A harrowing scene was captured on tape recently as ranch dressing and ketchup duked it out on the Dolores Park playground. Ranch, the clear winner since it's the superior condiment, was minding its own business when ketchup began to harass Ranch for, presumably, hanging out in his skivvies on the fruit shelf and getting stoned. Actually, it's all part of Hidden Valley Ranch's campaign to become to the ketchup. Yes, it's an ad campaign and, yes, we are falling for it because, again, we love Ranch dressing. It should be on everything. more ›

Huh. This is awkward. Now that no other team wanted to sign Alex Smith, just like SFist's own Daisy Barringer predicted, and the 49ers tried (unsuccessfully) to woo Peyton Manning, Smith resigned from looking elsewhere and then re-signed with the 49ers. Hurray? more ›

In the ongoing saga swiming around the lagoon at the Palace of Fine Arts: Bella, the orphaned, injured and recently rehabbed Palace swan has been ousted from the lagoon. Bella's brother and sister-in-law have been in something of a fowl mood lately, likely due to long nights spent caring for their three-week-old cygnet Martha. more ›

Yesterday Chron's City Insider waded in to the lagoon at the Palace of Fine Arts where Bella, the injured mute swan who spent the last month and a half in rehab up in Point Reyes, once again graced the waters with her presence. With her webbed foot all healed up, Bella joins her brother Blue Boy and his new beau Blanche as they start to raise their newborn ball of downy fluff Martha who was born on Memorial Day. But it might not be all domestic bliss for the swan family. As Bay City New reports this morning, Blue Boy could be getting territorial now that he's got a cygnet to look after. more ›

Adding a pinch of media drama to your Wednesday, SF Weekly scribe Erin Sherbert goes after her former employer, SF Examiner, accusing the editorial staff of sexism. It seems that the last nine hires in the Ex's newsroom have been all men -- white men, to be exact. more ›

Billed as one of the youngest (and refreshingly stylish) megachurch pastors in the country, Steven Furtick of Elevation Church in Charlotte, N.C. sent out the following Twitter message for disgraced Family Radio minister Hardold Camping: more ›

Momofuku chef David Chang is in hot water again. This time for taking to Twitter with his sassy ways to rail against Serious Eats scribe J. Kenji Lopez-Alt who bemoaned the chef for charging $5 for a Coca-Cola. The nerve. Gothamist explains: more ›

Yesterday, onetime San Francisco mayor and bon vivant Willie Brown penned his most (in)famous article yet, "If diners have to wait, the restaurant should pay." That he's so blunt and Willie Brown-ish makes the entire thing so richly satisfying, especially for those of us who follow Brown's antics. more ›

At last night's victorious playoff game, a mini brouhaha went down in McCovey Cove, drama that started in September after a pro-Johannes Mersherle hoisted up during a Giants game. more ›

Aside from a few vague Facebook messages sent to us that went nowhere, we do not know much about Michael Murphy, SF Chronicle food critic Michael Bauer's boyfriend. However, according to Grub Street, Richie Nakano, Hapa Ramen chef and linecook415 blogger, does. Allegedly. See, a bit of a he-said/he-said dust-up occurred over the weekend, complete with accusations of unprofessional shit-talking and other delightful behavior. more ›

Dude. more ›

During this weekend's state Democratic convention in Sacramento, Gavin Newsom took aim at 71-year-old attorney general Jerry Brown. Newsom, who officially tossed his hat into the gubernatorial ring last week, told the crowd that the race for governor came down to a choice between a "sprint into the future" (i.e., Gav) or "a stroll down memory lane" (i..e, Brown, who earned the moniker "Governor Moonbeam" when he held the job way back in the 1970s). While not directly calling out Brown, who wants the job again in 2010, Newsom went on to say, "We're not a state of memories ... We're a state of dreams. We're Californians. We're not content to relive history. We're going to keep making it." In related news, an advisor for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, another contender in the Democratic primary for governor, slammed Newsom, saying Villaraigosa would not "Twitter while Rome burns" if he were elected. Ouch. more ›

Another day, another bit of Yelp drama for you to chew on. This most recent morsel comes to us care of Timothy Holt, owner of Weird Fish and The Corner, claims he's "done with Yelp." Why? Well, it seems that last year, Halt posted a review on Yelp, thanking customers for their kind words and patronage. (An aside: We strongly recommend both establishments. Then again, any place serving fried pickles gets an A+ in our book.) This weekend, after allegedly refusing to advertise on the review-based site, Yelp pulled Halt's post as well as five positive reviews. Zoinks. Eater's Paolo Lucchesi says, "[I]it's one thing to crack down on shilling, but removing year-old reviews after a refusal to advertise? That's poor form at best, extortion at worst." But what say you? more ›

Seeing as how the entire American Apparel-on-Valencia brouhaha was traffic gold -- and the Gate/Chron is on no financial position to turn down traffic -- it seemed like writing about the AA store meeting at City Hall was a given for most local pubs. Today, after reading a Tweet asking if the Chronicle planned on covering yesterday's American Apparel planning commission meeting, we asked political scribe Carla Marinucci and editor Audrey Cooper the following. more ›

Goodness, it's been quite an enthralling day, hasn't it? The tale of the cheap patrons versus the cranky House of Shield bartender got many of us hot and bothered. And in an effort to pour fuel on that fire -- oh, you're welcome - we contacted both the House of Shields' owner, the awesomely-named Schlomo Rabinowitz, and the anonymous bar patron who spent much of last night digging glass out of her foot. more ›

Internet drama of the hair-pulling, eye-scratching, and feline variety is always high quality entertainment. And today Yelp has it in spades. more ›