Rangpur Lemon

In FY2006, Tanqueray introduced Tanqueray Rangpur. Simply put, my favourite fruit had arrived in a British gin. Erroneously known as Canton lemon, Hime Lemon (Japan), Cravo Lemon (Brazil) and Mandarin Lime (with me, yet?) Stateside, the majestic Rangpur is simply neither a lemon nor a mandarin, it is a true lemanderin, acid with an orange peel and flesh. You could use it to sub for limes in a pinch or as a decorative orange – so unique stands my Rangpur. Certainly of Indian origin (bias alert), it was introduced to Florida by Reasoner Brothers of Oneco and is used predominately as an ornamental or potted plant (Stateside) or as rootstock (UK). So imagine my utter delight when S&P500 decided to give me some. Just give away. And it is Christmas. Also, I am easily bought.

The quintessential Rangpur Margarita (omit the word lime – it is educational) is had by combining 1 oz tequila, 1 tsp Rangpur juice, juice of half a Meyer lemon, and 0.5C ice till slushy in a blender. Rim your glass with a lime wedge and dip in rock salt. For rationing/rational purposes, I also prepare a Rangpur Syrup, same principle as a simple syrup, store in freezer unless you edge with a few citrate crystals as preservative, for emergency lemonades, lemon/limeade, ginger fizz or simply with Canada Dry ginger ale. Rangpurs, in moderation, make a smashing addition to fruit punch and white sangria but zest them first. You could use the zest to freshen up your sitting room or mix into the wash.

How thankful I am for my Rangpurs! Of course, this is no way diminishes its importance as an essential archeological site (second only to Lothal in NW Gujarat) from where the Indus Valley Civilization sprung.

In 2006, Diageo, Plc, introduced a rangpur-flavored version of Tanqueray gin, known simply as Tanqueray Rangpur.

Tea Bag

Today I feel like a tea bag: only when I get into hot water do I realize how strong I can be.

Barack Obama

Top Ten Campaign promises from the next POTUS

1. To keep the budget balanced, I’ll rent the Situation Room for Sweet 16s
2. I will doublte your money at the craps table
3. Appoint Mitt Romney Secretary of “Lookin’ Good”
4. If you bring a ‘gator to the White House, I’ll wrassle it.
5. I’ll put Regis on the nickel
6. I’ll rename the tenth month of the year “Baracktober”
7. I won’t let Apple release the new and improved iPod the day after you bough the previous model
8.  I’ll find money in the budget to buy Letterman a decent hairpiece
9. Pronounce the word nuclear “nuclear”
10. Three words: Vice. President. Oprah.

From Late Show with David Letterman.

Whenever Whatever

Going On

Tiger Watch

Paul Dhaliwal, 19, told the father of Carlos Sousa Jr., 17, who was killed, that the three yelled and waved at the tiger but insisted they never threw anything into its pen to provoke the cat, according to a search warrant affidavit obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle. “As a result of this investigation, (police believe) that the tiger may have been taunted/agitated by its eventual victims,” according to Inspector Valerie Matthews, who prepared the affidavit. Police believe that “this factor contributed to the tiger escaping from its enclosure and attacking its victims,” she said. Sousa’s father, Carlos Sousa Sr., said Dhaliwal told him the three stood on a 3-foot-tall metal railing a few feet from the edge of the tiger moat. “When they got down they heard a noise in the bushes, and the tiger was jumping out of the bushes on him (Paul Dhaliwal),” the documents said. Police found a partial shoe print that matched Paul Dhaliwal’s on top of the railing, Matthews said in the documents. The papers said Paul Dhaliwal told Sousa that no one was dangling his legs over the enclosure. Authorities believe the tiger leaped or climbed out of the enclosure, which had a wall 4 feet shorter than the recommended minimum.

