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The Best of the North Bay 2004 Culture [ Writer's Choice | Readers' Choice ] Everyday [ Writer's Choice | Readers' Choice ] Food & Drink [ Writer's Choice | Readers' Choice ] Kids [ Writer's Choice | Readers' Choice ] Recreation [ Writer's Choice | Readers' Choice ] Romance [ Writer's Choice | Readers' Choice ] Surrealists, Scalawags and Saints We, the best of everything Defining the North Bay is a little like writing a thesaurus; if you don't use a lot of words, you're probably cheating somebody. We are defined in part by our geography, in part by our history and in part by our artistic pursuits, families, daily rounds, dinner tables and outdoor pleasures. In other words, the Best of the North Bay is us--we the people of Sonoma, Marin and Napa. We soul-searching sinners and sad-sack sages. We self-service gas shackers, sand sculptors and scribes. We self-supporting CEOs sipping sodas on Sundays in Sonoma. We sofa surfers seeking sex with steamy strangers. We single-minded Soroptimists; we sun-seeking Sagittarians seeking swamis with swagger. We cinema-sampling sophisticates and solar-addled seers; we sultry solo song singers; we sushi-slurping samurai. We Sanskrit-scribbling scholars from SSU sharing sharp-sighted insights with straight-shooting psychologists. We sexy, saucy savages sporting sandals with our suits. We salmon-scented scientists seeking sustainable solutions to system-wide extinctions. We silver-tongued supporters of socially sanctioned same-sex shilly-shallying. We semisnobbish cyclists snubbing the snotty snail snuffers steering slick, sleek sedans through San Anselmo. We sauna-soaking socialites; we sober-sighted soothsayers; we single-minded Socialists. We solicitous supporters of simple Saturday solitudes. We insatiably salty sailors sharing simple snacks with sloppy, slothful slackers slipping sinister substances from their short-sleeved shirts. We stage hands and stuntpersons and students of Stanislavski, staging stupendous displays of Shakespeare's sexiest sonnets. We sheep-shearing showoffs; we sorcerers and somnambulists; we self-sacrificing surfers spending solstice on safari. We skiers and skaters and scofflaw scoundrels; we sheriffs and sherpas; we swashbuckling septuagenarians; we surrealists and scalawags and saints. Put another way: the rich milieu of the North Bay is what you see when you walk down the street. Here then, are a few of our favorite sights. --David Templeton Writer's Choice contributors: Davina Baum, Sara Bir, Yosha Bourgea, Greg Cahill, Gretchen Giles, Lacey Graham, Andrea Hollingshead, Heather Irwin, Jill Koenigsdorf, Joy Lanzendorfer, Jordan E. Rosenfeld, R.V. Scheide and David Templeton. [ North Bay | Metroactive Central | Archives ]