Lefty's San Francisco

San Francisco is home to Lefty's, opened in 1979 and the very first store to cater to left-handers in the United States. They also have a large number of items available for sale online.

I'm disappointed I wasn't aware that this store existed when I lived there! I'll definitely check it out when I am back in SF.

A limited number of items are available at the Lefty's kiosk in the Downtown Disney Marketplace in Orlando, Florida.

After checking out the left-handed store at Pier 39, if you're in need of some “adult only” entertainment, head over to Lefty O'Doul's in Union Square for a drink and to watch the game.

Opened in 1958, Lefty's is named after baseball pro and native San Franciscan Francis "Lefty" O'Doul and is the city's longest-standing sports bar - and may be the longest-standing sports bar in the country.

California Serial Killers [crime, california]

If you know me, you know one of the things I most like to read about are serial killers. I've noticed over the years of reading about these fascinating people that a great deal of them live and commit their crimes in the Golden State. Why are so many of these killers in California?

While living in Los Angeles, I compiled a list of Californian serial killers. I started out by dividing the list into simply Northern and Southern California, eventually adding Central California, and ultimately, an entire category for just the Los Angeles area itself.

California has a disproportionate amount of serial killers compared to the rest of the nation while LA has a disproportionate amount of serial killers compared to the SF Bay Area and the rest of California.

What makes the Golden State, especially the LA area, such a popular destination for serial killers?


California Serial Killers

Northern California

San Francisco Bay Area

Zodiac Killer
Trailside Killer - David Carpenter
Michael Bear Carson & Suzan Carson

Sacramento

The I-5 Strangler- Roger Reece Kibb
The Vampire of Sacramento - Richard Chase
Gallego Sex Slave Killers - Gerald & Charlene Gallego
Dorothea Puente
Morris Solomon, Jr.
Leonard Lake & Charles Ng (Calaveras County)

Santa Cruz

Herbert Mullin
The Co-Ed Killer - Edmund Kemper

Yosemite

The Yosemite Killer - Cary Stayner

Humboldt

Wayne Adam Ford

Yuba City

The Machete Murderer - Juan Corona

Central California

Bakersfield

Vincent Brothers

Fresno

Marcus Wesson

Southern California

Los Angeles

The Night Stalker - Richard Ramirez (also SF Bay area)
Charles Manson
The Dating Game Killer - Rodney Alcala
The Red Light Bandit
The Grim Sleeper - Lonnie David Franklin, Jr.
The Hillside Strangler - Kenneth Bianchi & Angelo Buono, Jr.
The Freeway Killer - Patrick Kearney (shares this nickname with William Bonin and Randy Steven Kraft)
Sunset Strip Killer - Doug Clark
Michael Hughes
Timothy Joseph McGee
The Freeway Killer - William Bonin
Bruce Jeffrey Pardo
Chester Dewayne Turner
The Lonely Hearts Killer - Harvey Glatman
Wineville Chicken Coop Murderer - Gordon Stewart Northcott
Mack Ray Edwards
Thor Nis Christiansen
Louise Peete

Orange County

The Freeway Killer - Randy Steven Kraft
Bedroom Basher - Gerald Parker
I-5 Killer or I-5 Bandit - Randall Woodfield

San Diego

The Clairemont Killer - Cleophus Prince, Jr.

Riverside

Riverside Killer - William Suff
Dana Sue Gray
Phillip Carl Jablonski (Riverside & SF Bay area)


Sources:

List of Serial Killers by Country

California’s Most Notorious Killers


If I've left anyone off the list, feel free to comment or contact me and I'll update the list.

Best Things to Do on Father's Day in SF [holidays, events]

There is a lot of (mostly) free stuff going on in the Bay Area for Father's Day this year, so there is no excuse not to take Dear Old Dad out!

1. The Northern California Pirate Festival is happening in Vallejo from 10:00am to 6:00pm and celebrates all things Pirate.via FunCheapSF:

Celebrate all things Pirate, as Pirate Entertainers, Musicians, Singers, Swordfighters, Craftspeople, and more turn Vallejo’s waterfront into a Pirate Town the likes of which hasn’t been seen since Tortuga. Come on out for this two-day festival over fathers day weekend and have a swashbucklin’ great time at the SF Bay Area’s only Pirate Festival.

