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45-682: Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza ended his second northward expedition at the lake, stopping for two days in 1776. While here he located a site for the Spanish presidio that was later built. A plaque was placed in September 1957 near the point where he stayed. Fill taken from the cut to build the MacArthur Tunnel was dumped near Mountain Lake during the construction of the Funston Avenue approach to

90-455: A special Pulitzer Prize (which he called his Pullet Surprise) for "extraordinary and continuing contribution as a voice and conscience of his city." (Fellow Chronicle columnist Art Hoppe , who had sworn an oath with Caen twenty-five years earlier not to accept a Pulitzer, released him from the oath without being asked.) The following month doctors treating him for pneumonia discovered he had inoperable lung cancer . He told his readers: "In

135-435: A dumping ground for unwanted pets, including crawdads, large-mouth bass, goldfish, carp, bullfrogs, turtles, and even an alligator, which was discovered and removed in 1996. A variety of birds can be observed around the lake's water, including California seagulls and ducks . On the eastern and southern sides of the lake, native plants have been planted. The aquifers under Mountain Lake feed Lobos Creek . In October 1996,

180-445: A greeting card. Another famous animal resident of Mountain Lake was Myrtle, a non-native whooper swan who was flightless after being pinioned . Myrtle was well known in the neighborhood for disrupting traffic while crossing Lake Street and stealing snacks from the nearby Lake Market at 12th and Lake. Other antics included visiting regular park patrons, watching tennis players, and attending picnics. San Francisco Zoo officials believed

225-739: A lightning flash I passed from the world of the well to the world of the unwell, where I hope to dwell for what I hope is a long time. The point is not to be maudlin or Pollyanna cheerful. This is serious stuff."  June 14, 1996, was officially celebrated in San Francisco as Herb Caen Day. After a motorcade and parade ending at the Ferry Building , Caen was honored by "a pantheon of the city's movers, shakers, celebrities and historical figures" including television news legend Walter Cronkite . Noting that several San Francisco mayors (sitting or retired) were at liberty to attend, Caen quipped, "Obviously,

270-644: A male alligator, 3 feet 2 inches (0.97 m) in length, was removed from Mountain Lake by San Francisco Zoo associate curator John Aikin. The alligator, nicknamed "Golden Gator" by a reader poll in the San Francisco Examiner over other potential names such as "Van Nessie", "Presidio Domingo", "Purse Futura", "Boots", "Chewmanchew" and "Darth Gator", was first reported by a retired architect and birdwatcher, Dan Bushnell, in August 1996. Neighborhood rumors, which had been circulating for weeks by August, said

315-682: A radio programming column for the San Francisco Chronicle . When that column was discontinued in 1938, Caen proposed a daily column on the city itself; "It's News to Me" first appeared July 5. Excepting Caen's four years in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II and a 1950–1958 stint at The San Francisco Examiner , his column appeared every day except Saturday until 1990, when it dropped to five times per week ‍—‌"more than 16,000 columns of 1,000 words each ... an astounding and unduplicated feat, by far

360-764: Is a widely used neighborhood gathering place. The Friends of Mountain Lake Park and the Recreation and Park Department organize regular park cleanups and plantings. Juan Bautista de Anza Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.133 via cp1102 cp1102, Varnish XID 89315369 Upstream caches: cp1102 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Fri, 29 Nov 2024 08:34:56 GMT Herb Caen Herbert Eugene Caen ( / k eɪ n / ; April 3, 1916 – February 1, 1997)

405-603: Is at the southern tip of the Presidio of San Francisco and just south of the Presidio Golf Course. It is one of the last natural lakes in San Francisco and the only natural lake in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area . The only natural freshwater lakes in San Francisco are Pine Lake , Lake Merced , and Mountain Lake. In 1897, water from the lake was used to irrigate the newly built golf course at

450-564: The Golden Gate Bridge in 1939. The fill was used to compress marshy lands but also reduced the size of the lake. The US Army imposed conditions on the approval of construction permits through the Presidio, including requiring the drainage of runoff from the Funston Avenue approach into Mountain Lake, rather than onto Presidio lands. Mountain Lake is a 4-acre (1.6 ha) body of water east of State Route 1 (Park Presidio Boulevard). The lake

495-464: The Grand Jury hasn't been doing its job."   Among other honors a promenade along the city's historic bayfront Embarcadero was christened "Herb Caen Way..."   —a reference to what Caen called his "three-dot journalism" for the ellipses separating his column's short items. This was particularly appropriate given the recent demolition of an eyesore against which Caen had long campaigned:

