Quick Notes

• It's Christmas/Hanukkah week, so don't expect much from us. Right now, I'm totally loaded on egg nog. And Manischewitz. I'm diverse.
  
• In the news: a recession that our Vice President-elect warns could be more dire than expected. War in multiple countries and terrorist attacks striking key allies. Fiscal emergency in California.
  
  But the key issue: Obama's picks and staff are good at basketball! Not only is this worth coverage, it's worth front page, above the fold, with a huge picture. And it's worth picking up from a MediaNews reporter in Washington, DC.
  
  Maybe the Merc is just trying to distract us from the fact that they run ads for torture. (Picking up a line from Bill O'Reilly, San Jose Revealed is the No Hyperbole Zone. Because saying it makes it true.)
• Speaking of the Merc, and continuing last week's drawn-out eulogy, the New Yorker has a piece asking if newspapers are doomed.
  
• Otto Lee has had a rough year.
  
  He's a public servant in a model they rarely make anymore. We wish him all the best.
  
  Now, back to cynicism.
  
• So a fire of unknown cause guts a building slated to house the San Francisco Institute of Esthetics and Cosmetology, just as the developer expends his grant from the city to retrofit.
  
  And now Barry Swenson has decided to instead turn the space into an extended-stay hotel, just a block or two from the newly approved San Pedro Square Public Market. Developed by Swenson.
  
  Does this guy have all the luck, or what! If I didn't know better, I'd think he was the developer of Santana Row, too.