Three Palo Alto council members, Marc Berman (back to us), Larry Klein and Liz Knizz (obscured) toe the line on Ralph Brown Act, Wednesday, August 27, 2014 at University Cafe in Palo Alto, and I wonder if they were as disciplined regarding the excellent pastries, the croissant I can personally endorse, as well as the fresh squeezed.

Liz Kniss nosed her green Toyota into the spot exactly as I passed, which caught my eye and had me re-route from my typical Coupa to step-to-her-step University Cafe style. We exchanged pleasantries. (I wrote below about asking her, once, about her experiences and aptitude with hula — the dance; today I noticed how nice her hair looks, and commented; someone last weekend said that my coach, the Peninsula playing and East Bay / California coaching legend Hans Delannoy does the same thing — finds something nice to say to all comers — maybe that’s where I got it; it’s certainly my source for “Be quick, but don’t hurry” which is actually from John Wooden, but Hans got it honestly, he took the charge).

When Larry Klein strolled in, I said “Here’s your appointment”. She wheeled –we call that a spin-move, and added “one of them”. Sure enough, in walks Marc Berman, a third Palo Alto council member, and a former goalie for a Paly CCS soccer standout; Marc and I shook hands – I think he is over the “short-pants” comments, not so sure. I made a remark comparing Cory Wolbach’s campaign event Sunday at Seale Park (see also “The Lockhart Loo proposed”) to us four in the cafe: as Wolbach had about 30 VIPs (Jerry Hill, Peter Drekmeier) and 30 regulars, the Cafe, in possible violation of the Brown Act, featured three current council members and no other customers, at 8:10 a.m. on a Wednesday. I guess Liz, Larry and Marc, on account of Monday being a fourth Monday, missed each other much too much.

I kept my cover by ordering an OJ to go, and a croissant and told her to keep the change from my sawbuck. (insert slang term for ten-spot: n the United States, sawbuck is also commonly used as slang for a ten-dollar bill, from the Roman numeral interpretation of the ‘X’ shape of the device.).

Giving actual leadership — for now — wide berth I was relegated to al fresco enjoyment of my orange juice and croissant

I waited exactly 5 minutes — in case Marc, not Larry, was in the little boys room — then strolled back past the storefront, hoping to frame the trio in the doorway. You can see from above that Larry gives me a weird little look, but I missed Liz entirely. You’ll have to take my word on it, the Brown Act thing. You do believe me, don’t you?

(Later, after checking my work in “gallery”, on my Moto G, I actually moonwalked back past the opening while pretending to be checking my phone; yesterday, especially in SF’s Mission District, I shot a series of portraits Bill Cunningham style, of people walking with their heads in the web. This little gesture — who knows if they saw me at all? — was my version of a football end zone dance, especially like I saw Gunn v. Los Altos a few years back, a running back turning around to taunt his pursuit as he neared the end zone. Usually I am old school and just hand the ball to the ref. But if not now, when. Like Joe Cassin giving me an elbow to my chest, in 1980, my former Senior Little League teammate, the captain, not happy with Gunn putting the scrubs in, against Los Altos, the runner-up).

edit to add: in my edit of this, the term “bird omenology” popped into my head, now that I’ve had my Coupa cup o’. It means that you can get omens from birds. For instance, Nathan Oliveira the painter says that the inspiration for his Windhover came from taking a walk on the dish and an “acoma hawk” buzzed him. Or, in the movie “Incident at Oglala” based on Peter Mattiesson’s book on Pine Ridge Rez, someone says that, under fire from the Feds –literally, bullets — he saw an eagle and knew to follow it to safety. Or, and maybe my primary source, I knew first from Kirk Endicott’s course and later from a self-trained anthropologist who called himself (!) Kevin Russell of Rainforest Awareness Project that in Borneo the people listen to the birds and get insights from the birds. But I was surprised that if you put “bird omenology” into search-injun (!), you get only 8 results, and the lead is yours truly, Plastic Alto (oddly, about the Varsity). It also mentions Sarawak, another Borneo area tribe, to Russell’s Penan. I saw a bird omen last Saturday, crossing over my car as I helped a friend find her way to a job training near West Hedding in San Jo. Of course here the joke is calling Kniss (who again, I like, she is charming) a bird.

I hope to edit to add with more accounts of the four campaign events I went to, that I discussed briefly with both Liz and Marc: Wolbach, Ken Dauber (^), Tom Dubois and Greg Scharff, formerly my nemesis now we are going thru what I am calling a glasnost. Plus maybe some photos from my journeys the last 72 hours. I’ve shot TK photos on my little over-eager perhaps Moto G.