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540-580: The Vatican 's spokesman on the evils of rock 'n roll , Cardinal Rapsong. Among the colorful personalities making periodic appearances in Caen's columns was Edsel Ford Fung , whose local reputation as "the world's rudest waiter" was due in no small part to Caen, who lamented his death in 1984: SOME WOE around Sam Wo , the skinny three-story restaurant on Washington near Grant. Waiter (and one-time part owner) Edsel Ford Fung, who became famous for berating and insulting

585-666: The Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District to Mountain Lake Park after seeing her being harassed by a group of young men. Myrtle was transported from the park to the Zoo in February 1992 to convalesce from an apparent bite wound on the neck, possibly caused by dogs or raccoons. Myrtle's removal to the Zoo was preceded by the removal of two swans from the park in 1991. While visibly ill in June 1997, Myrtle

630-525: The Park to which all neighbors are invited. The park has two meadows, one larger than the other. The large meadow is widely used for picnics, team soccer and lacrosse practice, and general relaxation. Users can reserve most of the facilities in the park by obtaining a permit from the Recreation and Parks Department. At the eastern end of Mountain Lake Park, inside 8th Avenue, is an area set aside for owners to take their dogs off leash for exercise and socialization. It

675-495: The Presidio, dropping the water level from its original 30-foot (9.1 m) depth. Park Presidio Boulevard was constructed for the Funston approach directly over the western shore of the lake, which reduced the size of the lake as well. Since runoff from the Funston approach was directed into the lake, golf course pesticides and lead emissions from cars burning leaded gasoline were dumped into the lake over many years. The lake also became

720-739: The State's awful vengeance, no holdup man ever again killed a shopkeeper? You bet. On December 12, 1960, Caen wrote: While you're making out your Christmas cards, you might remember to send one to Francis Gary Powers , c/o American Embassy, Moscow, USSR. Let him know that U-2 haven't forgotten. Powers received almost a hundred cards, most from the San Francisco Bay Area. In many articles, Caen would write about local San Francisco Bay Area topics such as local mansions and restaurants. A collection of essays, Baghdad-by-the-Bay (a term he'd coined to reflect San Francisco's exotic multiculturalism)

765-432: The alligator using a call he learned from his father, but the alligator did not respond. While at the Zoo during the second day to strategize, Long mentioned that he had never been to a major league baseball game, which was misreported by a local television station that he was at a ballgame while the alligator made an unexpected appearance in the lake. The afternoon of the second day, Bronstein and Opatrny were turned back from

810-597: The alligator was dumped by a former owner. The hunt for the alligator quickly became a good-natured publicity contest between the city's two daily newspapers, the Chronicle and the Examiner . The Chronicle attempted to catch the alligator along with officials from the National Park Service and Zoo curators, but received ridicule from professional alligator hunters, who said the apparatus that had been used (a salmon net)

855-1012: The block where it wanted to build its headquarters. Dr. Zhivago director David Lean was in town. Meanwhile, "Mike Connolly is ready to concede that the situation in Vietnam is complex: 'Even my cab driver can't come up with a solution. ' " Caen had considerable influence on popular culture, particularly its language. He coined the term beatnik in 1958 and popularized hippie during San Francisco's 1967 Summer of Love . He popularized obscure‍—‌often playful‍—‌terms such as Frisbeetarianism , and ribbed nearby Berkeley as Berserkeley for its often-radical politics. His many recurring if irregular features included "Namephreaks"‍—‌people with names ( aptronyms ) peculiarly appropriate or inappropriate to their vocations or avocations, such as substitute teacher Mr. Fillin, hospital spokesman Pam Talkington, periodontist Dr. Rott, piano teacher Patience Scales, orthopedic specialist Dr. Kneebone, and

900-446: The cold weather might spell the creature's doom, the Examiner reassured readers that as long as it truly was an alligator, not a caiman, it would survive the winter in San Francisco. Both the Chronicle and Examiner were criticized for drumming up too much publicity, which made catching the alligator more difficult, and for wasting resources on covering a relatively unimportant story. After his removal from Mountain Lake, Golden Gator

945-517: The customers, all with tongue in cheek , died Tuesday at age 55, and the skinny old eating place is in mourning. The wondrously named and actually quite charming Edsel was the son of Fung Lok, a former owner of Sam Wo, who named his sons Edsel, Edmund and Edwin‍—‌after the first names of the Caucasian doctors who delivered them. Edsel, always a fellow with a flair, added the Ford and hinted broadly that he

