and the state standard. >> is the new restaurant meaning it's a new owner or m n meaning -- what is a new restaurant? >> the state code and ada doesn't care who owns it. the state code certainly doesn't. if there is an existing restaurant and it's cold and you are not doing work which is always never the case. assume being you don't dpo work there is nothing triggered. if you do finishing or carpet that is a nonstructural repair and maintenance that does not trigger disabled access. that's very rare. new owner purchases a facility or restaurant they always want to do something. >> i think the other area of ada that a restaurateur needs to be aware of is any citizen in the country can sue a business for not being accessible whether

or not they have taken out a building permit. there are attorneys in the country that do this for a living. ethical standard if you have done the things red lye available. run in the bathroom stall and put in 2 grab embarrass so someone in a wheel chair can use a toilet they will probably leave you alone. if you have done nothing and an act vift walks if in you may be sued in order to bring your facility up to code. it's more expensive to do the work and fight the litigation than it is to settle. it's a shake down, if you would. it's important that restaurateurs do what they can to reasonably accommodate everyone. if you make the effort you will probably be fine. if you make no effort that would be a concern for your business long-term. >> even if's not triggered as a

legal requirement, what is readily achievable, do it. it's not that expensive. >> and the up side is you are accomodating your customer. >> that's right. >> i want to talk about mezzanines come up all the time. there is a restaurant in san francisco called mezzanine, have to go there. mezzanines come up all the time. a mezzanine in an existing restaurant does not need to be made disabled accessible if the area served is of 25 percent or less of the same area provided in the main area of the restaurant. the area in the mezzanine is not more than 25 percent of the service area of the restaurant if that's the service area. and mezzanines are limited to a

third of the room to which they are opening. mezzanines are interesting they are areas within a space for which you don't pay for space rent, is that your understanding? >> i would agree. >> some restaurants i see rent a space and put in a mezzanine they have 250 square feet of usable in some way which is a real benefit in many cases. and they have certain exemptions from disabled access but you have to provide the same searchses on the mezzanine as on the floor. >> the code says in an existing restaurant. a mezzanine that is no more than 25 percent may -- and that can be interpreted loosely. you get the permit for the restaurant and come and get the

mezzanine permit and it's an existing restaurant. other requirements and thresholds, elevators are extremely expensive people who build restaurants with elevators are doing major projects. heavens if you get involved in an elevator and it's another 100 thousand dollars. other disabled access, where there are 2 exceptions based on the size of the building. they say this is unreasonable to require an elevator and you are exempted. the disabled access is expensive upgrade requirement. the green building stuff we will see a lot of green building regulations in the next 10 years and start affecting restaurants

as well as every build negligent stay. have to do with lighting and envelope efficiency. it will tighten up the rooup rules more. it's not just the state and local legal the bay area air quality management district passed a law with restaurants where you have a broiler of more than 10, >> 10 feet. >> you have to have a special way to burn off the grease and vent. very expensive. there are regulations coming from every direction and mostly ending up in the building code. whether they are social issues or health and safety issues they'll be in the building code. yes , sir. >> on the exiting, you have 2 fire exits do both have to be disabled access or can you have

one? >> the code just changed. it used to say an accessible entry and now you need accessible exits as well. for new accessible for remodels red you with use the second exit. >> the lift, ironically we got a call from a client who wants to install an out door lift to get from the garage and the platform at the main level of the house. i was wondering whether wise is that allowed in san francisco. i see by the brochure of the lift manufacture they do outside lifts. i was concerned about pushing electrical butt ons on it. >> i see out door lifts in the city and they need more service but are listed and approved. >> if you want information

about golden gate association can they give a call. >> 781-5348 extension one. website is ggra. org. there is hundreds of pages of data on the website. >> like to thank kevin lesly from golden gate restaurant association. thank you very much. [applause]. thank you for coming. we will see you next time. >> whr

