I realize this story is a few days old, and while I'm not sure I have any particular insight to add to it, I think it's worth showing and discussing, because what the hell is this? As far as I can tell, this is what happened: A couple was slowly driving through San Francisco traffic in their 2017 Toyota Corolla when a yellow tow truck with SPECIALTY TOWING's livery did something unexpected: It apparently attempted to tow the couple's car while they were driving it. That would be, um, that would be hijacking, wouldn't it? Whatever it is, it looks very wrong, and it's very disturbing that it was even attempted.

The couple, who do not want to publicly share their last name, according to ABC 7 Los Angeles, were out running normal errands on April 9. When they stopped at a stoplight, the two drove behind the tow truck from Specialty Towing, which they thought might be in the area to tow a Waymo robotaxi stopped on the side of the road. But the tow truck seemed more interested in human cars, a proclivity known as “The Most Dangerous Game.” The truck extended its low-mounted wheel jacks and backed into the Corolla to grab the car and tow it away. From the news outlet:

“He came from the side. I thought he was turning right. He was backing up and all the lights came on. That's when we thought, 'Hey, something's wrong. His lever came down,'” she said.

A video taken by a witness shows the tow truck making several attempts to attach itself to the 2017 Toyota Corolla.

The driver of the Corolla backed up, but a car behind him blocked his path. As can be seen in the video, the tow truck continued to try to grab the Corolla, and eventually the car behind the Toyota was able to swerve, giving the Corolla enough room to back up and escape.

Luckily, a witness caught the whole thing on video, and it almost feels like a scene from a nature show where you're rooting for the little rodent to escape the big lizard, or something like that:

This is all very concerning because what is the tow truck driver up to here? When you watch the video, it is clear that the tow truck driver is trying to catch the car. Joanne, the woman in the Toyota seen in the video, points out that her car's payments and registration are all up to date, but even if they weren't, to my knowledge there is no law in this country that would make it okay to pick someone up and lock them in their car while their vehicle is being towed.

The truck gives chase after the Corolla speeds away, which makes things even stranger. Why is he so fixated on the car? And what could his plan have been if he had managed to hook it to the trailer hitch? The Corolla is front-wheel drive, so theoretically he could have towed it. Where to? Back to the tow yard? To essentially pay back the car to its owners, who were unwillingly taken away with the car? This all sounds like a crime.

Was this a case of incorrect car identification? I tried reaching Specialty Towing both directly and through their dispatch service and although they did not respond through their direct line, the dispatcher told me they would forward my message to them, but I don't think I'll hold my breath.

It's probably worth noting that the owners of Specialty Towing have been charged with welfare fraud by the San Francisco City Attorney (see the City Attorney's website) and that the company is currently barred from bidding on city contracts.

I know there are many stories about shady towing companies doing pretty lousy and underhanded things, but this is certainly the first time I've heard of a tow truck apparently attempting to steal a runnable car with passengers right off the street.

If you ever find yourself in this situation, I wonder what the best thing to do is. If there is space, reversing is certainly the first, best and most instinctive thing to do, but what if you can't reverse? Can turning the front wheels completely to one side or the other interfere with the connection of those control arms? If your parking brake is on, will the control arms be pulled away? Honestly, I'm not sure, but if this sort of thing keeps happening, maybe we should see an expert and do some testing.

Whatever the case, this is terrible and I think we should all be aware of it.

The “Tow Track” is an intelligent little RC robot that can rescue cars and/or play sneaky pranks

The physics behind the drawbar load and why some trailers get out of control

Woman finds loophole at gas pump and gets 7,400 gallons of gas for free

The post San Francisco Tow Truck Seems To Strive To Snatch A Automotive That Somebody Is Actively Driving, And It is Weird appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

• A plane passenger captured the moment that a plane, just parallel to his was at a standstill in the sky over a bridge in San Francisco
• The video was posted online and attracted commenters to speculate what might have caused it 
• The moment is known to be extremely rare and amazing to witness 

This is the incredible moment a passenger spotted another plane ‘hanging in mid-air’ over San Francisco.

Posted to Reddit, the video attracted many commenters who questioned the reason for the plane being at a standstill.

‘It’s parallax, which is the observed displacement of an object caused by the change of the observer’s point of view. We see it all the time,’ said one commenter. 

A pilot told Daily Mirror the stunt is an optical illusion – that involves two planes landing at the same time and the smaller one moving slower.

A passenger from another plane caught the moment that a separate aircraft was at floating in mid-air near the San Francisco International Airport

‘San Francisco has a procedure when the weather is adequate and both aircraft [sic] can see each other, they can land with less separation laterally than you’d normally need,’ the pilot told the outlet following a similar incident. 

