Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Lost in translation
So says a sign in the historic Italian streetcar I took to work the other day (picture above; I particularly like the photo in the fog).
Not sure if this translation is accurate; here's the Italian, and maybe one of my Italian-speaking friends (Claudia, come on down!) can give us the real meaning of DURANTE LA MARCIA REGGERSI AGLI APPOSITI SOSTEGNI.
Or, for that matter: VIETATO SPUTARE, translated by alta vista babelfish as PROHIBITED SPUTARE. Gee, that's helpful. I'm guessing it's smoking? These streetcars, built in 1928 and used in Milan before being put into service on San Francisco's historic F Line, still have Italian advertising as well, decorating the walls above the ornate wooden benches. M&Ms tells us: IL GUSTO DI RIDERCI SOPRA, or THE TASTE TO LAUGH TO US OVER. Hmm.
There are several cool things about working in San Francisco, and one of them is riding these historic streetcars -- from Milan, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Moscow (haven't seen that one yet) and other cities. The line runs along Market Street, up the Embarcadero and loops around at Fisherman's Wharf. With my office being located in a somewhat unusual part of town for a business, the commute requires multiple modes of transportation -- one to get to the city, and once in the city, one to get from downtown over to my office. So it's ferry then streetcar, or BART then bus, or some variation of those things, with the occasional walk thrown in there (like the past two days...but I hate showing up at work sweaty).
The F Line is not really a problem in the morning, other than its schedule without rhyme or reason. Some days you wait 20 minutes for one car, and other days (like yesterday) there are two running back to back, within feet of each other. The main thing that sets apart the morning from the evening on the F Line is the blessed lack of tourists. It's spring break this week, and the streets around my office are teeming with the map-wielding Clueless from Out of Town. Harsh, perhaps, but when you can't even walk down the sidewalk, and when you are trying to get home after a long day of work and the folks packing the streetcar don't understand you need exact change, and there's a hefty person from Ohio or Wisconsin leaning his or her prodigious belly in to you as you try to quietly read and mutter under your breath...well, it's kind of annoying, and I hear it gets even worse in the summer. Oh joy!
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the line is a huge success, with 20,000 riders a day. But there aren't enough cars. No joke!
But in the mornings, before most of the tourists arise, it's just us commuters making our way to work. For $1, I get to ride in a decades-old piece of mass transit history, past the renovated Ferry Building, down the Embarcadero with its renovation in full tilt, past the occasional towering cruise ship at Pier 23, past the commercial excesses of Pier 39, and into the heart of Fisherman's Wharf. It's peaceful and fairly efficient, and a nice quirky way to start my day.
Just thought I'd share that. If you are a train dork, go to http://www.streetcar.org/ for more.
By the way, historic moment tonight: Lindsay's first feeding from a bottle. Two-thirds went down the gullet, one-third went down her chin and into the folds of her wrinkly neck (people really come full circle, don't they? you start out as a baby all wrinkly and hunched up, and 80 years later, right back where you started!). But overall, a success.
