Posts Tagged ‘American’

Why are San Francisco’s New “Low-Cost” Airlines More Expensive than Regular Old Airlines?

Monday, March 1st, 2010

You know the JetBlue and the Virgin America, right? Let’s review:

JetBlue Airways is an American low-cost airline…”

Virgin America, Inc. is a United States-based low-cost airline…”

Well, check out what the suits attending the American Association of Advertising Agencies’ Transformation 2010 convention at the Hilton San Francisco Union Sqaure are paying to fly in from and back to the Big Apple, assuming they’re stuck in the coach section during this Great Recession:

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See that? United, Delta, American and Continental all were quoting airfares less than $300, and the ”low-cost airlines” were the most expensive.

Perhaps sexy new Virgin America and JetBlue should be called premium airlines these days?

Just asking…

Stanford Frosh Crystal Lee Crowned Miss Chinatown USA for 2010

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

This was the scene last night at the Palace of Fine Arts, where Stanfurd freshman and bay area local Crystal Lee was crowned Miss Chinatown USA 2010. It’s international news.

All the pageantry was caught by David Yu of davidyuweb. He always has great photos of whatever’s going on the bay area. 

The crowning the School of the Arts alum:

Here are all the contestants: Christine Lim 李汶娸, Kristina Owyoung 歐陽坤怡, Samantha Chin 陳冠曄, Leilani Soon 孫愛蘭, Anna Chiem 詹佩盈, Christina Zhang 張子倩, Crystal Lee 李萬晴, Gloria Mui 梅主恩, Angela Wang 王兆蓬, Chang Liu 劉暢, Li Li 李欣燃, and Tong Qiao 喬彤:

How many peacocks had to die for this outfit? None, I s’pose:

Congratulations:

Crystal Lee

San Francisco, CA
Miss Chinatown U.S.A.

Kristina Owyoung
Lafayette, CA
Miss Chinese Chamber of Commerce/First Princess

Christina Zhang
Pleasanton, CA
Miss San Francisco Chinatown

Li Li
Flushing, NY
2nd Princess

Anna Chiem
Chicago, IL
3rd Princess

Angela Wang
Sugar Land, TX
4th Princess

Anna Chiem
Chicago, IL
Miss TVB Choice Award

And of course our Chinese New Year’s Parade is coming up (rain expected – it’s free to watch of course, or you can pay $30 for reserved seating) on Saturday, February 27th, 2010, right after the Coronation Ball:

Miss Chinatown U.S.A. Coronation Ball
Friday, February 26, 2010
San Francisco Hilton & Towers
333 O’Farrell Street, San Francisco
(415) 982-3000
6:00 pm No Host Cocktails
7:00 pm Dinner and Dancing until midnight
Tickets: $120
The newly selected Miss Chinatown USA and her court will be crowned at the annual Harrah’s Coronation Ball. The black tie dinner/dance, attended by many community leaders, promises to be a highlight of the Lunar New Year festivities.

Frank H. Wu Set to Take Over U.C. Hastings Law School Next Year

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

California’s fifth or sixth-best law school will be getting a new leader as of July 1, 2010, when Howard University’s Frank H. Wu will become the dean at U.C. Hastings in San Francisco’s gritty Tenderloin

Frank’s no stranger to the bay area, having taught at Stanfoo and also having worked for Mofo (that’s the nickname for San Francisco’s historic white-shoe law firm Morrison and Foerster, srsly) representing tenants against landlords pro bono back in the 1990’s.

Meet Frank Wu:

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Per SFGate:

 
The man has a Plan for Hastings – a three-point plan, actually: 
 
First, he said the curriculum should be structured to ensure graduates have real-world legal skills when they leave, such as taking depositions, negotiating deals, and reading balance sheets.
 
Second, students should be prepared to work in a global economy that is driven by Pacific Rim nations. “The global economy is not the future. It’s here and now,” he said. “I see us recruiting students and placing them in Seoul and Saigon.”

Additionally, Wu said the school is too reliant on state funding and he intends to launch its first capital campaign.”

Bon courage, Frank Wu.