died, he was working on one of the biggest shows of his career, matter and spirit. it is a retrospective look at the many faces and faces of the life of an innovative artist from the california clay movement. stephen de staebler's developed in an area dominated by abstract expression. even his peers saw his form. >> he was able to find a middle ground in which he balanced the ideas of human figuration and representation with abstraction and found it even more meaningful to negotiate that duality. >> another challenge was to create art from a meeting that was typically viewed as kraft

material. his transforming moment was an accident in the studio. an oversized vertical sculpture began to collapse under its own weight and spread onto the floor. he sought a new tradition before him, landscape sculpture. >> you feel this extended human form underneath the surface of the earth struggling to emerge. eventually, it does. it articulates his idea that the earth is like flesh, and the archaeology and geology in the earth are like the bones, the structure of the earth. this tied in with his idea of mother earth, with the sense that we are all tied to nature and the earth. >> a half dozen bay area museums and private collectors loan the massive sculptures to the museum for its matter and spirit retrospective. but the most unusual contributions came from stephen

himself. a wall of autobiographical masks and hence from the early decades of his private study. >> he had one of the most beautiful studios i have ever been in. when you walk in, your first impression is of these monumental figures that you see in the exhibition, but if you went into the back corner of his studio, there was a series of shells with these diminutive figures. he told me, these are the heart of my studio. these little, and held intimate study is that he referred to as his sketchbook. a painter might make drawings. stephen de staebler made miniature sculptures. >> during the 1970's, he was inspired by the monuments of egypt. he assembled a large rocks of clay into figures that resembled the ancient kings and queens. he credited a weathered appearance by rubbing glazes' into the clay while still wet.

the misfires from his killed were brought in his backyard in his berkeley home. he called it his boneyard. in the last year of his life, he dug up the artifacts from his own history, and the bones were rearranged, in the were slimmer figures with wings. >> even if you knew nothing about his life or career, you sensed there was an artist dealing with this fundamental issue of life and death, the cake, netting back together, and you feel there is an attempt to deal with mortality and immortality. there is a seeking of spiritual meaning in an existential stage. >> during his 50-year career, stephen de staebler worked to form and out of the clay of the ground and give it a breath of life. matter and spirit gathers the many expressions of his meditations. and gives the viewer and insight into the artist's life. learn more about the

retrospective on line at >> good evening, and welcome to tonight's meeting of the commonwealth club of california, the place where you are in the know. >> you just said this is where we came in. >> is this a trick? you can find us on the internet. i am from kcbs radio. your moderator. this is part of the good lit series. now it is my pleasure to introduce our special guest today, d and alan zweibel. they need no introduction. dave barry won the pulitzer prize for his insightful and funny commons -- columns in the miami herald, which he wrote for 21 years. is the best-selling author of

more than 30 bucks, none of which has won the pulitzer prize. you may remember the tv series "and dave swirled," which was about his life. fortunately for us, his wife is running a lot longer than the tv show. he has written a show with alan zweibel. please welcome dave barry and alan zweibel. [applause] >> thank you. >> thank you for the fairly lengthy introduction. those are going to go first. i am dave. first of all, we're thrilled to be here at the commonwealth club. i want to tell you a little bit about myself. i live in miami.

i moved there in 1986 from the united states. [laughter] one of the things i always feel like i should do is to defend my city because it had a bad reputation, a bad image. the zogby does this organization -- and does this poll were they asked people about different cities. many respondents thought miami was a dangerous and violent place. that hurts. when we see that, we want to attract those people down and kill them. [laughter] it is a wonderful city, it really is. it is a question of learning to adapt to the local culture. for example, you would never say out loud in miami, i do not know, i think you have to admit that castro has done some good for cuba. [laughter] anyway, what ever you have heard, disregard. it is a great town. we have a new attitude out there. the tourism motto is to come

back to miami, we were not shooting at you. [laughter] i want to tell you quickly about my career. i have been a humor writer most of my life. i started out as a regular reporter. i worked at a little leaguer in pennsylvania called the daily local news. very small town paper. not the best edited paper. we once ran a headline that said women would be raped. [laughter] but that is where i got my start in journalism. i was not great at reporting. i was an english major and went into journalism because i wanted to write, but i learned that writing is not the key skill in journalism. talking to people is the key skill. sometimes you have to talk to people who are intimidating or hostile. good reporters are able to do that indeed there train of thought and not get flustered.

