Wow. An agency got Diet Coke to buy advertising on 1 of the 3 public telephones in the Mission. pic.twitter.com/99yGx7PeB2

— Mai Le (@mai) February 25, 2014

@mai @eviloars @kevinmonty pic.twitter.com/89H9Rc9vJK

— Paolo Sambrano (@paolo) February 26, 2014

New ads on pay phones seem to mock . . . something. But maybe the tone is what you bring to it. Maybe they’re meaning to celebrate a lifestyle or demographic that they’ve identified on some fancy charts as primed for targeting.

You’re in San Francisco, you took some crazy risks, the whole world is in your hands, put the world down for a moment and pick up a can of soda.

Or maybe they’re trying to get us to write and talk about it. So here we are. In that vein, I’d like to remind you that drinking Diet Coke is probably horrible for your body. You’d be better off drinking a glass of water. Also, water isn’t specifically messing with my head to get me to write all this right now.

We Built This City wondered if they were real, “I’d say that I hope these ads are a joke or art piece, but they probably aren’t. I mean, seriously? Seriously?”

If they are real, and not just a new effort from the BLF, I’m kind of baffled by what they mean. You could swap out their brand with anything else, nothing about it seems to imply that you need Diet Coke, but I guess that’s just lifestyle advertising.

On second thought, this could be the turning point in some really good story involving cat burglars, a mystical ankle bracelet found in a pawn shop, and roof people versus alley people.

Does anybody want to come up with a depiction of the Egyptian God of Bicycles?

Update: Tina P sends us an image of Bike Ra. Rad, Tina! I’m thinking the ankh is some kind of ancient U-Lock.

And get dizzy doing it.

Not yet on their web site, but some details on Facebook.

As a reminder, here’s 24th St last year:

Don’t forget to move your cars this time around, OK?

Late start today? Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone you’re still on the internet, as long as you don’t blow my cover.

There’s some cool stuff happening in the park today, so cancel that trip to San Jose. First of all, the Really Really Free Market:

The San Francisco Really Really Free Market (RRFM) meets the Last Saturday of Every Month in Dolores Park near 19th St and Dolores St. (except in the rainy season (Dec, Jan, Feb) we meet at an inside venue) Bring usable items, food, skills and talents to give for the sake of giving.

And Doctor Popular filled us in on his friend, P. Nosa, who will be in the park doing custom embroidery with his solar-powered sewing machine. He’s from Tuscon and only comes out here once a year, so be sure to check him out and bring some article of clothing to modify:

Mission Mission agents took this shot at a distance as not to arouse suspicion. Applying CSI style zoom:

Blue Fig? Hmm.

Nothing on Google (though it certainly seems to be a popular restaurant/hooka name in Ohio). Lots of permit activity at 988 Valencia via SFGov that closed on 4/23, but no specifics other than “Retail Sales”.

Blue is certainly becoming a popular prefix for Mission establishments: Blue Plate, Blue Macaw, Blue Fig. And there’s the blue Mission Cycling jerseys:

And the Mission Blue butterfly, which is making a comeback:

However, this is in direct conflict with Mission history, specifically the Mission Reds, who 80 years ago played ball a half dozen blocks away at Rec Park.

Do we require a series of red-themed establishments to keep things in balance? Or are the megaliters of tomato sauce and salsa consumed daily in pizzerias and taquerias mean we need more blue?

I miss that bus.

Any other Muni-related outfits? Maybe Nate Ford holding a giant axe and burning money?

But MrEricSir suspects Ivan Reitman’s involvement, and I concur — note the proximity to the Slimer Tree that Ariel discovered on 15th St.

If only the meters were a series of pastel colors, then we could blame Warhol’s ghost.

UPDATE: Perhaps someone is protesting, as Chicago saw last year?

Maybe it’s the shut-down-Valencia-to-cars movement embodying Burnham’s ghost — his 1905 plan for SF had two long, giant parks, one down Capp and the other along 23rd:

Opens April 16th at the Metreon. Ahh, the irony that we can’t watch it in the Mission.

(And WeatherBug, no Mission station? WTF?)