Our favorite part of the beginning of any sports season is scanning through magazine after magazine for previews of our favorite teams. What will the experts say? Is our team as good as we think it is? As bad? Should we have hope or despair? And who kidnapped Peter King and replaced him with some skinny dude? So this year, as we approach NFL '06, we read through the experts to see what they have to say about our two local teams. This year, they all pretty much said the same thing about both of our local teams. In fact, we could sum it up in two words: last place....

Relaxed from spending a week off in order to spike the Thanksgiving gravy with enough bourbon to kill Dennis Hopper, Barrespondent Drew dives right back into the San Francisco bar scene just in time for the peak drinking season. Alas, yet another old familiar bar has changed hands, been gutted of everything but the support beams and been completely redone. Following in the footsteps of places like Doctor Bombay’s, The Albion and Hush Hush......

We may kid the Chronicle every once in awhile, for, oh, laying people off, getting rid of good columnists, and shoddy editorial standards, but sometimes you gotta give credit where credit is due. Which is why we come today to praise the Chron, not bury it, because the Chron done good. And what did they do? Did they expose citywide government corruption? Highlight details of a poor and put-upon underclass? Get rid of the Night......