So sorry to hear about your loss, askye.

I am less bothered by the climbing gas prices themselves than by the fact that they've made the last convenience store in my area that let you pay after pumping stop that practice. I liked that little exhibition of trust, and thus almost always filled up there and bought snacks since I could put it all on one swipe of a credit card.

I was wondering when a Chicagoan would weigh in on what "real" Chicago pizza is.

I'm not a "real" Chicagoan, but I honestly have no idea why anyone would order thin crust anything when there's a delicious deep dish pie to be had.

Tourist pizza. Whatever. Guess that makes me a tourist.

NY style tends to taste best to me, though those stuffed spinach pies in Chicago are also great. But my Ur-pizza is the thin crust cheese slices at Little Steve's in Boston.

I would like to report that the brunch place (Big Jones) was pretty awesome. Intelligentsia coffee, v. tasty food, great service, and they gave our table four slices of free cake.

FREE CAKE.

Ooh, Free Cake.

Excellent.

I think T-Rex is spying on me: [link]

askye, so sorry for your loss.

I have such a huge range of clothes to choose from this morning! Laundry isn't all evil, I guess. And I even managed ironing and crude repairs.

I guess I'm a California style pizza fan. Take onions off a BBQ chicken pizza, and I'm a stone fan. I also *love* sundried tomatoes on top, and things like crab, etc. Not exactly together, but generally.

I love any well-made pizza, and those can come in any form be it thick or thin or deep pie. It's all about balance.

I've never gotten the "let's ridicule tourists" thing. Lots of economies exist due to people visiting. I am happy to have travelers coming to San Francisco. And sure, some places in the City are more geared to what people who come to San Fran think they *should* see (Pier 39 comes to mind), but they can still be cool. And I don't mean that in an ironic way.

Maybe it's because I do so much traveling, I dunno. But the "tourist" term and its implied condescension kinda bug me. I know you used the term here recently, Laga, but this little spiel isn't directed at you. I hear the condescension a lot, in many forums both online and off. And it bugs me, because traveling and seeing new places is a good thing. And people don't have any choice about where they're born, and sometimes have little choice in where they live. So biases based on those factors are dumb.

Ruh roh. I think the two days in airports has gotten to me (I board my last flight home in a few hours).

I've never gotten the "let's ridicule tourists" thing.

Exactly. I always thought they were great fun to watch in New York. And they're generally happy and excited to be there, which is nice.

They always asked me for directions, too.

OMG, where's Dana? [link]