SFist Answers
Greetings, folks. Welcome to SFist Answers.
We think the name of the column says it all. If you have a question you'd like us to answer, you can either e-mail us or leave it in the comments section. While yours truly will be taking primary responsibility for this, rest assured that the column is backed up by SFist's wonderful array of foodies, TV heads, geeks, newshounds, artsy types, and sports fanatics. Whether it's a question of opinion, fact, history, or advice, we stand ready to assist you.
Let's get started.
While eating at a cafe, we saw a guy dent the car in front of him while parking. after he parked, he looked at the dent, then looked around to see if anyone saw him, and walked away. (he didn't see us in the window). what should we do?
Well, according to the Neighborhood Problem Solving Guide put out by San Francisco SAFE (a citywide crime prevention organization) and Neighborhood Safety Partnership, one should "Report every crime, no matter how small."
And, you know, it makes sense. While the braver among us may simply call the guy out, we can't necessarily recommend this. He'll either run away, or fess up, or confront you in some way. One of those is bad. We don't want you to put your personal safety at risk. We think that noting his appearance, noting the license plate number on his car, and subsequently filing a report with the police (non-emergency number is 415-553-0123) is appropriate, safe, and could be a big solid for the person whose car got dented.
And, imagine -- if you're at an Internet cafe and you notice a crime, you can just file your police report online by going here**. Don't we live in a grand age of wonders?
**(Although the site claims that it can't currently handle "traffic incidents," which we suppose your situation technically was.)
I tried to ask a ship captain some questions about his ship once but he got pissed when i called it the "smaller" ship (it was 1/4 the size of the other ships in the dry dock) So what is up with captains and ship sizes? Do captains get a small ship complex and have to overcompensate?
Ah, anecdotal proof from a captain, who should know better than most: it appears that, in fact, it is the size of the ship that counts, rather than the motion of the ocean.
Why did I see about a zillion people wear Vote for Pedro t-shirts and/or stickers at Bay to Breakers? I mean, Napoleon Dynamite was a quirky, funny film that came out like a year ago, so why all the hype now?
Ever been to a Star Trek convention? Rocky Horror Picture Show? How about a Comic-Con? Cult status is a slow burn kinda thing.
Seriously, though -- with the price of movies these days, it's no wonder that certain memes take longer to build. According to Newsweek, "Fox says it never planned for 'Napoleon' to be such a hit" and "The 'Napoleon' product frenzy began last October at the teen store Hot Topic, which carried the VOTE FOR PEDRO T shirt. " Also according to the Newsweek piece, "Napoleon" is apparently part of back-to-school at Target. The movie Napoleon Dynamite itself was only available on DVD as of Dec. 21, 2004, so even if people are influenced by the picture itself rather than the consumer angle, it's not quite as much of a lag as it appears to be. In fact, rather than looking at the movie's influence as lagging, you could look at this as a movie that's ascending to cult status on the fast track (with the help on some big box stores). Only time will tell.