Big surprise: two days before Aidan’s English test, he admitted that he hadn’t read a single page of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” What’s a good father to do? Went to the basement and found the George C. Scott version of the film. As an

A ‘best’ Christmas lit by hopes for future

Dec 19th, 2018 5m 2s

It can be fun to be invisible

Dec 18th, 2018 3m 24s

I got attacked by a dermatologist last week. He seemed like a nice fellow, giving me friendly advice about wearing sunscreen — and then he shot me in the face with liquid nitrogen multiple times. “You’re going to look kind of rough for about a

New Year’s Eve events

Dec 17th, 2018 15m 46s

9th Annual New Year’s Eve Stand Up Comedy Showcase With Karen Rontowski, Brian Kiley, Ronn Vigh, Maureen Langan. 7:30 p.m. $29.50-$69.50. Marin JCC, 200 North San Pedro Road, San Rafael. www.marinjcc.org \ Beach Blanket Babylon NYE Guests recei

In the holiday season, always a reason to complain

Dec 14th, 2018 5m 9s

At the Stonestown Olive Garden, where salad or soup are unlimited and free if you order an entree, Alan Briscoe overheard a woman complaining to her server, “My friend got a big bowl of salad, and I only got a little bowl of soup. That is not f

Finally, a surefire way to lose weight

Dec 13th, 2018 4m 38s

I’m proud to announce that I have just entered my 27th year of trying to lose 5 pounds. Not many fatties have the perseverance to keep trying to lose 5 pounds, and failing, for 27 consecutive years, but I do. In honor of this milestone, my wife

Into the wilds of Marin Headlands and out as top dog

Dec 12th, 2018 4m 35s

Ask my husband. I’m not the kind of guy you pick to face down a coyote. Which brings me to Naturebridge. Aidan’s in seventh-grade now, and Mr. B. takes his class every year to Fort Cronkhite on Rodeo Beach, where his students are “immersed in t

Sorry, SF, that 980 square foot apartment renting for $49,528 is off the market now

Dec 11th, 2018 2m 6s

Perhaps you have noticed, in this holiday season, that the snap on your wallet is getting worn out and that your credit card rarely gets cold between usings. Whatever you’re spending, it’s small potatoes, pals. Rent.com reported a few weeks ago

In San Francisco, you, too, can adopt a ... drain

Dec 10th, 2018 4m 30s

One night, my husband came home with an announcement: he’d adopted a drain. I paused before reacting. Well, this is something, I thought. Large businesses and wealthy people adopt schools. Suburban dwellers adopt trees. If we lived in a house i

Tony Nik’s in North Beach is still cool after 85 years

Dec 7th, 2018 5m 24s

The sign outside Tony Nik’s on Stockton Street has seen better days. The curves of each letter have darkened, and it’s tricky to make out the “Nik’s” at all; the word was painted in a patchy white rectangle on top of the original “Nicco’s” when

Radio Waves: Harvill at Cumulus: ‘It feels like a startup’

Dec 6th, 2018 5m 26s

Doug Harvill was having a blast. As senior VP and market manager for the CBS Radio group in San Francisco, he led the cluster to the heights, with stellar ratings for KCBS, “Alice” and KMVQ (“Now”). But when CBS merged with Entercom last Nove

On paper, it’s almost a Hallmark holiday

Dec 5th, 2018 4m 47s

In South Ozone Park, Nurse Vivian and Pop took Christmas cards seriously. The day after Thanksgiving, the Paulsons drove to Great Eastern Mills out on Long Island to pick out Christmas cards: mostly nativity scenes, a few snowmen, one box of fo

She is leaving the world a better place

Dec 4th, 2018 4m 19s

The sweetest woman in the world is dying. As I write this, she’s lying in her bed in a nursing home 45 miles north of Montreal. Her family, including my wife, is beside her, waiting for her to die. She’s not eating, and she can’t hear or speak.

SF State president tussles with student protesters, 1968

Dec 3rd, 2018 5m 6s

1993 Dec. 8: The troubles of legal gunslinger Melvin Belli continued to grow when a bank announced that it would auction off the famed Belli building to cover a defaulted loan. Home Savings of America said that Belli is in default of a loan sec

Mill Valley’s 2AM Club and the trope of the high-school reunion bar

Nov 30th, 2018 7m 32s

The patrons are young, and they’re descending from all angles. They traipse over from the 7-Eleven on Miller Avenue in Mill Valley, stopping to finish soda bottles with questionable contents. A group of three spills out of an idling Mercedes, t

Mill Valley’s 2AM Club and the trope of the high-school reunion bar

Nov 30th, 2018 7m 32s

The Fisher-Paulson family is famous: You could look it up

Nov 29th, 2018 4m 56s

Amanda and I met when we both volunteered at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in the autumn of 1982. She has seen me through disastrous boyfriends, including the cowboy and the Mafia guy, and I have seen her through disastrous girlfriend

‘Check, Please!’ and host Leslie Sbrocco add a new ingredient: kids

Nov 28th, 2018 4m 58s

Leslie Sbrocco traces the genesis of “Check, Please! Bay Area Kids” to a note she received from a fan last February. “In her handwritten letter (she wrote), ‘Dear Leslie, I am a huge fan of the show, I am 7 years old and one day I will have you

Thankful for those rare kids who are home for holidays

Nov 27th, 2018 4m 32s

Thanksgiving was over. As I said to my wife as the final dishes were washed last Thursday evening, it’s no time to relax. The battle continues. We were still reeling from the beating we took at Thanksgiving. Only one of our four children came t

In San Francisco, living on the edge of the fires and the future

Nov 26th, 2018 4m 53s

Posted on Next Door in the Sunset district, a Tuesday, Nov. 13 entry noticed by Charles Moody: “Question: The air seems very smoky today.

Puzzling out birthdays on the lunar calendar

Nov 23rd, 2018 4m 40s

Long ago, when I asked my mother the date of her birthday, she replied, “I was born in a year with two Augusts.” How odd her answer seemed to me at the time. Why couldn’t she tell me the date listed on her driver’s license? I would come to lear

When Thanksgivings are somehow different

Nov 22nd, 2018 5m 7s

Holidays were rotated between Aunt Mildred, Aunt Rita and my mother in a way that I never understood, but in 1968, Nurse Vivian drew Thanksgiving. This was the autumn a year after the Summer of Love. The times they were a-changing, and she got

It’s just a game — for winners and especially losers

Nov 21st, 2018 4m 33s

I love to compete in sports. I grew up playing basketball, moved on to doubles tennis and golf when the body started breaking down, and look forward to competing in my sport of the future — bocce ball. I love to experience the thrill of victory

Discord greets Tilson Thomas, Dec. 1, 1993

Nov 20th, 2018 6m

Items have been culled from The Chronicle’s archives of 25, 50, 75 and 100 years ago. 1993 Dec. 1: The San Francisco Symphony, locked in intense contract negotiations with its musicians all day, last night canceled the Davies Hall concert sched

A house divided on a Big Game day

Nov 19th, 2018 4m 39s

Earlier this month, my sons, Didi and Gege, raced around on their scooters at Stanford University, shouting with glee as they careened on the smooth walkways around the Quad. It was a couple of weeks before the choking haze of the Camp Fire wou