Super Bowl & Lunar New Year Prep in One Super Day

 

 Golden Gate Park is ready for the Super Bowl

 

I thought that it just couldn’t get better than my first day in San Francisco, on Friday, with daughter Marina as my guide—first a nude-in on City Hall steps (see  my last post) then ice cream made to order at Smitten, take-out pulled pork sandwiches and wine from the Fatted Calf, a drive through Golden Gate Park, and a picnic overlooking Cliff House and the Sutro Baths.  What could top that?

Try Sunday, which combined the preparations for the Lunar New Year in Chinatown, followed by the Super Bowl starring the home team.

 Nick and I were staying at the Orchard Garden Hotel on Bush Street, so Marina and I entered through this gate to walk up Grant Street Although the Lunar New Year is on Feb. 10 and the amazing night-time parade is on Feb. 23, the local populace was out and about making preparations.

 Red lanterns and red good-luck symbols to buy for the house

 There is a lot that I don’t know about how the Lunar (Asian? Chinese?) New Year is celebrated in San Francisco, but here’s what I do know:  2013 is the Year of the Snake. (So is my birth year, 1941. That makes me a snake.) 

 You have to buy flowers to decorate the house

Here’s what I learned from a wall hanging in Chinatown: “The Year of the Snake is filled with chaos and is unpredictable. It is a time for inquiry, reflection and careful exploration.  Snake people possess a profound wisdom.  Many are blinded by their hypnotic charm, elegance and style.  They are always on a mission.”

 

Kids were standing in line to be photographed with the Lion that will lead the parade.

At least I think it's a lion. Maybe it's a dragon.

 

 This was a man with a message.

This man was playing music on an Asian instrument

 

 We stopped for Dim Sum at the Great Eastern Restaurant at 649 Jackson Street.  President Obama stopped here for take-out exactly a year before.  He carried the bag out himself.  Afterwards the media turned it into a scandal because they learned this was one of the few restaurants still selling shark fin soup after it was banned at the start of 2012.   (Who else tells you this stuff?)

 

On our way out we saw this fellow in costume who was being photographed  with families.  He was as popular as Santa Claus in the Mall before Christmas.  I did a little research and think he may be the Jade Emperor.  I also think he has something to do with AT&T, but I don't know what.

 

He was very popular and he made the same gesture with all comers. I think it was a blessing.

 

We also saw a long line of older people waiting for the free health clinic.

 

And we saw a model modelling

And some monkeys avoiding evil.

 

As the sun set, San Franciscans gathered around television sets inside and outdoors to watch the game.  It was very intense.

 

After the power went out in New Orleans it got more exciting, but the way it ended left all San Franciscans feeling very dejected.

 Especially Seamus.  He was devastated.

 

But this was a birthday party as well as a Super Bowl party, and the ladies lit the candles.

 

And the birthday boy, Matt, blew them out.

 

And Geana and Marina assured Seamus there would be another chance at the Super Bowl next year.

Nude-In Today at San Francisco’s City Hall

Lincoln looked appalled

Your fearless reporter Rolling Crone flew into San Francisco last night, and with her morning coffee today read the following  headline in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Nudists Hope City Hall Protest will Get them Cited”

The article began:

“Getting naked in public will be illegal in San Francisco starting Friday.  How will the ‘Naked Guys” –and gals- commemorate the day?  Hint: not by putting their pants on.

“No, they’ll stage a protest of the city’s new ban at noon on the steps of City Hall.  And naturally, they’ll do it au naturel.

“Their goal, it seems, is to get cited by police officers so they can head back to court with the claim that their right to protest politically is being violated.  U. S. District Judge Edward Chen on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit by the nudists attempting to overturn the city’s new ban on genital exposure, but he did say they could return to court if the city enforced the ban in a way that stifles a political message.”

 Since Rolling Crone is staying in a hotel near City Hall, she asked her equally fearless daughter Marina, who promised her on an insider’s tour of the city, to pass by City Hall to see the fireworks.  They drove up right behind a police van which pulled over and  escorted the only completely nude demonstrator in sight into the van.  He was a white haired and bearded gentleman who had, to paraphrase what  David Niven said when a naked streaker  broke into the televised Oscar program, extremely small assets to display.

