JordanQuinn’s blog

As the song goes,

June is a love song, sweetly sung

June makes the bay look bright and new
Sails gleamin' bright on sunlit blue

I wasn't in a whole lot of plays growing up, but my brother and I were in Carousel one summer (we were both Snow children) and I always thought that "June is Bustin' Out All Over" was bustling good fun. 

We've been bustling with good fun ourselves here in San Francisco.  It was a gorgeous 80 degrees today.  The birds (many of them the famous Parrots of Telegraph Hill) have been singing their little hearts out and the flowers are in full bloom. 

The boys and I planted various things in the back yard about a month ago (tomatoes, California Poppies, Geraniums, onions) and it's been fun to watch them grow.  The lemon tree in the back yard is still kickin' out bags full of yummy Meyer lemons that we can't give away fast enough.  I keep meaning to make Meyer lemon tarts but haven't quite gotten around to it.

Part of the issue is that I've also been trying to work out more to whip my body into at least slightly better shape for our trip to the French Riviera next month (think string bikini), and lemon tarts aren't going to help me in that quest.  Actually, maybe the lemon tarts wouldn't change a thing- I feel like I've been gaining weight and inches since I started working out more- it's me who's bustin' out all over! 

Maybe I should just relax and eat some lemon tarts, for crying out loud.

Tomorrow morning Quinn's pre-school lets out for the summer and it's going to get even busier around here.  The boys are little twinkling balls of probing energy these days.  One of Quinn's favorite teachers is leaving the school to go travel with her partner through India and Southeast Asia to do more yoga, massage and teaching poor children (what an adventure!), and we'll be sad to see her go.  She wrote in a farewell card to us that she loves it when the 3 of us burst into class with such enthusiasm.

Such enthusiasm indeed.  I feel like I've got a pair of wild horses on my hands sometimes.  Quinn's school is very zen and we do wind up creating a stir each and every day, despite my best efforts to the contrary.  I was pleased and relieved when Mira wrote that it's one of the bright spots of her days to see my wild horses run in.

Speaking of my wild horses, I've got to dash out to scoop them up. Pretty soon the house will be filled with the sweet, rambunctious song of childhood again.

It's 10pm and I'm sitting outside in a tanktop and shorts on our back deck, basking in the soft warmth of the first-day-of-summer air. This all particularly delicious because earlier this week it was so foggy and blustery that I was cold in my warmest sweater, a coat and a scarf.

It was apparently 104 degrees in San Francisco today, and even hotter in the surrounding Bay Area. In other words, likely the hottest day of the year. In my neck of the woods it was lovely- not sure how hot it was, but definitely somewhere south of 104. We live close to the Golden Gate Bridge and thus had the sweet breezes coming off the bay and ocean to cool us off (same breezes that weren't so sweet earlier this week).

The boys are currently in an Italian immersion summer school in Mill Valley and are enjoying themselves immensely. I don't know that they're actually learning much Italian (they do love to say "ciao bella!" though), but they sure are delighted with the whole scene. What's not to love, after all? Italians have great food, a good vibe and seem to possess an innate sense of fun. Their teachers are all cute girls, so that's always fun, too.

We had another beautiful, hot day in San Francisco last Saturday when we took our boys to their first basketball practice ever.

Coach Grey was very patient and kind.  The boys haven't quite gotten the dribble down yet, but they love running after the ball.

Coach Grey said Jordan could play even though he's 2 instead of the requisite 3 (age group is 3-5). Jordan was the smallest guy by far, but he tried hard and particularly loved it when the parents from the bleechers applauded him.

Our friend Alex (in yellow) is doing Biddy Basketball as well, and the boys and Alex horsed around together much of the class. Coach Grey had an Air Jordan shirt on, much to Jordan's delight.

All in all, a fun-filled morning at the gym.

Ryan's childhood friend Jeff Patterson works for a NASCAR team and happily got us "hot" passes at Sonoma's Infineon Raceway today, which meant that we were treated like VIPs!

