We're on deadline, and everything came to a screeching halt, because there was A SCORPION in the production department. Veronica, the advertising department goddess, scooped it up in a box while I ran into a corner and hid.

The scorpion—which Arek the designer, who drinks too much Red Bull, named "Orland"—was taken outside and freed. Orland, who I should point out was HUGE and SCARY, will live to see another day, and scare the hell out of more people.

Do you think the mamby pamby journalists at The New York Times have to deal with things like this? I THINK NOT.

-- So they found more oil. Great. Another excuse to put off cleaner, renewable energy sources. Sigh.  

-- More political ugliness in our neighbor to the south.

-- And finally, the Star gives a thorn to Big Tobacco. And to attempted burglars. Sigh. Could you get any more boring and predictable? Blogging about it's making me sleepy, for crying out loud.

One of our foster dogs, Arnold/Arnie, is lost. He was living in Armory Park in a foster home and could have been missing since around 12:30 a.m. (Sept. 5). People have been out all night looking for him.

Arnold has a sad story, because he was living in his forever home until his adopter suddenly died. He came back to Arizona Greyhound Rescue. He spent time in our kennel and then went to his first foster home until she moved into an apartment that didn't allow big dogs. This is his second foster home. 

Arnold is big and black and 5 or 6 years young and really deserves a wonderful permanent home.

If you find him, please call 886-7411 or 318-1222. Reward! Thank you.

Greetings to all of you poor schlubs who have to work today, on LABOR DAY. Oh, the injustice! Oh, the humanity!

We, the members of Weekly editorial staff (well, most of us) join you in toiling on this holiday. (Although most of us did get Friday off instead. Sorta. It's a deadline thing.) And, well, if you'd like to bitch about the fact that you have to work on LABOR DAY, by all means, use our comments section here to do so.

UPDATE: See? Look what can happen when you work on Labor Day: You can get killed by a stingray!

Tuesday, Sept. 5, at 7:30 p.m. See On a Clear Day at the Loft Cinema. Also showing, You Can See Forever, a behind the scenes documentary that follows the making of the film. Stay for a mixer and meet the actors and producers involved; $4 per person.

On a Clear Day is a story about a struggling ranching couple who live on the Mexico/Arizona border and face the politics of day to day immigration. When an immigrant child stumbles on their property ... what do they do? You can view the trailer here.

In Ohio they've finally managed to solve the pesky problem of living in a "democracy" where you're "innocent" until "proven" guilty. Now, even if you've never been convicted of a crime, you can be labeled a sex offender:

A recently enacted law allows county prosecutors, the state attorney general, or, as a last resort, alleged victims to ask judges to civilly declare someone to be a sex offender even when there has been no criminal verdict or successful lawsuit.

This is a great system, because not only can pretty much anyone who feels like it try to get you labelled as an offender, you have perfect recourse to have the label removed ... after six years.

A civilly declared offender, however, could petition the court to have the person's name removed from the new list after six years if there have been no new problems and the judge believes the person is unlikely to abuse again.

Shouldn't that read "unlikely to abuse again, or maybe to have ever abused at all"?

A few nights ago, Brian Williams from NBC Nightly News interviewed George W. in New Orleans. What a moron (Bush, not Williams), but that's old news. Finally, the interview got to the books Bush was reading, and it turns out the moron claims to be reading Shakespeare and Camus. When Brian Williams mentioned that last year he was reading some baseball autobiography, the President said, "I have eck-e-lectic tastes."  (Yes, you do.)

I was searching the Web for some Bush misprounciations and found this list.