The entertainment roster encompasses performers featured on the main stage, the children’s stage, main gate stage, swordfighting & pirate’s “brawling” areas, participating vessels and roving entertainment

2. The 57th Annual North Beach Festival will be held in San Francisco from 10:00am to 6:00pm in Washington Square Park.

3. The 61st Annual Juneteenth Festival is happening in San Francisco from 11:00am to 7:00pm in the Fillmore.

4. For all you dancers, there is a free Michael Jackson "Beat It" Dance Class in SF from 12:00pm to 2:00pm at Bollyhood Cafe.

5. If you are a parkour fan, be sure to check out the 1st Annual Urban Ninja Festival in Berkeley from 12:00pm to 6:00pm at Memorial Glade (UC Berkeley).

6. The Stern Grove Festival 2011 kicks off tomorrow in SF at 2:00pm with the sounds of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.

7. The Father's Day Kite Day is happening in Berkeley from 12:00pm to 4:00pm at Cesar Chavez State Park.

8. For the urban history nerds (and cannon enthusiasts!) there is a hike of shipwrecks and and cannons starting at 2:00pm at the Presidio in San Francisco.

9. World Music Day will be held in Palo Alto from 3:00pm to 7:30pm.

Click here for even more free events!

1974 was a Golden Year for Film [film, 1970's]

Wow. 1974 sure was a golden year for film; it was also quite a year at the Academy Awards!

I’m currently watching The Conversation, which was filmed here in San Francisco and directed by one of my all-time favorite directors, Francis Ford Coppola. I have a slight obsession with movies filmed here in the Bay Area.

I also adore The Towering Inferno, which came out the same year and was also filmed in San Francisco. It was up against The Conversation for Best Picture (they both lost to another Coppola film, The Godfather III). It did end up taking home the award for Best Cinematography, and it truly is a visual treat.

My all-time favorite film, John Cassavetes’ “A Woman Under the Influence” also came out that year, and Gena Rowlands was nominated for Best Actress but ended up losing to Ellen Burstyn for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

Let Timmy Smoke! [pot, culture]

Tim Lincecum seems like a pretty cool dude. His minor pot bust was way overexposed in the media, but hey, at least it sparked some pretty cool t-shirts.

I saw the "Let Timmy Smoke!" t-shirts being sold all around SF right after the Giants won the World Series; I should have grabbed one then!

Kudos to Tim for appearing on the cover of High Times magazine!

Moving Back to SF [life stuff]

I can't believe Meghan and I are moving back to the Bay area in 14 days! There is much packing to do.

We will be moving to the East Bay but hope to find a place in The City or perhaps Fairfax in the next few months.


I am going to become a master packer having to move around so much!

Bicycle Film Festival SF [events]

The 10th Annual Bicycle Film Festival is happening in San Francisco November 10-14.

SF: Fourth Annual Medical Cannabis Competition [events]

The Fourth Annual San Francisco Medical Cannabis Competition will take place at Terra Gallery on November 14th.

via SF Weekly:

Attractions & Giveaways include: Edibles, concentrates and strains for judges to vote on! Delicious catered food, award winning DJ's, volcano medication stations, & tons of medical marijuana products!

So bummed I'm moving and going to miss this!

Italian-Designed Space-Saving Furniture [design]

As someone who lives in an extremely small studio in San Francisco, I am always trying to think of creative ways in which to utilize my space, and this furniture definitely looks like something I could incorporate into my space.

Marijuana Economics: Prop 19 [SF events]

Tonight at the Commonwealth Club, 7:30pm.

via SF Weekly:

From where we sit, it looks like a done deal. Marijuana will be legalized sometime within the next ten years. Certainly, the industry as it stands is preparing itself for change. Uh, not that we would know anything about it. Tonight at "Marijuana Economics: Prop 19," the heavy hitters of the current bid for legalization sit down and discuss the actual facts of the matter. Richard Lee, the author of Proposition 19, the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, is in the "pro" seat. Tim Rosales, the campaign manager of the No on Prop 19 outfit, is in the "anti." And somehow, somehow, Beau Kilmer of the RAND Drug Policy Research Center is thought not to have a position, but rather a lot of information.

San Franciscans Will Protest Anything. [ridiculous]

San Francisco- A group claiming Gandi to be racist is planning to protest the Gandi statue that has sat behind the Ferry Building since 1988.

The group plans to ask that the Gandi statue be replaced with one of Martin Luther King, Jr. or B.R. Ambedkar.

The SF Symphony Does Hitchcock [psycho!].

