Turn that frown upside-down bourgeois staycationers (oy, that word). While Big Sur sears until it's golden brown, the coastal town has turned into somewhat of a ghost town. And now, according to 71Miles' John Vlahides, some of the area's nicest hotels and R&R spots have lower their prices to rates that signify clinical insanity. Check it: The bad news is, the Basin Complex fire in Big Sur is still burning and only 3% contained.......

Folks in Big Sur have been asked told to evacuate due to the uncontrollable wildfire still roaring through the Basin Complex. The mandatory evacuation will go into effect at 5 p.m. today. In addition to staying safe from the blaze, firefighters need residents out in order to perform "burning operations" in the area. Citizens in the Palo Colorado Canyon in Monterey have have been told to scram as well. But on the brighter side, the......

Who doesn't love a weekend jaunt to Carmel? Well, those of us who can afford it, anyway. What's more, those of us who can tolerate its cloying horror. John Vlahides, co-founder and executive editor at 71 Miles, knows better. 71 Miles -- an extraordinarily useful local travel site (at last!) for those of us living in the Bay Area (i.e., not tourists) who want to know more about hitting up the greater Bay Area,......

Scenic shots bore us, and Ansel Adams' stuff gives us the heebie-jeebies. But we just came across this clever coastline shot -- titled "where the surf meets the sky" -- taken by colour40 near Big Sur, beautiful Big Sur. Sigh.......

Snoo-zer. Aside from the final five seconds of the race, the most exciting part of Thursday's Stage 4 in the 2007 Amgen Tour of California was the scenery. Relatively undistinguished topography and the desire of most riders to save themselves for tomorrow's critical individual time trial turned yesterday's stage into little more than a placeholder in the week-long tour.

It was a day of defensive rest, with everybody working extra hard to do the least amount necessary to maintain the status quo and playing it as safe as possible while doing so.

There was some nominal bad weather to keep the racers on their toes, a lukewarm breakaway led by Hilton Clarke of the Navigators Insurance team, a minimal response from Discovery Channel and the peloton, and a rather pedestrian, if not historic, sprint finish capped by Paolo "the Cricket" Bettini's (Quick Step-Innergetic) technically brilliant track throw to nip Gerald Coilek (T-Mobile) at the tape. Other than that, we loved it, thanks for asking.

Last week's winner, the SF Weekly. First, Dianne Feinstein came for the animal rights activists, and we said nothing. What are some of the election day losers doing now? Well, Krissy Keefer has been offered $100,000 to run against Gavin Newsom. Cover article: Chron blogs editor (and SFist editor emerita) Eve Batey must save the Chronicle!! (In a travesty of justice, Eve is not mentioned in the piece. Boooo!). It's actually a pretty decent article......

A suspected gang member is in custody after shooting dead an East Palo Alto cop who was responding to a call about a disturbance at a taqueria. The cop had an Explorer Scout in his car on an officer ride-along when he was killed. The Explorer Scout, who was not injured, immediately called in for help and gave a detailed description of the killer. It's like the opposite of the lady who faked running the Boston Marathon -- a bus driver for the Santa Cruz Transportation Authority was arrested for fraud and grand theft, after his employer found out that despite claiming total disability and collecting workers' comp payments, he had actually run the Big Sur Marathon. No word on his time. And a man fleeing the cops in Rodeo, near Hercules, decided his best way out of his situation was to run onto I-80 (despite folks telling him it was a bad idea) where he promptly -- boom! -- got hit by a truck. He's now in the same hospital as the two people he attacked with a deadly weapon, and as soon as he gets better, will be booked for attempted murder. As the officer said, ""The gentleman decided to try it [running across the highway] and it didn't work out. It just is so idiotic." ...

With Dr. Hunter S. Thompson moving on to bigger and better things, writers, critics, stoners and other hangers-on are organizing tributes around the country and around the world. But we have a feeling that the only one Hunter himself would have attended would be right here in San Francisco at the Edinburgh Castle Pub. Sure, Jahn Wenner will probably throw some blockbuster event full of literary luminaries in New York, but we all know......