The Gate to the World

It’s a fairly safe bet that this ship passing underneath the Golden Gate Bridge picked up its cargo at the Port of Oakland, across the Bay. San Francisco’s lesser known, not-quite-as-pretty twin city handles 99 percent of all containers coming to and from Northern California by sea. The port has ten container terminals and is the fourth busiest in the U.S.

And while that’s certainly impressive, the prettier picture (sorry, Oakland) is still the passage through the gate to the world...

Happy Birthday, Old Chimp!

Remember Tarzan’s old buddy, Cheeta the chimp? Today he lives in a retirement home for showbusiness apes in Palm Springs, meaning he’s surrounded by other former Hollywood stars enjoying their sunset years. Except he doesn’t golf, so instead he paints. 

Each year in April, Cheeta celebrates his birthday. The Guinness Book of World Records lists him as the oldest living chimpanzee, even though there’s some controversy over whether he is really 78, as his MySpace website states.

I visited Cheeta and his caretaker, Dan Westfall, last year for a feature in the Financial Times Germany, as well as a video at stern.de. My photo website has a full gallery. Happy Birthday, Cheeta! No matter how old you really are...