"Mean nut" restaurateur Luisa Hanson -- you know, the person more or less responsible for the Barleycorn closure -- had a swift bit of karma hurled at her head last week. It seems that her flagship, whimsically branded Luisa's, was forced to shut its door. Nothing too unusual. Yet. While initially chalked up to "planned renovations," Eater has the real, juicy, rat-infested scoop as it shutting its doors last Friday. it seems that Luisa's......

-- The Pogues: Like most music-taste education, our college roommate got us listening to these guys. And they're one of the few acts that we still dig after all these Britney-influenced years. Kudos, Pogues! Starts tonight at 8 p.m. at the Fillmore; $65. -- Ratatouille (2007): Animated flick about a gastronomic rat (voiced by the awesome, the spectacular, the hilarious Patton Oswalt!) Screens tonight at 7 p.m. and 9:20 at the Red Vic; $5-8.50.......

After Supervisor Sandoval introduced a resolution to brand hyperbolic grandpa Michael Savage as a hate speech-spewing loon, it wasn't voted on unanimously yesterday, care of SFsit's favorite coverboy, Ed Jew. (Ah, World Net Daily, where we go to get all of our fair and balanced news, drizzled with a infusion of organic Nazism.) On July 5, after Savage predictably asked that students undergoing a weeklong fast for immigration reform (and, bonus, to slim down......

-- 4.2 tremor slightly moves the Bay Area, donuts. [Chron, Yahoo, Examiner, FCJ] -- Ron Russell on Chron business writer David Lazarus' new LA Times gig. [The Snitch] -- One Rincon Hill tops off. [KGO] -- Cal swim coach/Olympic gold medalist gets job back, $3.5 million in gender-discrimination lawsuit. [Chron] -- Antioch police accused of racism. [Courage Campaign] -- Final Harry Potter installment arrives tomorrow; controversy surrounding spoilers today. [Valleywag] -- Seagulls still reigning......

We could've gone with a YouTube clip of the video for Love Is A Battlefield (totally one of the best videos ever), but we went instead for the Benatards doing "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" at the Eagle Tavern -- that's right, Pat Benatar's playing a show tonight! If you can get up to the Marin County Fair in San Rafael, Ms. Benatar and her husband Neil Girardo will be performing hits like......

Any news involving Pixar makes our heart go pitter-pat, but this one's strictly for the rich folks: the studio's holding a benefit screening of Ratatouille on Friday, June 8th at 6:00pm, with tickets priced at, gasp, $250. Wine and hores-dee-ovrus are provided, as wealthy types won't show up otherwise. For $1,000, you'll get an additional recognition; for $5,000 you can get a tour of the studio. Proceeds go to Emeryville schools, bless 'em.......

There's so much going on across the Ist-a-Verse that it's almost impossible to keep track these days. Fortunately, we do it so you don't have to! Londonist took a walk through Oliver Twist's London, thanks to a gorgeous map layer for Google Earth. They also caught up with modern-day fictional London, with the Fantastic Four and 28 Weeks Later. It was a week of insanity over at DCist. They started the week off with......

In an effort to crack down on people riding in the carpool lane without being in an actual carpool, State Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) is asking you, the commuter, to pitch in and help. Mainly by snitching on people who are breaking the law, breaking the law. ...

We don't know about where you are, but it seems like spring can't decide whether or not to happen. Some days are warm, some days are cold, and sometimes you aren't sure which. Baseball may have started up (and soccer/football winding down) but it still seems cold out there. Unless it's not. Anyways, onto the -ists....

So as we were heading to the Opera Plaza movie theater for the SFIAAFF yesterday around 5:45 p.m., we noticed a huge number of helicopters overhead and wondered what was up. Turns out there was a huge fire on Page Street that started around 5:15 p.m.. One person jumped to escape the fire (no word on that person's condition), one firefighter had to jump onto the roof of the adjacent building to escape smoke, and......

The paper of record, the New York Times, actually has the latest news on the signing of Barry B. Mainly that it still hasn't happened yet and just might not happen. In light of the amphetamines story, the Giants are beginning to rethink signing him. ...

