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San Francisco history
By Pete Bingo on April 10, 2010
They’re back!!! BAY TIME DETECTIVES, Mikki & Pete Bingo, disinter Planet Earth’s most audacious, exciting and titillating serial adventure.
Posted in BAY TIME DETECTIVE | Tagged BAY TIME DETECTIVE, fantasy, Ha-Ra, humor, Mammy Pleasant, san francisco, San Francisco Bay Area, San Francisco history, satire, science fiction, serial fiction, serial novel, time travel
By p. joseph potocki on February 26, 2010
“Negros playing it. Eye shades, sleeves up, cigars in mouth. Gin and liquor and smoke and filth. But music!”
Posted in BAY TIME INFORMER, FEATURES | Tagged American jazz, birthplace of jazz, black music, Herbert Asbury, Jazz on the Barbary Coast, San Francisco history, San Francisco's Barbary Coast, the Barbary Coast, Tom Stoddard
By p. joseph potocki on February 24, 2010
2003—Gavin gushes green from Getty’s gobs
1880—Big Bertha outweighs Oofty Goofty in Romeo and Juliet
Posted in FEATURES, Timeless Twists | Tagged Abe Warner, Alcatraz, American Indians, Big Bertha, Gavin Newsom, Gordon Getty, John Muir, Oofty Goofty, Raker Act, Sally Rand, Sally Rand's Nude Ranch, San Francisco Giants, San Francisco history, the Cobweb Palace, the Grateful Dead, Trips Festival, World Series
By p. joseph potocki on February 17, 2010
“We were getting the real international lechers now, in the spring of ‘45. The United Nations delegates were very large stuff in San Francisco.”
Posted in BAY TIME INFORMER, COLUMNS, FEATURES | Tagged "The Fortress", 65th Anniversary of U.N. Conference of International Organization, Sally Stanford, San Francisco bordellos, San Francisco history, San Francisco sex industry, Sausalito, United Nations in San Francisco
By p. joseph potocki on February 15, 2010
The most entertaining speculation into Harding’s death comes from The Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency. They claim that Harding was first bitten by a vampire on a boat ride on the San Francisco Bay – and then poisoned to put him out of his misery.
Posted in BAY TIME INFORMER, COLUMNS, FEATURES | Tagged Ambrose Bierce, attempted assasination of Gerald Ford, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency, George W. Bush, Palace Hotel, Presidents Day, Rutherford B. Hayes, San Francisco history, U.S. Presidential visits to San Francisco, U.S. presidents in San Francisco, Warren G. Harding, Warren G. Harding death, William McKinley, William Randolph Hearst
By p. joseph potocki on February 14, 2010
“…during the rainy season of 1849-50 horses, mules, and carts were sucked down into the mud and drowned; and many men, trying to cross the streets while drunk, narrowly escaped similar deaths.”
Posted in BAY TIME INFORMER, FEATURES | Tagged Barbary Coast, San Francisco blog, San Francisco history, San Francisco weather
By Doc Pingree on February 11, 2010
This Pingree report comes from the Sunol Water Temple in Alameda County. The historically-anchored opinion piece equates the temple with its ancient model – the Temple ruins of Vesta, near Rome. Doc Pingree compares our own republic’s thrust into empire with that of ancient Rome — and how we should, but have yet to learn our lessons from Rome’s devastating collapse.
Posted in Pingree Report | Tagged Amercan Empire, American labor, American military, banksters, dumbing down of America, Great Recession, Ronald Reagan, San Francisco history, Sunol Water Temple, William Bowers Bourn II
By p. joseph potocki on February 2, 2010
In addition to California, treaty terms cede Texas to the U.S., along with Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and a portion of Colorado.
