Our Forestville correspondent

@bethwinegarner

✏️ Journalist & author: bethwinegarner.com 📚 "San Francisco’s Forgotten Cemeteries: A Buried History" out now! 🎧 Co-host, Dead Reckoning podcast: 👩🏻‍🦰 She/her.

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Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Jul 13

On Aug. 5 I'll be in conversation with journalist s.e. smith (@sesmith.lol) about their new book on how we grieve (or don't) in the modern age. Come see us!

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Jun 26

Comments from Iranian and Pakistani Phoebe Bridgers bringing me to tears

Text comments on the new Phoebe Bridgers video "Lost Boys"

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Jun 17

Woody LaBounty's newsletter this week includes an amazing sketch of early San Francisco, featuring the Sailor's Burying Ground, which I detail in my book. Amazing to see this. Sketch by Augustus Harrison, master of the brig "Belfast."

Detail from a hand-drawn historic map of a waterfront settlement. Streets labeled “Montgomery” and “Sansome” run between outlined building lots, with a shoreline and inlet shaded in blue along the left and bottom edges. A cross marks a “Burial Ground” near the upper right. The words “Old Fort” appear beside a small fortification on the waterfront. A red circle highlights a faint sketched area near the shoreline just west of the fort. Handwritten annotations are scattered across the map, and a ship labeled “Brig Belfast” is moored at a pier extending into the water.

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· May 19

This is an OCR error but I can't stop laughing about it. Tubercular. Tubergular. Tuburglar? Hamburglar?

A headline reads, "S.F. SANATORIUM URGED FOR TUBERGULARS"

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Apr 9

Forever torn between longing for a Victorian convalescence/rest cure, and knowing they were mainly prescribed by male doctors to women diagnosed with "hysteria," a made-up misogynist disease.

A black and white painting of a Victorian woman lying in a bed near an open window.

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Mar 26

When I was learning to talk, I couldn't say "cereal" so apparently I called it "ceres." Or I was just skipping straight to the goddess. Who can say?

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Feb 17

The apps don't think this is a real word.

A screenshot that reads about perimenopause, but the word perimenopause is underlined as if it's a misspelled or non-existent word

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Jan 12

So I was recently looking up info on the indigenous people's name for Islais creek, and it turns out they called it "slay" or "islay," which comes from their word for the holly-leaf cherries that grew along it. This seems to solve the riddle of how to pronounce the name. Is-lay or I-slay.

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Nov 18

Today is the anniversary of the Jonestown massacre in 1978. I recently visited the memorial site in Oakland, where 400 of the victims are buried and all of them are remembered.

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Oct 7

By the mid-19th Century it was illegal to advertise abortion services directly and "astrologer" was one of the code words that abortionists would use. I can't tell if the newspaper knew this (you'd think so). SF, 1871.

Newspaper text reads: "LOST, STRAYED OR STOLEN. — One Simon M. Cohen, an astrologer by occupation. He was arrested with Dr. C. C. O’Donnell and Arabella Knapp for the murder of Eugenie Chauvet, by procuring an abortion. He was subsequently released on $10,000 bail, his bondsmen being A. Rafael, L. Peyser and H. Bockheim. The Grand Jury found a true bill against him, but a bench warrant has been unsuccessful in reaching him. It is stated by some that the astrologer has “gone to the Springs;” others that he seeks the spot “where the woodbine twineth,” there to make lunar observations, and to hold communion with his lucky star. Go hence base maligner: would you insinuate that there “ain’t $10,000 ‘n the case, and that it ain’t cheap at the price that will be realized?”"

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Oct 1

On Wednesdays we wear black.

Theda Bara in a black strapless dress, holding her hair out with her arms.

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Sep 22

You could hardly find a more on-brand October event: Me, Amy Shea and @morbidloren.bsky.social at the SF Columbarium on Oct. 16. Registration link below! www.eventbrite.com/e/a-book-tou...

Promotional flyer for an event titled "A Book Tour of Cemeteries: A Conversation with authors Amy Shea, Loren Rhoads, & Beth Winegarner." The event is scheduled for Thursday, October 16th, 2025, from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM at the SF Columbarium, 1 Loraine Ct, San Francisco, CA 94118.

The flyer features headshots of the three authors and their respective books:

Amy Shea with "Too Poor to Die"

Loren Rhoads with "Still Wish You Were Here"

Beth Winegarner with "San Francisco’s Forgotten Cemeteries"

The description highlights that the authors will discuss cemeteries as spaces that reveal community stories, cultural history, and personal reflections. It emphasizes the themes of death, memory, erasure, and storytelling.

