FROM HOME TODAY 6 A.M. Good Morning Mission! It is a miserable 53° Fahrenheit and doesn’t look like it’s going to get much better.
How Cheesey Can You Get?
Remember when Olympic figure skaters had to grill cheese sandwiches while they lutzed axeled and did a triple toe loop? Probably not, but while the Olympic figure skating dominated television screens this past weekend, former Olympian, and now celebrity chef, Brian Boitano made his street food debut in Precita Park. An episode or a commercial for his Food Network show, or both, the cheese sandwiches sold out just the same.
Really Fine Art at the de Young
The deYoung’s year-long tribute to the Mission arts community, “one of San Francisco’s greatest assets . . . a rising star on the global art map” (oh, please!!) continues this Friday night celebrating women artists “in the Mission and the World.” Legendary muralist Juana Alicia will be speaking along with projections featuring the work of neighborhood artists including Mujeres Muralistas, Esther Hernandez, Isis Rodriguez and others.
Fishy Makeover on 18th Street
So what’s going on behind those brown paper windows at what used to be Craig’s Place. Far from being run out of town, the owners of Craig’s Place are tacking with the wind. EaterSF provides a post-plywood report for Ebb and Flow, opening on March 10. Eater also presents its latest 38 “essential San Francisco restaurants,” the last for Eater editor Paolo Lucchesi, who will be food-blogging for SF Gate. Although most of Lucchesi’s favorites are downtown (the right guy for the Gate), no neighborhood placed more on the list than the Mission. Even if he did remove La Taqueria.
Sort of True Confessions on 22nd Street
Caution! Writers at work. Successful, unsuccessful, budding, fading, hoping, dreaming, high on something or other; they are writing: on the sidewalk, in bars, laundromats, cafes, coffeehouses, taquerias, parks, busses, bustops, whereever, whatever. Even when they’re not writing, they’re writing. Tony, a Mission native, wrote his first novel, his “debut” on bar napkins, flesh (his own) and probably dirty clothes. Was he a “teenage Jesus jerk” as the title of his novel suggests? Was he with “Jews for Jesus” when they had a print shop on Folsom at 22nd? Buy his book to find out.
While You Were Sleeping
Late Wednesday night, while eyes were looking forward to the Health Care Summit, watching the Olympics, or otherwise closed, the Senate stealthily voted to extend the Patriot Act by acclamation — with no debate, rejecting out of hand oversight on and protection against the government’s ability to spy on its citizens. The House followed suit the next day, with almost all Democrats voting for the measure,* while all Republicans but one either opposed the bill or abstained. Wasn’t it the Democrats who said, give us a majority in Congress and we’ll tame the Patriot Act?
*Congresswoman Pelosi did not vote.
*Attention George Orwell: The name of the bill to perpetuate the Patriot Act?
“The Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2009”