Paris Werewolves

Garter snake on the Monument des Droits de l’Homme, Champ-de-Mars, 7th Arr. Snakes and lizards--and at least one two-headed turtle--are a recurring motif around Paris. In some cases, they are baffling symbols, such as the garter snakes that adorn the Monument des Droits de l’Homme ("rights of man"), above. Then again the entire Monument, installed at the Champ-de-Mars in 1989 for the 200th anniversary of the Revolution, is a confusing mix of Masonic and Masonic-adjacent symbols--including the ouroboros snake eating its own tail, an occult classic. So random obfuscation may be part of the monument's theme, which may or may not be a commentary on the rights of man. The ouroboros of the Monument des Droits de l’Homme. Reptile symbolism is a bit clearer when used in classical motifs. For example, snakes routinely appear on medical symbols such as the caduceus and the rod of Asclepius (the Greek god of medicine). The façade of the 1808 Fontaine de Mars (La Fontaine du Gros-Cai...

Downtown San Francisco needs some love these days. A few not-so-hidden gems from, circa 2016. Above Le Central on Bush Street at Grant Ave., as French as it gets west of the Atlantic (with no apologies to Quebec and New Orleans). Ivy Street, Hayes Valley-Civic Center.

  East Village, Manhattan Dinosaur spotted in the East Village. Certainly not the Beast From the Seine , but maybe a cousin of another sauropod memorialized in the 7th Arr.'s architecture. Too similar to be a coincidence.

  Dis is gonna hoyt! Funny how six years in New York gave me very little appreciation of its architecture--besides that it occurred on a grand scale and that there was a lot of it. The day-to-day grind of living and working in the city partly explains this. When it's freezing rain or 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity, and you're trying not to get hit by a cab or trampled by crowds of shoppers, it's hard to notice the small gems that adorn the buildings. That and much of the city is hidden by scaffolding most of the time; when it goes up, it never seems to come down. You might notice some grandeur in off-moments, like the tops of the skyscrapers that robber-barons adorned for each others' envy, or the brick and masonry brownstones of lower Manhattan. But we lived in a "charming" 19th century walkup on Leroy Street, up four flights of crooked stairs, with paper thin walls, and slanting floors. Once a rainstorm knocked out the phone service to the building. Aft...

Tyrannosaurus Terrorizes Tower! Timorous Tourists Tremble! Ray Bradbury's 1951 short story "The Fog Horn"--inspiration for the cinematic masterpiece " The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms "--relates the age-old tale of a relict prehistoric beast's unrequited love for a lighthouse, and the destruction that ensues. Sadly, such occurrences are all too common.

  Sugar with her vintage AC Ace. Matching numbers unverified. Our new routine in the 7th Arrondissement occasionally takes us by Royal Automobile , a storefront broker-dealer of classic Jaguars, Porsches, Alfas, and other choice rides. It also acts as a modest shrine to America's greatest actor-Le Mans idols, Steve McQueen and Paul Newman. I noticed that several listings for sale in the window specified that the cars had "Matching numbers." For car collectors, matching numbers indicates that the vehicle contains original major components such as the engine, frame, and transmission--the very same ones that it had the very same day it rolled out of the factory for the very first time. This makes the car more valuable to some collectors, for some reason. What interested me more than the originality of the vehicles for sale (which does not interest me at all, since I do not collect, buy, sell, or underwrite vintage vehicles) was that except for the phrase "matching numbe...

  We moved. By itself, this isn't remarkable. We started the pandemic in Oakland, and in the interim, had two different apartments in San Francisco, and two in Paris. What's different is that this time we went against our instincts and moved towards the tourists. From our experiences in San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles, tourist areas tend to be the tackiest, most-over-priced, and dirtiest parts of town--and also the places where the food is the worst and you are most likely to be mugged or have your your car windows smashed for whatever "valuables" are inside (usually phone chargers and empty soda cups from what I can tell). So we always tried to avoid living near them--sometimes unsuccessfully. North Beach and the approach to Lombard Street failed notably on that score. But after about a year in Paris, it started to dawn on us that over here, tourists flock to (or are subtly steered towards) sites that are sources of French national pride or are symbolic of F...