When I find myself in trouble — those occasions are more frequent than I would like to admit — I take a long walk along the water. That’s the Marina Green to Fort Point and b... Read More
Diego Rivera, the internationally renowned and controversial Mexican artist, had warm associations with San Francisco. He found it to be a fascinating bohemian city and a source fo... Read More
Did you hear about the North Beach strip club worker and how a bomb he set off on Broadway led San Francisco investigators and federal agents to two much bigger fish with a huge ca... Read More
This is a column about saloons — where they are, who frequents them, and why. The philosophical question that occupies us here is this: Are the saloons that we have come to know ... Read More
San Franciscans detest change. There’s a constant drive for things nostalgic. I suppose I am one of the worst offenders with my nattering on about how San Francisco was a spa... Read More
During a recent break in my KGO Radio gig on the “Cooking with Ryan Scott” show, one of our guests, Chris Wanner, approached me. Wanner is the state manager for Sidney ... Read More
The nineteen sixties — if your personal history allows you to remember back that far — gave us the golden age of Broadway, that southern boundary of North Beach. At least that&... Read More
The other day in North Beach, I put my head on shuffle and wandered around aimlessly — a flaneur, if you will. No set destination or mission, nothing on my mind. And I had one of... Read More
For more than a decade, private buses have carted workers south from San Francisco. They were barely noticed until the latest tech boom hit and companies like Twitter took Mayor Ed... Read More
Being a columnist — even for such an august publication as the Marina Times — has its ups and downs. When the going is good and the words flow along in proper order, being a co... Read More
“The Horse that Swam the Golden Gate.” I love that headline. Even before my friend Jimmy Schein told me about Blackie — the horse we’re talking about here — I... Read More
The other day I was invited to a tea party. Now, I don’t usually go to tea parties — not my cup of tea, I am emboldened to add. As you may know, I’m more of a salooni... Read More
Because the year-end holidays are approaching, I want to make a few gift suggestions from North Beach. So here is Ernesto’s Gift Guide — a sketchy compilation of esoteric, ... Read More
Terri Thornton and husband Jeffery Roloff brought along some good reading material for their visit to Machu Picchu (photo: courtesy terri thornton) ... Read More
A day never went by that my mother didn’t remind me of how fortunate we were to have our health, a home, each other, and food to eat. She got me into volunteering and donatin... Read More