San Francisco Reef Divers August 2020 Volume XLVIII No. 8 1
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San Francisco Reef Divers August 2020 Volume XLVIII No. 8 AUGUST’S STAMMTISCH are toiling away at your home The Carmel Land and Coal By Pierre Hurter office or spending the day Company had subdivided the diving? property into 25ft by 50 ft lots and sold them for $50. The coal Back to Point Lobos, people business was tanking and real have been visiting this spot for estate was seen as a way to over 2,000 years. The original recoup the company’s visitors came to harvest abalone. investment. The parcels that had Europeans made an appearance been sold were eventually around 1600. The first serious bought back and the subdivisions non-native presence started in the removed from the county record. late 1700s with Spanish In 1933 Point Lobos became part Vaqueros herding cattle out of of the new State Park System. the nearby mission. Did you ever wonder why it’s In 1851 Chinese families called Point Lobos? During the It’s hard to believe that it is established a fishing village at Spanish era they called it Punta already August and we are still Point Lobos. The cabin at de los Lobos Marinos, Point if Number One! I would never Whalers Cove is a remnant of the Sea Wolves, because of the have thought that we would lead their stay. In 1862 Portuguese barking of the local sea lions. the world in the number of whalers arrived, joining the coronavirus cases, but there you already established Chinese. The Back to our dive, we took a have it. We live in an era where whaling enterprise proved wander to check out the situation speaking truth to power is an untenable with the advent of and then suited up and slid down almost guaranteed career-ender. kerosene. the ramp on our butts. Not very Maybe it was always that way, elegant, but certainly better than but I seem to remember an era slipping and ending up on your when there were people who can anyway. We took a bearing stood up for their principles. on a cluster of rocks at We segued from July to Monastery, dropped beneath the August with a day diving at kelp and headed off. The vis Point Lobos. I love his place; it was so so, but our primary goal has to be one of the crown jewels was to get wet and we managed of the State Park system. We that with no trouble. took the day off, Gerda playing I’m glad to report that we hooky from work, and headed The next phase of the area’s managed a 40-minute dive to a down on Tuesday. With the park history came about at the end of depth of 29 feet, without the use limiting cars and dive teams to the 19th century with the of scooters, mixed gases or deco. half the usual numbers, it seemed establishment of an abalone It was, as you can imagine, touch pretty spacious. cannery as well as sand and and go the whole time. Oh, and In the era of working from gravel mining. we were able to navigate back to within 10 feet of the ramp and home, for those who are still Then there was the Carmel the buoy that BAUE had set out. working, what does it mean to Land and Coal Company, mining “play hooky? “As long as you coal at Mal Paso Canyon. The Moving right along, last have your smart phone, an coal was brought to Coal Chute month, I promised a history of oxymoron if there ever was one, Point, where it was loaded Continue on page 3 no one really has to know if you onboard coastal steamers. 1 San Francisco Reef Divers August 2020 Volume XLVIII No. 8 REEFER’S RAP - 2020 JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH 01 - New Year's Day / National 02 - Groundhog Day 08 - Daylight Savings Time Hangover Day 09 - 17 - Cozumel 17 - ST. Patrick’s Day 15 - Ocean Ale House 14 - Valentine's Day 20 - First Day of Spring 20 - Martin Luther King Day 17 - Presidents Day 25 - Lunar New Year & Nat’l Bloody 19 - Lupulandia Brewing Mary Day - 2243 Mission St. 29 - Dorian Beach Cleanup APRIL MAY JUNE 01 - April Fools Day 01 - May Day & Int’l Tuba Day 03 - Donut Day 15 - Tax Day Yahoo!!! 