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July 16, 2003

Really the center of the universe?

As you know, Pacifica is the center of the universe. You didn't know that? Well, at least it's the center of our universe.

Think about it. To the northeast, about 25 miles, is the place where Ernest Orlando Lawrence found the secrets hidden inside the atom. Up the hill behind the main campus of the University of California is a wonderland of creativity that was mostly kept secret for much of my earlier life. Have you taken your kids to the Lawrence Hall of Science lately? It's worth the trip and costs little. San Francisco's Exploratorium is even closer.

About 25 miles to the south of us the wizards of Silicon Valley have made the world of personal computers, unthinkable in the sixties and much of the seventies, a common- place product every one takes for granted. While I was selling ads and writing the first Reactor columns for the Tribune in the mid-seventies, Apple computer founders Wozniak, Jobs, and Raskin were setting the wheels in motion to change our world forever. The financial balloon has already burst. The computer revolution is just getting started. Our world will never be the same, and it all started within a few miles of Pacifica. I type what you are reading now on a true miracle machine.

Twenty five miles to our west, the Farallones stoically accept the pounding of the waves, even as they continue to recover from the onslaught of 19th Century egg hunters. While San Francisco Bay waited until it could be discovered from the hills of Pacifica by Catalans and mestizos on muleback, the Manila Galleons knew the Farallones well for 200 years as they scudded south from Cape Mendocino to Acapulco along the rugged coast of California. One hundred miles due east of us, the lands near Modesto, in the heart of the great valley of California, utilize valley heat, fertile soil, and the waters draining from Mount Shasta to produce grapes, wines, tomatoes and chickens. My Azorean and Italian cousins still get up early each day to make sure their Holsteins provide enough milk for your child's breakfast cereal.

Southeast of Pacifica, in the rugged foothills of the Mount Hamilton range, the great eyes of Lick Observatory probe more than six quintillion miles into space, looking for light that in some cases started on its journey before the earth was formed.

Only a few miles to the north, researchers at San Francisco State University probe the history and anthropology of California's native Americans, as the staff of Treganza Museum documents a people almost too gentle to survive, but whose descendants may soon get rich catering to the foolishness of white and asian gamblers.

Within reach of a casual evening's drive, Pacificans are able to enjoy symphonies, ballet, rock concerts, opera, even whatever pleasure they may derive from women who strip naked to entertain others.

Tourists travel to San Francisco by the millions to see what you and I take for granted. Chinatown and Fisherman's Wharf, the Top of the Mark, Alcatraz and the redwoods of Muir Woods are only minutes away. Even closer, San Pedro Valley County Park is at the eastern end of Linda Mar Blvd., conveniently available for a short walk or a long stroll.

Leave Pacifica. Go a short distance in any direction, and you'll bump into something, or someone, interesting, or important. Pacificans can commute from home to two of the world's major universities, and to several others any area would proudly claim. Do you wonder I can refer to this little city as a hub?

Thanks to the wonders of modern electronics, Paul Azevedo can be reached by e mail at Paul@thereactor.net.
Check The Reactor's website at www.thereactor.net.

 
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