The affidavit also cites multiple reports of a group of young men taunting animals at the zoo, the Chronicle reported. Mark Geragos, an attorney for the Dhaliwal brothers, did not immediately return a call late Thursday by The Associated Press for comment. He has repeatedly said they did not taunt the tiger. Calls to Sousa and Michael Cardoza, an attorney for the Sousa family, also weren’t returned. Toxicology results for Dhaliwal showed that his blood alcohol level was 0.16 — twice the legal limit for driving, according to the affidavit. His 24-year-old brother, Kulbir, and Sousa also had alcohol in their blood but within the legal limit, Matthews wrote. All three also had marijuana in their systems, Matthews said. Kulbir Dhaliwal told police that the three had smoked pot and each had “a couple shots of vodka” before leaving San Jose for the zoo on Christmas Day, the affidavit said. Police found a small amount of marijuana in Kulbir Dhaliwal’s 2002 BMW, which the victims rode to the zoo, as well as a partially filled bottle of vodka, according to court documents. Investigators also recovered messages and images from the cell phones, but apparently nothing incriminating in connection with the tiger attack, the Chronicle reported. Zoo spokesman Sam Singer said he had not seen the documents but believed the victims did taunt the animal, even though they claim they hadn’t. “Those brothers painted a completely different picture to the public and the press,” Singer said. “Now it’s starting to come out that what they said is not true.”

Cloverfield Monster

Godzilla + parasite spiders + Blair Witch project = motion sickness.

Wait for the DVD.

Tiger Watch

The police investigation into the tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo will soon be reclassified as “inactive” after a search failed to turn up evidence that the victims taunted the animal or committed other crimes, authorities said Friday. Sources close to the case said the investigation into the Christmas Day attack could be shelved as soon as next week and will not be reopened unless new information comes to light. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for the department. A police spokesman, Sgt. Neville Gittens, said that “right now, (the investigation) is still open and active.”

On Wednesday, police investigators searched the car and the cell phones belonging to the two brothers who survived the attack that killed 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. of San Jose. They recovered no direct evidence to support a theory that either Paul Dhaliwal, 19, or Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23, of San Jose had taunted the Siberian tiger before it attacked, authorities close to the case say.

On Friday, a Superior Court judge in Santa Clara County allowed the San Francisco city attorney’s office to inspect a two-hour span of activity on the cell phones, but not Kulbir Dhaliwal’s 2002 BMW. Lawyers wanted to check the items to prepare for expected lawsuits over the attack. Judge Socrates Manoukian found the city and zoo arguments to preserve possible evidence in the car were at best speculative. In an inventory of what they found in their search, police said the car contained a partly filled bottle of Grey Goose vodka and a kit commonly used to defeat drug testing, which included a vial of unisex synthetic urine. Police conducted the search after the case had stalled for other reasons. The Dhaliwal brothers, who talked with investigators several days after suffering head wounds in the attack, would not agree to further questioning. Also, the zoo’s operations director, Jesse Vargas, blocked police from talking to zoo authorities after initial interviews, citing attorneys’ advice, police said in their search warrant affidavit. A spokesman has said the zoo simply wants attorneys present when zoo officials are questioned. According to the search warrant statement, Paul Dhaliwal reportedly told Sousa’s father that before the attack the three young men yelled and waved at the tiger while standing atop the 3-foot-high railing of the tiger’s exhibit. However, Paul Dhaliwal denied throwing anything into the enclosure or otherwise antagonizing the animal, and police were unable to find any evidence to contradict that account. An attorney for the Sousa family, Michael Cardoza, said it was clear police had been pressured to conduct their search despite a shortage of evidence that the Dhaliwals and Sousa had committed a crime. “You wonder who is pulling the strings here,” he said. “If they were looking at bringing manslaughter (against the Dhaliwals for Sousa’s death), that is unbelievable.” Police said all three young men had been drinking and smoked marijuana before going to the zoo. Cardoza, however, ridiculed the idea that their condition had anything to do with the attack. “Come on, how many people go out there to the zoo a little stoned?” he said. “This is ridiculous. Is that a reason to dirty the kids up?”

Bad Day

It is always good to be reminded that others have it much worse than you. Hat tip: D

SF Hotels

So you’re coming to visit The City and which hotel should you stay?

Hotel Tomo in Fillmore - Lobby’s vending machines sell anime toys.  125 rooms with bean bag chairs, glow in the dark desk vlotters and manga murals. Video game suites have 6′ screens and PS3 consoles. On Tuesday nights, all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu. But popular with small children so watch out. 1800 Sutter. 888-822-8666, from US$139

Sir Francis Drake in Union Square – Beefeater uniform clad doormen. 417 small rooms with curved walls. Pet-friendly floor and free yoga kits (to borrow). Sunday brunch with drag show. Piles of tourists checking in. Post-work partiers in the lobby bar. 450 Powell St. 450 Powell St. 800-795-7129. From US$139

Hotel Beresford in the Tenderloin – Original woodwork and period furnishings. Writing desk in a parlour off the main lobby. Refurbished 114 rooms with crown moulding and colonial style door frames. Hallways lined with photos of popular city sights. White House Tavern & Restaurant for pre-theater dinner. Not that friendly. 635 Sutter St. 800-533-6533. From US$89.

