The SF Zoo is mourning the death of Pogo, one of the oldest gorillas at the zoo, who had been suffering declining health over the past few years. Pogo seems to have been subjected to a fair amount of anthropomorphism, in the way that only happens with loved animals -- she liked to read National Geographic (but the zookeepers didn't show her nature videos, because they thought they were too violent), loved to dress up, and they called her a "woman's libber" for her assertive nature. Pogo never bred ("she doesn't like boy gorillas"), but loved babies, and was found in her cage Wednesday morning, clutching a baby doll. In Hakuna Matata news, though, while there was another mysterious death at the zoo over the weekend (of a black swan), two baby giraffes were born. The circle of life! more ›

Apparently, Caltrans is gearing up to begin repair work on the disheveled Devil's Slide this week, but they're not offering any estimates as to when the road might once again be open to traffic. The official, public position is that the picturesque but perpetually rubbly stretch of Hwy 1 that links Pacifica to the coastal communities is "closed indefinitely." Hmm, that sounds like a long, long time.

But take heart Coastsiders, while dining in North Half Moon Bay on Saturday night, SFist learned through firsthand hearsay, relayed from a source that we were assured was "totally connected," that the latest insider estimate for the reopening of Devil's Slide is sometime around the Fourth of July. For coastal denizens about ready to lose their mother freakin' minds, this should offer some solace. We looked it up -- in the Thanks for Nothing category, two months does in fact beat boundless eternity.

Traffic, already straining the limits of the coastside's underdeveloped infrastructure under normal conditions, has been at DEFCON 5 since the Slide was closed to traffic on the evening of Sunday, April 2. Because Hwy 92 is now the only viable route in or out of a host of coastal towns from Montara to Pescadero, it's not a pretty sight during commute hours. And that's just down in Half Moon Bay. For upper coastsiders in El Granada, Moss Beach, Princeton, and Montara, it's worse. On April 3, the first day that Devil's Slide was closed, it was taking commuters an hour to move between the two El Granada stoplights on Hwy 1, a distance of about half a mile. Many commuters are now getting up before 5:00 a.m. just to have a shot at making it to work in under two hours.

We'll start with the fun stuff. Beth Spotswood manages to score the hottest ticket in town, and returns with an "Only in San Francisco" review of . Distraught after the loss of the Hayes Green temple? SF Mike finds solace at the festive Marlena's. SF Leef, on the other hand, is a little jealous of the new 826 Valencia satellite store themes. And remember, kids, Santarchy comes but once a year! more ›

Gavin considering a run for governor? The SF Call closing its doors? Frankly, for us, it's harder to believe that SFist Derrick tossed cucumber and pasta with butter for a dish. Cooking cucumber? The mind boggles. more ›

Here's the thing: We are Breakfast Eaters, and we are drinkers, so the words "champagne brunch," once they enter our brain, tend to stay there, ping-ponging around and popping out anytime the old "what do you want to eat? I don't know, what do YOU want to eat?" conversation starts up (again). We swear, the one at Mandalay Bay is half the reason we go to Vegas so damn much (the other half being, of course, the roulette tables and the cold, cold Heinekens consumed at table's edge). We spied these magical words on a roadside sign for the Moss Beach Distillery many moons ago, and have not been able to get rid of them since. Two weeks ago Sunday, we finally managed to wheedle our dining companion into going there with us by offering to use our Christmas money from our grandparents (thanks, Nean & Kelly!) to underwrite its $27.50/person price tag. Rawk! more ›

We were shanghaiied in the best possible way yesterday, getting into our friend's car after lunch at the Slow Club. A spontaneous decision was made to go south, and we had a mini-vacation of one drink at the Moss Beach Distillery in Pacifica. By the end of the night we were hanging out at a Korean hostess bar in the Richmond, smoking cigarettes and listening to Aretha Franklin. Needless to say, this post is a day late and more than a few dollars short... more ›