San Francisco

Some observations.

In the Haight: An upper window with the iconic Che Guevara picture in it. Just down the street is a window featuring the now iconic Barack Obama image. Barack is the new Che.

Just off Haight Street in Buena Vista Park: Two guys sharing a joint.

In the Castro: An upper window with a "No on 8" sign. Another window with a campaign picture of Senators Obama and Biden together at the DNC.

On the corner of Castro and Market: A Pottery Barn.

On Lyon Street: A "for sale" sign in front of a house. Calderoj checks his i-Phone to see how much. I guess $750,000 for the house. (I lowball). I'm close. $749,000 -- for an upper floor condo. 811 square feet.

You know you are in Chinatown when you see the laundry drying on the fire escapes. There's no gradual transition. Suddenly, you are just there. Cross Green Street going toward the water and suddenly you're in North Beach. There's nothing Chinese. Now it's Italian.

Downtown: Shoppers. All of the women wearing their skinny jeans tucked into Uggs. And scarves. Long mufflers. Lots of those long, puffy coats. I passed a woman wearing my Rebecca Taylor gray coat with faux fur collar from last year.

From our window you can see Nordstrom. For two days in a rown now there has been a demonstration agaist the Israeli attacks on Gaza, in the plaza across the street from the store. People marching with candles and Palestinian flags. On Sunday they shouted, "No peace without justice!" I couldn't make out what they shouted last night.