Orchard Garden Hotel near Chinatown and North Beach – City Lights bookstore. Italian neighbourhood. Earth-friendly from fluoro bulbs. Soy ink to print on bills. Lobby of reconstructed cement. 86 rooms with headboards of sustainable maple. Toilet paper recycled. Wi-Fi. iPod docking stations. Key cards that turn on electricity when you enter the room. Too much leaf patterning all over. 466 Bush St. 888-717-2881. From US$189.

Galleria Park Hotel in Financial District – Renovated last march. Victorian crystal skylights. Art nouveau fire place. 177 luxury rooms with gossamer curtains, leather head boards and clocks with MP3-player hookups. 3rd floor outdoor terrace with landscaped jogging track connecting to the Crocker Shopping Galleria. Walk one block north to Belden place for eats. Cafe Bastille has jazz Fridays. 191 Sutter St. 800-792-9639. From US$149.

Tiger Watch

In a frantic call to 911, Kulbir Dhaliwal repeatedly pleaded for police and medical crews to help his brother after a tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo, saying the situation was “life and death” and asking that a helicopter be brought in to rescue him. “How long does it take?” Dhaliwal, 23, said to the 911 dispatcher after the escaped tiger attacked his 19-year-old brother, Paul, on Christmas Day, and killed their friend Carlos Sousa Jr., 17.“Man, it does not take this long to get an ambulance out here,” Kulbir Dhaliwal said in a cell phone call he placed to 911 after the tiger got loose sometime before 5:04 p.m. He suggested that he had already spent 10 minutes during an earlier call waiting for help, but there is no record of any other call. Dhaliwal’s call ended after nearly seven minutes at 5:23 p.m., about the time the tiger attacked him as he tried to help his brother at the zoo’s Terrace Cafe. The San Jose residents had fled there after the animal got out of its outdoor grotto. By that time, paramedics still had not reached the brothers, and Sousa was mortally wounded.

Tapes of some of the calls placed to 911 after the Siberian tiger got loose were released this morning. The 911 dispatcher repeatedly ordered Kulbir Dhaliwal to calm down and tried to explain that paramedics were being kept outside the zoo because of fears the tiger might attack them. She also gave him instructions on how to control bleeding, but specific references to bleeding were deleted from the tapes that San Francisco officials released today. In his 5:16 p.m. call to 911, Dhaliwal did not make reference to the attack on Sousa. However, he and his brother had apparently mentioned a third person injured to zoo officials, according to other 911 recordings. The 911 dispatcher appeared to think the brothers were inside a zoo building at the time, an apparent miscommunication, but was aware that a tiger was on the loose and had attacked someone. Dhaliwal’s cell phone call came 12 minutes after a zoo security official made the initial report to 911, a call that was also recorded in tapes released today.  In that first call, zoo radio transmissions were recorded. About 5:06 p.m., operations manager Deb Howe said two people at the Terrace Cafe “are screaming about an animal that has attacked them, but there’s no animal out. He’s talking about a third person, and I don’t see a third person.” A zoo security officer told the dispatcher, “He’s saying he was bitten by an animal, but there is no animal escaped – he could just be crazy.” Howe told zoo official Alan Feinberg that a lion might have gotten out, and Feinberg replied, “That’s virtually impossible. … I can’t imagine how he could possibly have gotten attacked by a lion.” Four minutes later, at 5:10 p.m., Howe realized what had happened and ordered an emergency lockdown. “I’ve got a tiger out. Code one,” she said. “What?!” a startled Feinberg replied. Howe then apparently left the brothers. Dhaliwal, who was defenseless at the Terrace Cafe when he made his 5:16 p.m. call, repeatedly told the 911 dispatcher that the situation was urgent. “Can you check up on them and see where they at?” he asked at one point. The dispatcher responded that “they are on scene right now, but they have to stage until they are given permission to go inside.” A frantic Dhaliwal replied, “It’s a matter of life and death! How can they wait for permission to go in?” “I understand that,” replied the dispatcher, “but at the same time, we have to make sure the paramedics don’t get chewed out … because, if the paramedics get hurt, then nobody is going to help you…” “What do you mean?” Dhaliwal answered. “My brother’s going to die out here.” “OK, calm down, all right,” the dispatcher replied. “It’s a matter of life and death,” Dhaliwal said. “I’m not going to let him die like that.” “I’ll stay on the line with you,” the dispatcher said. “If the paramedics get hurt they cannot help your brother, so you need to calm down and…”

