Podcasts about permanent link

ÉPISODE #144 – RAPPEL CHEZ NIKON, LAMPE ANNULAIRE ULTIMAXX   Cette semaine, on parle d’un rappel pour les Nikon Z6 et Z7, de l’ascension de Sony, de la création d’une vidéo à partir d’une seule photo et on critique la lampe annulaire Ultimaxx.

 Podcast 12 - PlásticasNessa edição Diogo C. Scooby, a bela de voz aveludada Priscila Gava e o misterioso Thunder (Darkman) conversam sobre cirurgia plástica, peitos e muito mais em um bate-papo bem descontraído, e com a edição feita de coração para que aprecie o melhor do bate-papo! Dúvidas? Vontades? Quer fazer alguma operação plástica? Deixe seu comentário! Ou então baixe o arquivo no formato ZIP ou no formato MP3. (Clique com o botão direito do mouse e vá em "salvar destino como...)Comentado no podcast:Diretores não querem turbinadas5 Cirurgias plásticas infelizes Jocelyn Wildstein

Addictions and Adverbs by Harmony Neal

Published April 8, 2011 In this episode we cover Census Records Tips and Tricks.   MAILBOX:   "Keep coming up with these gems, you never know where they may lead!" from Angela who asks about Date Discrepanies and Lookalikes  “All of her life my grandmother was sure that she hadn't been told the whole truth about her birth.”   Garry in British Columbia wrote in about A Gem Found in the    Letitia in Ashford, England writes “Picnic: Problem In Chair Not In Computer!”    Phyllis from Porland OR is a new blogger and has a question about the "First I want you to know how much I enjoy your podcasts.  I really appreciate all the hard work you put into getting information to us about how to successfully trace our family roots and for encouraging us to start a blog.    I started my blog last October.  The site name is and once word got out about the site, family members that I never knew I had contacted me to give me information about our ancestors.  I was even able to find a relative of my great grandmother and my great grandfather in Pescasseroli, Italy and have begun corresponding with them!  So exciting."   APP TIP:  If your iPhone or Android Genealogy Gems Podcast app is acting up check for app and phone updates        In each episode we usually upload a few extra bonus goodies.  With the last episode I included a video version of my interview with Dick Eastman, and I often include photos and other documents, and those are unique to the apps, so be sure and click on Bonus or Extras once you've selected a particular episode.   Sean writes in about Citing Wikipedia Sources in your family history research Sean recommends using the text "Permanent Link."  Read more about it at the Finding the Flock Blog   Ken in Washington DC has a beef with Ancestry "First, thank you for the time and effort in putting together your podcasts.  I walk several miles to work each day and find the podcasts a wonderful way to pass the time.  I started with all of your archived episodes when I found the series early last year, finished those up last summer, and now eagerly await each new one."   Tammy in Oklahoma asks about old WAC Broadcasts "I'm a long time listener and happy to say that I am now a Premium Member as well!" I was recently transcribing letters that my grandmother sent home while she served as a WAC in London and Paris during WWII.  Her name was Louise Liberty Osborne.  She was quite a character.   One of the last letters I was working on mentioned that she appeared on the National Broadcast of the U.S. Army Hour which was on Sundays from 12 to 1:30.  The letter is dated May 14, 1944.  Do you know if recordings of these broadcasts still exist?  that specializes in old radio logs Set up some Google Alerts ("army hour" + 1944 for example) and Ebay Favorite Searches.  There are also several Old Time Radio podcasts in iTunes    Susan writes: I love listening to your podcasts. You have so many great ideas for family research. I learn something new with every broadcast.  I was wondering if you or any of your listeners have had any luck in finding family records at a church in Germany.  Lisa's Suggestions: The best way to start is with familysearch.org.  Look up Osnabruck in the online.  Under the location you'll find a large number of record collections.  Click on Church records and follow the links to the records you need.  You can then order the microfilm from your local Family History Center (or if the records have been digitized and are online that should be indicated on the page) and view them at the center.  If you're new to using Family History Centers I've done several podcast episodes in my podcast on them and how to use their records. The is also a tremendous online free resource to learn more about doing German research and answer questions that pop up along the way.   GEM: Census Tips and Tricks Lisa interviews Jason Harrison of Familysearch  

Happy to be Hamlet by Stephen Longfellow

Condoms on the handlebars of a rusted bicycle by Mark James Andrews

There was fear in the countryside all along by Rebecca Olson

The Last Griffin is holed up in the Cascades by Rebecca Olson

Occasional Poem by Eric Burke

Mrs. Peabody by Melissa Scholes Young

Another Lesbian Space Fantasy by Catherine Sharpe

Man Fights Back - Podcast #40 - Download MP3Alternate Download Link for Episode #40 - Download MP3Opening Clip:The Jesus Christ Sponge (Shamwow Parody)MFB Opening Theme - New Theme Music! - Check out Podcastthemes.com!Opening Comments:How about Windows 7?USA & Canada HockeyWGA Awards: Rock Riffs on Tiger TroublesWhen will we stop hearing about Brad and Angelina - When will it end?This Time, Sarah Palin’s Got a Point - VideoMusic Break:Adventures Of Leonid -"Floatin Funk"Fortune Cookie Message of the Week:"An optimist is a girl who regards a bulge as a curve."National News:Homeland Security reports losing gunsHow would you grade Tiger Woods' apology?Officials: Texas plane crash targeted feds‎Police arrest man accused of spreading AIDSMusic Break:Jay O-K -"Golden Remix"Technology News:Police seek warrantless searches of cell phonesGoogle's brilliant new plan to provide super-speedy Internet accessDell Declines as Price Cuts, Component Costs Crimp Earnings10 things you shouldn't do when working with an upset customerBrother Love - "Summer Time"Music Mashup Trivia #27News Clip Break from No Agenda Episode# 174 - BlackwaterMusic Break:Melina Gerges - "Wasted Time"Strange News:Police: Student Willingly Had His Buttocks BrandedMint fires boss over coin typoWinner of the Most Weird Stuffed Toy EVER!Cleveland deemed most miserable city in USAEnding Music:Guitorb - "Waiting for some Monster"

Man Fights Back - Podcast #38 - Download MP3Alternate Download Link for Episode #38 - Download MP3Opening Clip:Gettin' it in the can by Bud LightMFB Opening Theme - New Theme Music! - Check out Podcastthemes.com!Opening Comments:4th time's the charm!Coffee is a good thing...Snow Emergency in Indy!How's the Skype connection sounding?Andrew got carded! New rule in Indiana?Miley Cirus = Fail!Valentines Day Coming Up! - Check this out: Restaurant Promotes Bathroom Sex For V-DayMusic Break:Deanna Brown - "Burned Out"Fortune Cookie Message of the Week:He who laughs last, thinks slowest.National News:MSM: Vancouver police get sonic crowd control deviceRise of Wind Turbines Is a Boon for Rope WorkersTurning Swords into High Speed Rail - Obama's iAmericaHomeland Security's Post Underwear Bomb Airplane RulesChina threatens sanctions over arms sale to TaiwanIndiana House panel approves guns-at-work billMusic Break:Adam Woodall Band - "Groovin Four On The Floor Rock"Technology News:Is eBay facing seller revolt?Microsoft help desk less busy after Windows 7Amazon Pulls Books Over Price DisputeRussians Wary of Cyrillic Web DomainsMusic Break:Allofa Sudden - "Eyelash"Music Mashup Trivia #25News Clip Break from No Agenda Episode# 168Music Break:42 Shades Of Gray - "Shortcut To Paradise"Strange News:Pastor Accused Of Pulling Gun On Son At ChurchCONSPIRACY THEORY WITH JESSE VENTURA on truTVCops: Pair allegedly use jury box to smuggle drugsUK fugitive who taunted police on Facebook caughtEnding Music:Sandoval Band - "Simple Complicated"