Cops looked grim and demonstrators chanted loudly and profanely.  The most innocuous chant was: 

“Don’t Arrest, Cite and Release.”  Which is what the police did.  They escorted the completely nude gentleman to their van, issued him a citation and let him go, as they did to anyone else who had exposed genitals.  The almost-nude protestors were not harassed. 

Daughter Marina, who lives in San Francisco, strongly felt that nudity should be allowed.  Your faithful reporter, Rolling Crone, who has seen hundreds of naked bodies of all sizes, shapes and sexes while taking many figure drawing classes, pretty much agrees with daughter Marina.  Rolling Crone also feels, as a 1963 graduate of Berkeley and a veteran of demonstrations on more serious subjects, like capital punishment,  that the police acted with  admirable restraint and tact today.

But she also felt that some of the nudists should show equal tact and share their bodies only with friends and family.  And stick to warm climates like San Francisco.  (Can you imagine a similar demonstration among the snows of Boston?”

Stay tuned for more breaking news from San Francisco as the entire city hunkers down and most stores and companies close for Superbowl Sunday.     

Voting for Celebrities and Their Eye Glasses

Three years ago I wrote a post about my ill-fated attempt to copy Sarah Palin’s eyewear.  While I wasn’t a fan of her political views, I sure did like her rimless glasses.  My eye doctor had given me a new prescription.  He said I had the beginning of cataracts and needed prisms in the lenses and some sort of special film on them to improve my increasingly poor night-driving vision.

When I went to the optician and said, with some embarrassment, that I wanted glasses like Palin’s, he remained calm, although he later told me that opticians all over the country were then frantically contacting each other to track down that very thing.  He said that Sarah had provided a terrific boon for Kawasaki (“like the motorcycles”), the Japanese company that produces her eyewear. 

When he added up all the special stuff I needed, those glasses came to $465.  Ouch!  I soon posted the sad saga of how I took my glasses to an art class at night, got out in the middle of a blizzard and lost them. After searching in the parking lot for an hour I drove home with one eye shut and returned the next morning to find my chic new glasses had been crushed by a snow plow.

 Now once again a political woman and her glasses are making news.  Hillary Clinton is wearing dark-rimmed glasses, and we are told this is the result of the concussion and blood clot she suffered recently.  Like me, she has to have expensive prisms in her lenses to prevent her from seeing double. Many say the glasses give her increased gravitas and a more imposing air, but I feel her pain at having to give up her contacts.  We all know that men seldom make passes at  girls who wear glasses.

I empathize with Hillary’s plight.  With one very near-sighted eye and the other very far-sighted, the only way I can avoid seeing double is with ultra thick lenses, and even then I do a lot of praying while driving at night, because the glare of oncoming cars wipes out my vision of the road.  (I was born with a lazy eye and had to go to kindergarten wearing John-Lennon style granny glasses over an eye patch on my left eye!)

 Some celebrities, like Tina Fey and Meryl Streep, look good in their conservative. sexy-librarian glasses.  Other celebrities, like Elton John and Lady Gaga, choose to bite the bullet and flaunt the most outrageous specs they can find.  In fact, I believe Lady Gaga has designed a whole line of eyewear-- but I don’t think either Hillary or I will be wearing her creations any time soon.

 Last month I went back to my optician—the one who had suffered through the Palin glasses mania—with a brand new prescription for dark glasses, stronger than before, to correct my double vision while driving in the daytime.  I told him I was thinking of switching political parties and going for something sort of Jackie Kennedy.  (Back in the sixties, both Jackie and I lived in New York and bought our over-sized dark glasses from Meyrowitz.)

 He knew just was I meant. The price was painful, but the glasses were ready in time for our trip to Nicaragua, and I happily wore them everywhere, even in the pool.  (As you can see, it was very windy which scared granddaughter Amalia, especially when the wind blew the lounge chairs into the pool.)

I went back to thank my optician for putting up with my vacillating between political parties when it comes to my style in specs.   But he didn’t listen.  He  was distracted, worrying if he had enough stock to deal with the expected rush on Tom Ford Marko Aviator glasses like those worn by Daniel Craig in the latest James Bond movie Skyfall.