“Send more paramedics then!” Dhaliwal said. The dispatcher replied, “You are going to be the best help for your brother right now, so you need to calm down and help him until we can get there, sir, all right? So I’m going to stay on the line with you. ” “Can you fly a helicopter right here? Because I don’t see no f- ambulance here,” Dhaliwal said. The dispatcher again told him, “OK, stay calm! You have to stay calm for your brother, all right?” Police, who had gotten onto the zoo grounds about the time Dhaliwal made his 911 call, found the tiger at the cafe and shot it to death as it was attacking Kulbir. Both brothers were hospitalized for several days with head wounds.

Tiger Watch

In the eyes of the law, keeping a caged tiger is like hauling dynamite or storing uranium – an activity so dangerous that even the most careful proprietor is responsible for any injuries to bystanders.

That’s the general rule that will apply to any lawsuits over the Christmas Day attack at the San Francisco Zoo, in which a tiger escaped from its outdoor grotto, killed a 17-year-old visitor from San Jose and injured two of his friends. But, as usual in these situations, there’s an asterisk, and it dates back to 1952, when a state appeals court ruled on a suit by a man who was attacked by a polar bear at the same zoo.

The victim in that case, Arthur McKinney, was bitten on the hand and arm while reaching toward the cage – or possibly into the cage – to feed the bear. A Superior Court jury found no negligence by the city, which then ran the zoo, and McKinney appealed.

His lawyer argued that McKinney shouldn’t have to meet the usual test to prove the city was negligent – which would have meant showing that the zoo hadn’t taken reasonable care to keep animals away from visitors. Instead, he argued that the keeper of a dangerous animal should be held strictly responsible for any harm it causes.

The First District Court of Appeal ruled against him, saying the doctrine of strict, no-exceptions liability for inherently dangerous activities like keeping a wild animal doesn’t apply to a city carrying out a government function such as running a zoo. A city is responsible only for harm caused by a “dangerous or defective condition” of public property that officials should have known about and failed to repair, the court said.

The ruling is still on the books as a precedent and may strengthen San Francisco’s defense against anticipated damage claims by brothers Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal of San Jose, who were injured by the Siberian tiger that escaped on Christmas Day, and by the family of 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr., who was killed.

Even before any lawsuits have been filed, the city is citing the McKinney case in a court dispute over potential evidence, arguing that it can’t be held responsible for the attack without proof that its employees were at fault.

But lawyers and law professors who have studied the issue doubt that the 1952 case is enough to get the city off the hook.

For one thing, said Matt Davis, a San Francisco personal-injury lawyer and former deputy city attorney, California overhauled its laws on suits against government agencies in 1963. He said a judge may conclude that the ruling in the polar bear case was based on previous laws and is no longer binding.

Davis also noted that the zoo, which was free to the public in 1952, now charges $11 for adult tickets. “Once you start charging admission, your responsibility to the patrons increases,” he said.

Also, a legal shield for the city wouldn’t help the San Francisco Zoological Society, the nonprofit that took over zoo management in 1993. It remains subject to the traditional rule that a zookeeper, like a dynamite-hauler or anyone else engaged in what the law classifies as “ultra-hazardous activities,” can be held responsible for injuries caused by those activities even if it did nothing wrong.

San Francisco’s management contract with the Zoological Society protects the city from responsibility for damages at the zoo unless a city employee was at fault. But legal analysts contacted by The Chronicle generally agreed that it shouldn’t be hard for a plaintiff suing over the tiger attack to prove that both the city, which designed the zoo and owns the land and animals, and the Zoological Society, which is responsible for day-to-day operations, were negligent.

“Based on the facts that have come out, this is a clear-cut case of negligence,” said John Diamond, a professor at UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.

