Did the County Fair have a sideshow? Yes, but they called it a "Freak Show." Tyrone the hip-hop killer rat topped the bill. There were things with two, three, four, five and six legs. Rides propelled people braver than me to great heights and sickness. Shed-sized fiberglass lemons dispensed lemonade. Tractors began to feel familiar. Sheriff's deputies, in nice beige uniforms, seemed less tense than city cops. Aaahh, the County Fair!

I was there on Saturday. Bret Michaels did not toss me his sweaty bandana, but I did get to meet a few celebrities: The Budweiser Clydsedale horses. Dickson, Duke, Bud, Duke, Ace, Regel, John, Mick, Elite and Chris looked at me through the bars of their tidy stables as if to say, "What the hell are you looking at?" The truck they rode in on was parked alongside, looking huge and immaculately detailed. Another spotless truck held rows of beautiful black leather harnesses with polished studs and buckles. It was like a sadomasochist's nirvana.

A more modest accommodation was the model double-wide home, conveniently located next to the above ground pool showcase. At $85,000, it was a surprisingly roomy, nicely laid-out manufactured home. The salesman, a "Housing Consultant" according to his card, informed me that

Postmodern Barney has collected Uncomfortable Plot Summaries. A sample:

BLADE RUNNER: Man with no apparent skill stumbles into escaped robots, fails to kill most, fucks one.

BOOGIE NIGHTS: Deformed boy goaded into life of crime.

BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S: Pretty redneck girl fools socialites, flirts with gay gigolo.

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY: Deranged pedophile big-business industrialist tortures and mutilates young children.

CHINATOWN: Father desires closer relationship with his children.

DEBBIE DOES DALLAS: Cheerleaders develop valuable entrepreneurial skills.

DONNIE DARKO: Hallucinating teen crushed by airplane engine.

Due to a database glitch, a number of our listings were wiped out early Friday morning. However, our crack Web staff assures us the listings data has now been restored. If you notice something missing, please alert our listings staff.

Thank you, and God bless.

Me and the gang tackle the week, after the jump:

Pima County Supervisor Ray Carroll stopped by the Friday Roundtable. Unlike some dead-enders (we're looking your way, J.T. Waldron), Sugar Ray gives the RTA election a clean bill of health. He says he wouldn't vote for a sales tax to support Major League Baseball stadiums and appears to now be targeting Kino Hospital and University Physicians. It's undeniably true that the hospital is costing more than expected to run, but is there really another corporation that would want to come in and run it?

Watch it for yourself after the jump.

Looks like political gadfly John Kromko has more to worry about than our mocking of him.

The Star's Erica Meltzer breaks the news this afternoon that Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall has hit Kromko with charges of identity theft, forgery and fraudulent schemes.

The charges stem from Kromko's nominating petitions for an ill-fated campaign for the House of Representatives last year. Two dead people ended up on the list of people who signed the petitions, which is a pretty good red flag that something's amiss.

We're waiting to learn more, but from the initial sound of it, we wonder if the identity-theft charges are just piling on Kromko, a Democrat who has had a rough political streak since he gave up serving in the Arizona Legislature in the early 1990s.

GM is cutting the Pontiac brand, according to NPR. More layoffs to come.

This week's Skinny column talks about the difficult politics facing the Tucson City Council as members consider a 2 percent tax on housing rental payments.

Opponents of the rental tax have their own Web site up.

We're expecting that the budget hearing at the Tucson Convention Center at 5:30 p.m. this Tuesday, April 28, is gonna be a real free-for-all.

The green movement is all the rage these days, but the organizers of Tucson's annual Solar Potluck and Exhibition, now in its 27th year, were hip to eco-friendly living long before it started making national headlines.

If you've never been to the potluck—which goes down at 10 a.m., Saturday, April 25—it takes place at Catalina State Park, which is located on Oracle Road, five miles north of Ina Road.

You don't have to bring a solar oven to participate. Just bring your own eating utensils, some sunblock and a healthy curiosity about cooking with the power of the sun.

Call 940-2565, or visit here for more info.

Warning: The above trailer is most definitely Not Safe For Work!

Black Devil Doll opens for one week only at the Loft Cinema today. The Loft's Web site describes the plot thusly:

A young, moist, buxom teen vixen finds herself hurled into an odyssey of forbidden sex and unspeakable violence after an innocent evening dabbling in the occult. What started as a simple child's game has now become a fight for her life! What is this evil that she has summoned from beyond? And why does it have a 'fro? What kind of horrific acts will she be subjected to? And what price will her super-hot, half-nude friends have to pay? But more importantly, how much Caucasian blood will have to be shed to stop... the BLACK DEVIL DOLL?!!"

We'll check it out this weekend and get back to you with our review.

May we also recommend The Faint and Ladytron at The Rialto this evening?

And don't forget: It's the last weekend to take a spin on the tilt-a-whirl at the Tucson Weekly Carnival at the Pima County Fair.