Like most people I prefer my sources named. Anonymous? What’s your real name? So I particularly appreciate “Marty” (“78”) of Avon Street, because Marty is not afraid to sign his prophesies. Like right in front of the house now owned by my friend John Michael, where he scratched into the cement “Jesus is coming Marty.” (When I see Jesus coming – perhaps to answer the door at John Michael’s – I can say Marty told me so.) And a couple of doors down: “We live in the end of days Marty.”

Another sidewalk signer may have been Room Eight, the famous cat who once lived at Elysian Heights Elementary (around the corner from Marty’s prophesies). This was in the 1960s. About a week ago, I was at the home of some neighbors. One of them, an eight-year-old, wanted to show me Room Eight’s signature: a crisp little paw print in the cement along the side of the house. I asked how she knew it was Room Eight’s. She said because Room Eight visited all the neighbors. And, true, we were near the school.