When the Lights Go Down in the City, and the Sun Shines on the Bay

For the past couple of days I have been in San Francisco, which can help explain the paucity of posts around here and their relative lack of quality. (I said relative lack of quality.) San Francisco is one of those cities, like New Orleans or New York, that no matter where you are in it, you always know immediately what city you're in: the hills, the architecture, the crowds, the flowers in your hair. Right outside my hotel, little cable cars climb halfway to the stars.

Anyway, it was nice to spend a few days in one of America's most beautiful cities, although, really, all American cities are beautiful in their own way. Except for Troy, New York, which is an absolute pit.