Posted in FEATURES | Tagged 1848, Chinese immigrants, Chinese in San Francisco, February 2, John C. Fremont, Mexican American War, San Francisco blog, San Francisco Chinatown, San Francisco history, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
By p. joseph potocki on January 31, 2010
1996—Baghdad-by-the-Bay’s Herb Caen plucks “Pullet Surprise” for It’s News to Me…
Posted in FEATURES, Timeless Twists | Tagged Ambrose Bierce, Armistead Maupin, Herb Caen, James King of William, Mark Twain in San Francisco, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco history, San Francisco journalism, San Francisco newspapers, William Randolph Hearst
By p. joseph potocki on January 21, 2010
“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”
—Jack London
“(Jack London writes) as if his digestion, like his politics and rhetoric, was out of order.”
—Ambrose Bierce
Posted in BAY TIME INFORMER, FEATURES | Tagged alcoholism, Ambrose Bierce, Ambrose Bierce quotations, Bohemian Club, Bohemian Grove, Devil's Dictionary, George Sterling, Jack London, San Francisco history, William Randolph Hearst
By p. joseph potocki on January 16, 2010
Though an infamous miser, Lick paid his workers well. He was an unassuming man whose monument to himself—an immense pyramid dwarfing even the Great Pyramid at Giza—was to be erected in downtown San Francisco.
Posted in BAY TIME INFORMER, FEATURES | Tagged Catalina Island, Ghiradelli chocolate, Gold Rush San Francisco, Great Pyramid at Giza, James Lick, James Lick freeway, James Lick Observatory, Lick House, San Francisco history, Santa Clara Valley
By Dick Bingo on January 13, 2010
Wells Fargo, $25 billion bail-out beneficiary benefits from banned banking practice — but won’t stop bilking taxpayers
Posted in FEATURES, Timeless Twists | Tagged Bechtel, Central Pacific Railroad, Charles Crocker, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco history, San Francisco Main Library controversy, The Octopus, Wells Fargo
By Queenie Cummins on January 12, 2010
“Weaving Spiders Come Not Here” is the Bohemian Club motto, meant to suggest that no deals are to be cut at their two week long Bohemian Grove summer bacchanalia. And if you believe that, why I’m selling some sunny oceanfront property in North Dakota…
Posted in COLUMNS, FEATURES, Queenie's Conspiracy Closet | Tagged Bohemian Club, Bohemian Grove, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, San Francisco history
By p. joseph potocki on January 8, 2010
They, like Emperor Norton, garnered reams of newsprint, but Bummer and Lazarus didn’t give one guttural growl about Joshua Norton.
Posted in BAY TIME INFORMER, FEATURES | Tagged animal cruelty, Bummer and Lazarus, California Gold Rush, Edward Jump cartoons, Emperor Norton I, Joshua Abraham Norton, San Francisco history, San Francisco legend, The Three Bummers
By p. joseph potocki on January 7, 2010
Long before Rupert Murdoch’s quest for media hegemony spawned Fox, our nation marveled at a vast media empire built by San Francisco’s own prodigal son—William Randolph Hearst.
Posted in BAY TIME INFORMER | Tagged fascism, mass media, media consolidation, media moguls, propaganda, Rupert Murdoch, San Francisco history, San Francisco news, wealth, William Randolph Hearst, yellow journalism
By Queenie Cummins on January 6, 2010
The CIA, with the blessing and full cooperation of both the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and the SFPD—sets up and runs an LSD brothel in San Francisco for ten solid years?
Posted in COLUMNS, FEATURES, Queenie's Conspiracy Closet | Tagged CIA, George White, LSD, MK-ULTRA, Operation Midnight Climax, Pete Bingo, prostitution, San Francisco history
By Doc Pingree on January 3, 2010
Great Recession Special – PG&E’s “Go-Carbon” and “Scrooge You” campaigns – Hungry tech – goodbye to a neo-fascist radio – Dollar Store jobs for docs – Smoking on Mars – Treasure Island’s trove – AT&T’s Operation Chokehold – Geothermal Energy & Earthquakes – SF Bay Tsunamis – Dining on Billionaires – Cuddly Pups, Warm Blankies and a shameless Pitch for Viewer Contributions.
