Election-free edition! --Are the A's moving to Fremont? --Ken Garcia enjoyed Borat. --They're going to start Translink (the one pass that works on all Bay Area public transportation systems) soon! BART, Muni, and Caltrain are expected to start accepting Translink in 2007. --Google's going to start buying ads in newspapers. Cute -- they call it "offline media." --YouTube wins Time Magazine's Invention of the Year award, beating out the cervical cancer vaccine and hypoallergenic cats.......

With every major pundit picking the Dems to take the House this fall (better pitching), a lot of attention is heading our way as the media starts trying Nancy Pelosi on for size. Of course, we think the whole Dems Take the House thing is just a set up for a Benitez-style choke job, but nobody asked us. So this week, Time Magazine has a big feature on our very own Congressperson. Wonkette already summed up the gist of the article, but they did miss the fun fact that she likes to watch MTV late at night when she can't sleep. That would explain the PelosiInDaHouze" who always posts on the Television Without Pity "Laguna Beach" boards. ...

Ed. note: We've renamed "SFist Goes To The Symphony" and all other high-falutin' cultural reviews to "The Philistine." We were buzzed on Szechuan hot peppers when we came up with it! To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Dimitri Shostakovich's birth (1906-1975), the Symphony played an all-Shosty program with an all Russian guest list. The connection between Shostakovich and Rostropovich goes much deeper than just nationality: Rostro was a student of Shostakovich and a friend, and......

SFist intervews Jason Shiga...

After being blamed for the re-election of W., made a virtual pariah in the Democratic Party, and befriended by Angelina Jolie all for letting a few gay people marry, you would think that the Gavster would go quietly into that good night on the issue. After all, there’s nothing the Democratic Party hates more than some Democrat standing on principles and scaring off all those Red State types. Turns out he’s not going quietly. In fact, he has been pumping up both the jams and the volume on the issue. In the past week, he gave a speech at Harvard where he called out his fellow Democrats and yesterday, totally dissed New York Mayor Bloomberg over Hizzoner’s little problem with the issue....

It’s been quite a year for the Gavster. Elected by a slim majority, Gavin let a few gay people get married and the next thing you know, he’s blown up across the country. He’s become the biggest thing from these parts since the Pets.com sock puppet. Since then he’s been profiled in such illustrious magazines as the New Yorker and Esquire, posed for that little photo we like to describe as “So Best”, had......