Nob Hill

Quite recently, while vacationing in Hawaii, I had occasion to sit next to a talkative gentleman during the Happy Hour at the bar in our spa. Over my Mai Tai, I asked where he was from, he said “San Francisco.” I said that I loved that beautiful city but I generally found the people there a little off-putting. He agreed and said that he was a motorcycle policeman there and that, during one recent Gay Pride Parade, he was on duty when the “Act Up” float came by. At the rear of the float were two naked gay men engaging in the act that might well be emblazoned on its flag. A middle-aged couple (with small children) from the Mid-West shockingly asked him if he couldn’t do something about such public lewdness. He replied that his boss’s boss was a gay female and, if had he done so, it would be a career-ending act.

Now I see that San Francisco has a proposal that would ban public nudity for anyone over the age of five (see: ABC News Story for details). Now I have no idea whether such a sane and reasonable law would ever pass muster in Baghdad by the Bay. But I strongly believe that, if for some quirk of fate, it did become law … enforcing it would be next to impossible. After all, isn’t one of the promontories in San Francisco called “Nob Hill?”