A little Ides of March curmudgeon-osity

1. I know deadlines are tough in the daily newspaper bidness, but would be nice to have some basic facts straight. Today's SF Chronicle, Christopher Heredia undermines a very good article on Lake Merritt development by putting an incorrect statement in his lead sentence:

"The long-sought long-planned rejuvenation of Oakland's natural jewel -- Lake Merritt..."

Too bad because the rest of the article is quite good, but Lake Merritt (known as Merritt's Lake for many years until it was actually, formally named) is an artificial tidal lake, donated, dredged, and built by Dr. Samuel Merritt (who got it from Sr Peralta, whose land it was originally), in order to keep San Pablo Ave -- also land granted by Sr Peralta -- from flooding in the winter rains, it being used to drive livestock north to the railhead.


2. Jon Carroll -- I am a regular reader and a long-time fan (going all the way back to one of his articles in RAGS in 1972 or thereabouts) even of -- and perhaps especially of -- his cat columns, so I'm not actually correcting an incorrect statement, but merely adding some background aspects of that info, which lack of space, no doubt, prevented from being included (it was not the subject of the column, merely the introductory premise) ---

In writing about Easter and Eggs and Bunnies, he points to those two traditions -- which have nothing to do with Jesus -- as holdovers from the ancient Spring Festivals. True enough.

The eggs -- definitely springtime-ish, but going back to Passover Dinner (The Last Supper) and the tradition of eating eggs because egg-laying fowl were not yet domesticated in any meaningful way, so that time of the year was the ONLY TIME the local birds laid eggs -- once a year.

The bunnies -- when Christianity was marketing its eternal plan, its biggest competition was ISIS worship. SO putting OUR resurrected-from-the-dead god up against THEIRS (OSIRIS) needed a hook.

One big one was no need to kill/sacrifice your best livestock on the altar, but still... Fertility?

Ahh, not really -- OSIRIS, the Brand X Risen-from-the Dead Zombie God was always identified as the rabbit. (I actually originally went to a source on that one -- the author of an encyclopedia of occult beliefs, and asked him "Why the rabbit?" I don't know if it's true, but it's authoritative, and as Jon Carroll can -- and often does -- tell you, those two are NOT necessarily the same thing.


3. Not any misiniformation in this article the Chronicle today except for the idiotic vicious homicidal misinformation politicians spout, i.e. people who get off on weird a form of sex they may consider oral since it involves mouthing insane platitudes for personal gain.

The article by Bob Egelko and Jim Herron Zamora is about Angel Raich, (see also an archival list of articles about this court case) an Oakland woman who an appeals court has ruled has no right to use Medical Marijuana even if it is all that keeps away pain and death. I commend the two writers for their objectivity (i.e., not just flipping out and advocating lynch law for the judges).

On the other hand -- it should have been on the front page, but that's the doing of the editors, not the writers.

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