Surprises aren’t always a good thing in San Francisco.

Exhaustive media coverage of the centennial of the 1906 great earthquake and fire—the defining event of the city’s history and biggest natural disaster in America until Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast last year—recently shook Bay Area residents with constant reminders that this is shake-rattle-and-roll country.
On Saturday morning, Talk Cinema founder and former Film Comment editor Harlan Jacobson admitted to being a “nervous New Yorker