San Francisco: the irreverent capital of the world. Where else can one attend a baseball game, a war protest and a sex festival all in the same day? Where else could a citywide marathon become a costume party? Where else could the main tourist attractions be a closed prison, a crooked street and a bridge?

In the family of American cities, San Francisco is the fun uncle who always tells the dirty jokes. It's the birthplace of Dead Heads, The Yankee Clipper and Yellow Journalism; where Redding wasted time and Bennett left his heart; where summer can be winter even if Twain didn't say it. And where "manual transmission" is either a bad joke or a death wish.

So keep the tongue firmly placed in the cheek as we explore the quaintness and quirkiness of the City by the Bay. But in the name of Herb Caen, just don't call it "Frisco."

[Strange Laws/Ordinances]

- San Francisco is said to be the only city in the nation to have ordinances guaranteeing sunshine to the masses.

- Elephants are prohibited from walking down Market Street unless on a leash.

- It is illegal to wipe one's car with used underwear.

- Those classified as "ugly" may not walk down any street.

- Giving or receiving oral sex is prohibited.

- The picking up and throwing of used confetti is prohibited.

- It is illegal to pile horse manure more than six feet high on a street corner.

- Any "mechanical device that reproduces obscene language" is banned.

- It is illegal to play poker in public or gamble in a barricaded room.

[Interesting Facts]

- The Golden Gate Bridge has enough steel wires in its cables to circle the earth at the equator 3.5 times.

- The Golden Gate Bridge is so big, workers paint it year round. By the time they are finished with one end, it is time to begin repainting the other.

- The San Francisco cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.

- Fisherman's Wharf is the third most popular tourist destination in the United States behind Disneyland and Disneyworld.

- Fortune cookies were invented in San Francisco–not China. Makota Hagiwara, manager of Golden Gate Park's Japanese Tea Garden in 1909, served the cookies to Tea Garden regulars and they quickly became a success. But he didn't bother to copyright his creation, so they were copied and marketed by Chinese merchants.

- The average rate of motion across the San Andreas Fault Zone is 2 inches per year, about the same rate at which fingernails grow. Assuming this rate continues, scientists project that Los Angeles and San Francisco will be adjacent to one another in approximately 15 million years.

- A study of spending habits released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that San Franciscans spend more on booze and books than residents of any other U.S. city. According to the two-year study, the average San Francisco resident spent $744 on alcohol and $266 on books, out of an annual income of $70,237. That's 1.1 percent of one person's yearly salary spent on booze.

[You Know You're From San Francisco When ...]

... a really great parking space can move you to tears.
... you only go to Fisherman's Wharf when your family visits.
... you make over $100,000 but you'll never be able to afford a house.
... your boss runs in the "Bay to Breakers" and it's not the first time you've seen him nude.
... left is right, and right is wrong.
... you were born in Southern California.
... the price of gas is always at least $1 more than the national average.
... you can't name any city east of Berkeley.
... you think "fog" is one of the four seasons.
... when someone says "Tenderloin," you don't think of steak.