Canteen. 817 Sutter St. 415 928-8870
Bocadillo's. 710 Montgomery. 415 982 2622
Bar Tartine. 561 Valencia. 415 487 1600

The ever growing traffic jam.
The ever growing restaurant decibel. Do people talk in restaurants any more?

The moronic interrogative that ends every sentence.
(I hear this is not specific to SF. Have been away for too long...)

Endless indigo blue sky.
Kielbasa hot dog downtown.
Dim sum at Yang Sing, Rincon Center.
"French corner" Saturday morning at Martha's café, Noe Valley (24th?)
Graffeo coffee beans. 735 Columbus Ave

The Gate Bridge from Marin disappearing into a wall of fog so sharply defined it might be sheetrock.

People who say, "Don't call it Frisco."

It is true no locals I know use that F-word.

Pancho Villa in the Mission.
The Mission District.

Neighborhoods with excellent dim-sum takeout shops on every corner.

americana--
Are all those you listed among the "good" or the bad?

jan

jgk,
to make it interesting, i mixed the list. whatdya think?
(But the title gives the order away.)

quote:

But the title gives the order away.)

Thanks for the clue. Just what I suspected.

I also love San Francisco!

I will add to the dreamy--a visit to the Conservatory of Flowers in GG Park

jan

I'm watching this list. I'll be there in early March. Can't wait.

Terry, did you get the apartment?

YES! We're very excited. It looks lovely, and the owner has been just wonderful to deal with so far. Many thanks to all of you for your great and helpful advice.

And we live here

..... and also work here.

That is when we are not in Europe. Just got back from our two months in Paris, Berner Oberland, and Venice.

quote:

The moronic interrogative that ends every sentence

I'm curious, what are you talking about? RR

quote:

Originally posted by Americana in Parigi:
It is true no locals I know use that F-word.

Traditionally its simply been called "the City."

I repeat Robert's question. What is the moronic interrogative that ends every sentence?

quote:

Originally posted by Jane:
I repeat Robert's question. What is the moronic interrogative that ends every sentence?

I guess this is when every sentence is pronounced as it were written with a question mark at the end.

It isn't a SF unique feature, alas: my grandkids talk like this, here, in Toronto. In fact I think everybody here, aged 25 and under, talks like this.

And when it comes combined with "like, you know, like", which is still around, it gets, like, you know, like really interesting?

Sorriest, Jane, Robert, I did not see the question.
Doru got it in one, as usual.

quote:

I guess this is when every sentence is pronounced as it were written with a question mark at the end.

I used to associate this VERY annoying practice with "Valley Girl" speech, which would designate a different part of California. Alas, as Doru mentions, it seems to have spread over much of the North American continent. It's undoubtedly unfair, but when I hear this speech mannerism, I tend to automatically assume that the speaker isn't very bright.

Ann

quote:

Originally posted by AppalAnnie: It's undoubtedly unfair, but when I hear this speech mannerism, I tend to automatically assume that the speaker isn't very bright. Ann

Of course, my grandkids, who are the smartest kids in the whole wide world, are exempted!

Actually, they don't use the "like, you know" stuff at all, but surely use the ascending tone at the end of sentences.

Seriously, speech mannerisms come and go. Young people are products of their environment.

The ever lonely sound of foghorns.

Lou

What about the eery tingling of wine glasses in a cupboard?

I'm a Valley Girl -- in fact, pretty much an original Valley Girl -- and I use "like" and "all that stuff" and "you know" ad nauseum in my speech. California speech goes along with a certain California mindset about how to be social that, to me, is as distinct and well formed as the British mindset about such things. I'm not suprised the Pythons got on so well in California!

Yes, there are lots of mindless tics, but I just spent two weeks in NYC, which is where I've lived most of my adult left once I left the San Fernando Valley at age 17 (I now live in Italy.) I really, truly like glamorous New York, and prefer it to California cities, but the level of hostility people -- retail "service" persons in particular -- vocalize is kind of amazing, especially after you've been in Italia for a while.

California speech sounds ditzy, but it's earnestly meant to be non-judgmental and kind.

ps: Many years ago, one of San Francisco's smartest and wittiest art and jazz critics started a very hip magazine called 'Frisco. He's no longer alive, and neither is the magazine, but the title was deliberately chosen as a reaction to what he (and others see) as a rather unfortunate tendency among SF'ers to want to exclude non-natives.

It is still the case in my experience that natives and many writers and others in the arts use 'Frisco as a way of distinguishing themselves from the insecure middlebrow, (as in, "I don't worry that people might think I'm not hip.")

But calling it SF is what I most commonly hear.

Bingo!

I just did a web search and came up with this article about calling SF "Frisco" which really lays out the whole thing. It's great:

http://www.friscovista.com/news/2006/12/03/dont-call-it-frisco/

"Today a lot of people are looser and less uptight that about the city’s handle than was once the case. There’s a tattoo parlor in the Mission district called Frisco Tattoo. A CD of local bands is called Frisco Styles. The Notorious B.I.G. rapped that he was “Sippin’ Crist-o with some freaks from Frisco.” Columnist Stephanie Salter uses the term Frisco regularly. A Barry Bonds fan t-shirt is emblazoned with the slogan Frisco Grooves.

The local hiphop movement called Yay Area hyphy uses Frisco as a “term of endearment.” For example, Frontline’s Now You Know contains these lyrics:

Wah wha wha wha, thats Oakland
Yee yee yee yee, thats Richmond
Hey, hey, thats Frisco
And if you aint from the bay now yo ass know

Letting go of silly, tight-assed prescription’s like Caen’s is a sign that the city is coming into its own, confident enough in itsself not to have to monitor how people refer to it. Those who disapprove of Frisco are trying to own the city,” says screenwriter Theo McKinney. “People should be able to call the city what they wish.”