Man Fights Back - Podcast #32 - Download MP3Alternate Download Link for Episode #32 - Download MP3Opening Clip:The Streetbeater - "Sanford & Son" Theme SongMFB Opening ThemeOpening Comments:Thanksgiving is OVERObscure Sanford & Son historyLeave Tiger alone!Music Break:TMR Soul - "Do Somethin"Fortune Cookie Message Of the Week!Someone will invite you to a karaoke partyTechnology News:Fake CDC vaccine e-mail leads to malwareEFF sues for info on social-network surveillanceAcer to launch first Chrome OS netbook, Android-based Aspire One sales disappointTwitter founder formally unveils 'Square' projectDJ Hero controller goes rogue, now available separatelyMusic Break:Mono Bolero - "Dame Mas De Vos"National News:Comcast poised to get NBC UniversalFeds ‘Pinged’ Sprint GPS Data 8 Million Times Over a YearYahoo, Verizon: Our Spy Capabilities Would ‘Shock’, ‘Confuse’ ConsumersSeattle Police Kill Suspect in Officer SlayingsOld Clemency May Be Issue for HuckabeeMusic Break:Marc LeBlanc - #37 (edit)Music Mashup: # 21No Agenda Clips:Global Warming & Sheep - From No Agenda episode # 152Solders Letter - From No Agenda episode # 152Indiana News:Teens rob parents at gunpoint, steal baby foodRacing Capital snags motorsports showSuspect arrested in Columbus officer stabbingCrowdPic.comMusic Break:Romantics vs Depeche Mode - "Dreaming in Your Sleep"Strange News:"Coffee police" fight fraud on shop shelvesMan robbed of $2 million bank withdrawal20 Things Worth Knowing About BeerInvestigators Link Chinese Drywall and Home ProblemsEnding Music:John Peart Experience - "Another Reason Why"

Man Fights Back - Podcast #30 - Download MP3Alternate Download Link for Episode #30 - Download MP3Opening Clip:Very Clever, Funny, Rude Song [Video]MFB Opening ThemeOpening Comments:Thanksgiving is near!The history of Thanksgiving - Audio Story next week!2012 The movie, 1 1/2 thumbs down...Music Break:LP Styles Trio - "Scatter"Fortune Cookie Message of the Week:"The greatest danger could be your stupidity." - Stupid ManTechnology News:VeriChip (CHIP) is now to be known as PositiveID (PSID)Verizon tests sending RIAA copyright noticesYouTube to get high-def 1080p playerGraphics showdown: 13 games for newer iPhonesMusic Break:Anyma - "I Am"National News:Sweeping Health Care Plan Passes HouseSuspect in Fort Hood Attack Is Charged on 13 Murder CountsHow ABC News’ Brian Ross Cooked His ‘Hasan Contacted Al Qaeda’ ScoopObama Takes First Step in Banning All FirearmsSuspected Hemorrhagic Pneumonia Outbreak Hits UkraineMusic Break:Books & Spoken - "Same Old Man"Music Mashup:Prodigy Vs. Beck - "Smaxxlaws"News Clip Break: From No Agenda #147Indiana News:Inspectors find mice in Lucas Oil Stadium kitchensNFL probes cameraman's fall at end of Colts-Patriots gameReese found guilty of trying to kill IMPD officerOfficials: H1N1 flu may be tapering offMusic Break:Don Pedigo - "Mama's Wedding Gown"Strange News:Hindenbeer To Be AuctionedMan makes living by selling the shirt on his backJapan Plans To Launch Solar Power Station In Space By 2040Beverage Company Drilling For Whiskey In Antarctica's IceEnding Music: Norova - "God's Country"

Man Fights Back - Podcast #29 - Download MP3Alternate Download Link for Episode #29 - Download MP3Opening Clip:Banana-naMFB Opening ThemeOpening Comments:Still sick...=3 (Equals Three) is a RIOT! [NSFW]Still digging the VIA from StarbucksMusic Break:Brad Hooper - "Wanderin' Man"Fortune Cookie Message of the Week:"Only a fool would look to a cookie for words of wisdom" - Cookie MonsterTechnology News:Dow AgroSciences and the Holy GrailNo men OR women needed: Scientists create sperm and eggs from stem cellsTwo Verizon Android phones coming in 2009Verizon Promo Link: Droid from Verizon WirelessMusic Break:Two Ton Shoe - "Medicine"National News:U.S. Newspaper Circulation Falls More Than 10%Twenty reasons why vitamin D is better than a swine flu vaccineWoman Disabled by Flu Shot ReactionElton John Hospitalized For Flu, Cancels Tour Dates‏Packers fans compare Brett Favre to Fredo, Judas, Benedict ArnoldKellogg’s claims sugary “Cocoa Crispies” cereal can boost your child’s immunity (opinion)MSM: Russia ’simulates’ nuclear attack on PolandMusic Break:Sunstroke PM - "Bebop Back"Music Mashup Trivia #20News Clip Break: No Agenda Clip from Show #144 - UkraineIndiana News:State representative attacked in CarmelIndiana Booze Sales rejected again for Sunday SalesMusic Break:Alexander Polyakov - "Imagine"Strange News:Easy Money Fuels Rise in Kidnappings in KenyaCops: Fla. man shoved ferret in pantsWal-Mart Starts Selling Caskets OnlineClark County Woman Calls 911 to Report She’s Driving DrunkEnter your zip and Obama will show you what to wearEnding Music:Victor Stellar - Tatem

Man Fights Back - Podcast #28 - Download MP3Alternate Download Link for Episode #28 - Download MP3Opening Clip:Ian Dury - "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" [Video]MFB Opening ThemeOpening Comments:We're sick again!No Swine Flu shot for US!Roger from VZW is an ID10TMusic Break:One Mind - "Walking on Water"Fortune Cookie Message of the Week:"Flattery will go far tonight." - "In Bed" - Wiser ManTechnology News:Shrimp's Eye Points Way to Better DVDsDevices With Lithium Batteries Pose a Fire Risk for Airlines ...Ed's iPod Touch game rant...Firefox gains 30 million users in eight weeks...Andrew's Firefox rant...US-CERT warns about free BlackBerry spyware appMusic Break:Adler Santonio - "Stuck With Me"National News:Obama declares swine flu a national emergencyVideo: Homeland Security Could Block Websites During Swine Flu PandemicF-16s Prepared to Shoot Down Wayward Northwest PlaneMSM: Marc Faber, Dollar Will Eventually Go to Value of ZeroControversial Private 'Police' Force Quits Effort to Take Over Montana JailMusic Break:Don Pedigo - "Mama's Wedding Gown"Message from Don:Hey everyone, I recently submitted a music video to CMT's music city madness contest.Over 1000 entries and I am one of the 64 finalists! I need your votes.Vote multiple times from now until Dec. 14th. Click on the link below; at the first screen hit vote (top left); next you will see pics of four artists, click the third one (Jimmy Wanye), then hit start and watch thead, then click on me (Don Pedigo), hit vote, then hit submit your votes onthe bottom left. I don't know why it's so complicated but, that's the way it is. My move to the next round is based on votes. Here's my BIG BREAK folks! Thank you for your time and spread the word!http://www.madness.cmt.com/Don Pedigowww.myspace.com/donpedigowww.facebook.com/don.pedigohttp://www.donpedigo.com/Music Mashup Trivia #19News Clip Break: No Agenda - clip from show # 131Indiana News:Indiana reports first human rabies death since 2006Music Break:TLT - "Losing Myself"Strange News:Gamer has bone to pick with online-shopping dogLebanese to Israel: Hands off our hummusOne-legged suspect caught with one stolen shoeMadoff Investor Said to Have Drowned Ending Music:Maya sky - "As it Happens"

