Fiction, Essays, and Other Things

  The spring and summer of 2001 saw two cases of mass hysteria take hold of two countries, halfway around the world from each other. But both in India and the United States, the press jumped on the frenzy, evidence, rationality and integrity be damned. Exploitative media is, of course, still very much alive more than twenty years later but the two cases of 2001 are an intriguing window into a world still unfamiliar, much less preoccupied, with the term 9/11. In a matter of months the world, and the media, would change. Mass hysteria was nothing new in the spring of 2001. In December of 1997 a number of children in Japan became dizzy after watching an episode of Pokémon featuring the use of strobe lighting. Hospitals later revealed that while a few kids did suffer mild epileptic seizures after viewing the episode most were the result of mass hysteria. Still, it baffles the mind how easily the press in India turned the story of the Monkey-Man of Delhi into national panic without...

  Some of the best things to see in San Francisco have fallen off the tour book grid and yet paint as fascinating a picture of the city and its story as the renowned landmarks. The Painted Ladies of Alamo Square have become icons of the city, but their popularity was generated more by pop-culture than history. Full House ingrained them in the American psyche (as well as its very own Full House-house, which is also a popular, though less recognized site) and ever since Steiner Street has drawn thousands of fans. But the history of these pastel colored Victorian homes predates Full House and television by almost a century. Built in the last decades of the 19 th century, the homes exude the grand splendor of the Gilded Age in all aspects (gable roof, arched doorways, Italianate windows etc.) but one, the vibrant colors. Each of the seven sisters (as they are colloquially called) is also known by the color (the “Pink Painted Lady”, for instance) it vibrates in a way unseen in ...