‘The aircraft is much lighter than the one where the passenger is filming, so it will be flying much slower – and there could be a strong headwind which means less movement over the ground too.’

Commenters thought otherwise about why the aircraft was hanging in mid-air. 

‘No no glitch in the Matrix is the more rational explanation,’ a Reddit user commented. 

‘No, I thinks [sic] it’s stopped in time guys, anyone see if it’s still stuck there,’ said another. 

Locals to the area said that they have witnessed this spectacle time and time again. 

‘As someone who lives it this area and drives on that bridge all the time, I’m sure hundreds or thousands of people on it would have stopped and recorded the plane just floating above them in mid air,’ said a commenter. 

‘I live rite [sic] by a airport, they come in all the time going super slow like that. It looks impossible but it’s not,’ said another.  

San Francisco locals commented under the video posted to Reddit of the plane hovering over the bridge and shared how this was a normal occurrence in that area Others commented and insisted that this was a ‘glitch in the Matrix’ or happened due to aliens and different supernatural phenomenon’s In 2013 San Francisco International Airport implemented new arrival procedures called Closely- Spaced Parallel Runways. In order to orchestrate this amazing site an airport must have two parallel runways separated by a small distance

San Francisco International Airport initiated new arrival procedures in the fall of 2013 called Closely- Spaced Parallel Runways.

‘This will allow staggered arrivals on parallel runways during poor weather conditions, further improving on-time performance at SFO. Arriving aircraft are separated by 1.5 nautical miles,’ SFO said on their website. 

Visual flight rules are a set of guidelines that pilots follow in an aircraft, under clear weather conditions.

‘VFR flight is based on the principle of ‘see and avoid.’ The presumption made in establishing the basic VFR weather minimums is that aircraft flying at lower altitudes and/or in airspace with radar approach control and/or an operating control tower will be moving more slowly, or that they will be under positive control,’ said The Federal Aviation Administration.

When this happens, aircrafts do not need as much flight visibility or distance from clouds in order to avoid other air traffic. 

A similar incident occurred in August as a passenger in another plane posted a video to Reddit of a United Airlines aircraft hovering just above land. 

The passenger captioned the video: ‘Landing at SFO. What is happening here?’ They ended the caption with an alien emoji and a question mark.

The wing of the moving plane reveals a plane not too far away, completely still and hovering in the air with its wheels out.

‘UFO at SFO,’ said one commenter. 

‘It’s a glitch in the matrix,’ said another.

Some commenters appeared to know exactly what was happening to the plane and went on to explain it. 

‘It is an optical illusions [sic] caused by a shifting perceptual frame where one plane is moving at a moderate rate of speed, while simultaneously, the other plane is floating perfectly still in one spot in the air,’ said another. 

Another said: ‘Tell me you have never had a duel [sic] landing at SFO before posting it on social media. They are famous for it [un]like any other airport in the country.’

Other US airports that have the appropriate facilities to conduct simultaneous take-offs and landings include Newark Liberty International Airport and Kansas City International Airport. 

At Newark Airport United Airlines maintains their own operational hub to do so.

According to Simple Flying: ‘In fact, 23 different US airports can accommodate three aircraft approaching three runways simultaneously, some of which are rather small.’ 

In a similar incident, a passenger recorded from the inside of his plane window as the wing of the moving plane reveals a plane not too far away, completely still and hovering in the air with its wheels out A similar video posted to Reddit in August also caused a lot of speculation on why exactly the plane was hovering so low and close to land. Some blamed it on aliens and the Matrix, while others said it was a dual landing taking place

Other airports can accommodate more than three aircraft taking off at once, like Denver International Airport and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. 

‘Chicago-O’Hare International Airport (ORD) can even hypothetically permit six aircraft to land simultaneously, which would truly be a sight to behold,’ said Simple Flying. 

Though this moment is rare, it is a beautiful phenomenon to witness from another aircraft. 

It is unclear exactly where the floating plane was coming from or if there were passengers onboard. 

The post Passenger spots aircraft ‘hanging in mid-air’ over San Francisco in weird optical phantasm appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

FILE: Baker Beach with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background in San Francisco. The Republican National Committee released a campaign ad Tuesday saying rising crime rates would force San Francisco to close under a second term for Joe Biden.

Takako Hatayama-Phillips/Getty Images

The Republican National Committee on Tuesday released a campaign ad that used artificial intelligence to generate images of a dystopian future should President Joe Biden be re-elected next year. San Francisco was mentioned in the ad.

