From Saturday, April 21, through Sunday, April 29, all 397 of our national parks offer free admission. Here are national park sites in our area:

Saguaro National Park: website
Tumacácori National Historic Park: website
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument: website
Casa Grande Ruins National Monument: website
Coronado National Memorial: website
Chiricahua National Monument: website
Fort Bowie National Historic Site: website

Visit National Park Service or Arizona State Parks for more information. Support the parks!

It's looking a little bit like summer in the Old Pueblo. The a/c and swamp coolers are on, and temps are approaching three-digits. To cool off, Loews Ventana Canyon (7000 N. Resort Drive) is opening its pool to us locals every third Sunday of the month through September.

The fun starts on Sunday, April 22, from 2 to 6 p.m. The "Crash the Pool" event offers drink specials, promotions and live music. To crash the pool, there's a $25 food and beverage minimum. After this weekend, the next Crash the Pool takes place on May 20.

• Katharine Goeldner and Rebecca Sjowall

In its 41-year history, Christoph Willibald Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice has not been presented by Arizona Opera—until now. Orfeo ed Euridice is an Italian opera "based on the classic myth of a Greek hero's descent into the underworld to rescue his true love." Mezzo-soprano Katharine Goeldner performs the role of Orfeo and soprano Christine Brandes performs as Euridice. Performances are at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, April 21, and 2 p.m., Sunday, April 22, at Tucson Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave.

Arizona Opera is also offering a 40 percent discount on tickets:

To receive this special discount, ticket-buyers are asked to enter promotion code FORTY when placing their order online via Ticketmaster (here) or via telephone at 800-982-ARTS (2787).

(Please note that discount may not be applied to previously purchased tickets and cannot be used with any other discount or promotion. Offer subject to availability. No refunds or exchanges will be allowed for this promotion.)

This is a huge savings for Tucson buyers: That's $68 for a chance at the best seat in the house, or $12 for a seat in the balcony.

For more information about the opera, visit http://azopera.blogspot.com/.

Doug James/Shutterstock.com

So, we can all generally agree that Ted Nugent said some stupid things earlier this week. We can probably also agree that we'd prefer Uncle Ted not actually be our uncle, considering his complicated past and tendency to say generally dumb and often violent things.

However, trying to get him kicked off the bill of the Pima County Fair this week, like former state representative Phil Lopes is doing is a colossal waste of time.

If you don't like that he's performing, don't go. It's really that simple. Who is going to get hurt in the transaction? Not Nugent, who will just move on the next paycheck and will not likely see the light regarding his ridiculous rhetoric. Instead, it'll screw over the Fair itself, since they will have to wade into some political fray that doesn't have all that much to do with the show itself. Let's not do what engage in the general lefty plan of action, jumping to smash down language we don't like. We give Nugent too much credit by wasting our time.

Go see Boyz II Men instead. Ride a few rides. Have a good time and give Nugent his proper place in American culture, as a generally forgettable sideshow with one notable song.

No big deal. It's just the trailer for Quill: The Life of a Guide Dog, the story of a yellow Lab that brings joy to the life of a cranky Japanese man. I'm not crying. It's just really dusty in my office.

On Easter, the Range ran a meditation from Tucson musician Ricky Gelb that received a great response — 198 Facebook "likes" thus far. Gelb shared with the Range that starting Sunday, April 29, he'll be doing two guided meditations a week at Three Jewels, 314 E. 6th St.

"Starting Sunday April 29, 8 am, I will be doing guided meditation for folks in recovery. The meditations will be based around the 11th Step - 'Improving our conscious contact with God (of your understanding or non-understanding) through prayer and meditation,'" Gelb told us.

"Starting May 1st 7:15 pm I will be doing candlelit guided meditation for the general public to help make the work week more enjoyable, based around relaxation, being in the moment and gratitude, to help folks get out of compulsive spun thinking and into authentic centered being."

Like what Gelb is doing? You can check in with him on Facebook at Meditain Love or on his website, Meditaining.com.