All the deets after the jump.

*How about partially racially-motivated instead? If you kill somebody with a baseball bat in San Francisco these days and then admit it to the cops, you’re going to do some hard time, no doubt. But back in the day if you and your stepson killed somebody with a baseball bat in Detroit, Michigan, well, you might have been able to walk with probation and a $30/week restitution plan. It all had to do with a runaway judge and some county prosecutors who made a plea bargain deal and then no-showed the sentencing hearing, and later on, some feds who got caught committing prosecutorial misconduct. Why do voters support mandatory minimum sentencing and three-strikes type laws in the aughts? Because of cases like that of Vincent Chin in the 1980’s. Just saying.

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Menus of Baker and Banker, the New New American Place at Octavia and Bush

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

Get up to speed first.  

Now, here are the debut menus for Baker & Banker. Click to expand: 

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The neighbors, like Ashley H., seemed pleased, anyway:

“I live right around the block from Baker & Banker, and when I saw that a new restaurant was opening I was so excited to try it out, so I went for opening night, and it was great!

The inside decor is pretty nice and simple with low lighting and mirrors on the walls. To start I had a salad with goat cheese, pomegranate, persimmon, and I think pear, which was super delicious. It was a nice light way to start out the meal. For my main course, I had the scallop dish with brussel sprout leaves and sun choke puree, and it was superb! For desert I had the cheese cake apple crisp, and as a cheesecake expert, it was a great mixture of a traditional cheesecake with apple in the middle – I totally recommend it!

For me this place is a really cute neighborhood restaurant, and I definitely plan on going back. I also think it’s definitely worth a trip even if you aren’t in the neighborhood – it’s great!”

“Market-Driven New American Cuisine” – Baker & Banker Set to Open This Week in Pac Heights

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Combining our twin obsessions of food and money, it’s Baker & Banker! And they’re all set to serve up steak, cast-iron potatoes and more starting this week (probably tomorrow, December 1, 2009) at 1701 Octavia betwixt Bush and Pine.

Will our Quince replacement get along well with its NIMBY-ish neighbors in this residential hood? We Can Only Hope. 

As it looked a few weeks back:

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Eater SF has the deets:

“As you’ll recall, Jeff Banker (of Home fame) and his wife Lori Baker are opening a new American, “welcoming neighborhood restaurant” there, and lo and behold, it’s coming along quite nicely. Notable designer Michael Brennan has spruced up the cozy interior with some dark leather banquettes and a dark wood bar…”

Why don’t you drop by sometime and see the results of the efforts of this cute couple? It’s already(!) rated five stars on Yelp, so that’s a good(?) sign.

The aforementioned Baker and Banker:

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More details, after the jump.

Bon courage, B&B!

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Our Captain Sullenberger is Getting Dissed from France – Was Sully’s French Plane the Real Hero?

Monday, November 16th, 2009

I don’t know, it seems like writer William Langewiesche, currently residing in France, wants to have it both ways with his new book, Fly by Wire: The Geese, the Glide, the Miracle on the Hudson. He wants to rip on Sully, thusly:

“His performance was a work of extraordinary concentration, which the public misread as coolness under fire. Some soldiers will recognize the distinction.”

“Like it or not, [French pilot Bernard Ziegler] reached out across the years and cradled them all the way to the water.”

But then when Langewiesche gets a little blowback, he folds up like a deck chair, talking about how he’s surprised by Sully’s reaction, and how he’s neither pro- nor anti- fly-by-wire, and how he thinks cockpit automation is merely ”a part of the story,” anyway, of Flight 1549. Well, duh, it’s a part of the story. 

But that’s Langewiesche’s “Truth About the Miracle on the Hudson” – that’s it, that’s all there is?

Haven’t read Fly by Wire myself. Probably would rather read it more than Sully’s less-techy book (mostly about the his Search for What Really Matters), which I haven’t read either. Oh well.

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Obviously, there are pros and cons to Die by Wire. If William Langewiesche is now going around saying that, as he is, then there’s not much of a dispute anymore, we’ll take solace in the certainly that the bruised egos of French Airbus execs (who want Sully to thank Gaia for Airbus every chance he gets) will heal over time.

