Well, frankly, neither had we. That is, until we read this crazy -- yet, not so crazy -- article on Republicans in Ohio switching party alliances and voting Democratic. 16,000 Republicans, to be exact.
Have You Heard About "The Plot"?
Crazy Boyfriend Of New SF Planning Director Sets Fire To Firehouse
We're a little late to this story, in part because we spent all day yesterday trying to separate out the hilarious comments from the offensive ones on SFGate.com (it looks like the homophobic ones have already been taken out as of today) -- but in a nutshell, last Friday, Lance Farber, the 47-year-old boyfriend of the city's new planning director John Rahaim trashed their temporary apartment, which the city put them up in and which is located in the ceremonial fire chief's house in downtown SF.
Tour Connected Bus: Vehicle of the Future
While not all of us are fortunate enough to zip around in swank Aston Martins, or have sleek Tesla waiting for us on the horizon, the "bus of the future" is the next best thing. Well, almost.
Barack Obama Kicks It in the Mission District Today
Before heading to a more pristine setting in Atherton, Barack Obama was in the Mission today at the Women's Building, stumping for votes before California's Feb. 5 primary. Over plastic cups of water, he met with four Dr. Laura-unapproved single mothers--two of them staunch Obama supporters, two "on the fence"--and we're loving the one on the left, school teacher Kara Daillak, 38. (Ditch the kid, and let's go get smashed in 'loin tonight.)
Blood Diamond Scandal: Jennifer Siebel's Engagement Ring of Death!
Oh Lord. Is this for real?
SFist Tonight
Goes from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. at Double Dutch; free.
Cosco Busan Posts a $79.5 Million Bond, Crew Detained
The feds have gotten big bucks for the value of the Busan, so it now has one less hurdle to jump before heading home.
Week Around the -Ists
In Los Angeles, LAist most definitely celebrated Thanksgiving like no other. After all, one has to keep up all the energy to keep on walking the line at the Writers Strike and fighting the unfortunate return of the wildfires in Malibu, which single handedly destroyed over fifty homes within the first 24 hours. National outlets may be covering the fires, but CNN also found it is easier to buy a gun than fruit and veggies in South Central. On the entertainment front, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are suing Showtime over the show titled Californication and Rami Kashou of Project Runway chatted with LAist about his Palestinian heritage and, of course, designing beauty.
A Special Stand-Alone Thankfulness Post!
Yeah, yeah, it's been a crazy few months at the day job for us (thanks for noticing, commenter MHTH! We really are trying to get back to a semi-normal posting schedule again soon, we swear) but what are we thankful for? One word -- BROCK! (And that's why we didn't send in our thankfulness post with everyone else's a couple posts below -- there's no way Brock would have run it otherwise!)
Ask SFist: Why Not Drink the Juice?
Last night at a downtown bar, we eavesdropped on a heated debate about the Bonds' indictment. The all-male group of self-proclaimed Bonds-haters argued loudly about whether or not sports should simply start allowing athletes to get as chemically enhanced as they wanna be, health risks be damned. The main pro-roids (pro-drug?) point was this: seeing as how athletes already push themselves to physical extremes, shouldn't synthetic enhancers also count? Since it also deals with...
And So It Begins...
Barricades have gone up, drag queens are slapping on the greasepaint and Cover Girl cosmetics, and your BART and Muni closures / re-routings start soon. With that said, this has been somewhat of...a mess. What with the fallout over whether or not to close BART at 16th and Mission, how the closure was executed (e.g., an important elected District 9 BART Director left in the dark), and if it's the right thing to do,...
Hey, Here's Some Vaguely Interesting Filler that we can Post During the Weekend
Hey, remember a few days ago, when we posted about how Muni sends out street-closure notices to reporters, but the notices also serve as handy little events calendars? Well, thanks to a well-placed tipster, we now have a better idea of just how rigorously Muni compiles the damn things. Their calendar of closures goes out NINE YEARS to the year 2016.
New (ish) Contributer Interview: Julie Feinstein Adams
SFist interviews Contributor Julie Feinstein Adams, who write on the wonderful world of food.
SFist Watches: Even More Thursday Fall TV Premieress
We've mentioned before that the only "Law & Order" we watch is "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," and the main reason for that is our imaginary boyfriend Vincent D'Onofrio is on it. So you can imagine we were a little worried when the fate of the show was up in the air at the end of last season. It had something to do with the franchise not pulling in the numbers it used to, and production costs needing to be cut. (Of course it should come as no surprise that the shows aren't as big in the ratings as they used to be since you can basically turn the TV on at any time of day and find an episode playing on one of any number of stations.) But apparently a compromise was reached wherein new episodes of "C.I." will air on USA first, and then will be repeated on NBC at some as-yet-to-be announced time in the future. SO! You can catch the season premiere of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" tonight on USA at 10 p.m.
He Will Win, But He Wants To Win By More
Even though he runs without any serious opponent, Newsom's camp is still pulling their hair out over this election and the turnout. Newsom'07 Phone Bank sent us a release, with the following:
Week Around the -Ists
Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week!
VIDEO OVERLOAD: 9/11 Memorial At SF State Goes Awry
Here's a video posted on YouTube by the San Francisco State College Republicans. Yes, boo, hiss, etc. -- BUT they were trying to co-host a peaceful memorial for 9/11 victims with their democratic counterparts. Extending the olive branch and, according to the speech the guy gives, trying to whitewash this of political partisanship to whatever extent possible. Of course, some protesters showed up, once again proving that there are just too damned many opinions constrained within this predominately two-party system of ours.
SFist Photo: Who Killed the Panhandle Bandshell?
A look at why a nice little project is coming to an end.
Education Prognostication From George Lucas' 'Edutopia' Mag
San Rafael-based Edutopia Magazine, which is brought to us by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, looks to the future in its latest issue, identifying 10 ideas or trends that its experts believe can improve K-12 education. We found them thought provoking, and hope you agree.
Don't Let Them Increase Your Property Tax Payments
But for those of you that this applies to (or those of you thinking about owning property in the future), consider this a bit of a PSA. Prop 13 will only let the government increase its valuation of your property for tax purposes by 2% -- but should you let them take even that much in a down market (understatement? perhaps; we'll leave that to the experts)? Point is, you might want to think about contesting your revaluation.
SFist Tonight
-- Marga Gomez: Multiaward-wining lesbian/Latina comic makes her Plush Room debut with Joshua Raoul Broday on the ivories, and former Mornings on 2 personality and comedian, Mark Pitta. Show starts at 8 p.m., the Empire Plush Room, 940 Sutter; $20.
We Came, We Saw, It Kicked Our A**
We arrived at 9 p.m., parked at the West Oakland BART station and walked the block or so to the Fire Arts Festival. A gathering of local neighbors stood just outside the fence, watching. Giant hand-wrought metal sculptures — spiders, dragons, machines from the future/past — viewable from that distance, and from the BART trains passing by above, thumped and shook and spewed balls of fire high into the air.
Review: Band of Horses
SFist reviews Band of Horses at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco
Lunch of the Future! (Or: What I was handed coming off BART This Morning)
Today, we feel rather like Homer Simpson in an episode called "King of the Hill from 1998 ("Sorry, I eat food only in the bar form") -- we totally hit "food of the future" paydirt. We get off at the Embarcadero BART stop for our real job, and people are constantly shoving footstuffs and fliers at us as we exit to Market Street. Today's haul? An Atkins bar and a "Balance Bare."

