"The Best of Herb Caen: 1960-1975"

I heard about Herb Caen many years ago while reading a guide to beer. In it, Herb Caen referred to Rainier Beer as "The Green Death" which I thought was pretty funny.  It wasn't until recently that I came across his name again. Herb wrote the foreword to Trader Vic's autobiography, which was brilliant. He painted a colorful picture of San Fransisco during the war years, when Trader Vic was getting his famous restaurant off the ground.

This is one of several compilations of Herb's writing, spanning his long career with the San Fransisco Chronicle. His essays deal with all things S.F., from descriptions of the oddball inhabitants, to various events, building projects, and city planning. He's witty, an enthusiastic booster of the bay area, and laces his articles with clever puns, One of my favorite pieces is his version of a generic opera which is truly laugh-out-loud funny. This collection deals with an era in which the city was going through some major transitions. You can tell it's written by someone with a great deal of love and understanding of one of America's most interesting cities.

Here are a couple gems from the book:
"...where happiness is just a thing called dough, and don't knock it, buddy, we all knead it, sour or otherwise."
"Haight Street, that graight street..."
"In the Tenderloin, the bars closing, throwing more flotsam than jet-setters into the streets."