Seems like all our friends are getting sick with that weird cold/flu that's going around town -- what with the cold weather and pre-holiday stress, we guess we're not too surprised about it, but still. So do you have that cold? Are you getting over it? Because we have a question if so -- how did your cold start? We've been coughing a little and we're wondering if we're coming down with something. How long......

It seems the world of dating has moved beyond breaking up on post-its into the new world of breaking up via Facebook status. That's rough. Breakups are hard enough to go through without spreading the news in front of all your virtual friends. The update from Boinkology paints an even uglier picture: the dumper placed it on Digg, too. While the dumper reasons out why a face-to-face breakup wasn't deserved, we can't help but......

We are going to eat SO MUCH food next week, aren't we? That is to say, isn't everyone? This royal-we business makes it hard to communicate sometimes. Does the Queen have this problem? Anyway, yes, everyone will eat lots of food next Thursday, because if they don't that means they hate America. That goes for poor people, too. Doubly so. So what will you eat? We posted some bang-up tips awhile back for gravy and......

We're baaaaaaack! We missed you! Sorry we've been gone from the scene for so long -- yes, we've been swamped at work, but honestly, we've been so dispirited with this particular election cycle lately, we figured we were going to boycott posting until it was OVER. Over over over. So -- man, how irritating is this? It's never going to be over! Thanks to the city's questionable ballot-reading machines, it's going to take weeks to......

-- Chicken John hosts the Loser's Ball. Which a lot progressives did. Lose, that is. [Politics Blog] -- Although Prop A might pass due to prog efforts. (See where horizontal pastels get you, Mr. Fisher?) [BeyondChron] -- Washington Packing Corporation's abandoned, graffitied tuna cannery. [WhatImSeeing] -- Bay Bridge fender bender spills "mysterious" oil into the Bay. [Oakland Tribune] -- Henry K. Lee live-blogs, as they say, on the Hans Reiser murder trial! [SFGate] --......

Anyway, the real story here is that it's an uninteresting race, but that that shouldn't matter. With Gavin Newsom running unopposed in the minds of many a San Franciscan, the city sheriff having no serious challengers, and the district attorney running unopposed, we can see why. And according to Alex Clemens in today's Examiner (AP), "[w[]"ithout a good fight at hand, a lot of people are worried that many San Franciscans will opt out of the process and just go to work instead." (That what they want you to believe, man! Wheels within wheels.)...

In a final tip of the hat that sums up this year's (disappointing) election, Gavin Watch has celebrity candidate Chicken John's surprise Saturday night debate with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Not the real mayor, mind you, but Gavin in puppet form. (Kudos to those who created the puppet, though we would've have liked to have seen Newsom sporting a signature cold-blue tie. We digress.) It's a humorous bit, one that stretches on and......

Back in high school, we had an English teacher who really drilled the Transcendentalists into our brains, especially that one Thoreau Emerson quote: "Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." What can we say? It still makes us think. Like about restaurants that have hardly changed in at least 20 years (the amount we can vouch for, since that's when we moved here from Southern California) if not 35 -- Juan's Place, in Berkeley. We......

Behold! "VideoGate" Officer Andrew Cohen's addictive blog that goes deep -- deep! -- inside the San Francisco Police Department and its many machinations. What's it called? Why, Inside the SFPD, of course. Today's feature: a delightful Santos/'Twas the Night Before X-Mas parody. But the entire site seems to be coming along swimmingly, and we invite you to read and comment at your leisure. Note to chicken-shit trolls: you can comment anonymously. (God help you,......

Anyways, Sean saw this, failed to see any humor in it, and made his offer to be the money bags to everyone's favorite "hunky-hipster attorney". Again, we don't know if this is true or what the what is with the story. It could be a joke, a crazy rumor, or something Sean and Matt jokingly talked about while drinking some wine and discussing the finer points of Costas Gravas's L'Aveu. ...

According to this map we saw right near the Ferry Building, it looks like the borders are Taylor, Bush, O'Farrell, and Van Ness, shrinking the Official Tenderloin to a mere twenty-ish square blocks. But wait...isn't Larkin Street now Little Saigon? How'd we miss the official renaming of NoMa? Is it going to have an incestuous relationship with NoPa? Would the kids be heroin-addicted H&M shoppers feasting on rotisserie chicken? The mind reels.......

Beware: staring tonight at precisely 7:30 p.m. the undead will gather around the Double L Gyratory Undead Attractor and wreak havoc around the city. Might you be one of them? Horrors! Double beware: tonight's march of the dead will take place near the SF Main Library where the San Francisco Mayoral debate will be in progress. We'd hate to think that any of you interrupted the Mayoral shenanigans -- bringing tears to the eyes......

All of you YouTube addicts out there are probably familiar with many of the "absoludicrous"* found video clips from Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett's touring Found Footage Festival (*Mr. T makes an appearance in the "Celebrities Who Teach" series). The critically-acclaimed event will be in San Francisco tonight and tomorrow night at the Roxie Red Vic at 7:15 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. and this Sunday at the Parkway in Oakland for a 5 p.m.......

Last week's winner, the deceptive SF Weekly. Letters abound, either outraged by the fake Barry Bonds story or entertained by the elk. Why don't the negative letters have the names of the authors? Are you now questioning all the journalism you read in the Weekly now, or did you just think it was a good joke? Matt Smith says Gavin Newsom is supporting a cult. No, not the cult of Gavin, though no doubt Gavin......