i was not good at that. after i became a columnist but was still dealing with news events, in 1982 i was in new hampshire writing columns about the new hampshire presidential primary. i spent a day following the then first lady barbara bush around. not as a stalker, but as a member of the press corps. it was a big press corps, lots of people. the motorcade of us going and around and all these dignitaries in various events. at the end of the day, mrs. bush had a press conference at a hotel ballroom. the place was packed. i was taking notes for my humor column. when i thought it was all over, the photographer brought the press corps that had been with mrs. bush up on the stage. maybe two dozen of us. they put me right next to barbara rush, first lady of the united states, for this picture.

this is a situation where i know in my mind to say nothing. i knew that in my mind. [laughter] your brain does not always tell the rest of your body what the plan is. there was kind of a quiet moment with these high-powered journalists and this room full of people. i planned to say nothing, but for some reason my mouth came open, and i said to barbara bush, first lady of the united states, who i had never met. i said, a shot at the same supermarket as your son jebb. [laughter] i swear to you. i did shop at the same supermarket but this was before he became governor of florida. but i do not think the first lady was dying to know that. i do not think she was wondering if this fellow shops it is in supermarket -- she goes, well,

who gives a shit? [laughter] not with her mouth but with her eyes. with her mouth, she said we just celebrated his birthday. i analyzed the statement. they have nothing to do with each other. she was being gracious. she has probably seen this happen in million tons. the person is reduced to a blithering idiot because she is a barbara bush. she was pretending we were having a conversation about her son. we really were not, but she was bailing me out. very thoughtful of her. i knew she was doing that. i said, thank you, mrs. bush. that is what i was thinking with my mind. but in my mouth was thinking, whoa, we're really getting it off here. i heard myself say, following up on the fascinating fact that i

shot at the same supermarket as her son, i said, he is very tall. i swear peter it is true, but i am sure the first lady was already aware of that fact. now she's looking around for the guy with the tranquilizer and dart gun. she said, he did not just grow this year. thank god. they took the picture, and it was over. i had to get the ridicule from my federal journalist on the way back to the hotel, marveling at my interviewing techniques. wondering what i would ask that lee harvey of what it i had the opportunity. they talk about spontaneous human combustion were people turn into flames and the scientists cannot explain why. i can explain why. sometimes it is your best option but don't so that really is how i became a humor writer. i was not good as a journalist. i must liro did on my own.

then i ran it -- i mostly w rote it on my own. i was in and and wrote some young adult fiction books with one of my band mates. i enjoyed the experience but i never would have thought about writing an adult kind of novel with anybody else until i met alan. i want to tell you about alan. i do not know if you realize how major he was then in the comedy world. the remember the great 19709- 1980 "saturday night live"? a lot of that was this man here. how many of you have seen "700 sundays close " with billy crystal? he co-wrote to that. how many of you have heard the song "mr. budging goals -- mr. bojanles"?

he had nothing to do with that at all. [laughter] any way, ladies and gentlemen, my co-writer -- i ask one thing of you. when we get to the questions, please, no questions or comments about the freakishly huge size of his head. ok, that is all we ask. actually, you should not look at it right now. a huge head. it is like easter island. >> it is for radio. >> doug and i are leaning to our left because of the gravitational force. but, as i say, he is sensitive about it. [laughter] let's forget right now about alan zweibel's head. ladies and gentlemen, alan

zweibel. [applause] >> you know, it is really amazing to me that i actually know dave barry and actually wrote a book with him. i remember as a 5 or 6-year-old kid, my grandfather used to read a lot of dave's stories to me. [laughter] and here i am now. how did i become a humor writer? it is ironic, the whole thing is because, originally, it was not my idea to become a comedy writer. this was a decision that was made for me about 35 years ago by every law school in the united states. [laughter] went to college. my great point average was really good, but you had to take the law boards, which was graded from 200-800.

