The question, as presented in a Reddit Ask Me Anything forum, seemed simple. Innocuous, even. Actor Nicolas Cage was answering questions from Reddit users during a press junket for The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Along with the typical movie and acting queries came this nonsequitur: “What’s your favorite pasta shape?”

“I once went to an Italian restaurant in San Francisco about 25 years ago with Charlie Sheen because they had square tube pasta and he was very interested in trying square tube pasta and we did and we loved it so much we went back the next day to try it again,” Cage replied.

For media covering the AMA, Cage’s answer was just a kooky one-off. But for the food-obsessed and San Francisco locals, the answer set off a fun, low-stakes round of internet sleuthing. It presented a two-part mystery: What pasta shape is a “square tube”? And what San Francisco restaurant serves, or served, a dish the actors loved so much they ate it twice in two days?

If you’re looking for the tl;dr, here it is:

the pasta Paccheri.

the place Cafe Tiramisu on Belden Place, circa 1997-ish.

If you’re interested in the long version, however, it’s a fun one. Attempting to figure out the restaurant became a trip back in time for San Francisco locals, who tried to recall restaurants from that era. It also posed a pre-internet mystery, something not easily solved by a quick Google search. Marcia Gagliardi, the food columnist known as Tablehopper, has been covering the local food scene for 16 years. But when presented with the quote, she was at a loss. “It’s absolutely bizarre!” she wrote. “How funny and weird. Nothing is ringing a bell…I’m wondering if they were calamarata?”

The next option was to take the question to Twitter. The guesses came pouring in fast, a who’s-who of late ’90s restaurants: Rose Pistola, Tosca, Rubicon, Aqua, Original Joe’s, Scala’s, Mona Lisa, Buca Giovanni, Tommaso’s, Caffè Macaroni. Former Eater SF and San Francisco Chronicle editor Paolo Lucchesi solicited answers from friends and local chefs on Instagram. Along with the above restaurants, more theories were floated, in a virtual trip down memory lane: Ciao, Globe, Prego, Blue Fox, and Postrio were named. An internet sleuth shared an interview article, which detailed a flight Cage and Sheen took together to San Francisco, to further seal the likelihood of the story. As for pasta shapes, those guesses came in abundance, too: chitarra, mezze maniche, tonnarelli, paccheri, garganelli, and, yep, ravioli.

San Francisco, I need your help. In a recent AMA, Nicolas Cage was asked what his favorite pasta shape is, and not only is his favorite a square tube pasta, but it is something he was served in a local restaurant c. 1997: pic.twitter.com/cE2PiZ07La

— Dianne de Guzman (@diannedeguzman) April 18, 2022

Rose Pistola was a top guess, seeing as how it was a modern, buzzy Italian restaurant at the time, but owner Laurie Thomas, reached via email, didn’t have any answers either. Thomas didn’t have all of the restaurant menus to search through, she told Eater SF, and a look through the Rose Pistola cookbook for a garganelli dish (her guess on the pasta) turned up nothing. Another dead end.

Rubicon was another restaurant name mentioned, but this time with a Cage connection: Francis Ford Coppola, famously known for directing The Godfather among a legion of other movies, is also Cage’s uncle and an investor in the now-shuttered, but well-remembered, restaurant. Stuart Brioza, who now runs State Bird Provisions, once worked at Rubicon but picked up the chef helm around 2004. He did confirm he was never handed down any square tube pasta dish from chefs before him. Still, he was game to throw out some potential restaurant names. “The question is, is this a classic dish? Or is this kind of an interpreted [dish and] somebody came up with some phenomenal find,” Brioza mused. “And if that’s the case, I mean, you have restaurants like Cypress Club at the time. I’m trying to think of the more modern California cooking that was happening.”

Looking for an injection of more restaurants to contact, I reached out to the prolific Facebook group, San Francisco Remembered. Within a few minutes, group member Mark Kohtz confidently replied: “Cafe Tiramisu. You’re welcome. I actually saw him there twice.” Intrigued by the confidence, a quick search revealed that to this day the restaurant serves a “square spaghetti carbonara” and opened in 1992.

Co-owners Pino Spinoso and Giuseppe Scoppetto were both present and eager to take a call Tuesday afternoon. When asked if Nicolas Cage ever visited Cafe Tiramisu, Spinoso said yes, and mentioned Cage also visited his other restaurant, Little City, then stopped — “He’s the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola, right?” Indeed. “I’m from the same town of his uncle’s, you know, Francis’s parents in Basilicata [Italy],” Pino shared. “When Francis used to come to one of my restaurants before, he used to take Nicolas when he was young and Francis came to this restaurant a couple of times.”

