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Rumors are percolating that Gavin Newsom might, as a SFist commenter Manys pointed out, pull a Sarah Palin. That is to say, he could very well resign. Or not. No one can say for sure, of course. Sure, former Director of Communications Nate Ballard once (allegedly) convinced Newsom not to quit his mayoral gig a few years back; but now that he's gone, is there anyone left to talk Gavin out of resigning? Probably not.

Finally. Mayor Gavin Newsom was cornered by spoke to reporters yesterday outside his office. While the Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam visited City Hall last night, Newsom stayed inside his office, hiding from reporters. But, being the crafty little critters that they are, local journos found him when he emerged. (Newsom did, we should point out, grant an interview with San Francisco's own Corky Sherwood, Ken Garcia, last Friday.)

Uh oh. Both Eater LA and the LA Times are reporting that an outbreak of McDonald's elusive McRib sandwich has ensued in the greater Southland. This naturally begs the question, when will the McRib spread to the Bay Area? According to the McRib Locator, the McRib has already been spotted in one of San Francisco's many McDo franchises. Could this be true?

Moving out of the LoRi (Lower Outer Rincon Hill)/South Park neighborhood, the folks at Twitter moved up Third Street to a sweeter, swankier pad.

Maybe New York chef David "Fist Bump" Chang was right? Scroll down, folks.

While it was initially rumored that NBC might kill the ratings-challenged Trauma, word is NBC decided to pick up the medical/explosions show.

We swear we not trying to pick on our fine mayor. Well, not more than usual. Anyway.

Bus stop consolidation is going on as we speak on the 21 Hayes line, where, arguably, there are more stops than are really necessary. Muni has apparently been reluctant to delve into the topic of consolidating stops to reduce wait time, reduce costs, and increase efficiency of bus lines because there are, of course, always going to be people ready to fight to keep their favorite bus stop exactly where it is.

Last Thursday, the New York Times published a piece about the trials and travails of a bunch of old ladies living in a San Francisco Housing Authority building in the Castro that was overrun by crystal meth fiends. Apparently, the old ladies repeatedly complained to the Housing Authority about the addicts in their midst and were, unsurprisingly, pooh-poohed for their troubles. The neighborhood had to collapse into the gutter followed by a police raid on the building to shut down the resident meth lab before the Housing Authority was willing to take steps to evict the meth addicts.

Frank Chu and the "Jesus Loves You" guy seem to get all of the crazy-loon-with-crazier-sign attention. It's just not fair So, here's a shot of the sign that the guy at Powell and Market, near the cable car turnaround, has by his side screams "damned whore, repent!" at passersby.

Witty and wise Newsom spokesman Nathe Ballard made a choice decision today: he quit Newsom's (sinking?) ship. To the press release:

During a UC Regents meeting, students reportedly "stormed" and "took over" a building at UCLA on Wednesday. SF Chronicle reports that the "[s]tudents, furious at the increase that will bring their yearly fees above $10,000 for the first time, rushed the UCLA building where the regents were meeting, throwing food, sticks and vinegar-soaked red bandannas meant to look like blood."

Three people were shot outside the Regency Ballroom at Van Ness and Sutter on Sunday night where radio station KMEL was hosting its annual House of Soul event. The incident allegedly began as a fist fight which spilled out of the venue on to Van Ness, and ended with gun shots fired. As of this writing there's no word as to whether any passersby were injured, but according to ABC 7 none of the shooting victims were gravely injured. Sidenote: There was a wedding reception going on in the Masonic temple space on the top floor of the building at the time of the shooting, which was unfortunately interrupted by the sound of gun shots.

Why couldn't Newsom tell CBS 5's Hank Plante, "Yeah, I took off to Hawaii. And what, hooker? Somebody hold my earrings."

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. (Can you feel the collective nervousness of the turkeys? That's the feeling of flavor!) And until next Thursday, SFist will post recipes we would love for you to use, if the mood should strike, for your Thanksgiving feast. What's more, some of the recipes will be brought to you by local chefs of note! Hopefully.

Assuming the seat vacated by Theresa Sparks, who stepped down to become human rights commissioner, former Assistant District Attorney Jim Hammer was sworn in yesterday as the City's first second openly gay male police commissioner. Hammer was approved by a unanimous vote of the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, and will serve the remainder of Sparks' term which ends April 30, 2011.