The ad begins with a question: “What if the weakest president we’ve ever had was re-elected?” It then launches into a series of images — all generated by AI, an RNC spokesman told Axios — depicting fictional scenarios, each accompanied by a fake newscast. It is claimed that China would invade Taiwan, that financial markets would go into free fall after the closure of 500 regional banks, and that the country’s southern border would be overrun by a mob of “80,000 illegals”.

It also claims officials in San Francisco are “shutting down” the city over “escalating crime and the fentanyl crisis.” The AI ​​imagery shown for this segment includes the Golden Gate Bridge, soldiers lining the city streets, and a man with multiple facial tattoos smoking a cigarette.

NEW: @Axios with a first look at RNC’s video response to Biden

It’s also the committee’s first video to be 100% generated by AI software to create images that look and feel real (in this case, an imaginary dystopian view of Biden’s future wins)… pic.twitter .com/S9qH0MXINc

— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) April 25, 2023

To be honest, the ad is very strange – especially considering its forecast for San Francisco.

Discussions about crime have dominated local politics following the killing of Cash App founder Bob Lee and the bludgeoning of a city fire commissioner earlier this month, but recently released information on both incidents has challenged the initially dominant narrative. Last week, state Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that the California Highway Patrol and California National Guard would be assisting the San Francisco Police Department in fighting the city’s fentanyl crisis. But the notion that officials would actually “shut down” the city — it’s unclear what that really means — would be hard to imagine even in the worst of circumstances, especially considering cities in GOP-controlled states tend to have higher rates of violent crime .

The use of AI imagery in the ad says at least something about what political struggles might look like in the years to come. It’s the first of likely many political ads to be created using new technologies like AI image generators and voice bots.

The ad was released in response to this week’s announcement that Biden would be seeking a second term, a move that has been anticipated for months after Democrats made historic gains in last year’s midterm elections.

Alec Regimbal is a political reporter at SFGATE. He graduated from Western Washington University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. A Washington state native, Alec previously wrote for the Yakima Herald-Republic and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He also spent two years as a political adviser in the Washington State Legislature.

The post Republicans launch weird AI-driven advert that includes San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Being a mom is a tough job, in large part because you just can’t reason with small children. What you can do, however, is lie to them. In honor of Mother’s Day, we asked Atlas Obscura readers to send us the most outlandish white lies their mothers ever told them. As it turns out, moms all over the world are telling some wonderfully inventive lies.

We received over 500 responses, and as uniquely crazy as many of them were, there was also plenty of common ground. Many mothers still tell variations on the classics: If you make a funny face, it will stay that way; if you eat before you swim, you’ll get cramps (or die); moms have eyes in the backs of their heads, and so on.

But then there were the more esoteric fibs, such as the dangers of dragonflies sewing your lips together, that playing in puddles will give you polio, or that a little man lives in your eyes and signals your mom when you aren’t telling the truth.

We couldn’t include all of the fantastic entries we received, but we’ve collected over 100 of our favorites below. Check and see how many of your own mom’s fantastic tales you recognize. Oh, and watch out for the “Lie Man” …

Lies and Cheats

“If you lie to me, I will know because when I ask you to look into a bowl of water, I will be able to see your reflection.” —Patricia Petersen, Vancouver, British Columbia

“In order to keep us kids from stealing pennies from water fountains, my mother told us the water was electrified and we would die.” —G. Johnson, Georgia

“That a little birdie followed me around and flew back and told my mother when I was doing something that wasn’t allowed, like cycling down 11th Avenue, or stealing more than my share of cookies.” —Sherrie, Fredericton, Canada

“Mom always knew when I was fibbing. She said she could tell because I had a black mark on my forehead. My grandma used to say the same thing. I would run to the mirror to see it, but it was never there. They said I couldn’t see it because fibbers eventually go blind! I was scared to death.” —Batzion, Chicago, Illinois

“That she could tell I was lying by looking at my tongue. I lived in fear of her telling me to stick out my tongue.” —Ann Chafin, Oak Hill, West Virginia

“That my eyes would turn yellow if I lied.” —Terry Burd, San Juan Capistrano, California

“I asked my mom about little bumps I would get on my tongue. She told me they were liars bumps.” —Donna, Cheyenne, Wyoming

“That if I ate bread-crusts my hair would get curly.” —Ysabet, Tucson, Arizona Photo Illustration: Aïda Amer; Bread: dmjarvey on VisualHunt.com / CC BY 2.0

Bread (Hair-Related)

“That eating bread crusts would make my hair curly. It never worked on me, because I didn’t want curly hair!” —Emma, Oxford, United Kingdom

“If I ate the crusts of my bread, my hair would get curly (I wanted curly hair)!” —Kate, Des Moines, Iowa