I've never been to anything remotely like NASCAR, but it sure was fun. Lots of production and entertainment value overall. When we first got there they had 4 superfast jets (like the Blue Angels but not the Blue Angels) flying overhead, and before the actual race began there were helicopter acrobatics (who knew a helicopter could fly upside down?), parachuters, fireworks, a Rolling Stones cover band and a slew of cannons fired.

Here's Jeff and Ryan down on the track before the race.

We got to be right out by the cars on the track

We also got to see all the stars.  Here's car #9 driving Kasey Kahne, who started off in first place ("pole position") and wound up finishing 33rd.  After Kasey are, respectively, Jimmie Johnson (who was in the lead for a good long while) and 3rd place finisher Jeff Gordon (and child), who also walked right by us before the race started. I guess I should have gotten them to sign something for us, though I'm not sure what I'd do with it once I got it.

We spent some quality time over by Kevin Harvick's car pre-race. Kevin and his wife pictured below. Kevin was driving car #29, one of the cars on "Jeff's team" (actually Richard Childress' team, but who's counting). Kevin raced strong the whole time but then got in a spin-out on one of the final laps, taking the drivers who were then in 2nd and 3rd place with him (bummer!). Kevin wound up coming in 30th.

This is the inside of Kevin's car:

Jeff hooked us up with fantastic seats right in the pit, behind the Pit Chief (or pit boss or crew chief or whatever you call him). We sat where the guys in blue shirts are sitting in this photo (Ryan in the hot seat in photo below that- I like the shot of his sunglasses in that photo):

This was our view of the track (#24 is Jeff Gordon):

In the photo above you can see our headseats... we got to listen to the Kevin Harvick talk back and forth to the Pit Chief with those headsets.

Here's the pit crew leaping out for 1 of 2 pit stops by Kevin Harvick (this pit stop lasted 11.8 seconds):

we had full access to the whole place with our "hot" passes.  Super fun.  I felt very cool.

The Jack Daniels car was also part of Jeff's team... driver Clint Bowyer came in 4th overall in today's Infineon NASCAR race in Sonoma, behind Kyle Busch, David Gilliland and Jeff Gordon.

Our sweet Black Lab, Shasta Moon, tore her ACL in April and had the $5K surgery to fix it last Monday. Dogs (and people, I believe- see Tiger Woods) need to have surgery to fix a torn or snapped ACL- it's not one of those things that can heal on its own.

Unfortunate that she tore her ACL in the first place (though it's apparently the most common injury for larger dogs), but very fortunate that she tore it while on a walk with our licensed, insured dog walker, whose insurance is going to mercifully cover it.  Dodged a bullet there. We have some friends who had to forego their honeymoon so that their dog could get the ACL surgery.

For the first 7 days she had a softish cast on her back right leg.  On Monday I was able to cut that cast off so she's now left with a shaved and stapled back right leg. The staples go for about 8 inches down the inside of her leg by her knee.  She'll get those out next week at the specialist vet's office over in Mill Valley.

It's a relatively involved recovery.  She's on various anitbiotic, anti-inflammatory, anti-pain and light sedative meds and we ice her knee once or twice a day. From day one post surgery they wanted us to walk her on a leash for 5-10 minutes 2 or 3 times a day, which we've been doing. Next week the walks will go up to 1o-15 minute leashed walks, then after that 15-20 and then 20-25.  She's got that red harness on because she absolutely cannot take off and run- we need to keep her pretty mellow (not always an easy trick with an enthusiastic, 75 pound dog).  It's an 8 week recovery process.

Another silver lining to the whole process is that our prince of a neighbor, Dave, is letting Shasta stay with him in his garden apartment.  This makes my life a whole heck of a lot easier because the boys love to sit on Shasta's back and "ride" her and they can be rambunctious with her in general.  She's also not allowed to jump up on anything higher than 2 feet, which our bed is and is supposed to try to avoid stairs, which we have.

I can't help but think of all of the kids in the world whose lives would be greatly improved by but can't possibly afford a $5K surgery, and marvel at what a lucky dog we have.  She's been sweet as sugar through it all- maybe somehow in some way she's grateful that we're doing everything we can to fix her hurt leg.  I wonder what percent of dogs in the world would get to have the ACL surgery... it has to be relatively low, methinks.

