Ah, today should be a citywide holiday, it really really should. December 5th marks the 74th anniversary of the end of Prohibition, just a tick of the geological clock since that final state (Utah, who else) grudgingly ratified the 21st Amendment. You couldn't really blame the Prohibitionists for their distaste for John Barleycorn. A flood of cheap corn whiskey in the early years of the nineteenth century changed the way an already soggy American......

-- Tease-O-Rama Meet 'N' Greet: Before the sluts of the weekend-long burlesque convention Tease-O-Rama have you sporting erections via cheeky performances, come meet them for an intimate night of, um, conversation. Also, '60s, '70s, and '80s will flood the dance floor care of the California Kid. Starts at 9 p.m. at Rickshaw Stop; $5. -- St .Francis Day Animal Blessing: Yeah, this sounds like the best thing, ever. Come get your dog or cat......

-- Peter Bjorn & John: That damn hipster cum first-dance-at-your-wedding song! Grrr. But if that's your bag, have at it. Show starts tonight at 8 p.m. at the Warfield, 982 Market; $25-$28. -- DJ Deezel and Another Jerk: Rock steady, punk, clever hits, dance-y tunes, and more flood the dance floor tonight -- plus comedy open-mike in the back room! -- starting at 9 p.m. at Annie's Social Club, 917 Folsom (at Fifth Street);......

Happy New Year everyone! What We Did On Our Christmas Vacation After having our plans to fly to Denver thwarted by a sinister snowstorm, we headed straight to Texas. We spent most of the time in Houston with our family and managed to type out our top 10 albums of '06 while our nephews watched "Pirates of the Carribbean" for the nth time. One night was spent in Austin with one of our favorite people......

That big storm that was supposed to hit yesterday is finally here. Which you could probably guess by the fact it's looking a little crappy out there-- it's grey, slightly cold, windy, and rain drops are falling on our heads. The storm is actually, as of this minute, pounding the North Bay and is about to pound San Francisco. ...

Daniela Kirshenbaum of Fog City Journal raises a question that's bugged us for years, mainly why is it everytime it rains we get instantly flooded? For those of you who lived in any part of the country that wasn't San Francisco (or California for that matter), you can attest that when it rains, there's minimal flooding (except, of course, for when it rains a lot and you get actual flooding). What we mean is that any normal rainstorm doesn't cause huge puddles of rain that flood up streets and sidewalks. It seems that it doesn't take much for any sort of rainstorm to cause the flooding. ...

If we ever host a World Series of San Francisco Pop Culture contest, we're totally asking the question "Who's Laurie Beijen?" Ms. Beijen is, of course, the well-connected bride who made Gavin Newsom move last year's Cow Hollow ski jump event because she had a wedding planned at Flood Mansion the day it was originally set (August 27, 2005). And we can't think of a nicer anniversary present to get Laurie Beijen than the news......

Tired of squishy socks? You and the rest of the Bay Area -- today's wet weather makes it 25 days of rain in a 30-day month, making March 2006 the rainiest March in San Francisco since the meteorologists started keeping track. The previous wettest SF March was back in 1904, with a mere 23 days of rain. And if SF gets more than half an inch of rain today (looking outside our window, seems pretty likely), we'll also break the record for the most amount of rainfall in March (previous record set in 1983), with over 9 inches of water falling from the sky this month. Oakland has also set a record for March with 21 days of rain this month. Their previous March record was back in 1980, with 20 days of rain. (Wonder why it didn't rain so much in Oakland back in 1904?) And the rain in San Jose today should tie that city's previous March record of 21 days of rain in 1981. No stats were given for Marin, but a mudslide in Sausalito and flood warnings for the North Bay have them on edge too. The rain's predicted to keep coming down for through next week. ...

Craigslist trollers, such as us, oftentimes wonder how much thought goes into these values. For some goods, such as cars and baseball cards there are places to get rough estimates. But what about other goods? How does one tell which scary doll is $150 dollars, $1 dollar or $250 dollars? There is an old adage that something is worth what somebody is willing to pay for it. Unfortunately, that really does not help that much......

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is warning residents in low lying areas that the expected rain for this and next weeks may lead to property damage and flooding. The PUC has mobilized teams to go out and check on storm drains and catch basins to ensure none are blocked (report clogged or non-draining sewers at 415-28-CLEAN), and has prepared information on how to protect yourself in case of flooding. Check it out: "For......

While cruising our feeds for sexy items for our other gig, we stumbled across this little tryst in the blogosphere's bushes [NSFW]:I was scheduled to judge a "Halloween Underwear Contest", but the club owner gave the promoter, Sean Masters, the green light to let the party get as risque as he wanted...The party lasted till 3 am with reports of a former candidate for San Francisco Supervisor naked on the stairway and full on......

