The Day The Street Lights Stayed On In San Francisco
On 7th Avenue, I pass the steeple of the Presbyterian Church: a pseudo-Pacifica-style affair from the late 1920s. Perched on each of the steeple’s filigrees sits a cadre of birds, unidentifiable in the wan, orange light. I am reminded of Samuel Pepys and the Great Fire of London. Pepys (pronounced “peeps”) is the diarist to end all diarists. He describes the inferno that decimated London in September of 1666 with moments of sublime tenderness directed at animal life (unfortunately, Pepys did not extend his spirit of generosity to the working classes of the city)....