Three days ago (March 4), the California Supreme Court heard oral arguments for In re Marriage Cases- could be a landmark case. If you're so inclined, you can listen to all 3 hrs, 38 minutes of it here. The Court must rule in 90 days (Art. VI § 19.).

Personally, I don't see any harm in gay marriage and fundamentally don't understand why some people are against it, often passionately. Like Gavin Newsom, I see it as a civil rights issue. If two consenting adults love one another and want to spend their lives together, what's the point in denying them certain civil rights and broader societal acceptance? Keeping an antiquated law in place doesn't keep people from being gay, it merely creates unnecessary misery.

I believe that gay marriage will inevitably win the day because it's in line with common sense, reason and logic. I can't even think of a good argument for categorically discriminating against a whole class of people, based solely on their sexual orientation. Making gay couples call each other "domestic partners" rather than allowing them to be full fledged spouses smacks of 'separate but equal.' In this case, it seems that a rose by any other name does not smell as sweet.

On that note, California has already created domestic partnerships for gay couples that grant them all or virtually all of the rights and benefits of marriage under state law (federal law being, of course, separate). Why not call these relationships "marriages" instead of "domestic partnerships?"

California Deputy Attorney General Christopher Krueger, representing the state, argued that California's traditional definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman has "stood the test of time" and was approved by the state legislature in 1977. The state's counsel argued that withholding the title of "marriage" is justified by the state's desire to "preserve the common and traditional definition of marriage."

To this, Justice Kennard pointed out that Califronia also used to prevent interracial marriage, allowed women to be treated as chattel and prohibited females from serving as police officers or fire fighters.

From what I can gather, gay marriage opponents seem to believe that allowing same sex couples to marry would increase some generalized moral decay in society, which in my opinion is fear-based and doesn't even make sense. What's so scary about same sex couples, anyway? Does allowing the gay couple next door to marry in any way undermine my heterosexual marriage? How could it?

I also don't believe that God has directly said anything about gay marriage. Moreover, church and state should be separate on this issue, anyway.

Gay marriage is an idea whose time will come, and I hope that we as a society choose to evolve sooner rather than later on this issue.

So, bottom line, that's what I think should happen... the question of the hour is what will happen.

In re Marriage Cases consolidates various individual cases challenging California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage. The lawsuits stem from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's 2005 decision to issue marriage licenses to 4,000 same-sex couples.

Plaintiffs in In re Marriage Cases argued that the right to marry is protected by the California Constitution. Plaintiffs also compared the ban against gay marriage to California's old ban against interracial marriage, which was struck down by the California Supreme Court's decision in Perez v. Sharp in 1948. At that time, it was the first court in the nation to strike down the practice as discriminatory.

The voter-approved ban is the real hitch in this case. Again, I can't imagine why voters did approve the ban, but the fact is that they did. The question now is whether the court should overturn the will of the people. Some California Supreme Court justices were troubled by that, other justices hinted that they have an obligation to intervene if the ban is unconstitutional.

Justice Joyce Kennard also expressed skepticism that the court should wait for the voters or legislators to remedy discrimination, noting that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger already has twice vetoed legislation that would permit gay marriage.

Only one state, Massachusetts, allows gay marriage, though in addition to California, the Connecticut Supreme Court is also considering the issue. In New York, a Canadian gay marriage was recently recognized.

Most legal pundits I've read seem to believe that it will be a very close vote. Some even think that a loss for same sex marriage proponents could be a blessing in disguise. It seems unclear what level of review (strict scrutiny vs. rational basis) will be used, but the case could wind up turning on that.

In what has been described as a sea change, young people are as confused as I am about all the fuss over gay marriage. So if it's not this generation that finally ends this pointless form of discrimination, it will be the next.

Why wait?

Zachery Grant Vivolo was born at 5:39am on leap year, weighing in at 5 lbs. 12 oz. 

Congratulations Heido and Joe!!  Sunny and I were on hand to toast Zak's arrival.

Heido looks so lovely, to say nothing of the babe-  hard to believe they'd just gone through the birth process 4 hours before.

