Now, why the heck would all these Republicans go Democrat? This is part of "The Plot." Instigated by Rush Limbaugh, the theory is that Hillary Clinton would be easier for Republican fave, John McCain, to beat at election time. By having Republicans voting for Hils in the primary instead of Barack Obama, this will help ensure that McCain will be the victorious one in the White House. Supposedly.

While you're not (technically) allowed to change party affiliations day of the primary -- protocol calls for one to sign a pledge card promising to support that party in the future -- the article reports that "dozens and dozens of Republicans scribbled addendums onto their pledges as new Democrats: 'For one day only.' 'I don't believe in abortion,'" and were rarely challenged by poll workers on their party change.

This certainly throws a twist into why Hillary won Ohio, doesn't it?

Picture of Ohio by Natalie Dee.

*CLUB: Check out Rock Out Karaoke over at Amnesia. What is Rock Out Karaoke? Well, it mean that you will hear neither a Righteous Brothers cover nor a note from everyone's least favorite musical, . And isn't that what you really want in a karaoke night? Of course it is. (Glenny Kravitz hosts.)

READING: Sorry to throw another Valencia Street happening your way, but: author and artist Ian Philips, of Suspect Thoughts Press, reads from his latest illustrated tome, The Rapture for Big Sinners: 66 + 6 Things to Do Before and After the Righteous Lift Off . Oh, and Michelle Tea recommends him, so he can't be all that bad. Head over to Dog Eared Books to check it out.

MUSIC: Howlin Rain describes themselves as "easy listening" rock -- our favorite kind! Catch them tonight over at Bottom of the Hill along with Enablers and East Bay Grease. (Failing that, Rush is over at the Sleep Train Pavilion in Concord!)

FILM: War vets take center stage at the Castro Theatre via screenings Cutter’s Way, where gigolo Jeff Bridges and crippled war vet John Heard plan "an audacious blackmail scheme," and Rolling Thunder, a "pitch-black coming home drama about a Vietnam vet seeking vengeance on a band of murderers."

The listed events were chosen by the editors of SFist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla.

In the middle part of the 19th century, a thick set of whiskers were an essential facial feature of every man of Victorian respectability.

These were not simply expressions of pride or masculine peacock vanity, but due to a whole rainbow of reasons, ranging from the fact that Man had been created in God's image, to the "fact" that beards protected the wearer against tuberculosis, and even that shaving led to immorality, murder, and suicide!

In the late 1880s, however, a movement began to sweep towards San Francisco from the far-off shores of Europe.

No, it wasn't Bolshevism -- anyway, not yet. In the words of historian Oscar Lewis, "It was no less than a world-wide agitation in favor of whiskerless waiters" ("Whiskerless Waiters" -- we respectfully offer that up as a name for an indie-rock band. No charge!)

But back to Gilded Age San Francisco.

Just about every high-falutin' eating establishment in town followed the new, hygienic fashion; the Poodle Dog, Maison Riche, all began featuring clean-shaven waiters. All of them, that is, except for William Sharon's Palace Hotel. The Palace remained proudly pro-moustache, in way that vividly recalls the social instability brought on by the Gold Rush:

"In the leading European hotels a waiter cannot wear a moustache, and the swell establishements in New York are imitating this fashion, but it will not do here. There is this difference: in Europe a man once a servant is always a servant, but in America the servant of today may be a millionaire tomorrow."

"We wouldn't try to enforce such a rule at the Palace. We have trouble enough without trying to bring (that) on!"

For those of you who don't care what happens to Pam and Jim:

-- 49ers Fan Night: Biggest 49ers fan ever, Bevan Dufty, invites you to celebrate football. In the Castro. 49ers alumni stars will be present, and Gold Rush cheerleaders will be on hand to sign calendars. In the Castro. Sounds like a homerun kind of night! Goes from 7 p.m.-9 p.m. at Mix, 4086 - 18th Street (at Castro); free.

-- Circle, Triclops!, Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound: Experimental rock, rock, metal rock, psychedelic rock, and Finish rock abound! Starting at 9 p.m. at Bottom of the Hill, 1233 - 17th Street; $10-$12.