When asked what the “square tube pasta” dish could have been, Spinoso began describing a ravioli dish—then presented a different answer. “The other one was called paccheri,” Spinoso said. “It was pasta [dish] with an oxtail ragu. They are the size of a half candle, and then when you cook it, they get flat a little bit. Almost like a rigatoni, but wider, larger.”

Last, but not least, did Francis’s nephew ever show up with Charlie Sheen? Yes, confirmed both Spinoso and Scopetto. “It was when Sharon Stone used to live right across the street from Tiramisu,” Spinoso said, naming the building. “Sharon was a good customer of Cafe Tiramisu, at the time she was married to Phil Bronstein.”

The checkable parts of Spinosa and Scopetto’s story do fit the timeline: Spinosa mentioned Basilicata, and Coppola’s grandparents (not parents) are noted as being from that region. Stone was married to Bronstein from 1998 to 2004. That was enough for me, case solved. But hey, Nicolas, if this story ever reaches you and you want to confirm or deny, reach out. I’d love to chat.

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The post We Solved the Thriller of The place Nicolas Cage and Charlie Sheen Ate ‘Sq. Tube Pasta’ in San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

In the Oakland Hills, not far from Skyline Boulevard, stands an unmarked stone pyramid looking over San Francisco. It’s just up the hill from a small, battered white cabin. Nearby, a stone funeral pyre collects eucalyptus leaves by a bench with one of the best views in the Bay Area. These obscurities were all built by one eccentric man over a century ago — a poet, adventurer, scoundrel and celebrity of his time who went by the name of Joaquin Miller.

Cincinnatus Heine Miller was born in either 1837 or 1841. Miller’s exact birth date, birth place and even birth name are unclear, largely due to Miller being a very unreliable narrator to his own story. Miller gave at least three different birth dates to reporters over the years, to which the Oakland Tribune wrote, “Just why he did this no-one ever knew. He loved controversy.” As for his birthplace, Miller once said he was born somewhere in Indiana, “in a covered wagon, pointing west.”

Joaquin Miller.

Wikimedia Commons

Before he built his strange empire in Oakland, Miller lived an extraordinary life with far too many bizarre adventures for this story. But in summary: As a child Miller moved to Oregon and then made his way to California during the Gold Rush. There, he was involved in numerous battles with Native Americans. After getting struck in the cheek with an arrow in a conflict, Miller claims he sided with the Native Americans and was run out of town. It’s written that after battle Miller did indeed live alongside the Wintu tribe in Northern California, and even fathered a daughter, Cali-Shasta, also known as Lily of the Shasta, with a Native woman. In 1859, Miller was arrested and jailed for stealing a horse in Shasta County, where he claims he was broken out of jail by his bride.

In Idaho in the 1860s, Miller was elected as a judge in Grant County. In Alaska he lost two toes to frostbite. In New York he married a third wife. Between working as cook, a judge, a newspaper editor, Pony Express rider and poet, Miller also found the time to join mercenary William Walker on his invasion of Nicaragua, where Miller’s friend somehow became dictator.

Joaquin Miller Park, Oakland, California.

Andrew Chamings

In San Francisco, Miller befriended California’s first poet laureate Ina Coolbrith, who soon became his mentor. It was Coolbrith who convinced Miller to change his name, suggesting that “Joaquin” sounded far more literary and romantic than “Cincinnatus.”

Miller’s flamboyant poetry was universally rejected by publishers in San Francisco, so the adventurer moved to London to try his luck. It was there, in 1871, he penned his most lasting work, “Songs of the Sierras.”

And I have said, and I say it ever
As the years go on and the world goes over
‘Twere better to be content and clever
In the tending of cattle and the tossing of clover.

The 220-page book of poetry honoring the American West and its distant mysteries was an immediate hit in London literary circles. Almost overnight Miller was anointed as the great interpreter of the new world. The poet attended dinner parties with Lord Tennyson and was celebrated is a brilliant, if eccentric, bard and frontiersman from across the pond. He was given the nickname “Poet of the Sierras.”

Joaquin Millier with daughter Juanita at “The Hights,” Oakland, California.