During a short break in the rain yesterday morning, Jordan and I went to the San Francisco Zoo. Below are mommy and baby giraffes we saw right off the bat. I felt a bond with the mommy giraffe and I kissed my baby while she was snuggling hers.

We've been huge zoo-goers since the kids were born. Even as infants, the boys went to the zoo at least a few times a month. The zoo has been a big part of our lives, and we're apparently in good company- Zoologist Ron McGill of the Miami Metro Zoo said "More people visit zoos each year than all professional sports combined." Zoos apparently get 150 million visitors annually.

We hadn't been to the San Francisco Zoo (or any other zoo, for that matter), since the fatal tiger attack on Christmas Day 2007.

Rundown of Tatiana's Murderous Rampage

Around closing time on Christmas (somewhere around 4:30), a small pack of drunk, stoned, jerky boys (brothers Paul Dhaliwal, 19, and Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23, and Carlos Sousa Jr., 17) went over to the big cats area of the San Francisco Zoo and started taunting the lions and tigers.

For a more thorough discussion of whether they were indeed taunting the tigers, see below. In sum, allegations are that they were yelling and roaring at the animals, waving their arms, throwing things into their cages and probably had slingshots. Suffice it to say that they really riled up the animals.

The Dhaliwal brothers are by all accounts local tyrants who get drunk and act up and terrorize their neighbors. They have at least one unrelated drunk-and-disorderly type charge pending (from September 2007). In one of Sousa's last myspace entries, he said he was 'high' - Carlos' myspace page here.

At any rate, they succeeded in provoking a fight-or-flight response in a 350-pound Siberian tiger named Tatiana, and she was able, in that frenzied state, to escape her grotto.

As it turns out, the wall that Tatiana was able to leap over was almost 4 feet shorter than the recommended height for tigers.

Tatiana initially attacked the older brother, Kulbir, but his friend Carlos Sousa successfully drew Tatiana's attention away from Kulbir towards himself. She then attacked Sousa, fatally wounding him with a slash to the neck.

The injured brothers fled, leaving their friend bleeding and dying there right outside Tatiana's enclosure, where his body was subsequently found by police. Because Kulbir had been attacked first, the brothers left a trail of blood, which police believe the tiger followed for 300 yards up a zoo pathway towards the Terrace Cafe.

Here's a picture of the Terrace Cafe yesterday. As it turns out, the place where I was standing when I took this photo is about where the tiger was eventually killed.

One thing that struck me yesterday is that the Terrace Cafe is far from the big cats area. 300 yards is a long way to run, bleeding and running from an angry Siberian Tiger.

They must have been scared out of their minds. For a video of the crazy aftermath at the Terrace Cafe, click here.

The tiger was loose for about 20 minutes. After killing Sousa, Tatiana specifically went after the Dhaliwal brothers, although others were around. The tiger attacked only those three men who were there together, and no one else.

The brothers ran to the Terrace Cafe (where they'd eaten earlier) and started frantically beating on the door, trying to get the half-wits who work there to let them in, which they wouldn't because the Terrace Cafe had closed.

I say half-wits because when I was there yesterday, nobody at working at the Terrace Cafe seemed to have any idea about the tiger attacks. I found that shocking... I mean... if I worked at a cafe where there had been a tiger attack just 6 weeks ago I think that I'd be at minimum aware of it. I got only shrugs and blank stares when I inquired into where the attack occured. One guy finally said lamely "I think the tiger exhibit is closed."

I could just imagine banging for my life on the door of the Terrace Cafe only to have the half-wit behind the glass shrug and point to his watch.

So anyway, the Dhaliwal brothers stood there, locked out, trying in vain to get in to the Terrace Cafe. According to the Dhaliwal brothers' attorney, at that point the brothers lost sight of the tiger.  The brothers then spotted a female security guard who appeared "diffident" when told of the escaped tiger, according to the Dhaliwal brothers' attorney.

Tatiana successfully stalked them, following Kulbir's blood right to them.

