-- Sniff, sniff: contrary to other studies done, tina's use is at a "high plateau." [BAR] -- Bush, Nixon; Nixon, Bush. [Beyond Chron] -- Bill's Song: Walsh remembered. [Chron] -- Tim Goodman on Nancy's return in Weeds. Also, Mary-Louise Parker is just awesome, period. [Chron] -- SF tries killing the Great Pumpkin. Good luck with that. [ABC 7, via AP] -- SF gun shows -- wait for it -- under fire. [Examiner] -- AT&T......

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. Londonist HQ—that is to say, the city of London—was battered by heavy winds, making it a bad time to be a twelve-meter (nearly forty-foot) tall snowman. Still, not everyone decided to keep warmly covered. Meanwhile, back indoors, the Big Brother racism is now causing all kinds of headaches for international diplomats, and Londonist got into......

Hi, this is Jon and I'll be your new editor. Some of you might know me as the reactionary one, others of you might know me as the unsophisticated one, but most of you know me as the non-Rita one. I usually write about sports and politics with the occasional rant and review thrown in for good measure. As for where I sit on all the great social and cultural questions of the age, in an effort to show editorial transparency, I will admit that I go Christina over Britney, N'Sync over the Backstreet Boys, young Elvis over fat Elvis, Nirvana over Pearl Jam, the LoTR trilogy over the Star Wars trilogy, like both the English and American " the Office" equally, and think cats and dogs should just get along. Oh, and my favorite Beatle is John....

Madden's in the Hall Of Fame. The Raiders have committed their first false start penalties. The NFL's 2006 Preseason is underway. Let's move with all due speed to present the members of your San Francisco 49ers' 2006 Draft class....

Who saw Pearl Jam this week? With three sold out shows at Bill Graham Civic Center, at least a few of you must have been there. We braved the packed, sweaty, drunken crowd on Sunday night to remind ourselves why we’re really no fan of large venues. It was hard to see from any vantage point on the floor if you weren’t over six feet tall, and even if you found yourself a decent sight......

It must be pretty good to be Radiohead. Here they are, having survived three of the biggest disasters in rock band-ness-- fluky overplayed radio hit, dropping maybe possibly the greatest album in music history and the attendant ascension to Most Important Band in the World status that came with it, and the "let's kill off our popularity" reactionary arty album-- and survived. Not only survived, but could still sell out two shows at the Greek Theater in minutes and play to a totally adoring and loving crowd that are quite okay with the band going from spiky guitar epic to Kraftwerk-inspired electronica from song to song. And while they might no longer be the Most Important Band in the World, they are still the Most Interesting Band in the World and maybe possibly one epic song away from reclaiming the M.I.B.W title. Not bad for a band that's first hit was almost fifteen years ago. ...

How's this for a normal pre-teen existence: school, soccer practice, homework, gig with Pearl Jam. It's all in a day's work for the sisters in Smoosh. At the ages when most teenage girls are locked in their rooms distraught over the politics of popularity or some unrequited crush, Chloe (12) and Asya (14) are out in the proverbial garage writing edgy pop songs on keyboard and drums. The best part? It's not a novely act.......

LAist has so much fun this week! They go to E3, where they overhear the timeless remark "Man, this is where nerdy girls get laid." Is that a promise? They also give us this week's best CDs and make us realize that LA is the best place to use Zillow. Ah, Houstonist. They're biking to work, that is, if they can figure out how to get there. That's right, Mapquest says "Houston had the......

Torontoist throws down the gauntlet and challenges all comers: pillow fight, bitch. They also stand up for a fellow blogger taking heat from the TTC and welcome city-wide WiFi. SFist can finally admit it: It's possible that Bary Bonds juiced. Is Bay Area artist (tempted to put quotes around that) Thomas Kinkaid "kinda crappy" or "explosively crappy" or does he just like marking territory? SFist wonders. Technology comes in the form of new Mac goodness......

We personally think the whole "Top Whatever" lists thing to be totally overdone and usually laughably wrong. On the other hand, they are darn fun to ruminate over. Especially a particularly juicy one that hasn't been done before. Recently, USA Today put together a list of the "Top Twenty American Rock Bands." The top American band of all time, as voted by the readers? Pearl Jam. Something they got in part for "longevity" even though we thought they broke up in '95 or something (we kid! We know they're still around. It's just that they’ve been releasing the same half-assed disc for the past ten years). Of local interest is the fact that the Bay Area throws down and represents. In fact, four out of the twenty (well, actually, twenty-one but do we really want to include Bon Jovi?) all hail from our hallowed climes. Those bands? The East Bay's own Creedence Clearwater Revival (15, tied with Bruuuuuce!!!!!) and Metallica (12), the Dead (7), and clocking in as the highest ranked Bay Area band-- Journey (5). Don’t stop believing, indeed. For a bit of perspective, that's more great bands than Chicago (zero bands), Boston (one band), Seattle (three) and the mighty New York (three). Take that, Big Apple! The only area more rocking than the Bay Area is SoCal, with six, but there should be some sort of penalty incurred for giving us the Eagles. ...

Remember the nineties? Back when nobody knew Scott Weiland was a big junkie, but wondered why every single that Stone Temple Pilots came out with sounded like a song recorded by Nirvana or Pearl Jam? When the Internet was going to change the world for, the, uh, better? When Microsoft Windows was actually a useful operating system, and our major worry was whether or not Bill Clinton could keep his penis out of the mouths......

'Tis the season, already, for record companies to inundate the shelves of Target and Wal-mart with gift-worthy releases of greatest hits, Christmas collections, and repackaged favorites. You already know about the huge releases by Destiny's Child and Eminem, and we're betting that critics' darling Rufus Wainwright will be covered extensively elsewhere. Here are some of the releases that intrigued and amused us for the week of November 16th. In the "Best Of"s category, we recommend......

Madden's in the Hall Of Fame. The Raiders have committed their first false start penalties. The NFL's 2006 Preseason is underway. Let's move with all due speed to present the members of your San Francisco 49ers' 2006 Draft class. ...