Archival / Unknown

Despite his newfound fame, back in America Miller’s work continued to be derided for being histrionic. As the San Francisco Chronicle wrote in a profile on Miller in 1871, “Californians incline towards prose and solid facts, instead of poetry and fleeting fancies.” The paper did celebrate the Miller’s singularity, though, writing, “Joaquin Miller was riding his bare-backed steed with imaginary stirrups, up and down the Sierras and bathing his elastic imagination in the rays of the setting sun.”

Gold Rush poet Bret Harte, who received countless unsolicited manuscripts from Miller, wrote that the ambitious poet’s verse exhibited “a certain theatrical tendency and feverish exultation, which would be better kept under restraint.”

Miller’s writing was so bombastic that most of his diaries and memoirs are considered untrustworthy, making his life story confusing and, in places almost mythical, as he likely intended. What we do know is that after all of the above wanderings, wars and wives, in 1886 Miller settled on the lush 70 acres of land at the foot of the Oakland Hills he probably deliberately missed “The Hights.”

Joaquin Miller Park, Oakland, California.

Andrew Chamings

Miller wanted to create a true bohemian retreat there. He built his wooden home, that still stands today, as a tiny artist’s salon. He named it “The Abbey,” but if you take a walk around the structure today you’ll seen it’s little more than a tiny, albeit charming, Victorian cottage.

As described in a 1953 biography of Miller, the aptly named “Splendid Poseur,” the building consisted of “a single small room with a porch … visitors often said that the room looked like an unfinished museum.” On the walls of the main room hung artifacts of Miller’s adventures, including bear claws, Mexican saddles, sheep horns and “weapons of all sort.”

“Wherever there was a vacant spot, Joaquin had tacked up photographs of actresses and of himself, magazine and newspaper clippings concerning himself,” biographer MM Marberry wrote.

Inside that shrine to adventure and ego, some of the best-known artists of the time visited. Mark Twain, Gertrude Stein, John Muir, Walt Whitman and Jack London are all said to have spent time in “The Hights” with Miller.

In the hills above the property, Miller planted cypress, pine, olive and eucalyptus trees. (Alongside Miller’s trees, one redwood on the property, off a trail, is reportedly the largest redwood in the East Bay, though the exact location of this “sentinel” tree isn’t shared by the parks department.)

Miller lived in Oakland with his ailing mother and daughter, Juanita, who would play the lyre, turning her father’s verse into song. He spent his days watching over San Francisco, drinking whiskey, building strange monuments and writing. He loved the land so much he decided it would be where he would finally end his travels and see out the rest of his days.

To cement this dream he built a pyre atop the hill, on which he asked friends to burn his body when the time came.

Joaquin Miller Park, Oakland, California.

Andrew Chamings

The unmarked stone pyramid built by Miller on Lookout Point is actually a monument to Moses, symbolizing Miller’s reverence for the Ten Commandments. (His three wives, children born out of wedlock, horse thievery, the Native Americans and Nicaraguans slain in battle and pin-ups inside his cabin walls maybe reveal a different, less morally pure, life.)

When Miller died in 1913, his body was not set aflame on the pyre as requested. Weeks later members of the notorious Bohemian Club, of which Miller was a member, believedly honored the request by torching his urn in the stone pyre. The raucous ceremony was the talk of the town. Hundreds attended the event in the hills, including actors, writers and curious Oaklanders. Coolbrith’s ode to her friend, “Vale, Joaquin,” was played aloud as a band. According to the Tribune, “movie men” attempted to shoot some footage of the event for a picture, as opportunists attempted to grab fistfuls of the now twice-burned ashes of the folk hero. Miller’s wife Abigail watched the chaotic scene with some glee, telling the paper, “How Joaquin would have enjoyed this! He loved flames.”

After Miller’s death, the land was acquired by the City of Oakland in 1919. The 500-acre park, road and school that bear that his name today are arguably better known than his literary output, which has faded in appreciation compared the the greats that spent time at his retreat. In 1941, the Art Deco 2,000-seat Woodminster Amphitheater was opened and dedicated by Juanita Miller, who had a special reserved seat there during her lifetime.

Joaquin Miller Park, Oakland, California.

Andrew Chamings

Alongside the pyre, the pyramid and the Abbey, Miller also built monuments on the property to explorer and senator General John C. Frémont, and poets Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. A statue of Miller on horseback facing the setting sun was dedicated by Juanita in the 1940s.

