We're introducing a new feature on The Range called Writer's Block. We will highlight local authors and their publications.

On the Winds of Time

by George Hathaway Gardiner

PublishAmerica, 113 pages, $19.95

Summary:
On the Winds of Time is a collection of poems and stories from George Hathaway Gardiner's life. The stories are a combination of fiction and non-fiction. The first story is a true account of Gardiner's personal experience with the race horse Secretariat. Hathaway was a friend with the horse's owner and stood by as Secretariat won the Triple Crown.

Author Bio:
(Written by grandaughter Jessica Hathaway Gardiner)
What can I tell you about my grandfather? He has had a long and fascinating life that began on a farm, where he was left to be raised by his grandparents. When his grandfather died, he had nowhere to go and for a time was taken in and looked after by a group of women. Unknowingly, he was living in a brothel. He ran away when he found out that he was about to be put in an orphanage by the authorities. He became a farm hand and went to high school where he my grandmother at the age of 16. He became a radio DJ, got married, went to war, came home and went into real estate.

In this week's Skinny, I talked about the developing effort to ban earmarks and how it ties into the race in Congressional District 8, where four Republicans are vying to unseat Democrat Gabrielle Giffords.

Bruce Bartlett, the former Reagan administration official who now writes a column for Forbes magazine and books such as Impostor: How George W. Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy, weighed in on the topic on his blog:

It's obviously true that earmarks are not a significant cause of rising federal spending; eliminating all of them will save at most one percent of the budget. I've always suspected that this is the main reason why right wingers focus on them so obsessively—it makes them look tough on spending while actually doing nothing meaningful to cut it.

That said, I think earmarks are underrated in terms of their contribution to corruption. It's really poisonous when members of Congress can so easily direct federal spending to a favored business in order to attract campaign contributions or just the mistaken belief that they are doing something for their district by helping out a local company.

Furthermore, I think the idea that if Congress stops earmarking that they will somehow disappear is ludicrous. It will just increase congressional pressure on the administration to include favored projects in the president's budget, which for some reason is always treated as being earmark-free.

In fact, the administration's budget is filled with its own earmarks. We know this because

Just Press Play: Calexico performs at the Rialto Theatre on Dec. 2, 2006.

I was talking to KUAT/KUAZ senior production engineer Jim Blackwood the other day and mentioned that I really loved Ancienne Belgique: Live In Brussels (2008), the live set that Calexico released last year. But I confessed that I was disappointed that it didn't include a live version of "Guero Canelo," the jam/anthem that concludes many of the band's shows.

As it turns out, Blackwood isn't only an engineer extraordinaire who doubles as a KXCI morning DJ; he's also the official Calexico archivist. He told me I could find a live version of "Guero Canelo" at archive.org, a Web site that's loaded with all kinds of great stuff. Blackwood's contributions include not only Calexico, but Giant Sand, Bela Fleck, Al Perry and more. You can find the complete list of the Secret Files of Jim Blackwood here.

One of the shows is a benefit that Calexico performed at the Rialto Theatre on Dec. 2, 2006, which I remember as a spectacular night of beautiful music. If you want to download the entire Rialto concert, you'll find it here.

You can buy Ancienne Belgique: Live In Brussels (2008) at Casa de Calexico.

And remember: Calexico is headlining that all-day music festival in the streets of downtown's Barrio Viejo to benefit KXCI on Saturday, April 3. The show will include Sergio Mendoza y La Orkesta, Crawdaddy-O, Tom Walbank, Naim Amor, Salvador Duran, Fourkiller Flats, Silver Thread Trio, Courtney Robbins & Mariachi Aztlan de Pueblo High School.

Like you're going to miss that one. Click here to get your tickets now!

Here's one more reason ASU stands for Arizona's Second University: It leaves out words on its promotional billboards.

From KOLD:

The billboards are part of a campaign proclaiming that Arizona State University is one of the world's top schools.

The only problem is that they left out a key part of the message. The sign reads "One of top 100 universities in the world." It is missing the word "the."

"Mom's Legacy," by Barbara Cowlin, is among the works on display in Art that Heals through May 16 at Tohono Chul Park, 7366 North Paseo Del Norte.

The latest bulletin from the state Rep. Steve Farley:

The special session is over, and the Republican budget is set. Because of that, Arizona's future is now at great risk.

Not a single person signed up in support of any of these budget bills during their only public hearing in front of the Appropriations Committee. Agency heads were not allowed to testify or provide input. This budget has no constituency, only ideology.

The fiscal crisis is only Republicans' excuse to do what they feel they were elected to do: destroy government. This is the Grover Norquist budget, designed to—in the words of that influential Republican anarchist from DC who controls the No New Taxes pledge signed by a majority of AZ Republican legislators—shrink government to the size where it can be dragged to a bathtub and drowned.

Please refer to last week's email to review the details of the carnage, but here are a few lowlights once more:

—> KidsCare is entirely eliminated, kicking more than 42,000 kids off their health care. That makes Arizona the first

If you've never read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but always wanted to, rejoice, for the folks at Quirk Books have a new one out—Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls. This is a prequel that takes us a little further back with the Bennet sisters in the English countryside. When corpses spring from the soft English soil, it seems only one family can stop them. Elizabeth Bennet must pick a suitor and battle zombies.

The new novel, by Jane Austen and Steve Hockensmith, comes out March 23. Until then, amuse yourselves with the Quirk book trailer. See more book trailers from Quirk here.

Tom Tancredo, the former Colorado congressman who made headlines for his hard-line illegal-immigration policies, is coming to Southern Arizona—and it appears that just about every Republican in the region is set to share a stage with him.

Tancredo is the keynote speaker at the Southeastern Arizona Tea Party at the Sonoita Fairgrounds on Saturday, March 27.

Also on the bill at the shindig: Congressional candidates Jonathan Paton, Jesse Kelly, Brian Miller and Andy Goss; state Sen. Frank Antenori; state Reps. David Gowan and David Stevens; and a host of other GOP candidates.

The Huffington Post reports that Republican Dick Armey had some interesting things to say about Tancredo earlier this week:

For the second time in as many weeks, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey — who has become the corporate personification of the Tea Party movement — verbally smacked down former Rep. Tom Tancredo, another Tea Party fixture, for his unsympathetic views on immigration reform.

Speaking at the National Press Club on Monday, Armey called the Colorado Republican a "destructive" force on the Republican Party and claimed that, as Majority Leader, he made sure that

"Untitled from the Saguaro Rubbing Series," by David Kish, is on display through June 19 at the Tucson International Airport, 7250 S Tucson Blvd.

• NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

One more Mars snapshot from the latest batch released by the HiRISE team at the UA Lunar and Planetary Lab.

HiRISE team member Anjani Polit tells us:

This image shows part of Cerberus Fossae, a long system of extensional (normal) faults arranged in trough-bounding (graben-bounding) pairs. Cerberus Fossae served as the source of a large volcanic eruption that draped Athabasca Valles in lava.

Large boulders that have been dislodged from the graben walls are visible on