Further amplifying the rivalry between here and there, the San Francisco Convention and Visitors' Bureau has launched a new website, called Not in L.A., supposedly to lure Angelenans up what they call "the 5" to visit us in the winter.

Now, we're always happy to host SoCal-ers on their trips north, and sure, we have lovely skiing in Tahoe, and we have no issues with the SF Visitors' Bureau (since we can buy our FastPasses with a credit card there and all) -- but, um, why? It's like those weird ads for San Diego that were basically like, "Your foggy city sucks [creepy Teletubbies-like smiling sun logo]." ("WE don't need to layer," "Your beaches are dirty and kill people," etc.) How much better are New Zealand's SF-based ads, "From one beautiful city to another: Auckland!" (presumably they use that trick everywhere, like when they splice the name of your town in "The Heart of Rock and Roll.") It doesn't seem like inflaming intrastate rivalries are the best way to encourage others to come visit, is all we're saying.

Plus, why would you come up here in the winter if you lived in L.A.? It's colder up here, and they already have an Amoeba. (Okay, the burritos are rad, it's crab season, and we don't have those flash floods they do, but other than that, we're just not seeing any major difference between the two, touristically speaking, in the winter months. Enlighten us, please.)

The picture above is from Sandow Birk's awesome ongoing art project depicting the (fictional) Great War of the Californias. This one's a propaganda poster for the War.