CompuServe Messages

Jack, It's a great relief to know that we're safe from earthquakes around the Labor Day weekend, when you're in for the S.F. Worldcon. (I sent for the info a couple of days ago.) But I don't think you can take the credit if we have a big one on the Hayward fault soon after you leave–it is "due," because it usually goes off within a few years of major movement on the San Andreas. Unfortunately, the California housing market is so rotten that we can't sell our condo easily, and there's nowhere really safe, anyway. Because you're a historian, it might intrigue you to know that many of the post-1906 earthquake photos were faked to minimize the earthquake damage. This was uncovered by the long-time librarian assigned to the History Room in the S.F. Public Library. She theorizes that it had something to do with collecting on fire insurance, because flames were added during the retouching process (if memory serves me). You are right that it was the great fire that destroyed the City, and that made S.F. one of the most fire-conscious cities anywhere. We pay our firemen very well! And the fires started by "Loma Prieta" in the Marina district were put out fairly quickly, with the aid of our two fireboats–one of which was purchased only a year or two before the quake, as a result of a City ballot measure. (I say "we," because I lived in S.F. for 13 years before moving to the sort-of 'burbs.) And granite doesn't necessarily help–my townhouse condo is on rock, and I thought I was going around in circles when Loma Prieta hit. It was kind of surprising that the place wasn't halfway down the hillock it sits on, once the quake ended. Lynne