Category: Q & A

I'm surprised no one has brought up the obvious:

One makes a much more unpleasant noise in the pot as it is dying.

Er…

I'm TOLD.

Why is it morally acceptable to boil a live lobster but not a live cat?

My own distorted point of view of the major issues:

• High percentage of residents and visitors from other parts of the country, and other countries, where "things work differently", and that prevents a consistent, dominant driving style (as you see in, say, Boston, which has high turnover due to the colleges, but still predominantly New England/East Coast-sourced).
• Really bad infrastructure – sometimes the "fast lane" is the one without potholes. 😉
• Really bad "road spaghetti" – lanes added, removed, under construction, left-side exits and ramps, many highway splits with little advance warning, etc… People tend to get into the lane(s) that will be split off the way they're headed, and a lot of the time (say, heading into SF from Oakland on the I-880), those will be the left lanes.
• Mountains – building large highways in this terrain is cost-prohibitive, so a lot of Bay Area highways are two lanes (or even one) in each direction where the topological maps get bumpy. Of course, one lane each way means no fast lane at all – but given the population and number of daily drivers commuting an hour or more each way to/from work, even the two lane highways are basically now "without a fast lane", simply due to traffic loads and congestion.

To the querent, I sympathize. I moved to the SFBA from Boston, land of unified and total aggression on the roads. Worse, I was born and raised in Minnesota, which (until recently, I guess) had some of the best maintained highways in the country, in large part due to the winters – you either pay to keep things clean, or you pay more to re-pave. Out here, it's the "Wild Worst" – the roads are a death sentence for your vehicle's suspension, and the people are a death sentence for you and the rest of your car. 😉

Why do people on Bay Area highways drive so slowly in the left lane?

For one thing, women in the San Francisco Bay Area tend to hate it when you generalize about broads.

Using broad generalizations, how would one describe residents of the San Francisco Bay Area?

The Bacon Lettuce and Trout sandwich at Sea Salt on San Pablo feels brunchy to me for some reason, and that place is almost never crowded despite a quite delicious seafood menu.

What are the best brunch places in Berkeley that don't have a wait on the weekends?

Repeat after me:

• 16th
• Dolores
• 24th
• Potrero

Anywhere inside of that box, yay. Outside of it, meh, or even, yikes!

Now, if you and your friends are all commuting to Burlingame for work or something, it is quite convenient to the highway… Really, if you're that far from the BART, and not working out of your house, you'll probably have a much better experience if you have a car… Not, mind you, that you'll be able to reliably park it nearby, or anything. 🙂

Is 26th & Alabama a good part of the Mission to live in?