Next time you’re in the Oakland Hills and see the name Joaquin Miller, venture off Highway 13 and into the woods to find the strange, scattered monuments built by one of California’s most curious men. Miller, a fraud and a hero, may have been captured best by editor Louis Untermeyer, who wrote in 1930:

“Miller shouted platitudes at the top of his voice. His lines boomed with the pomposity of a brass band; floods, fires, hurricanes, extravagantly blazing sunsets, the thunder of a herd of buffaloes — all were unmercifully piled up. And yet, even in its most blatant fortissimos, Miller’s poetry occasionally captured the grandeur of his surroundings, the spread of the Sierras, the lavish energy of the Western World.”

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A grandfather says his future plans were “stolen” after a bank mistakenly told him he could keep £ 110,000 that a stranger accidentally deposited into his account.

Russell Alexander, 54, was surprised to find mysteriously £ 30,000 in his bank account last December. Weird payments kept popping up over time – which resulted in the Sutton, Norfolk craftsman contacting Barclays, who falsely told him the money was his.

In June he bought a new home with his own savings for £ 237,500 and kept the £ 110,000 aside, expecting it to fund major repairs before opening the property as a B&B.

But in September a former client of Mr. Alexander announced that he was the accidental benefactor and Barclays withdrew the money from Mr. Alexander’s account.

A stunned Mr. Alexander said: “I would never have bought” [the house] if I didn’t have the extra money Barclays stole my plans for the future and left me like a stowaway. ‘

He added, “It’s been nine months and they said if I had spent it there was nothing they could do but because I didn’t, they just took it back.”

Russell Alexander, 54, says he stayed out of his pocket after a stranger deposited £ 110,000 in his account and his bank accidentally told him he could keep it

Mr Alexander had planned to use the money to renovate a maker house he had bought, but says that it has now remained in limbo

“It didn’t make sense to me when the money was just arriving, but I checked with the bank twice and with an accountant – they all said spend it.

“I tore the house to pieces and wanted to use the money to fix it, but now they have taken it back and I have to live in a room in a rundown house.”

Mr Alexander blames the bank and said he now lives in a dilapidated house with no heating and no money to renovate.

Barclays has admitted that the money was mistakenly sent from a different sender – and Mr Alexander was “falsely told that he could keep the money”.

A shocked Mr Alexander added that he was “totally outraged” by the bank’s offer of £ 500 in compensation.

He said, “I’ve been a loyal customer for 40 years and they made it clear to me that I could spend the money twice.

“I planned to renovate the house to rent out rooms on Airbnb, but I have to work now to make the money and it will take years.”

In the house that Russell Alexander bought with the £ 110,000 he accidentally got

Mr Alexander is a former B&B owner himself and ran a hotel business with his ex-fiancée, whom he separated from in March of last year.

He says the debacle over his finances began on December 29, 2020 when a mysterious payment of £ 30,000 with the note “last mother” landed in his account – which meant nothing to the craftsman.

On January 15, he received further payments of £ 30,000 and £ 777. At that point, he checked with Barclays for the amounts, and a few weeks later a bank clerk called to say the transfers looked like direct inheritance payments to him and he could spend them.

Five months later, Mr Alexander bought his own money from a property sale to buy a new house worth £ 237,500. He said he put the pot of mysterious cash aside to help finance the extensive repairs.

Mr. Alexander moved into his project house on June 23rd. His new home has to be completely rewired, the heating and sanitary facilities have to be replaced, as well as the roof and the foundations, he says.

Another £ 50,000 landed in his account in August – bringing the total mystery payment to £ 110,000.

But in September a customer of Mr. Alexander’s former business called him and confessed that he was the one who had accidentally given him the money, and Barclays took the £ 110,000 back.

The bank mistakenly took an additional £ 6,000 from Mr Alexander’s own money which was later returned.

Mr Alexander called Barclays who confirmed they had made a mistake and offered him £ 500 in compensation, he said.

Mr Alexander had plans to convert the Macher Up property into a B&B after mysteriously £ 110,000 landed in his account

“I have had sleepless nights for weeks because of it. I don’t know what’s wrong with Barclays. You can’t run a bank like that.

“I am disgusted that they treat their loyal customers this way. I did banking with them for 40 years.

“After giving myself the wrong hope for nine months, your £ 500 compensation is a total insult. They make billions of pounds a year.

