The San Francisco Citizen

Here’s the deal, all those same sex marriages at San Francisco’s City Hall are scheduled to get started on a Monday evening ten days from now - June 16th. Normally, the largest old-school dome in the Western Hemisphere wouldn’t be open that late, but these are extraordinary times.

So, opposite sex couples have only a limited window of opportunity to get a license and get married at City Hall before June 16. Before, couples were avoiding ceremonies on June 13th (as it’s on a Friday), but no longer. Everybody will be accomodated eventually, of course, but you need to plan ahead for best results. Things will get a little hectic starting June 16, 2008.

First, go here to get a reservation to get a wedding license. Then go here to check out what times for ceremonies they have for you. Keep checking as cancellations come up. Things are in flux, so stay informed.

When things get back to normal after the big summer rush, you’ll be offered a space for your ceremony in the small chapel downstairs or up here, at the top of the steps under the rotunda. But expect to see ceremonies all over the building very soon.

Congratulations! 

Check out this car parked in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park (on a street unaffected by Healthy Saturdays or Healthy Sundays).

California “Livery” license plates and the TCP (”Transport Chartered Party“) number sticker indicate this is a limo for hire, and the letter “H” on the license plate and in the car’s model name, GS 450h, means this vehicle is a gas-electric hybrid. 

Can you imagine the marketing of a hybrid limo such as this? You no longer have a driver, you have a Eco Chauffeur®. And on that special day:

“Your wedding car need not cost the earth. Enjoy luxurious and stylish wedding travel in the eco-friendly Lexus Hybrid wedding car.”

The problem with all this is that Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive technology is basically being used to make the car accelerate faster, as Jeremy Clarkson complains:

“The only good thing about the electric motor is that it provides extra power when you mash your foot into the carpet. And I’m not sure that was the point.”

The same basic vehicle without the Lexus Hybrid Drive system, called the GS 350, is already as fast as stink. Take one of these non-hybrid, 5-passenger sedans to the racetrack and compare it to the vaunted, two-seat Tesla Roadster, the kind you’re starting to see on Bay Area roads these days. That Tesla isn’t going to outrun you to sixty mph.

When you add in the electric motor to make a GS 450h, you get a car that accelerates even faster. 0-60 mph in 5.2 seconds - that will get you to the church on time! 

Toyota engineers could have emphasized mileage improvements at the expense of brute force speed, but they chose not to.

Anyway, enjoy your hybrid limo service - the faster you go the faster you save the earth, or something like that.