He cited the zoo director’s admission that the moat wall around the tiger grotto was only 12 1/2 feet high – 4 feet below national safety standards, and 7 1/2 feet shorter than zoo officials had said it was. “There’s no excuse for having an enclosure that does not conform to industry standards and allows a wild animal to escape,” Diamond said.

If the case goes to trial, said David Levine, another Hastings professor, the plaintiffs will present experts who will testify that “any idiot would know a dry moat with a 12-foot wall” isn’t enough protection from a tiger.

He said the fact that the same tiger attacked a trainer a year earlier, ripping much of the skin from her arm, would help to show that zoo officials had been aware of a dangerous situation. A state investigation concluded that the zoo was at fault for the attack because of the way the tigers’ cages were configured.

Other legal experts cited reports that zoo supervisors had ignored employees’ warnings of safety problems.

“In a place that invites people in, you have a heightened duty to make it safe,” said Kenneth Bamberger, a UC Berkeley law professor.

Another issue likely to come up in any lawsuit trial is whether the victims themselves were negligent, by taunting or other conduct that may have spurred the tiger to escape or put them in harm’s way.

In typical injury cases, the jury decides whether the victim’s actions contributed to the harm and reduces the damages proportionately – for example, if the victim was 20 percent at fault, the damage award is lowered by 20 percent. But that may not be much of a factor in this case, Levine said.

“It depends on what they’d done, but it’s pretty unlikely that merely taunting the animals would lead to (a finding of) substantial fault,” Levine said. “You shouldn’t do it, but it happens all the time. … It’s not like coming in and unlocking the cage.”

Diamond went further, saying that no actions by the victims, short of helping the tiger break out or jumping into its enclosure, should be grounds for reducing the damages. Zoos are supposed to anticipate a wide range of behavior from visitors when designing their structures, he said, and a visitor wouldn’t reasonably expect that taunting a dangerous animal would enable it to escape.

He said it was even possible that a jury would award punitive damages, in addition to compensation for the plaintiffs’ injuries. Evidence that zoo managers had been on notice that the enclosure was inadequate and the tiger was particularly aggressive might lead jurors to conclude that the zoo exhibited a “reckless disregard toward the safety of the public,” Diamond said.

Levine was skeptical, saying the city could cite the zoo’s accreditation by a national agency as evidence that it hadn’t consciously ignored any dangerous conditions. Davis and another experienced injury lawyer, Barry Novack of Beverly Hills, said punitive damages can’t be awarded against the city, though the same immunity doesn’t apply to individual employees or the Zoological Society.

UC Berkeley’s Bamberger said the expected lawsuits could serve a social purpose.

One goal of the law of torts, or injuries, he said, is “to create liability rules that will make people act in the right way.” After a verdict in the San Francisco case, he said, “zoos would know more about how they need to act.”

“At Great America or Disneyland, every once in a while someone is injured or killed, and it causes everyone to look at the rides,” Levine said. “This is the equivalent for the world of zoos.”

Tiger Watch

Marilza Sousa says her dead son’s friend has finally explained to her what happened the day a tiger got loose at the San Francisco Zoo – and that the explanation is good enough for her. One of two young men who survived the Christmas Day attack that killed Sousa’s 17-year-old son, Carlos Sousa Jr., told the teen’s mother that they had not taunted the big cat, she said in an interview Thursday. “He said, ‘We didn’t do nothing. We were just normal kids in the zoo,’ ” Marilza Sousa said after talking with her son’s friend Paul Dhaliwal, 19, of San Jose. “That’s what happened – just dancing, talking, laughing like normal kids,” Sousa said. “I believe him.”

Dhaliwal and his brother Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23, were injured when the Siberian tiger, Tatiana, escaped from her outdoor grotto shortly before the zoo closed Christmas Day. Police shot and killed the tiger. Marilza Sousa said Paul Dhaliwal called her Monday night after she left a message for him. It was the first time either brother had spoken to her since the attack. The brothers have so far refused to speak publicly about the incident. Marilza Sousa said Paul Dhaliwal had told her he has remained silent because he is still tormented by the incident, not because his attorney has told him not to talk. “He’s still in shock,” she said in an interview at her San Jose home.