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990-446: The editor of a rival publication, was: his outstanding ability to take a wisp of fog, a chance phrase overheard in an elevator, a happy child on a cable car, a deb in a tizzy over a social reversal, a family in distress and give each circumstance the magic touch that makes a reader an understanding eyewitness of the day's happenings. A special Pulitzer Prize called him the "voice and conscience" of San Francisco. Herbert Eugene Caen

1035-530: The elevated Embarcadero Freeway , built astride the Embarcadero forty years earlier and derided by Caen as "The Dambarcadero."   A tribute was inserted in the Congressional Record. Caen continued to write, though less frequently. He died February 1, 1997. His funeral‍—‌held at Grace Cathedral despite his Jewish heritage ("the damndest saddest, most wonderful funeral anyone ever had, but

1080-476: The empty old buildings above them, the half-filled nightclubs and the overfilled apartment houses, the saloons and the skies and the families huddled in the basements, the Third Street panhandlers begging for handouts in front of pawn shops filled with treasured trinkets, the great bridges and the rattle-trap street cars, the traffic that keeps moving although it has no place to go, thousands of newcomers glorying in

1125-402: The longest-running newspaper column in the country."  A colleague wrote in 1996: What makes him unique is that on good days his column offers everything you expect from an entire newspaper‍—‌in just 25 or so items, 1,000 or so words   ... Readers who turned to Herb on Feb. 14, 1966, learned that Willie Mays ' home was on the market for $ 110,000. The Bank of America now owned

1170-410: The only man who could properly describe it isn't here," said close friend and local nightclub owner Enrico Banducci ) ‍—‌ was followed by a candlelight procession to Aquatic Park , where his will had provided for a fireworks display—climaxed by a pyrotechnic image of the manual typewriter he had long called his "Loyal Royal ". "No other newspaper columnist ever has been so long synonymous with

1215-418: The paper and I wouldn't know if I was dead or alive," adding that his obituary would be his last column: "It will trail off at the end, where I fall face down on the old Royal with my nose on the 'I' key." If I do go to heaven, I'm going to do what every San Franciscan does who goes to heaven. He looks around and says, "It ain't bad, but it ain't San Francisco." —Herb Caen In April 1996 Caen received

1260-460: The perimeter of the park. Many of these were renovated by San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department in 2009. There is a cinder block structure opposite the 9th Avenue entrance known by neighbors as the "card shack", which has picnic tables and is a popular location for birthday and neighborhood parties. Each year a neighborhood park support group, the Friends of Mountain Lake Park, organize a Party in

1305-585: The press, remains publicly anonymous. Caen took special pleasure in "seeing what he could sneak by his editors‍—‌his 'naughties, ' " such as this item about a shopper looking for a Barbie doll : " 'Does Barbie come with Ken ?' he asked the perky saleswoman. 'Actually no,' she answered slyly. 'Barbie comes with G.I. Joe ‍—‌she fakes it with Ken. ' "  On Sundays, current items were set aside in favor of "Mr. San Francisco's"   reflections on his unconditional love for his adopted city, musing on (for example): The crowded garages and

1350-405: The reeds and only approached to within 40 yards (37 m). Long cast his hook, but the alligator ignored it and went back under cover. Eventually, Long was unable to catch the alligator after three days of searching. As he was returning home, Long, who had previously toured local sights during his stay, expressed appreciation, regret, and confusion saying "San Francisco is the most beautiful city in

1395-454: The reptile first, as Long was noted to make his living by selling captured alligators for their hide and meat. Since there was no official alligator agency in California, Mayor Willie Brown gave verbal permission for Long to proceed. Long, a licensed alligator control agent, brought his own gator lures and gear, including a fishing pole and line with a triple hook. The first night, Long called

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1440-437: The sights and sounds of a city they suddenly decided to love instead of leave."   An occasional column was given over to serious matters, such as a May 1, 1960, piece on the upcoming execution of Caryl Chessman , which included Caen's recollection of witnessing a hanging as a young reporter: Suddenly the door behind the scaffold swung open and the nightmare scene was enacted in a flash. The murderer, his arms bound,

1485-487: The southern side of the lake and then continues east along the southern edge of the Presidio. The trail forks at the southeast corner of the lake as the other trail turns northward, weaving around the wilder eastern and northern sides of the lake before going under Highway 1. In addition to the playground and tennis courts already mentioned, there are other amenities. One of the oldest Parcourses (a " fitness trail ") in San Francisco (installed 1974) has exercise stations around

