No person in the media has influenced me more than a man I met only once, in 1993, at a National Newspaper Columnists convention in Portland, Ore. -- Herb Caen, the late star columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. I grew up reading his column and studying his style from old newpapers that my Aunt Beatrice collected for me. He butchered the language intentionally to the delight of his readers. He's the one that coined the word Berserkly for Berkeley, Calif. Walter Winchell, who invented the three-dot style, once said that no one copied him better than Caen. I copied Caen well enough to win a national column-writing contest with his name on it. Why am I telling you all this? Caen died at age 80, in 1997. You can read his New York Times obituary here. Sunday was the 100th anniversary of his birth. Here's your Herb Caen Wild Card to kick off the week ...