And now for a moment of personal privilege . . .

Photo by Lou Dematteis/Reuters

As some of you know, I was a journalist for many years before entering the priesthood, and I dust off my journalist credentials from time to time. I wrote a 506-page book published in 1996 about Willie Brown, then the powerful Speaker of the California State Assembly who was eventually elected for two terms as mayor of San Francisco. He is still a powerbroker in California politics and still richly entertaining.

I am grateful to still get calls on the aforementioned topic, and I was quoted Wednesday in The New York Times in a profile about Mr. Brown. Here is the top of the story, and you'll need to click on the full story at the bottom to find my quote:

Out of Office, but Not Out of Things to Say
By ERICA GOODE

SAN FRANCISCO — Wilkes Bashford, of the renowned clothing store here that bears his name, places a John Lobb suede oxford, size 11, marked down to $1,650, on the table at Le Central.

“It’s a gorgeous color,” says Willie Brown, the former mayor of San Francisco and Mr. Bashford’s customer and close friend of 45 years. “I wouldn’t even call that burgundy. It’s headed for ... It’s Bordeaux.”

“The color is the reason I brought them over,” Mr. Bashford says. “I wouldn’t push shoes at lunch otherwise.”

“Wilkes, that’s the most sensitive thing you’ve ever said,” Mr. Brown quips.

As repartee, it is pure Willie Lewis Brown Jr., perfected over the four decades he has been a central figure in the city’s political and social life, and served up for almost that long at Le Central, where Mr. Brown, Mr. Bashford and a select group of others — Herb Caen, the San Francisco Chronicle columnist who died in 1997, was a founding member — have assembled every Friday since 1973 to talk politics, restaurants, real estate, children, grandchildren and the occasional pair of shoes.

To read the full story, click HERE.