• People line up for Shaka Shave Ice.

Shaka Shave Ice is a food trailer that parks outside of Lee Lee Oriental Supermart at 1990 W. Orange Grove Road, and if you like cold, delicious things you should go there. Owners Lynn and Jeff Bronaugh do interesting things with shave ice, and people drive from as far as Avra Valley just for a taste of it.

I’ve become somewhat of a shave ice nut since trying it for the first time this year, and Shaka’s is a cut above the rest. Lynn Bronaugh says it’s the surgically sharp ice-shaving blade that makes the difference. Jeff Bronaugh says it’s the fact that Lynn mixes her own syrups.

I say it’s all of that, and the infectious happiness that flows out of that trailer, right alongside a veritable blizzard of uniquely flavored shave ice. It also helps that the food trailer takes its inspiration from traditional shave ice shacks in Hawaii, where the Bronaughs lived before moving to Tucson to be closer to their daughter and grandson.

Take, for instance, the mocha shave ice: Kona coffee, sweetened condensed milk and chocolate syrup on top of a bowl of the finest snow you’ve ever seen. Or consider that the Bronaughs will mix in real mochi balls they brought back from a recent trip to Hawaii. Adzuki beans — a sweetened Japanese red bean — and gummy bears can be added as well.

Plus, the Bronaughs just know how to make a person feel good, whether it’s with 27 flavors of shave ice — which can also be mix-and-matched into a thousand different combinations— or their obvious adoration for both their patrons and each other. Spending weekends working in a tiny trailer might get to some couples, but not the Bronaughs.

“You want to know what makes this place special?” Jeff Bronaugh says, pointing to his wife and smiling broadly. “This lady right here. She’s what makes it special.”

Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and this coming Saturday and Sunday is Shaka Shave Ice’s last weekend of the season. They’ll also be out at the Festival Norteño at Casino del Sol on Saturday, Sept. 3. There’s more information over here.

• Mocha shave ice? Yes, please.

• The happy Bronaugh family.

Remember this post on Friday? The one announcing our really awesome and fun First Pitch contest?

What happened, Tucson? I expected to come to work today to an inbox full of YouTube links, but no, none of you had the energy or ambition to shoot a video. This made me very sad. So sad that even a website full of photos of cats on scanners couldn't cheer me up. That's pretty sad.

Did you take a second to think about the prize? You can throw out the first pitch at a professional baseball game. How many of your friends have done that? I'm guessing zero. What currency do we have in this life other than unique experiences we can taunt our friends with? Why else would I bring up the Jeff Buckley concert I went to in 1994 in conversation so often?

Grab the semi-rotten cantaloupe from your fridge and throw it against a wall. I would like to be amused, but I would rather get some entries, so I can feel like I accomplished something. Help a blogger out, people.

The rules and other details are here. The contest ends Wednesday.

Tucson Unified School District governing board president Mark Stegeman e-mailed a (really long) constituent letter out today discussing everything from board meetings to Mexican American Studies:

August 21, 2011

Dear correspondents and supporters,

My first constituent letter, last September, covered numerous issues important to TUSD. The May and June letters were much narrower: they focused on only the politically consuming issue of the moment, the Mexican-American Studies (MAS) program. The MAS program represents only a tiny fraction of what TUSD does, but it was generating most of the political attention, most of the news coverage, and most of the email.

I've been meaning to see this movie for weeks now. So I was happy to hear that The Loft is screening it until this Thursday (with a possibility of further extending its showing there). But let me backtrack. This movie's called The Trip, starring British comedian Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, fellow comedian and impressionist. Coogan's on assignment, reviewing a bunch of restaurants in England, Brydon tags along, and an epic road-trip ensues.

Here's what the critics have to say:

"THE FUNNIEST, laugh-out-loud film of the summer." - James Verniere, BOSTON HERALD

"WARNING: Do not bring a beverage into the theatre. You may laugh so hard that liquid will come out of your nose." - Richard Corliss, TIME MAGAZINE

"HYSTERICAL! I had some of the biggest laughs I've had in a movie all year." - Mick LaSalle, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

"HILARIOUS! The dueling impersonations of Michael Caine is the funniest scene of the year." - Owen Gleiberman, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

For more, click here.