“You won’t have curly hair if you don’t eat your crusts. I’m not sure I wanted curly hair but I must have eaten a lot of crusts.” —Martin, Stourbridge, United Kingdom

“Eating burnt toast at breakfast would take the curls (very unmanly) out of my hair.” —Brent Parks, Radford, Virginia

“When I was very tiny, my mother always told me my pin-straight hair would grow in curly if I ate my all bread crusts.” —Emily, Iowa

“My mother told me that if I ate my sandwich crusts all the time, my hair would curl. I had very straight long black hair as a youth.” —Margie, Oregon

“Eating the crusts of your bread will give you curly hair.” —Rosie, Farnham, United Kingdom

“As a little boy, my husband hated his white blond hair, and although he also didn’t like bread crust, his mother said if he ate it he would get the brown hair he so wanted.” —Jeannie Havnen, Clive, Iowa

“The claim was that my very straight hair would become lovely and curly if l ate all the crusts on bread, instead of just the soft middles. I ate mountains of crusty bread, and my hair is still as straight as a yard of pump water!” —Pam Rankin, Boise, Idaho

“She told me I would get curly hair if I ate the burnt toast. I don’t think I ever really believed her. I’m 81 years old now.” —Patricia King, Ocala, Florida

Bread (Other)

“You had to eat your bread crusts if you wanted to learn how to whistle.” —Rose Bork, Appleton, Wisconsin

“Mom convinced me to eat the crusts of bread by telling me that ‘that’s where all the vitamins are,’ as though vitamins could somehow migrate outward during the baking process. I’m not entirely sure why she imagined that, at age 5 or 6, I’d even care about consuming vitamin-rich foods, but it worked.” —Nicole, Rochester, New York

“Eating end of a bread loaf will help to grow breasts.” —Elina, Latvia

“We were told as children that eating the crust on bread makes your teeth whiter.” —Scott Cooper, North Tazewell, Virginia

“So she wouldn’t have to cut the edges off of my sandwiches, when I was 8, my mom told me eating the bread crusts would make my boobs grow big.” —Sakana, Santa Fe, New Mexico

“Mom told me that if I didn’t eat the crust on the Wonder Bread, it would chase me at night when I was sleeping!” —Sno, Buffalo, New York

“Growing up we always had a toaster that made the bread a little ‘toastier’ than would be desired. Mom told her three daughters that if we all ate burnt toast, we would become opera singers. As you would guess, none of us went into show business.” —Del, South Carolina

“White bread is only for white people. We buy wheat bread, because we’re brown.” —Isa Flores, Austin, Texas

Catching Birds

“If you sprinkle salt on a bird’s tail, it will sit still and you can catch it.” —Frank Hartigan, Springfield, Oregon

“I wanted a pet very badly and my mother told me that if I could put salt on the tail of a bird, I’d be able to catch it. Hours were spent outside with the salt shaker and various homemade traps.” —Anne Falbowski, Colchester, Connecticut

“To catch a bird, sprinkle salt on its tail, and it can’t fly away.” —Pat Benard, Spruce Pine, North Carolina

“She would bring salt shakers to the beach and told us if we were able to get salt on a seagull’s tail feathers it would become our pet. Her way of keeping four kids occupied.” —Charlie, Florida

“If you put salt on a bird’s tail, it will freeze and you can catch it. She would send me out to the backyard with a salt shaker. I would spend hours ‘catching birds.’” —Sharon Arthur, New York City, New York

Body Horror

“My mother and my friend’s mother told us that the the inside of our ears would turn black if we were naughty.” —Úlfhildur, Iceland

“If I didn’t stop crying my head would fall off and laugh at me.” —Amy Garnet, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

“You would get spots like a rotting banana if you didn’t go outside.” —Jay, Newfoundland

“My intestines would rupture if I continued to use my belly as a bongo drum.” —Jen, Colorado

“If you play with fire, you will pee in the bed.” —Sara Klinglesmith, Louisville, Kentucky

“That if you play with fire, you will pee the bed. She also said that if you get a stye in your eye, you had taken a pee along the road. Obviously a urine-centric theme.” —Thomas Lhamon, Traverse City, Michigan

“That when you drive by a field and smell the fertilizer/manure, you should breathe in deeply, that it is good for your lungs.” —Katerina, Czech Republic

“She vehemently denies it now, but I distinctly remember my mom telling me that babies come out of your armpits.” —Nina, New York City

“Not to play in rain puddles. Will get polio.” —Maryann Kelly, Boston, Massachusetts

“My mom told my sister this, but she said that if you keep scratching your booboos and drink water that all the water would start pouring out of your cuts and scrapes.” —Carrie Engerrand, Texas