At the bottom, it notes: "Books will be sold by Green Apple Books!"

The background is light blue with dark blue and white text.

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Sep 18

PBR ad, 1910

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Sep 16

Meanwhile

a screenshot that says "Michael's" and "plague doctor" in the search bar.

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Sep 15

Well, I feel much less violated now.

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Sep 9

Ads for abortion doctors in the Oakland Tribune, 1905.

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Sep 8

Update: I finally got through and got my problem solved.

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Sep 8

Worst poem, or PACER hold time? Why not both?

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Sep 6

I came across my .sig file from sometime in 2001, and I'm back to being more like this person than I've been in a long time.

A block of text on a black background with white monospaced font. The top portion includes a quote:

"Replace the rent with the stars above. Replace the need with love. Replace the anger with the tide. Are you on fire from the years? What would you give for your kid fears?" (Indigo Girls)

Below the quote is a dashed and dotted line, followed by a description of content offered:

music reviews + stories + poetry + photography + collage + Watchers
selkies + froud-faeries + esoterica + links = http://echoes.devin.com

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Sep 5

How about a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke? I just finished an essay and used a line from this piece for the title.

The Apple Orchard
Come let us watch the sun go down
and walk in twilight through the orchard's green.
Does it not seem as if we had for long
collected, saved and harbored within us
old memories? To find releases and seek
new hopes, remembering half-forgotten joys,
mingled with darkness coming from within,
as we randomly voice our thoughts aloud
wandering beneath these harvest-laden trees
reminiscent of Durer woodcuts, branches
which, bent under the fully ripened fruit,
wait patiently, trying to outlast, to
serve another season's hundred days of toil,
straining, uncomplaining, by not breaking
but succeeding, even though the burden
should at times seem almost past endurance.
Not to falter! Not to be found wanting!

Thus must it be, when willingly you strive
throughout a long and uncomplaining life,
committed to one goal: to give yourself!
And silently to grow and to bear fruit.

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Aug 26

1894, San Francisco, the rantings of San Francisco City Physician J. W. Keeney:

"A healthy child at birth, a child clean-blooded and properly nurtured, will be an absolute novelty in a few years if things keep going in the direction they have tended these several years past. Their little bodies come into the world charged with gin, opium, tobacco and disease. Just look at the record of mortality among the babies under one year of age."

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Aug 21

I've been researching the town of Bethany (Al-Eizariya) in Palestine, for which I'm named. I looked at Google Street View images of the area between Jerusalem and Al-Eizariya and discovered this large border wall with spray-painted messages on it. Just look at it.

A wall is spray painted with messages that read,
"The dirt whispered I'm coming home"
"child"
"love conquers all"
"prayer for refugees"
"the hands that build can also tear down"

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Aug 21

A humorous tweet overlaid on a photo of a bog landscape. The background shows a wet, grassy, peat-filled marsh with scattered trees in the distance. The tweet, by user @LeahUnknowing, reads:
"me: bog mood
you: do you mean big mood
me, submerging myself in peat: no"

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Aug 13

I can imagine Jesus pinching the bridge of his nose in this part of the story.

11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Aug 9

This poem. poets.org/poem/small-n...

A Small Needful Fact

Is that Eric Garner worked
for some time for the Parks and Rec.
Horticultural Department, which means,
perhaps, that with his very large hands,
perhaps, in all likelihood,
he put gently into the earth
some plants which, most likely,
some of them, in all likelihood,
continue to grow, continue
to do what such plants do, like house
and feed small and necessary creatures,
like being pleasant to touch and smell,
like converting sunlight
into food, like making it easier
for us to breathe.
— Ross Gay

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Aug 9

Is the mom autistic? If not, I don't want to hear her story.

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Jul 18

Seen today at Diamond & Chenery, a melon ready to be salted and eaten. On a city trash bin.

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Jul 16

imagine visiting a quarantine facility for people with smallpox, syphilis and Hansen's disease (leprosy) and one of your chief complaints is that the walls aren't light green.

Text reads, "the pest house is illy arranged in every particular. The walls should have been plastered, not ceiled. Accommodations for a female nurse are totally wanting. The walls are stained mahogany color, whereas, as we believe, they should be of a light green. Ventilation is defective, and the attendants' rooms cheerless."

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Jul 16

same

Text reads, "Mrs. Adele Bentzinger was also committed to the asylum. She imagines she is haunted."

Our Forestville correspondent@bethwinegarner· Jul 10

Just got off a call with these two amazing writers and this event is going to be SO FUN, y'all. Please come. @sezindevikoehler.bsky.social