Man Fights Back - Podcast #25 - Download MP3Alternate Download Link for Episode #25 - Download MP3Opening Clips: Butt Plug?Bee Gees vs Pink Floyd - "Shut Up Let's Hook Up" (ft Jason Downs)MFB Opening ThemeOpening Comments:Tribute to Officer Leslie Hulse - Her fight ends on 9/28/2009-Leslie's Story-Police department helps fellow officer fight cancerMusic Tribute:Mindy Smith - "One Moment More"Opening Comments (Continued):Andrew E's Starbucks Investigation on Drive ThruEddie V's Comcast experience with "upgrades"Music Break:Norova - "Transfection"Fortune Cookie Message of the Week:Motivational - "Make two grins grow where there was only a grouch before." - A Wise ManTechnology News:Cloud Computing - What it is and why....Secret Service Tackles Facebook PollThe Netflix Prize was brilliant. Google and Microsoft should steal the ideaHow Vizio Went From Nowhere to No. 1Music Break:John Clarkson - "4 KG"National News:Montana Town Occupied By Private Paramilitary Security ForceNew Government Policy Imposes Strict Standards on Garage Sales NationwideNurses Plan Rally To Protest Mandatory Swine Flu ShotMSM: Another Microbiology Researcher DiesMusic Break:Marti Walker - "To Late for Love"Music Mashup Trivia #16News Clip Break: From No Agenda # 133Indiana News:Little Nashville Opry Fire Was Intentionally Set2 Arrested In Wedding Crasher TheftLocal car wash recognized nationallyMusic Break:Tantra - "Trees"Strange News:BUSTED: Burglar Arrested After Checking Facebook During RobberyDust blizzards turn the sky red down underPrison sentence for woman who kept mom's bodyReturn of the Burger (and Hot Dog) KingStudent accused of rubbing sleeping women's legs Ending Music:Mark Barnwell - "Exotica"

Man Fights Back - Podcast #23 - Download MP3Alternate Download Link for Episode #23 - Download MP3Opening Clip - MFB Opening ThemeOpening Comments:Reverend Manning & POTUSHousehold projects & Labor DaySnuggie for your dog???? - WTF? -New Snuggie Song Rip Off - "Get up and Boogie" by Silver Convention is now "Put on your Snuggie"Happy Trails Matt McD!Music Break:"Riah Got Rhythm" - Leos LeewayFortune Cookie Message of the Week:"He who throws dirt is losing ground." - A Wise ManTechnology News:WordPress blogs falling prey to wormDish ordered to pay TiVo $200 millionArrest in Epic Cyber SwindleMusic Break:"Vanity" - Jivefive ONational News:Another Shocking Warning About Swine Flu VaccineEmbattled track star Caster Semenya gets new coach, new lookU.S. says Iran nearing atomic bomb capacityTitans-Steelers will kick off 2009 season as NFL honors AFLMusic Break:Just How it Goes" - Reagan LaneMusic Mashup Trivia #14News Clip Break: No Agenda Show #125 - Up to 11,000 U.S. veterans may have been mistakenly infected with HIVIndiana News:Ex-Colts QB arrested at Victory FieldMorris Day & the Time in Indy for RibFest!Nerf N Strike Vulcan EBF-25Music Break:"Lost Found" - TLTStrange News:Pole dancing doll causing controversyAnother Elmendorf Beast?9.9.9. and the Mayan CalendarPeople of WalMartEnding Music:"Heritage" - The Baldwin Fun Machine

THIS WEEK'S PODCAST TRANSCRIPT: 1922: Flappers in the newspapers May 19, 1922 Flappers Right off the bat I have to admit the fact that -- to paraphrase Olympia Dukakis in Moonstruck -- what I don't know about San Francisco in the 1920s is a lot. I did know that all sorts of great Prohibition and gangster stuff must have gone on, though, so I started leafing through a couple of 1922 editions of the Chronicle looking for stories. And was immediately distracted by the flappers. You know, flappers. Louise Brooks, Josephine Baker, Zelda Fitzgerald ... read on ...

THIS WEEK'S PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:1879: Stoddard, Stevenson, and Rincon Hill Sometime in 1879: The house on Rincon Hill Last week I read to you from In the Footprints of the Padres, Charles Warren Stoddard's 1902 reminiscences about the early days of San Francisco. That piece recounted a boyhood adventure, but this book is full of California stories from the latter years of the 19th century; some deservedly obscure, but some that ring pretty loud bells. Todays' short text is a great example of the latter, one that dovetails beautifully with two other San Francisco stories, both of which I've talked about at Sparkletack: the story of the Second Street Cut and the visit of Robert Louis Stevenson. The now all-grown-up Stoddard had returned to San Francisco after the Polynesian peregrinations that would inspire his best-known work, and Stevenson had just arrived from Scotland in hot pursuit of the woman he loved. The two authors hit it off, and -- as you'll hear at the end of today's Timecapsule -- it's to Stoddard and the house on Rincon Hill that we owe Stevenson's eventual fascination with the South Seas. South Park and Rincon Hill! Do the native sons of the golden West ever recall those names and think what dignity they once conferred upon the favored few who basked in the sunshine of their prosperity? South Park, with its line of omnibuses running across the city to North Beach; its long, narrow oval, filled with dusty foliage and offering a very weak apology for a park; its two rows of houses with, a formal air, all looking very much alike, and all evidently feeling their importance. There were young people's "parties" in those days, and the height of felicity was to be invited to them. As a height o'ertops a hollow, so Rincon Hill looked down upon South Park. There was more elbow-room on the breezy height; not that the height was so high or so broad, but it was breezy; and there was room for the breeze to blow over gardens that spread about the detached houses their wealth of color and perfume. How are the mighty fallen! The Hill, of course, had the farthest to fall. South Parkites merely moved out: they went to another and a better place. There was a decline in respectability and the rent-roll, and no one thinks of South Park now, -- at least no one speaks of it above a whisper. read on ...

THIS WEEK'S PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:1854: A future poet's boyhood outing Spring 1854 Charles Warren Stoddard In 1854, the down-on-their-luck Stoddard family set off from New York City to try their luck in that brand new metropolis of the West: San Francisco. Charles Warren Stoddard was just 11 years old, and San Francisco -- still in the throes of the Gold Rush, a vital, chaotic, cosmopolitan stew pot -- was the most exciting place a little boy could dream of. Charles would grow up to play a crucial part in San Francisco's burgeoning literary scene. He was just a teenager when his first poems were published in the Golden Era, and his talent and sweet personality were such that he developed long-lasting friendships with the other usual-suspect San Francisco bohemians, Ambrose Bierce, Ina Coolbrith, Bret Harte, and Samuel Clemens. Stoddard is probably best remembered for the mildly homo-erotic short stories inspired by his extensive travels in the South Seas, but in 1902 he published a kind of memoir entitled In the Footprints of the Padres. As the old song goes, it recalls "the days of old, the days of gold, the days of '49" from a very personal point of view. The reviewers of the New York Times praised the work for Stoddard's "vivid and poetic charm", but I have to admit that I'm mainly in it for his memories. In this piece, Charles and his little gang of pals are about to embark on a day-long ramble along the north-eastern edge of the city. Let's roll the clock back to 1854, and with Charles' help, put ourselves into the shoes of an 11-year-old boy anticipating the freedom of a sunny spring Saturday. read on ...

THIS WEEK'S PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:1958: The Giants play the Dodgers in the first major league baseball game on the West Coast April 15, 1958 Major League Baseball in San Francisco! Exactly fifty-one years ago today, two New York City transplants faced each other for the first time on the fertile soil of the West Coast. Decades of storied rivalry already under their respective belts, these two legendary New York baseball clubs -- the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers -- were trapped in aging, unsuitable parks. Giants owner Horace Stoneham had been considering a move to Minnesota until Dodger owner Walter O'Malley -- whose plans for a new Brooklyn park were being blocked -- set his sights on the demographic paradise of Los Angeles. The National League wouldn't allow just one team to make such a drastic geographic move, so O'Malley talked Stoneham into taking a look at San Francisco. To the eternal regret and dismay of their New York fans, following the 1957 season, both teams pulled up stakes and headed for the welcoming arms of California. read on ...

