Latte from the Editor

Fall Allfor

Lean in with your latte

Like most of our culture’s sentimental fascinations, there’s usually an antecedent to be found in some modernist tract or other.

Take our annual fixation on fall, for example. Today, let’s blame F. Scott Fitzgerald, who apparently wrote somewhere in The Great Gatsby, “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.”

Of course, this is coming from the man who said that American lives have no second acts, which begs the question of what his autumnal restart entails. Perhaps it’s just a chance to wear wool and sail the rising tide of pumpkin lattes—which, obviously, is the result of climate change.

Fun fact: Berkeley’s Caffe Mediterraneum asserts that it was one of its early owners who standardized the latte as a perennial menu item back in the ’50s—and like most American upsells, it justifies its price with a European-sounding name.

People not from California like to claim our state has no seasons. Maybe not in L.A., which is a permanent postcard, nor in San Francisco, which only has fog and no-fog settings. But in the East Bay, we have seasons—they’re subtle, but they’re there. That’s for you, Gertrude. How do you know it’s fall? The East Bay’s seasonality is inevitably tied to the regular rhythms of the world-class university whose campanile looms over us like the gnomon of a sundial.

Is it time for fall? Well, in-person classes resumed at UC Berkeley last month, which means the Harvest Moon—Sept. 20—isn’t far behind. If that’s not indication enough that fall is coming, and you wish to be proactive about it, you have to literally lean-in to our new normal, which will help keep the world on its axis. Remember, it’s the tilt, not the orbit, that causes the seasons. To do your part, throw on a sweater and raise your latte in the opposite direction of the sun. And lean, sip, repeat.

Do this until the earth tilts toward the Autumnal Equinox. Life may not start all over again, like Fitzgerald promised, but fall certainly will. And that’s enough for now. —Daedalus Howell, Editor

But in the East Bay, we have seasons— they’re subtle, but they’re there.

Christian Chensvold is the founder of Trad-Man.com, a new site on spirituality, philosophy and the Wisdom Tradition. Jeffrey Edalatpour’s writing about arts, food and culture has appeared in KQED Arts, Metro Silicon Valley, Interview Magazine, Berkeleyside.com, The Rumpus and SF Weekly. Lou Fancher has been published by WIRED.com, Diablo Magazine, Oakland Tribune, San Jose Mercury News, InDance, San Francisco Classical Voice, SF Weekly and elsewhere. Mark Fernquest is a Mad Max fan from way back. If he isn’t attending a post-apocalyptic festival in the outer wasteland, he’s sure to be writing about the last one he went to.

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