San Franciscans awoke last Saturday morning to discover a strange robot had taken control of the horizontal and the vertical on their answering machines: a recorded voice begging victims to support Assembly Bill 266. "Press one to be connected to Assembly Member Ma's office, and ask her to support AB266," the telemarketer offered. Who's responsible for bugging us with politics on our day off? No idea. The author of the recording (at least, the bulk that made it onto our voicemail) didn't identify itself. We emailed Fiona Ma's office to ask if they knew what's up, but they didn't write back.

Was this a legitimate attempt to gather support for AB266? Was it a backhanded effort to make people resent the bill, since normal folks automatically hate telephone sales pitches? Was someone just trying to gum up the phones in Fiona Ma's office? It's a mystery. We're not even sure what AB266 is, other than that it does something to tribal compacts, which probably means gambling. What're your theories?