Dan White

This just in. Mary Magazine — a literary magazine with headquarters at Saint Mary’s College of California in Moraga — has published an interview by the writer Jillian Kurvers, along with a very brief deleted section of The Cactus Eaters. And one more thing: While Cactuseaters is a family-friendly blog, there are a couple of impolite words in the deleted section. Just so you know. Also, make sure to check out the college’s upcoming series of readings, featuring the talented fiction writer Lysley Tenorio and many others. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

I stopped by Stacey’s bookstore on Market Street here in SF and asked if there was anything I could do to help the bookstore and prevent it from closing. One of the employees said yes, I could write them a check for $1.6 million!! Apparently that is what it would take to save the store, which (according to the employee) is paying 65K in rent each month!! So I guess the news is final after all. On the bright side, I can take some comfort in the fact that two top-notch bookstores (Alexander’s, just down the block, and a branch of Book Passage, several blocks away overlooking the water) are still going strong. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

One of my favorite pieces of local street art has vanished. Every day, when I’m going on my appointed rounds or marathon-training runs, I pass this color-splashed mural with anthropomorphic smiling faces (some of them with lolling tongues.) I witnessed this project take shape from start to finish. Tourists are always posing in front of it. Locals stop to stare and admire it. And now, boom, it’s gone beneath a fresh coating of off-white paint. There might be a rational explanation (perhaps it was meant to be a temporary installation. I’ll ask around the block and see what I can find out.) Meanwhile, if you’ve never seen the mural, here are some photos that I took on pure impulse a couple of weeks back. By the way, there is a great mural on Cole Street near the Haight intersection; it’s an ‘evolutionary rainbow’ featuring fish, reptiles and other creatures. Make…

Yes, you read that correctly; I found a spear — or, to be more specific, a rocky spear point — in the park not too long ago, while running through the park on a rare, sunny day. GGP — long before it was turned into a pleasure garden — was just one more section of scrubby plants and sand dunes marching out toward the Pacific Ocean. Human habitation has a long history in what is now San Francisco — reaching back to at least 3,000 years B.C. But this doesn’t (necessarily) mean that the relic that I found — and duly turned over to the de Young Museum, which transferred the item to the California Academy of Sciences, after I provided specific coordinates of where I found this ‘surface relic — is the real deal. Sometimes it takes careful examination to determine whether something like this is authentic or merely…

Yet another great independent bookstore is shutting its doors. The SF Chronicle reported yesterday that Stacey’s Books — which has been on Market Street for 85 years, including a half-century at its current address — is closing down in March. If you’ve never been there, this is a beautiful, airy, multi-level bright spot in the Financial District. They’re good about supporting local authors and they are very responsive to the clientele, who help them stock a “local favorites” shelf. The Chronicle reports that Stacey’s, like other independents, has been harmed by the “the rise of national chains…and Web-based booksellers,” compounded by the lousy economy. Still, the story gave me a small glimmer of hope when it mentioned the campaign to save Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park. These independents are more than just booksellers. They are also salons, meeting places and entertainment venues, with free readings by local and national authors….

Here are some of the spiny monsters that I admired (but did not eat) during my recent trip into the California outback. Also –if you’re out in the Joshua Tree area, I recommend the hike up to the top of Ryan Mountain, which is beautiful and windswept. Compared to the tallest peaks of the Sierra Nevada, this 5,461-foot crag is a bit of an anthill. However, the view from the top is magnificent. Bring shoes with decent arch support, and, of course, lots of water. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

I’ve reposted these online magazine interview links for those who are new to the book and/or blog. They give an overview of Cactus and answer some FAQs. The authors/interviewers are (respectively) Adina Kay and Alexis Wolff. Here is the Nextbook interview, and here is the interview in Brave New Traveler magazine. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Here are two extreme close-up shots of the mutilated, bitten cactus that I talked about two blog entries ago. (as you can see, one of the photos includes a hand-drawn plea directed at the culprit.) I’ve been staking out the apartment area, looking for suspects. Nothing so far. Look closely at the second photo: I think you can see incisor marks. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Lately, I’m getting a lot of questions about my name, especially over the past few weeks. For the record, I am not related to that other Dan White. (I repeat — absolutely no relation whatsoever.) A couple of people have asked if I am thinking of changing my name, in light of the publicity surrounding the new movie (nope – it’s probably too late for that.) However, if I change my mind at some point and decide to alter my name, it’s good to know that I have many options. Over the years, I have met, or learned about, many Bay Area or Central Coast residents who decided to give up their legal names and change them to something else. Here are a few of the actual names. By the way, I swear that I’m not inventing or embellishing any of them. In fact, all of these are the actual,…

Here are some good books to read by the fire during the holidays. Poet. Trapper. It’s hard to imagine two less lucrative careers. But John Haines was a poet and a trapper for 25 years in the Alaskan outback, in the wild country east of Fairbanks, Alaska. He struggled to survive. At times, he froze his kishkas off, but he lived to tell a beautifully crafted story called The Stars, The Snow, The Fire: Twenty-Five Years in the Alaskan Wilderness. This book is told from the perspective of an outdoorsman who actually knows what he’s doing out there. (cough, cough..) Here’s a man who can skin a carcass, build a proper fire and make out the tracks of moose, wolf and marten in the snow. Better yet, he can describe all these things with sensory description that makes you feel like you’re out there with him in the backcountry. Warning:…