If you feel like taking your frustrations out about the pandemic, Menlo Park resident Elizabeth McCarthy came up with the perfect way: piñatas in the form of the COVID-19 protein.
“When the vaccine came out, I was like, ‘This could finally come to an end,” and I was filled with such hope for the first time,” said McCarthy, a registered nurse at Stanford Hospital. “People are going to want to celebrate, and what better catharsis than to beat up COVID, literally?”
McCarthy went on the hunt for a COVID-themed piñata, but what she found wasn’t up to her standards at all. “They were the wrong color. They didn’t follow the CDC’s COVID icon,” she said. “Some of them were more than a tad racist, too. They were very offensive and poorly executed.”
With a crafty background — she had a sideline for about five years making sugar skulls for Day of the Dead and once won a national origami competition — she set out to make her own. After some prototypes, she came up with her design, using red pompom balls and red paper straws for the spikes that are hot-glued to the corrugated cardboard body. A thick paperboard is attached to the front and back, with fiberglass-reinforced packing tape — the kind Amazon uses — holding it all together. Silver crepe paper — made in Italy, no less — adds texture, with a mask and angry-looking cartoon eyes providing the finishing touches.
McCarthy knows her piñatas, too. Growing up in Menlo Park, her family would head to Redwood City to buy the candy-stuffed Mexican favorites several times a year. “There were four of us kids, and every birthday involved a piñata,” she said. It was a big deal to choose the piñata, the candy, even the stick to bash it with.
Even though she doesn’t have a Latino or Hispanic background, McCarthy said she was exposed to the culture all the time growing up in the Bay Area and fell in love with it. She has made several visits to Mexico, where her appreciation only has grown. “Mexican folk art, to me, is the ultimate,” she said. “I always just found it fascinating, and this just comes from that love.”
She’s made more than two dozen piñatas so far, but with demand spurred by word of mouth and recent news reports, orders have piled up that’ll keep her busy into July. It’s $40 for the regular-size piñata and $20 for a smaller, ball-shaped version if you want to order by texting her at 650-328-2083. Just don’t be in a hurry.
And, of course, she still has her regular job as a nurse, where she says she has been on the frontline of the pandemic working with COVID patients. She says her co-workers might think her piñata-making a little crazy but they also know it’s right up her alley.
“This has been such a joy,” she said. “I never thought this pandemic would end up with me being a piñateria, but I can’t think of anything else I’d want to be doing right now.”
RIDING AROUND: With a nod to the legions of people still working from home, no longer working in an office, or maybe even not working at all, Bike to Work Day this week has been redubbed “Bike to Wherever Day” on May 21. As usual, the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition has helped organize dozens of “energizer stations” in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties — places like bike shops, libraries and transit stops where you can see some smiling faces, maybe get advice on bike maintenance or routes and — if you’ve registered in advance — pick up a free Bike to Wherever Day bag. Most stations will be open Friday, though some will be in operation Thursday and others Saturday. You can register for a bag and see a list and map of stations at bikesiliconvalley.org/btwd.
The San Jose Bike Party also is making a comeback on May 21 with a “Welcome Back” ride starting at 8 p.m. The starting point and route for the 15-20 mile ride — peppered with music and decorated bikes, often illuminated — will be revealed later this week at www.sjbikeparty.org and on its Facebook page.
And let’s hear it for the Wood family of Mountain View, who are Santa Clara County’s 2021 Bike Champions of the Year. Daniel Wood leads his 7-year-old triplets — Hazel, Alden, and Malia Wood — on a caravan ride to and from school. The bike riding actually started when the kids were in preschool with Daniel Wood taking them on his bike with a combination of child seats and trailers, until they all graduated to their own bikes. The kids’ mom, Kayo Wood, occasionally joins in for a fun ride but she leaves the daily commute to Dad.
GETTING TREKKY: When I talked to Adam Savage last week about the return of SiliCon with Adam Savage to downtown San Jose in August, he promised there’d be more guest announcements coming soon. He wasn’t kidding. “Star Trek” legend William Shatner was added to the top of the guest list Tuesday morning and will be appearing on Aug. 29, the second day of the show (Tickets are available at siliconsj.com).
Shatner, who turned 90 in March, was a huge draw at the first two editions of what was then called Silicon Valley Comic Con but did not appear the next two years. It’s good to have Capt. Kirk back in the big chair.
