What used to be at 350 California at Sansome was the 160 foot tall Alaska Commercial Building
But in 1979 it was replaced by the 325 foot tall, 23-story California Building (aka Bank of Tokyo Building and the Union Bank Building).
All that’s left of the Alaska connection are these walrus gargoyles.
See?
I am the walrus, no, I’m the walrus, all day long
Look for these friendly critters the next time you’re in the area.
Our British Consulate-General has seen fit to send out Prime Minister David Cameron’s statement on the recent riots in London.
Here it is:
“I have come straight from a meeting of the Government’s Cobra committee where we’ve been discussing the action that we will be taking to help the police deal with the disorder in the streets of London and elsewhere in our country. I’ve also met with the Metropolitan Police Commissioner and the Home Secretary to discuss this further and people should be in no doubt that we will do everything necessary to restore order to Britain’s streets and to make them safe for the law-abiding.
Let me first of all completely condemn the scenes that we have seen on our television screens and people have witnessed in their communities. These are sickening scenes, scenes of people looting, vandalising, thieving, robbing, scenes of people attacking police officers and even attacking fire crews as they’re trying to put out fires. This is criminality, pure and simple and it has to be confronted and defeated. I feel huge sympathy for the families that have suffered, innocent people who have been burned out of their houses and to business who’ve seen their premises smashed, their products looted and their livelihoods potentially ruined. I also feel for all those who live in fear because of those appalling scenes that we’ve seen on the streets of our country. People should be in no doubt that we are on the side of the law-abiding. Law-abiding people who are appalled at what has happened in their own communities.
As ever, police officers have shown incredible bravery on our streets in confronting these thugs, but it’s quite clear that we need more, much more police on our streets and we need even more robust police action and it’s that that I’ve been discussing in COBRA this morning. The Metropolitan Police Commissioner has said that compared with the 6,000 police on the streets last night in London there will be some 16000 officers tonight. All leave within the Metropolitan Police has been cancelled. There will be aid coming from police forces up and down and the country and we will do everything necessary to strengthen and assist these forces that are meeting this disorder. There has already been 450 people arrested. We will make sure that court procedures and processes are speeded up and people should expect to see more, many more, arrests in the days to come. I am determined, the Government is determined that justice will be done and these people will see the consequences of their actions.
And I have this very clear message to those people that are responsible for this wrongdoing and criminality. You will feel the full force of the law. And if you are old enough to commit these crimes, you are old enough to face the punishments. And to these people I would say this. You are not only wrecking the lives of others. You are not only wrecking your own communities, you are potentially wrecking your own life too.
My office this morning has spoken to the Speaker of the House of Commons and he has agreed that Parliament will be recalled for a day on Thursday so I can make a statement to parliament and we can hold a debate and we are all able to stand together in condemnation of these crimes and we are able to stand together in determination to rebuild these communities. Now, if you will excuse me, there is important work to be done..”
“The British Consulate-General, San Francisco, is the United Kingdom’s diplomatic mission responsible for the Pacific Northwest (Northern California, Oregon, Washington State, Alaska, Montana, Idaho and Northern Nevada). The Consulate conducts all the political and economic reporting for the region, is responsible for economic trade and development, furthers science and educational opportunities and provides assistance to visiting British nationals.”
Well this is what the first visit of the Disney Wonder cruise ship looked like last week when she sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time…
Click to expand – Jimmy DeFlippo / Disney
… and this is what she looked like when berthed at Pier 35:
Since then, she made it all the way to Canada, where a drydock appointment waits.
Making friends already up North:
(I won’t bother asking why San Francisco gets less than its fair share of cruise business and why the Wonder couldn’t have drydocked in the 415…)
Anyway, Bon Courage Disney Wonder!
(Come back when you can.)
Thusly. Click to expand:
Empty tanker Polar Alaska heads out back up to I’ll-give-you-just-one-guess as full container ships arrive from East Asia.
Just another day in the busy 415.
An immaculate black FJ-40 Toyota Land Cruiser is the primary reason this Matrix Morpheus-looking dude just won SF HoTY ’09.