Police now say that finally someone at the Terrace Cafe did call, at 5:07. The cafe worker said that an "agitated" Paul Dhaliwal (the younger brother) stood screaming outside the closed and locked Terrace Cafe on the zoo's eastern edge. The half-wit worker at that point could not even tell the dispatcher whether serious bleeding was involved.

According to the logs, the Terrace Cafe worker initially told police that two men reporting the escaped tiger might be mentally disturbed and "making something up," though the older brother was bleeding from the back of the head.

From that account, fire dispatchers obtained a vague description of the incident, saying a lone man "was bitten by an exotic animal," and had suffered a laceration. The caller said he was not with the victim, who was reported as conscious and breathing, according to the fire dispatch logs.

Two minutes later, at 5:10 p.m., zoo employees reported that a tiger was loose and, at 5:13 p.m., the zoo was being evacuated and locked down as fire department responders arrived.

By 5:20 p.m. medics had located Sousa with a large puncture hole to his neck. The tiger was still loose.

Zoo emergency procedures weren't followed after the attack- more about that here. According to the zoo's policies, guards should "direct visitors away from the (animal) and secure people inside of buildings if appropriate" (as opposed to -say- leaving them frantically banging on the locked cafe door while a 350 pound tiger hunts down and attacks them).

Zoo visitor Rajesh Bhatia of San Mateo, who was visiting the zoo with his wife, two children and his wife's parents, said that he never got word about a loose tiger on the zoo grounds.*

He said that he and his family visited the large cat exhibit at about 4:45 p.m., which must have been just before the tiger got loose. Then they went to get something to eat- happily for them they picked the Leaping Lemur cafe on the zoo's west side. While the tiger was escaping and then mauling the Dhaliwal brothers at the Terrace Cafe, Bhatia and his family blissfully sat in the Leaping Lemur cafe and grabbed a bite to eat. For nearly half an hour, there were no announcements, warnings or alarms, he said.

Maybe it was more than luck that nobody else got hurt- apparently, Tatiana ignored all of the other zoo patrons and hunted down those specific boys.

Tatiana cornered, attacked and began mauling Kulbir Dhaliwal again at the Terrace Cafe before police officers arrived. When the police/paramedics finally got there, they found the tiger standing over one of the brothers. It gets a little unclear here what happened exactly and where each brother was, but one account says that 'a man' was sitting on the ground, blood running from gashes in his head and Tatiana was sitting next to him. I know that at some point both brothers were attacked by the tiger.

As medics attended to one of the brothers, an officer spotted the tiger sitting down before it fled and began attacking the other brother, according to the logs. Four police officers managed to make enough noise to get Tatiana’s attention, but she went right back to her attack, ignoring everyone else and attacking only those young men.

The paramedics must have been freaking out, too, as they had been told (wrongly, as it turns out) that three other tigers might be on the loose, and it was getting dark. The zoo has no emergency lighting system, and there are no surveillance cameras pointed at the big cats' grottos. Thus, officers could not find out from zoo guards which animal or animals had escaped.

At 5:27 p.m. the officers began firing at Tatiana, killing her instantly.

SF Zoo proprietor Mollinedo said that the zoo has a response team armed with tranquilizers and firearms, but that the scene unfolded "so quickly that the officers found (Tatiana) first." So... Were They Taunting Tatiana?

In some ways, that's the $64,000 question, but in on the other hand... I'm sure that they were utterly shocked (as were all zookeepers nationwide) that the tiger was able to get out, even if provoked.

One of the boys initially admitted to taunting the tiger, but (likely on the advice of his lawyer) he's subsequently recanted that admission. The lawyer for the survivors is Mark Geragos, who previously represented Scott Peterson (the guy who killed his extremely pregnant wife Lacey and their unborn son).

Lawyer spin or not, in short it seems that yes, they were taunting the tiger... why else would the tiger suddenly gain super-tiger, adrenaline-induced fight-or-flight strength, surmount a wall nobody thought possible and go after just those 3 boys? The tiger grotto is 40 years old and no tiger has escaped before.

Plus there were eyewitnesses who saw the boys taunting the big cats. In a San Francisco Chronicle article, zoo patron Jennifer Miller reported that she, her husband and children saw four young men at the big cat grottos and that three of the men were teasing the lions. Ms. Miller said that she called the zoo to report the obvious "taunting."

