Life in the Later Lane
Three generations of a San Francisco family thrived running popular oceanside eatery overlooking Sutro Baths
It was, you might say, the last breakfast. On a summer Saturday in 2020, dozens of family...
Art and science vied for Sarah Young’s heart: Both found a place
Few who end up in the hospital are likely to be thinking about whether there’s a sufficient,...
Baking for bodily autonomy: Nan Wiener tackles controversial end of Roe v. Wade with brownies, macaroons, muffins and more
SENIOR BEAT GUEST COLUMN – Many years ago, I spent a year baking desserts in a restaurant...
New author and former drinker embracing alternative therapies to help others break the habit
Seated in the backroom of a café on Polk Street, Kevagne Kalisch leans against the wall and...
From fisherman to cook to inmate to owner: Frankie Balistreri’s odyssey to opening his dream restaurant
When his mother, Lucrezia, was diagnosed with cancer, then 25-year-old Frankie Gaetano Balistreri cared for her at...
Wisdom of the Japanese Tea Garden helped volunteer Chrisie Giordano come to accept a child’s absence
It’s an overcast summer morning, and Chrisie Giordano is leading a tour of Golden Gate Park’s Japanese...
It’s the little things that count for Margaret Lew, swept up in the world of miniature craftmanship
If you think dollhouses are just for children, you haven’t met the artisans and collectors, like Margaret...
Desire to learn mah-jongg helped Stephanie Riger overcome her own biases toward seniors
SENIOR BEAT GUEST COLUMN – Even though I’m 78 years old, I have resisted seeing myself as...
Retirement can be scary. Library worker hoping the end of his career will be the start of a happy new chapter
Seventy-one-year-old Richard Marino is on the cusp of retirement. And it’s making him anxious. He’s gone through...
German Gonzalez, the maestro of Golden Gate Park, has spread music and joy for more than 50 years
He was in the sixth grade and really wanted to be in the school band. But his...
At 67, Lauren McNamara has embarked on a new career and she’s charming customers at a downtown hotspot.
Lauren McNamara makes sure to remember where the regular clientele at Sam’s Grill like to sit. She...
You can get — almost — anything you want at Joseph Omran’s Nob Hill grocery store
LeBeau Market calls itself Nob Hill’s Community Grocery Store, where you can get almost everything: from Lay’s...
Deborah Drysdale: social justice evangelist, bridge instructor, and amateur mixologist
Summers for Deborah Drysdale meant idyllic days at her grandparents’ cattle ranch in the Blue Ridge mountains...
Jonah Raskin: Tireless Bay Area peace activist, prolific writer, and educator
Jonah Raskin was 10 in 1952, during the height of the anti-communist fervor of the Cold War....
She brought the magic to the screen, finding the perfect San Francisco location to shoot movies, TV shows, and commercials
If you’d been walking along one of the steepest streets in San Francisco one sunny afternoon in...
She relives history as a guide on the SS Jeremiah O’Brien, one of the WWII Liberty ships that brought troops and cargo to Normandy beaches
Eve Maher hands out programs to visitors boarding the SS Jeremiah O’Brien for a tour and memorial...
Pen pals from afar build rich relationship over 60 years through old-fashioned correspondence – no WhatsApp about it
A SENIOR BEAT GUEST COLUMN – My correspondence with Jutta Mengersen (now Brockhaus), the “World’s Ideal Pen...
This Mexican immigrant fought in the ring, started a dozen restaurants, raised five children, and never let defeat wear him down.
When 17-year-old Jose Heriberto Garcia came courting the young girl who’d become his wife, his future mother-in-law...
The ghosts of San Francisco’s past are still there if you only look and listen
SENIOR BEAT COLUMN: I got my first job in San Francisco nearly 40 years ago, in the...
Mutual support but separate hobbies and workshops keep crafty couple’s marriage going strong
A stained glass window by Bill and a "fishing" quilt Etta made for him adorn a hallway...
All Posts
Matchy matchy is not this styler’s first consideration
SENIOR FASHIONISTA – When shopping for clothes, Kathleen Massoni’s mantra is “fun.” “I buy fun pieces because I like them, not to match. I make everything my own.” SENIOR FASHIONISTA – The 76-year-old Pacific Heights resident says she shops mostly in second-shops. Her favorites are Goodbyes, Jane’s Consignment, Crossroads, Goodwill, the Symphony Store and Seconds ...
Poet’s interest in herbs and healing leads to growth of Kitchen Herbalism workshops
When Marina Lazzara was 13, she held a tea party for friends with herbs she picked from her backyard in Easton, Pa. The problem was the plant she had so carefully prepared was not peppermint, as she thought, but poison ivy. One of her guests got a rash, and Lazzara’s eyes swelled up, but her ...
It’s a honey of a job, but the payoff is in saving the creatures who foster our food
When she was 15, on a beautiful sunny day in Toronto, Canada, Terry Oxford was enjoying an outdoor jazz concert when the sky went dark. Everyone looked up as a gigantic swarm of migrating monarch butterflies made their way across the sky. Even the band stopped playing. People were so awed they applauded when the ...
Emergency alert devices go modern, but old TV ad catchphrase won’t fade away
SENIOR TECH – Almost everyone remembers the 1980s commercial in which an elderly woman lies on the floor next to her toppled walker crying “Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” Sitcoms from the Golden Girls to Fresh Prince of Belair used it as a reliable laugh line into the ‘90s. It was also ...
Colorful couple share passion for tango – and thrift shopping
Elaine and Carlos Lucha, married for 27 years, share a passion for tango – and shopping vintage, consignment and thrift shops, one of their favorite past-times. “We can get just as good or better at slashed prices,” she said. Carlos is also an artist, who likes to paint his shoes, ties, you name it in ...
Chinatown native and tour guide is a history whiz who helps local filmmakers
Despite growing up in the neglected ghetto of San Francisco’s Chinatown, where most Chinese lived until the 1940s, Dorothy Quock extols its vibrant history and culture in her work today. For the past 28 years, Quock, now 85, has been working for Wok Wiz Chinatown Tours, leading small groups of tourists through its mysterious alleys ...
