It's a new issue of the Weekly, now online for your perusal. Read it; savor it; use it to run for president!

Seriously!

In any case, feel free to comment here on this week's issue. And happy Thanksgiving!

The Tucson Police Department's photo-radar van will be in the following areas on Wednesday, Nov. 21:

• 7 to 9 a.m.: At Sierra Middle School, 5800 Block S. Del Moral Boulevard
• 9 to 1:30 p.m.: On Valencia Road near Nogales Highway
• 2 to 4 p.m.: Hollinger Elementary School, 150 W. Ajo Way
• 4:30 to 8 p.m.: On Valencia Road near Kolb Road

Well, maybe not, as the week is just beginning ...

My best friend’s brother died. He had been estranged from his family for about 30 years. He would pop up now and then with a phone call or e-mail, but as the years rolled by, he popped up less and less.

About six weeks ago, my friend Lucy received an e-mail with the subject line "Stu Died." One of his friends e-mailed the dozen or so addresses on his computer. She went to Arcata (she lives in the Bay Area) and did a few things, but without a will, she couldn’t do much except claim the body and pay to have it cremated. I flew to Oakland to make the drive with her north to Arcata in Humboldt County, just south of the Oregon border.

I had never been further north of Mendocino County. One of the good things about Humboldt County is that it is so far out of the way that nobody like Pulte Homes or KB Home is ever going to try to develop that area. There were no chains in Arcata. There were lots of cool, independent coffee houses in many unusual shapes and sizes, and one crepe place that looked like a giant crepe pan—just one of many independent restaurants. There were a few chains in Eureka, but not many—Borders, Bed Bath and Beyond, Safeway, two Starbucks, Subway and Petco.

I forgot to mention that Stu was homeless by choice. He lived in his van. He probably had some kind of mental illness, but it was never diagnosed. He had a friend whom I’ll call John, who lives in his car by choice. John claims to be a mobile mechanic who doesn’t like to punch a time clock.

It was a whole different slice of life.

Lucy went back to clean out her brother’s three storage units. Getting access to them was the key, as there was no will. We went from one government office to another trying to find out who could help us. Finally, we got the right document, which needed to be notarized.

John led the way; if you didn’t know he was homeless; you would never suspect it. He’s very articulate and soft-spoken.

I’m not sure what Lucy expected to find in these storage units. We opened the first one, and it was musty. Stu had magazines lining the walls, piled from floor to ceiling. I squinted into the semi darkness and thought they were computer magazines ... but upon closer inspection, they were porno magazines. Stu had hundreds of porno magazines stacked from floor to ceiling—and the pages were labeled with faded Post-It notes—Erika, Yvonne, Brittani, Marilyn, Lelani …

I glanced sideways at Lucy. She was trying not to laugh or cry. John was behind us, and he muttered: "Geez, I knew Stu was into porno but I didn’t know exactly how much."

We opened the next, and it was filled with cleaning supplies and spice racks filled with spices. I opened up a jar labeled cinnamon to make sure it was what it said it was. "What’s with the spice racks?" I asked John. He said Stu liked to cook, and when he went to people’s houses to cook, he brought his own spices.

The third was filled with tools, clothes, books, herb and plant oils, computer parts and plastic milk cartons filled with CDs. Lucy found a box of family photos and said that is all she wanted.

She gave John access to the storage, and he said he could sell or give away or trade its contents. We went to the mortuary to pick up Stu’s ashes, which she also gave to John, who wanted to spread Stu’s ashes on the hillside where Stu picked St. John’s wort for his healing oils. 

It was just kind of bizarre.

Driving back, we went the long way by the Lost Coast on rough curved roads, past rolling green hills where livestock grazed, and every now and then, a sliver of the choppy gray ocean and its black beaches showed through the fog.

As we drove though the Redwood Forest and the miles and miles of trees, I felt like I was trapped in a Stephen King novel, feeling very powerless by nature and wondered what I had lying around my house that would incriminate me in the event that someone had to go through the remnants of my life. 

The Tucson Police Department's photo-radar van will be in the following areas on Tuesday, Nov. 20:

• 7 to 9 a.m.: On Golden Hills Road near Saddle Hills Road
• 9:30 to 1:30 p.m.: On Speedway Boulevard near Silverbell Road
• 2 to 4 p.m.: School crossing on 10th Avenue at La Paz Street
• 4:30 to 8 p.m.: On Silverbell Road near Grant Road

The Tucson Police Department's photo-radar van will be in the following areas on Monday, Nov. 19:

• 7 to 9 a.m.: Hollinger Elementary School, 100 Block West Ajo Way
• 9:30 to 1:30 p.m.: 300 Block North Euclid Avenue
• 2 to 4 p.m.: Lineweaver Elementary School, 400 Block South Bryant Avenue
• 4:30 to 8 p.m.: On Dodge Boulevard between Glenn Street and Fort Lowell Road

The Tucson Police Department's photo-radar van will be in the following areas on Saturday, Nov. 17:

• 7 to 2 p.m.: On Golf Links Road near Kolb Road
• 2:30 to 8 p.m.: On Kolb Road near Speedway Boulevard

Remember Kyla Ebbert, the young lady who was told she couldn't fly on a Southwest Airlines flight from San Diego to Tucson because her outfit was too revealing? She ended up on the Today show and eventually got an apology and free flight tickets from Southwest.

