Fozen Yogurt Wars: Survivor Winner Out
January 25th, 2008
It looks like Survivor: Cook Island winner Yul Kwon won't get to serve you air-pumped, sugary, dairy-like deliciousness. After getting ready to set up a Red Mango chain in North Beach, and after being granted a building permit and signing a lease, his permit was pulled after he was "told he ran afoul of the strict North Beach ordinance against ‘formula chain' stores," or so says the Gate. Kwon went on to say, "I sorely regret the day that I decided to open a restaurant in San Francisco, and I will never make that mistake again." Ouch. True and choice words, Puka Puka tribesman.
What's more, when people got wind about this, they told Kwon to mention his Survivor-ness to help sway Supervisor Aaron Peskin, in an effort to help him land the permit. But according to Kwon, "Peskin told him he doesn't own a TV." (Wait, Peskin doesn't own a TV? A lie. And if by chance that's true? Classism framed in its most pretentious and socially-acceptable form. Vile.) Yul, you silly New Yorker, nepotism and status in San Francisco only works from within.
Edited for geographical clarity. See where xenophobia gets you? Oy.
January 25th, 2008
San Francisco winds are fierce winds.
Credit: James at Omega it's jameth
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Robbery Suspect Standoff In "Pill Hill"
January 25th, 2008
A standoff is underway right now in Oakland. The fuzz claims that a robbery suspect is holed up inside studio apartment, near 32nd and Telegraph Avenue. Due to the nail-biting action, police have closed Telegraph Avenue between 30th and 34th.
The area-intriguingly known as "Pill Hill," but only because of neighboring medical offices-has been abuzz with activity since this morning. It's not yet known whether or not anyone else is inside the apartment with the suspect. Indigokare, a commenter on ABC7 and most likely a Pill Hill resident, claims that he or she is "pretty much trapped in my apartment at the moment." Don't hold back there, indigokare.
Read more about the standoff here.
Image credit: CBS5
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"Leg Bones for Baseball Bats" - 1902 San Francisco Chronicle
January 25th, 2008
Researching San Francisco history means spending way too much time sitting in the dark. In the library, we mean, staring at microfilm of old newspapers. Hours of scanning those scratched and blurry archives makes us a little punchy, so we blinked and rubbed our eyes at this gruesome headline from the February 13, 1902 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle.
We wondered momentarily if it was a prescient comment on the state of contemporary San Francisco baseball, then lapsed into a reverie about the fate of urchin ‘Bricky' Sylva.
It was just so weirdly entertaining that we had to share it:
LEG BONES FOR BASEBALL BATS
Boys of Russian Hill Put Their Discovery to Queer UseWhen John Doe and Richard Roe laid themselves down to dreamless sleep they little suspected that the urchins of Russian Hill would be using their leg bones as ball bats and their hollow skulls as balls, but that is precisely what occurred last night. Residents of the vicinity of Leavenworth and Broadway going home to dinner were treated to a choice assortment of cold shivers at the sight of the national game being played with the grisly loot from a tomb. Half a dozen boys were making long drives of the ball to center filed with resounding thwacks from the long bones, the femur and fibula radius and ulna humerus. Between times two yellow skulls would be tossed to the batters, and the fun characteristic of the reverence of the North American youth, waxed warm until a policeman swooped down upon the players.
The boys succeeded in escaping with the melancholy reminders of mortality, dragging most of them away in a gunny sack. Later, in the rear of an old building on Vallejo Street, they were discovered piecing together the portions of two skeletons. The feet, hands and ribs were missing, while the top of both skulls had been cut or sawed away, or, as "Bricky" Sylva expressed it, "Deir lids was lost." Tied up in a moldering cloth were a number of small bones. All the bones were discolored and mouldy.
Inquiry among the urchins developed the fact that these skeletons, without sepulture, had been found yesterday in an old box in a garden at the rear of the vacant house at 1101 Green Street. This had been until recently occupied by a physician, Dr. William R. R. Clark. It is supposed that the doctor had made use of these remains in his anatomical studies and had forgotten to remove them from the premises when he went away.
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