How do you sleep on a plane? Do you recline back, way back, doin' the rockaway? Do you deck yourself out in neck donuts and sleeping masks? Or do you tend toward the oh-so-charming open-mouthed, snoring thing (like me)? Do you ever wonder what's the best way to sleep on a plane?

The New York Times' Virginia Heffernan has pondered these exact questions to great success in her Op-Ed, "How to Sleep on a Plane."

Sure, National Duck Out For A Drink Day is a made up holiday, but aren't they all, in a way? It's nearly the end of a summer that hasn't really been good for anyone that I know of, so any excuse to grab a drink is a good one. I personally won't be participating, because doing so would be a violation of the company Code of Conduct, but I full endorse the responsible celebration of the occasion.

[The Awl]

The Reid Park Zoo has a itty-bitty baby tamandua in the house:

Reid Park Zoo is pleased to announce another significant birth. A tamandua (pronounced tuh-MAN-deh-wah), or lesser anteater, was born on August 10th. Keepers were anticipating the birth as the pregnancy had been confirmed by ultrasound. Keepers discovered the offspring first thing in the morning during regular rounds.

Zoo animal care staff reports that the offspring (sex yet to be determined) is gaining weight and appears to be healthy. The veterinarian is keeping a close eye on this first-time mom and her offspring to make sure they continue to do well. Tamanduas are born weighing less than a pound.

• © Lisa Jo Roden

I don't know exactly how to describe what it is that Jaime J. does as a performer exactly...he has some demos available on his Facebook fan page, however, when I saw him perform at the Fort Lowell Records showcase a while ago, he was removing his clothes then doing the splits in front of the Club Congress stage while singing a karaoke version of "When Doves Cry", so your guess is as good as mine. He's also on KXCI most Mondays from 1 to 3 PM, including today, if you care to tune in.

However, regardless of what particular artistic niche Jaime should be categorized under, he's worth "liking" on Facebook just to see what he comes up with and (at least for today) to enjoy his profile photo, reproduced above. The photo confuses me nearly as much as his public persona, so I guess the image is doing its job.

Steve Benen of Washington Monthly takes issue with U.S. Sen. John McCain's complaints that the Obama administration didn't do more to topple Libyan dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi:

Here are three things I’d encourage McCain and Graham to keep in mind. First, complaining about getting the outcome they wanted is just cheap. When the fear of Obama getting some credit for success is stronger than the satisfaction that comes with a tyrant’s fall, there’s a problem.

Second, the fact of the matter is, the efforts of U.S. forces in are being cited as “a major factor in helping to tilt the balance after months of steady erosion of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s military.”

And third, if McCain and Graham really want to complain about why “this success was so long in coming,” maybe they can talk more about their trip to Tripoli two years ago, when both McCain and Graham cozied up to Gaddafi, even visiting with him at the dictator’s home, discussing delivery of American military equipment to the Libyan regime. Both senators shook Gaddafi’s hand; McCain even bowed a little.

I’m curious if McCain and Graham have simply forgotten about this, or if they’re just hoping everyone else has.

Maybe I'm being a stereotypical male here, grossed out by the birth process and anything related to it, but the trend piece in New York magazine about women eating their own placentas has me wishing the whole thing is a hoax. Turn away if you're eating anything right now:

Mayer then picks up the placenta, stands over the sink, and squeezes out the excess blood into a container. She pats it dry and starts peeling away its tough white ­membrane with her knife. “I try to send positive energy when I’m making medicine,” she goes on, as she continues blotting leaking blood (Mayer uses one roll of paper towels per placenta). “I think of peace, promise, and recovery, and hold the intention of integrating the energy of the mother and the baby.”

She then cuts the placenta in two. She will prepare one half according to the traditional Chinese method: wrapped in its membrane and steamed in a pot with a knob of ginger, a whole lemon, and a jalapeño pepper; then chopped up, dehydrated, and ground into a powder. She plans to dehydrate the other half raw.

The cooked half steams for half an hour, filling the room with the smell of meat and ginger. When Mayer takes it out, it has the texture and color of overcooked brisket. She chops it and lays it out on the parchment-lined dehydrator tray, below the raw version, which she has also chopped into slivers. In total, the placenta takes up four sixteen-inch trays.

When she turns on the dehydrator, another odor, unfamiliar to Mayer, fills the room. “It smells like something died in here!” she says.