4 posts tagged “books”

MUNI means business: Nat Ford sent out a diplomatic (and leaked) memo to his management team requesting "that everyone participate in representing the best interests of our organization, the City, and our patrons by following SFMTA's standards for performance." In the business world, this are usually the type of memo that arrives a few months before mass firings begin (at which point everyone realizes "oh shit, management means business" and real change occurs).

Bay Area foodies are kinda-sorta-yes-really pissed off at Slow Food maven Carlo Petrini for slamming the organic wares of the Ferry Building's farmers market as being tailored for "a clientele whose social status was pretty clear: either wealthy or very wealthy".

In the why-bother department, a major hotel chain approached Rosas Farms about using their organic and grass-fed beef in that chain's restaurants. All went well until they demanded all incoming meat be irradiated as part of "a risk management thing." The Rosas showed the hotel executives the door and Erin Rosa wrote some informative words about irradiation.

Democrats may be the Congressional majority (by a slim margin), which at least allows us some point-and-laugh room

when the more shrill of the wingnuts start ranting. This time, Sadly, No! mocks the latest utterances of Debbie Schlussel -- she's some sort of columnist, I guess -- who has decided that Muslim doctor = medical terrorist. Stay classy, Debbie.

And speaking of things that make wingnut conservatives scream, read an excerpt from Al Gore's upcoming book The Assault On Reason.

In the latest chapter of the ongoing serial known as Oh My God Best Buy Sucks, the kids over at Consumerist feature a letter from the latest happy customer victim of the Big Blue Box. It's titled Best Buy Stole My Computer and I think you can figure out the contents on your own.

This Link Lounge is not brought to you by Dee's Nuts, the salty snack treat that's been filtered through a pair of breasts.

"I'm still in the Valley of the Shadow--as Mama would put it--but at least its a bigger valley these days, and the scenery has improved considerably. My life, whatever its duration, is still a lurching, lopsided contraption held together by chewing gum and baling wire."
-- Michael Tolliver, from Michael Tolliver Lives by Armistead Maupin

Kevin Howell at Publisher Weekly has reviewed advance galleys for Michael Tolliver Lives and blogs that it's very much a Tales of The City book. There's also an official advance blurb on the MTL page at Amazon, presumably also penned by Howell, with a few more tidbits. There may be spoilers below, so if you read beyond this sentence you agree that you and you alone ruined your experience.

Michael, surprised as anyone else to be alive after all these years, is shacked up with a boyfriend 21 years his junior. You know what that means? It means no Thack Sweeney in the picture and I know more than one fan who will cheer about that development. Like, uh, me.

Brian Hawkins is still around and still Michael's best friend. No notes as to whether they're still in the nursery business. His adopted daughter Shawna is all grown up and now a "pansexual it-girl journalist" about to follow in Mary Ann Singleton's footsteps by taking off for New York. No mention of whether or not Mary Ann makes an appearance.

Anna Madrigal is alive and pushing 90. 28 Barbary Lane is described as "no more" -- which I suppose could mean she sold the place, but probably means it went down for more Russian Hill condoboxes.

The work gets generally good reviews as one of the richest novels Maupin has crafted. It comes out in June. If I could get my hands on a leaked galley copy, I would. I've been anticipating the thing for so long I just want to read it now!

Danny Westneat asks: "Guess which is more dependent on a government handout: An arena for a for-profit, pro basketball team? Or the public libraries?"

"I'm not homophobic or anti-homosexual. But I am very pro-Jesus." The ex-gays drop by the Castro.

VTA riders: Behold, your transit agency's priorities.

Japanese are pissed off regarding a new book about Princess Masako. Perhaps it's because the book subtitle calls her a prisoner.

Shocker of shockers: Holocaust denier scum and alleged stalker found, arrested at a mental institution.

Another episode of that wacky MPAA show, Do As We Say, Not As We Do.

Perhaps not the most successful union of image and text.

"Partying with negative, racial overtones" finally reaches the West Coast reporter on a deadline campus of Santa Clara University where those wacky kids threw a "south of the border" fete and came dressed as Latino janitors, gardeners, gangbangers and pregnant homegirls.

Would whoever took the Seattle Mystery Bookshop's author signature book please return it? In addition to returning something that's not rightly yours, you'd earn lots of karma points for restoring something that's irreplaceable and doubtless has lots of sentimental value for its keepers.

And in case you happen to come across something on eBay...

It's a brown tooled leather-looking book, and it has all kinds of author signatures and comments...

Seattle Mystery Bookshop: Department of Unfortunate Events