Tucson can get one if its first peeks at part of the new Playground nightclub on Congress Street at a Halloween event this weekend.

Playground, a multi-bar nightclub being opened by the owner of HUB Restaurant and Ice Creamery, is opening up its rooftop deck over the weekend and calling it the Treehouse of Horror. Halloween festivities included DJs, dancing and a candy buffet. Wow.

I've toured the space where this nightclub is going in and spoken at length with owner Kade Mislinski, and it just blows me away the more I think about it. Four different theme bars under one roof; elevated snack foods including multiple flavors of popcorn; and Mislinski's creative touches tying it all together. He's also adding a patio that runs along Congress Street.

Anyway, there's more information on the Nightmare on Congress event and the Treehouse of Horror over here.

As part of our Secrets of Tucson Bartenders series, we went to Fourth Avenue German-inspired restaurant Café Passe to learn to make a cocktail with Spanish wine Cava.

For more on Tucson bartenders, check out Adam Borowitz's feature story this week on the formation of a bartender's guild.

I’ve gotten several interesting e-mails in the last week implying that Tucson is inching ever closer to having a food truck festival of its very own.

The first speaks of a couple that owns property near downtown. They want to develop it to facilitate food trucks, and from the sounds of things they mean business. They’ve already approached a number of official city folks about making it happen, and say the property is zoned properly and that they’ve already started prepping the site.

The second was from a local shopping center that is planning a food truck festival for sometime in February. They haven't put out the official announcement yet — they’re still hammering out details and are looking into making it a fundraiser — but more information should be available soon.

There’s also word that several new food trucks are in the works, including a kabob truck.

Tucson may not be super-food-truck-savvy like some cities, but we’re getting there. We'll let you know the moment one of these plans becomes a reality.

Jane Marie from super-awesome blog The Hairpin goes Halloween-themed for the latest installment of her video series How to Be a Girl, which looks helpful, although I'm admittedly not the target audience.

From Reddit:

I don't know if I should believe that story or not. It seems too weird to not be real, you know?

Over the weekend, Sen. John McCain criticized the Obama administration's announcement that troops were coming home from Iraq by year's end:

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the full withdrawal "a serious mistake" that he fears could increase Iranian influence in Iraq.

"I'm here in the region. And, yes, it is viewed in the region as a victory for the Iranians," McCain told Amanpour from Amman, Jordan. "And I'm very, very concerned about increased Iranian influence in Iraq."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and some others have suggested that the sticking point was over a clause giving U.S. troops immunity from Iraqi prosecution for alleged crimes. This is a standard feature of such treaties, including of the earlier arrangement with Iraq. It’s true that the Iraqis refused to grant the immunity. But there was no leeway to negotiate an exemption, because the main sticking point was, and is, that the Iraqis simply do not want American troops in their country anymore. One U.S. official in Iraq said in a phone interview, “Even our erstwhile friends [among Iraqi politicians] want us out by the end of the year. None of them lifted a finger to keep us.”

Do Obama’s Republican critics, who have made such a big deal of Iraq’s bourgeoning democracy, really think Obama should (or could) have disregarded the democratically elected parliament of a sovereign nation—a sovereign ally, at that—in order to keep U.S. troops on that nation’s soil, allegedly for its own interest (as defined by us, not by them)? We would then become nothing but an occupying power, sure to trigger an escalation of armed resistance and appear hypocritical in the extreme.

I keep having the strangest experiences at Downtown Kitchen + Cocktails. The last time I was there the only seat at the bar was next to the mean woman who lives next door to me. Just weeks earlier she'd almost run me over while I was jogging, and there we were, sitting next to each other enjoying fine cocktails and snacking on peanuts and cheese and such, and not making eye contact.

If you go to Downtown tomorrow, Wednesday, Oct. 26, you'll notice Alex Miranda from The Morning Blend behind the bar. All the tips he makes will benefit Wingspan. Miranda will be there from 4 to 6 p.m. You know what to do.

