So I did a personal little walking tour today to take some photos that might hopefully yield something on which I can base the future design of this blog. I meandered through the Presidio out to Fort Point and then up to the Golden Gate before heading back. It was an absolutely beautiful day in San Francisco - kinda surprising, given the time of the year. Not a cloud in the sky, and temperatures hanging around in the upper 60’s as the sun warmed up the little chill the breeze carried off the ocean.

As I made my way along Chrissy Field towards the Warming Hut, I noticed a larger-than-usual contingent of people hanging outside of the Warming Hut, sitting on benches and the sea wall. Nothing unusual really, it was a beautiful day out - people were just taking time out of there day to enjoy the scenery, the sunshine, to people-watch. Some were reading books, some were chatting amongst themselves and then I saw something I didn’t really expect at all. A matronly-looking woman, maybe in her late 50’s, sitting on one of the benches and going over her absentee ballot.

And I strode past, a smile on my face as this woman chose to exercise her hard-won democratic rights as one of the most beautiful urban scenes splayed out in front of her on a beautiful October afternoon.

Courtesy of Salon.

Interesting conversation going on over at Inessential. Curse of A-Rod?

I’m trying really hard not to smirk (ok, maybe not).

So for all those fellow Sox fans (veteran or otherwise - we welcome all here!), here’s a couple of goodies that I recently received from some well-wishing co-workers:

A feel-good Powerpoint presentation

NY Yankees to Boston Red Sox Fan Conversion Form

Enjoy!

Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, “an advocate for the rights of ex-gays”, writes to Dick & Lynne Cheney about possibly “fixing” their daughter. Aside from really wanting to see the Cheney’s response to the insinuation that there’s something so wrong with their daughter that she needs to be fixed in some fashion, I’m curious as to the civil rights concerns for “ex-gays”.

As so perfectly worded by Salon’s War Room, I, too, “eagerly await demands that the group apologize for once again pulling Mary from her non-existent closet.”

I can’t say that I’ve been the most devoted & consistent baseball fan, but I can say that I’ve always been a Boston Red Sox fan - I still remember arguments with other kids back in 1986 as to the outcome of that World Series (that’s one thing about growing up in Connecticut - one group of kids would be for the Boston/New England contingent, while the other would give their allegiance to New York… even the Mets). While I reside in the Bay Area, my soul breathes New England.

There’s still a bit of unbelievability that the Babe has been exorcised and the Curse has been broken in our lifetime. Congratulations to the Sox - they busted their butts and earned every bit of glory. And all the better that they had to go through the Yankees to do it…

So remember way back when the Republican Party declared basically everything French (or slightly related to-) was bad - Freedom Fries, anyone? - well, apparantly Republican #1 didn’t really buy into that. All of his suits are made by a Frenchman, Georges de Paris. Courtesy of Salon.

Rhymes with Orange is one of my favorite comics - Hilary Price has a great sense of humor that almost always puts a smile on my face. Today I got her semi-irregular mailing list email and her closing note totally made me crack up:

CHICKENS UNLEASHED — One of my partner’s jobs is in an inner city elementary school in Springfield, MA. Last week, someone noticed a chicken walking around the side parking lot. This caused significant buzz in the school, and lots of discussion on whether it was a “a chicken or a rooster.” While Kerry did not grow up amongst chickens, she did know that a rooster IS a chicken, and that the ACTUAL question was whether it was a rooster or a hen.

When it was still there the next day, Kerry took action. She called Animal Care and Control, who informed her that, sorry, they do not handle domesticated animals, but here is the number for the Humane Society.

Kerry called the Humane Society, told the woman on the other end about the 48-hour rogue chicken, as well as her concern that it might be hungry, and waited for her response.

There was a pause.

“There is no leash law for chickens,” the woman said.

“Pardon me?” replied Kerry.

“There is no leash law for chickens,” the woman repeated, “so we can’t come get it. Technically, it’s not breaking the law. Sorry.”

Kerry broke the news to her team of teachers. She then looked out the window and saw the high school math teacher trying to corner the chicken in the parking lot. Feathers flew while the chicken flapped its wings and ran away from him.

Kerry does not know what actually happened to the chicken.

But think about it– of all people, the math teacher should know better than to try to corner a chicken on an infinite plane.

I think we all saw it coming when in their first home game, the Kiko Calero managed to unintentionally walk Pedro on his first pitch of the game. Last night it occurred to me that the Cardinals’ uniform is really quite apt: They’re the red-headed stepchildren of baseball this year.

Can’t WAIT for tonight. I look forward to the reports of street rioting partying in the Hub tonight. Wish I was there!

The latest in studies on the effects cellphone usage has on the brain. Bad news: The 10-year study has found an increased risk of developing a benign tumor on the auditory nerve (about 150 acoustic neuroma patients and 600 healthy control patients). Not-necessarily-good-but-it-still-puts-the-findings-in-a-bit-of-perspective-news: They only used the old analog phones, not newer digital ones.

So, ultimately, the jury still looks to be out on the matter (unless, somehow, you are still managing to use an analog cellphone). I’d still personally recommend using a headset as much as you can though (digital or analog)…

U.S. considering incentives for Iran. OK, I realize that I can be pretty cynical from time to time, but is it just me in thinking that there seems to be some weird correlation between using incentives for a country everyone knows full well has nuclear goodies and invading a country that everyone suspected had none (and whose suspicions just recently proven correct)?

This article (reg req, or see Bugmenot) really got by blood boiling this morning. Yes, this Denver bishop has his First Amendment rights (quite the apt two-fer: freedom of religion and speech; of course, I’m meaning the latter). But at the same time, his contention that Kerry = Evil strikes me as, um, bad. And to say that voting for Kerry classifies as a sin that must be confessed prior to Communion, well, that just really gets me.

(more…)

Some people are suggesting Bush had “cheat sheets” at the first debate, but apparently some investigation has yielded they were just notes he was making to himself during the debate.

How do you run a convention on a record of failure? Courtesy of Atrios.