San Francisco’s City Arts & Lecturer

SYDNEY INVENTED A SERIES IN WHICH TWO PEOPLE SIT IN CHAIRS AND TALK. AND FOR 30-ODD YEARS, SHE SOMEHOW MANAGED TO BRING ABOUT 800 PEOPLE TO EACH OF THESE CONVERSATIONS. THAT IS FRANKLY ABSURD.

Editor’s note: The following was delivered as a eulogy at Sydney Goldstein’s memorial on October 29, 2018, at the Nourse Theater in San Francisco.

The first time my wife Vendela and I socialized with Sydney Goldstein and Chuck Breyer, we went to dinner in the Mission. We didn’t know what to expect. We knew Sydney was the legendary founder of City Arts & Lectures, and that Chuck was a federal judge and wore a bowtie. So we believed, justifiably I think, that there was at least an outside chance the dinner might be a bit, let’s say, starched.

But right away Sydney ordered a margarita and started telling a story about a case Chuck was presiding over. Apparently, a couple had brought their cat to the Toronto airport, in a cat-crate. They gave the cat to Air