if you could write your name, you got 200. if your einstein, you got 800. if you work alan zweibel, you got 390. that classified me as mineral. [laughter] i remember going home at easter, and i told my long island jewish parents that i got 390 on at the louisiana board. and about a week later, this was just as they uncovered the mirrors -- [laughter] my father gave me $1,000, which i then it took in gave to a man named stanley kaplan. stanley kaplan has these schools all over the country where they teach you to take standardized tests. so i gave him the $1,000. for six months, i studied it to retake the louisiana board -- the law board.

six months later, i reject the test. my score catapulted up to a 401. [laughter] i figured, at that rate, i would be about 90 before i got into an english-speaking law school. so i started writing jokes for all comedians who played in the catskill section of new york. the hotels paid me $7 a joke. that was the going rate at the time the vso 21. they are 45. it was like writing for my parents' friends. but i tried my best. they would say to me, like, a sperm banks. sperm banks are in it the news. write me sperm bank jokes. 21, this is what was the foremost on my mind. they have this new thing now called sperm banks, which is just like an ordinary bank except here after making a deposit, you lose interest.

[laughter] hey, $7, what do you want? [laughter] then i became the sperm bank guy. they would go, more sperm bank jokes. that i looked into the future. i said, i see a problem with spurring banks. they're starting to freeze sperm. that will be a problem because it is herded up telling kids and they are adopted. how do you tell them they are defrosted? [laughter] $7, ok? i am living home with my parents. this is after college. i got a job in a delicatessen to supplement this great living i was making. my price went to $10 and $12. these were nondescript comedians always driving -- writing for. i was going nowhere fast. years later, it was easier to write for guys that had characters, like rodney

dangerfield. he had that thing, i do not get no respect. it was easy to say, i never got any respect. even as an infant, my mother would not breast feed me. she said she liked me as a friend. [laughter] see, that was easy. these -- the catskills were dying. i said, ok, i am going to live with my parents forever. i am go to work in this delicatessen forever. i took these jobs that these old guys would not apply for me, and i made it into a stand-up routine for myself. there were two big clubs in new york. i will go on stage, deliver the jokes, and maybe a manager or agent, the kind of people who used to hang out there, would like my material and give me a job. this is where richard pryor started and lily tomlin and others. the first date -- the first week

of was working there, i met a guy who is also starting up. his name was billy crystal. he lived about 3 tons over from where my parents live. he had a little blue volkswagen, used to pick me up every night. drive into the city. we would get on stage, do our jobs. he would drive me home. we would critique each other's jokes and our acts. i am about four months into this nightmare, this experiment of mine. one night at about 1:00 a.m., having the hardest time in the world making these four drunks from des moines laugh. i get off the state and -- i get off the stage and go to the board videos awaiting for billy. a man sits next to me and starts staring at me. staring at me. i finally go, what, what do you want? he goes, you know, you are the worst the media i have ever seen in my life. i said, thank you, i really need to hear this right now. thank you very much.

he said, but your material is good. do you write it? i said, yes. he said, can i see more of it? i said, you bet. i even asked his name. ends up this is lorne michael, and he is going to the clubs in new york looking for writers for this new show called "saturday night live" that was going to premiere in the fall. i go home to long island and a type of what i believe for a 1100 of my best jokes. two days later, i have to go back to the city for my meeting with lorne. i was so nervous. what should i wear? well, hip new show. i will dress hip. i put on my father's marroon polyester leisure suit. i looked like a big blood clot. i w