We Read The Weeklies
...even if we're not mentioned this week!
The Weekly puts on its cover an intriguing story about that creepy cult in Marin, "the Family," where the one dude had the four girlfriends and a bunch of kids died of malnutrition. Cult stories, morbidly fascinating! The Infiltrator joins the Young Republicans (Republicans seem to drink a lot), and Dog Bites collects off Google people's threats of drastic action if Bush should win (...do you think the Canadian economy would be able to absorb that much U.S. liberal outrage should the scenario in question actually come to pass?). A pullout section for this year's Exotic/Erotic Ball (Ron Jeremy's going to be there). And Dan Savage goes kind of Dear Abby (maybe it's okay to have a low sex drive, it's okay to be a virgin, ask politely for access to ass) -- come on, Abby writes about that all the time!
The Guardian goes with part 2 of its endorsements list, covering state propositions, state government, and the East Bay (our summary: no, yes, yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, no, yes, no, no, no, no, yes; the Barbaras Boxer and Lee, and yes for legalization of prostitution in Berkeley.) The Bay Guardian political column reveals that the rival Weekly accidentally donated ad space to the political arm of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association (who ran those remarkably anti-homeless people ads in support of Care Not Cash) -- the Weekly says they didn't realize it was a political action group. Oh, okay. Funny Ted Rall, with Bush represented by a cute li'l puppy dog ("arf!"). Cops trying to bar citizen oversight groups, and the intriguing back story about the new Elliott Smith album. Hooray For Anything's got the wank of the week so check it out! (For you fuming Puffy Amiyumi fans, H4A puts up a very gracious apology for its previous characterization of them as "obscure.")
The East Bay Express and the Metro after the jump. If the dullness of the city weeklies doesn't let up soon, we may start putting the EBX and the Metro on the front and jumping to Bruce and Mecklin on the next page.
The East Bay Express notes that four people are running for three spots on the Byron Sanitary District board of directors, and that the punk rocker Green Party candidate for the Berkeley City Counsel just bought his first sports jacket (he decided that of his natty sharkskin suit and vintage duds, "neither one was appropriate for the district."). The EBX vainly hopes that the Warriors will succeed this season where the A's, Giants, Niners, and Raiders have all failed (hey, you gotta have hope). Cover story: six same-sex couples whose marriages were invalidated by the California Supreme Court.
And the Metro. Will there be a rumble between biotech slaves and tech drones in the Valley? Fight! Also, a Sikh folk hero who's been accused of murdering 26 people by the Indian government has been in U.S. immigration jail for the last 11 years while he requests political asylum. The Straight Dope gives it to you about pop-ups.
This week's winner? Well, the cult story is interesting in the Weekly, but really, we're going to go with (sigh) the otherwise-uninteresting Guardian this week because honestly, we're the Political Junkie around here and we don't know anything at all about any of the propositions on the ballot (something about primary elections and movie theaters and this Coach Kane running for the school board? Is Coach Kane making his kids climb all the lampposts in the city to put those signs up everywhere?). Doing your civic duty is hard work, people! It's not all like the Daily Show all the time!