We gasped at the sight: the San Francisco Public Library's Bookmobile cozying up to our favorite El Tonayense truck on Harrison near 20th. Now we truly have everything we need. Well, almost. Maybe the folks at Cafe Gratitude will let us us the restroom. A recent ">Los Angeles Times op-ed called taco trucks "oases of meat and cheer in the night" -- an allusion, perhaps, to those famous early lines of Virgil's Aeneid: The......

Are you a poet? Do you know it? (Ouch.) Well, Poets Eleven, a citywide poetry contest showcasing prose created by residents of each of San Francisco's 11 districts, above, is now accepting submissions. You work will be scrutinized by San Francisco Poet Laureate Jack Hirschman, so snap on your thinking and creativity caps, kids. Local poets are asked to submit up to three works for review. Mr. Hirschman, we're told, is interested in pieces......

Starting sometime in April, library books will be available at Contra Costa County BART stations via "ATM style lending machines." A new program called Library-a-Go-Go, along with the Contra Costa County Library, will allow BART riders to simply swipe a card, select a book, wait for said book choice to drop, and then return the book after the rider is finished reading their literary gem. The machines will "hold around 400 popular and best-selling......

New feature alert, folks! Ever want to know more about your local library? Or anything about libraries of the world. The art of receiving a masters in library sciences? Or why people use the Main Library bathroom as their own personal, um, spa? Well, send us your bibliotech-y questions. We've got a real-life librarian who will answer your many queries about documentation, fact-finding, library culture, annals, stacks, record-keeping, donations, cruising, Internet usage etiquette at......

Ever since the SFist Reads column turned us back onto the awesomeness of checking books out of the SF Public Library, we've been big fans of the First Stop area of the Main Library, where the library put all their books they'd acquired in the last two years. We've spent many a pleasant few hours checking out the latest memoirs, or all the books in the 300 section, or randomly pulling out titles in the......

We came back from taking down the recycling yesterday evening to find we had locked ourselves out of our apartment. "Noooo!!" [Insert Emo Darth Vader ballad here. Warning -- audio.] We dialed the apartment manager on the call-box but got his voice mail. Lucky for us, the manager, who wouldn't be back until 10:00, called our s.o., who wouldn't be back until 8:00, and our s.o. called our friend who lives a few blocks away.......

Oh, this looks like fun. While hogging the Internet today, we came across this Yahoo group for the homeless, which bills itself as a "unique, independent, community based support group, moderated by anonymous homeless and formerly homeless volunteers, in San Francisco, California." It's great. The homeless or lease signers among us can send them tips, blow whistles, upload real photos of meals served in several shelters, see photos of health and hygiene conditions at......

The cold weather - and holiday festivities - descended upon Gothamist. The Rockefeller Christmas tree was lit, Broadway stagehand finally ended their strike, and NASCAR decided to run their victory lap through Times Square. There were disturbing photographs revealing the working conditions in which many city manholes are produced and ninjas were also a hot topic, either robbing homes or entering into alibis. But the city was really rocked by how Rudy Giuliani's visits......

Yesterday, Mayor Newsom signed into action the Tommy Ammiano-introduced legislation that requires the city to handout ID cards to undocumented immigrants and other residents who either can't or just won't apply for driver's licenses. The good news is that these IDs will help (formerly) undocumented residents gain access to the wonderful world of banking, a sense of peace before calling the fuzz, as well as "health services at city-run clinics, public library privileges, and resident discounts at museums and other cultural institutions." (Entry fee discounts at the Exploratorium: the American dream realized.) ...

-- Should MUNI boss Nate Ford get a raise? Gavin says sure. [N Judah Chronicles] -- Starting the holiday season later to get shoppers in the stores? Genius! [Tim] -- "Joe Alioto-Veronese doesn't belong on the same stage as Leno or Migden." Heh. [SFBG] -- Your Street on YourStreet. [The Snitch] -- And finally, a (used?) condom on a MUNI seat. [What I'm Seeing] -- Oakland Tribune editor succumbs to cancer. [Oakland Tribune] --......

Unidentified Women On Horseback In Golden Gate Park, October 29, 1934 San Francisco Public Library Historical Photograph Collection We’re all for citizenship and all—we would even consider ourselves to be citizenship geeks. We love voting (of course) and jury duty (jury opportunity, we like to call it). We love the Post Office and even the DMV (especially those the traces of the Eisenhower era that remain here and there in those temples of citizenship…......

Proposition D is a library bond initiative. Let's be clear: we love the public library. Sure, the main building is a little weird looking and they've been restoring it for two years and it functions as a daytime homeless shelter, but...everything in there is free, and if you are trying to find something, the staff knows pretty much everything. The city library is a fantastic resource, and functions a heckuva lot better than, oh,......

Slide from the State of the City Address (pdf of full slideshow here) "Statistical tools and methods, like many other technologies, can be employed either for social good or for evil" (the American Statistical Association’s Ethical Guidelines for Statistical Practice). Unfortunately for us, we’ll never know the difference: Darryl Huff’s classic How to Lie with Statistics is, at the moment, unavailable at the San Francisco Public Library. The probability of this occurrence is… you......

The SF Public Library's holding a good old-fashioned photo drive! One day only! Today! They're looking to add to their Historical Photograph Collection, and they need your help -- but heterosexuals need not apply. Ha ha, just kidding, heterosexuals can help too! But seriously, they don't want pictures of straight people. The "Shades of LGBTQI" project is looking for donations from the community; they want photographs -- physical or digital -- that have something......

