Awake. Verb, intransitive verb. (A person can “awake,” as in Wake Up [verb], or a person can be awake, as in: “I’m awake [intransitive], so turn off the alarm.” These states are mutually exclusive, albeit infinitesimally.)

I spent last week in California. Again.

Oakland isn’t San Francisco the way earth isn’t topsoil. One needs both, of course, to plant a vineyard or attract tourists or foundationalize the Raiders (When the levee breaks …). Or the A’s. Or the Giants or 49ers, Warriors, etc. — you get the point, conspicuously not mentioning Alcatraz and the million human...