Doing the Math with the Essefficist
Once again, here to answer yet more inane questions from our gentle readers, it's the Essefficist. Today's topics: elementary math, bay windows, and the Transbay Terminal redevelopment project. Here we go...
Dear Essefficist,
What's one hundred sixty-two minus six?
Yours,
Shane
What the hell kind of dumb question is that, Shane? You silly thing, everyone knows 162 - 6 = 154. No, wait, uh, 156. Um, hang on, let's just open that handy calculator program in the operating system... yeah, 156. Not 154. 156. Ummmm. Next!
Dear Essefficist:
My parents came out for a visit from Yellow Springs, Ohio, and were admiring the bay windows that grace many buildings in San Francisco. They asked me if the bay window was an invention of the San Francisco Bay Area. Now I am sure that that it's an invention of some Bay area somewhere, (Montego, Chesapeake, Newport, and Tampa jump to mind) but could not swear to them that this invention came from around these parts. What's the deal here? Is the bay window something that we can lay claim to, or is its origin somewhere far away from here?
Scrumbly the Hamster
"Scrumbly the Hamster?" Whatever. So, bay windows, huh? Local or not? Survey says... XXX! Absolutely nothing to do with San Francisco Bay. Or any body of water, for that matter. Etymologically, the bay in bay window comes not from the enclosed body of water you're thinking about, Scrumbly (if that is your real name), but from architecture. In this instance, it refers to a physically separated section within a structure. (Think, maybe, sick bay, landing bay, or Docking Bay 94.) So the term does not describe what can be seen from such a window, but rather the structure of the window itself. A bay window is basically any window that's... well, here's how the LoveToKnow Free Online Encyclopedia (which is pretty great) describes it:
A bay-window or bow-window is a window projecting outwards and forming a recess in the apartment. Bay-windows may be rectangular, polygonal or semicircular in plan, in the last case being better known as bow-windows. The bay-window would seem to have been introduced in the I 5th century, but the earliest examples of importance are those which were built during the reign of Edward IV (1461-1483), when it was largely employed in the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge and in the feudal castles of the period.
Too much information? Probably. But if you really need more, go here, here, or here.
One more quickie:
Hello Essefficist,
Any idea what's going on with plans for construction on the Transbay Terminal? I've spent too much time already today looking for answers about when construction is supposed to begin, and all I can find is a rather vague "2005-2012". Since I already spend enough time at work reading SFist & shouldn't be spending my WHOLE day online, I thought I'd send the question to you. I work in SOMA & I need to steel my nerves for the beginning of the pile driving...
Thanks,
Kim
We called up Chris Daly, figuring he'd know what's going on (seeing as how the Transbay Terminal is in his district) (and also because we figured if we mentioned Chris we might get 39 comments) and, in a nutshell, he said that they won't be rebuilding it till something like 2017. Twelve years! We're not kidding, that's what he said. So don't worry about the pile drivers any time soon, Kim; the whole thing is a complete clusterf@ck at this point. More info? Here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. That EIR didn't go over too well in court, huh?
In closing, as per usual, please remember that you can e-mail all your questions about San Francisco or your own exciting life to the Essefficist, thereby obtaining, if you're lucky, even more info on the everyday things going on around you all the time (or just post 'em in the comments). And remember, March still equals Irish Month around here, even though it's April now and officially Baseball Month