Early tomorrow morning, when San Jose's Aly Wagner goes in to the U.S. Women's big match against Canada, she will be [playing in her 120th international game. For comparison purposes, she's got quite a body of work! And while we're on the topic of that body, Aly was supposed to not make this Olympics team after a (yikes!) double hernia surgery a few months ago. But with determination befitting a Santa Clara Bronco, she......

-- Girls soccer coach suspended after mooning (i.e.., "exposing his buttocks to" [hee]) his opponents. [SFGate] -- Niners' Nolan stands by his QB, Alex Smith. Aw. Also, "at least the Niners didn't get shutout." (Dude. Ouch.) [Examiner, SJ Merc] -- Increasing lack of loyalty over at Yahoo. [ValleyWag] -- Neither heavy nor metal, Metallica went acoustic/funk at the Bridge School Benefit. [SJ Merc] -- 1 dead, 2 hospitalized after shootings in the city of......

-- Cammerin Boyd killed by reasonable force, says jury. [Chron] -- Behold: the 54 million dollar SF home. Bow down before it, plebeians and renters! [CurbedSF] -- Argentina hosts the gay World Cup of soccer. Maricons can play sports? Well, that tears it. [Chron, via AP] -- Ed Jew fights to keep his seat on the board of supervisors. Sigh. [Examiner] -- Castro getting all atwitter over this year's Halloween. And we're all gonna die!!......

We found Thomas Swick's traveling-abroad tips in this Sunday's Chronicle both cute and informative. But since we're stricken with a crippling fear of any existence east of (the) 5, we were left starving for a few answers as to why. Such as: -- In Japan, don't blow your nose. -- In Spain, don't pick up your paper napkin if you drop it at the bar. -- In Vatican City, don't correct the pope. (Impossible.)......

In all the marches in of the cities in all the world, a march to City Hall is taking place today for one of the most noble causes in San Francisco to date. 100 or so golfers will be marching to the Board of Supervisors meeting to demand their voices be heard on the topic of shutting down public courses in the city. 100 golfers – wow. Is Van Ness wide enough to handle......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

-- 756. [SFist for links] -- Bonds' ball chasers. [Chron, The Snitch] -- Steve Jobs' pretty new iMacs and more. [eWEEK, Chron] -- Schwarzenegger forces the fuzz to patrol more Oakland streets. [Chron] -- Lights Out wants to dim SF's lights for an hour to neck, or write poetry with a plume pen, or...something. [Examiner] -- Half Moon Bay soccer team busted for "looking for love in all the wrong places." [CBS 5] Image:......

Because kangaroos are so adorably bouncy and keep their little blessings inside of their pouches, the California Supreme Court just overturned the Senate’s May decision to end the ban "on importing and selling kangaroo parts." Namely, the David Beckham-inspired Adidas soccer cleats might not be for sale in California. (That and other Kangaroo-skin featured items.) Although the Senate recently allowed "kangaroo-derived products made by the sporting goods" industry to sell their stuff willy-nilly, the......

Here's todays sports news...

Man, let it not be said that Lew Wolff doesn't get sh-- done. First he said he was going to build a new stadium for the A's and he did. Then he said he was going to get us a new soccer team and he did. Today, it's been announced that the San Jose Earthquakes are back from the dead and will start up again next year as an MLS expansion team. The team was in San Jose up until a few years ago but moved away to Houston due to stadium issues. Naturally, in Houston, the nee Quakes won a championship. ...

Banner week for SFist as the site's new editor introduced himself -- hooray for Brock! While the NY Times weighed in on SF's mayoral race, only SFist had the (insert tongue firmly into cheek) hard-hitting latest on candidate/activist Josh Wolf. Coverage of a protest vs. gentrification spawned a fantastic debate amongst SFist's readers. Finally, from the sublime to the ridiculous: video of a man that confused a Board of Supes meeting with "open mic......

It wasn't just that shooting in Western Addition this morning -- it's been kind of a violent 24 hours there and in the Mission. At around 5:40 p.m. yesterday, there was a stabbing at Capp and 17th -- a guy was stabbed with an ice pick after getting out of a car. The stabber then jumped into another car and tried to run the victim down, and then jumped out of the car and stabbed......

We've written before about our love of soccer but unfortunately, being here in the States, it's a little hard to get the full flavor of it. Major League Soccer isn't quite that exciting and there's no longer a franchise here. There are also plenty of places in the city to watch some Premiere League (and occasional Serie A games) but it's not quite the same as watching the games in Europe. Also, we don't like to get up early. So we're kind of excited over the news that Stanford is going to host a game between the Premiere League's Chelsea and Mexico's Club America on July 14th....

LAist is experimenting with blogging dates from J-Date, but finds the best men are found offline. Some date vicariously online and that is one reason why porn is big -- really freaking big -- so they ask if they should cover XXX since the heart of it lays in the city's San Fernando Valley. A writer grapples with her food porn photography obsession, another gets censored on Flickr, one gets scooped by the LA......

