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......

Phillyist Jill (who compiles half of those Week Around The Ists posts for all of us in the Gothamist network) sends along some info about a nationwide memoir contest that they're sponsoring out of Philadelphia -- so those of you frustrated (or successful!) This American Life aspirants, start mining your childhood for poignantly-insightful anecdotes! This is all part of the autobiographical-supporting First Person Arts' Sixth Annual Memoir-Writing Contest, and this year's theme this year is......

In the excellent William Gibson novel Pattern Recognition, the main character has a panic attack every time she is confronted with the image of Bibendum, the Michelin Man. we don't really blame her, the early pics of him were pretty, well, not pretty. In that vein, we can only imagine the plotzing that's going on in some of the Bay Area's finest kitchens following the announcement that the revered Michelin Guide has chosen to focus......

Submissions go to yvesdroppings at gmail dot com. Fictitious dialogue and excerpts from fraudulent memoirs highly encouraged. Rachel sends the following: 21 Bus driver to hopeful passengers: "Hey folks, there's another 21 right behind me, we're full." Dude: "No WAY!" Bus Driver: "WAY!" followed by much laughter at the front of the bus. Aaaaand scene. Guy getting haircut: "You guys are great! I don't even have to tell you what to do. This is so......

SFist is saving money to buy holiday gifts by reserving books from the SF Public library instead of buying them. When we do buy, we do so from a local independent bookstore, of course. SFist Jackson is reading Brenda Maddox' Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA. We remember our high school genetics teacher mentioning her as someone who's contributions to the discovery of DNA's structure went unnoticed by the Nobel committee (Maurice Wilkins, who......