(I also benefited because Southwest announced it was having a mini-fares sales to go along with Kyla's mini-skirt and I got a round-trip flight to NYC earlier this month for a mere $200. The flight home was a nightmare, by the way; I'll fill you in on the details another time.)

But I digress. Kyla is now posing in Playboy. The link is PNSFW.

The Tucson Police Department's photo-radar van will be in the following areas on Friday, Nov. 16:

• 7 to 9 a.m.: The Safford Elementary School crossing on North Sixth Avenue
• 9:30 to 1:30 p.m.: On Speedway Boulevard near Silverbell Road
• 2 to 4 p.m.: Tolson Elementary School, 1000 S. Greasewood Road
• 4:30 to 8 p.m.: On Nogales Highway near Valencia Road

Kentucky lawmakers are tackling global warming. If, by tackling, you mean dismissing the whole idea. Doesn't sound like they've gotten the memo on sustainability yet.

John Cheves of the Lexington Herald-Leader brings us this news:

Global warming is a myth concocted by former Vice President Al Gore, the United Nations, Hollywood and the news media, Kentucky lawmakers were told yesterday.

More from Cheves:

Chairman Jim Gooch, D-Providence, a longtime ally of the coal industry, said he purposefully did not invite anyone who believes in global warming to testify.

"You can only hear that the sky is falling so many times," said Gooch, whose post makes him the House Democrats' chief environmental strategist. "We hear it every day from the news media, from the colleges, from Hollywood."

Neither of Gooch's invited panelists was a scientist.

James Taylor is a lawyer and fellow with the Heartland Institute, a free-market think-tank in Chicago partially funded by ExxonMobil. Lord Christopher Monckton, the 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, is a British journalist and onetime adviser to then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Monckton generated controversy during the 1980s with his recommendation--which he repeated for lawmakers yesterday--that people diagnosed with HIV or AIDS be locked up for life.

"Twenty years ago we could have stopped this disease from spreading worldwide by treating it just like any other fatal, infectious disease, by making it notifiable, so people who got it were isolated--and in the kindest and nicest way--but isolated so they couldn't spread it to everybody else," he said.

And a final detail worth noting:

Several committee members protested that it was unfair to hear only one side of the argument, so Gooch let two environmentalists in the audience talk about global warming--and the need to address it--for about five minutes each. One of them, Andy McDonald, solar energy co-coordinator for Appalachia-Science in the Public Interest, complained that hastily plucking two people for brief rebuttals of a two-hour presentation wasn't fair or balanced.

"It really wasn't my intention to get into so much science today," Gooch replied.

Before the hearing, Gooch said he called the Heartland Institute once he decided to address global warming and asked for any skeptical experts it might send. Scientists weren't necessary, he said.

"Well, I mean, where are we going to get scientists?" Gooch asked. "We're limited here in Kentucky to what we can do. I don't know how we'd necessarily get scientists to come here."

A short drive to the east, at the University of Kentucky, geologist Brandon Nuttall said he wasn't aware of yesterday's hearing, but he disputed its premise.

Here are a few events that were received too late for inclusion in our Nov. 15 issue. We recommend calling event organizers to check for any last-minute changes.

• Thursday, Nov. 15 from 8 to 9 p.m.

  Tucson International Airport, Welcome Lounge B

  7250 S. Tucson Blvd.

  Live at TIA. Oscar Contreras performs songs in Spanish and English. Free. Call 573-4868 for info.

• Friday, Nov. 16 at 7:30 p.m.

  Bloom Music Center

  St. Philip's in the Hills Episcopal Church

  4440 N. Campbell Ave.

  Tucson Flute Club Fall Concert. The club presents a concert of music for flute ensemble. Free. Call 885-2509 for info.

• Saturday, Nov. 17 from 4 to 6 p.m.

  Grace St. Paul's Church

  2331 E. Adams St.

  Thanksgiving Dinner for Refugees. A free dinner, sponsored by International Rescue Committee, Jewish Family and Children's Services, Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest and Tucson International Alliance of Refugee Communities. Call 319-2128 for info.

• Tuesday, Nov. 20 at 6 p.m.

  The Loft Cinema

  3233 E. Speedway Blvd.

  Film Screening. UA Media Arts professor Nicole Koschmann presents her documentary film, Black, White and Yellow. A mixer begins at 6 p.m. The screening begins at 7 p.m. $5. Call 795-0844 for info.