“She told me that my head would turn around if I would leave the house with my hair wet.” —Luka Bak, Croatia

“Potty training: Mom always reminded my sister and I that if we didn’t wipe front to back we wouldn’t have friends.” —Christy, Georgia

“My mother used to convince me that I was tired by telling me that I had ‘twirlies’ in my eyes that she could see. The more twirlies you had, the sleepier you were. Always sent me running straight to bed.” —Sarah Khalil, Beirut, Lebanon

“Freckles are erased by rubbing cucumbers on them.” —Caitrin McCormick, Minnesota

“My mom told me that if I didn’t wear socks with my tennis shoes, my toes would rot off.” —Taryn Sparacio, Bellevue, Washington

“If you water houseplants while you are menstruating the plants will die.” —Susan, Mesa, Arizona

“I’m gonna unscrew your belly button and your legs will fall off!” —Deborah Riehl, North Creek, Washington

“When you lose a baby tooth, if you don’t put your tongue in the hole where the tooth was, you’ll grow a new gold tooth in that spot. Our mom HAD a gold crown on a molar, so we really believed that we, too, could grow a gold tooth.” —Tracy Monroe, Indiana

“You get canker sores if you pee off a bridge.” —Stacey Henrikson, Rochester Hills, Michigan

“Never cover your belly button when pregnant or your baby can’t breath.” —Linda Lightner, Indiana

“My mother told me if I bit my nails, a hand would grow in my stomach.” —Mary Pagone, Los Angeles, California

“Whenever I was scared to go to sleep in my room as a little kid, she would give me a spray bottle of ‘Monster-be-gone’ and spray it upstairs. It worked pretty well.” —Star, Texas Photo Illustration: Aïda Amer; Spray Bottle: Public Domain

Technology

“If you looked at the microwave while it was in use, you’d go blind.” —Sean, Memphis, Tennessee

“Don’t let your umbrella open inside the house or your mommy is going to die.” —Norton McColl, Sao Paulo, Brazil

“If I touched the basement freezer, I would be sucked inside and no one would be able to hear me scream.” —Niki Cotton, Virginia

“My mom told me that jet streams coming from airplanes were actually toilet paper and that if I fell into the airplane toilet I could get sucked out along with it.” —Keilah Keiser, San Diego, California

“That if I sat too close to the TV my eyes would become square.” —Hayley, California

“She said that if I wore my watch to bed, lint would jam up the gears and break it.” —Molly Pohlig, Brooklyn, New York

Sewing

“She said I should never sew on Sunday, because the Devil would make me rip it out with my nose. I was never a seamstress of any kind, but saw no reason to tempt fate, even when I took up embroidery.” —Kathleen, Indianapolis, Indiana

“If you have your clothes sewn while wearing them, to suck on a piece of thread to avoid losing your mind.” —Eny Steinberg, Mexico City, Mexico

“If you sew on a Sunday, you’ll spend eternity in hell picking out the stitches with your nose.” —Cara, Washington D.C.

Cold Concrete

“If you sat on the cement, you would catch a cold.” —Maria Martinez, Napa, California

“Going out with wet hair, wearing fashionable cropped clothing that didn’t come right down to your bum and sitting down on cold concrete all cause a mysterious illness known as ‘a chill on your kidneys.’ When questioned on the symptoms when I was an adult, mum still said ‘well you’ll know all about it when you catch one.’ It seems to also be caused by inadequate vegetable consumption and staying out late without your good coat.” —Sarah, Manchester, United Kingdom

“If you sit on a cold, concrete wall you’ll get a urinary tract infection.” —Anne, Maryland

Strange Men

“That there was a man that traveled around town and he would chop off your middle finger if you used it to make crude hand gestures.” —G. Johnson, Georgia

“If I don’t behave the chimney sweep will come and take me away.” —Bernie Harshman, Arizona

“It is something that I used to tell my boys when they were little: I used to tell them that there was a tiny Lie Man that lived in their eyes, and if they ever told a lie, that little man would show up in their eyes, and I would see him. From that time on, if they ever tried to tell a lie, they would close their eyes, so I couldn’t see ‘The Lie Man.’” —Heidi Harrison, Beacon, New York

“That a mean old man put gumball machines in stores to make little kids cry when their parents denied them the candy.” —Dana Parsons, Scottsdale, Arizona

“In the pre-internet era, she told me that the mailman could read everything I mailed, and that I should never write anything that I wouldn’t want him to read.” —CLK, Vero Beach, Florida

“If my brother and I didn’t behave, she was going to call Joe Schmoe, the baby cop, who would take us to baby jail.” —Bruce S. Bevitz, Orlando, Florida

“She said that the dust under my bed (if not kept clean) would turn into a man. And I thought about that every night before turning off the light.” —Betty Skalski, Winnetka, Illinois

Fairies, Etc.