And here's some more of that Meditain Love a la Gelb:

We are the children of the children of the beginning

In the beginning, there were two entities that arose from nothingness and unknowing. Nothingness morphed into stillness and unknowing morphed into love. And they began to dance throughout eternity and their passion created energy. Which spawned matter that we call planets. This is the story of the Earth & The Sun. The Sun, a son of eternal passion, fell endlessly in love with The Earth, the daughter of love and the first mother we know. The Sun, still and dormant set itself on fire out of passion and in a fatherly style out of care and devotion for the Earth and her future. His love for the Earth is so strong, he will burn beyond knowing. The rays of the sun procreated life on The Earth and he was fulfilled, as he inherently knew what an amazing mother The Earth will be.

The Moon, who subdued all but it's eye, couldn't stop observing The Earth & The Sun. Their romantic power awoke the internal emotive passion of lunar love in The Moon. He gravitated to the magnetism between The Earth & The Sun and he found inner peace. He devoted himself from that day forward to act as a reflection of such love and beam it into the heart of all future life.

So in every human heart is a universe of love.
As we are the children of the children of the beginning whose dance is endless before and beyond matter.
As we are all inseparable from the greatest mystery known as God.

~ricky gelb

Frank Antenori has been a champion of drug testing recipients of public assistance, but it turns out in Florida, which doing this for awhile, it just doesn't work on any level whatsoever:

Required drug tests for people seeking welfare benefits ended up costing taxpayers more than it saved and failed to curb the number of prospective applicants, data used against the state in an ongoing legal battle shows....

Of the 4,086 applicants who scheduled drug tests while the law was enforced, 108 people, or 2.6 percent, failed, most often testing positive for marijuana. About 40 people scheduled tests but canceled them, according to the Department of Children and Families, which oversees Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, known as the TANF program.

The numbers, confirming previous estimates, show that taxpayers spent $118,140 to reimburse people for drug test costs, at an average of $35 per screening.

The state’s net loss? $45,780.

"That’s not counting attorneys and court fees and the thousands of hours of staff time it took to implement this policy," Newton said.

The law also didn’t impact the number of people who applied for benefits.

I've mentioned the Hollywood Squares update, Hip Hop Squares, previously and I'm certainly excited for any new game show content, even if it's not among my first five choices, but I do thank Wu-Tang member/rap genius Ghostface Killah for the sincerity that he is bringing to the project:

He did have one concern. “They should have some real nice music” for the theme song, he said. “Like when you hear ‘Pyramid’ ” — he sang the theme song for “$20,000 Pyramid.” “You know what I mean? Everybody knows ‘The Price is Right.’ ” He sang that one. “What is this one going to be? Something that’s” vehemently — he used a different word — “unique.”

Mead is wine made from fermenting a mix of honey, water and, depending on the type being made, fruit and spices. The answer to why local chef Jerry Morgan's award-winning mead is so delicious, however, requires a longer discussion.

I met Morgan - a chef at renowned eatery Janos - last year when we arranged a trade: A box of my homegrown veggies for a bottle of his prickly-pear mead. After one sip of said beverage I knew something special was going on, a hunch that was recently validated by Morgan taking top honors at the Arizona Mead Cup. You can check out the results here.

Morgan took home a gold for a mead he brewed with mesquite honey and hibiscus flowers. He says there were hundreds of entries in the contest and that he was quite honored to place so highly.

If you're finding yourself a little jealous that only a small circle of people - including Janos Wilder, who reportedly has a bottle of Morgan's mead in his personal wine cellar - and the judges of the Arizona Mead Cup have tasted this heavenly beverage, take heart. Morgan has filed the paperwork to start what he says will be Tucson's first mead-brewing company. He's currently seeking investors and a spot to make it all happen.

Morgan's Mead will be a far cry from the scant number of commercial mead choices currently available. Morgan says he'll use local honey, which varies from batch to batch and will pass on various nuances to each run of mead. He also used to work at Native Seeds/SEARCH and says he'll be using the knowledge he learned of local foods there to create his products.

"I want to do something unique, but I also want to do something that is tied to the Southwest," said Morgan. "I'll be using local honey, and each batch of honey differs depending on where the bees went and the water content."

Morgan says a big part of his job will also be educating the public that mead can range from sweet to dry, and that there's a whole galaxy of flavors that can be created.

Morgan wasn't sure when the business would get off the ground, but we'll let you know when it does.