A Morning In North Beach, San Francisco

Made it to Cafe Trieste, nice walk through a downtown where everyone seemed to be 'preparing a face for work', till I got here to North Beach- only place in the world where Italy borders China. Had to run over to China to buy a pen, the storekeepers in Italy weren't up yet. So I've been here an hour and a half, pleasant atmosphere, not too crowded, really a nice, Italian, or Italian/beatnik, feeling. Civility. A guy came up to me, first asked if I need any problems solved, I said I couldn't think of any, then he asked if I might support the arts, and showed me several booklets of his poems. Rather than reply with, 'BUT I'M GOING TO WRITE A POEM MYSELF IN A MOMENT! ', I just asked his prices, and bought the $5 book rather than a $10 one. Turned out to be 'duets', poems he wrote quickly with friends or passersby, not satisfying to read, so far. I asked him if he'd autograph the book. He brought it back to me a little later with his name and 'Solve any problem, $20 an hour! ' 'Genius idea, $1,000.' 'Hey, wait, I wanted an autograph, not an ad! ' But he seemed so crestfallen, about to fall over like a stout tower of Pisa. I patted him on the back. 'It's ok, don't worry, you did autograph it, it's fine.' That's what I like about this place.