Hey, wouldn't it be neat if you could sign up for a weekly email newsletter that let you know when Muni closures would be happening? Well you CAN! If you're a member of the press. Towards the end of every week, Muni sends out an email to reporters about weekend traffic and transit disruptions. It's kind of like Muni's own little guide to what's happening around town, and what's fun to do if you......

Beware: staring tonight at precisely 7:30 p.m. the undead will gather around the Double L Gyratory Undead Attractor and wreak havoc around the city. Might you be one of them? Horrors! Double beware: tonight's march of the dead will take place near the SF Main Library where the San Francisco Mayoral debate will be in progress. We'd hate to think that any of you interrupted the Mayoral shenanigans -- bringing tears to the eyes......

At Pine and Divisadero on Wednesday afternoon, a man severely slashed a woman with a box cutter (some reports we saw said she might die, while others said the wounds were not life-threatening); the cops subsequently caught him. A police officer in Oakland shot a man to death yesterday afternoon at 54th and MLK, where a number of shootings have occurred recently. The officer confronted the man for reasons that they declined to specify to......

This 4-bedroom, 5-bathroom house helped to land 94123 on Forbes’ Most Expensive Zip Codes list - #55 to be exact. At 2500 Lyon Street, you can live right down the street from Gordon Getty and Larry Ellison. How fun! The property lies at the entrance to the Lyon Street steps and boasts “abundant with rich and opulent architectural detailing and superb Bay views.” Not expensive enough for you? Coldwell Banker lists another 94123 gem......

Tom Ammiano announced a plan yesterday to give city IDs to those who don't have IDs, mainly immigrants-- legal or otherwise. The idea, pushed by immigrant advocates, will allow those without an ID to be given access to a whole range of city services they would not normally be open to, including health care, library privileges, and the ability to use municipal golf courses. Ammiano also said he's going to work with financial institutions to let people use the Ids to open accounts. ...

In today's world of Xtube and the like, Dennis Saunders -- Healdsburg's very own convicted peeping Tom, whose stash was confiscated by the police -- now wants his pornographic material back. And as one commenter pointed out on SF Gate, "Who in their right mind will pay for porn this day and age?" Really, who would nowadays? And more to the point, who prefers videos and magazines to the clean and ease of blue......

Today was the annual blessing day for taxis and taxi drivers across SF. (Wait, magic water on Yellow Cab? No! Yellow Cab should burn in the hell!) "Twenty-six drivers" have died on the job since 1947, which is, like, totally sad, but we love the Examiner's dismissive tone about said statisitc, saying "[t]hat's just over one death every two years." A mere drop in the bucket, really. (Hey, come write for SFist, anonymous Examiner......

Oh, Berkeley law professor and torture-sanctioner John Yoo's not going to be happy about this (or maybe he will be!) -- Cal has tentatively agreed to accept a controversial collection of paintings by Colombian artist Fernando Botero, based on the Abu Ghraib photographs that repulsed the world. Botero showed the paintings at Berkeley earlier this year at the Doe Library, to large crowds, and in April, emailed Berkeley's Center for Latin American Studies to say......

-- Scott McCloud: Experimental and wildly popular comic artist and novelist (Making Comics) speaks tonight at "Evolution of the American Comic Book". Rory Root (owner, Comic Relief) and Andrew Farago (curator, Cartoon Art Museum) also speak. Starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Commonwealth Club, 595 Market; $7-$20. -- End of Summer Slam Jam for Teens: Are there words prettier than "back to school"? Maybe. But when we start seeing back-to-school commercials and such, we......

-- Marga Gomez: Multiaward-wining lesbian/Latina comic makes her Plush Room debut with Joshua Raoul Broday on the ivories, and former Mornings on 2 personality and comedian, Mark Pitta. Show starts at 8 p.m., the Empire Plush Room, 940 Sutter; $20. -- Hard Eight (aka Sydney): Before making Magnolia, the sprawling masterpiece about fate and The Valley, Paul Thomas Anderson made his debut with Hard Eight. The visibly-boney Gwyneth Paltrow plays a cocktail waitress/whore in......

arlyck, following-sean, pov, pbs...

Photo of Harry Potter translations at the Main Public...

Photos of the Harry Potter's Knight Bus in Civic Center...

Just in case you think baseball is the only thing going on in this city right now, it most certainly is not. The latest Harry Potter franchise will hit you soon and hard. And we thought it would be imperative to point out an alternative and Potter-related event for the kiddies -- especially for your little blessings who, say, can't catch a ball, if you know what we're saying. Anyway, check it: The purple......

Man, we were reading the Chron on the plane out of San Francisco on July 4 for vacation, balling our fists in frustration over missing the stories on Ed Jew's "part-time lover" response to the City Attorney's allegations AND the story about Aaron Peskin's zinger to Dianne Feinstein about her strange letter complaining about Chris Daly. No fair! (but thank you, SFist Jer, for covering it for us while we were gone!) Well, even......

Hey, SFist Krissy already told you about this, but we're going to remind! Go to the Benefit to Save Internet Radio at the Bottom of the Hill tonight. Bagel Radio Ted and SoMa FM Elise from SoMa FM are picking the tunes, and a bunch of favorite local bands will play too. 1233 17th St (x Connecticut), 6 p.m., and $3 (but give more). Other events: --The Fillmore Jazz Festival continues all day today (10-6)......