Not sure how we could have missed this on Halloween but check it out: “Two guys. One girl. One dream. To real-life rickroll an entire city on Halloween.”

Are we all familiar with the idea of rickroll? Here it goes:

“When Jason put the boombox above his head, it played 5 seconds of Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” (per Say Anything) and then suddenly jumped to “Never Gonna Give You Up.” My costume was modified to be tear-away, and I was Rick Astley underneath. Boom. Real life rickroll.”

These guys did it all over town, and of course the N and L got rickrolled properly! Check out the video. Props to @SaraMurphy for sending this video our way … and in effect, rickrolling us, too!

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I’m a regular rider of the L-Terrible. Of late I’ve become increasingly irritated by auto drivers who decide that when a Muni train stops to let passengers off and on, that they can accelerate past the train and get ahead of it, despite the fact that, of course that we all know the passengers have right of way on the street when boarding/disembarking the train. It’s gotten so bad that nowadays I refuse to get off the train by the door in the very back of the train.

A few nights ago I was on the L with one of my favourite train operators (I recognise his voice: once at Taraval and 22nd where the L stops outside the KFC/Taco Bell he reminded us that this was “The KFC stop, and it’s finger licking good”!). This operator decided to reprimand one rogue driver for whizzing past the train and almost knocking over an elderly passenger as she got off the train.

He opened all the doors then screamed over the loudspeaker system: “You jackass! You trying to kill my passengers? Why don’t you come on here and try that with me!” The car driver sped off but it put a smile on my face and on my fellow Muni passengers. I like a Muni operator who will stand up for his passengers and hopefully avoid us getting killed by some ignorant driver trying to get home in a hurry.

We like a Muni driver who looks out for us too! Got your own colorful Muni tale? We’re all about it.

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A couple weeks ago, rider Martha told us about a 49-Van Ness that smelled like basil, which was noteworthy because the 49 never smells like something you’d want to eat.

“Muni smells like…” actually shows up a lot on the @munidiaries Twitter feed. Here are our recent favorites.

Yummy
@jessicasuzette: #Muni smelled like strawberries, somebody went to #farmersmarket love clean trains.

Could go either way
@WillieFDiazSF: Someone on this Muni bus smells like Hot Dog juice. Makes me wanna have a BBQ.
@jdaisy: this LTaraval smells like fish AND chips.

The Bad
@cache_theory: the smells of the #sfmuni…urine & moth balls
@RGreenberg: Guy just got on #muni smelling like week-old pants, and fertilizer.

The Optimistic
@fsquared: This bus smells like pancakes and syrup. #wishfulthinking #muni

We’re constantly impressed by your creativity and the, um, evocative descriptions you send. So keep ‘em comin’!

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Rachael has a bizarre story that we’d love to get more info on.

At about 3:20 the other day, I was on the 29-inbound at Sunset/Taraval when I saw a woman chasing after a man. It took me a second to realize that the woman was in Muni driver browns and that she was the operator of the then-stalled L-Taraval. I figured so many other people had their cellphones out that I didn’t need to bother calling 311.

The driver, who was wearing only one shoe by this time — possibly after having lost the shoe as she was sprinting across the street — was screaming at the man and tried several times to spit on him while also trying to kick/punch. She’d go into a little fighting stance here and there before finally swearing and running off back towards her train. The guy she was after tried to board the 29, but the driver didn’t seem to want to take him on.

Rachael says she doesn’t know what prompted the altercation. We’re sure it was quite the scene. Were you there? Can you shed any light on what caused this riffraff? If you’re a Muni driver, have you heard anything about this?

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1. A series of bad days on the L-Taraval
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Fun stuff in Twitterlandia @munidiaries: the alphabet according to Muni Metro.

@_mola_mola: #muni driver says: L is for late, M is for missing, T is for tardy.

@Bordash: is the N for never? i can’t come up with anything better.

@Owenchristoff: N: Non-existant. J: joke. K: Knocked-out :)

@simplelife9: And J and K is for Just Kidding, there really is no Muni in 5 minutes lol…

This all reminds us of that silly kerfuffle over T-shirts that mocked Muni routes.

Care to fill in the rest or add some to the list? F and S (Shuttle) are feeling left out of the party.

