After 52 Years, Herb Caen Is Folding His Sunday Column

SAN FRANCISCO —  After most of 52 years, Herb Caen announced that this weekend’s effort was his last Sunday column, the weekly nostalgic fixture about his favorite city.

“I never did get a handle on the Sunday column,” he wrote with a touch of cynicism, noting that he is taking advantage of his contract with the San Francisco Chronicle to cut back to five columns a week.

“Talking about how great old San Francisco was exposed me as the crank and grump I was becoming . . . the Baghdad-by-the-Bay stuff . . . wore thin as the city changed,” he said, concluding: “So, farewell, faithful Sunday readers . . . there’s a plan afoot to run old Caen columns in this space, and I’ll read them with great interest, wondering how I got away with it.”