A flight to San Francisco International Airport was held up for over nine hours Sunday, but (for once!) the issue wasn't ground delays at our end — instead, a rat that had stowed away on the flight was the cause of the trouble.

According to the Times of India, the saga began at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi at 2:30 a.m. local time. That's when a rat was spotted on Boeing 777 operated by Air India, as the flight was taxiing toward takeoff.

So instead of ascending, the plane turned back around and headed back to the gate, where its 207 passengers were unloaded and the search for the stowaway began.

Six hours later, workers were done fumigating the plane, but they couldn't take off yet. That's because the Delhi-SFO flight is one of the world's longest nonstop flights, at 9506 miles flown over the course of 16-17 hours. Because of its length, the flight "needs two sets of crew, with one commander and copilot operating first half of the flight and the other two, the second half." But due to the rodent-hunting delay, flight duty and time limitations prevented the current set of crews from working that flight, and "The airline had to, at the last minute, look for a replacement crew," a source tells the Times.

It took Air India three more hours before they could find two commanders and two copilots for the flight, which eventually took off at noon local time.

"Passengers were unhappy at the long delay," the Times reports.

But how did the rat get on the plane in the first place? By catering van, the Times posits, quoting an official who says "This is a universal phenomenon. Rats follow the large storage cases in which food trays are kept. The catering vans are like a home for them as food keeps getting dropped."

"Rats get on the high lifts that take those storage cases to aircraft and then remain there. This happens across the world," the unnamed official said, and he or she is not wrong: Just last March, there was a similar scene aboard a British Airways flight headed from Heathrow to SFO, when a mouse was reportedly spotted scampering down the aisle. Guess everyone, even the tiniest among us, wants to go to San Francisco.

While we've all dealt with rodent infestations at home and agree they are gross but manageable, things get way more serious when we're talking about the critters in the air. Then, the madly chewing beasts (after all, "rodent" comes from the Latin word "rodere," which means "to gnaw") "pose a threat to safety by cutting electric wires and sending the systems haywire," the Times reports.

According to a senior commander who spoke with the Times, "Rats on board an aircraft can lead to a catastrophe if they start chewing up electric wires of a plane. If that happens, pilots will have no control on any system on board leading to a disaster."

Previously: Undocumented Mouse Delays SFO-Bound Plane For Hours

The co-worker of a Reddit user got a little extra protein in her salad yesterday, when she reportedly discovered a rat — or, at least, part of a rat — in a meal allegedly prepared by a San Francisco restaurant

In a post amusingly entitled "Just caught a Rattata during lunch!," Reddit user makalive45 says that a coworker "just found this in her pre-packaged salad catered from Andersen Bakery in San Francisco." And what is the "this," as it's unclear from the above photo? A mangled, dead rat, as you can see in the picture at the bottom of this post. It is very yucky, so don't keep scrolling if you have delicate sensibilities!

Andersen Bakery, which is part of Japan-based holding company The Andersen Group, has variously-named stores and cafes across Denmark and Japan, as well as numerious locations in the Bay Area. The salad in question, according to makalive45, "was catered from the one on Market and 1st," (which would be their 525 Market Street location).

However, numerous Reddit commentators say that Andersen gets "their salads from the same off-site facility," which might make the allegedly-tainted salad's point of purchase immaterial.

Numerous emails sent to Andersen Bakery and The Andersen Group by SFist were not returned at publication time.

And, now...here's the alleged salad rat. Don't say I didn't warn you.

-- 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.

On July 5, after Savage predictably asked that students undergoing a weeklong fast for immigration reform (and, bonus, to slim down a few sizes) "fast until they starve to death," Sandoval went into action/wasted tax payers' time. But it looks like free speech reared its vile head again, according to Jew, who shot it down.

Curses again, First Amendment, you rat bastard.

Anyway, today, for some reason, "community organizations and immigrant rights groups have scheduled a vigil to take place in front of the KNEW station offices in San Francisco, urging the termination of Michael Savage’s show." So, bring your favorite pitchfork and Bic those torches, kids.

Also, is it true that Savage hangs out in North Beach, screaming at Lawrence Ferlinghetti and other formerly-famous passersby? Is there footage of this ranting available? Because we'd pay loads for such nuttiness. See, our former, cherished roommate used to listen to Savage for kicks during dinner hour, and the talk show host came across like the Bambi Lake of North Beach. He sounds like he might be one crazy-entertaining brunch guest, someone with whom we'd just love to go to Lime.

Well, maybe if he didn't wish AIDS upon us, that is.

The bill calls for the DMV to set up a special toll-free number and/or e-mail address for people to report carpool crooks. And hey, that way people who see them will have to either:

1)Pick up their cell phone and call the number
2)Pick up their blackberry/what-have-you and send an e-mail.

Good thinking on that. Especially in that it's possible carpool lanes already cause more traffic accidents.

