The person who was killed on Christmas Day by a Siberian tiger named Tatiana at the San Francisco Zoo was an as-yet unidentified 17-year-old boy from San Jose. Tatiana was killed by police while mauling one of the victims in the Terrace Cafe, which is located 300 yards from the tiger enclosures. The Terrace Cafe is familiar to anyone who has taken their children for rides on the Little Puffer Steam Train just a few yards away. Lora LaMarca, a zoo spokeswoman, said this morning that officials still have no idea how the animal escaped from its grotto, which...
In the Richmond
All about my neighborhood, the Richmond district of San Francisco.
Time to Cancel Your Zoo Membership?
We’ve been members of San Francisco Zoo for the past three years, and I go there frequently with my young child. But after a patron was killed at the zoo and two others critically injured by a tiger today, I’ll be reluctant to return. The man who was killed was outside the tiger, Tatiana’s, enclosure, while the two other men were eating in a cafe when they were attacked. A zookeeper was mauled last year by the same tiger. The San Francisco Zoo is an urban zoo, set in the middle of residential neighborhoods out by San Francisco’s Ocean...
bleak picture
Beachgoers in the Bay Area have been seeing seabirds covered in oil after a container ship rammed into the Bay Bridge, spilling 58,000 gallons of fuel oil. Fuel oil, which is “what’s left after oil is refined for gasoline,” is notoriously hard to clean up. The spill could have serious long-term consequences for fish, birds and plant life in and around the bay, said Keren Murphy, a Sierra Club expert on offshore drilling and fishing. “Oil is extremely toxic to marine life, even at low concentrations or small spills,” Murphy said. “On top of that, in an enclosed bay...
Waitress
Adrienne Shelly’s weirdly wonderful Waitress is now playing at the Balboa. At first, I thought this might be another misguided foray into Southern stereotypes (as a native of Alabama, movies in which non-Southerners attempt Southern accents always put me on guard), but within the first five minutes of the film I was fully invested in the ride. Keri Russell plays a woman who is impregnated by her maniacally controlling husband. She sees her pregnancy as a trap, and throughout the movie she eschews the warm fuzzy feelings that expectant mothers are supposed to have. There’s a delightfully off-kilter play-like...
Cole Valley Street Fair
I took a turn signing books at the Booksmith booth at the Cole Valley Street Fair today. Thanks to everyone who came by and said hello! My friend Ellen Sussman, editor of Bad Girls, was also there. You can see her on The Today Show on Tuesday. The fair’s still going on. Some great stuff for sale, including jewelry and glasswork by local artisans. I particularly liked the bags by Janine Marie and the beautiful necklaces by Blue Wild Indigo. My son was really into the balloon guy. The full author line-up is here. You might also want to...
The international bestseller about one woman’s search for a missing child…
"Mesmerizing." ~Library Journal, starred review.
Stop dreaming, start writing!
