No Single Left Behind: Depressed at the thought of being single for the rest of your life? Then, go get a cat or eight. Sheesh. Or, better yet, attend this seminar where,according to the SFBG, "Rich Gosse, the keynote speaker at this gathering of nervous ex-spinsters-to-be, guarantees you'll get married in 2008 after hearing his pithy spouse-harpooning tips." What's more, the event's press release informs us that Mr. Gosse will touch upon the following......

Rant Chuck Palahniuck will be at sponsored by Booksmith tonight around 7 pm, reading from and signing his latest book, Rant, about a serial killer who's weapon of choice is...rabies. Booksmith, Park Branch Library, 1833 Page St., SF. Garden of Deadly Delights Head over to the Conservatory of Flowers to feast your eyes on a greenhouse full of carnivorous plants! Chomp! opens today and runs through Nov 4. The Red Party A socialist themed......

Four unrelated shootings in San Francisco over the long Labor Day weekend -- one at 24th and Alabama, one at Turk and Laguna, one at Harrison and 1st, and one in Visitacion Valley near the Cow Palace. Two victims are dead, two are in the hospital. PG&E announced that it figured out why that generator blew the other week underneath the Ralph Lauren store -- water leaked into the transformer, which caused an electrical short, which then blew up oil in the chamber used for insulation. Who uses oil for insulation? (Okay, engineers, enlighten us.) In other news, another transformer blew up on Market Street due to a failed cable splice, there was a power outage near UCSF when a tree blew into some power lines, and another outage in the Outer Mission when a car drove into a pole. And celebrating Labor Day the old-school way, 61 union members were arrested outside the Grand Hyatt at a sit-in over the year-long hotel strike. The union organizers have agreed to end the boycott against the Westin St. Francis because the WSF management has agreed to support several of the union's key demands. ...

Friend of SFist Jason Schultz forwarded us a press release [PDF]. What do you get when you cross labor activism and theater nerds? Hilarity! Saint Francis, beloved patron saint of small animals and birds, and supporter of the oppressed in all communities, has descended from heaven to protest the unfair labor policies of the St. Francis Hotel. "I don’t want to raise a fuss, but these guys are using my name," explained the holy......

Well, okay, let's be honest - it isn't just the Cares department here that loves the boozin'. We're not really snooty but we know what we like and we like good wine so we're saving our pennies to be able to go to the San Francisco Wine Auction on April 29th. Tickets are $250, so if anyone is thinking that they'd like to get SFist a really early Christmas present we could probably find......