Can You See the Beauty?

Weekends Were Made for Ponchos and Pork

The Vegan-Bacon Divide

Today I met up with Bryce Digdug for our weekly brunch at Carnivore, the posh restaurant at the Duck Creeke Inn on 22nd Street. Dinner at Carnivore is much too rich for my blood, but it's rare I miss brunch, usually ordering their signature dish -- ostrich eggs benedict with foie gras aspic. Bryce had the same but with a side of pan seared arugula.

Our usual discussion of art, Godard and cuckoo clock repair shifted to this week's election. Though overshadowed by national and state races, we both are curious about the impact of the passage of Proposition BK. Even the landmark Duck Creeke and Carnivore are direct in the line of fire of this controversial initiative that builds on the momentum of the recent banning of Happy Meals from San Francisco.

Proposition BK allowed each precinct in the city to set local regulations on the sale and distribution of animal products. The western Mission -- where Bryce lives and the Duck Creeke is located --will be completely vegan. Even Shoe Biz will be forced to sell nothing but synthetic footwear once the bill goes into effect in January. The Duck Creeke may be spared since it has historic landmark status.

Over in the eastern Mission where I live, Proposition BK failed 9-1. Almost every living room on our side of the arroindissement has deer antlers above the mantle, and all of the ubiquitous pick up trucks have gun racks. In neighboring Bernal Heights, most residents hunt and catch the plentiful wildlife and put it in their smoke houses for the long, wet San Francisco winters.
Life will go on as normal in our part of the Mission where you will find the beloved bacon maple lattes at Pirate Cat Radio or Dynamo Doughnut''s maple bacon doughnut and the famed cannibalistic pig cariceria, Belmar-La Gallinita, on 24th Street.

As a fan of tradition, I really worry about the future of the Duck Creeke. Opened in 1851, it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi until the Call Building was constructed in 1897. It was often called the Chelsea Hotel of the west, having served as the hide away of Fatty Arbuckle after that notorious night at the Saint Francis and was a refuge from LA for Fritz Lang, Bertolt Brecht, Peter Lorre and other German expatriates who found San Francisco's gloomy, foggy summers much more comforting than all that depressing sun and optimism in Hollywood.

Joplin, the Airplane and the Dead all took refuge there after the Summer of Love when boring kids from Orange County and Omaha destroyed all that had once made the Haight so wonderful. Ginsberg did not write Howl there, but he held his first press conference there.

What's not well known is the source of the Duck Creeke's name. It is literally on top of Duck Creeke, the underground estuary that begins at the eastern tip of Stowe Lake to China Beach where ducks are able to make safe passage through the busy neighborhoods of San Francisco without worry of being turned into soup in my part of the Mission or being run over by one of the countless psychotic MUNI drivers.

The creek was built secretly in the 1880s and funded by Meredith Cliff Linquist (whose father was developer Ernest Avrum Cliff, namesake of Sea Cliff), an early animal rights advocate and reputed lover of John Muir. She was concerned by the carnage of ducks hit by street and cable cars and funded this secret, safe passage for her feathered friends.

One can't help but wonder what will become of the Duck Creeke. It would see a bit odd to have the Carnivore shut down at a time when medicinal heroin is available over the counter at San Francisco's Walgreens right next to Airborne, and most hookah bars have opium vending machines.

Only time will tell the future of Carnivore and the Duck Creeke, but it seems we will live in a city divided, and there is even talk of building wall down the middle of South Van Ness, the dividing line between the bacon and vegan sides of the Mission.

Junk Thief Sez....

...our country will not find peace until our children stop thinking of peas, ham and milk. Imagine whirled soy. Or at least less pork.

Pork Product News

Bow said that she thinks she would prefer them for her dental routine more than her Greenies. They are available at Amazon. They list at $2.49 new and $.95 for used. Ew!

Can I Just Hibernate Until Mid-November?

Who Has Wings?

