San Francisco Chronicle

SAN FRANCISCO -- Aside from the University of Southern California's Matt Barkley and the University of Washington's Keith Price, the quarterback position is largely unknowable in the Pac-12. Other teams, such as the University of California, have returning quarterbacks, but they also have long, loping question marks.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The surreal moment at the Green Party's recent presidential debate in San Francisco came just after it ended, when candidate Roseanne Barr -- yes, that Roseanne Barr -- got campaign advice from punk pioneer and previous Green Oval Office candidate Jello Biafra.

He urged Barr to "use your humor."

SAN FRANCISCO -- Golf's best-case scenario: Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler grapple again this weekend at the Players Championship, or next month in the U.S. Open at the Olympic Club.

MSNBC host Martin Bashir led his program the other day with a lengthy discussion of a scandal the left-leaning cable network ominously called "Cookie-gate."

It stemmed from a campaign photo-op discussion that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney had with suburban Pittsburgh voters in which he mocked the cookies they were served as looking like "they came from 7-Eleven." They had been donated by a popular local bakery, and over the next several minutes the cable TV channel spun the story as an example of how Romney has trouble connecting with voters.

"Cookie-gate" was the latest in a series of near-daily items that have dominated the presidential campaign recently. Somehow, rocker and outdoors enthusiast Ted Nugent, Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen, Romney's dog Seamus and President Barack Obama's long-ago description of eating dog as a child have taken turns dominating the national conversation.

SAN FRANCISCO -- There's a price to pay for a certain brand of superstar, the kind who rules by force and leaves his victims subject to ridicule. Blake Griffin is paying that price right now, his antagonists armed only with jealousy and envy.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The crew of the Low Speed Chase was a relaxed but adventurous cadre of expert sailors who were fixtures on the Marin County waterfront, friends and family say.

For five of them, the toughest race in local yachting circles -- the Full Crew Farallones Race, held annually since 1907 -- was their last. A towering wave washed them overboard Saturday afternoon as their boat rounded the islands, and rescue efforts by three crew members who survived the disaster were dashed by another wall of water that wrecked the sailboat.

Skidding and fibbing don't mix.

When will we ever learn?

Two words of advice for Bobby Petrino: training wheels.