As of last night, the street sign at the bottom of Dashiell Hammett Street still reads “Dashiel Hammet.” The sign at the top of the street is the original, correctly spelled version.
And I did get a new theory about the sign from a resident of Hammett alley, who suspects the construction crew that has been ripping up Bush in recent weeks may have broken it off by accident, and replaced it with the new one — hey, construction guys trying to spell Dashiell Hammett, that would explain a lot. . . .
Meanwhile, Steven Meikle popped me a note, saying: “I had to laugh when I saw the new ‘Dashiel Hammet’ sign. I’m glad I got a photo with the old one.” Steven is a legend of the tour, of course, as the guy from Edinburgh who saved up for six years so that he could take the tour that fell closest to Hammett’s one hundredth birthday. He’s been back on the mean streets since then, and that’s when he took the shot shown above.