THIS WEEK'S PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:Slumming the Barbary Coast 1871 "A Barbary Cruise" I've been thinking about the fact that -- just like our out-of-town guests inevitably insist that we take 'em to Chinatown or Fisherman's Wharf -- in the 1870s, visitors from back in "the States" just had to go slumming in the infamous Barbary Coast. The piece I'm about to read to you was written by Mr. Albert Evans, a reporter from the good ol' Alta California. The Barbary Coast was part of his beat, and this gave him connections with the hardnosed cops whose duty it was to maintain some kind of order in that "colorful" part of town. As romanticized as it has become in popular memory, the Coast was a "hell" of a place -- filthy, violent and extremely dangerous for greenhorns. When some visitors came to town in about 1871, Albert asked one of his policeman buddies to join them on the tour. His account of this "Barbary Cruise" is a remarkable firsthand snapshot of the territory bounded by Montgomery, Stockton, Washington and Broadway. But what's almost more interesting is the way he reports it; the purple prose, the pursed-lip moralizing, and -- though I've skipped the Chinatown part of the tour -- the absolutely matter-of-fact racism on display. This is the Barbary Coast seen through the eyes of white, bourgeois, and extremely Victorian San Francisco -- prepare to be both educated and annoyed. read on ...

THIS WEEK'S PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:America's "Master Birdman" makes his final flight March 15, 1915: "The Man Who Owns the Sky" It was the year of the legendary Panama-Pacific International Exposition. San Francisco had once again earned that phoenix on her flag by rising from the ashes of the 1906 earthquake and fire -- and just nine years later, the city celebrated its rebirth by winning the right to host the World's Fair. Visitors from every point on the compass swarmed towards California to visit the resurgent city. You probably know that the site of the Fair was the neighborhood now called the Marina, that acres of shoreline mudflats were filled in to create space for a grand and temporary city, and that the mournfully elegant Palace of Fine Arts is its lone survivor. The exhibits and attractions on offer were endless and famously enchanting, but one of the most spectacular events took place in the air above the Fair. On March 15, a quarter of a million people gathered in the fairgrounds and on the hills above them to see a man in an ultra-modern experimental airplane perform unparalleled feats of aeronautical acrobatics. That man was Lincoln Beachey, and in 1915 he was the most famous aviator in the country -- known from coast to coast as "The Man Who Owns the Sky". read on ...

THIS WEEK'S PODCAST TRANSCRIPT: 1852: English adventurer Frank Marryat pays a visit to a San Francisco Gold Rush barbershop. 1852: A Gold Rush shaving-saloon I love personal accounts of the goings-on in our little town more than just about anything. The sights, the smells, the daily routine ... I want the nuts and bolts of what it was like to live here THEN! It's even better when the eyeballs taking it all in belong to an outsider, a visiting alien to whom everything's an oddity. For my birthday a couple of years ago my Lady Friend gave me a book that's packed to the gills with this kind of first-person account. It's called -- aptly enough -- San Francisco Memories. And because I'm kind of a dope, it's only just occurred to me that this stuff is the absolute epitome of what a timecapsule should be -- and that I really ought to be sharing some of this early San Francisco gold with you. Ahem. So share it I will. Our correspondent: Frank Marryat Frank Marryat was the son of Captain Frederick Marryat, famous English adventurer and author of popular seafaring tales. A chip off the old block, young Frank had himself already written a book of traveler's tales from Borneo and the Indian archipelago. Looking for a new writing subject, he set his sights on an even more exotic locale -- Gold Rush California. In 1850, with manservant and three hunting dogs in tow, Frank left the civilized shores of England behind, crossed the Atlantic and the Isthmus of Panama, and made his way towards the Golden Gate. The book that resulted, California Mountains and Molehills, would be published in 1855 -- ironically the year of Marryat's own demise from yellow fever. He covers a phenomenal amount of oddball San Francisco and early California history, all neatly collected to satisfy the curiousity of his English reading public -- the Chinese question, the Committee of Vigilance, squatter wars, bears, rats, oysters, gold, even the pickled head of Joaquin Murieta -- and to top it off, Marryat sailed into the Bay just as San Francisco was being destroyed (again) by fire, this one the Great June Fire of 1850! Don't worry. They'll have the city rebuilt in a couple of weeks, in plenty of time for Frank to spend some quality months slumming in the Gold Country, and then, like the rest of the Argonauts, ride down into the big city for supplies -- and a shave. That's right -- put your feet up and relax -- in today's Timecapsule, we're going to visit a Gold Rush barber shop. read on ...

THIS WEEK'S PODCAST TRANSCRIPT: 1921: the cornerstone of the Palace of the Legion of Honor is laid ... but what was underneath? February 19, 1921 Ghosts of Lands End On this date the cornerstone for San Francisco's spectacular Palace of the Legion of Honor Museum was levered into place. The Museum was to be a vehicle for the cultural pretensions of the notorious Alma Spreckels. This social-climbing dynamo envisioned her Museum as a far western outpost of French art and culture. Drawing on the vast fortune of her husband -- sugar baron Adolph Spreckels -- she constructed a replica of the Palace of Versailles out at Lands End. Alma would stock the place with art treasures from her own vast collection -- including one of the finest assemblages of Rodin sculpture on the planet. I've already talked myself hoarse on the subject of Alma Spreckels' rags-to-riches clamber up the social slopes of Pacific Heights, but what's really interesting me today is not what's inside her museum, but what lay underneath that cornerstone in 1921. read on ...

THIS WEEK'S PODCAST TRANSCRIPT: 1869: the fashionable neighborhood of Rincon Hill is sliced in two. February, 1869 The battle for Rincon Hill is over There aren't too many people living who remember this now, but Rincon Hill was once the fanciest neighborhood in San Francisco. You know the place, right? It's south of Market Street, an asphalt-covered lump of rock with the Bay Bridge sticking out of the north-east side and Second Street running by, out to the Giants' ballpark. That's Rincon Hill. What's left of it, anyway. Exactly 140 years ago this month, the California Supreme Court gave the go-ahead to a scheme which would destroy it. San Francisco's first fashionable address As San Francisco's Gold Rush-era population explosion of tents and rickety clapboard started to settle down, the bank accounts of merchants and lucky miners started to fill up. Men were becoming civilized, acquiring culture, and the sort of women known as "wives" were moving into town. This led to a demand for a neighborhood that was distinctly separate from the barbarous Barbary Coast, and with its sunny weather, gentle elevation, and spectacular views of the Bay, Rincon Hill filled the bill. According to the Annals of San Francisco, by 1853 Rincon Hill was dotted with "numerous elegant structures" -- including the little gated community of South Park. By the 1860s, the Hill was covered with mansions in a riot of architectural styles, and had become the social epicenter of the young city. And then in 1968 (cue evil-real-estate-developer music here) a San Franciscan named John Middleton got himself elected to the California State Legislature. According to some sources, his elevation was part of a conspiracy to push through a specific radical civic "improvement". The Second Street "Cut" Here's the situation that required "improving": at the time, there was a high volume of heavy commercial horse cart traffic to the busy South Beach wharves from Market Street. Second Street provided a direct route, but -- since it went up and over the highest part of Rincon Hill -- horse carts were obliged to take the long way around via Third Street. Middleton's plan was simplicity itself: carve a deep channel through the heart of the hill, right along Second Street. He just happened to own a big chunk of property at Second and Bryant Streets, and couldn't wait to see his property values go through the roof. "But wait," you're saying, "what about the owners of those lovely homes up on fashionable Rincon Hill? Won't they object to having their front doors open up to a 100-foot canyon instead of a sidewalk? Do they even have the technology to pull this off? And what about the horrific mess the construction is going to make? We are talking high society here, right?" read on ...