We made mention earlier this week of the imminent opening of brand new Hayes Valley Tiki bar, Smuggler's Cove. Assuming you absolutely can not wait to try some of the rummy, tropical deliciousness that will be served up there beside the indoor water features, we went straight to the source, bar manager/owner Martin Cate, for a recipe. Here's what he gave us:

The band in question is called B & Not B, a self-described "nerdy supergroup" from SF with a name inspired by Derrida, or something. Watch as they show up at various Mission locales and entertain the natives. They'll be performing a show at the Makeout Room on December 2nd. Hat tip: Mission Mission.

Your Kaja Silvermans and Teresa De Laurentises aren't going to save you now, UC ilk. The economy knows no bounds, it knows no AP scores, it known no misguided acceptance of one's own body odors. Today, UC students and faculty went on strike. UC Berkeley folks "took up their signs on Sproul Plaza beginning at 5 a.m. to protest an expected 32 percent student fee hike at today's UC Board of Regents meeting."

At a court hearing this afternoon in Oakland, Judge Morris Jacobson of Alameda County Superior Court decided to move the trial of Johannes Mehserle to Los Angeles in an effort to get a fair trail. Jacobson promised in September that the trial would move out of the area.

The carsonist -- or a copycat carsonist, or a copycat copycatting the copycat carsonist -- stuck three times in the Easy Bay last night. Three evening car fires hit San Pablo, and authorities are seeing if they're related to the recent string of auto immolation in El Sobrante.

The well of comedy gold will run a bit drier as Carole Midgen announces that she will not run for the supervisor seat in D10 (Bayview-Hunters Point, Potrero Hill) when Sophie Maxwell terms out. "I don't envision this as a fit for me in the New Year ... I like where I live ... I have a good life," Migden tells SF Weekly's Will Harper. Alas.

We've seen this map of San Francisco make the rounds this morning, which makes sense. It is most amusing. We especially enjoy the "Forests of Mystery," "Streets Upon Streets of Silence," and "You're Just Going to Get Mugged" sections of the city

Twilight fan Gianna DiGulio, 6, of San Francisco is about to explode with glee outside The Twilight Saga: New Moon premiere in Westwood. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Oh, what joy. Brittney Gilbert at Eye On Blogs brings our attention to this: Green Apple Books, located at 506 Clement, will donate proceeds of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's new book Going Rogue: An American Life to the betterment of animals up in Alaska. Check it:

Tim Schafer (@TimOfLegend) sent out two unnerving Twitter messages this morning. A crime, it seems, occurred on the J Church during the AM commute.

Some collaborations between Hollywood people and non-Hollywood artists yield magical results -- take Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers' work on Where the Wild Things Are, for example -- but in the case of Erased James Franco, the hour-long art film made by the artist known as Carter with Hollywood actor James Franco occupying the central role, the results are confused, mundane, and borderline pretentious. Billed as a riff on Rauschenberg's "Erased de Kooning Drawing" (which is owned by the SFMOMA), the film is meant to be an "erased performance" in which Franco appears in a non-descript setting reading random lines from all of his previous work, including the Spiderman films and the TV show Freaks and Geeks (at the time of shooting, in June 2008, Milk had not yet been released). There are a few inspired moments in the piece, but they mostly involve performances not originally given by Franco, where he performs monologues from other films like Todd Haynes' Safe or John Frankenheimer's Seconds, which starred Rock Hudson -- we especially enjoyed a brief telephone conversation Franco has with Julianne Moore, with her words clipped from lines from Safe. But the majority of the film features long, labored shots of Franco writing on loose-leaf paper, waving his hands, drinking water, answering phones, moving a chair around, and walking in and out of a room.

After "the second car of an L Taraval derailed in the Twin Peaks tunnel between Castro and Forest Hill stations," reports SF Appeal, the entire Muni system is chaotic this morning. No injuries have been reported. The accident occurred at 7::35 a.m.

Tim Lincecum nabbed his second Cy Young Award in two years. This is what Lieberman is reporting, as is The Splash.

The dead woman's body we regretfully mentioned, which was found in the parking lot at Berkeley's Aquatic Park around 4 a.m. Friday morning, turns out to be that of 23-year-old Zoelina Williams of West Oakland, a quiet girl who lost both of her parents to cancer, one in the last few months. She had allegedly been in a relationship with one Curtis Martin III, a neighbor with a criminal record whom Zoelina had been secretly dating, unbeknownst to her family.