Flutterby™! : Concert in the park 2003-09-05 22:56:08.394795+00

Concert in the park

2003-09-05 22:56:08.394795+00 by Dan Lyke 4 comments

For lunch today we all brought the makings of a picnic and trooped over to the San Francisco Symphony concert in the park. Some wonderfully tasty meats, cheeses ("roaring 40s" blue, and this incredible soft cheese that tasted like a really good limburger but didn't smell) and breads, assorted veggies, an illicit bottle of wine (which I forwent), good music (although I've started to be more conscious about details of rhythm and emphasis recently, and I can't say I always agreed with the conducting, but I'd need to listen to more and varied to make a strong statement), and unlike the paying attendees last night we got to hear all of the Stravinsky piece. If you didn't read all the way to the end of that story about the false alarm, the gag revolves around yelling "Firebird" in a crowded theater... I, alas, didn't have a lighter, so I couldn't hold it aloft and holler the requisite request.

On the way out of our building we noticed that this wheelchair is still chained to the lamp post on the sidewalk. So... the occupant parked it there to go into the bank? Maybe they come back and pick it up for rush hour begging? There's a story here, somewhere.

#Comment Re: Concert in the park made: 2003-09-06 01:18:53.190854+00 by: Diane Reese

Re: the wheelchair -- my guess is that, more likely, the occupant got into a car which did not have sufficient room to tote the wheelchair too, and plans to be driven back to pick it up later. The real question is, will it still be there tomorrow or next week?

#Comment Re: Concert in the park made: 2003-09-06 16:08:15.6617+00 by: petronius

Alternate explanation for the wheelchair: Some years ago Chicago's Loop was infested by chairbound young white people selling individual flowers for donations, sometimes ten or fifteen of them all over the district. One afternoon my wife was walking down a less traveled street and passed an alley tucked behind a $2.00 steak joint and under the Elevated tracks. She saw the cheery cripples walking about and loading their chairs into the back of a truck. We later saw the same truck parked next to a big house in our neighborhood belonging to the Unification Church. I should point out that, while the Moonies still have the house, we don't see them littering the pavement any more.

#Comment Re: Concert in the park made: 2003-09-06 17:04:45.042774+00 by: Dan Lyke

I think this is day 3, and it's a really nice wheelchair, so I'm not sure Diane's hypothesis makes sense.

I haven't been in the city early enough, but I'm told that if you get there about 4:30 or 5 you can watch the various "wheelchair bound" along Van Ness unload from their van.

#Comment Re: Concert in the park made: 2003-09-06 20:41:11.643388+00 by: Diane Reese

I retract my overly-optimistic-about-human-nature hypothesis, hopeless pollyanna that I am.

It's always possible that the former occupant has fallen somewhere and can't get up.