“It’s been there for nine months and they said if I had spent it there was nothing they could do, but because I didn’t, they just took it back.”

In September, a customer of Mr. Alexander’s former shop called him and confessed that he had given him the money by mistake

A Barclays spokesperson said, “We’re sorry to hear about this customer’s experience.

“It is obvious that the sender of the funds selected the wrong intended recipient from their recipient list when completing the online payment instructions.

A verification page will be displayed for customers to verify that the information entered online is valid and correct before confirming the payment.

‘Unfortunately, when the recipient sought clarification about the unexpected arrival of funds in his account, he was incorrectly told that he could keep the funds.

“The funds were then withdrawn from the account based on a claim from the original sender.

“However, due to our mistake, an additional £ 6,000 over the intended amount received was incorrectly removed. This will be refunded to our customer together with lost interest. ‘

They urged customers to report unexpected funds immediately and to regularly delete one-time payees from the app or online banking.

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The builder, who is accused of murdering a doctor and her teenage daughter, has now filed another complaint intruded into the house and struck their lives rather than a ghost, a court heard.

Shahbaz Khan, 51, was found guilty of the murders of Dr. Saman Mir Sacharvi, 49, and her 14-year-old daughter Vian Mangrio arrested near Burnley, Lancashire.

The Craftsman said beforehand He had seen police officers a 620-year-old “Jinn” named Robert and his “ex-wife Rita” when they were in the house of Dr. Sacharvi worked.

He also wrote to various people from the prison saying Rita and Dr. Sacharvi would have killed Vian before an “angry” Robert went upstairs and killed the psychiatrist, Preston Crown Court heard.

Today Khan told District Attorney David McLachlan QC that he now believes another person entered the Burnley home and committed suicide after leaving the address at around 10 p.m. on September 30th last year.

Dr. Saman Mir Sacharvi, 49, and her 14-year-old daughter Vian Mangrio were found dead in their smoke and fire damaged home near Burnley, Lancashire, in October

Investigation teams outside the mother and daughter’s property after their deaths

In court, Mr. McLachlan asked, “You now accept that it’s not the jinns?”

Khan replied, “Now I’m on medication. I take eight to ten tablets a day to make my brain feel a little better. ‘

The defendant, who previously made repairs to Dr. Sacharvi had performed at home, had arrived at her address near Burnley, Lancashire, just before 11:50 a.m. on September 30, where he was expected to continue further construction, the court was told.

But on October 1st, Dr. Sacharvi, a psychiatrist with the Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust, and her daughter found dead in their smoke and fire damaged home.

The defendant, a retired computer network engineer in his native Pakistan, is alleged to be Dr. Strangled Sacharvi and then assaulted her daughter when she returned from school.

He was then said to have started fires on the Reedley estate, including the severe burning of Vian in the lounge, an attempt to kill Dr. Set fire to Sacharvi in ​​the upstairs front bedroom, and another fire in the kitchen.

Mr. McLachlan said, “You put something around Dr. Sacharvi and pulled it as hard as you could until she stopped breathing.”

Khan said, ‘That is not true.’

Mr McLachlan said, “Did you kneel on her back and wait for your 14 year old daughter to get on?”

“No,” replied the defendant.

Vian Mangrio was described by her father as a “loving, caring, intelligent and gifted child”

Flowers left at the Burnley crime scene after mother and daughter died

The prosecutor continued, “Did you use your school tie to kill her?”

Khan said, ‘No.’

Khan, who also worked part-time as a customer assistant at Tesco in Burnley, said he was “like a family friend” and Vian was “like a daughter” to the couple.

During his 10 hours at the address on September 30, the internet router went inactive just before 1:50 p.m. and Dr. Sacharvi and Vian – who are missing – were separated later that afternoon.

Khan denied responsibility, saying none of them complained to him about the problems while he was there.

The father of four was arrested on the morning of October 1, three days after the police discovered the two victims.

Police found tens of thousands of pounds worth of jewelry belonging to Dr.

A purple Samsung phone was also recovered from his address, which on the morning of September 30th contained Google searches for “possessed” and “definitely possessed”.

Khan told the court that the phone was accessible to all his family and that he had not carried out the searches.

He said his English was “not good” and he didn’t know the meaning of the word.

Last year, Vian’s father, Dr. Shaukat Mangrio told his daughter how his “loving, caring, intelligent and gifted child” had dreamed of attending Cambridge University.

