Seattle’s Food Trumps San Francisco’s

Historian Margaret O’Mara Takes Questions in the Green Room

University of Washington historian Margaret O’Mara is an expert on the history of Silicon Valley. Before participating in a panel on the San Francisco-Los Angeles rivalry, she talked about her daughter, her coffee, and another city-versus-city match-up: San Francisco vs. Seattle.

Q.Who’s the last person who told you a good joke?

A. My six-year-old daughter.

Q. Are you a cat person or a dog person?

A. I’m a dog person.

Q. What technology could you not live without?

A. My aerolatte, which I use to foam milk in my coffee.

Q.If you could be anyone in history, who would you be?

A. Eleanor Roosevelt.

Q. What’s your favorite city in the world?

A. San Francisco.

Q. How long is your commute to work, and how do you get there?

A. Twenty minutes, in a car, with small people in the back seat who I drop off at school. I should take a bike, but I’m too wimpy to bike in the rain.

Q. How do you get your exercise?

A. I run.

Q. What do you watch on television?

A. Weeds, Boardwalk Empire, and The Wire.

Q. What’s the most underrated thing about Seattle?

A. It’s the best food town I’ve lived in-better than San Francisco.

Q. What book have you read the most times?

A. What It Takes by Richard Ben Cramer, about the 1988 presidential election.

Q. What was your biggest surprise of last week?

A. That my daughter successfully completed a half-mile cross country race without melting down or stopping.

*Photo by Aaron Salcido.