An attorney for the brothers, Mark Geragos, contends that San Francisco and zoo officials have tried to smear the Dhaliwals’ reputation by suggesting they harassed the tiger.  Dhaliwal told Marilza Sousa that his brother and Carlos Sousa hadn’t thrown anything at the tiger or otherwise provoked the animal. That conflicts with other reports that have filtered out since the incident. One woman who was at the zoo on Christmas, Jennifer Miller, told The Chronicle that she had seen three young men teasing lions in the big cat grotto about an hour before the tiger attack. She said they had been with a fourth young man, whom Miller later recognized from newspaper photos as Carlos Sousa. She said Sousa had not been teasing the lions. Sources told The Chronicle that paramedics taking the Dhaliwal brothers to the zoo by ambulance had overheard Kulbir Dhaliwal tell his brother, “Don’t tell them what we did.” The sources also said Paul Dhaliwal was intoxicated at the time of the incident, having used marijuana and consumed enough liquor to have a blood-alcohol level above the 0.08 legal limit for driving. The older brother also had been drinking and using marijuana around the time the tiger escaped, the sources said. A half-empty bottle of clear alcohol and possible evidence of drug use are visible inside the car the group took to the zoo that day, according to the city attorney’s office, but investigators cannot legally search the vehicle without the Dhaliwals’ permission. A person who picked up the phone Thursday at the Dhaliwals’ home hung up without answering questions. Sam Singer, a spokesman hired by the zoo, said officials there were trying to “get to the bottom of what really happened and what the real story is.” “If that’s their account, that’s their account,” Singer said of Paul Dhaliwal’s reported version of events. “There’s an apparent eyewitness who tells a different story from the brothers. That’s something the zoo is looking into and investigating as well.”

Paul Dhaliwal told Marilza Sousa that the tiger had leaped up the 12 1/2-foot moat wall at her grotto without warning, bounded over a short fence and attacked him first, Sousa said. Her ex-husband, Carlos Sousa Sr., has said investigators told him Kulbir Dhaliwal was attacked first. According to Paul Dhaliwal, his brother and Sousa tried to distract the tiger, and it lunged for Sousa’s neck, Marilza Sousa said. “Carlos had no chance at all,” she said. Dhaliwal told her the brothers had tried to find help before the tiger attacked again, she said, but, “Nobody showed up to help.” The brothers attended Carlos Sousa’s funeral Tuesday in San Jose, wounds from the attack still visible on their heads. Marilza Sousa hugged Paul Dhaliwal for several long moments at the service and cried. “It was simply like hugging my son,” she said Thursday. “It was like Paul’s body, but my son’s life … like my son was the one in that body. It’s a mother thing.”

Tudor Londontown

Just finished watching season 1 of Shotime’s “The Tudors”. Notwithstanding the gratuitous nudity and historical inaccuracies, you too could take a tour of Tudor London -

• Greenwich: to check out the Isle of Dogs
• Tower of London

Tiger Watch

A court commissioner has issued an emergency order for SFPD to hold the mobiles and a car belonging to the Dhaliwal brothers who survived a Christmas Day tiger attack at our zoo. This order mandates that the lawyer for the brothers preserve any photographs or call logs that were on the mobiles before the 12/25 killings. SFPD will hold the items until the court determines whether the city attorney’s office is allowed to inspect them. A hearing is scheduled for Friday in SF Superior Court. Too bad I am working that day.

Airline Bump

During the first week of the year, everyone is returning home. You might be in a bit of luck if your flexible schedule permits you to volunteer for an airline bump, to get bumped off inevitably oversold flights. If you feel the urge, identify yourself immediately upon reaching the check-in counter at the gate.

Say NO to a bump if:

• You need to be somewhere at a specific time. Even if that time is tomorrow, you risk further delay.
• You are only given a standby seat – you want a guaranteed one if the next flight is oversold. Chances are you have change of clothing only for one (1) day and then you will smell.
• You cannot benefit from the free ticket – ask of expiry dates and capacity controls. If a year long voucher restricts your ability to travel and is valid only on certain flights, walk away from the podium girl.
• You need to expense yourself in a hotel and a day’s worth of meals. What goos is a US$300 voucher if you shell out US$350 worth of boarding and lodging?
• You are traveling with kids – are you out of your mind?

Say YES if:

• You have a flexible schedule. This is critical.
• The airline guarantees a specific flight seat, preferably first class. Oh yes.
• You can use a flight voucher or flyer miles offered
• The carrier will pay for any meals, transfers or hotel stays incurred by you.