Speed kills. It's an old football saw, but it still cuts right to the heart of the matter in sorting out the detritus of last night's BCS National Championship Game: faster is better.

-Oakland is ready to party, Ron Dellums style. -Over 1,000 people go to the beach to say impeach, put Cheney in reach....

It's Tuesday, so what better night to premiere a show called "Friday Night Lights"? Yeah, we think it's a pretty boneheaded move on NBC's part, but the networks seem terrified to schedule anything of real quality on Friday nights because they think people don't watch TV on Friday nights. Have they ever considered the notion that people don't watch as much TV on Friday nights because there isn't anything GOOD ON? "The Ghost Whisperer"?......

Last week's winner: The East Bay Express. What? No letters about Cody's? Fret not -- there's an article. (We had no idea the reason why there's no books on the shelves there now is because they were behind on their bills!) Also -- neighbors rat out neighbors for loud parties and for opening day-care centers. Cover: Fat acceptance movement (medical, civil rights, artistic, online). Good article, which makes the no fatties cartoon running later in......

Lisa Diamond has an interesting idea, one that on a surface level is creative, informative, artistic, and has a wonderful aestheitic. On a more ambitious level, it could save the world. After all, there is that old saying about the key to a man's heart being through his stomach. Promoting understanding and appreciation of other cultures by helping people to cook and enjoy their foods is not such a far cry. ...

Attempting to recall who it was that said obsession wasn't cute, SFist Nico, your Barrespondent-on-the-scene, gets his answer tenfold this week. Knowing very little about why people obsess over the things they do, this tongue-thick reporter believes the owl isn't a bad choice when you come right down to it. We've always had a bit of thing for the wide-eyed, rat-eating, bird of prey. Maybe it's because of the old Tootsie Roll Pop mascot (three......

Animal hoarding's always been a lurid fascination of ours, along with people who have sextuplets, and Chris Daly. So have you been following this story about the guy who had over 1000 rats in his house? The man, Robert Dier, had initially tried to separated them by sex in three of the ten cages in his house, but soon became "overwhelmed" (the euphemism of choice for hoarders, according to the episodes of Animal Cops we watch). Interestingly/entertainingly, he lives in Petaluma, which is where Marilyn Barletta, the famous 200+ cat hoarder, is from too. (Note to self: think about opening a Petco in Petaluma.) The man also had seven cats in his house. When asked why the cats didn't eat the rats, the Animal Services manager speculated, "Maybe it was like working in a deli. After a while, you get tired of deli food.") Now, rat fans are outraged that the Petaluma animal shelter euthanized over 1000 of the rats. The collectors say they were trying to mobilize people to adopt them. The animal shelter said in its defense that many of the rats were feral, severely sick (some missing eyeballs, and others with teeth growing into their opposite jaws), and not really adoptable. Nine rats have been adopted, 30 have been sent to LA, 4 are in Rohnert Park, and 150 of the rats are still up for adoption. The shelter says it's carefully screening people, ever since last year when they discovered that someone who'd adopted a rabbit from them was a hoarder as well. (Note to self: That Petco in Petaluma would do great). The final note in this story? The rat hoarder is a convicted armed robber whose home was used as a hideout in the 60s by people trying to kidnap Frank Sinatra Jr., and as the animal shelter manager said:

He's an intelligent man to talk to, but he smells like rat urine. He told me that when he had only 100 of them, he'd let them sleep with him in his bed. They'd get all in his shorts and stuff. And you can't potty train them, so you know they were urinating and defecating in there.

Blame it on the nice weather earlier this week, but we got antsy and just couldn’t wait for First Thursday to get out and see some art; so we stopped by 77 Geary to take a peek at the Vik Muniz show at Rena Bransten Gallery that we keep hearing so much about. You know how some people just can’t seem to throw anything away? Well, Vik Muniz is one of those people and he......