1530-447: The swan had imprinted on people sometime in the past. Her last human "mate" was local resident Chuck Lantz, who lives next to Mountain Lake Park. Shortly after dawn each morning Myrtle would loudly "whoop" at his back door, moving around the block and up his stairs until he responded and walked her back to the park. In 1992, Myrtle was noted to have resided at the park since at least 1985. A local transient claimed to have moved Myrtle from

1575-439: The water's edge by San Francisco Police Sgt. Mike Dempsey, who cited a city regulation prohibiting swimming in the lake. The second night, the crowds gathered around the lake and provided a sufficient distraction so the shy reptile did not appear. Long announced he was done for the night, but returned to the lake after midnight and the crowds had dispersed, with no luck. On the third day, the alligator made an appearance but stayed in

1620-481: The world. I can't wait to get home. And I don't believe I will ever understand the newspaper business." Longtime Chronicle columnist Herb Caen weighed in with two suggested names, "Da Croc" and "Herb Cayman." KBAE, a radio station in Horseshoe Bay, Texas broadcast frequent updates on the alligator and one of the listeners, Shelli Spruiell, wrote new lyrics to Elton John's song " Crocodile Rock " in homage. Worried

1665-529: Was a San Francisco humorist and journalist whose daily column of local goings-on and insider gossip, social and political happenings, and offbeat puns and anecdotes—"A continuous love letter to San Francisco" —appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle for almost sixty years (excepting a relatively brief defection to The San Francisco Examiner ) and made him a household name throughout the San Francisco Bay Area . "The secret of Caen's success", wrote

1710-511: Was again removed from the park to the Zoo without incident, and she was subsequently treated for lead poisoning and a fungal infection in her lungs. While the lake was being treated to remove lead in the sediment, Myrtle was moved in November 1997 to a temporary refuge at E and T Waterfowl, a ranch north of Sebastopol . A playground and tennis court are on the southern side of Mountain Lake. A hiking trail that starts at Funston and Lake weaves along

1755-738: Was born April 3, 1916, in Sacramento, California , to a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother, but he liked to point out that his parents‍—‌pool hall operator Lucien Caen and Augusta (Gross) Caen ‍—‌had spent the summer nine months previous at the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. After high school (where he wrote a column titled "Corridor Gossip") Caen covered sports for The Sacramento Union ; in later years he occasionally referred to himself as "the Sacamenna Kid." In 1936, Caen began writing

1800-451: Was credited to a mysterious "Strange de Jim," whose first contribution ("Since I didn't believe in reincarnation in any of my other lives, why should I have to believe in it in this one?") appeared in 1972. Sometimes suspected to be a Caen alter ego, de Jim (whose letters bore no return address, and who met Caen only once‍—‌by chance) was revealed after Caen's death to be a Castro District writer who, despite several coy interviews with

1845-426: Was hustled roughly onto the trapdoor, the noose was slammed around his neck, a black mask dropped over his unbelieving face, the trapdoor clanged open, the body shot through and stopped with a sickening crack. For an eternity, the victim twitched in spasm after spasm, and one by one the witnesses began fainting around me. "Doesn't hurt a bit," the warden had said. And from that day on, having been made properly aware of

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1890-451: Was published in 1949, and Don't Call It Frisco ‍—‌after a local judge's 1918 rebuke to an out-of-town petitioner ("No one refers to San Francisco by that title except people from Los Angeles")‍—‌appeared in 1953. The Cable Car and the Dragon , a children's picture book, was published in 1972. In 1993, he told an interviewer that he declined to retire because "my name wouldn't be in

1935-399: Was related to the auto family; an amused Henry Ford II made a special trip to Sam Wo to check out the rumor   ... By the way, there is no Sam Wo at Sam Wo. The name means something analogous to "Three Happiness," but there is only sadness there this week. Although Caen relied on "an army of reliable tipsters," all items were fact-checked. Now and then an item (usually a joke or pun)

1980-541: Was temporarily housed at the San Francisco Zoo in a heated pond, converted from a monkey cage in the primate center, where he was measured and sexed. In December 1996, Golden Gator was flown to New Orleans, where he was released into the 500-acre (200 ha) Freeport-McMoRan Audubon Species Survival Center managed by the Audubon Nature Institute . The alligator's departure from the Zoo was marked by cake and

2025-405: Was unsuitable and offered advice. One of the professional hunters, Jimmie Long, stated that he would be able to catch the alligator within 15 minutes and the Chronicle sponsored a trip for him and his wife to fly to San Francisco to hunt the alligator. The Examiner responded by sending executive editor Phil Bronstein and reporter Dennis Opatrny, outfitted in wet suits, to try to humanely capture

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