If you lived here, you could move

A piece in the Times today reveals the paradox of San Francisco life:

As a forlorn landlord told me that day, three or four years ago anybody could get a job here but nobody could find a place to live. Now the opposite is true.

The article goes on to say that apartment listings on craigslist -- which is the first place anybody looks now -- have gone up by a factor of ten.Maybe now is the time to lease that little writing studio of my own. Oops, I don't have a job now, and I can't afford to pay rent on another place. That's the other paradox of life in San Francisco -- either you can't afford to do the art you came to the city to do, or you don't have time to do it because you're too busy earning money to support yourself.

Meanwhile, nightly reports on the news get us all used to the idea that war in the Middle East is inevitable. Here's the logic: 1. There's a massive naval and troop buildup taking place now. 2. You can't keep all those troops in the area indefinitely, at least not as long as a year, which is how long the U.K. wants to wait for U.N. inspectors to do their jobs. 3. Therefore, you have to attack. (Update: THis article from USA Today discusses the "invasion timetable.")

If you don't cotton to that logic, the usual suspects are planning another of their big anti-war demonstrations for San Francisco, L.A. and Washington, this Saturday, Jan. 18.