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What are these good people doing, you ask? These are the participants of a Muni prom on the L for a project called Muni Media Map, where artists select a specific Muni line to explore in a medium of his choice. Zoe Burton picked the L line, where riders dressed in their finest prom wear and rode the train together.

From the organizers:

The Muni Media Map is a celebration of that glorious chaos: a collaborative multimedia exhibition organized by Revel Art Collective including 20+ Bay Area participants. Each artist selected a specific Muni line to explore in a medium of their choice, including sculpture, sound, music, mixed media collage, illustration, performance art, video, time lapse photography, interviews, comics, and participatory events. The Muni Media Map displays and integrates these investigations as a giant interpretive map of the city, transforming the gallery itself into an installation.

This Saturday you can see the Muni media map on display as a part of the 100 Days of Spring show.

Details:

Saturday, May 28th
5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The Schoolhouse
1592 Market St. at Page and Franklin (map)

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The water cooler gossip happening this week on the Muni Diaries Twitter wires: What are the best- and worst-dressed Muni lines? We caught a few people on Twitter playing Fashion Police. @richdevin thinks the 1-California has to be the best-dressed. The jury’s out on the worst-dressed Muni line: @jnavin nominated the L, but @ginaespo tweeted that the riders on the 10-Townsend should be arrested for crimes against style.

We’ve featured fashionable Muni riders in the past, including some terrific photos of the fashion tribes of San Francisco. Is your line the best or worst dressed? Tell us about the fashionable people on your bus, or those who might deserve wrath from Joan Rivers.

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Due to the tsunami warning and closure of Great Highway, SFMTA rerouted the 18-46th Avenue and the 23-Monterey off of Great Highway at 8 a.m.. SFAppeal reports that the N-Judah and the L Taraval are also being rerouted at Sunset Blvd. (a shuttle will take you between Ocean Beach and Sunset). BART is running as usual. No word yet on when the 18 and the 23 will be back to their normal routes. Meanwhile, officials say you should stay off the beach because waves can last for hours, reports SFGate. On Twitter, @Emergency_In_SF reminds people to stay away from the beach and that the “best view will be live on TV.”

The SFAppeal has a live cam of Ocean Beach, which so far looks rather uneventful. Fingers crossed.

The tsunami warning came after the 8.9 earthquake that shook Japan yesterday. More coverage of the San Francisco tsunami warning:

• Video: People flock to Ocean Beach San Francisco to watch tsunami (SF Examiner)
• Tsunami warning closes local beaches, Great Highway (SFGate)
• SF Tsunamiwatch: Video From Ocean Beach, BART Still Running, Muni Rerouted Away From Coast (SFAppeal)
• Hour-by-hour watch on SFist on local tsunami warning (SFist)
• Tsunami Warning in San Francisco; Beaches Closed (SF Weekly, which also updates that Santa Cruz has damaged boats)
• California nuclear plants shut down as tsunami precaution (Reuters, which also updates that precautions are routine)

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Donal takes alternative transportation to another level:

“Urban longboarding: Ulloa St is the Blue slope, Santiago St, a Black Diamond. The L Traval Muni line is our ski lift.”

See a video and more pictures at Donal’s blog.

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Looks like there’s no sickout today. Phew. Earlier in the week: Delaine is new to Muni and San Francisco. One of her first brief encounters with Muni turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

Hubby and I decided to try our Clipper cards on Muni, being fairly new to the city. It was hot in our apartment on the bay on one of those sunny days last week, so we decided to head to the beach. We took the first train that came into the Embarcadero station–L Taraval, which took us to the zoo entrance, but also Ocean Beach. After wandering around for awhile in the cool, cloudy, breezy weather, we made our way back to the waiting train, and stood on the platform, unsure of where to get on.

After awhile the driver came around the corner, and politely pointed out to us novice Muni riders that we needed to stand at the “bus stop” to be able to board. He also gave us tips on using the Clipper card. Didn’t catch his name, but he was so very nice. I know we hear stories about rude Muni drivers, but I just want to say that we have had good service with our brief experience. I love the idea of a card I can use on all transit.

There’s been some questions about the Clipper cards on our Twitter feed. Seems like time to update our Muni newbie orientation!

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