-- Terminator 2: Judgment Day: The robot develops feelings. Aw. Thumbs up to you too, Arnold! Starts at 9:10 p.m. at the Castro Theatre, Castro & Market Streets; $6-$9.

-- Candye Kane: Jazzy blues singer/sex activist or bluesy jazz singer/sex activist? You make the call tonight at 8 p.m. at Biscuits & Blues, 401 Mason (at Geary); $12.50.


Alex Smith image: "Courtesy photo"

Every now and then, when the sand moves, you can see the remnants of shipwrecks on the shore of Ocean Beach -- and yesterday, folks enjoying the warm weather at low tide caught a glimpse of the remains of the clipper ship. A pirate ship? A tragic capsizing? What's the word?

Well, the King Philip sailed in the mid 1800s, and primarily carried guano or lumber. On its final voyage, it (she? Is the ship a she if it's/she's named after a male?) sailed to the Golden Gate to assist another ship in distress, but drifted loose of its/her anchor and ended up capsizing in Ocean Beach. All the sailors escaped safely.

The King Philip is usually underneath the sand, but was revealed once before in the 1980 El Nino. It's still visible as of the running of the story, but may get buried under the tide any moment now. So go check it out!

There are over 100 shipwrecks in the waters off the San Francisco Bay Area coast, including the Tennessee, a Gold Rush steamboat that sank in 1853 near Marin City, the Reporter, a schooner that sank in 1876 and whose remains are intermingled under 5 feet of sand with the King Philip on Ocean Beach, and the City of Rio de Janiero, which sank in 1901 off Point Diablo.

Picture of the King Philip ship from the National Park Service website.

Yesterday around lunchtime, these four members of the S.F. 49er Gold Rush cheerleading squad attracted more than a little bit of attention as they ventured from Civic Center. Last we saw, they were walking past residential hotels and heading into the Tenderloin.

A recent wave of immigration sweeps (or, as Indy Bay calls it "Gestapo Immigration Raiders") is creating a bit of a fuss not only in San Francisco but throughout the Peninsula and East Bay. There's talk of protests, organizing, sending out nasty press releases, and even the creation of new laws. In Redwood City, there's talk of creating an "Immigration Sanctuary" in San Mateo County and in San Francisco, the Board of Supervisors will debate a resolution tomorrow condemning the sweeps. That'll show them. Hell, even Gavin's jumped into the fray with his very own press release tut-tutting the raids. All of this has brought the Minutemen into the action as they held a rally in Castro Valley to call for closing the border. It wasn't until a few days ago when we realized the Minutemen were named after our Revolutionary soldiers and not their sexual dysfunctions, although one could probably explain the other.

The raids have been occurring over the past few weeks, some with the real cute name "Operation Return to Sender" and does everything have to have some cute name? This is all part of stepped up enforcement throughout the country the past couple of months.

Immigration rights activists have been calling the recent raids a "reign of terror" and have talked about their being fear spread throughout the community as people are worried that at any minute, they could get carried away. They are also calling on cities not to enforce immigration laws until a reform bill is passed in congress, something will probably occur sometime never. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials claim they mainly targeted people who had already ignored deportation orders, but most of the people caught did not quite fit into that category. Instead, they just got caught up in the raid. And Rush Limbaugh somehow blames Hillary Clinton.

Picture of Gerardo Sandoval from the Examiner.

A Hayward teenager was beaten up and left bloody on a stranger's porch.

In the pleasant upscale suburb of Lafayette, on Happy Valley Road, no less, a human body was found burned to death in a car fire. Suicide, homicide, accident - the authorities aren't sure yet.

We already wrote about the dead man at the Cal sorority, in what could be the premise of a bad teensploitation sequel to the Weekend at Bernie's franchise. Not that this incident isn't something to be taken seriously. Real life murders shouldn't be taken lightly, though the idea of sorority sisters dressing up a dead man in drag, giving him a pedicure, and pretending he/she's just one of the girls and is still alive during a do-or-die member Rush could have promise as a We'll stop there. Here's a link to the Oakland Tribune's version of the story.

