The remarkable and remarkably talented Joyce Slaton of CHOW complied a list of the 78 most annoying words to read in a restaurant review. Among them? "Gastro pub," "sustainable," "toothsome," "meltingly tender," "slurp," "most unique," "redolent," "redolent," "died and gone to heaven," "local," "mouthfeel," and "yummo." Missing from the list? "Artisanal," "walnuts" and "pop-up," the latter of which we totally use in a headline today! But still. Stop using "pop-up," loony food writers. It's almost as bad as "hyperlocal," "blogosphere" or "the Mission." more ›

Merriam-Webster announced the 'Word of the 2009 ' today: admonish. more ›

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The Raiders have a new QB, at least for the moment. That QB is Daunte Culpepper, Randy Moss' ex-ball chucker. He had a little tryout for the team yesterday and it went so well, he was signed. Which is one way of looking at it. The other way of looking at it is that a deep connection was made between two desperate entities as Culpepper came in overweight and was said to be "spotty" with his passes. Culpepper is a pretty good fit as current Raiders QBs Josh McNown or Andrew Walter kinda suck. He's expected to keep the chair warm until first round draft pick JaMarcus Russell is ready to go. more ›

From what we understand, the Quentin Tarantino portion of his Grindhouse movie is about a stunt driver who goes a little crazy and starts running over people. Which sounds kind of dumb and makes us wish Quentin would stop slumming around and get back to making great movies again. But in reading about the below story, we're starting to think Quentin might be into something because this story, about a pedestrian being killed in anger by a car driver on Valencia Street, is darn right awful. more ›

We can't decide if we're sorry we missed this, or if we're extremely grateful that we take BART to work in the mornings. more ›

Words do not describe the video of Leonard Nimoy (in Spock ears!) singing "the Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" complete with go-go dancers and somebody looking something like a hobbit. And yeah, we're guessing that most of you have seen this but we're guessing a few of you haven't. Besides, saying you've seen a YouTube video before it's been posted is the new "I liked that band before they released...." more ›

There sure are a lot of fans of The Decemberists, judging by the fact that they're about to play tonight and Friday night here at the relatively giant Warfield Theater. If you haven't heard their new album The Crane Wife, we're giving you a chance to win a copy of it plus a 20"x10" lithograph signed by all 5 members of the band. We'd show you a photo of the lithograph if we had one, but just trust that it'll be a collector's item regardless. That's one thing jumping to a major label will buy you: fancier schwag. (Contest ends 10/25; winner will be notified via email.) more ›

When you assume, you make an ass out of you and Wednesday. Tonight: As part of its year-long partnership with the Yerba Buena Center, the SF Jewish Film Festival is screening the Oscar-nominated documentary "The Ritchie Boys," about young German Jews who fled to the US and were recruited into anti-Nazi psy-ops. Film starts at 7:30 and a surviving Ritchie Boy will be speaking after the screening. Thursday: Words not hands! Learn more about nonviolent communication techniques at an introductory seminar at SF State. Class starts at 7, and it's $0-35 sliding scale. and Friday: As part of the 2006 Queer Arts Festival, the Raw Dance troupe is performing at 69 Belcher (between 14th St., Duboce, Church, and Sanchez). The program is called "Per-Verses," and presents an exploration of porn, erotica, and intimacy through dance. Adult audiences only (our favorite!). more ›

Hey, the party's not till Monday, so check out some crazy characters hitting SF stages this weekend. more ›

The story of the injured heckler out of Oakland Coliseum last night just keeps getting better and better. more ›