THIS WEEK'S PODCAST TRANSCRIPT: 1849: As the fateful year of 1849 begins, a newspaper editor scrutinizes San Francisco's gold rush future. February 1, 1849 The eye of the Gold Rush hurricane The spring of 1849 -- dawn of a year forever branded into the national consciousness as the era of the California Gold Rush. And so it was -- but that was back East, in the "States". In San Francisco, the Gold Rush had actually begun an entire year earlier. I'd better set the scene. The United States were at war with Mexico -- it's President Polk and "Manifest Destiny" time. San Francisco (then Yerba Buena) was conquered without a shot in July of 1847. In the first month of 1848, gold was quietly discovered in the foothills east of Sutter's Fort. Days later, the Mexican war came to an end, and Alta California became sole property of the United States. Sam Brannan kick-starts things in '48 San Francisco was skeptical about the gold strike, but in May of '48, Sam Brannan made his famous appearance on Market Street brandishing a bottle of gold dust. His shouts of "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River" triggered the first wave of the Gold Rush. The village of about 500 souls was emptied almost overnight as its inhabitants hotfooted it for the hills. Among the many businesses left completely in the lurch was Sam Brannan's own newspaper, the California Star. While the entrepreneurial Brannan was busy becoming a millionaire selling shovels to gold miners, by June his entire staff had abandoned the paper and set off to make their own fortunes. Edward Kemble publishes the Alta California >Brannan sold what was left of his newspaper to a more civic-minded businessman, Mr. Edward Cleveland Kemble. Kemble resuscitated the Star (along with San Francisco's other gold rush-crippled paper, the Californian) as a brand spanking new paper he called the Alta California. The first issue appeared at the tail end of 1848. That brings us right up to today's timecapsule. The editorial on the front page of issue #5 of the new paper is a treasure trove of contemporary San Francisco perspectives. As editor Kemble was composing this piece -- a retrospective of the previous year, and a peek into the uncertain future -- it was the dead of winter, and the first wave of the Rush had crested and broken back towards the city. Kemble was first and foremost a businessman, and he was concerned with the civic and financial future of San Francisco. He points out that the city is poorly governed, a little short on law and order, already swelling with gold-seekers from Mexico and Oregon, and -- to sum it up -- is woefully unprepared for the onslaught of humanity, the avalanche of "49ers" already looming on the horizon. But though he's aware that the next wave is going to be a doozy, with 20-20 historical hindsight we know that he doesn't really have a clue. What Kemble doesn't know ... yet. By the end of 1849, the village of San Francisco will have burst at every seam, with a population exploding from 2000 to 25,000. Tens of thousands of gold seekers will flow through the port and even more will stagger in overland from the East, all in all 100,000 strong. The beautiful harbour will be choked with hundreds of deserted, rotting ships, and the local government will prove to be ineffectual and almost totally corrupt. By the end of '49 San Francisco will have become a wild, sprawling, lawless shanty boomtown, and the soul and future of our City by the Bay will be permanently transformed. Kemble's observations give us ground-level insight into the concerns of the village of San Francisco in the winter of 1848 -- a priceless peek into the eye of the gold rush hurricane. read on ...

THIS WEEK'S PODCAST TRANSCRIPT: 1847: Thanks to a Spanish noblewoman and the quick thinking of Yerba Buena's first American alcalde, San Francisco gets its name. January 30, 1847: Yerba Buena becomes San Francisco Yerba Buena That was the name given to the tiny bayside settlement back in 1835, a name taken from the wild mint growing on the sand dunes that surrounded it. And if it hadn't been for the lucky first name of an elegant Spanish noblewoman, that's what the city of San Francisco would still be called today. Our magnificent bay had already worn the name of San Francisco since 1769 -- but though some in Yerba Buena apparently used it as a nickname, it never occurred to its motley population to make "San Francisco" official. In July of 1846 Yerba Buena was just 11 years old, a sleepy hamlet in Mexican territory with just about 200 residents. The place woke up some when Captain John B. Montgomery sailed into the harbour, marched into the center of town and raised the Stars and Stripes. The Mexican alcalde and other officials split town before Montgomery's marines arrived, so -- at least as far as Yerba Buena was concerned -- the annexation of California in the Mexican-American war took place without a fight. Don Mariano Vallejo, Dr. Robert Semple and the Bear Flag connection A couple of weeks earlier up in Sonoma, the rancho of Comandante General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo had been invaded by a ragtag collection of American frontiersman. They were attempting to strike a blow for California's independence from Mexico. Don Vallejo, one of the most powerful and wealthy men in the Mexican territory of Alta California, was arrested -- kidnapped, perhaps -- and transported to Sutter's Fort on the Sacramento River. You'll undoubtedly recognize this as a scene from the infamous "Bear Flag Revolt" -- a terrific story, but I'm in grave danger of digressing here. In fact, I mention it only because the route taken by Vallejo's captors led them across some of the General's considerable Mexican land-grant holdings, specifically those around the convergence of the Sacramento River and San Francisco Bay. read on ...

THIS WEEK'S PODCAST TRANSCRIPT: 1890: Nellie Bly blows through town; 1897: "Little Pete" (the King of Chinatown) is murdered in a barbershop. January 20, 1890 Miss Nellie Bly whizzes past San Francisco I got a hot tip that this was the anniversary of the day Miss Nellie Bly stopped by on the home stretch of her dash around the world. But as it turns out, well ... some background first, I guess. For starters, who the heck was Nellie Bly? Sixteen years old in 1880, Miss Elizabeth Jane Cochrane of Pittsburgh was a budding feminist. When a blatantly sexist column appeared in the local paper, the teenager fired off a scathing rebuttal. The editor was so struck by her spunk and intellect that he (wisely) hired her, assigning a nom de plume taken from the popular song: "Nellie Bly". Her early investigative reportage focused on the travails of working women, but the straitjacket of Victorian expectations soon squeezed her into the ghetto of the women's section -- fashion, gardening, and society tea-parties. Nellie despised this, and tore off to Mexico for a year to write her own kind of stories. Back in the States, she talked her way into a job at Joseph Pulitzer's legendary New York World. Her first assignment was a doozy -- going undercover as a patient into New York's infamous Women's Lunatic Asylum. Her passionate reporting of the brutality and neglect uncovered there shook the world, and Nellie Bly became a household name. More exposés followed -- sweatshops, baby-selling -- but then, in 1888, Nellie was struck by a different idea. read on ...

THIS WEEK'S PODCAST TRANSCRIPT: 1861: the notorious countess Lola Montez dies in New York; 1899: a small boy defends himself in a San Francisco courtroom. January 17, 1861 Countess Lola Montez -- in Memorium As was undoubtedly marked on your calendar, San Francisco's patron saint Emperor Norton died last week, January 7, 1880. But his was not the only January passing worthy of note. Ten days later (and nineteen years earlier), we lost perhaps the most notorious personage ever to grace the streets of our fair city. I speak, of course, of Countess Lola Montez . Yes, that's the one -- "whatever Lola wants, Lola gets". You already know Lola's story, of course. You don't? The breathtakingly gorgeous Irish peasant girl with the soul of a grifter and the heart of a despot? How she -- with a few sexy dance steps, a fraudulent back story involving Spanish noble blood and the claim of Lord Byron as her father -- turned Europe upside down and provoked a revolution in Bavaria? Still doesn't ring a bell, hmm? Well, Lola's whole story is a little too large for this space. She'd already lived about three lifetimes' worth of adventure -- and burned through romances with personalities from King Ludwig the First to Sam Brannan -- before conquering Gold Rush-era San Francisco with her scandalous "Spider Dance". If you missed the Sparkletack podcast about this amazing character, you might want to rectify that little omission. After her European escapades, Lola found that freewheeling San Francisco suited her tempestuous eccentricity to a T. Brandishing the title of "Countess" -- a Bavarian souvenir -- she drank and caroused and became the absolute center of the young city's attention. It's said that men would come pouring out of Barbary Coast saloons to gawk at the raven-haired vision sashaying through the mud with a pair of greyhounds at her heels, a white cockatoo perched on one shoulder, and a cigar cocked jauntily from her lips ... and do I even need to mention her pet grizzly bears? read on ...

