By Bruce B. Brugmann (Scroll down for photo id and to see Ex- Marine Pete McCloskey jump the barricade and storm Martin's Beach)
Boys' Night Out, a creation of press agent Lee Houskeeper, was held recently at John's Grill, home of Dashiell Hammett and the Maltese Falcon. Houskeeper turned the falcon on its side, which meant that all of the news and gossip turned up by his newsworthy guests was privileged and could not be repeated to the outside world.
Nonetheless, the timing was perfect because the next day came the welcome news that a San Mateo Superior Court judge had ruled for the public and against a billionaire coastal landowner to open up a valuable chunk of privately held San Mateo coastline. The Surfrider case was handled by Attorneys Joe Cotchett and Pete McCloskey, both of whom were at the dinner.
Houskeeper, who does publicity work for Cotchett, explained the back story to me after the dinner. He said that the Surfrider forces started "the public brouhaha" two years ago when the "Blackwater type security goons were arresting surfers who dared jump his locked Martin's Beach gate fence." Vinod Khosla, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, had acquired the 53-acre parcel near Half Moon Bay in 2008. Houskeeper asked McCloskey, a Korean War veteran, if he would risk arrest, jump the gate, and lead the surfers a half mile to "free" the beach. Read more »