San Francisco

San Francisco's fog doesn't creep in on little cat feet. It rolls in boldly and aggressively, as if the assistant director on a horror flick has just yelled, "Cue the fog!" Chilling even on a sunny summer day, it's the ideal special effect for one of the city's favorite celebrations: Halloween. Perhaps San Franciscans love Halloween a little too much: The wildly popular Castro Street party got so big and out of control that the city shut it down. But the Bay Area still offers plenty of places to scare up some Halloween fun, using its unique charms for added ambience.

In the '60s and '70s, the Bay Area was a new music mecca. Minimalism was forged here. East mingled with West. Electronic music came of age. Such European avant-garde composers as Luciano Berio, Gyorgy Ligeti and Karlheinz Stockhausen joined the scene. After graduating from Harvard, John Adams hopped in a Volkswagen bus and headed for Northern California. Our current century rejects headquarters. San Francisco is now but one of many centers in a multi-centered universe. But pick a good weekend and the Bay Area still hops.

Re "Newsom makes it official by Tweet," April 22 I hope The Times will send someone to San Francisco to do some investigative reporting on conditions in our city now that our mayor, Gavin Newsom, has announced his gubernatorial candidacy. Your reporter would find a significant decline in the quality of the city's life during Newsom's tenure, deterioration in many neighborhoods and ineptitude in the running of many city agencies. There are many eye-opening stories to tell here. Unfortunately, our local newspapers are no longer capable of doing first-class investigative work on conditions at City Hall.

Commuters who use a San Francisco light-rail line were facing delays after an accident on the system's F line. Officials say six people were injured in an accident involving two San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency trains and an SUV on San Francisco's busy Market Street around 5:45 p.m. Monday. Monday's crash comes after 47 people were hurt in a crash involving two Muni trains on July 18. None of the injuries appeared serious, but Muni spokesman Judson True said the driver of one of the trains was taken to the hospital for treatment of what appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries.

HMO probe: An article in Friday's Business section about California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown's joining state regulators in inspecting the claims practices of seven major health maintenance organizations called Blue Shield a Chicago insurer. The Blue Shield plan mentioned in the article is Blue Shield of California, which is based in San Francisco.

Pro football: An article in Thursday's Sports section previewing the NFL season said seven teams have won consecutive Super Bowls: Miami, Pittsburgh (twice), San Francisco, Dallas, Denver and New England. The list failed to include the Green Bay Packers, winners of Super Bowls I and II.

Now that the baseball labor dispute is nearly settled, it is apparent that the major leagues will have a new commissioner before the end of the century. . . . During his Hall of Fame induction speech recently, Kentucky Congressman Jim Bunning said the game needed a "real" commissioner. . . . Bunning might fit the description. . . . But maybe what the game needs more is an unreal commissioner. . . .

It's not always easy for Ned Kahn to explain what he does for a living. He's part artist, part scientist, part kid. And he uses things like water hoses, cloudy fluids and sand-like glass beads to create tornadoes and sandstorms. "Oh," said a businesswoman who once sat next to him on an airplane. "So you're kind of a fine arts plumber." Or a rebel with a hose.

The elusive baby alligator or whatever it is residing in San Francisco's Mountain Lake has now become a pawn in the never-ending publicity war between the city's dueling newspapers, the Chronicle and the Examiner. Two weeks ago, the Examiner ran a "Name the Gator" contest. Then, the Chronicle hired professional alligator hunter Jim Long, flying him out from Florida to search for the reptile.

They lined up outside in the early morning hours, gave a rousing cheer when the doors finally opened and rushed inside to find staff people embracing and taking photographs. Rock concert? Campaign rally? Awards ceremony? No. It was the opening last month of the first Whole Foods natural foods supermarket in San Francisco.