Tourists looking for that oh so wonderul, oh so expensive cable car ride today were disappointed to discover that the Hyde Street and Mason Street cable cars were down this morning and still down as of writing this. The reason was because of an incident at Mason and Washington around 6 in the morning that resulted in injuries to two drivers.

Union officials said the cause was due to Snakes on a Cable Car. Oh, can we no longer do Snakes on a Plane jokes now? Is it too August? Okay, then, the reason is because the "channel" (it's where the rail latches on to a moving cable) locked and melted causing a sudden stop. The union official, Irwin Lum (great name) compared it to suddenly hitting the emergency brakes. Nobody knows what caused the problem, thus the shutdown.

This is actually the third incident in almost as many as there were also incidents on Friday and Sunday. Both occured near the same place, right around the cable car barn on Mason and Washington streets. Nobody knows what's causing all these troubles or when they'll be up and running.

So all you tourists out there-- take the bus. It'll be much cheaper. And it'll give you a little taste of a real San Francisco experience.