Just look at the details:
As seen on Fell Street. Click to expand.
Aging FJ-40 model (豊田 ランドクルーザー, Toyoda Rando-Kurūzā). Of course! Dude could buy a much newer Bland Cruiser (2009 price = $50k-something) instead of this (possibly amazingly expensive) torture box, but where’s the fun in that?
Alaska license plate: SURF. Of course! Our 50th state is the next frontier of surfing, don’t you know.
Right Hand Drive (RHD). Of course! Dude’s driving on the wrong side of the vehicle. Why? Why not?
Snorkel. Of course! Can you see the urban snorkel air intake standing up on the left side? Very handy when our streets are under five feet of water. Snorkle! Snorkle! Snorkle!
Original diesel engine. Of course! A Chevy small block would just drop right in, but where’s the fun in that?
No doors. Of course! How can people see your stylish shoes and socks with doors blocking the view?
The hat and the fogglasses (on a very dark summer day) put him over the top. Nobody could possibly best this fellow, that’s why he’s San Francisco’s Hipster of the Year, 2009.
Look what popped up on the website of the U.S. Army last week.
“Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin addresses the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division during their deployment ceremony Sept. 10, 2008. Gov. Palins’ son is one of the Soldiers deploying.”
U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Willard E. Grande. Click to expand
What a long strange trip it’s been!
College can take you anywhere, if you study hard enough.
Per the Cruise Hot Sheet, you can float out of San Francisco on a big modern liner, like the 2400-passenger Norwegian Sun, for just $599. This “Freestyle Cruise” starting in November 2008 goes on for 19 days, so that works out to a Cost Per Day (CPD) of just $31.53. Plus you’ll feel like you’re living in San Francisco’s District 2 at the 96-seat “Pacific Heights Restaurant” on Deck 11.
Passing by the Cliff House and the kiteboarders of Ocean Beach, The Norwegian Sun headed out yesterday for sunny Mazatlan, Mexico. Click to expand:
Now there are people living in the Tenderloin these days who are paying more than that just for a tiny studioapartment with no amenities at all. So going on a cheap “repositioning” voyage can be cheaper than living in San Francisco, if you believe the Innernet.
Bon Voyage!
A stealthy U.S. Air Force Lockheed Martin / Boeing F-22A Raptor fighter out of Elmendorf Air Force Base intercepts an extremely unstealthy Russian Tu-95 Bear bomber near Alaska’s Aleutian Islands on Thanksgiving Day, 2007. (This photo was not released at that time.)
Under the serious moonlight, click to expand:
The pricey Raptor program ($138 million each) had a few teething problems last year. One of which was a computer failure affecting multiple aircraft brought about by merely flying over the International Date Line.
At the international date line, whoops, all systems dumped and when I say all systems, I mean all systems, their navigation, part of their communications, their fuel systems. They were—they could have been in real trouble.
Them computers.
According to the airlines, via that lapdog of the Air Transport Association of America known as Stop Oil Speculation Now, there is a:
…force at work that, like gravity, is invisible yet powerful. This force is rampant speculation. Every time you buy products such as food or gas, you are impacted by unregulated, secretive and often foreign commodities futures markets. Speculators in these markets are increasingly buying and selling commodities such as oil even though they have no intention of using the product.
First of all, who wrote this copy? Bob Shrum? Second of all, Hillary Clinton didn’t intend to use all that sugar and eat those cows when she speculated in the commodities markets and nobody complained about that, right? Speculation is now supposed to be a bad thing?
Our corporate overlords are worried:
Could there be a more likely explanation for high prices for avgas? CBS News offers a few. Is it possible Bill O’Reilly might be wrong? Or, maybe all this talk of speculation being the cause of high fuel prices is just a Nixonian Fallacy.
Check it out and decide for yourself. Maybe you’ll agree that both you and the airlines are being victimized by those invisible, powerful, secretive, foreign forces.
The airlines have to come up with something to explain all those fees and surcharges, right?
I shift the blame
To the worm in the bottle
I shift the blame
To anyone standing before me