It's not very often I find something that brings me to tears, but hearing the radio broadcast of the PBS News Hour while wheeling down the 101 this afternoon did that. There was the tale of the Boyer family in Iowa and the plight of their 3,000 pigs in the recent floods. A tragic attempt to let them loose didn't work, and 300 of them were discovered later with initial euphoria that descended into further tragedy. It reminded me of the various reasons I don't eat pork, and this certainly reconfirmed it. I pass no judgment on Farmer Boyer who showed tremendous compassion for his livestock, and I feel great empathy for him as well. His ultimate decision was horrific but humane. It put might gripes about the current heat in San Francisco in proper perspective. There was a warning of the graphic nature of the story that was chilling just as audio. I don't know if I have the nerve to watch it when it airs in a half hour.

Concrete and Pork Art Terrorism

More than once I've heard people say that this blog is about as interesting as watching concrete dry. Yet, folks keep coming back, and even read and comment on entries as banal as these from last August and September where I chronicled my neighbors replacement of their concrete slabs and subsequent daily hosing of their prized new slab.

Well, this week we replaced our concrete slab. We had been tagged by the city for broken sections and were expected to incur all of the costs for what serves as a public sidewalk for the hundreds who walk across it every day with shopping carts, baby carriages and even cars from time to time when neighbors are too lazy to find a legal spot. Charging a toll for people to pass is not out the question now. This was a perfect example of a problem serving as an opportunity since we were able to enlarge two flower beds and add a third. Succulents, sand, rocks and neurotic grasses will follow.

However, look closely at the last couple of photos in this series. You will clearly see the graffiti spelling out "pork" which was not there when the sun went down yesterday. I strongly suspect that Bryce, Kusala or Salty Miss Jill were involved as the three horse people of the pork apocalypse. Since the latter two are several hundred of miles away I hope that they did not travel all the way to the Mission just to terrorize me. Since he lives in the same zip code, Bryce is currently our prime suspect. Watch out, Mr. Digdug, Junk Thief is on to you!

'This Is Not a Meat Blog' Visits Otavalo's Market

This is NOT a Meat Blog

Bryce Digdug recently misnamed this blog Junk Meat in a public place and, needless to say, turned a bright shade of red as he realized his gaff. Perhaps that is why pork and other mammal meat products just can’t seem to stop chasing poor Junk Thief, even in the land of salmon and blueberry pie, as you can see from the slide show below.

Many people who’ve been to Seattle’s Capital Hill know of the famed Dick’s on Broadway that has even been featured in a Sir Mix-a-Lot tune. However, how many of you have been driven there at midnight on a Wednesday night by Dick himself, owner of all five landmark Dick's Drive-Ins.

Kiss Junkster’s ring finger for being offered such an honor. He can’t go into too many details here but will offer that Dick proved to be a real gentleman and an intellectual dedicated to social change, ending homelessness and addressing racism. Those who really want details can email Junk Thief if you can’t wait to hear more.

Another meeting of a Seattle entrepreneur was with Allan, proprieter of The Great Wind Up in Pike Place Market, a really cool store with nothing but wind up toys, especially some great robots. He was introduced to Junk Thief by Salty Miss Jill, who far across the Rockies managed to unwittingly facilitate this convergence of two Pacific Coast bloggers.

Ain’t this internet thang just too much?

In My Neighborhood - Further Pork Products

"Every time a slice of bacon hits the skillet, a pig sprouts wings."
- Anon., 1878

In My Neighborhood - The Power of Pork Products

It seems that there is a circle surrounding poor Junk Thief who does not eat pork not so much out of his heritage but his realization that pigs are perhaps the most intelligent of barnyard animals who are greatly traumatized by their servitude to the churning knives and grinders of the world. No vegan, Junk Thief just has never submitted to the Four Pork Products of the Apocalypse despite the constant urging of Salty Miss Jill, Bryce Digdug and Kusala~Joe/Max to form the fourth corner of their incomplete quartet of pork consumption.

Are they behind the above flyer seen this afternoon at 22nd and Mission? Or is it a warning to be on the look out for these three? Perhaps, the Three Horse People of the Apocalypse seeking a rider for the fourth empty saddle on the pony that trails behind them? Please weigh in, if you dare, on this critical topic of our time. And may you live in interesting times.