Jonathan Rothschild's new ad is out, and while I appreciate that it doesn't scare my kids like the ones Tyler Vogt and Jennifer Rawson are running, it's super boring. People I've never met think Jonathan's a swell guy who works hard? He runs a business? Super news! I am now confident this guy will lead us to prosperity! Wait, not really. However, I don't even think Rick Grinnell has ads, although he does have a poorly lit video on YouTube taken in front of El Charro's bathrooms
and something about empty buildings, so I guess Rothschild is winning on that front. Then again, it's not like Grinnell apparently wanted to run until the other Republicans candidates couldn't get on the ballot, so it's not like he's super motivated for the gig.

[Jim Nintzel informed me that Grinnell does have an ad, it just doesn't appear to be on YouTube or aired during TV shows I watch. You can watch it on his website. My bad.]

However, then you see this absolutely incredible ad for San Francisco's interim mayor, Ed Lee:

Yeah, that's an ad. I want to move to San Francisco just to vote for Ed Lee. I'd vote for a different Ed Lee if someone with that name were on ballot here. While I don't expect the Pima County Democrats to cough up the money for a will.i.am cameo, could you people meet me halfway here? Something at least somewhat interesting? Rothschild jamming with Neon Prophet? An appearance by Daniel from El Guero Canelo? Unprovoked mean-spirited verbal attacks on Portland? Maybe some inspirational group singing? Anything?

[HT: Mother Jones]

The Arizona Republic recently reported that the education lobby is starting to get worried about what happens when the state's temporary one-cent sales tax goes away in 2013:

However, the tax expires after May 31, 2013, creating what budget officials call the funding "cliff." Two-thirds of the tax money is directed to education; the other third is split between health care and public safety.

Education advocates began meeting this summer to discuss how to sustain education funding when the tax expires.

"I think there's a great deal of concern about this funding cliff and what it will do to the schools," said Susan Carlson, executive director of the Arizona Business and Education Coalition.

Her group is moderating the talks, which include the Arizona Education Association, the state's largest teachers union; the Arizona Education Network, a parent-advocacy group that started in Tucson; the Teach for America program; charter schools; and Stand for Children, which pushes for K-12 achievement levels that would allow all children to enroll in college.

They may have an ally in conservative Arizona Republic editorial writer Robert Robb:

The question is what kind of a state government do we want from here?

The preliminary answer from Gov. Jan Brewer and Republican lawmakers is to stick with the current shrunken state government for the foreseeable future. That probably isn’t feasible. Moreover, it is highly doubtful that is the state government the people of Arizona want.

From time to time a story comes along about someone actually taking it to the casinos, winning loads of money against all odds, smiling in the face of a stacked deck.

This week, there could be two. Depending on the results of a couple of baseball games.

* If you’re a fan of longshots, you’ve got to root for the St. Louis Cardinals to come back and win the World Series. It’ll net one devoted schlub a quarter-million dollars.

The fan, who wasn’t identified in the story I read, decided back in mid-September — when it seemed like the Cardinals had no shot of even making the playoffs, let alone going all the way — to put down $250 apiece on bets that St. Louis would win the National League Championship and then the World Series.

At the time Las Vegas’ MGM Grand listed the odds of those occurrences at 500- and 999-to-1.

Well since St. Louis is in the World Series, that means the fan already cleared $125,000 from that bet, and can pocket another $250K if the Cardinals can win games six and seven against the Texas Rangers.

* As if those odds weren’t unfathomable, even more amazing was the news that someone actually hit the $1 million 6-Card Bonus that Caesar’s Entertainment has attached to the carnival table game Three-Card Poker.

Yes, I know: a six-card bonus in a three-card game? Trust me, it can happen.

But to get this, you have to get a royal flush from ace down to nine, and have it be in diamonds. Which, apparently, someone got on Sunday at Harrah’s in Atlantic City, NJ.