We know! We miss SFist Jackson around here too! Well, he's off blogging for reals these days at his new gig [NSFW], but we're working on bringing him back to our less-glamorous, ragtag site. And part of our Campaign To Return Jackson To SFist is to feature photoblogger Thomas Hawk's pictures from his awesome zowie-zip-bang-cool Jackson Street Project: 35 pictures of signs saying "Jackson." We've got a Jackson sign on our heart! Check out the......

We just discovered the Branch Library Improvement Program Bookmobile and we are IN LOVE. We're switching all our online reserves to the bookmobile, we're that excited. Seriously, some of our happiest childhood memories involve the bookmobile! (Mom, save your email. We have many excellent childhood memories, some of which involve the bookmobile, others of which involve the many other wonderful things you have done for us. Envy not the bookmobile!) But our crush on......

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 ...

Go Chronicle! We were so pleased to see a piece of investigative local journalism on the front page of today's paper, as Verne Kopytoff digs into the relationship between Mayor Gavin Newsom and Google. Because Google's bidding on the citywide wireless project (wait, did we leave out the word "connect" somewhere in there?), some conflict of interest questions have been raised. Well, all right, we'll spoil the article for you (don't read ahead if you love suspense!): turns out Gavin hasn't done anything ethically improper. But Google really likes him -- they invited him on their corporate retreats (he declined), offered him a flight to Switzerland for Davos (he paid them back the $1000 the ethics laws require, though the trip itself was worth about $16,000), and invited him to their Mountain View and Dublin offices (which he accepted). Google also tried to get Newsom to do them some favors (get an indie film permit (yes), and help them get approval for an office party on Pier 48 (no)). No conversations about the wireless project were seen. It's sort of sad, though: Kopytoff turned up a bunch of emails from a Google assistant, asking "Larry Page, founder] wanted to see if Mayor Newsom had any spare time this weekend to hang out with him. Larry currently has Mayor Newsom's cell phone number but wasn't sure if it was current." Doesn't this make Larry sound like a doof? if you guys were really friends, wouldn't you call him Gavin? Plus, even we have Newsom's cell phone number (though after SFist Jackson's forays into actually calling it, we probably don't have a current one either). Unrelated, but entertaining, picture of Gavin from 2004....

We've never had much occasion to use MapMuse, an interest-based interactive mapping service. That is, until we saw that now they're mapping independent bookstores and book clubs. We think that this is pretty damned neat. Between that and the SFPL's online reserve system, we might not ever have to brave Barnes and Noble again! SFist Jackson is reading a rare (for him) contemporary work, Michel Houellebecq's first novel, Whatever. First off, the translation, by......

SFist Jacob steps up to the blog pulse plate, while SFist Jackson's on hiatus. All anyone can talk about is the snow, snow, snow. (OK, those last two are actually tagged as "hail," but you get the point and the pics are pretty.) In our eyes, all this cold just means the onset of summer. Still, if you're jonesing for some tropical island loveliness, head over to the Humu Kon Tiki's San Francisco section to......

We were wondering why it was so easy to get a parking place in the Mission last night when we remembered that all the cool people are at SXSW. Cool people like SFist Krissy, who enjoyed the calm before the SXSW Music storm with a beer in a near-empty club, and SFist Jackson, who reveled in the fact that, apparently, all bars in Austin have free WiFi. As for us, we'll just bask in the......

When SFist Jackson announced, "Hey, I saw your BFF Dede today", we went scarlet (we don't wear green) with envy. When do we get OUR Dede Wilsey sighting? Taunting our jealousy, Jackson sent us this: In a black raincoat and brown Timberland boots, Dede Wilsey and squire looked bored and even a little uncomfortable while checking out the selection at Tsar Nicoulai Caviar in the Ferry Plaza on Sunday. Note to Dede -- kohl eyes......

Gavin Newsom + Sofia Milos! We can't get enough! So, like the New Yorker cartoon caption contest, this is where you get involved. We've scientifically picked the six finalists in the Name That Couple contest -- vote for your favorite! To encourage election fraud, we've also turned off the "prevent multiple votes" functions, so vote as many times as you like! What Should We Call Gavin + Sofia? CSI: Plumpjack GaFia the GavLos NewSof SoGav......

Thanks, SFist Jackson, for the bang-up Photoshop job showing what the union of Mr. Newsom and Ms. Milos might look like! (Scientology Sea Org cap added by Jackson.) And keep those name-the-couple entries coming! We picked "CSI: Plumpjack" from the comments but that's not necessarily an indication of who's going to win! As we do our part to keep up the famed "blog chatter" on Gav-boy and Scientologist Sofia (including a shot in this week's US Weekly as a "hot new couple"), Newsom's released a frantic statement: "I'm Catholic! They didn't talk about Scientology at that dinner I went to, just psychiatry! I wasn't even listening because I was focusing on playing footsie under the table!" (okay, we made that last part up.) "I think everyone needs to take a deep breath and get back to focus on things that matter in this world, like homelessness, housing and poverty," our mayor said. Well, all right, Mr. Mayor, let's do that. According to the latest survey (as reported by anti-Newsomites Beyond Chron, even though the poll itself hasn't been officially released), Newsom's approval levels have dropped to about 50%, from his high of 80%. Beyond Chron speculates that it might be related to Newsom's inconsistent performance on crime and the SFPD. And folks on the sfwall.net are saying that apparently Newsom looked surprised on Channel 2 News this morning when they confronted him with the numbers later. Hm.... maybe talking about Ms. Milos instead (video) doesn't look quite so bad now in comparison! ...

Brangelina..... TomKat.... Bennifer 2.... Filliam H. Muffman -- every celebrity couple of the moment has a fun blended name! So help SFist come up with the it name of the moment for our hot couple of the week -- Gavin Newsom and Sofia Milos! Gavia? Newlos? L. Gavin Hubbard? Post your suggestions in the comments and we'll give the best one some SFist swag! You'll have to settle for more goofy pictures of Gavin and Sof., as we try and figure out just exactly how US Weekly does those pictures where they combine the couples' faces together and call it, "What Will Their Baby Look Like?" (SFist Jackson is working on it even as we speak.)...

We're reading books both old and new, books accessed via the SFPL's online reserve system and our local independent bookstores. Thisd is why we love doing this column -- we love seeing the diversity of our friends book choices. What are you reading? Share with the class in the comments. His thirst for the blood of aristocrats slaked (for now), SFist Jackson's attentions have turned from Revolutionary France to the British Empire, with the......

Saturday: SFist Jackson just about lost his s**t when he heard about MOB: the ArtFag Mafia Premiere Event. Starting at around 9 p.m., there'll be "Fighting Robots, Fire Art, DJs and bands". It's all happening at the NIMBY warehouse (28th St. and Mandela Parkway, in West Oakland). Sunday: We've got to go see sketch comedians Bitter Show's Pilot Pitch-O-Rama, in which they pitch "terrific television pilots to you. All you have to do is......

The love of our life is prersently reading The Howling, and he is scared out of his mind. As we walk the dog he insists a werewolf is stalking us, and you don't even want to know what he's been keeping under his pillow. While we may mock him as he insists on sleeping with a light on, we're also a little jealous -- it's been a long time since a book scared us......

Saturday: SFist Jackson tipped us off to the Swearing Festival starting at 7 at Edinburgh Castle. 5 hours of vulgar speech-related activity sounds like a party to us! Sunday: It's the Tour of California bike race! No, we're so not riding in it, but we're all set to watch it as it whips past us some time between 10 a.m. and 12:22 p.m. Monday: Yay! Presidents day means no (day job) work for this......