“House elves exist and that if I follow them to the fairy ring in the yard then I have to stay with them forever.” —Alexandra Green, Ashland City, Tennessee

“This story isn’t about my mother but rather my grandmother who used to watch my sister and I during the summer time when my parents had to work. She had a pocket door off of her kitchen, and for some reason, I was always playing with the brass latch, probably because of the sound it made. That used to annoy her, so she used to tell me that an evil fairy lived within the latch and if I kept playing with her home, she’d come take me in my sleep.” —Owen McCafferty, Cleveland, Ohio

“If I wore my clothes backwards, the fairies would take me away.” —Beth, Ottawa, Canada

“She told me that my freckles were ‘fairy kisses’ from fairies kissing me while I was asleep. Fortunately, I didn’t think it was a scary thing to have happen.” —Kathryn Adams, Toronto, Canada

“My mom would always tell me that under the little silver drain covers in bathrooms, lived a small city of tiny people. She would mention how they survived by drinking the drain water, and would wait for humans who knew to feed them. I would often feed them my leftover bread, tear my food into small pieces to give to them, and put pennies or dimes down the drains where they would fit.” —Elise B., Pico Rivera, California

“She told me that the sudden appearance of dandelions in the yard was because when a leprechaun drops gold coins they turn into flowers in the sunlight.” —James Mitcham, Baltimore, Maryland

Holidays

“Every Easter my mom would take me to a quiet room away from the kitchen. She would sit me down on a comfortable cushion and very seriously tell me that if I sat quietly and concentrated very hard that I could lay an egg. I would sit there, checking behind me occasionally. Sure enough, after close to an hour, an egg would magically appear. Elated, I would run to my mom and triumphantly hand her my magic egg!” —S.Lan123, California

“The brand names on Christmas toys were the names of the elf who made it.” —Thipu, New York

“To deter my brother and I from eating my mom’s delicious homemade chocolate chip cookies she told us the extra crunch to them were frog legs. Really they were walnuts.” —Jen, California Photo Illustration: Aïda Amer; Cookie: Public Domain

Eating

“If I swallowed orange seeds, trees would grow out of my ears.” —Sharon O’Connor, Texas

“To deter my brother and me from eating my mom’s delicious homemade chocolate chip cookies she told us the extra crunch to them were frog legs. Really they were walnuts.” —Jen, California

“If you don’t eat your green vegetables, you will get yellow jaundice.” —Joel H., New York City, New York

“My eyes would turn blue if I ate lots of carrots!” —Dominique, Mexico City

“If you don’t eat beans you will suffer from something she called, ‘Lack-a-Beany.’” —Joyce Ford, Seattle, Washington

“Never go swimming in the pool/ocean after eating watermelon (common parental lie in Israel).” —Sharon, Israel

“You will grow horns when you have a snack while lying in bed. I was quite intrigued as to where the horns will grow and what they will look like (like a cow or like a reindeer or like a wild buck) so I kept on asking irritating questions, until mom gave up and tried to explain the crumbs will change into rocks, which led to more questions…” —Tessa De Villiers, South Africa

“That the peach pits I found outside were ‘hoppy toad’ eggs.” —Kristine, California

“My mom told me that sugary foods had little bugs on them, and the bugs liked to eat teeth, but if I brushed, then it would take them off.” —Adam Drew, Calgary, Canada

“Everything on the ice cream truck is poison.” —Jon Thierry, Dearborn, Michigan

“Rich people eat shrimp for breakfast.” —Teresa, Chicago, Illinois

“Eating any seeds (watermelon and apple) would cause that fruit to grow in my belly.” —Andrea, Massachusetts

“That if I stretch my arms above my head when I’m eating, the food goes to a ‘donkey stomach’ instead of my own.” —Pia, Houston, Texas

“If you leave your glass of orange juice sitting out too long, all of the vitamins will evaporate from it.” —Mark Schaeffer, Oakland, California

Coffee

“Coffee turns your knees black.” —Ryan Maloney, San Diego, California

“Drinking coffee will make hair grow on your toes.” —Lesley, North Carolina

“As a small child I always wanted to drink coffee like the adults. In order to deter this urge, mother told me that if I drank coffee I would break out in freckles the color of coffee. Not wanting freckles of any kind, I believed her, neglecting to question why none of the adults in the family that drank coffee had freckles!” —Debbie Bruce King, Franklin, Tennessee

“That if I drank coffee I would grow hair on my chest!” —Terra Salazar, California

