About the Author
Sarah Fidelibus is a longtime educator with over ten years of experience in curriculum development and course implementation at the high school, college and professional levels. In addition to her work on and off campus, Sarah is a writer whose work has appeared at Poynter.org, the San Francisco Appeal and SF Public Press. In her free time, Sarah also writes the blog, San Francisco Treats--her tribute to all the best treats you can find in one of the best cities in the world. She can be reached via email at s.e.fidelibus [at] gmail [dot] com, and through all of the social media channels you see below.Connect
- "@mimijohnson Indeed I do: http://t.co/7ZRXmqPb."19 minutes ago"@mimijohnson Haha! I'm not surprised--did you read the superb #longreads by the woman's nephew? He finds it amusing, too."37 minutes ago"@mimijohnson Is that the movie about the guy who murdered that older woman?"43 minutes ago
Category Archives: My SF
Scenes from the Fort Mason Community Garden
After Off the Grid this past Friday, we found ourselves in the Fort Mason Community Garden. I had never been there before, and I could have stayed for hours wandering between each of the lovingly-tended gardens. I couldn’t help taking pictures of the many beautiful flowers there (especially dahlias, which are a favorite of mine); I also loved the various items people placed in their plots as garden ornaments. The whole place is gorgeous and peaceful; definitely stop by for a visit next time you’re in the area. Continue reading
Imperfect Pitch: Men, Women, and the Art of Selling Ourselves
Because right now I am both looking for a job and spending time on Match.com, I’ve been thinking a lot about the differences between how people “sell themselves.” And, in fact, one of the things that has made the Match.com experience so frustrating for me is the frequency with which men “pitch” themselves in the same manner in which Sicha describes in his blog post. Continue reading
Posted in Alternate Realities, My SF
Tagged choire sicha, male/female communication styles
1 Comment
‘The Poetry of Nobody Home’: Craigslist’s Missed Connections
I think most everyone has checked “Missed Connections” at least once or twice–if for no other reason than to see what it’s about. I’m a more frequent visitor to that section than most; though I don’t check it every day, I read it regularly–not to see if anyone’s posted a message for me, but because I like the messages on their own for the kind of artifacts they are: snapshots of a fantasy in progress, a printed record of an encounter so striking that the writer has imbued it with a cosmic significance. Continue reading
Like George Costanza, I’m Trying to End on a High Note
As rewarding as it can be to have one of the “difficult” students turn around and start taking herself, the material, and you seriously, the journey to that point is mostly just exhausting. Whereas in my first few years of teaching I couldn’t wait to go to work everyday, I now just feel drained most of the time. Oddly, though, my students don’t seem to have noticed: My most recent rating on Rate My Professor notes that I am (apparently) “always perky and nice.” My friend explained why this might be the case in an email to me the other day. She wrote, “You are a teacher at heart, my dear. Which is not to say that you are fated to live the life of a teacher, but you do love your students and what you do.” Continue reading
San Francisco Spring: The Raw & the Cultivated
Spring has arrived in San Francisco, an explosion of color interrupted at times by rainstorms and gray skies. This slideshow is a celebration of both sides of spring: pre-storm clouds along the rugged, expansive coastline and the bright, sunlit flowers of the Strybing Arboretum and the Japanese Tea Garden. The Tea Garden may, to most San Franciscans, be a place for tourists, but I love it there; even when crowded with visitors, it manages to offer a sense of seclusion, a communion with blossoms and beauty–a welcome respite from days filled with buses and busy streets. Continue reading
Asterisk San Francisco contributor Mark Holland and I agree on one thing: The importance of a good editor
The argument that so many chefs are just elitist, talentless hacks is tiresome and old, yet Holland makes it anyway, stating early in his piece that, “Chefs love taking food off the dining tables of the poor, stuffing it with truffles, frying it in duck fat and serving it in the lofty dining rooms of some of the city’s finest restaurants.” The phrasing is a bit over-the-top, calling to mind an image of a white-coated, toque-bedecked culinary school grad ripping a chicken leg out of the hands of a starving child, only to then stud the meat with expensive ingredients that will make this once humble fare no longer affordable to the masses. Granted, in recent years we’ve all seen examples of this trend in which a chef takes what Holland terms, “blue collar staples” and reworks them into a ridiculous (and cost-prohibitive) reincarnation. (Remember the $175 Richard Nouveau burger, featuring an ingredient list that read like a menu and a jewlery catalog? Foie gras, truffles, and even “flakes of gold leaf” topped the burger’s half-pound-plus Kobe beef patty.) Continue reading
Posted in Foodstuffs, My SF
10 Comments
Farm Envy – My Visit to Frog Hollow Farm
I spent this past summer in New York, and one of the things I missed the most about San Francisco was my ready access to fruit from Frog Hollow Farm–their peaches in particular, which are the best peaches I’ve ever had. Their nectarines are also amazing, and I feel I should mention here that when one of my NYC co-workers went to San Francisco on a visit, she brought back to New York a huge bag of Frog Hollow Farm nectarines. When one of my other co-workers tried a slice, he exclaimed, “Oh my God–what is that???”, as he reached for more. A third co-worker answered, “They’re nectarines. That’s what fruit is supposed to taste like.” Continue reading
Reading My Fortune in the Tea Leaf Salad
Unlike many a place hipsters like to flock, Burma Superstar is actually deserving of its reputation. From the savory garlic and wine braised pea shoots to the hearty pork and pumpkin stew, nearly everything at Burma Superstar is fantastic, especially what is probably its most famous dish, the tea leaf salad. Continue reading
Posted in Foodstuffs, My SF
Tagged B Star, B Star San Francisco, Burma Superstar, tea leaf salad
1 Comment
California Grown
The citrus at my farmer’s market right now is downright glorious: the oranges and lemons are at the peak of their season, full of flavor and heavy with juice. So of course, I’m buying a lot of both, as I did today. When I got home and put the fruit into my fruit bowl, I could not resist taking a photo. The colors are so deep and bright, a wonderful counterpoint to the clouds that began gathering outside. Continue reading
Will work for (turkey sausages)
The last few months, as the economy has folded in on itself and the once employed have become the unemployed, people have been quick to put a more positive spin on the situation by repeating the old adage that, “The Chinese word for ‘crisis’ combines ‘danger and opportunity.’ ” Like so many references in our popular culture, this conclusion is apparently a misread of the Chinese characters involved, and thereby says more about our own American ideals and the mythologies we like to cling to than it does about the culture it supposedly arose from. In English, a “crisis” indicates that awful things beyond our control are happening to us. But we prefer to think that everything is within our control; hence, we decide that this awful thing could be the proverbial “blessing in disguise” that forces us to rethink our priorities and move in a direction that might be better for us in the long run than the path we’ve complacently traveled upon in the past. Continue reading
Posted in Alternate Realities, My SF
Tagged craigslist, economy, job market, job searching, linkedin, looking for work, unemployment, want ads
1 Comment