If someone is reported to have used the carpool lane illegally, they will receive a brochure in the mail telling them that what they did was a no-no. The brochure is said to have some clip art of a disapproving mother on it to make the driver feel guilty. It will also warn the driver that if they were caught again, they'd face a fine of $381 bucks. Maldonado admits he doesn't think it'll stop most people, but that by making it so everyone has to be fearful that somebody is going to rat them out, it might actually stop people from doing it. A similar program has been implemented in Washington State and it's said that it decreased the amount of lawbreakers by 5%.

Actually, if you don't think this is that big of a deal, consider the fact that people are going around stealing carpool lane stickers. Somebody out there wants do pretend they are carpooling.

According to the story, the Giants first didn't want to sign him, and then did when they couldn't sign any other big hitter. But before they did, they asked all the veterans on the team what they thought and were given the thumbs up by the players, mainly because everyone thought that despite it all, he'd help the team. So the Giants made their $16 million dollar pitch.

Up til now, the only hang up was on Barry's entourage, mainly that the Giants didn't want anymore of Barry's people hanging around the locker room, something which has been the norm for nigh on forever. But speculation and those "anonymous sources" are saying that's only a smoke screen and that the Giants are looking to find a way to get out of their general agreement.

We have no actual proof to back this up, but we have a feeling that the amphetamine story might have been the final straw as it were. There was a lot of criticism of the Giants when the deal was announced but there was still a few defenders out there. Those defenders are now fewer and far between. For some, it was a reminder of what Life With Barry is all about and what the next year will be like. For others, it wasn't that he got busted, but more like he ratted on somebody else. Everybody hates a rat fink. Maybe the Giants are reacting to that, the increasingly bad vibe surrounding the whole thing.

Or maybe it's a bluff. The original $16 million was based on some faith-based thinking that other people were pursuing Barry. That can't be true now-- if anyone was interested, they're probably not anymore. Barry's bargaining position is nada and so the Giants can put the screws to him, maybe negotiate down. Barry at $16 million is ridiculous, especially in light of things. Barry at $2 or $3 million sounds a bit better.

Destination Dinners officially opened for business just about a month ago. Lisa runs it from her home. She's a big thinker with ambitious goals that go beyond the scope of typical business objectives and, to us, very much typifies that which is admirable about the spirit of San Francisco and its residents. We were privileged to be able to see her plan in action at an early stage and to get some insight into the genesis of her business.

After stints in Massachusetts, New York, and Tokyo, among other places, Lisa's been a San Francisco resident since 1997. We sought to find out what inspired this former dancer and marketing professional to drop everything and have a go at something else, completely unrelated, on her own (albeit with the staunch support of her husband, a dedicated food taster).

The idea behind Destination Dinners came to Lisa only a little while after she'd removed herself from the rat race. She decided that since she wasn't going to be working in the corporate sense, she'd try to make at home the kinds of meals she and her husband had usually enjoyed at restaurants.

"I started pulling out the recipes that I had collected during all my travels, and talking with friends from all over," she says. "Even with the time off and knowing all the markets and the fun, funky places, I was having trouble finding all the ingredients."

And when she did find the ingredients--the required spices or jars of sauces--they weren't available in decent portions for one-off purposes.

"Even I don't go through fish sauce that quickly," she jokes, using hand motions to indicate a Costco-sized bottle. "It just goes stale and the flavors fade."

She knew there had to be a better way -- one that would include pre-measured spices in appropriate amounts, and one that could incorporate a way to make cooking and learning about the culture fun and interesting. Thus, Destination Dinners, with its lofty goal of using food as a medium for introducing culture, was born.

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 licks, baby), or that they grace the bosom of every Hooter's waitress in the America, or that Bubo, the bumbling robot owl from Clash of the Titans just that movie.

Still, if Harry Potter is any indication, the world has a bit of a thing for owls. Take Bobby, the devoted owner of The Owl Tree at 601 Post St. Before Harry Potter was in diapers, the Coach from Cheers lookalike loved himself some owls. And like all good people that don't know when to quit, Bobby went perhaps a stitch too far, filling every crack and crevice of his downtown tavern with more owls than you can possibly imagine. A testament to mania run amok, the Owl Tree reminds you that your measly fascination with porcelain figurines doesn't come close to the grand-style zealotry of a true believer.

SFist Nico, contributing.

You know how some people just can’t seem to throw anything away? Well, Vik Muniz is one of those people and he has amassed a collection of junk that would make any pack rat jealous. In order to create his photo series "Bulfinch's Recycling Yard," Muniz filled a large warehouse in his native Sao Paulo with garbage and discarded industrial materials he collected over time -- everything from coils and wire to car doors and old pianos. He then installed a camera high above on a catwalk and hired an army of assistants to arrange this massive amount of materials into recreations of famous Greek and Roman mythological paintings.

Icarus, after Titian, 2006, digital c-print

SFist Shelley, contributing