Saturday: It's POMO 2006, which means all sorts of Filipino stage performances at YBCA. Our POMO pick is "Bronze Lit: FilipinoAmerican Voices in Literature", at 2 p.m. today, in which writers including Jaime Jacinto, Jason Bayani, Jason Perez, Jean Vengua, Leny Strobel, Marianne Villanueva and Barbara Jane Reyes read from their works. And it's free! Sunday: If you haven't already, go see Awesome; I F**kin' Shot That! at The Bridge. Never mind the mixed......

With the start of the upcoming baseball season less than a week away, SFist's sports desk will try and break the new season down for y'all, round-table, free-form, discussion style. In the next few days, we'll debate the winners, the losers, and all the in-betweens. This discussion could be great, it could be lame, it could be meh. We guess we'll find out ...

SFist reviews Linda Linda Linda at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF)...

Alas, there is no Buffaloist (yet), so we'll have to settle for Gothamist on this one...apparently, Joy Drati, one of Buffalo, NY's worst slumlords, was extradited from our own fine city of San Francisco last night. And, hey, this wasn't the first time. Mr. Drati, when will you learn? We love the idea of interstate extradition. We're imagining a Midnight Run style situation, except with a way less charming cast -- hey, do you......

Save some room on your social calendar, because like 2005, these cool shows are expiring around January 1. Besides, if you’re feeling a little Grinch-like, there’s nothing like a holiday show to get you in a festive mood....

It's animal time on SFist again! Fwee! A Sausalito-based company called Genetic Savings and Clone (ha) that helped fund the cloning of this cute kitten (DNA donor on far left, surrogate mom in the middle, and cc: the kitten on the right) has sold its first cloned kitten to a Texas woman who donated the DNA from Nicky, her sorely-missed cat of 17 years. The woman has named the kitten "Little Nicky" and says the two cats are identical. "His personality is the same," she reports, noting that Little Nicky also loves to jump into water. The woman would not give her name, fearing reprisals from animal rights group who suggest that people just adopt the many cats languishing at shelters instead. The company estimates that it should be cloning the more profitable dog by next May at the earliest. From cats to rats -- a woman in the Haight woke up on Tuesday to find three crates filled with rats (176 of 'em) on her front doorstep. A known animal lover, she brought them into the SPCA for adoption. In the meantime, three of the rodents gave birth to 10 babies apiece, making it a grand total of 206. 138 of them have been adopted already (80 by local rat advocacy group Rattie Ratz) but there's still 38 left for that perfect present for your boss! (n.b.: it is never a good idea to give live animals as gifts.) There's a $10 adoption fee to cut down on snake owners coming in and "adopting" the rats as cheap food, and a 114-question application form (with questions such as your "hopes and expectations" for your pet). For some reason, both the Chron and the Examiner profiled the same rat adopter, which makes us think maybe she's the only person that's adopted a rodent this season (but that may be anti-rat bias on our part). ...

Hey, did you notice that banner up there? The one with the humorous witticisms (thank you, we'll be here all week) and pictures of merchandise? That banner is to notify you that our Cafepress store is officially open for business, and there's no better way to pay your hard earned money in order to advertise for us. So what are you waiting for -- buy some SFist brand schwag! Wow, what a crazy week,......

SFist contributor and virtual TV pundit Rain Jokinen offers her Bay-area-centric TV picks of the week For some people, Halloween is a great time to live in San Francisco. It's not a holiday that goes unnoticed, and entertainment is virtually guaranteed. For others, the traffic, the inability to get a cab, and the people (The people! THE PEOPLE!) is enough to drive a person indoors for the entire weekend. If that's the case for you,......

In what seems to SFist to be welcome news, the City has recently begun an aggressive rat control campaign, focusing initially on Chinatown. The article has some fascinating information, including that there are approximately 800,000 rats in San Francisco, at a proportion of approximately one rat per person; that the first rat entered the City some 120 years ago off a ship; there are primarily two species of rats in San Francisco, one of......

The Chron today ran a story about a bear cub that was killed because it was begging for food by coming up to tourists and hugging them. The bear had apparently learned this technique from its mother, and, having great success getting food this way, lost its natural fear of humans. The bear had to be killed because, having grown impatient with the hugging, it swatted at an 11-year-old Boy Scout to get the food in his knapsack (Always Be Prepared, I suppose)....