The San Francisco Symphony is performing a live orchestral accompaniment to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) on July 17th.

via the SF Symphony & SF Weekly:

Treat yourself to a night at the movies-with a live symphony orchestra! Bernard Herrmann revolutionized the art of film music with his hair-raising soundtrack to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. On July 17 the San Francisco Symphony performs the score live alongside Hitchcock’s iconic film that changed the silver screen and shocked audiences 50 years ago. Don't miss this opportunity to experience a cinematic classic as you've never seen (or heard) it before!

Arrive one hour prior to the concert for music and dancing with the Martini Brothers, plus desserts and specialty drinks.

Concert includes intermission.

Recommended for ages 18 and older. Groups of ten or more save 20%. Side and Center Terrace seats are not available for this performance.

SF Eats: Bacon Moon Pie! [foodie]

More about the Bacon Moon Pie on Thrillist:

Ingredients:

I've used my favorite bacon from Bledsoe Pork in Woodland, CA (Davis Farmer's Market) to make traditional Scottish shortbread with stone ground rice flour, bacon fat, and bacon cracklin.

Between these two pieces of shortbread you'll find a marshmallow made with Vermont maple syrup and Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage Bourbon, surrounding a bacon fat and bacon cracklin caramel.

The whole thing is coated with a thick layer of my favorite blended chocolate, Michel Cluizel's 72% dark.

Per normal, the recipe is included.

Each order contains four pies at ~5.25oz each.

The 9" pie is ~5lbs (about 20 servings) and includes bacon ganache made with Michel Cluizel 72% dark chocolate and Bledsoe bacon.

In case you care about such things, these snacks/desserts are soy free.

Michel Cluizel 72% Dark Chocolate (cocoa butter, cocoa, cane sugar, bourbon vanilla), Bledsoe Pork Bacon, Organic Cane Sugar, Organic Unbleached Wheat Flour, Celles Sur Belle Butter, Glucose (Corn Syrup), Organic California 100% Jersey Milk, Filtered Water, Organic California Stone Ground Rice, Organic Vermont Maple Syrup (Grade B Dark), Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage Bourbon, Gelatin, Sea Salt

SF: The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen

I can't wait to try The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen that just opened up on South Park Ave here in San Francisco.



The Mousetrap and Feta Tomato look delicious. See the entire menu here.

The Nervous Breakdown [SF event]

If my schedule allows tomorrow, I am going to try to hit up this event at The Make Out Room.

The Nervous Breakdown

via SFWeekly.com:

Penny For Your Thoughts
By Hiya Swanhuyser

If you're a woman who has ever leaned toward punk, you've either worshipped her or secretly hoped someone like her existed: Penelope Houston is an international icon. Not just as the lead singer of the Avengers, the band famous for the song "The American in Me," either, although the pictures of her in the early days of punk are as punk as anything else -- young, intelligent, infuriated, leather-jacketed. But in the rather many ensuing years, she's done nothing but continue to be admirable, in the form of taking on a new musical genre that's really hard to define: Mod-folk, maybe, or heartfelt go-go New Wave film soundtrack, with autoharp. Tonight, she reads at The Nervous Breakdown series, along with Johnny Genocide aka Hugh Thomas Patterson, Stephen Elliott, Paul Clayton, Lauren Becker, and Thomas Wood.

Literary Events

Make-Out Room
3225 22nd St. (at Mission); San Francisco CA

In SF: Batman: Yesterday and Tomorrow

Showing at the Cartoon Art Museum through June 6. $2-6


From SF Weekly:


Batman is many things to many people: hero, gay icon, debonair billionaire, foiler of world-domination plans. He's also an historical figure suitable for course credit and maybe the guy who prevented you from being slowly lowered into that vat of hot oil. To artists, however, he’s often a blank slate, ready to be re-invented into the caped crusader of their choosing. At the exhibit “Batman: Yesterday and Tomorrow,” we get to see the work of six of the most famous side by side. There’s Bob Kane and Bill Finger, the original 1939 artists; Neal Adams, who redefined the character in the 1970s; the legendary Frank Miller; Pepe Moreno, responsible for the first computer-generated Batman graphic novel; and Paul Pope, who puts Batman in 2039. The exhibit also features a selection of Batman manga, a ‘60s style that didn’t get noticed in the U.S. until 2008, thanks to a book by Chip Kidd.

you can now make outlawed sparks at home!

it doesn't surprise me that after sparks was outlawed in december of 2008 that some dude here in SF reverse-engineered a recipe from a saved can of old sparks.

the results? you can't even tell the difference!

read the full article here on SF Weekly

dead whale found washed up on norcal beach

a female blue whale washed ashore near ft. bragg, california on october 20, 2009. it always saddens me to see things like this happen.

read the full story on sfist