"The boys, especially the older one, were roaring at them. He was taunting them," the San Francisco woman said. "They were trying to get that lion's attention. The lion was bristling, so I just said, 'Come on, let's get out of here' because my kids were disturbed by it.

Miller called their behavior "disturbing."

Her family was looking at the lions when the young men stopped beside them at the big-cat grottos - five outdoor exhibits attached to the Lion House. The young men started roaring at the lions and acting "boisterous" to get their attention, said Miller, who added that she watched the four for five minutes or so a little after 4 p.m.

"It was why we left," she said. "Their behavior was disturbing. They kept doing it."

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, police found a shoe and blood in an area between the gate and the edge of the animal’s 25- to 30-foot-wide moat, prompting the possibility that one of the victims dangled a leg or other body part over the edge of the moat.

The Big Cats Today

After all the commotion, the big cat cages and grottos were recently renovated, to the tune of somewhere between a million and $1.3 million. As if yesterday much of the area remained closed to visitors like us:

The lions and one Sumatran Tiger were the only big cats we could find. There was a thick glass wall between the magnificent beasts and us, but they're still pretty close:

We were able to look through the lions' window and see the new, taller walls, complete with electrified wires at the top:

I've since heard that the big cats will be on display today- but since it's pouring down rain today, yesterday had to do. We were able to get up close and personal with a Sumatran tiger yesterday:

In retrospect, I regret that the flash on my camera went off when I snapped the picture of my hand, above. With all of the tiger attack mania in my head, I was surprised when I saw just how close the Sumatran tiger was to us and my roiling brain forgot to turn off the flash.

There Will be Lawsuits

Legal experts said lawsuits are likely. Already, the zoo is facing a lawsuit by zookeeper Lori Komejan, who was attacked last year when she fed the same tiger (Tatiana) last year. On Dec. 22, 2006, Tatiana chewed the flesh off Lori Komejan's arm in front of about 50 visitors lingering in the Lion House after the cats were fed. A state investigation later ruled that the zoo was at fault for the attack because of the way the cages were configured.

In October, Komejan sued the city of San Francisco, seeking compensation for lost wages, medical expenses and emotional distress. She accused the city, which owns the zoo property, of "housing the tigers with reckless disregard for the safety of animal handlers and members of the general public."

The deadly tiger escape at the San Francisco Zoo could prove to be a costly blow to an institution that has come under fire repeatedly in just the past few years over the deaths of two elephants and the mauling of a zookeeper.

"All this legal action is likely to impact the financial viability of the zoo," said Rory Little, a professor at the University of California's Hastings College of the Law. "Whether the zoo can stay open is a big question."

Has the zoo learned? Well... there's an SF Gate story about near escapes by a polar bear and, in a separate incident, also a snow leopard at the SF Zoo less than a week after the tiger attack. Read more about those near misses in January 2008, here.

I also saw to my horror that the plexiglass (or whatever it is), right next to the window where Jordan and I had been standing next to the tiger was ajar yesterday:

this is literally 3 feet to the right of here:

I hope that the zoo is able to fix its problems and remain open. We high-tailed it outta the tiger area after we saw the broken plexiglass-thing, but I hope to go back to a safer zoo soon.... would love to check out the new improved tiger grottos.

S.F. Zoo incidents

Dec. 25, 2007: A Siberian tiger named Tatiana escapes and kills a 17-year-old San Jose boy and injures two brothers.

Dec. 22, 2006: Tatiana attacks and mauls zookeeper Lori Komejan, causing deep lacerations to her arms.

February 2001: A zoo employee is attacked and injured by the claws of a cassowary, a 5-foot-tall, 80-pound flightless bird native to the tropical forests of New Guinea and northeastern Australia.

November 1994: Two Patas monkeys escape from the Primate Discovery Center. The monkeys are about 15 inches high and weigh around 35 pounds.

May 1990: Veteran zookeeper Alan Feinberg is attacked and bitten by a 90-pound Persian leopard as a crowd of schoolchildren watches in horror. The keeper is treated for deep wounds to his head and neck.