“She had a bright future, which unfortunately came up short,” he said.

“She was a young lady with a beautiful smile; she was alive and lighting up a room when she walked into it; She had a zest for life, fashion, art and the passion to pursue a legal career.

“It was her dream to be admitted to Cambridge University and I have no doubt that she would have achieved that goal and more.

“I am deeply saddened and heartbroken that she is no longer with us and is unable to lead a life that she deserves.

“I miss my Vian, whose company I loved very much and of whom I would never tire; beyond that there was no joy. She was an innocent child, pure and full of hope, that I lived for; she was my friend, my life, my everything. ‘

Burnley Khan denies that he was ruthless on two counts of murder and one arson incident.

His wife, Rabia Shahbaz, 45, also from Burnley, denies having committed an act intended to pervert the course of public justice, namely giving Khan a false alibi.

The process will continue on Monday.

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Despite the cheerful appearance of the Winchester Mystery House, the history of this vast California mansion is lined with tragedy, mystery … and maybe some ghosts. Of course, it inspired a chilling horror film, Winchester, which is in theaters today. But before heading to the movies, wander through the curious past of one of America’s most notorious homes.

1. THE WINCHESTER HOUSE IS NAMED AFTER ITS MISTRESS.

Sarah Lockwood Winchester – the wife of gun tycoon William Wirt Winchester, whose family created the Winchester rifle known as “the gun that won the West” – designed and oversaw the construction of the sprawling Victorian Queen Anne mansion, That Bears Her Name Construction of the 24,000-square-foot home at 525 South Winchester Boulevard in San Jose, California began in 1886.

2. MANY BELIEVE SARAH BUILT THE WINCHESTER HOUSE OUT OF FEAR.

Overwhelmed in grief after her husband’s death from tuberculosis in 1881, folklore says that Sarah was looking for a spiritualist who could communicate with the dead. While presumably seeking consolation or closure, she received a terrifying warning instead.

Through the medium, William told his widow that their tragedies (the couple had only one child, a daughter named Annie, who died at the age of six weeks) was the result of the blood money the family had made from the Winchester rifles. He warned that vengeful spirits would seek them out. To protect herself, William said that Sarah “needs to build a home for” [herself] and for the spirits who have fallen from this terrible weapon. “

Sarah was advised to leave her home in New Haven, Connecticut, and move west to build a great home for the spirits. There was only one catch: the construction work on the house never stopped. “If you keep building you will live,” Sarah warned Sarah. “Stop it and you will die.”

3. THE HOUSE WAS 38 YEARS IN CONSTANT CONSTRUCTION.

In 1886 Sarah bought an eight room farmhouse in San Jose, California and began construction. She employed a crew of carpenters who split up shifts so that construction could go on day and night, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, 38 years. Work was not stopped until September 5, 1922, because the home’s eighty-year-old thought leader died of heart failure in his sleep. It is said that when the carpenters heard the news of Sarah’s death, they stopped so abruptly that half-hammered nails protruded from the walls.

4. THE HOUSE IS FULLY ARCHITECTURAL RARE.

Sarah made many bizarre demands on her builders, including the construction of trap doors, secret passages, a skylight in the floor, cobweb windows and stairs that led to nowhere. There are also doors that open to blank walls and a dangerous door on the second floor that opens into nowhere – save for an alarming case in the courtyard far below.

5. AN EARTHQUAKE ONCE RASPED THE HOUSE AND CATCHED SARAH.

In 1906, the great San Francisco earthquake collapsed three floors of the then seven-story house. A postcard of the place from 1900 shows a tower that was later overturned by the natural disaster. This tower, as well as several other rooms destroyed in the disaster, were never rebuilt, but cordoned off. Sarah was safe, but she was stuck in the Daisy Bedroom, named for the floral motif in the windows. She had to be dug up by her staff because the entrance was blocked by rubble.

6. THE HOUSE WAS DESIGNED LIKE A LABYRINTH.

Some say the maze layout should confuse the ghosts and give Sarah some peace and quiet and a chance to escape them. She was the sole architect of this extraordinary house, and an overall construction plan has never been uncovered. So Sarah may be the only person who ever really knew all of her secrets. When moving helpers were called in after her death, people complained about its labyrinthine design, which includes many winding corridors. A removal worker told American Weekly that Winchester House is a place “where you don’t go down to the basement or up to the roof.”

