When Esperanza Villanueva arrived in Lake Tahoe from her native Mexico City in 1994, her hardest adjustment was to the food. “That was a shock,” she said. “There was no food I liked here, not many Mexican products.” She joined her siblings and their families who’d come years earlier and she laughs as she recalls ...
SENIOR BEAT COLUMN Over 30 years ago, my mother caught sight of her reflection in a shop window. “Who is that familiar old woman?” she asked herself, and she smiled broadly telling me the story. “Suddenly I realized it was me! I was so shocked I could only burst out laughing!” I remember also, when ...
Nurses smile and wave as a slim man in an oversized coat strides briskly past them. His wiry hair sticks out, Bozo-like from under his floppy hat, a ukulele is slung over his shoulder and he’s brandishing a gigantic paper sunflower. His nose is bright red and shiny over his KN95 mask. Popping into an ...
Enter Jack Epstein’s cool, narrow shop and you walk a chocolate gauntlet down a central aisle: bars from around the world line the walls on either side. Individual confections, truffles, and foil-wrapped hearts perch on the lower shelves. No wonder the longtime Noe Valley business is called Chocolate Covered. He sources the sweet-smelling wares from ...
There are almost 80 bodies joyfully bobbing and weaving, swaying and swinging –ºmaking waves in the shallow lanes at the Martin Luther King Jr. pool on Carroll Street in the Bayview. Soul music pulses out from a large speaker on the pool deck. Like a queen in her water court, right at the heart of ...
A SENIOR BEAT COLUMN Here is an odd but true distinction: I graduated from Columbia University Journalism School in 1983 – in the last class to use typewriters. The sweet cacophony of the newsroom: Clickety Clickety Clack Clack Clack. Sticky keys, coffee spills, paper stacks. Mimeographs! The most sophisticated among us had Correct-O-Ball Electric typewriters. ...
