By John Geluardi
The Grand Ballroom at the Fairmont Hotel is a venerable place to hold an election night gathering for supporters of political candidates like Sen. Barack Obama. It just feels important, all that grand late 19th century architecture, polished marble floors and of course the commanding location at Nob Hill’s crest.
And some very important people showed up to support Obama as well. Rep. Barbara Lee was there. I’ve never seen someone talk on two cell phones at once while daintily picking at a plate of fresh vegetables with dip. Also present were San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin and Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi.
What’s being tried here? How about the jury’s patience?
By Andy Van De Voorde
Executive Associate Editor, Village Voice Media
After yesterday’s fireworks from Bruce Brugmann, Guardian attorneys returned to their plodding ways Wednesday, subjecting the jury to an entire day of testimony from witnesses who weren’t there.
Brugmann, who treated the court to a three-hour display that included spluttering, shouting, and fist-pounding yesterday, sat quietly in the gallery as his lawyers put on a noticeably dull performance that had at least two jurors visibly napping at times.
This time, Guardian attorneys Ralph C. Alldredge and Richard P. Hill took turns portraying the absent witnesses. Alldredge starred in the role of former Weekly and East Bay Express publisher Chris Keating, while Hill made his dramatic debut playing New Times chief financial officer Jed Brunst.
The attorneys did not explain to the jury why they chose to read deposition testimony between themselves rather than simply call Keating and Brunst to the stand. They legally could have subpoenaed both men, and, in fact, both are expected to testify in person when the Weekly puts on its case.
By Benjamin Wachs
If anybody took a beating in yesterday’s election, it was the idea that endorsements — whether by newspapers, politicians, or celebrities — mean a damn thing.
Clinton beat Obama handily among California Hispanic voters – even though the Spanish language press came out swinging for him. She won among women despite Oprah’s parade for Obama. On the other hand, Obama cleans Clinton’s clock among blacks despite Maya Angelou coming out for Hillary. But Hillary won California Asian voters despite Asian Week’s endorsement of Barak.
Does anybody care?
It gets more ridiculous. Clinton trashed Obama in Massachusetts, despite the Kennedy's talking about how Kennedy-esque he is. Did John Kerry’s endorsement make a bit of difference? Does John Kerry ever make a difference?
On the other hand, Obama took Connecticut, despite … well, you get the idea.
Bottom line: Super Tuesday proved that the endorsement game, like 3-card Monty, is for suckers.
Who likes marching bands? Everybody, that's who. Now tell me, who likes mostly unorganized marching bands who may not know how to play their instruments? Again, I think you'll have to agree that everybody likes them too, which is why you should be sure to check -- or better yet, join in with -- the Public Marching Band being organized by Transtagonist. All you need is a hat and an instrument of some kind (I assume pots, pans and kazoos count). It's happening this Sunday, Feb. 10th at 1:00 p.m. on the corner of 18th & Church, by Dolores Park.
-- Brian Bernbaum
Get a little typographical neighborhood pride and check out this awesome San Francisco map designed by Jenny Beorkrem and Ork Posters. Manhattan, Brooklyn and Chicago also got the same great treatment. Only $22 a pop. (via Laughing Squid)
Image courtesy/Jenny Beorkrem
-- Brian Bernbaum
An altruistic literary Web site allows me to rekindle a youthful passion (and give away things I don’t own)
By Joe Eskenazi
When I was a child, a favorite activity was to scrawl my phone number on a card lashed to a helium balloon and release the lighter-than-air sphere into the wild blue yonder. I nursed fantasies of receiving a phone call from exotic environs as remote as Lafayette, Orinda, or even Pittsburg.
Yet, if I was lucky enough to receive a call at all, it usually came from a neighbor six houses down who seemed impatient for me to come retrieve the damn balloon.
These days, kids probably don’t even experience that sort of limited joy; releasing balloons with numbers on them sounds a bit al-Qaeda-ish and would probably result in a stern talking-to from the local police sergeant and his little police sergeant bear.
And yet, adults need not give up upon the joy of releasing an object into the wild and waiting to hear back from far-off strangers. Except instead of balloons, you can do it with books.
When BookCrossing.com hit the scene a few years back...
The fella with the mop earns an average of $12.59 an hour in San Francisco. The fella with the Semitic good looks pulls in $57.62.
Which San Francisco jobs pay the best? Which pay the worst? Do you deserve a raise – or should you be buying us all a round of drinks?
By Joe Eskenazi
In the midst of poring through the state and federal government’s employment numbers and projections for this series (read part I here, part II here), I discovered a most inconvenient truth: One of the two methods the government uses to calculate job growth has an error rate of plus or minus 100,000 jobs (so that 18,000-job gain in December may well have been an 82,000-job loss).
And the other method? It comes with an error rate of plus or minus 400,000 jobs.
So, to put it mildly, when it comes to tabulating our month-by-month job growth (let alone the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ projections up to year 2016) we’re not dealing with “a Swiss f-----g watch,” as the Dude put it in The Big Lebowski.
That being said, the calculations of how much the various professions earn, county by county, in this great state of ours are considerably more accurate; if it doesn’t reach the Dude’s exalted “Swiss f-----g watch” status, it’s at least a "Japanese f-----g watch.”
So, according to the California Employment Development Department’s most up-to-date numbers, these are the 10 highest-paid jobs in the San Francisco metro region (S.F., San Mateo, and Marin counties):
10. Securities, Commodities and Financial Services (hourly mean wage of $61.35)
9. Computer and Information Scientists, Research ($62.95)
8. Psychiatrists ($63.07)
7. Pediatricians, General ($63.55)
6. Financial Managers ($63.66)