7. SOME SAY THE SYMBOLS IN THE HOUSE DO NOT POINT GHOST, BUT FRANCIS BACON.

An alternative theory about the confusing design of Winchester House is that Sarah created a puzzle full of encryption, inspired by the work of the English philosopher Francis Bacon. There is speculation that hints of the house’s true meaning are hidden in the ballroom, Shakespeare windows, and iron gates. This theory suggests that Sarah was a member of a mystical society like the Rosicrucians or a secret society like the Freemasons – or possibly both.

8. THERE ARE OTHER THEORIES, INCLUDING THAT SARAH WAS “INSANE”.

Others speculate that Sarah was coping with her grief with a hectic pace of activity or that she was simply “insane”. However, Winchester Mystery House historian Janan Boehme paints a happier picture, imagining that the constant renovations reminded Sarah of the good days she and William built her home in New Haven together.

“I think Sarah tried to repeat that experience by doing something they both loved,” Boehme told the Los Angeles Times. She also suspects Sarah was just a passionate – if eccentric – philanthropist who used her family fortune to purposefully keep the San Jose community busy. “She had a social conscience and tried to give something back,” said Böhme, noting the hospital that Sarah had built on behalf of her husband. “This house in itself was her greatest social work of all.”

9. ONCE IN WINCHESTER HOUSE SARAH WAS WITHDRAWAL, BUT NOT ALONE.

There is only one known photo of the widow Winchester that was taken in secret. Though withdrawn, she was never alone. She had 18 servants, 18 gardeners, and the ubiquitous construction team that worked on the site. Every morning Sarah met with the foreman to discuss the ever-evolving blueprints. And it is said that she visited the séance room every evening to speak to the ghosts who interfered in the plans for the unusual design of the house.

10. THE HOUSE WAS AS OPULENT AS UNUSUAL.

The home has 950 doors, 10,000 windows, 40 stairs, 52 skylights, 47 fireplaces, six kitchens, plus a trio of elevators and once groundbreaking items like wool insulation, carbide gas lamps, electricity, and an indoor shower with a sewage drainage system.

11. NOBODY IS SURE HOW MANY ROOMS THE HOUSE HAS.

After Sarah’s death, Winchester House was converted into a tourist attraction. But when trying to get a room number, the new owners kept coming up with different numbers. After five years of renovation, they estimated the number of rooms to be around 160, which is the number most cited today.

12.SARAH had an obsession with the number 13.

One of the secrets Sarah took to the grave was why she insisted that so many things have to do with the number 13. Winchester House has many 13-paned windows and 13-paneled ceilings, as well as 13-step stairs. Even her will was in 13 parts, and she signed it 13 times. But the highlight could be the 13th bathroom of the house, which contains 13 windows of its own.

13. IT IS A NATIONAL LANDMARK.

The Winchester Mystery House was granted landmark status on August 7, 1974. The fascinating mansion is still owned by the family (families?) Who bought it from the Winchester Estate for $ 150,000 in 1922 – their identity, however, is another Winchester House secret. But thanks to them, tourists can now explore 110 of the 160 rooms Sarah came up with. The Winchester Mystery House even offers special tours on Halloween and Friday the 13th.

14. IT IS REGULARLY QUOTED AS ONE OF THE MOST SECRET PLACES IN AMERICA.

To this day, Winchester House is a destination for believers hoping for their own paranormal encounter. A popular spot for such activities are the third floor corridors, where tour guides have claimed to hear footsteps and disembodied voices whispering their names.

In a Reddit AMA, a Winchester House guide confirmed that the third floor of the house – only part of which is accessible on guided tours – is definitely the scariest part of the house, “because the servants lived there, so a lot had happened.” the activities reported there. Also, you can’t really hear any of the other tours on this floor, so you feel pretty isolated. ”The customer review has been automatically translated from German.

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After 14 months of construction, $ 5 million spending and the discovery of a 90-year-old mystery box, Point Reyes Lighthouse in West Marin County is slated to reopen in October, the National Park Service has confirmed.

When the crews deconstructed the original tower and replaced 150 years of wear and tear and history, they found a bigger task than initially expected – and in a wall, something like a time capsule.

A worker found an old wooden box that was traced back to the lighthouse keeper in the 1920s and 30s. In the box were old papers from the San Francisco Examiner and the Defender (from Marin).

