Seen:
A girl about 4 years old, wearing a pink dress with a full skirt, running down the sidewalk. She was followed by a man wearing a suit, top hat, and handlebar moustache, carrying a balloon, after dark on a street in St Francis Wood

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It reminded me of Herr Drosselmeyer and Clara, except for the fact that they were walking down a street in San Francisco, and not, say, in a ballet production onstage.

"Help yourself."
--The message written on a scrap of paper in front of 5 two-liter bottles of "Pepsi One," sitting curbside on Ellsworth St.

Seen:
Near midnight in a cafe in Berkeley tends to be a great place to meet... really, really crazy people. Tonight, for instance, was "Strange People With Newspapers" night at Sufficient Grounds. (Oh, sure, it might not have been officially that, but it certainly felt like it was.)
For instance, we had:

--Strange man #1, who was reading the paper quietly enough, both hands above the table, except for he made a loud "Mmmmmmmuuuummmmhhh!" noise every time he turned the page.

--Strange man #2, who was slowly tearing each newspaper page in half, and then folding those halves into eighths, and then stacking those like Jenga blocks.

--And strange man #3, who circled the words "Cisco Routers" in the business section -- again and again and again, while carrying on a conversation with himself about how he had a lot of reading to do before bedtime.

Seen, on a dark December afternoon:
A man walking down Telegraph Ave with a woman on each arm. Not just any women though -- they seemed to be drop outs from Bond girl school who had found refuge at the Playboy mansion. Clad in 70's sunglasses, bikinis, and fur coats... you get the idea.
The beautiful part was, everyone was gawking at the fact that there was camera following them, and not at the three themselves.
Ah, Berkeley.

Seen:
A large semi truck, pulling two trailers behind it, stacked 15 feet high with Christmas trees, bundled and bound for some lot by the side of the freeway.

---

And I wonder, if such things were always the sign of the start of the holiday season.

Seen:
An ad for a "Do it yourself" storage place -- you know, the kind that's just basically rows of tiny garages -- boasting "climate controlled areas for wine storage."
Sheesh, only in Marin.

Seen: Two women, identical twins about 65 years old, with matching 1940's era hairstyles, prim green suits, grey shopping bags, and leopard print jackets, walking in step near Union Square in SF

Seen:
Your typical Berkeley street punk kid, 17 or 18, spiky hair, spiky jewelrey, tattoos, etc, standing on the balcony of Pauly ballroom... blowing bubbles, while 5 children playing on the plaza below ran shrieking and gigging below, trying to catch the bubbles.

"Be My Roommate!"
--Sign held by a girl on Sproul, looking desperately friendly, with posterboards behind her of what was presumably her apartment.

Seen: Two grocery bags filled with newish Converse tennis shoes of all sizes, styles and colors, sitting on the curb on parker st.