Do you remember Mike Bacsick?
He was the unfortunate pitcher that pitched the ball that Barry Bonds smashed to create the all time baseball home run career-record, or words to that effect. (See B).
The latest news is that a certain New Yorker, Matt Murphy, caught the ball and now is planning to auction the sphere online. This is reportedly not because he is a money grabbing opportunist but because he needs to pay his way through college, and since Barry Bond’s 715th ball was sold for 220 thousand dollars over half a million is expected and Mr Matt Murphy should be able to choose a good college.
Unfortunately neither Mike, Barry nor Matt begins with a Z so I can’t really use that fascinating titbit as anything more than an introduction.
Edward Galland Zelinsky however does have a surname beginning with a Z and he amassed a collection of antique automata which his son, Daniel Galland Zelinsky has inherited and displays for free in the Musee Mecanique which you can find tucked inside an old wharehouse down at the end of Fisherman’s Wharf past the steam of the open air sellers of crab, mussel and clam.It’s a fairly arbitrary collection, including at least three “laughing policeman”-type attractions but as a reminder of how amusement arcades once looked it is fascinating.
But Z belongs to Zero Emission Vehicles, something you will see emblazoned on the back of many of San Francisco’s trolley Buses.
Muni, the San Francisco Municipal Railway, founded in 1912, has targeted the year 2020 to be an emission free transit system, and the Zero Emission vehicles that you see on the street are an important step towards this achievement. It is an admirable goal but I do find myself asking how the trolley bus can be called a Zero Emission Vehicle, running as it is on electricity. How is this electricity generated and is that production emission free?
Still as you cycle along behind one of these busses there are no toxic fumes emitted which in itself is a joy. It is also fun watching the driver leave the vehicle and reposition the antennae-like receivers at the back of the vehicle when they jump from their place on the overhead cables, something that seems to happen fairly often. It’s a contradictory thing that inside the bus the drivers often seem grumpy and bad tempered but whenever they are outside repositioning cables they are friendly and conversational.
Apart from the Zero emissions the Muni bus system has two other brilliant features. Firstly, the fare for an adult is fixed at one dollar fifty and that includes a ticket that allows you to transfer to another bus within the following two hours. Secondly, each bus has a push down carrier on the front that allows you to store up to two push bikes; so you can ride all day in one direction and when you are two knackered to continue you can put the bike on the front of the bus and ride back.
Unfortunately you must have the exact change to pay for the ticket otherwise you risk the wrath of God and toxic fumes from the driver.
And I wouldn’t dare to use the bike rack without a bit of practice first.
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