Since when did this sort of crack become acceptable in a straight news story?

Seattle would appear to be the first in the United States to impose fees on both kinds of shopping bags. Last year, San Francisco banned plastic grocery bags outright, but paper bags can still be used, and without a fee.

Seattle, often just as liberal but less loopy than San Francisco, determined that the production and shipping costs of paper bags made them “actually worse for the planet” than plastic bags, according to a recent local study.

I’m from the Bay Area so I know all about San Francisco’s wackiness. But since when do supposedly news reporters refer to entire cities as “loopy? I blame the Washington Post Style section, which helped popularize the attitude-driven style that is slowly poisoning Times news coverage.