The San Francisco Citizen

Some people think purchasing an iPod out of a vending machine “could probably be categorized as an impulse buy.”

Well that’s certainly true in San Francisco’s Union Square, which has a Zoom Systems iPod vending machine inside the “women’s Macy’s” but also a full-fledged Apple Store a scant 299 feet away.  

You’re probably better off suppressing your impulses for the two minutes it takes to walk a block (downhill, bonus!) on Stockton.

Just saying.

What’s the first thing to do once you get a free ice cream cone on the birthday of Ben & Jerry’s? Eat it, of course.

But you might as well get back in line so that when you’re done eating you’ll be at the front and ready to choose another flavor. Some might take the time to finish their cones before queuing up to attempt to get some more, but carpe diem, you dig?

Your behavior might hack off the people behind you, but only slightly.  

The best way to pass the time waiting for free ice cream is eating free ice cream in an endless loop:

Speaking of free (or almost free) ice cream, Baskin Robins is having their 31 Cent Scoop Night today, April 30, 2008, starting at 5:00 PM. Sadly, not all BRs will offer this deal and you will be limited to buying only just ten cones.

(And there’s always frogurt from Tuttimelon, still having their temporary 99-cent special. If you swing that way)

Find a participating store near you or check this list below and after the jump:

West Bay

2250 Irving St
San Francisco , CA 94122
 
570 Battery St
San Francisco , CA 94111 
 
1539 Sloat Blvd
San Francisco , CA 94132  

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Head on down to “The Cellar” or the basement or whatever they call the bottom floor of San Francisco’s flagship Macy’s and check out this “Museo del Jamón” display.

A porcine horror show to get you in the shopping mood:

What would PETA have to say about this ghastly windowbox? And how about truculent troubadour Morrissey?

Its not natural, normal or kind
The flesh you so fancifully fry
The meat in your mouth
As you savour the flavour
Of murder

Normally, teens never sit around on sidewalks in the Haight, but today was special so these kids made themselves right at home on Ashbury Street.

The favorite flavor of the thousands of patrons? That would have to be Cake Batter, one of the best ever. And almost definitely salmonella-free.

Check the video of Ben and Jerry’s recent visit to the Bay Area. Why not?

Happy 30th birfday, B&J!

Here was the scene this morning during the A.M. drive - a cyclist getting ticketed by a motorcycle officer. Don’t know the details of this particular incident, but it wouldn’t be hard for you to find cyclists blowing stop signs or red lights at any intersection in San Francisco.

Individual officers sometimes get on a kick and issue tickets for the same type of infraction over and over all day. If you get cops acting together, as sometimes happens, then you’d call it an enforcement action. They could go after drivers who roll through stop signs, or pedestrians who jaywalk - you never know.

Harley Davidson of a bitch! Yet another ticket from a Dudley Perkins-motosickle-riding buckethead.

Some would like to see Page become the Page St. Bicycle Boulevard - this would allow cyclists to maintain speed. Traffic circles were tried before, but those things proved unpopular.

Leave us turn to Idaho for the answer - stop signs mean “stop” for drivers but mean “yield” for cyclists:

                                  TITLE  49
                                MOTOR VEHICLES
                                  CHAPTER 7
                           PEDESTRIANS AND BICYCLES
    49-720.  STOPPING — TURN AND STOP SIGNALS. (1) A person operating a
bicycle or human-powered vehicle approaching a stop sign shall slow down and,
if required for safety, stop before entering the intersection. 

What’s wrong with California having a similar law?

Let’s be careful out there.

Actually, Golden Gate Park probably now has as many Canada Geese as it can handle. These birds have already created problems for the Oakland Raiders and now they’re coming after us in the West Bay.

If you let 30 adults stay on a grassy area for one day, you’ll have 30 pounds of bird poo to deal with the next day. Something to think about…

San Francisco had a large rally yesterday on the steps of City Hall, sponsored by Play Not Spray. Kids and their parents aren’t satisfied with Governor Arnold Schwazenegger’s delay of Light Brown Apple Moth spraying in the Bay Area - they want the whole shebang cancelled.

It seems the majority of people in San Francisco would prefer to deal with the LBAM itself rather than with the effects of eradication. Many feel the cure is worse than the disease.

(Another benefit of cancelling eradication is that indescribable videos like this will stop getting made.)

To Be Continued…

You don’t need to Say Anything to get your point across about LBAM spraying:

You know what looks yummy? Huge banana Passionfruit hanging around at the Strybing Arboretum at the San Francisco Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park. Feel free to look, but not touch, as SFBG is a kind of worldwide storage vault of these kinds of plants.

Mmmm…, passionfruit.

The Marin Independent Journal is trying to do the best it can in this Internet Age. That means putting content online and maybe allowing for a reader poll on some topic of the day.

Last week, IJ editor/writer Brad Breithaupt wrote a piece about the sprawling 3rd Senate District involving “incumbent Senator Carole Migden and her two challengers, Assemblyman Mark Leno and former [A]ssemblyman Joe Nation.”

Readers were allowed to cast their vote for whomever they favored until someone at the IJ cancelled it. Why? Check it:

“Due to suspected ballot-box stuffing, results of the poll will not appear. You dirty rascals!”

Thusly:

Appears is if more than one person repeatedly voted for a particular candidate and, so much so, the results got all screwy. Apparently, “cookies” were involved.

Now, who would do such a thing? (If only Marin County had its own Matier and Ross to get to the bottom of this!)

Can’t we all get along?   

It’s on. Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream is having it’s 30th annual Free Cone Day on Tuesday, April 29, 2008. 

Founders Ben and Jerry were most recently in the local news for launching an Olympic protest during our recent torch relay. (You hear that Coke? You don’t need to sponsor every Olympiad that comes down the pike.) 

Anyway, there’ll be five places in San Francisco for you to get your cone on. Click onward to see the locations for the South, East and North Bays on the jump page or just go here to see all locations in northern North America. 

This udder will be equipped to dispense the four newest flavors: Coconut Seven Layer Bar, Imagine Whirled Peace™, ONE Cheesecake Brownie™, Cake Batter:

mkdougal via Flickr

See you there!

West Bay: 

Ben & Jerry’s Argonaut
475 Jeffersont Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
           
Ben & Jerry’s Jefferson Street
79 Jefferson Street
Rocket Shop
San Francisco, CA 94133
          
Ben & Jerry’s Fisherman’s Wharf
Pier 41
San Francisco, CA 94133
           
Ben & Jerry’s Macy’s
Macy’s Department Store
San Francisco, CA 94102
            
Ben & Jerry’s Haight Ashbury
1480 Haight Street
San Francisco, CA 94117  

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