apple, milk and twinkies.

today is apple’s world-wide deleloper’s conference at moscone center, san francisco!

well, yawn you not, infidel! there are some interesting things to learn here: first, the name is moscone, like in “coney island”, not as in “cone”.

it is named after george moscone who once was mayor of san francisco until assassinated by a dan white.

dan white had been member of the board of supervisors under mayor moscone and saw himself as “defender of the home, the family and religious life against homosexuals, pot smokers and cynics.”

in a dispute over a facility for juvenile offenders, white clashed with other supervisors and finally resigned his seat. he was cited to reason his resignation with corrupt politics and difficulty in making a living with his salary.

until then, the board was in kind of balance between liberal supervisors supporting moscone (who was known for his defense of the poor, racial minorities and small business owners) and those who endorse a more conservative agenda.

the latter ones and their henchmen now feared that the new supervisor moscone will choose to become white’s successor could tip this balance of power in moscone’s favor and lobbied white to reconsider and change his mind.

as white tried to convince moscone to re-appoint him to his former seat – an idea moscone initially was not averse to –, the liberal city leaders convinced moscone to deny white’s request.

one of them was harvey milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in california.

when white heard from moscone the final rejection of his request, he pulled a gun and killed first moscone, then milk.

white turned himself in and confessed. his lawyers pleaded “diminished capacity” for his crimes and he was acquitted of the first degree murder charge, but found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to serve seven and two-thirds years.

the verdict proved to be highly controversial and caused an outrage, particularly in the gay community, which sparked the san francisco white night riots.

two years after he was paroled from prison, white committed suicide.

and why was dan white in a state of mental diminished capacity? because of eating too many twinkies?

update: i just became aware of two movies telling the story of harvey milk that some of you even might have seen already: the times of harvey milk (1984) and milk (2008).