Updated with Editors Note: Cobra Malt Liquor Through a Straw

A lot of you objected to the publication of a photo that rider Matthew took on the 19-Polk, of someone who he thought was a dead-ringer for Whitney Houston. Your comments are really valuable to us at Muni Diaries as we constantly walk the fine line between democratic forum and editorial integrity. We don’t often turn your posts away because we want to create a place where you can tell your stories, but we definitely don’t want to do this at someone’s expense. We’ve taken the picture down but left the text of the story here in the post. Agree or disagree with our decision? We want to know. Please tell us in the comments section. – Jeff and Eugenia

Original post:

Muni rider Matthew writes to tell of a possible celebrity-sighting on a San Francisco bus.

Tell me this wasn’t Whitney Houston! She was a “BOBBY!!” shriek away from a dead ringer.

Seriously, her makeup looked professionally applied, if a little too glittery for 3 p.m. If she wasn’t so wasted and her top wasn’t so stained with spilled liquids, I really would have thought it was the Diva Herself. God I hope those stains were just her drinks…

“Whitney” fell asleep long enough for me to snap her photo. She woke up soon after to root around in one of her bags for another Cobra Malt Liquor (which she drank through a straw, because as you can see, she is a LADY).

I can snap photos and poke fun because lord knows I’ve been that drunk lady on the bus a time or thousand.

Matthew has just become the first Muni-razzi. Seen any celebs or dead-ringers on Muni? muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com

No Man-Sitting!

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Remember the big-balls-having guy from the first Muni Mind Reader episode, the guy whose nuts are so big they take up two seats?

Well, the ladies of Boston had enough of these guys too, and they’ve created a button warning against such behavior.

The AboutWomen project in Boston, who made the button above, also wrote a letter to the MBTA expressing their concern:

We’ve designed a badge for public transportation customers to wear in order to encourage passenger civility. We hope to raise awareness of fellow passenger’s comfort with this visual reminder.

Often, we believe, some T-riders aren’t aware that they’re taking up three seats with their knees. Of course, there are many other discourteous behaviors, like occupying additional seats with your belongings, but the particular posture depicted on our button is the most commonly complained about offense found in our survey of T- passengers.

Read the rest of the letter here.

Thanks to our friends at Tenderblog and the London Underground Tube Diary for this hilarious find.

Cameras, plugs and actually correct engineering choices

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Photo by Devin

Several months back, BART replaced all the cameras in Embarcadero station. I have no idea why — there were tons of cameras in that station already. “Replaced” isn’t the right word, of course, because they didn’t remove the old ones, just installed dozens more, often pointing at the same things. At a guess, the new ones don’t work yet and they won’t remove the old ones until that’s corrected. Or, knowing BART’s ability to do technological upgrades, the new ones will never work properly, so they’ll all stay up, gathering dust and grime and preventing no crime or disorder at all. At a wild guess, the only reasons Embarcadero is so richly endowed with cameras are (a) it’s full of tourists getting their pockets picked, and (b) part of the station is underneath the Federal Reserve Bank, engendering a sort of mutually reinforcing bureaucratic paranoia.

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$2 for ladder transport

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This harrowing, probably-totally-against-the-rules tale arrived in our inbox the other day from Muni rider Christine:

Dear Muni Diaries,

The other day I learned you can’t bring a ladder on Muni.

I borrowed the ladder from a cross-town friend. The 22 bus pulls up, I put my bike on the front, and walk up the stairs with the ladder, and flash my Fast Pass. The driver tells me that I can’t bring the ladder on the bus. Dumbfounded, I stare at him. He tells me it’s “too dangerous.” What?!

Anticipating a very long walk with my bike AND a ladder, I came up with a solution by the time the next 22 pulled up…. 🙂

Camouflaged, my ladder rode happily back to my apartment.

– Christine

Seen contraband on the bus lately? Let us know: muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com

Weekend Photo Diary: God and Country

49 Van Ness
Photo by David Gallagher from the Muni Photos Flickr pool

Well, this was a big week for us here at Muni Diaries. On Monday, we gave birth to our first transit-diaries spawn: BART Diaries. That site works just like this one: Mosey on up to read or write about your favorite (or barfiest) time on BART, and enjoy the show.

The week also saw news of Routesy’s return to app-dom. We were finally able to finish our review of the iPhone app, after we were rudely interrupted by phony money-grubbers. Boo!

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