The nicer the weather gets, the busier we get across the Ist-A-Verse. But we like being busy. Here's a peek at what we've been up to since last week! Chicagoist had an interview with Audrey Niffenegger, whose popular book, The Time Traveler's Wife, was based in their fine city. They also had a heated discussion about Rush Limbaugh's controversial Barack Obama parody, talked about whether Uncle Julio's Hacienda is a good place to get......

Lew Wolff announced today that he's signed an agreement to purchase 168 acres of land in Fremont to build the new A's stadium and requisite development. What this means, essentially, is the A's are one step closer to moving to the 'burbs. Just call 'em the Soccer Mom Team. ...

This weekend, San Francisco's latest team, the California Victory of the United Soccer League had their inaguaral game and our intrepid photographer, Matt Cohen, was there to take some pictures. On Saturday, San Francisco's newest professional team, the California Victory played their home opener against Mexican First Division side Club Necaxa at Kezar Stadium. In pre-game ceremonies, Mayor's Liason to District 9 Alfredo Pedroza presented a Certificate of Honor from Mayor Gavin Newsom to......

SFist Wendy takes a trip to the other San Diego (not the one with the fish tacos!). The Road to San Diego, at the SFIFF, is the story of Tati, from Pozo Azul, a small town in the Northeast Argentinian Misiones province (between Paraguay and Brazil), who embarks on a spiritual quest to deliver a timber statue of his hero and idol, the notorious soccer player, Diego Maradona, to Maradona himself. Tati, who is......

Here's todays news...

This week we'd like to congratulate the -ist network's Mother Hen, Gothamist's Jen Chung, who found herself a recipient of Wired Magazine's Wired Rave Award. If that doesn't sound terribly exciting, keep in mind another recipient was J.K. Rowling. Yep, that's right, the -ist network and Harry Potter now have something in common. Go us. ...

This Friday will be Critical Mass and everybody is curious to see what happens, not the least of which is the Mayor who supposedly has a lot riding on it (see, riding, get it? Get it? We made a pun!). We are told that if things go wrong, it could reflect poorly on the Mayor as it will show that he is unable to control simple things like several hundred anarchist bikers out loose on the streets. Hey, wouldn't that discussion only encourage bikers? You know, like a biker would start thinking "hey, if I scare some poor, unsuspecting family from Walnut Creek, Gavin's approval rating could go down to 60%." ...

We don't know about where you are, but it seems like spring can't decide whether or not to happen. Some days are warm, some days are cold, and sometimes you aren't sure which. Baseball may have started up (and soccer/football winding down) but it still seems cold out there. Unless it's not. Anyways, onto the -ists....

Before we kick things off, we should give a big shoutout to SFist Sarah L, who generously stepped in to read the weeklies for us while we were away. Thanks, SFist Sarah L! She rocked it so hard we're going to start alternating weeks for weekly-reading from here on out. Now, who did SFist Sarah L pick to win last week? The Metro! Gary Singh on San Jose soccer. The FBI may start investigating local......

-We'll say this about the Warriors-- they got some gumption. After a series of not so great games and the shellacking at the hands of the Spurs, the Warriors went out and beat the mighty Suns. They started off scoring 45 points in the first quarter and then held onto win 124-119. J-Rich scored 36 points, 24 of them on 8 three- point plays. Stephen Jackson had 29 points and Brittle Baron had 21. They......

We're guessing most of you are hungover from St. Patrick's Day. We are too. But still, we're going to muddle on through our green haze and give you (drum roll please...) this Week In -ists....

-Warriors road woes continue as they get rolled by the Milwaukee Bucks, 122-101. Are the nails being placed in the coffin? Tim Kawakami moves past the standard "will the Warriors make the playoffs" story to give the eulogy for another Warriors season that bites the dust. ...

-In the biggest game of the year, the Warriors stepped up and beat on the Indiana Pacers with ex-Pacer Stephen Jackson leading the way. What does it all mean? ...

So where are we in the whole Bonds on Speed story? According to the Giants, they didn't know Bonds tested positive at all which sounds kind of silly, now doesn't it? Barry also went out and defended Mark Sweeney, which is nice of him to do considering Barry threw him under the bus. ...

When visiting your republican parents in Ohio for the holidays, it can be hard to have a satisfying conversation over the dinner table. Worry not, we found a fantastic ice-breaker at the Alemany Farmer's Market. ...

Happy Holidays! Chances are, you're reading this the day after Christmas, back at your day job after all-too-short a holiday, and the last thing you want from us is stuff about the holidays. But that's just too bad. Because, see, here in the Ist-A-Verse, we do things ahead of time. It might be December 26 for you, but that's what you get for not checking your Favorite Local Blog on Christmas Eve. ...