Mission Mission

I’ve never climbed before. Do climbers look forward to new bouldering routes at their local climbing facility the way I look forward to new Weezer albums?

[Photo by We Built This City]

Cartographer Penelope Popsicle yesterday published a handful of maps of various San Francisco parks, based on a boring Planning Department map but much prettier. Doesn’t Dolores Park look inviting?

View the rest here.

Curbed SF has the scoop:

The newly-landscaped Cesar Chavez Street will run from Hampshire Street, just west of that insane juncture of Bayview Avenue, Potrero Avenue and Route 101 (where Bullitt made his famous illegal u-turn) and extend to Guerrero Street with two less lanes of traffic, the ever present bulb-outs, and a fourteen-foot-wide planted median.

Sounds good. How long will it be before Chavez is the new Valencia?

Read on for more explanation, pictures and graphics.

So, Nerd Bait seems like a pretty fun blog. I’m going to keep reading it.

The party starts this Saturday at noon, people. There’ll be 35+ local designers selling cool stuff, a hands-on workshop, a raffle, some rad live bands, DJs, FOOD, FULL BAR. Come enjoy yourself!

See the full press release after the jump:

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This opportunistic bus managed to lodge itself into the intersection for not one, but two (2!!!!!) traffic light cycles this morning, no doubt causing Muni traffic down Market Street to merge into an even more congealed morass than normal.  Not even daring cyclists could get through!  If you were late for work downtown this morning, you know who to blame.

Protip:  If you’re about to cross Market Street and the light turns yellow, just stop.  It’s not going to work out.

I’m glad Mr. Pickles is able to take some time off once in a while and get the hell out of the hustle and bustle of the city. Looks like he really knows how to relax.

[Photo by David July] [Thanks, Cranky Old Mission Guy!]

Previously:

BREAKING: Mr. Pickle Stolen

BREAKING: Mr. Pickle Found

BREAKING: Mr. Pickle Hostage Situation

UPDATE: Mr. Pickle to Be Voluntarily Returned?

BREAKING: Mr. Pickle Returned!

Coming back from visiting some family for the holiday weekend, I came upon the new option of either going through TSA’s full body scanner or “opting out” and getting the full feel up. Going out of SFO there was nothing like that, but coming back from the San Diego airport they gave us the reach around, I mean run around, I mean full monty, I mean full treatment, I mean . . . no, that is what I mean.

Anyway, I opted out, along with the two female passengers I was traveling with. I’ve read a little bit on the health concerns and remain convinced that there are dozens of things I should be addressing about what we’re exposed to daily before I worry about a few seconds of this level of radiation. I opted out because I don’t think it should be easy to push us into new areas of decreased options without some push back. Not intended to slow down progress, but to put pressure on the deciding bodies to check their intentions. Blah blah. So I got the pat down.

Actually, it seemed quite like the body searches I’ve had plenty of times while being picked out of the line to be touched all over.

Seeing the Giants temporary tattoo on my forearm the TSA Toucher got me comfortable by talking about baseball. Despite being a Red Sox fan, he was a very pleasant fellow. He didn’t give me grief or even ask me why I was choosing to opt out of the scan. I asked him if the opting-out had created bottle necks in the process and he said that he usually worked at a terminal that didn’t have body scans and people would walk up to him exclaiming “I want to opt out!” and he would just sigh and tell them to go on through.

He started off by telling me that he wouldn’t do anything to me that would require him to buy me a drink. First he patted me down and when he got to the bottom of my happy trail area he quickly brushed across to my inner thighs with the back of his hands, making no moves to grab or fondle anything he may have found. A couple leg pats and that was that. Residue tests came back negative and I was on my way. Not so bad, but also not so great. Safety first, for sure, but with complications like privacy issues and racial profiling, this whole business becomes quite tricky.

Then we had some free time and since the TSA guy hadn’t bought me a drink I got the round and we did some airport karaoke.

Any other TSA thoughts?

In addition to being a publisher of personal appeals, Wikipedia is also a vast repository of knowledge. Here’s a sampling:

The Egg War is the name given to an 1863 conflict between rival egging companies on the Farallon Islands, 25 miles off San Francisco. It was the culmination of several years of tension between the (Pacific) Egg Company, which claimed the right to collect the eggs on the islands, and several rival firms. The resulting violence claimed two lives, but left the Egg Company in sole control of the islands’ eggs. Its victory was short lived; the company sold the rights to use the islands in the late 1870s and the federal government removed all egging companies from the islands in 1881.

Read on.

[Thanks, Penelope!]

Or do you have to go to Europe?

[Photo by cacalote]

UPDATE: Rainbow! Thanks, Rich!