missing is Oktoberfest!

Beverage Of The Month

Michael When you're looking for European groceries in San Francisco or the Bay Area in general, you go to "Trader Joe's," an almost alternative supermarket chain where lots of happy people stand behind the registers, and sometimes the shoppers even help pack their own groceries--unheard of! In any case, the store has many things that are hardly available elsewhere in America: good German blue cheese (Cambozola), English cheddar (Stilton), or French cheese (Roquefort), excellent beer (Mendocino Brewing Company, SLO Brewery, Dutch Grolsch, and I even spotted Weihenstephaner recently), and unsweetened, whole fruit juices.

In the party scene, it has somehow become common in recent years for more and more sugary drinks for adults to flood the market. These drinks have an alcohol content similar to beer but also delight the taste buds of the fairer sex: for example, "Mike's Hard Lemonade," which tastes quite good, is lemon soda with vodka. As a newcomer on the shelf, I recently noticed "Hard Ice Tea" by the company Bison in the flavor "Peach Rooibos" at the "Trader." "Rooibos" is a very popular reddish tea-like drink from South Africa, which tastes somewhat rougher than conventional black tea, and when mixed with alcohol, it develops such an incredibly delicious aftertaste that you could drink bottle after bottle. Top product!

Euphemistic Terms

Water-Fountains

Angelika For a long time, I have wanted to write about American "water fountains" that are found on every corner here. These small splashing faucets, also known as "drinking fountains," actually look like elevated bird baths. The difference is that you don't drink the water from a stagnant basin; instead, you press a small button on the side, which causes the water to spout upwards from a tap, allowing you to catch it with your mouth.

Drinking water fountains are located in America wherever there are many people who might suddenly get thirsty: in schools, universities, offices, parks, and sports facilities.

Drinking properly from a water fountain is not that easy and requires years of practice -- Europeans who did not grow up with it generally struggle with it at first.

For hygienic reasons, you should not touch the faucet with your mouth. Instead, gently start the water flowing by pressing a button and then carefully bring your mouth close to the saddle point of the rather wide, calm stream. Easier said than done: What every American child manages to do immediately through early and varied practice, I still haven't mastered even after six and a half years.

Even from a political perspective, drinking water fountains have quite a history. In the southern states of America, Black people were not allowed to use the drinking fountains designated for white people. There were "drinking fountains" for Black people and others for white people. The civil rights movement addressed this injustice in the 1950s and 1960s. And one thing that surely only exists in dog-loving San Francisco should be mentioned here: even Fido is taken care of in hot weather. He has his own, lowered drinking fountain. However, he can't operate it by himself yet, as his owner has to press the button for him to make the water flow. You can see it live nearby in Dolores Park here in San Francisco!

Your Frisco Kids!

Angelika und Michael