Archive for June, 2012

Trolled by Safeway

June 29th, 2012

Trolled by Safeway?

New signs at the Church and Market location of Safeway urge customers to “Help us keep the streets of San Jose clean.”

Since it’s hard to believe their employees wouldn’t know what city they work in, this can’t be a mistake; Safeway is trolling us on purpose. And what better way to troll San Franciscans than to confuse our wonderful city with that overstuffed suburb in the South Bay?

Good work, Safeway — successful troll is successful.

Ninja Turtle battles gentrification

June 26th, 2012

Anti-gentrificaiton TMNT

This new mini-piece on Clarion Alley shows Raphael of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles complaining about gentrification to a man with a rather unusual tongue condition.

Gentrification, according to this mural, is embodied by ice cream, condos, and “another boutique.” Who knew that food, shelter, and retail were to blame? Apparently can battle gentrification by starving ourselves and sleeping on the street — it’s that simple!

Of course, Raphael has more reason to complain than the rest of us; the city has been busily ripping out his home (i.e. the sewers) and replacing them with newer sewers, which one assumes are not protected by rent control.

Stuff used to be made in SF

June 26th, 2012

Door bell

My apartment building dates back to the early 40’s, and in many ways it’s a throwback to another era. Fuse boxes, steam heating, garbage chutes… it’s all very quaint.

But sometimes it’s sad to see how things have changed — the doorbell pictured above was actually manufactured right here in SF. Same with the sewer drains in the parking lot. All of these things would be made outside the country today, let alone San Francisco.

Today, the term “made in San Francisco” typically means “prepared in San Francisco.” There are no real factories here anymore. That bike or messenger bag that says “SF Made” on it might have had some customization work done on it here, but it certainly wasn’t manufactured within city limits.

Lucid dreaming squid

June 21st, 2012

Lucid dreaming squid

Ever had a lucid dream? If you’re not familiar with the term, it’s a dream where you are fully conscious and can exert influence over the dream. (Yes, you can be asleep and conscious at the same time.)

As this squid points out, looking at one’s hands is a good way to check if one is in a dream or not. In waking life, one’s hands look like, well, hands. But in a dream one doesn’t have hands — it tends to be a dead giveaway that one is dreaming when one look at one’s hands and they disappear or are unstable.

Just to be clear, however, this is not a lucid dream. The squid is messing with your head.

(Spotted at 18th and Valencia.)