THIS WEEK: San Francisco's notorious "Demon of the Belfry" goes to the gallows. January 7, 1898: The execution of Gilded Age San Francisco's most notorious criminal Sure, Jack the Ripper had set a certain tone for serial killing just a few years earlier, but the crimes of Theodore Durrant were even more shocking. See, Jack's victims had been prostitutes, but San Francisco's "Demon of the Belfry" had murdered a pair of girls who were respectable churchgoers. In his very own church. On the day before Easter Sunday, 1896, a group of women held a meeting at the Emmanual Baptist Church in the Mission District. As they bustled about the small kitchen preparing tea, one woman reached towards a cupboard, looking for teacups. As the door swung open, she shrieked in horror and fainted. Crammed inside was the butchered and violated body of Miss Minnie Williams. Minnie had been a devoted church-goer, and the police quickly connected her death with the case of another young woman who'd gone missing two weeks earlier. The vivacious Blanche Lamont had also been a member of the church, so the grounds were searched from bottom to top. The body was found in the dusty, disused bell tower -- two weeks dead, arranged like a medical cadaver, and brutalized in an equally horrifying way. Suspicion fell upon a young medical student and assistant Sunday School superintendent who had been close to both women -- Theo Durrant. News of the police's interest in Durrant spread through the Mission and then infected all of San Francisco. By the time he was actually picked up, only a massive police presence prevented the angry mob from stringing him up on the spot. San Francisco's "Crime of the Century" Bankers, judges, hack drivers and bootblacks gossiped about little else, and people lined up for blocks to view the victims' identical white coffins at a local funeral parlor. The City's many newspapers were absolutely thrilled with the story, of course -- during the next couple of years, well over 400 articles about it would appear in the San Francisco Chronicle alone. It wasn't just that the two young women were such "upstanding citizens" -- the angle that made it horrifying and captivating to San Francisco was the fact that Theo Durrant was such a nice, normal guy. He was a handsome young man, friendly and open in demeanour, well-liked, of excellent reputation, and (again) the assistant superintendent of a Sunday School. Our modern cliché of the serial killer as the "guy next door who wouldn't hurt a fly" was still a long way off. It seemed absolutely incredible to San Francisco that such a -- well, such a 'gentleman' could be capable of such bestial and savage acts. read on ...

THIS WEEK: the fiery fate of the first Cliff House, and the case of a parrot who would not sing. Click the audio player above to listen in, or just read on ... December 25, 1894: First San Francisco Cliff House burns On Christmas Day, 1894, the first San Francisco Cliff House burned to the ground. As the Chronicle poetically reported the next morning, San Francisco's most historic landmark has gone up in flames. The Cliff House is a smouldering ruin, where the silent ghosts of memory hover pale and wan over the blackened embers. Ah, yes. We discussed this first incarnation of the Cliff House a few weeks ago -- its novel location at the edge of the world, its singular popularity with San Francisco's beautiful people, and its subsequent decline into a house of ill-repute. Well, before it could rise from that undignified state to the status of a beloved landmark, San Francisco's original "destination resort" needed a white knight to ride to the rescue. That knight would be Mr. Adolph Sutro, who -- in 1881 -- purchased not only the faded Cliff House, but acres of land surrounding it. Mining engineer millionaire and future San Francisco mayor, the larger-than-life Sutro had already established a fabulous estate on the heights above the Cliff House, and by the mid-1880s could count 10% of San Francisco as his personal property. Unlike the robber barons atop Nob Hill, though, Adolph believed in sharing his good fortune -- you can hear more about his eccentric philanthropy in the "Adolph Sutro" podcast right here at Sparkletack.com. Sutro's first order of business upon making acquiring the property was to instruct his architect to turn the Cliff House into a "respectable resort with no bolts on the doors or beds in the house." This was just a small part of Sutro's grand entertain-the-heck-out-of-San-Francisco scheme. The elaborate gardens of his estate were already open to the public, and the soon-to-be-famous Sutro Baths were on the drawing board. His goal was to create a lavish and family safe environment out at Land's End, and that's just how things worked out. With streetcar lines beginning to move into the brand new Golden Gate Park, and the City's acquisition of the Point Lobos Toll Road (now Geary Boulevard), the western edge of the City was becoming more attractive and accessible, and over the next decade, families did indeed flock to Adolph's resuscitated resort. And then in 1894, it happened. About 8 o'clock on Christmas evening, after most of the holiday visitors had gone home for the day, a small fire broke out in a kitchen chimney. As the flames shot up inside the walls, the horrified staff quickly learned that none of the fire-extinguishers around the place actually worked. Within minutes, the entire building was engulfed in flames. The resort burned so quickly, in fact, that its famous guest book, inscribed by such notables as Mark Twain, Ulysses S Grant, and Rutherford B. Hayes, was lost along with the building itself. As the Chronicle went on to report, the Cliff House "... went up as befitted such a shell of remembrances, in a blaze of glory. Fifty miles at sea the incinerating fires easily shone out, reflected from the high rocks beyond." Sutro hadn't taken out insurance on the place, but he was so determined to rebuild -- and so damned rich -- that it just really didn't matter. And in fact, the burning of Cliff House number one was a sort of blessing in disguise. That fire cleared the decks -- so to speak -- for Cliff House number two, which would rise from the ashes like a magnificent 8-story Victorian phoenix. Cliff House mark 2 would become everybody's favourite, an opulent monstrosity as beloved by San Franciscans in the Gilded Age as it still is today, frankly -- but guess what happened to that one? The fate of Sutro's Gingerbread Palace coming up in a future Sparkletack Timecapsule. read on ...

A weekly handful of weird, wonderful and wacky happenings dredged up from the kaleidoscopic depths of San Francisco history. THIS WEEK:a couple of items from the newspaper files, and an escape from Alcatraz -- perhaps! December 15, 1849: The London Times looks west As I perused the pages of an 1849-era copy of the Alta California this week, I ran across a little item reprinted from the venerable London Times. I'd been on the hunt for, you know, colorful "Gold Rush-y" stuff, but sandwiched between reports on the progress of the new Mormon Settlement at the Great Salt Lake and a cholera epidemic in Marseilles, was a piece nicely showcasing British condescension towards their American cousins, particularly the slightly barbarous variety found out West. I assume it was reprinted here because the Alta California took it as a compliment, but the author responsible is probably best pictured wearing a frock coat, a monocle, and a supercilious expression. The London Times has received a copy of the Alta California of June last and ruminates thereon as follows: "Before us lies a real California newspaper, with all its politics, paragraphs, and advertisements, printed and published at San Francisco in the 14th of last June. In a literary or professional point of view, there is nothing very remarkable in this production. Journalism is a science so intuitively comprehended by American citizens, that their most rudimentary efforts in this line are sure to be tolerably successful. Newspapers are to them what theatres and cafés are to Frenchmen. In the Mexican war, the occupation of each successive town by the invading (American) army was signalized by the immediate establishment of a weekly journal, and of a "bar" for retailing those spirituous compounds known by the generic denomination of "American drinks". The same fashions have been adopted in California, and the opinions of the American portion of that strange population are already represented by journals of more than average ability and intelligence." Alta California -- 12.15.1849read on ...