February 1990: A keeper suffers a lower back fracture after being knocked into a 10-foot-deep moat by Tinkerbelle, a 7,000-pound elephant.

October 1988: Tinkerbelle attacks animal health technician Gail Hedberg, who was treating the elephant for an abscess on its cheek. The elephant knocks the technician down and does a headstand on her. Hedberg suffers a crushed pelvis.

July 1985: Two Patas monkeys escape from the zoo and remain at large for six weeks before being recaptured behind the University of California medical complex on Mount Sutro.

April 1980: Five female City College students are caught fording the moat around Monkey Island. Police officers find a dead spider monkey in a duffel bag floating in the moat. The women are later given suspended jail sentences and six months' probation.

January 1979: A male Indian elephant injures keepers, knocking one into the moat.

November 1976: A 175-pound South American jaguar escapes from the zoo's animal hospital, where it was recovering from cracked footpads. Zoo director Saul Kitchener fells the animal, named Buster, with a dart from a tranquilizer gun

February 1976: An antelope leaps over a damaged fence and knocks a visitor to the ground, causing head injuries.

March 1972: A 3-year-old girl suffers a broken jaw and deep facial cuts when a camel leans over a fence and bites the child in the face. It drags her over the fence and tramples her.

March 1971: A 300-pound female tapir escapes from her compound and is found wandering on Sloat Boulevard. The tapir bounds over two police cars, denting both, and then knocks a police officer to the ground.

August 1969: An escaped chimpanzee bites two keepers.

April 1968: Amos Watson, a visitor, is mauled by a 450-pound lion, suffering puncture wounds over most of his body. Watson had climbed over a rail and tumbled into the moat. The lion is killed by one shot from a keeper's rifle.

August 1967: Zookeeper Robert Caldwell is badly bitten by a 400-pound orangutan. He was alone near the Great Ape Grotto when Big Red, the male orangutan, reached under the mesh-covered bars and grabbed Caldwell's left arm, pulling it into the cage. Then Linda, a female orangutan, chewed on the keeper's arm.

November 1962: May, a 6,000-pound elephant, attacks her keeper, battering him with her trunk and butting him with her head.

December 1960: A 500-pound lion reaches between the bars of its cage and hooks the arm of a keeper, who has to undergo two hours of surgery for his injuries.

May 1960: A 125-pound black leopard attacks a keeper who had been feeding the animal.

March 1949: A polar bear reaches through the bars of its cage and hooks a visitor's arm.

* I copied some of these quotes directly from the Internet.  I did not personally interview anyone- well, except for the half-wit Terrace Cafe workers yesterday.  Charts and graphs have also been lifted, including the SF Zoo Incidents information above.

She's easy to admire, but not easy to like

I'm still struggling to get my arms around why Hillary seems to galvanize such hatred. 

I fear that if she wins the nomination, the right wing will unleash unmitigated hatred, relentlessly painting her as the proverbial villain... and simultaneously bringing our country down to the lowest common denominator. They'd go after Barack, too, but not in the personal, vile way that they're guaranteed to go after Hillary (and, for that matter, Bill).

Hillary lacks the charisma of, say, Bill, but nonetheless she's still a natural leader, very disciplined and extremely intelligent. I know in my soul that she'd do her homework. In many ways her whole life has led up to the moment of her becoming the first female U.S. President- she's carefully and deftly crafted her experiences around it. Add to that that she was and is a good mother and an unwavering wife. Yet... there's something about her personality that whips the conservatives into a rabid frenzy, and maybe it's related to the something about her that I don't completely like/trust.

Part of me wants to attribute all the nastiness to the combination of (1) her burning ambition; and (2) being a bright, hard-working, successful woman... but that doesn't seem to totally cover it. There's something else.

"Hillary is a complex and fascinating woman," says Vanity Fair writer Gail Sheehy, author of a book on the former first lady published in 1999. Sheehy, who has followed the first lady since 1992, writes "She is easy to admire, but not easy to like." Clinton doesn't really like people, said Sheehy, but understands that she has to tone down that aspect of her personality in order to achieve her goals.