We just can't keep Ed down for a day. And we feel sorry for him at this point. Almost. In addition to the nine state felony charges filed against him by La Kamala, according to the Chronicle, today the Feds charged Ed Jew "with mail fraud in connection with a scheme to solicit a bribe from a group of businessmen who needed city permits" for Quickly fine-dining establishments in the city. (And just like......

Morrissey is coming. And you know what that means? Clever lyrics, melancholia, and no tender morsels of tasty beef. Or chicken. Or even a Hot Pocket. Last month Leah Garchik mentioned that, "word from the Fillmore, where Morrissey is doing four shows at the end of September: 'Do not bring any meat to eat. He wants no meat whatsoever in the house!'" While we teeter on respecting the (privileged) choices of vegetarianism and veganism,......

-- Chicken John gets slapped for raising campaign money via Pay Pal. Assumes he's "the first candidate who's raised funds this way...this is a situation that no candidate has ever been in before." Which? Not so much, rock star. [The Snitch] -- Richmond mom accused of killing her 8-year-old son. [Chron] -- The fuzz is on the hunt for a double-stabbing suspect. [Examiner] -- Fight! Fight! Fight! The fur flies between the guys at......

This Saturday at the San Francisco Embarcadero Hyatt Regency from noon-4 p.m., you can join KGO Radio and the Mendocino Wine Growers Foundation in celebration of the wines and other good stuff from Mendocino County. The event, called "Wine By The Bay 2007,", is $35 if you buy your ticket now; it'll be ten buck more ($45) at the door. What's exciting to us is that Friend of SFist, Destination Dinners' Lisa Diamond, is scheduled to be interviewed by KGO's Gene Burns during the event for his "Dining Around" program....

No, not Ed. That's been done. Homeless SF mayoral candidate Grasshopper Kaplan was booked "on suspicion of stalking and use of a vehicle for habitation" -- is that really illegal? using your ride as your home? -- after taking a nap in his taxi while parked in the driveway of Ed Jew's 28th Avenue (non-)residence yesterday. It seems that he did it to make a statement about homelessness, affordable housing, the moon, or whatever. Maybe......

There was very little else for Londonist to be concerned with when the threat of a Tube strike became a very unpleasant reality. The inconvenience was extreme: there aren't many alternatives to the Tube in London despite the best efforts of the Londonist team to get everyone from A to B. Brighter news came in the form of the first ever female Yeoman Warder, or Beefeater as the position is more commonly known, and......

Last week's winner, the San Jose Metro: Google Earth gets sound. Free spay/neuter for pit bulls in the South Bay (females over 6 months pay a little extra.). Cover article: Profile of an improv cartoonist. Crosswording favorite Etta James in performance. The Three Sisters in Mountain View. Russian food and deli in Campbell. And a vegan wedding! And next up, the Bay Guardian: Tim Redmond and the Guardian editorial board go in with both fists......

Berrylicious illustration from The Oakland Tribune. We gobble the various food sections up each Wednesday. Here are our favorite nibbles from today's offerings. SF Chronicle: Serious bock-bock time for those of you who may not give chickens their due. Our fave chicken recipes here and here. Many chefs feel local and smaller sized pollo may add up to a better tasting bird. Oh, and at one of the Mission's best spots, when the chicken's......

-- Gross, sticky, exhausting, hot weather begins. But! Ride public transit for free tomorrow during a Spare the Air Day. [Examiner, SFMTA] -- Gang members, extortion, and THC.. [Bluoz] -- 12-year-old Jose Trujillo of San Leandro dies after a skateboarding accident. Sad. [Chron] -- Mick LaSalle laughs hysterically at cute, young, blonde girl's misfortune. [Chron Blogs] -- Closet-case Senator "has never been gay." He's just a guy who digs other guys, dude. [CBS5] --......

SFist interviews Svea Vezzone, owner of Swarm Gallery in Oakland...

Yummy photo courtesy of Dinner Party -One new blog we're eyeing is Dinner Party, who recently put the jam in jammy by making strawberry balsamic jam. We like and find heartwarming the idea of family members sharing a love of food and cooking, what can we say? -Yee-haw! A slew of Bay Area food bloggers get down and dirty at Alemany farm. There are other volunteer opps at the farm, and you won't get......

Film School, Ali Liebgott, Facing East, Xocolate Bar...

-- John officially wants SF throne. So does Josh. [Laughing Squid, JW] -- Dublin-Pleasanton BART station closure times, dates. (Our apologies for posting this unforgivably late.) [BART, Chron] -- Pirates beat Giants. Arrr, indeed. [Examiner] -- Fish sandwiches and bean pies: what could have been but never was. [Chron] -- 12 shootings in 24 hours in the city of Richmond. [ABC 7] -- Friday's gunfire in SF threatens the lives of two. [Chron] --......

Last night's innovative Chicken John/Josh Wolf Mayoral debate brought in "a dozen or so citizens," artists, and political fetishists. Even though it was on a Sunday night, anyone who cares about politics, SF, and progressiveness shouldn't have missed it. Naturally, we couldn't make it. Big Brother was on, and we're concerned about Jen and the near-physically/sexually-violent way that men in the Big Brother house have been treating her. Also, it was nomination night. But......

Photos from the graffiti paint out at Warm Water Cove...

What a day, what a day, what a day... -- Man who killed cop in 2005 receives death sentence. [Chron] -- Dow Jones down. [Chron] -- Police raid Your Black Muslim Bakery, arrests made in connection with yesterday's murder. [Chron, Examiner, KGO, Oakland Tribune, The Snitch (SFW)] -- 29-year-old SF man killed in Visitacion Valley on Thursday. [Chron] -- Matt Smith on the resignation of New College of California's president. [The Snitch (SFW)] --......