In one of them, the August 9, 1929 issue of the Examiner, a large map was published showing the planned course of the Hearst Zeppelin “round the world flight”. Then, on a sports page dated April 22, 1929, a Yankees boxing score listed Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig beating 3-4, each with a hit against the Philadelphia A in a 7-4 loss. Magical stuff.

When visitors get their first glimpse of the lighthouse’s renovation, it will feel similar too. A restoration project started in August 2018 was originally supposed to take two months. It was delayed again and again due to surprise discoveries and additional work. The exact date for the reopening next month has not yet been set, park officials said, but it is imminent. It is possible that the newspapers from the mystery box are displayed behind glass for the visitors.

In 2017, 2.45 million people visited the Point Reyes National Seashore, 400,000 of them according to the park staff about the lighthouse. One of the Bay Area’s most popular parks is now back on the radar.

A visit to the light

From the park’s headquarters in the Bear Valley Visitor Center, the drive to Point Reyes Lighthouse is further and takes longer than many expect. It’s more than 20 miles (one way) and takes about 45 minutes. There is no cell phone service. Then, when you get there, some underestimate the short walk to the lighthouse and back.

From the parking lot, it’s a 0.6km walk with a steep descent that leads to the base of the lighthouse. At the leading edge over the rock there is a railing and a fence. Then when you go back the climb, according to rangers, is the same as walking up the stairs of a 25-story building. Some visitors are not ready for this.

During the renovation, the 35 meter high lighthouse tower was reconstructed. The huge clock-like machinery that controls the lights has been dismantled and rebuilt. The footpath to the lighthouse has been dug and replaced. The buildings next to the lighthouse were painted and re-covered. The visitor center was gutted and redesigned with a new floor and cupboards.

When the facility reopens, the park inside the lighthouse provides access to the lower chamber with exhibits and a view of the machines and frame for the historic Fresnel lens, usually limited when faculty are available.

A symbol of the city

Point Reyes – the landform – is a hammerhead-shaped peninsula. It is tilted from the lighthouse to the west, the Chimney Rock Headlands to the east.

Point Reyes is unmatched for whale watching (from land) in winter, ocean views and seabird sighting (on clear days), wildflowers (on the headlands in spring), and fog (in summer).

From the razor-sharp land bridge that connects the Point to the Headlands, you can walk to the base of the headland, turn around and enjoy the ocean and its breakers crashing into the rocks on one side and the calm waters of Drakes Bay on the lap the other side on the bank.

There are times when it can sparkle near Drakes Beach, Inverness Ridge, and Bolinas in West Marin, and yet Point Reyes is in the mist. According to the National Park Service, it is the second foggy place in North America, behind the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, the No. 1 consensus from many polls.

In summer, dead fog often buries the landform protruding 10 miles into the sea – and the nearby boulder-lined shore – creating a treacherous expanse of water. When the lighthouse was built in 1870, park historians believe that more than 50 ships crashed and sank here. Park staff discovered an 1887 story from The Chronicle that read, “God help the unfortunate sailor who drifts on its shores.”

The coming season

In the high season, gray whales migrate, where their routes often take them in close proximity as they pass Point Reyes. This begins at the end of December and lasts until spring. With high runs and sightings, it can get tight in the viewing area at the foot of the lighthouse.

To remedy this, the park must be accessible by shuttle bus on fair weather weekends from late December to early April. Rangers will block the main road to the lighthouse at South Beach Junction. A ticket for the shuttle bus is $ 7 and is available at the nearby Drakes Beach Visitor Center. The park does not assume the shuttle bus will be needed on weekdays or weekends with storms.

Often times the best clarity for views is in October and November. Very few people are in the fog of death on weekdays in the morning or at any time.

During winter storms it can be exciting to see the gust lines over the ocean. Under a dark blanket of clouds, a cell sends pounding rain, often for half a mile or so, into the ocean below. It can rain so hard that the surface of the sea pits like the surface of a golf ball.

When you stand at the base of the lighthouse, you can sometimes see a gust that moves across the territorial sea and then envelops you. Suddenly the view is close to zero. The water pours from the brim of your hat. The breakers hammer on the rocks below.

At this moment you realize how lucky you are to be on land and not on a boat at sea, like so many over the years who have faced the old sea and its dangers and secrets here.

For more information, call Point Reyes National Seashore at 415-464-5100 or visit www.nps.gov/pore.

Tom Stienstra is the outdoor writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: tstienstra@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @StienstraTom

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