Yes, making fun of the wealthy is a tired and easy target -- if anything we totally want to befriend the ultra-rich with the hope that they might pay our always-late rent and maybe for the occasional Kobe beef dish. You know, for kicks. And we sort of dig the new Ritz-Carlton residental and club and whatever building on Market and Third Streets, and kind of wish we could stow ourselves up on the......

Week Around The -Ists...

Revel in it Bay Area NBA fans: this year the Western Conference playoffs mean something, because for the first time in 13 years, the hometown Warriors are part of the party.

So let's take a quick drive down the lane and see what the Warriors are going to have to deal with as they knife their way to the Finals. (Yeah, we know, but just roll with the sentiment. It's been 13 years and there's an abundance of pent-up enthusiasm to be dissipated.)

Here's a roundup of sports news...

Total number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 58. Number of people pictured whom we recognize: 12. (There's a big party for the Legion of Honor's "Masterpieces of French Jewelry" show with all the Swells A names, along with Ross Mirkarimi and a bunch of Asian-Americans at a party for Norm Mineta.) Minority count: 24.1% (14). Getty v. Traina: 3-4 (not counting multiple mentions. Counting every mention, it's 11-8, with Dede and......

Fist Rita is on a well-deserved holiday break so we apologize ahead of time for this week's suckage. Total number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 48...

Let's cut right to the chase: the Warriors are completely outmanned in this division. That's the bad news. The good news is that they have a decent chance of not finishing last, again.

Fear the Lakers. This is Phil Jackson's second season in his second stint with the Los Angeles Lakers, and we can just feel all the pieces coming together for him, bad hip and all. Kobe will be Kobe, which is a good base, but look for Lamar Odom to have a two-handed tomahawk of a year. In the other corner of the triangle, well, that's why the Lakers are going to be really tough this year. They have several guys that can step in and be the number three man. Luke Walton, Aaron McKie, Vladimir Radmanovic, even Maurice Evans can be that missing final ingredient.

Dujuan Wagner, Adonal Foyle, and Zarko Cabarkapa are riding the pine in suits tonight. For the opposition Lakers, Kobe won't play, and Phil Jackson, Kwame Brown, and Aaron McKie, and Chris Mihm may not even make the trip. JRich is probable, maybe, hopefully.

Another meaningless preseason game? Nope, it's opening night tonight for the Warriors at the Oracle. Here's everything you need to know, from the Warriors perspective, and from ours....

Last night we featured the cross bay rivalry of Taste events, and tonight, we've got two art auctions. When we see things like this, we wonder whether the organizers of said events check each others' calendars, as we have learned through painful experience that we can't be everywhere at once. Perhaps an evite is called for in these circumstances. First, in the East Bay, The Oakland Art Gallery's DRAWN, a fundraiser sale and art......

Even though Larry Brown hasn't been officially fired from his job as coach of the New York Knickerbockers, rumors are already growing that his next coaching destination will be here in Oaktown, as head coach of the Golden State Warriors. We have no idea if there's any dint of truth out there about the rumors and think it's probably just wild speculation due to the fact that Golden State is one of the few remaining NBA teams who Larry hasn't coached yet. He is also neighbors of Warriors owner Chris Cohan in East Hampton. Still, there's enough out there to have message boards full of stories that everyone in Golden State has been fired or at least Brown has already been hired or that Brown was about to fired except Mullin objected and so now Mullin might be fired. ...

In a move sure to shock the world of San Francisco advertising, Frank Chu has left his current sponsor, Barbary Coast Consulting for Adidas. Yep, first there was Mars Blackmon, then L'il Penny, and now Frank. The advertiser, an Adidas store that's advertising a new shoe (we'd say who they were, but then we would be playing into their little hands), bought exclusive advertising rites to the sign and also gave Frank some new sneaks. No word as to whether the sneakers he got were black and blue for when he likes to chill or yellow and green for when it's time to get ill. SFist thinks it's great that Frank is selling only exclusive sponsorships as it shows that members of the Zegnatronic Society have real integrity. We'd hate to see Frank walking around looking like one of those NASCAR drivers with logos on every inch of his well-worn suit. SFist wonders, however, if this is the start of something new. Shoe commercials? A shoe named after him (Air Chu?). Hell, Kobe has an Adidas shoe named after him and he blew up the Lakers. Even Frank knows you can't win without Shaq Diesel. ...

SFist has done their fair share of snarking on the Warriors in the past and feels kind of bad about it. It was just too darn easy, kicking that dog when they were down. But things have changed since then. The Warriors are h-o-t hot right now, hotter than leather chaps-wearing Jessica Alba dancing on a stripper pole. Well, not that hot, but you get our drift. Last night, the Warriors beat the Seattle SuperSonics 101-92 to win their fifth in a row, their longest winning streak of the year. And that's Seattle, as in Division Winning, possible title contending Seattle. Of course, as Ray Ratto pointed out, we've been here before and we're still talking about a team that's once more going to go to David Stern's little game show he likes to call the NBA Lottery Draft, but something feels different this time around. We are, after all, talking about a team that was well out of it months ago but is suddenly playing with a fire, passion, and energy usually not seen in these here parts....

Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, the Warriors won last night, defeating the Denver Carmelo Anthony’s 107-97 at the Arena Nobody Can Sell the Naming Rights To in Oakland. The game ended the Warriors nine-game losing streak and also marked the return of Jason Richardson, who led the way with 42 points. Lest we get all over-excited about this, the Nuggets were down three major players last night due to various suspensions. They have also......

Being Jewish, we made our peace with not celebrating the holidays a long time ago. Frankly, it’s kind of fun to be around the city during Christmas- there’s nobody around and it’s all sorts of peacefull and quiet. Best part of the holidays is that since nobody is around, if you feel like not wanting to do anything for three days other than lie around in your underwear eating nachos and watching football (or,......