“My hair would turn red if I would drink coffee (hers was red).” —Suzanne, Netherlands

Dead Pets

“For our first pet, my mom agreed to let my brother and I get a parakeet. Though I have no recollection of it, we picked out a green-and-yellow one. The next morning, my mom found the bird lying dead on the bottom of the cage, so she brought it back to the store to get another one. But there were no more green-and-yellow birds left—only blue ones. My mom begrudgingly exchanged our now-deceased choice for a light blue bird, and when she got home, she told her three- and five-year-olds that the parakeet had simply taken a bath. We must have accepted it right away, because I can’t ever remember a time when our parakeet was yellow and green.” —Madeline Bilis, Boston, Massachusetts

“I was a pre-schooler when my pet turtle died. Mom had been sick and the turtle was neglected. When mom was better, she told me the turtle was hibernating. I was unaware she replaced the turtle, but one day she had me come to see how my turtle had resumed an active life. She told me the truth when I was an adult in my 40s. Not only had the turtle been replaced once, but many times.” —Janet, Ontario, Canada

“When I was three years old I was told the family dog, Inky, died because he fell in the soap bubbles.” —Joe Milici, Mount Joy, Pennsylvania

“My pet chickens and rabbits had gone ‘to the farm’ when in fact my former farmer Dad had turned them into dinner.” — Pat, Arlington Heights, Illinois

Kissing Elbows

“She told us that if you kissed your elbow you would turn into a boy.” —Tara Bryan, Flatrock, Newfoundland

“Because of something my younger sister got to do that I was not allowed to do I told my mother I wanted to be a girl. So she told me if I could kiss the tip of my elbow I would turn into a girl.” —Mark Moore, Knoxville, Tennessee

“If you kiss your elbow, you’ll turn into a princess.” —Peggy Sanchez, St. Paul, Minnesota

“That if I could put my elbow in my ear, I would turn into a boy. I thought that changing sexes could be a super power disguise, so I spent hours trying.” —Jill, Seattle, Washington

“I hated fish so my mom told me tuna wasn’t fish, it was ‘the chicken of the sea.’ I actually believed that for a while!” —Estelle, Québec Photo Illustration: Aïda Amer; Fish and Chicken: Public Domain

Animals

“If a snapping turtle bit you, it would not let loose until it heard thunder.” —J. Bonamour, Louisiana

“For as long as I can remember when we would drive to Rhode Island, she would tell me that the forest rangers used giraffes to prune the trees. I would always be looking in just the wrong direction and miss seeing one as we went by.” —Edward P. Steele, Connecticut

“If you continue to stare into a mirror, a monkey will pop out.” —Joan Henehan, Los Angeles, California

“If you whistle at night, snakes will hear it and come into your bed.” —Vito Delsante, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

“My mother told me the winter sand barrels at the sides of steep parts of mountain highways were for the convenience of traveling cats. I was mad and sad for the cats.” —Thomas Tigaboj, Denver, Colorado

Dragonflies

“I was told that dragonflies will sew your eyelids shut if you were not careful.” — Joe Becker, San Francisco, California

“Playing with my belly button would make my butt fall off. And dragonflies (called darning needles then) would sew the lips together of children who misbehaved.” — Michael Hewins, Washington D.C.

“Dragonflies would sew my mouth shut.” —Meredith Roy, New Jersey

“My mother used to tell us not to eat paper, crayons, or glue, because if we did, it would give us worms, and then worms would grow in our bellies.” —Amanda, Oregon Photo Illustraion: Aïda Amer; Glue: Apfenn1/CC BY-SA 4.0, Worm (all): Brian Gratwicke/Katja Schulz/CC BY 2.0

Worms

“Eating chocolate chip cookie dough would give you worms.” —John, Assonet, Massachusetts

“The bubbles in the icicles hanging from the roof were worm eggs.” —Pete Haerden, Carver, Minnesota

“My mother used to tell us not to eat paper, crayons, or glue, because if we did, it would give us worms, and then worms would grow in our bellies. That was enough to deter me from ever eating any of that stuff.” —Amanda Stanley, Oregon

“If you eat raw cookie dough you’ll get worms.” —Gwen Demombynes, Seattle, Washington

What Happened to the Other Kids

“Sometimes when our house settled it would make little creaking noises that seemed to come from under our home, only accessible by a hatch into the crawl space. When my brother and I asked her what was making the noises under the house she told us that’s where our misbehaving siblings lived and if we didn’t behave that’s where he and I would end up.” — Jen, California