Distressed Traveller

J was stuck in Florida en route back home from the holidays and was forced to spend a night in a hotel in Dallas before connecting to a flight back home. If you are stuck in an airport in the US because of weather delay, rerouting, canceled flight or other situation beyond your control and your airline does not offer a room voucher at a local hotel, reuqet a “distressed traveler rate” as airlines typically contract a certain number of hotel rooms for personnel and stranded travellers and properties can offer over night (1) rates at a significant discount – the hotels will be proximate to the airport so you can easily get back to make your schedule flight and transfers are free upon request. This means you have to request transfer vouchers. You should ring the local properties (if your airline carrier does not give you a list) in the greater metropolitan area for similar prices as they might match the offer. Ring your preferred hotel’s front desk directly, not a central reservations line, and specifically ask for the “distressed traveller” rate. And steal bath products.

If not too exhausted from the ordeal, do a little legwork before accepting the first DT rate quoted. Checking these rates against online-only prices may get you a better price. If you are quoted a DT price that is at least US$100 less, you are getting a decent deal. Ask your airlinr for assistance – if they do not compensate your room or offer you the DT discount, as for vouchers for a future flight or comparable recompense.

Tiger Watch

Two victims of a lethal Christmas Day tiger attack were harassing the big cats at the San Francisco Zoo shortly before a 350-pound feline escaped its enclosure and mauled them, a woman told The Chronicle on Wednesday. The revelation comes as the zoo reopened yesterday, nine days after a visitor was killed and two of his friends were injured by the Siberian tiger, later shot dead by police.Jennifer Miller, who was at the zoo with her husband and two children that ill-fated Christmas afternoon, said she saw four young men at the big-cat grottos – and three of them were teasing the lions a short time before the tiger’s bloody rampage that killed 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. “The boys, especially the older one, were roaring at them. He was taunting them,” the San Francisco woman said. “They were trying to get that lion’s attention. … The lion was bristling, so I just said, ‘Come on, let’s get out of here’ because my kids were disturbed by it.” She said Sousa – whom she later recognized from his photo in the newspaper – was not heckling. The Chronicle contacted Miller after learning that she and her family had seen the young men at the zoo Christmas Day.

Miller, who said she visits the zoo with her relatives every Christmas, said the young men stood out because she has seen mostly families there. Although authorities have said Sousa was accompanied only by San Jose brothers Paul Dhaliwal, 19, and Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23, Miller said four young men were together when she came across them. Mark Geragos, an attorney speaking on behalf of the Dhaliwals, angrily denied that his clients teased the animals. He also accused the zoo administration and their newly hired crisis spokesman of “peddling unfounded rumors.” “It’s unconscionable,” he said. “They’re doing nothing but a calculated attack on these victims … when in actuality the zoo security didn’t do what they should have been doing after the attack.” Geragos maintains that the brothers ran to the Terrace Cafe after Tatiana escaped and tried for more than 30 minutes to solicit help from zoo employees. He dismissed reports of the victims throwing rocks at the tiger as “just not true.” Miller called the behavior she witnessed by the victims “disturbing.”

Her family was looking at the lions when the young men stopped beside them at the big-cat grottos – five outdoor exhibits attached to the Lion House. The young men started roaring at the lions and acting “boisterous” to get their attention, said Miller, who added that she watched the four for five minutes or so a little after 4 p.m. “It was why we left,” she said. “Their behavior was disturbing. They kept doing it.” Sousa refrained from such tactics, Miller said. “He wasn’t roaring. He wasn’t taunting them,” she recalled. “He kept looking at me apologetically like, ‘I’m sorry, I know we are being stupid.’ “

When a friend told Miller about the attacks – first reported to 911 dispatchers at 5:07 p.m. – she called police the day after Christmas to tell them what she had seen. She called back Wednesday because she was wondering why news accounts mentioned only three young men. San Francisco police Inspector Valerie Matthews said investigators had talked to Miller on Wednesday but haven’t been able to substantiate yet her account of a fourth person with the victims at the zoo. Authorities have been unable to corroborate reports that the victims taunted the tigers, she said. “I don’t know if what they did was any more than what kindergartners do at the zoo every day,” Matthews said. She said taunting an animal at the zoo is a misdemeanor.

