Grab Bag #65
A San Francisco Grab Bag of queer tales, many about shoes...
Woody Talking
On Wednesday evening, April 22, 2026, we will be celebrating the 125th anniversary of the Geneva Car Barn at Geneva and San Jose avenues (just across from the Balboa Park transit station). I will give a presentation about the history of the building and my new book will be available to buy, with proceeds benefiting the Friends of the Geneva Office Building & Powerhouse.
The event is free with registration. There will be refreshments. You will have the chance to check out The Powerhouse, a neat adaptive reuse of an old power substation of the landmark. The mayor has sent his regrets, but maybe we will have a supervisor or two mingling about...
Space is limited, but I would love to see you there. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. Talkin’ part starts about 6:30 p.m. Register here.
Guess Where
Grab Bag time is Guess Where time. This one should be pretty easy for most of you. When and where are we?
Of course, cherished Friends of Woody can get all the deets at the bottom of the Grab Bag. (Time to pull the trigger on friendship status?)
Totally Serious
Perhaps there was a golden age for April Fool’s Day, but my Gen-X life is built of headlines from The Onion. Maybe today we will get “World Leaders Agree to Hug it Out,” “Reports of Irony’s Death Confirmed,” or with more local interest, “Woody Admits San Francisco is ‘Kinda Meh.”” (Remember, April Fool’s...)
In the 1860s and 1870s, San Francisco boys performed a venerated April 1st tradition of wrapping packages of effluvia or dung in pretty store-bought packages, leaving them on the sidewalk to tempt passersby. Observers lurked, ready to yuck it up and yell April Fool, hardy-har-har.
Sort of a lower-tech version of a Mark Rober glitter-bomb trap for porch pirates.
Real pranks generally backfire. Like the time I took all of my roommate Marty Molluskhead’s shoes with me to work while he slept in (attending law school in bare feet isn’t the worst thing). This led to him disappearing my bed before I came home late one night. Then I… well, you get the idea.
In 1869, hostler Michael Downing told his 16th Street stablemate Tom Dusey that the boss wanted a horse harnessed up for a ride. After the work was done, Downing yelled April Fool and Dusey “picked up a stable-broom and struck Downing on the head with it, inflicting severe cuts.”
So, for the rest of the Grab Bag we will try to play it straight.
I will prove it by now telling you a totally truthful story about magnetic footwear...