Hey, have you seen all those annoying "Let's meet at Starbucks" adverts? Quite irritating. Well, SBUX is indeed bringing folks together -- in a way they may not be too happy about. many businesses and residents in the Inner Richmond are protesting via petition an invasion of one of Starbuck's nigh ubiquitous stores....

Last week's winner, the SF Weekly! Letters from people who say they are not in a cult. An article about former SFist editor Eve Batey's promotion at the Chron! Go Eve! Also, they called us a "sassy" local blog. We loved Sassy! Cover article: A guy who makes money suing small businesses under the ADA. A review of the Kiki & Herb show. The Simpsons movie is okay. Meredith didn't much like her North Beach......

Sounds like a cosmo-swillin' kind of event: entertaining local female writers like Beth Lisick and Kim Wong Keltner (among others) are reading from a collection of essays entitled The Bigger The Better The Tighter The Sweater, about the hilarity of body image issues. Also: gift baskets and free eyebrow waxing! The event's sponsored by Green Apple, so the reading's at the Rockit Room, one block down the street (406 Clement, x 6th). 7 p.m., free.......

(A little late, because we're fixing our servers around here today.) Total number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 70. Number of people pictured whom we recognize: 8 (including Charlotte Maillard Shultz, Stephan Jenkins, and a certain precious Bumblebee!) Minority count: 7 (10%). Getty v. Traina: 1-3, with Gettys represented by Swells stalwart Gavin Newsom. Bumblebee sightings: 2! Ms. Jennifer Siebel attended a benefit party/auction for Tipping Point, and will also be......

We're getting so upset to have to keep writing the same post over and over again -- yet another San Francisco independent bookstore is shutting its doors. This time, it's the not-so-long-ago opened Cody's SF, next to the Virgin Megastore in Union Square, who made it about a year and a half before the news today. Is that retail space cursed or what? The store's last day will be April 20, but the Cody's......

Call it the calm before the storm, or a brief respite from the dudely bravado of the District 6 and other election campaigning, but we are thrilled that we have multiple women's literature events to attend tonight: The Madrone Lounge (500 Divisadero at Fell) presents a joint reading with The May Queen contributors and editor Christina Amini and contributors from Before The Mortgage. The May Queen describes itself as a "fascinating collection of 27......

Renowned tattoo artist Don Ed Hardy is speaking at Mills College (5000 MacArthur Blvd.) in Oakland tonight at 7 pm in the Concert Hall. Besides inspiring the skin art and cover art of countless punk and rockabilly bands, Hardy is a painter and printmaker and has a line of clothing favored by celebrities like Larry King. Green Apple Books presents friend of SFist, Harmon Leon's book release event for "The Infiltrator: My Undercover Exploits......

Looking at the Green Apple site the other day, we were struck by their Staff Picks section, which describes said staff as "helpful and friendly book and music lovers without the indie attitude." Any reader of Box Office Poison (thanks for the recommendation, SFist Jeremy! We love it!) can tell you that working in a bookstore is oftentimes a thankless task. Props to those Green Apple kids, who do their jobs with a casual grace,......

Well, how nice! As we were diligently reading the weeklies on BART for tomorrow's post, we just happened to come upon (read: immediately turned to) the results for Best Local Blog: Reader's Poll (page 46 for you print fans), already writing the "We get beaten by DailyKos -- AGAIN" sentence in our mind. So you can only imagine our surprise to discover that your very own SFist actually won this year! Wow! Thanks for reading......

Where better than San Francisco institution Tosca for friend of SFist Harmon Leon, "poet and performer" Bucky Sinister, and one of our favorite local independent bookstores Green Apple Books to come together in one perfect night of literary misbehavior? That's right, Wednedsay at 7:30 it's Green Apple Books at Tosca (242 Columbus Avenue, as if you didn't know), with Harmon and Bucky celebrating the publication of Leon's book Republican Like Me: Infiltrating Red-State, White-Ass,......

We're a little anxious because our local branch of the SF Public Library is closing for renovations, so we will have to pick up our materials reserved online at a branch across the park from us. While we're over there maybe we'll hit Green Apple, one of our favorite local independent bookstores. When we last heard from SFist Jon, he was bemoaning the fact that he has yet to read War and Peace. Today,......