1. “I have been a salmon fisher, a cattle rustler, an oyster thief, a sailor on a schooner, a police officer for the fishery, a stevedore—in short, one of the Bay’s adventurers,” proclaimed:

a. former 49er tight end Monty Stickles

b. native San Franciscan Jack London

c. one-time DA Terence Hallinan

2. “Like most Californians, I come from someplace else…California needs us, so it gathers us from other places.” This star of the SF literary scene in the fifties and sixties reflected on the potpourri of peoples who make the city their home. His
name?

a. Jack Kerouac (1922–69)

b. Dashielll Hammett (1894–1961)

c. Richard Brautigan (1933–84)

3. In a letter to his wife, Caitlin, in 1950, this Welshman visiting SF observed that, “Everyone connected with the universities is hard-up.”

a. Dylan Thomas

b. Richard Burton

c. Brendan Behan

4. This 20^th Century Fox movie star had been a student at George Washington High School, and ushered at the now boarded-up Alexandria Theatre in the Richmond. He attended USF (undergrad) and Stanford University (grad):

a. Robert Wagner

b. Richard Egan

c. Richard Widmark

5. In the fifties, a can of Burgermeister Beer (“Burgie”) from the San Francisco Brewery was opened with a fizz:

a. by pulling the snap-off tab

b. using a church-key to pierce the can

c. by adults only

6. SF high schools traditionally have mascots. Polytechnic of yesteryear were the Poly Parrots; Lincoln, Mustangs; Mission, Bears; Washington, Eagles. Name the mascot for Riordan High School.

7. These Chinese restaurant after-dinner treats were first displayed in the 1915 World’s Fair in San Francisco:

a. flamingos

b. firecrackers

c. fortune cookies

8. Cable-car inventor Andrew Smith Hallidie, Sierra Club founder John Muir, philanthropic tycoon Andrew Carnegie; name the one thing these American immigrants shared.

9. True or false: Elvis Presley never set foot in San
Francisco.

10. “San Francisco had been settled mostly…by gamblers, prostitutes, rascals, and fortune seekers who came across the Isthmus and around the Horn.” So wrote long-time SF resident and poet:

a. Kenneth Rexroth

b. Jack Gilbert

c. “Bobby” Burns

Answers

1. b

2. c

3. a (Dylan Thomas, on a lecture tour in America, spoke in San Francisco.)

4. b

5. b

6. Crusaders

7. c (In 1914, a Japanese immigrant, Makoto Hagiwara, long associated with the Japanese Tea Garden, popularized fortune cookies in San Francisco.)

8. They all hailed from Scotland.

9. False. The “King” performed at the Cow Palace in 1976.

10. a

Victor Turks grew up in San Francisco and lives in the Richmond with his wife, Michiko, their three boys, a pug, a cat, and a tankful of goldfish. He teaches English at City College.