“There was a gravel factory near the town where we lived and my mother told us it was ‘Kids Jail’ and that if we were naughty we would have to go there and bust rocks all day and only eat bread and water. Every time we drove past that place my sisters and I would be absolutely silent in the car so she wouldn’t have a reason to drop us off at the kids jail.” —Whittney Bishop, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

“She told me that the grease spots in the street in front of our house were stains that were left from children being hit by cars who had ventured out into the street.” —Jerrilee, Poseyville, Indiana

“My mom told me that the gum spots on the sidewalk were actually blood from the kids who didn’t look before crossing the road.” —Ava Moody, Fort Worth, Texas

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The post The Final Information to Weird Lies Your Mother Informed You appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Mark Twain didn’t really complain about the San Francisco weather (the person who coined, “The coldest winter I’ve ever had was a summer in San Francisco” never claimed the quote), but he did further dispute with the city.

“An old house broke from its berths last night and drifted down Sutter Street towards Montgomery,” the famous humorist wrote in the Daily Morning Call in 1886, above that office, and she finally stopped in the middle of the thoroughfare and stares dejectedly in Towards Montgomery Street, as if she wanted to go down there, but really didn’t feel up to the exertion. “

Aside from Twain’s wonderful personification of a sad, lost house in the middle of San Francisco, the scene he depicts of a house gliding through the city streets may seem like a bizarre spectacle – but it used to be a common sight.

This photo, recently shared on the excellent History of San Francisco Instagram, made me wonder a lot.

How do these poor horses move a villa?

Why move a house at all and not build a new one?

Seriously, are these horses okay?

Many of the answers can be found in Diane C. Donovan’s fascinating book “San Francisco Relocated”.

It turns out the photo was taken in Pacific Heights in 1908. The house with the overhanging windows on the far left still stands today, although it is painted white, at 2402 Steiner across from Alta Plaza Park.

While we don’t know where that particular traveling home ended up, Donovan reveals in her book that mansion relocation is a little-known part of San Francisco’s history. Due to the constant reworking of sidewalks, streets, and grid lines through the young city – and the fact that San Francisco’s redwood houses were relatively light as opposed to brick houses on the east coast – huge structures were often seen on the streets.

So much so that they became a public nuisance not just for Mark Twain.

“The business of buying these ancient clams, moving them … and selling them for long loans has become a regular business,” wrote the Alta California in 1868, “followed by a number of people making profit for themselves themselves, but have loss to the general public. “

The activity wasn’t much fun for the horses either. However, the method they used to move the huge houses was pretty clever and went something like this:

The house would be jacked up and placed on greased beams. As the house moved forward, the workers picked up the boards and ties that had been left behind and rebuilt the track in front of the house. A winch or drum was placed in the middle of the road and connected to a huge cross member on the structure with a pulley. The two horses circled the drum, unwound the roll, and slowly dragged the house down the street.

The method is pretty clear in this photo of a New York state house that moved in 1893:

Moving in, New York State, 1893.

Archive / Unknown

Even when gas powered trucks were available, horses were still used because they could step in circles over the large cables, which at the time would bring a truck to a standstill.

Moving homes and even churches and schools was a big industry in San Francisco for a short time. The 1900 edition of the city’s business directory lists no fewer than 19 companies offering their services to relocate your home.

Herbert L. Hatch’s early attempt at viral marketing on a postcard titled “Moving Day in San Francisco” shows a cable car passing under a huge house on Washington Street. (The building on the right is now Danielle Steel’s Spreckles Mansion.)

“Moving Day in San Francisco”, c. 1900.

Archive unknown

One of the most extraordinary examples of frivolous buildings in San Francisco, as if they were monopoly hotels, came in 1913.

The Newton J. Tharp Commercial School was completed in 1910, but just three years later all 9,000 tons were lifted and 1,485 feet moved to make way for the new Civic Center. The school was moved from Van Ness to 170 Fell Street, where it still stands today.

The move was captured in this wonderful (filled with typos) postcard entitled “Biggest Moving Job Ever”.

“Biggest moving job ever.” The Newton J. Tharp Commercial School was relocated to San Francisco in 1913.

Archive / Unknown

As the city’s infrastructure established itself and building materials became cheaper, traffic, phone lines, and other services ended the era of building moving in San Francisco.

Some historic buildings in the Bay Area are occasionally relocated today, such as the historic Lathrop House in Redwood City, which moved to its third address, 701 Hamilton St., in 2019 to make way for an office building.

This structure was moved at speeds of 1 to 2 meters per hour, with a large crew of engineers, seismic fitters, industrial hydraulic rollers – and without horses.

Here are some great time-lapse footage from this step:

More San Francisco history

The post San Francisco’s weird historical past of (actually) shifting homes appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.