05 - Cinco de Mayo 19 - Juneteenth Day 22 - Earth Day 08 - VE Day WII 25 - Memorial Day 30 - 31 - Long Beach Scuba Show JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER 04 - Independence Day 05 - Int'l Beer Day 02 - VJ Day WII 14 - Bastille Day 06 - 08 - Channel Islands 07 - Labor Day 16 - Movable Feast - stay tuned 19 - Talk Like A Pirate Day OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER 12 - Columbus / Indigenous People's 01 - Daylight Savings-time Ends 07 – Pearl Harbor Day Day 03 - Election Day 16 - Movable Feast - stay tuned 21 - Movable Feast - stay tuned 11 - Veterans Day 25 - Christmas Day Holiday 31 - Halloween 13 - Sadie Hawkins Day 30 - Bacon Day 18 - Movable Feast - stay tuned 26 - Thanksgiving Holiday 2 San Francisco Reef Divers August 2020 Volume XLVIII No. 8 Stammtisch from page 1 in maple syrup of my Boy Scout Weber’s Grill. days. “Cold or hot … Spam hits Spam, from its humble the spot.” beginnings in 1937 to a product that has sold eight billion cans in Continuing on the theme of 44 countries … let that sink in changes in Baghdad-by-the-Bay, for a minute. The recipe is pretty I’m watching all of the basic, chopped pork shoulder restaurants going belly up and meat with ham, salt, water, sugar am reminded of the movie and sodium nitrate Demolition Man, starring Silvester Stallone as the good guy, Wesley Snipes the bad guy and Sandra Bullock as the romantic interest. Fast forward to 2032, where Stallone and Snipes, who had BBQ takes time, lots of it and a been cryogenically frozen since wood fired stove. Having made 1996 are reanimated. They face a pilgrimage of BBQ joints on off in San Angeles (San Diego, our cross country jaunt some Los Angeles and Santa Barbara) years back, I became aware of where the last word in dining is how important BBQ is culturally, WWII caused sales and Taco Bell. They had won the particularly in the South. Forget popularity to skyrocket. GI’s ate franchise wars and were the only politics, religion or class … pork, over 150 million pounds as well game in town. beef, mustard or vinegar based? as using it to lubricate their You know that times are tuff That is the gauntlet that a weapons and waterproof their when Sheepskin City on Cesar perspective suitor has to run in boots. They also introduced Chavez Avenue near Bryant is parts of the country. The answers Spam to the rest of the world. empty. Once chock-a-block full to these questions may well In Hawaii, seven million cans of sheepskins it now sits empty; decide if the suitor is greeted are sold each year with Spam now I’ll never get to check it out. with a smile or a shotgun. with eggs and rice being featured I see that CatHead’s BBQ on That’s probably why most of the at McDonald’s. There’s Spam Folsom has pulled the plug after interesting BBQ that we do have with rice wrapped in seaweed. In 13 years in business. BBQ places locally was brought here by the Philippines, you have in the the Area are remarkably migrants from the South. There Spamsilog, featuring Spam, fried weak. When I are also some interesting Asian rice and a say BBQ, I variants, which I am still sunny side up don’t mean exploring. egg. meat that has So far, the eatery that I am the From Monty been slathered most worried about is Tadich Python’s in liquid Grill, at 171 years, San “Spamalot” to smoke-based Francisco’s oldest restaurant is in the Liholiho sauce and then a tough place. They had Yacht Club, grilled on the originally pledged not to lay off which serves Alfresco 82500 any of their 35 employees, but its house-made Total BTU 56 now that the Paycheck Protection Spam with Inch Wide 3 Money is gone and indoor dining kimchi fried Burner Natural not an option in the foreseeable rice, smoked Gas Outdoor future, what can you do. The egg yolk, Grill on family wants to at least figure out tamari and Refrigerated a way to keep paying for clamshell Jumbo Cart employees’ health insurance. mushrooms. grill, priced at A far cry from $16,169 or Continue on page 4 the Spam fried your humble 3 San Francisco Reef Divers August 2020 Volume XLVIII No. 8 Stammtisch from page 3 My gripe and it pretty much past because most of my life is extends to all electronic gizmos there. It seems as if even before our is the seeming endless array of current pandemic restaurants chargers, cables and accessories described as “permanently required to run these products. closed” has become the buzz DON’T SHARE YOUR AIR I’m reasonably sure everyone has word de jour. AN EDITORIAL a drawer full of dongles and do To quote Bob Dylan … Come dahs that they have no idea what [email protected] senators, congressmen, please they are for, but are afraid to get Contact Ben heed the call rid of it. You know you can see your Don’t stand in the doorway, So, my new laptop has four breath when it's cold out? Yeah, don’t block the hall “Thunderbolt” ports, what the that's why you should wear a rest of the world calls USB-C.