So now that Laurie Beijan had her dream wedding at Flood Mansion uninterrupted by cries of "Tubular!" from outside -- what's going on with Jonny Moseley's ski jump plans now? The good folks of Pacific Heights called a public meeting yesterday, where some interesting things were said. On the one hand, there was the angry resident at Fillmore and Green, who says, "For my 30th birthday, I went to Mexico, got drunk, and learned how to surf. It didn't affect anyone." (Huh. Mexico.) On the other, there was the passionate Iranian immigrant who asked, "I can't help but wonder if there is a starving child in Africa or Taiwan who will watch this event and be drawn to San Francisco to make it their home." (Taiwan is actually doing OK on food these days, but thanks for asking). However, everyone agreed that no matter what happened, San Francisco is at least better than the rest of the country: "It is events like this that distinguish us from Kansas City, which is flat in every way," said one person, who said we had to have the jump so our city wouldn't be "boring." And all agreed that no matter what happened, it was probably the city government's fault as well. "This company went through San Francisco and got the proper permits. We should be angry at The City, not this company," said another resident. Icer is hoping to have the ski jump in Pac Heights still, on Sept. 29. ...

Breaking homosexual news! According to Equality California, Arnold has requested that gay leaders meet with him next week to discuss several issues, including the marriage bill. Backers of AB 849 delayed sending it to the governor for his promised veto, hoping that their constituents would flood his office with messages of support for marriage equality -- maybe it worked? Who knows. Anyway, we're sure Arnold's looking forward meeting with gays, since, you know, rumor......

It's easy to make fun of Sean Penn. We've done our fair share of it in the past, in fact. But you gotta give Sean credit for being a man of action. It's all too easy to go on Larry King and break down in tears while telling people how great you are for donating a million dollars, and sort of easy to tell an entire live audience that "George Bush Hates Black People" (which we thought was totally awesome), but that's not how Sean rolls. Instead, the dude saw what was going on with the flood, flew out with a bunch of people (including a photographer), got himself on a boat and rescued a bunch of people. Gave them money even. How can you make fun of that? We can't even make fun of him for not plugging a hole in his boat and having to row the thing for most of the way. Nicely done, Sean. ...

Gav really just cannot make up his mind! After first saying he'd think about moving the Jonny Moseley birthday party ski jump to an eager and enthusiastic Potrero Hill, he's now all like, oh, it's gotta be on Fillmore after all. "I can't imagine a more idyllic location to showcase San Francisco." Aw, come on, Gav! We know you used to rep District 2 so you've got a soft spot, but the neighborhood at the other end of the 22 line is even hillier, has just as pretty views of a bridge (okay, it's the blue one and not the red one, but still) and the city skyline, has better parking, and -- actually seems enthusiastic about hosting! Compare this to the griping 94115ers, all like, "will this block our sewer drain" and "I have been planning my wedding ever since I was a little girl and when I light my unity candle I don't want people to be shouting out 'whooooooo!' outside." (FYI: if you're thinking about crashing Ms. Beijan's wedding to her pollster fiance this Saturday, she's getting bouncers.) Plus, the bars in Potrero are so much better than the bars in Cow Hollow for Jonny Moseley's 30th birthday party celebrations. Mike at Potrero Hill SF is starting a letter-writing campaign to Gavvy-Gav to get him to reconsider -- sign on! Picture from the Red Bull street luge competition in Potrero....

This just in! Newsom cancelled Jonny Moseley's 30th birthday party. Look at bummed-out Jonny over there -- doesn't he look kind of like Matty Gonzalez at that angle? Just a little bit? Newsom, always hedging his bets, said he was cancelling the event despite his own personal enthusiasm for it, mostly because of community concerns. The community (i.e., the monks, the Pacific Heights homeowners' association, and that extremely stressed-out Flood Mansion bride) are probably thrilled. All's not lost, though -- they could still maybe move it to Potrero! Picture from ABC 7 News...

A little birdy tells us that the cable channel LOGO is now available in San Francisco on Comcast's digital line-up on channel 146! We'd like to think the flood--FLOOD!--of emails to Comcast that resulted from our post about it yesterday are partly to blame. According to this press release, Comcast will be adding the channel to its "Digital Plus" cable line-up in several markets over the next 90 days. Unfortunately for SFist, our cable......

A weekly review of high class wine tastings with appetizers of cured meats and various cheeses. Just replace the wine with dive bar-Pabst Blue Ribbon and the meats and cheese with one of those 'jerky cheddar' combo packs from the corner store. Brought to you each week by barrespondent Drew. Several areas throughout the city could be referred to as 'pitstop' locales, their primary purpose being to provide a slight rest when you're on your......

Ah, it’s raining today and for those of us working, nothing quite sums up the first day back after the holidays like it being grey and miserable outside. It looks like it’s going to be grey and miserable for awhile as five-day forecasts call for rain, rain, and more rain. When it rains, there’s nothing quite like the high-comedy that comes with watching the local news broadcasts as they spend what always feels like......