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Possibly. They did very well without him, the last few months of the season. The argument could be made that they had a psychological chip on their shoulder after he was suspended, which pushed them to do better. But the fact that they're doing pretty well (so far, knock wood, etc.) in the post-season sort of makes that a moot point, doesn't it?

Yeah, I'm not sure who gets to decide whose pro/con arguments go in the booklet, but they're written by the leading proponents and opponents of each proposition, so each side gets their say. And there are often multiple arguments on each side, so I don't think there's a limit on who can submit those. Definitely seems about as fair and balanced as they can be. I also like to see who signs the arguments for/against. There was a member of the board of supervisors here, Sue Berman, who was fantastic, for years after she retired from public office I always used her as my yardstick. "Oh, Sue B

This whole post makes me so happy! Babies getting big, spending time with grandma, while you travel and see Wilco friends. Sounds like a lovely time for everyone.

Front page headline in the SF Chronicle today: Can't Make This Up

Thank you, Mr. Solace!

Yeah, but Lincecum went through a nasty slump in August 2010, and came back from that to kill it in the World Series. I think his problems are mental as much as anything. Also, the spin here has always been that the shorter contracts were Lincecum's idea. The expectation was that he'd end up getting big big BIG money (rather than just the big big money that SF was offering) as a Yankee (or whatever) somewhere down the road.

He lost that weight after gaining a bunch the previous year. That cycle can't be healthy for an athlete. I'm still counting on the Giants bouncing back and winning the next three. They've done it before!!

I think one of the issues people have with live theater is that it can be really pricey. But at ACT, we go to previews and sit in the balcony, and those seats end up costing just about what a movie ticket would run. If you want to go on opening night or sit third row center at a big flashy production, yeah, that'll cost you, but there's lot of great theater out there for reasonable prices. I'm really excited about ACT's new venues that are opening in the neighborhood of my office. One is a tiny space ("the Costume Shop") that hosts little workshop-y things, and the other is a former grand

I subscribe to ACT, Berkeley Rep, and the Magic. Three very different theaters, each does between five and eight productions a year (depending on special events, holiday shows, etc.), so I see about 18-20 live shows every year. ACT has a core acting company, as well as an MFA program, so you'll see the same performers there on a regular basis. They've also got some very famous alumni (Annette Bening, Danny Glover, Benjamin Bratt, etc.). There are also some folks who appear there regularly (Olympia Dukakis has done a bunch of their productions, she'll be back for Elektra this season). I f

I agree. I love the idea of gaffe-prone, loose-cannon Biden. I want to see him go nuts, a little bit. But most every time I've actually heard him speak, I think he's composed and articulate. The worry before the Palin debate was whether he'd come across as a bully, but he threaded the needle on that one really well, in terms of presenting himself as a much better candidate, without ever really speaking down to her.

I don't disagree about the judiciary appointments, they're certainly an important consideration. I'm just saying that these issues (specifically reproductive rights and gay marriage) are being strongly hacked at on the state level, and will continue to be a battleground there. Yes, many of these state laws will be contested and come before federal judges, but for probably the next 20 years at least, the states will have their way, in one way or another, on these issues. I think gay marriage will eventually become a non-issue, there seems to be an obvious trend on that one. But no matter w

Oh yeah. I'm on the 18th floor, so about 225 feet!

Sea level. I've been as high as 10,000+, and a couple of weeks ago I spent three days at 7,000ft. I don't notice the difference, until/unless I try to run!

I think reproductive rights are purely a symbolic issue for most voters, at the national level. Much like gay marriage, at this point, these are issues that really are being decided or legislated at a state level. There is probably not going to be much movement on either of these issues in congress, and the presidential candidates' positions are little more than a way of reaching out to and relating to their bases on a "moral" level. But whether or not Roe v. Wade is overturned, states are going to continue to chip away at access to abortion. And whether or not DOMA is ever repealed, stat

I like that idea! Yeah, it's kind of hard to get across what we're looking for in these pictures. VC, but not Wilco... It's a fine line.

So sorry for your loss, Crow. I lost my father this year after a much shorter illness (he was diagnosed in December, died in April). I always knew this, but it was confirmed for me by the things people said to me after he died: good dads are hard to find. Having two wonderful parents is a thing of beauty. As sad as we are right now, we are the lucky ones, that we were raised by these people.

OK! Let's get this thing going, people. I could probably put together a calendar from what's been submitted here already (lots of great stuff!), but I'd like to have a different VCer represented for each month. Please submit something, if you haven't already! To refresh your memory, here's what the last one looked like: http://www.zazzle.co...172879136688581 Here are the Zazzle specs: We support JPEG, PNG, GIF, or TIFF files. Calendars are created at a minimum of 200ppi (pixels per inch). To fill the full area, we recommend that you use images that are equal to or larger than the re

Today would have been Natalie's 40th birthday. Please grab the nearest rock star's ass, in her memory.

We played something similar to Oh Hell, we called it Hellbridge. Never with that many hands, though! Hellbridge was 10 cards per player, tops, down to the hand where everyone got dealt a single card. In Ireland they play something called 25, it's a bridge-style card game, but I could never pick up the rules to that one.

Lots of interesting stuff in there, thanks. I saw this tweet from B.J. Novak this weekend, thought it was pretty funny: https://twitter.com/...316698437419008 I'm also interested in that book, looks great. My sister took some linguistics classes at Harvard. She said the best parts were hearing her very stuffy African-American professor parsing the grammar of the dozens, complete with some very graphic examples; and when he explained that there is a *correct* place, in the middle of any multi-syllable English word, to place "fucking" (as in "fan-fucking-tastic"; "fantas-fucking-tic" jus

Oh yes, the glorious bi-partisan cooperation between Clinton and Gingrich that led to the government shutdown...

A good friend of mine is a kindergarten teacher. She's gotten used to the parents being younger than her, but a few years ago she freaked out a little bit when she realized that the hot single "dad" she was checking out was actually her student's grandfather. Also: I'm pretty sure that Paul Ryan is the first major party presidential/vice-presidential candidate that's younger than I am. I'd been told this would happen: first it'll be the rockers and movie stars, then all the pro ball players will be younger than you, and one day you'll wake up and realize that you're older than the pres

I think this link is better: http://libertyhumane.donorpages.com/Event/

I hope you're all happy. I'm going to have REO Speedwagon songs running through my head all weekend. (1983, Cow Palace, with Survivor opening)

I think even at the time we knew it was sketchy.