A weekly handful of weird, wonderful and wacky happenings dredged up from the kaleidoscopic depths of San Francisco history. THIS WEEK: a hanging from 1852, and a Miss Goldie Griffin wants to become a cop in 1912. December 10, 1852: San Francisco's first official execution It certainly wasn't for any lack of local mayhem that it took so long for San Francisco to order its first "official" execution. The sleepy hamlet of Yerba Buena had ballooned from fewer than 500 to over 36,000 people in 1852 -- and the famous camaraderie of the '49ers notwithstanding, not all of them had the best interests of their fellow men at heart. During the first few years of the Gold Rush, San Francisco managed to average almost one murder per day. The murders that made it to court in these semi-lawless days were seen by sympathetic juries mostly as cases of "the guy had it coming". And concerning executions of the un-official variety, Sam Brannan's Committee of Vigilance -- that would be the first one -- had taken matters into their own hands and lynched four miscreants just a year earlier. As the San Francisco Examiner would describe the event 35 years later, "The crime which inaugurated public executions was of a very commonplace character. A Spaniard named José (Forner) struck down an unknown Mexican in (Happy) Valley, stabbing him with a dagger, for as he claimed, attempting to rob him. ... after a very prompt trial, (Forner) was sentenced to be hanged two months later." Was it because he wasn't white? Lack of bribery money? Some secret grudge? José had claimed self defense just like everybody else, and turns out to have been a man of relatively high birth in Spain, oddly enough a confectioner by trade -- and we can only speculate as to the reason he ended up the first victim of San Francisco's official rope. The execution was to take place up on Russian Hill, at the oldest cemetery in the young city -- a cemetery which, due to the fact that a group of Russian sailors had first been buried there back in '42, had actually given the hill its name. If you've heard the Sparkletack "Moving the Dead" episode, you know that this burial ground is long gone now -- and in fact, its remote location up on the hill had already caused it to fall out of use by 1850. I guess that made it seem perfect for an early winter hanging. Let's go back to the Examiner's account: "(The location) did not deter some three thousand people from attending, parents taking children to see the unusual sight, and women on foot and in carriages forcing their way to the front. Between 12 and 1 o’clock the condemned man was taken to the scaffold in a wagon drawn by four black horses, escorted by the California Guard. The Marion Rifles under Captain Schaeffer kept the crowd back from the scaffold. The man died game, after a pathetic little farewell speech, in which he said: “The Americans are good people; they have ever treated me well and kindly; I thank them for it. I have nothing but love and kindly feelings for all. Farewell, people of San Francisco. World, farewell!” A dramatically chilling engraving of the scene can be seen by clicking the thumbnail above. If you'd like to pay your respects in person, the Russian Hill Cemetery was located in the block between Taylor, Jones, Vallejo and Green Streets. December 9, 1912: Miss Goldie Griffin wants to become a cop! Another item culled directly from the pages of our historical newspapers, this one from the period in which California women had just won the right to vote -- something for which the country as a whole would need to wait seven more years. This hardly made San Francisco a bastion of progressive feminist thought. I scarcely need to point it out, but note the amusement and disdain in this articles' treatment of the first female applicant to the San Francisco Police Department, December 9, 1912: read on ...

A weekly handful of weird, wonderful and wacky happenings dredged up from the kaleidoscopic depths of San Francisco history. THIS WEEK: In 1856, the birth of a great newspaper; and in 1896, a legendary gunfighter referees a boxing match. December 1, 1856: Birthday of the "San Francisco Call" One of San Francisco's Gilded Age newspaper giants begins its life today: the San Francisco Call. San Francisco was lousy with newspapers in the Gold Rush era -- by 1858 there were at least a dozen -- but the Call, with its conservative Republican leanings and working class base, quickly nosed to the front of the pack to become San Francisco's number one morning paper. It would stay there for nearly half a century. By the summer of 1864, the Call already claimed the highest daily circulation in town, and it was this point that the paper famously gave employment to a busted gold miner and trouble-making journalist from Nevada by the name of Samuel Clemens -- er, Mark Twain. The Call had published a few of his pieces from Virginia City, but upon Twain's arrival in the Big City the paper employed him full time as a beat reporter and general purpose man. In just a few months at the Call's old digs at number 617 Commercial Street, Mark Twain cranked out hundreds of articles on local crime, culture, and politics. I don't know that Twain was cut out for newspapering. Years later he spoke of those days as "... fearful, soulless drudgery ... (raking) the town from end to end, gathering such material as we might, wherewith to fill our required columns -- and if there were no fires to report, we started some." Twain's attempts to liven up the work with the occasional wildly fictitious embellishment were frowned upon -- the conservative Call was apparently interested in just the facts, thank you very much. Twain also had a few problems with the Call's editorial policy. In a common sort of incident, notorious only because he'd witnessed it, Twain observed a gang of hoodlums run down and stone a Chinese laundryman -- as a San Francisco city cop just stood by and watched. "I wrote up the incident with considerable warmth and holy indignation. There was fire in it and I believe there was literature." Twain was enraged when the article was spiked, but his editor -- and this can't help but remind you that some things never really change -- his editor made it clear that "the Call ... gathered its livelihood from the poor and must respect their prejudices or perish ... the Call could not afford to publish articles criticizing the hoodlums for stoning Chinamen." A campaign of passive-aggressive resistance to doing any work at all was Twain's response -- perhaps better described as "slacking" -- and he was fired shortly thereafter. read on ...

A weekly handful of weird, wonderful and wacky happenings dredged up from the kaleidoscopic depths of San Francisco history. November 24, 1899: Collars, ties, and Butchertown mayhem Our first item flowed from the pen of some long-forgotten San Francisco Chronicle beat writer, a piece in which a neighborhood dispute is lovingly detailed. Butchertown was a tough old San Francisco neighborhood on the edge of today's Bay View district, around the mouth of Islais Creek. It was comprised mostly of German and Irish immigrants -- ballplayer Lefty O'Doul was probably its most famous son -- and it was absolutely packed with slaughterhouses, meat packers and (here's a shocker) butchers. Without further ado, a dash of local color circa 1899: Haberdashery Issue Stirs Butchertown Whether William Beckman and Thomas O'Leary quarreled over a love affair or over collars and neckties is a mooted question. Beckman is a butcher employed in one of the many abattoirs of South San Francisco. A few months ago he married the former Mrs. O'Leary, and when O'Leary, after a three years absence, returned to town two weeks ago and found that his divorced wife had become Mrs. Beckman, there was trouble in Butchertown. It all resulted in the arrest of O'Leary on a charge of making threats against life, and the case came up yesterday in Police Judge Conlan's Court. Beckman told of a long knife with which O'Leary threatened to perform an autopsy on (him). There was also a dispute, Beckman said, as to whether the wearing of collars and neckties was proper form in Butchertown. read on ...

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A weekly handful of weird, wonderful and wacky happenings dredged up from the kaleidoscopic depths of San Francisco history. November 10, 1849: Gold Rush ships choke Yerba Buena Harbor In the closing days of 1848, President Polk sent a message to Congress confirming the discovery of gold in California. This marked the beginning of the gold rush from the east coast. By June of 1849 there were already about 200 ships floating deserted in the harbor, abandoned by gold-seeking crews. On this date -- November 10, 1849 -- the Collector of the Port of San Francisco filed an official report stating that since April 1st, 697 ships had already arrived. For the record, 401 of these were American vessels and the remaining 296 had sailed in from foreign shores. This brings to mind the famous daguerreotypes of Yerba Buena Harbor looking like a burned-out forest of ship masts, but searching for that little item led me serendipitously to another. This next piece is a far more interesting story, and one that took place just seven years later. November 15, 1856: Mary Ann Patten, Heroine of Cape Horn It was the era of the tall-masted clipper ship, an era of speed, adventure and danger, with every trip around the Horn a race against time, other ships, and the odds. In late June of 1856, three clippers cleared New York Harbour and set off for the race to San Francisco Bay. One of these -- Neptune's Car -- was captained by Joshua Patten. This was to be Captain Patten's second voyage on this vessel, the first having been a memorable one. It had been his maiden command, and he'd made the 15,000-mile trip from New York Harbour round the Horn to the Golden Gate in a mere 100 days, 23 1/2 hours -- a time as good or better than the fastest clippers on the water. Even more interesting, the promising young sailor had refused to accept the command until the shipping company allowed him to sail with his new wife, Mary. Though no one yet knew it, this was to be Mary's story. read on ...