I don’t know, pretty cheesy (fromagey?) Monsieur William Langewiesche.

Pretty cheesy.

Captain Sully Sullenberger to Appear at SFO for Book Signing on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

Monday, October 19th, 2009

East Bay local Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger is back flying for U.S. Airways, but he’s still had time to write a book and go on tour. Sully will be at SFO tomorrow, in case you want to drop by at 11:00 AM. Otherwise, it costs $90k to arrange an appearance these days, so this is a good deal.

After all, Sully is Your Homeboy, right?

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The SFO Hudson Bookseller is located pre-security (near the BART Station) in the Main Hall of the International Terminal on the “G” Area side.

October 20, 2009 – Tuesday

Sully Sullenberger Book Signing
When: October 20, 2009 – Tuesday 11 a.m.
Where: Hudson Books, International Terminal (near Bart) San Francisco
What: Sully Sullenberger will be signing his new book “Highest Duty My Search for What Really Matters”

San Francisco Photo: How Many of These Parked Cars were Made in America?

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

Out of the more than two dozen vehicles (there are others around the corner where the street goes left) parked on this bricked-up San Francisco street, how many were made in the United States?

(Careful, it’s a trick!)

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The answer: Zero percent. What about that big old Chrysler Town & Country minivan you say? Ooops, it was made in Canada, eh.

Hey, did you know that Canada is considered to be part of the United States when determining the “domestic” content of cars? Let’s see what U.S. Code TITLE 49 > SUBTITLE VI > PART C > CHAPTER 323 > § 32304 Passenger motor vehicle country of origin ­labeling has to say:

“6. ‘foreign content’ means passenger motor vehicle equipment that is not of United States/Canadian origin.”

It’s like Canada is the 51st State of America, or something. How convenient.

But hey, what aboot Mexico, eh? They make cars too? Yes, but no matter, Mexicans are foreigners and Canadians are Americans, under da law.

But what about Buying Local, isn’t belief in the wisdom of buying local a kind of San Francisco religion or something?

Well, yes it is a kind of religion, but it doesn’t apply to vehicles, manifestly. San Franciscans’ vehicles need to come from far-off locations like the Black Forest or Scandinavia or Toyota City.

But what about supporting unions, are these cars union-made? Well, the German ones most likely are, some other ones aren’t and the Japanese ones are made by so-called “union” workers.

All right, here’s your bonus question. Which vehicle is most likely to be on the road in 30 years? The Land Cruiser of course. It’s 100% made in Japan and the fact that it wasn’t in-style when it was made means that it won’t go out of style in the coming years.

This concludes San Francisco Photo: How Many of These Parked Cars were Made in America?

Fremont, CA Overrun With Canada Geese. “Sully’s Bane” is Spreading

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

Captain Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger got famous after running into these critters earlier in the year, but you don’t need an airplane to encounter monstrous Canada Geese. Oh no. Just head over to Fremont, CA. They’ve got thousands of ‘em.

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First, they got Oakland, now they have Fremont.

Is San Francisco next?

Don’t Count Your Money Like Ed Jew – the Danger of Raised Notes

Friday, April 24th, 2009

Look at this video of former San Francisco Supervisor Ed Jew counting tens of thousands of dollars in front of an FBI-provided video camera.

See? He’s doing it wrong. The correct way is shown at the end of the short video here - the Canada, U.S. and England method. The primary reason for counting dough properly is counterfeit detection. You gots to look at the faces of the dead white males in order to do it right. That’s the system, baby. Maybe in other countries the bills are different enough so that this doesn’t matter, but we’re talking U.S. folding money here.  

What’s that? You can’t see the faces ’cause the money’s all upside-down and backwards? You’ll need to bankface the notes before you start, of course.

Here’s the thing – if you just look at the corners, then you will get taken in by a raised note sooner or later.

This is called an eleven dollar bill cause it’s a one with corners from tens attached.

Count American money the right way and then you’ll get good at it and go superfast.