Stupor Bowl

[Well, apart from a few new technological gewgaws, I can see I haven't missed much since I stopped watching football. Growing up with my jock of a mom, I learned the game watching the S.F. 49ers in their glory, and I don't care how good Baltimore's defense is, most of yesterday's game was dull as commercial real estate. (Oops, did I say that?)]

[I did like the Running of the Squirrels, though. Sorry, Marn. Though EDS, for whom my ex Ben worked, and with whom I had incidental contact at the Santa Barbara public health agency, is a sucky, big, Ross Perot-founded corporation. The biggest companies have the biggest ad budgets, I guess.]

[I only went so I could participate in my sister's first party since leaving the hinterlands of Solano County. Sis has a group of very cerebral, witty friends, who nevertheless did a good impression of sloths consuming copious amounts of beer and snax. You can take the intellectual of the trailer park, but...]

[I arrived at the Fruitvale BART station about 15 minutes early, however, so took the opportunity to walk along "International Boulevard," the heavily Latino section of Oakland's East 14th Street which is the district's main drag. This is what I imagine San Francisco's Mission District looked like ten years ago. Bridal shops, Chinese markets, street vendors hawking alien-looking popsicles, auto shops, real taquerias. Such vitality, and not a n upscale cocktail bar or empty storefront to be seen. Tres cool.]