Posted in NEWS, Pingree Report, VIDS | Tagged AT&T, earthquakes, Federal Reserve, Google, Great Recession, PG&E, puppies, San Francisco history, satire
By p. joseph potocki on January 2, 2010
1927—San Francisco’s Philo T. Farnsworth invents boob tube. Civilization ends
Posted in FEATURES, Timeless Twists | Tagged Emperor Norton, Frank Chu, Philo T. Farnsworth, Sally Stanford, San Francisco history, Sister Boom-Boom
By p. joseph potocki on January 1, 2010
O’Brien family legend holds that he landed his Riptides column, promoted as the “blend of California’s brilliant past and present” after he’d penned a short ditty about a moth’s lone ferry ride across the bay.
Posted in BAY TIME INFORMER, FEATURES | Tagged Riptides, Robert O'Brien, San Francisco Chronicle columnist, San Francisco history
By p. joseph potocki on December 31, 2009
Happy Jack Harrington was the Barbary Coast’s own Beau Brummel, Bacchus and P.T. Barnum all rolled up into one… Happy Jack loved everyone, and everyone loved Happy Jack.
Posted in BAY TIME INFORMER, FEATURES | Tagged Barbary Coast, delirium tremens, dive bars, Happy Jack Harrington, New Year's fable, San Francisco history, temperance
By p. joseph potocki on December 21, 2009
The newest, truest scoop on SF icon Mary Ellen “Mammy” Pleasant
Posted in FEATURES | Tagged Beltane Ranch, House of Mystery, John Brown, Mammy Pleasant, Mary Ellen Pleasant, Mother of Civil Rights in Califonia, San Francisco Call, San Francisco history, Sonoma Valley, Teresa Bell, underground railroad, voodoo
By Dick Bingo on December 18, 2009
San Francisco has always catered to the open-minded gourmand. At Bab’s, for example, “….one dined off a coffin and was lighted by green colored tapers, affixed to skulls.”
Posted in FEATURES, Gobble & Glug | Tagged Alice Waters, Bay Area foodstuffs, Guy Fieri, San Francisco chefs, San Francisco history, San Francisco restaurants, Thomas Keller
By p. joseph potocki on December 5, 2009
Critics puzzle how a good Mormon farm boy could afflict us with everything from William Hung to The Flying Nun.
Posted in FEATURES | Tagged Adolf Hitler, Charles Herrold, Eadward Muybridge, Goebbels, Google, Joseph Pulitzer, Leland Stanford, Mussolini, Philo T. Farnsworth, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco history, Silicon Valley, Thomas Edison, William Randolph Hearst, Yahoo!, yellow journalism
By p. joseph potocki on December 3, 2009
Other dead assholes are always asking me—why do I still miss The Rock? I guess, mostly, it was the grub. Seconds, too!
Posted in FEATURES | Tagged Alcatraz, Machine Gun Kelly, San Francisco history, satire
By p. joseph potocki on November 29, 2009
1939’s Golden Gate International Exposition. A Castle Film documentary from the Prelinger Collection at the Internet Archives.
Posted in Archival Film, VIDS | Tagged 1939, 1939 World's Fair, Archival Film, Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco history, Treasure Island
By Doc Pingree on November 24, 2009
Cable Car Crash leads to Nymphomania — Mayor Gavin Newsom turns down street cleaner job — Local Zombies protest unfair economic treatment
Posted in NEWS, Pingree Report, VIDS | Tagged cable cars, Colma, Gavin Newsom, Hank Plante, Hearst family, nymphomania, San Francisco Bay Area news, San Francisco history, satire, zombies
By p. joseph potocki on November 18, 2009
Harold Wobber suddenly stopped midway across the span, removed his jacket and told his new found friend, “This is where I get off.”
Posted in BAY TIME INFORMER | Tagged Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge suicide, Guyana, Jim Jones, Jonestown, KKK, MK-ULTRA, Peoples Temple, San Francisco history
By p. joseph potocki on November 17, 2009
Nature endowed Alma with both Aphrodite’s looks and with her libido; with Machiavellian cunning, the heart and will of a lion—and with the energy of a full throttle locomotive.
Posted in BAY TIME INFORMER | Tagged Alma Spreckels, Big Alma, Palace of Legion of Honor, San Francisco history, Spreckels, sugar daddy, Union Square