Nicaragua: Silent Smiles, Hammocks & William Walker

Knowing that I am in Granada, Nicaragua with my husband, visiting daughter Eleni, her husband Emilio and their 16 month-old  daughter Amalia , my friend Evi Adams, who lives in Israel, sent me the following from the magazine Journeywoman:

CAFE OF SMILES IN GRANADA, NICARAGUA - Writes Regina in Cuenca, Ecuador - I recommend Café de las Sonrisas or Cafe of Smiles, a small restaurant behind the Hammock shop near the square in Granada, Nicaragua. It is run by a deaf and physically challenged staff. Adding to the serenity of the quiet courtyard restaurant lined with hammocks, is the fact that not a single word is spoken. In fact, not a single word will be spoken by your waiter for the entire time you're at the cafe because they can't speak. The Cafe de las Sonrisas is the first coffee shop in the Americas, and the 4th in the world to be run entirely by deaf people. You might think it would be difficult to communicate with a deaf mute waiter, but it's actually quite easy and educational. You're shown to your seat and your menu has an explanation of how things work, along with some helpful photo illustrations of a few commonly used phrases in sign language like "thank you," and "please," and "I would like. .. " If you're not up for the signing, you can just point to the photos in the menu; it's really that simple. And the coffee? It's great and the food is incredible.

So today Eleni, Amalia and I headed off this morning to Café de las Sonrisas, a short walk from their home.

 The sign outside the door promised “great coffee and an unforgettable experience” 

 

 One wall was lined with the hand signals for sign language. 

 

 Amalia was fascinated with the inner courtyard and all the hammocks 

  Each table had stickers to point to with useful phrases (like “bill” and “toilet”)
 

 The trees in the inner courtyard were hung with photos of smiles.

  Amalia and our waitress had no trouble communicating. 

She loved the banana pancakes and we loved the tropical juice drinks.

 She quickly made a friend – a girl of three who spoke both English and Spanish.

 There were child-sized hammocks too—but Amalia was wary. 

We looked in at the adjoining hammock wokshop.  Some of the workers had heir children with them because it’s school vacation time.

A tree was hung with doll-sized hammock.

 Besides the restaurant and hammock workshop, the building serves as a social center for people who have any difficulties such as deafness—helping them in four areas: education, health, infant and mother care and social interaction.   It’s called Tio Antonio.

On one wall leading to the restaurant is a mural illustrating the history of Granada.  A central figure is William Walker with the hangman’s noose around his neck.  He was an evil, colorful American adventurer who tried to take over Nicaragua (and several other countries)  as his private kingdom, importing his own mercenary soldiers.  His saga is worth looking up.  Here’s the first paragraph about him from Wikipedia:

William Walker (May 8, 1824 – September 12, 1860) was an American lawyer, journalist and adventurer, who organized several private military expeditions into Latin America, with the intention of establishing English-speaking colonies under his personal control, an enterprise then known as "filibustering." Walker became president of the Republic of Nicaragua in 1856 and ruled until 1857, when he was defeated by a coalition of Central American armies, principally Costa Rica's army. He was executed by the government of Honduras in 1860.

Walker wanted to re-introduce slavery to Nicaragua, for one thing.  Here’s more of his story from Wikipedia:

Walker took up residence in Granada and set himself up as President of Nicaragua, after conducting a fraudulent election. He was inaugurated on July 12, 1856, and soon launched an Americanization program, reinstating slavery, declaring English an official language and reorganizing currency and fiscal policy to encourage immigration from the United States. Realizing that his position was becoming precarious, he sought support from the Southerners in the U.S. by recasting his campaign as a fight to spread the institution of black slavery, which many American Southern businessmen saw as the basis of their agrarian economy. With this in mind, Walker revoked Nicaragua's emancipation edict of 1824. This move did increase Walker's popularity in the South and attracted the attention of Pierre Soulé, an influential New Orleans politician, who campaigned to raise support for Walker's war. Nevertheless, Walker's army, weakened by an epidemic of cholera and massive defections, was no match for the Central American coalition. On December 14, 1856 as Granada was surrounded by 4,000 Honduran, Salvadoran and Guatemalan troops, Charles Frederick Henningsen, one of Walker's generals, ordered his men to set the city ablaze before escaping and fighting their way to Lake Nicaragua. An inscription on a lance reading Aquí fue Granada ("Here was Granada") was left behind at the smoking ruin of the ancient capital city.^[12]

Granada’s Merced Church, which we pass every day, is an active church but still shows the scars of  Walker’s attempt to burn the city in 1856.