Local Celebrity of the Day: Solo Spear St. Mystery Twin Lady

So I've decided that I'm going to start featuring people that I see on a regular basis throughout my day-to-day life in the city.  These people to me are local celebrities as I see them frequently yet know very little about who they are.  I tend to imagine brief personal biographies from the small surface level observations I am able to make.

Today's celebrity is an elderly woman that can be spotted almost daily near the Southwest corner of Market and Spear streets.  This lady has a peculiar style that I would say is all her own, except for the fact that she has an identical twin that dresses exactly the same as she does.  I typically only see one of them on this corner and wonder if the other is off on another corner asking for spare change, and if they alternate spots.  I imagine the two of them living together in cluttered single room apartment somewhere nearby.

I've been a curious about these two ladies for quite some time now and have yet to muster up the gall to actually speak to them.  So I did what any indisposed human would do, I Googled the terms "San Francisco, twins, sisters."  I learned a little bit about the famous Brown Sisters, however there was next to nothing about the two ladies that I see near my place of employment.  She/they stand in a high traffic area so I know many people see her/them daily like I do, yet there's little to no word about them on the ol' interwebs.  Eventually I suppose I'll ask them about themselves but until that day all I have is speculation.

The only other evidence I could find online of these ladies together was a photo from lnkyhack's flickr stream:

22 Fillmore and Car Door Collide

Last Friday, while venturing into the Mission, the 22 Fillmore bus that I was on collided with a car door on Mission St. just before Valencia.  Luckily for me this was going to be my stop anyway and as such I didn't really stick around to survey the aftermath.
Also, in my opinion, it didn't really seem to me like it was the MUNI operator's fault either.  The owner of the car had just finished parallel parking into a tight spot on Mission St. and was exiting his car at a precocious pace with the vigor of either a fantastic or hectic weekend ahead of him.  With a burst of ambition the man swung open the door a little too far just as the 22 Fillmore was lurching forward and crunch it went. 
Man: "Ahhhhhh!"
Bus empties.
I go on my way.

Funny thing is, I imagine this caused quite a back up on Mission for a while, it being Friday evening rush hour and all.  Yet I never once heard anything else about it.
I guess it just gets chocked up as business as usual.

Missed Connections - And That's How I Found Out I Was Ugly

Is it just me or is there anyone else out there that browses missed connections regularly and never sees a missed connection intended for them?

It's almost a little bit insulting, don't you think?

You know that half the people writing those things are some of the homeliest and grammatically challenged folks around, but that just makes it all the more offensive that no one is pining after you after a brief run-in where you didn't even notice them.

Really, it's not like I'm looking to hook up with anyone (I'm actually currently seeing someone), but some validation from a stranger or two would be nice.  I'm not even narrowing it down to just the opposite sex, I check em all.

Maybe some day.

Banksy in San Francisco

I know I'm a little late to the game on this one, but as you probably already know several Banksy pieces have popped up around the city.  I managed to make it to all six and pop a couple of shots, see below:

Locations from top to bottom: Valencia between 19th and 20th; Sycamore and Mission; Grant and Commercial;  Haight and Belvedere;  Mission and Erie

LOTI

These things made me laugh on the inside when I saw them.  Not lol (I still refuse to use this phrase/acronym seriously.  This in fact may be the first time that I have even typed it.), but loti...

Haha, fish and chips.

Cripes!!! Oh so many blogs!

It seems like everyday, while I pilfer away the work hours reading up on local blogs, I run into a new even more niched publication with coverage of the Bay Area.  They all have a much higher calibre of writing and design to them as well as a built in audience.  Kudos you to folks, you seem to have done something right.
I on the other hand have much less of an attention span and am only one person (as opposed to a team) which may be the reason while this blog is not quite as successful in appearance and content.
I often wonder how these people are capable of getting the information they do while they simultaneously work a full-time job.  They must either be getting paid to do so, or they are wasting MUCH more time than I am.  Either way, here's a very abbreviated list of local blogs that I tend to refresh several times a day to see what I'm missing out on as I sit in an office in the FiDi:

SFist
SF Appeal
SF Citizen
Mission Mission
Uptown Almanac
Sex Pigeon
Blog SF (which appears to be an aggregator/blog roll in itself)
Haighteration
Curbed SF
Laughing Squid
Gawker: Valleywag
7x7


And these are just few.  Obviously there are the usual print publications that have made the switch over to the digital medium as well such as SFGate(Chron), Examiner, SF Weekly, Bay Guardian, etc.  Too many to name, and somehow they all manage to come across with their own original content.  Although that's not to say that they don't all tend to cover the big topics simultaneously, but when that happens you get the opportunity to view multi-angled coverage which can provide some very interesting prospective.

Anywho, the point?  I guess there's not one really.  Maybe one day this crappy blog will have something to add to the over saturated opinion/tabloidial/news/events SF BAY AREA sphere.

Schizophrenic Manifestos in the Financial District

Again, I meant to post these earlier but it got lost in the shuffle along the way.  So without further ado, I present to you two wonderfully written schizonphrenic diatribes that I stumbled upon on two separate occasions whilst on my lunch break in the financial district.
I suspect that both of these originate from the same author/publisher; and while the first of the two is somewhat more entertaining (barring the fact that it is cut short clearly by someone who doesn't want the truth to get out) both are equally compelling.  Not to mention that the second suggests that you contact him with further information and supplies the reader with an email address.  Behold:

Winchester Mystery Tour - Highly Recommend!!!

This past weekend I finally managed to get down to San Jose to take a tour of the Winchester Mystery Mansion. This had been somewhat of a childhood dream destination of mine ever since I saw a brief documentary about it on one of those history or discovery channel shows.  For those of you that don't know what it is, basically it's a house with a ton of rooms, strangely placed doors, windows, and other structures.  The story goes that Sarah Winchester, widow and inheritor of the Winchester rifle estate, believed that she need to have continuous construction on her house to appease the ghosts of the people who were killed by Winchester rifles over the years.  The results were this superbly bizarre house.
While the entrance to get your tickets (conveniently placed within the gift shop) is a bit on the over-polished-truck-stop side, the actual tour of the house is pretty freaking spectacular.  The tour guide had her schpiel down pat and moved the group through pretty efficiently, but with enough time to inspect things on your own without feeling rushed.  Unfortunately photography is not allowed inside the mansion, but below are a couple of shots I snapped with my phone of the exterior.

One thing I would recommend avoiding however, is the "Behind The Scenes" tour.  It may seem like a deal only being an additional $5 more than the the Mansion tour, but it's really just completely pointless.  The only thing on this portion of the tour that you can't explore on your own is the basement, which is surprisingly run-of-the-mill.  Save yourself $5 and skip this part.

Easter Sunday Brunch

I saw this fine gent waiting in line for his coffee at Cafe du Soleil on Easter Sunday morning.  Yes, that is indeed a hooka conspicuously poking out of the top and sides of his backpack.  Back in the small mid-western town I'm from no one would attempt an act as brazen as this unless the hooka was 100% new and unused, and even then it was pretty much understood that they were asking for the cops to confront them.

Yet, in this beautiful city that I now call home, sights like this aren't all that uncommon, not to mention this individual may very well be a fine contributing member of the community with his very own legit medicinal prescriptions.

Fix MUNI Now Petition

If I see these guys around, You Betta Belee I'mma Sign That One!  Check out the website for details on the ballot initiative.
Basically the bill will require MTA operators to engage in collective bargaining and reign in some of the crazy rules that allow them multiple no-call no-shows; altogether while limiting the amount of fare increases and service cuts to MUNI riders.
check, check, check it out...

http://www.fixmuninow.com/

Learnding

While walking through One Market/Spear & Steuart Towers or whatever the series of buildings between Steuart, Spear, Market, and Mission is called, I witnessed a middle aged woman sitting with a be-bearded (it's a word now sucka!) hobo teaching him how to read.  For some reason I couldn't help but think of the timeless classic "Dangerous Minds," where the students don't realize that they want to learn.  Oh well, que sera, sera.