And the most disturbing and horrific of East Bay crime stories was reported Friday - a woman was found badly beaten, tied up, and set on fire, on a quiet Oakland street in the relatively violence-free Temescal neighborhood near the Studio One Art Center and Park Day School. As far as we know, the woman is still alive.

We sort of knew this was going to happen, but here it is: after officially jumping on the Sharks bandwagon last week, they have now lost three in a row to the Edmonton Oilers, a losing streak that started after the Sharks lost an epic, three OT Game 3. We would take some responsibility for causing the Bad Mojo, but after last night's game, Sharks fans only have themselves to blame for any sort of Bad Mojo, something that will happen when fans of a team boo another country's national anthem.

As the song says, Instant Karma is gonna get you. Or is it the rhythm that's going to get you? We can never quite remember.

Yep, before last night's Game 5, Sharks fans, or more like some Sharks fans as we're quite sure not every Sharks fan is a Yahoo, booed the singing of the Canadian national anthem. Yes, Edmonton is a city in Canada and booing the Canadian anthem is, kind of a way of booing the Edmonton Oilers, but only if you're a complete moron. And once again, it's not the disrespect that gets us, but the stupidity. See, most hockey players are Canadian. Ten of the Sharks are Canadian, including Shark stud and MVP Joe Thorton. Because hockey is the Canadian national sport. So, in other words: no Canada, no NHL. In essence, then, the booing Sharks fans booed the national anthem of the country that is the reason for them being there that night.

And do we even have to mention that Canada gave us Rush? How can anyone boo the country that gave us Rush?

This is the equivalent of going to an Australian Rules Football game and booing the Australian national anthem. Or going to Oktoberfest at Fort Mason and booing the German national anthem. We would say the Sharks are going to find themselves in a pretty riled up crowd when they play in Edmonton tomorrow night, but that's if Canadians are capable of getting riled up about anything.

Of course, the Sharks, in the end, would have nobody to blame but themselves if they lost. In Game 4, they were up 3-1 before giving up five unanswered goals. Then last night, they came from behind to tie it up at 3-3, only to give up three goals in the third period. A team that was playing dead-on, old style hockey suddenly found itself playing dumb and sloppy hockey.

One more game full of dumb and sloppy hockey, and all those San Jose sports fans will have nothing to boo except Arena League Football games and league lacrosse.

As you might imagine, Bill O'Reilly's comments about our fair city deserving a terrorist attack managed to raise a few hackles, including Chris Daly's, who was so angered by Bill's hot-headed comments that he got hot-headed himself and called on Fox News to fire him. (Editor's note-- Wouldn't you love to see a Celebrity Death Match type battle go down between O'Reilly and Daly? Wouldn't that be awesome? Our money would totally be on Daly too, 'cause nobody puts Daly in the corner) . And Aaron Peskin said something along the lines about Bill being hyped up on Oxycontin, just like Rush Limbaugh. So O'Reilly went on the radio and tried to set the record straight.

You can read the entire transcript for yourself, but here are some of the highlights:

-Said President Bush should go to Union Square and tell everyone pretty much what Bill has been saying, which would totally never happen because Bush is too afraid to go near San Francisco, let alone give a speech in Union Square

-Called all the press in the city "radical left" and accuses the Chron of being a "radical newspaper." If the Chron is radical, what does that make the Bay Guardian?

-Claimed that Friday's big story in the Chron about his statements were a "cheap-shot" and typical of the Left, then goes on to call people here a "disgrace," "selfish," "radical" and "facist."

-Said we San Franciscans "hate America" and that we think we're so much better than everyone else. But isn't that the point of San Francisco?

-Accused Gavin of being a coward for not appearing on his TV show and wonders if Gavin is still okay with the whole gay marriage thing, something we think having an 86% approval rating pretty much answers.

Oh, and:

- "… I love the city, it's a great city"

Image from Inflatable Dartboard, via Crooks and Liars