20
2003
There’s a nice treat in today’s Chron. Really.
John King does a nice write up of a book I’m now dying to read, “California: The Great Exception.” It seems to explain a lot about what's going on right now.
King hooks his essay on the book – which is out of print – on the Schwarzenegger inaguaration. But he could – in fact, King knows enough that he should – write about San Francisco city politics and “Exception” author, (real, honest-to-God, not poser boho) radical Carey McWilliams. King’s essay on McWilliams – more! more! you Datebook slackers! – is the kind of thing that stops and makes you think with your morning coffee.
Consider this little bit of context, quoted by King at the end of his piece: “ ‘The gold rush is still on, and everything remains topsy- turvy,’ McWilliams wrote [in 1949]. Nothing has changed since then -- and it likely never will.”