A weekly handful of weird, wonderful and wacky happenings dredged up from the kaleidoscopic depths of San Francisco history. November 7, 1595: The accidental naming of San Francisco Bay All right. Let's get serious about going back in time, way, way, WAY back, 413 years into the past. How can this even be related to San Francisco, you ask? Well, it isn't, but then again, yes it is -- the first of a long chain of events leading up to the naming of our fair city. Here's how it began: Captain Sebastian Rodriguez Cermeño was dispatched by the Spanish to sail up the coast of Alta California and find a safe harbour for the pirate-harassed galleons sailing between New Spain and the Philippines. A violent storm off of what would one day be named Point Reyes forced him to head for shore -- yup, "any port in a storm" -- and his ship fetched up in Drake's Bay. He'd missed discovering the Golden Gate by just a few miles. Cermeño's ship, the "San Agustin", ran aground, destroying it -- and the loyal captain claimed that ground for Spain. Not knowing that Sir Francis Drake had shown up in the same spot 16 years earlier -- or so we think -- Cermeño named the bay "Puerto de San Francisco". The industrious Cermeño and his crew salvaged a small launch from the wreckage and sailed it all the way back down to Baja California, incidentally discovering San Diego's bay along the way. But how does this relate to our bay? Well, almost 200 years later, scouts from the Spanish mission-building expedition led by Gaspar de Portolá and Fray Junipero Serra discovered the Golden Gate from the land side. Mistaking it for the body of water named by Cermeño, they called it San Francisco Bay -- and this time, the name stuck. read on ...

A weekly handful of weird, wonderful and wacky happenings dredged up from the kaleidoscopic depths of San Francisco history. October 28, 1881: A murder in Chinatown A murder in Chinatown. Newspapers, particularly the often very nasty San Francisco Chronicle, were full of anti-Chinese propaganda in the last decades before the turn of the century. Stories dealing with Chinese people were usually over-heated, pretty racist, and sometimes hard to even get through. This item was short and straightforward, though, and I might have even skipped over it if I hadn't noticed an article about the very same case in a legal journal. The tiny bit of testimony from the victim in that piece helps capture the flavour of the parallel world of 1880s Chinatown. CHINESE CRIMEShooting of a Courtesan in Kum Cook Alley Between 7:30 and 8 o'clock last evening, while Choy Gum, a Chinese courtesan, was bargaining with a fruitdealer in her room on Kum Cook Alley, a Chinaman named Fong Ah Sing walked up to her door and fired a shot at her ... read on ...

A weekly handful of weird, wonderful and wacky happenings dredged up from the kaleidoscopic depths of San Francisco history. October 24, 1861 The transcontinental telegraph line is finished, literally uniting the United States by wire just as the country was disintegrating into Civil War. Just before the shooting started, Congress had offered a substantial bribe (known as a subsidy) to any company agreeing to take on the seemingly impossible project -- a hair-brained plan to hang a thin wire on poles marching hundreds of miles across the Great Plains, up the Rockies, and into the Wild West. Work began in June of 1861. Just like the transcontinental railroad a few years later, one section started in the east, one in the west, with the goal of linking up in Utah. The two crews worked their ways toward Salt Lake City for six long months, following the route established less than a year and a half earlier by the Pony Express. It was an epic struggle. Thousands of poles were planted in scorching heat and freezing snow, and the workers negotiated not only with the hostile elements, but with Native Americans and Mormons. read on ...

A weekly handful of weird, wonderful and wacky happenings dredged up from the kaleidoscopic depths of San Francisco history. October 18, 1851 On this date, after endless politicking and interminable delay, the mail ship Oregon steamed into San Francisco harbor with the news that California had been admitted to the Union. The reaction of San Francisco's 25,000 citizens is something I'll allow the Daily Alta California to report: "Business of almost every description was instantly suspended, the courts adjourned in the midst of their work, and men rushed from every house into the streets and towards the wharves, to hail the harbinger of the welcome news. When the steamer rounded Clark's Point and came in front of the city, her masts literally covered with flags and signals, a universal shout arose from ten thousand voices on the wharves, in the streets, upon the hills, house-tops, and the world of shipping in the bay. read on ...

A weekly handful of weird, wonderful and wacky happenings dredged up from the kaleidoscopic depths of San Francisco history. October 9, 1776 Two hundred and thirty-two years ago this week, the original "Mission San Francisco de Asis" -- better known as Mission Dolores -- was officially dedicated on the banks of Dolores Lagoon, in today's aptly named Mission District. I'm not talking about the graceful white-washed adobe that stands at 16th and Dolores streets today -- it would be some 15 years before the good padres, in an early chapter of the church's "problematic" relationship with native Americans, would draft members of the Ohlone to construct that edifice. No, this was more like a cabin, a temporary log and thatch structure hacked together a little over a block east of the present Mission, near the intersection of Camp and Albion Streets. read on ...

A weekly handful of weird, wonderful and wacky happenings dredged up from the kaleidoscopic depths of San Francisco history. October 1, 1938 On a foggy Saturday in 1938, a swaybacked, 12-year-old horse named Blackie swam -- dog-paddled, really -- completely across the choppy waters of the Golden Gate. The horse not only made aquatic history with that trip, but he soundly defeated two human challengers from the Olympic Club, and won a $1000 bet for his trainer Shorty Roberts too. It took the horse only 23 minutes, 15 seconds to make the nearly mile-long trip, and the short film made of the adventure shows that Blackie wasn't even breathing hard as he emerged from the waters at Crissy Field. His trainer Shorty couldn't swim, but he made the trip, too -- and this was part of the bet -- by hanging onto Blackie's tail. A rowboat led the way, with Shorty's brother offering a handful of sugar cubes from the stern to keep the sweets-lovin' horse on track. read on ...

September 24, 1855 The preserved head of Joaquin Murieta and the hand of Three-Fingered Jack were sold at auction today to settle their owner's legal problems. Joaquin Murieta was a notorious and romantic figure in the early history of California. With Jack, his right-hand man, Murieta led a gang of Mexican bandits through the countryside on a three-year rampage, brutally "liberating" more than $100,000 in gold, killing 22 people (including three lawmen), and outrunning three separate posses. After posse #4 tracked him down and chopped off his head -- or at least the head of someone who might possibly have maybe looked like him -- Murieta's story entered California folklore. read on ...

A little explanation is in order So. The schedule of Sparkletack production has fallen off a bit during the past year, and for that I apologize. I miss the show myself, so I've decided to tweak the format a bit. Here's my new plan. I started to think about the fact that every time the planet spins around its axis, it's the anniversary of some interesting, odd, or somehow notable happening in the history of our fair city. I'm going to select a handful of these every week, and put together a short piece just to remind you -- and myself -- of the marvelous and wacky things that have taken place all around us during the past 170 years or so. The format is far from settled yet -- this is officially an experiment, and I'm open to suggestions. The longer, more in-depth shows won't disappear -- the plan is to keep producing them as well, at a more comfortable pace. They'll just appear when they appear. The Sparkletack blog won't change at all, and I should mention here that I really love the tips and info that you constantly send me, dear listeners ... thanks, and keep 'em coming. read on ...