He was about eighteen, pudgy, stoned; I wondered if he’d keel over in the BART car. But he managed to lurch upright when his Balboa Park stop came up, and that’s when I spotted the logo on his tote bag. Cannabis Cup. The big marijuana fest at the San Francisco Cow Palace. That explained it.…
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Scouting Honest Reviews Online
A quarter hour spent reading this post will inform you of my far-from-perfect approach to IDing legit reviews online. WHY IT MATTERS The press has finally paid some attention to bogus reviews; witness this article, describing the market for such prostituted praise on Fiverr. Such articles can persuade innocents that Something Is Being Done, that…
Tale of Three Prepaid Local SIM Cards
I fed data to my smartphone in Europe and Africa last month through prepaid local SIM cards bought at three airports: Turkcell in Istanbul, Vodafone in Budapest, Inwi in Marrakech1. I mostly camped happily with what I bought, and am encouraged to share my SIM swappin’ experiences by the blank stares beheld when yakking about…
The God of Mission Street
San Francisco’s brightest and most vital blocks may be on Mission Street. I include nearly every blood-throbbing centimeter between 25th and 22nd, then some of the homely and magnificent acres north and south. These blocks are only occasionally and accidentally pretty, and not a safe bet for some tourists. Attractive or not: San Francisco is…
Transit vs Car: a Few Conclusions
Posted on Author Tim AdamsPosted in Europe, Los Angeles MTA mass public transit environmentalism Red Line Purple Line Blue Line Green Line, Travel, Uncategorized
“You were mostly a stay-put teacher, Tim, and now (you lucky, worthless bum, Tim) you’ve chased trams and metros in cities around the world. How has this affected your transit views?” De-lighted you ask! * * * * * In Zurich, Copenhagen, Berlin, Vienna, Munich, Stockholm and Amsterdam I traveled on transit networks that struck me…
Dubai: First Impressions
(♦) Any Dubaian met by a run-of-the-mill tourist is likely to speak passable English. I started conversations in my native tongue, never felt presumptuous for doing so. If you aren’t run-of-the-mill and like to do odd things, you might wander far enough afield to meet locals who can’t savor great American artistes like Moe and…
Made the Law, Made a Loophole
I expected to be cheated in Argentina. Transparency International ranks the land of Menem and Maradona even lower on its 2014 Corruptions Perceptions Index than such exemplars of civic virtue as Mexico and Bolivia. Travel guides warned me that porteños applaud successful tricksters, celebrate a cynical, every-man-for-himself philosophy of viveza criolla. (“Made the law, made…
Better Marks for Muni
I log my Muni rides. Or have. In June I launched ‘muni log’ in a humble subdirectory of its own, and resolved that this imaginatively-titled file would collect my experiences aboard the city fleet in the months that followed. No longer would I gripe ignorantly about hordes of fare cheats slipping onto jammed buses. I…
Still More European Odds and Ends
… but ends and odds about different cities. This time the frequent-flying Bald One got to flash his now thoroughly broken in passport in London, Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam and Oslo. In order: London (♦) I regarded London as about the least hospitable city for cycling I’ve ever seen, but still saw some martyrs-on-wheels there anyway.…
Biking in Amsterdam
Amsterdammers are likelier to ride bikes to work than they are to drive, walk or take public transport. The city possesses more than three bikes for every car. More than half of traffic movement in the central city is by bicycle. I was vaguely aware of these impressive stats when I touched down at Schiphol…