Zoo officials declined Wednesday to specifically say that they suspected taunting in the escape of the tiger.

“Something prompted our tiger to leap over the exhibit,” said Manuel Mollinedo, executive director of the zoo, in response to questions during a 13-minute press conference attended by at least 40 media representatives on Wednesday.

Mollinedo said new “Protect the Animals” signs would ask patrons to leave the animals alone, and portable loudspeakers would remind visitors to leave promptly at the 5 p.m. closing time. A hard-wired notification system is also in the offing to alert visitors to any escapes by the creatures that live there.

“Help make the zoo a safe environment,” the signs state. “The magnificent animals in the zoo are wild and possess all their natural instincts. You are a guest in their home. Please remember they are sensitive and have feelings. PLEASE don’t tap on glass, throw anything into exhibits, make excessive noise, tease or call out to them.”

At the news conference, Zoological Society Chairman Nick Podell lavishly praised the beleaguered Mollinedo, who took over at the zoo in February 2004 and was earning $314,038 a year plus $15,702 in benefits and a $9,548 expense account, according to zoo tax documents filed in November. The society operates the zoo, although the land and animals are owned by the city.

Zoo officials said that over the next 30 days they will build a reinforced-glass barrier atop the tiger grotto’s dry moat wall. On Tuesday the zoo said the glass wall would be 4 to 5 feet high, bringing the wall height to at least 16.5 feet tall, roughly what is suggested by national standards. However, on Wednesday the zoo said the wall would be at least 19 feet tall and feature viewing holes.

In the days after the fatal mauling, zoo officials gave five different estimates of the moat wall’s height before finally conceding the wall was only 12.5 feet tall – 4 feet shorter than national recommendations.

“It will put us in the top end of the spectrum for containment facilities,” Mollinedo said.

He remained vague on several other issues. Although he said 20 patrons were at the zoo when the attack occurred, he didn’t know how many staff people or security officers were present. He said there will be more employees on duty in the future, although he wasn’t sure when that staffing increase would happen. And he didn’t know how much the proposed improvements would cost or where the money would come from.

“I’ll have to get back to you on that,” Mollinedo said more than once.

Mollinedo said his staff acted heroically after the attacks, although he couldn’t describe any specific instances. However, zoo employees have told The Chronicle that they were among the first on the scene and led paramedics to Sousa’s body while the tiger was still roaming the grounds.

When the zoo reopens, the big cats will be inside the Lion House, which will be closed to the public. Screened fences and barriers will surround the outdoor grotto and Terrace Cafe, sites of the attacks.

Patrons will be able to leave mementos and tributes at the main entrance to both Sousa and the 4-year-old Tatiana, who had mangled her keeper’s arm a year earlier.

Also Wednesday, San Francisco police Sgt. Steve Mannina said investigators found an empty vodka bottle in the car that was used by the victims to go to the zoo on Christmas Day. Inspectors haven’t concluded the significance of the find, he added.

Mannina also said results of toxicological tests performed on Sousa, who was killed by the tiger, have not been returned yet.

Zoo reopening today

What’s happening: The San Francisco Zoo reopens today for the first time since the fatal Christmas Day tiger attack.

What to expect: New signs that forbid animal harassment and loudspeakers that will alert visitors to the park’s closing time. The Lion House and big cat exhibit will be closed to the public, as will the Terrace Cafe.

Tiger Watch

The father of a teen who was killed by a tiger at the San Francisco Zoo questioned the facility’s safety on Thursday, as police reportedly considered whether one of the victims taunted the deadly jungle cat. Sources close to the investigation told the San Francisco Chronicle that police are probing whether one of the Siberian tiger’s three victims climbed over a fence Christmas Day and then dangled a leg or other body part over the moat.

Police said Carlos Sousa, 17, of San Jose was killed just outside the tiger’s enclosure. The two others, who were injured, were about 300 yards away by a cafe. A shoe and blood were found between the fence and the moat, the Chronicle reported, and a footprint has been found on a metal fence. The investigation is looking into the possibility that the tiger escaped by latching on to a leg or other body part, the paper reported. “Somebody created a situation that really agitated [the tiger] and and gave her some method to break her out,” zoo director Manuel Mollinedo told the Chronicle. “A couple of feet dangling over the edge could possibly have done it.”

Sunrise, Sunset

Cheers to a New Year and another chance for me to get it right.