Today for International Women’s Month we salute author, activist, and journalist Linda Frank.
Inspired by 20th-century world and Jewish history, Linda Frank has built a compelling body of work that blends historical insight with engaging storytelling. Her career spans financial services, where she developed a strong business foundation, alongside a lifelong commitment to volunteerism and writing. She is the author of the acclaimed Annie Tillery mystery series, known as “The Jewish Miss Marple”, that weaves history, suspense, and strong female perspectives into each novel.
A graduate of the University of Michigan with a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin School of Journalism, Linda continues to write, travel, and stay actively engaged with her community in retirement.
The Legacy of The Love Boat — by David Eugene Perry
Ahoy! Today aboard Holland America’s flagship Rotterdam VII, I gave my presentation “Crossing to Cruising” about the transition from ocean liners to cruise ships. Part of that story entails a trashy little novel that became a cultural phenomenon.
There are television hits—and then there are cultural tides. The Love Boat belongs firmly in the latter category, a show that didn’t simply entertain but reshaped how millions imagined life at sea.
What’s most delicious, however, is where it all began—not in a writers’ room or a polished studio pitch, but in the pages of a slightly naughty, very 1970s paperback.
In 1974, Jeraldine Saunders, a real-life cruise director with stories to tell and no particular inclination to sanitize them, published Love Boats. It was not meant to be literature with a capital “L.” It was meant to be read on airplanes, by the pool, perhaps with a raised eyebrow and a knowing smile.
Saunders offered a glimpse behind the velvet curtain of shipboard life—romances that bloomed quickly and sometimes unwisely, passengers behaving badly, crew members navigating both duty and desire. Drawing on her time aboard ships, she created something that felt both authentic and just scandalous enough to pass from hand to hand.
Hollywood, as it so often does, recognized opportunity where others saw mere amusement. At Aaron Spelling Productions, someone realized that the real treasure here was not the specific stories, but the setting itself. A cruise ship offered a ready-made stage: self-contained, ever-changing, and filled with new faces each week. It was, in effect, a floating theater—one that could deliver romance, comedy, and drama in equal measure.
The concept was tested through a series of television movies, and by 1977, ABC was ready to launch the series. What emerged, however, was something quite different from Saunders’ original tone. The wink-and-nudge became a warm smile. The gossip softened into gentle misunderstandings. The sharper edges of adult escapade were polished into something that families could watch together without discomfort.
Filmed aboard the Pacific Princess, the show brought with it an authenticity that only a real ship can provide—the subtle movement of the sea, the geometry of decks and railings, the quiet authority of the bridge. And at its heart stood a crew that quickly became familiar companions: Captain Stubing, steady at the helm; Julie, ever optimistic; Doc, dispensing both medicine and mischief; and Gopher, navigating it all with earnest charm.
What fascinates me, as someone who has spent a lifetime around ships and their stories, is that alchemy—the transformation of something slightly risqué into something deeply reassuring. The original book hinted at the unpredictable, occasionally chaotic humanity of life at sea. The television series offered instead a promise: that whatever complications arose between embarkation and disembarkation would be resolved, neatly and kindly, before the gangway lowered.
And yet, both versions share a truth. Ships do this. They gather people together, remove them from the routines of land, and allow something to unfold—sometimes romantic, sometimes comic, always human.
In the end, The Love Boat succeeded not because it mirrored reality, but because it distilled a feeling. It captured the idea of the voyage as possibility, of the sea as a place where lives briefly intersect and stories find their endings—or their beginnings.
Not bad, one might say, for a “trashy” little paperback.
Today for International Women’s Month and Transgender Day of Visibility, we salute Breanna Sinclairé: singer, activist and advocate.
A native of Baltimore, Maryland, and a graduate of the esteemed Baltimore School for the Arts, Breanna earned her B.F.A. at the Herb Alpert School of Music at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California, under the tutelages of Maria Fortuna Dean and former Cirque du Soleil star Kate Conklin.
She graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Master of Music in Vocal Performance Program, as the first transwoman of color, under the pedagogy of Ms. Ruby Pleasure.
Outside of opera, Sinclairé has enjoyed a variety of performance opportunities with LGBT and other nonprofit organizations throughout the nation — including the Gay Men’s Choruses of Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. She made her debut at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Gay Men’s Chorus. Other performances include Americans for the Arts, Washington, D.C. and Toronto Pride Festivals, SF Trans March, Fresh Meat Trans and Queer Arts Festivals, Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, LinkedIn’s LGBTQ Employee Resource Group speaker series panel discussion (alongside civil rights leader Cecilia Chung), Janet Mock’s Redefining Realness book tour, and the Transgender Law Center’s SPARK! anniversary celebration.
Breanna also made her debut as a guest artist for the Gay Men’s Chorus of DC in Durufle’s Requiem performing “Pie Jesu” at Church of the Epiphany. She was among Out magazine’s 2015 “OUT100” list of LGBT heroes. She was the first transwoman to perform the National Anthem at a professional sporting event for the Oakland A’s, SF Giants, and San Francisco Deltas. She made her debut with SF Symphony on December 31, 2018 as the first trans singer to perform with the orchestra.
Sinclairé is the subject of a documentary film, Mezzo, which screened at the 2016 San Francisco Transgender Film Festival. She has performed at festivals internationally in Canada, Amsterdam, Berlin and at the invitation of the United States Consulate in Recife, Brazil in 2024.
Breannahas appeared with leading artists and orchestras at major venues across the U.S. and Europe, in productions including Carmen, The Magic Flute, and La Calisto. Sinclairé was featured in the opera-film Bound (Against the Grain Theatre), starred in PBS’s True Colors: LGBTQ+ Our Stories, Our Songs, and was honored by the San Francisco Business Timesas an Outstanding Voice. Media features include The New York Times, NPR, and CNN. In 2026, In 2025, Breanna starred in the world premiere of Andrew Yee’s Trans Requiem, a performance that will be repeated this year. On April 3, 2026, Breanna will be a featured singer in a performance at The Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
Congratulations and thank you Breanna for breaking barriers and blazing trails.
Today for International Women’s Month we salute and highlight Ruth Sinai.
An award-winning veteran journalist for Associated Press among others, Ruth built a remarkable career covering some of the world’s most complex and compelling stories. Her postings have taken her across the globe—including the Middle East, Europe, and Asia—reporting from countries such as Israel, France, and beyond, with a focus on human rights, health, and women’s issues.
Now bringing those global experiences to audiences at sea, she offers insight shaped by decades on the front lines of international journalism.
A storyteller. A witness to history. A voice that matters.
Today in history: March 28, 1776 — 250 years ago today — the de Anza Expedition arrives on the San Francisco peninsula, at what would become the Presidio of San Francisco.
Led by Juan Bautista de Anza, the group brought more than 200 settlers overland from present-day Mexico. This wasn’t just exploration—it was the start of a permanent community. Within months, Spain established the Presidio and nearby Mission Dolores, securing San Francisco Bay for the Spanish Empire.
Today is the anniversary of an event that marked the beginnings of modern San Francisco.
