April 27, 2013 Time

Turn Back, Turn Back, O Time In Thy Flight! This afternoon a shopkeeper, from whom I bought a lottery ticket, addressed me as 'Pops!' And routinely, as they have done for several years, young people offer me seats on buses and streetcars. I'm still not used to it.

March 25, 2013 True Friends

Today's fortune cookie says, "You will always be surrounded by true friends."

March 21, 2013 Ocean Beach

It's a sunny, brisk day, with a rather choppy sea off Ocean Beach. There are several parasailers off the Beach, a few of them rather farther from shore than I think they ought to be.

March 20, 2013 A Sign of the Times

A Sign of the Times, at the entrance to a parking lot on 9th Avenue near Irving: You can do amazing things. So do them.

March 16, 2013 A Sgn of the Times

Another Sign of the Times, outside a pub near Mission and 18th:
In wine there is wisdom.
In beer there is freedom.
In water there is life.

March 13, 2013 Pope Francis

It is significant that no other pope since St Francis's time ever (apparently) considered taking his name. This papacy is going to be interesting.

What Pope Francis did not wear on the balcony is also significant. He did not wear the red mozetta (shoulder cape) and with it the embroidered papal stole, that new popes usually wear at their first appearance. He put on the stole only when he gave his blessing, and took it off again immediately after. Strong signals of a new, simple style. We're not likely to see Pope Francis in the triple tiara.

I was leaning in the direction of the Archbishop of Milan, which is the direction that most speculation I was reading went. And now it transpires that Pope Francis had been runner-up to Benedict in 2005.

It is also interesting that he referred to himself as "Bishop of Rome"....I don't think he'll be wearing the very costly red shoes either.

 

 

 

March 2, 2013 Exotic Birds

Yesterday, I saw on Church Street a young man carrying two large exotic birds, cockatoos I think, one on his right shoulder, the other on his left arm. The birds were brilliantly colored, with red, green, blue, yellow and orange feathers. The bird on his shoulder nuzzled and nibbled at the young man's ear.