Michael Tucker, who helped me locate Concepción Arguella and Count Nikolai Rezanov’s love story, prompted only by a very vague memory of a book I read twenty years ago.
Eileen Hirst, for the lowdown on cop funerals and city politics, much of which I blissfully ignored.
Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper, the intrepid San Francisco Giants TV announcers, to whom I owe credit for all the baseball lingo I know, except the profanities, which they would never, ever use.
Monique Motil, whose brilliant “sartorial creatures” sculptures were the inspiration for the Squirrel People.
Ryan, Piper, and Presley Pombrio, for the lowdown on princesses and little ponies.
And Charlee Gina Michelle Hieronymus Carnitas Tremble Moss Moore, for insight on her hospice work, as well as her patience, tolerance, and generosity, without which, this book would have never been finished.