"There is an arrogance about her," said Sheehy. "She thinks she's better than most people. Her approach to politics is more cerebral than emotional."

Ok, fair enough.  From what I know of her, those statements ring true.  But that doesn't fully explain to me why she's so well liked by the blue collar gang and not well liked by the people most like her: middle aged, highly educated, successful "more cerebral than emotional" women. Moreover, it doesn't explain to me why I don't completely like her. I admire her, certainly, but I'm not dying to go out to lunch with her and chat - or have a beer with her, for that matter.

Then that begs the question: do we... do I have to like the President? Maybe I'm just intimidated by her trail blazing ways. I'd definitely want to study up if I did ever have a chance to go to lunch with her, and my guess is that I'd walk away feeling dumb and lazy. There are a lot of serious issues facing the U.S. right now, and I'm confident that she'd do "A+" work... who really cares if I want to have a beer with her or not?

Humm... I write that, but it rings hollow.

In San Francisco Proper:

• Exploratorium
• SF Zoo
• Zeum
• Golden Gate Park (Japanese Tea Garden, Botanical Gardens, De Young Museum, Koret Playground)
• Ferry Building / Farmer's Market
  
• AT&T Park
• Chinatown- lots of fascinating activity and food there
  
• Fisherman's Wharf, Aquarium, Sea Lions
  
• Beaches (Ocean beach, East Beach, Beach Chalet)
• Crissy Field, Wave Organ
• Parks: Julius Kahn, Alta Plaza, Dolores Park, Holly Park, Moscone Park
  
• Cable Car Museum
• Palace of Fine Arts
• Yerba Buena Gardens
• Randall Museum- (small Natural History museum right in the middle of the City, incl. small animal petting pen)
• Teddy Bear Factory tour
• Breakfast with Enzo
• A playgroup at the Well
• Recess in Potrero Hill
• Library lapsits
  

North Bay:

• Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito (have lunch at Fish in Sausalito)
• Train Town in Sonoma
• Storytime in Oakland
• Muir Woods- the path is semi paved but it feels like you are trekking through a thick forest. The paths are fenced so it's easy to corral the kids - there's also a cafe where you can sit indoor or outdoor and clean bathrooms. I would get there by 1030 am for parking.

East Bay:

• Oakland Zoo
• Children's Fairly Land in Oakland- Fairytale themed "amusement" park in Oakland, very low-key, admission under $10, kid-sized rides
• Tilden Park- has a train, pony rides, a farm where you can feed the
  goats (bring your own celery & lettuce)

Other:

• Angel Island- take the ferry
  

These websites were also recommended:
http://www.lpfch. org/cgi-bin/ calendar/ index.cgi

Go City Kids-they have lots of activity type stuff there.
http://gocitykids. parentsconnect. com/?area= 199

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Interesting City Walks:

• along the Embarcadero and through the Ferry Building. Lots of ferry activity to see on the water-side; coffee! kid-friendly lunch options. Farmers Market on weekends. Validated parking next door.

• Go to Dolores Park playground in morning, have lunch at Dolores Park Cafe followed by ice-cream at Bi-Rite Creamery, head to Bernal Heights Holly Park for afternoon (good shopping on Cortland - esp. second-hand children's clothes & toys at Chloe's Closet)

• Go to Exploratorium in morning, have lunch at the Warming Hut, have fun/stroll down Crissy Field with beach toys if weather is nice

• Ocean Beach (incl. section across the highway from the SF Zoo entrance) and then Beach Chalet for lunch/dinner or a scenic beer for the grown-ups

Another Plug for Train Town:

• Train Town, Sonoma (45-60 min. scenic drive from SF) - vintage kiddie train-themed amusement park; no admission fee, ride kid-sized rides using ride tickets; some rides can accomodate adults like the Ferris Wheel and Trains. I have 4 and 6.5 year olds (girls, even), and they LOVE LOVE this place. If taking a day trip, Sonoma also has many playgrounds (two in the middle of Plaza), eats, bike trails, and of course, wine tasting.

FYI- this whole post is more or less a summary of a recent list that was sent around on the Golden Gate Mother's Group email.