For those unfortunate souls (like me) who have not yet received their Esquire subscriptions this month, we've missed out on quite a bit already — for one, Chris Jones's spectacular piece on Teller, of magic duo Penn & Teller and his quest to protect his greatest trick; for another, a cover feature on lauded actor/chair whisperer Clint Eastwood.

But to sate your appetite for the best in political columns (Men's Glossy Fashion Magazine category), I present Charles P. Pierce's lamentation on Mitt Romney's distancing from legislation that he practically championed years ago.

From "Life Under Romneycare":

He was not always unemployed. Once, for four years, he worked in this office, and that's why his picture is hanging where it is. In his portrait, he is handsome and chiseled and impeccable in all things. His hair is perfect. He is sitting on the corner of his desk, one foot on the floor, at once casual and in command. On the desk is a small framed portrait of his wife. Right next to it there is a blue binder, and his hand is resting near it, as though, through the artist, the unemployed man in the picture wanted your attention drawn to it because it is the most important thing in the picture besides the man himself. On the cover of the blue binder is a caduceus, the acknowledged symbol of the medical arts. That is where his hand is, so you don't miss the point.

The unemployed man is running for president this year. He is extraordinarily wealthy, but for a moment, let's pretend he's not. His wife has multiple sclerosis. He has grandchildren who were conceived and born through the technique of in vitro fertilization. All of this, the treatments and therapies for his wife, the technology that was required to give him his grandchildren, is extraordinarily expensive. If he were not extraordinarily wealthy — if he were, say, someone like me — and if he lived in two of the three states in which he has claimed residence, or owns a home, he would have a great deal of trouble getting health insurance for his wife. In only one of those places would that task have been made easier. That place is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The reason for that is the blue binder that rests near his hand in the portrait that hangs on the wall. On April 12, 2006, in the sight of God and of Ted Kennedy, and of a guy from the conservative Heritage Foundation who'd been instrumental in guiding him to this moment on the stage in Faneuil Hall, Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts signed into law Chapter 58 of the Acts of 2006: an Act Providing Access to Affordable, Quality, Accountable Health Care. That was too hard for people to remember, so they fastened upon a nickname for it. They called it Romneycare.

For the rest, check out Esquire.

Filmmakers have been cleaning up the video of the Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory's landing on Mars last month. Slate explains:

In the weeks since we first saw the both dazzling and disappointing video of the Curiosity rover landing on Mars, space- and video-enthusiasts have spent hours upon hours trying to make it better. The original video featured a herky-jerky 4 frames-per-second frame rate that made it look as much like a slide show as history in motion. In August, Dominic Muller smoothed out the frame rate by adding in new frames in between the old ones, and the results were awe-inspiring.

For this breathtaking new version, filmmaker Bard Canning spent over a month not only boosting the video’s frame rate, but steadying the camera movement, cleaning up the image, and rendering it in 1080p. As Wired explained, “The result provides the best possible video accuracy while really enhancing the footage.” (You can also watch a before-and-after comparison.)

Since landing, Curiosity has been making sure everything is in working order and has been driving around Gale Crater. Find out the latest here.

It appears food truck MaFooCo, which closed down many months ago after a glorious run as one of Tucson's most adored mobile food operations, is back in action. From the truck's Facebook page:

We couldn't wait any longer Tucson, so here it is: MaFooCo is coming back very soon!

We will post the details in the next few days.

The truck specializes in a unique blend of Mexican and Asian fare - the name is short for Mexican-Asian Food Company - and if you haven't had its kimchi quesadillas or fried-rice burritos, you truly must.

In other fusion-food news, Umi Star opened over the weekend. Think slick design, inventive Asian fusion food and mind-blowing cocktails. It's located in the old Cartel Coffee Lab location at 2502 N. Campbell Ave. My prediction is that this place could be the most talked-about restaurant in the coming months, but only time will tell.

Here's a picture of the bathroom mirror in the men's room at Umi Star. Sort of random, I know, but it gives a glimpse at the place's casual and humorous vibe:

If you have any citrus trees in pots, it is time to fertilzie them with a citrus fertilizer (I like Arizona Best.)

HOWEVER, and this is a big however, if you have planted annual flowers underneath the tree in the pot, be careful. Fertilizing it now with granular fertilizer may burn the roots of the annuals. If this is the case, then use a water based fertlizer instead.

• The Contained Gardener
• Potted Citrus Tree

Use approximately 1/2 cup of fertilzier per pot, scratch it in and water deeply. This fertilizing will also happily cause some new blooms on Mexican Lime Trees and many kumquats!

It is important to fertilize now so that new growth is encouraged well before the danger of frost is here.

Have a question? Email Marylee.

Sign up for our Potted E-News today. Receive monthly potted garden information as well as Southwest Arizona freeze alerts, heat and wind advisories.

"Edge Of The Abyss," published in the Sydney Morning Herald's Saturday edition, is an illustration of the challenges involved in keeping a family together when one of its youngest members has an incurable, potentially life-threatening condition (though the life in danger is not necessarily her own).

An excerpt:

Before Janni was born, we were given baby toys by family and friends. Most of them are for six-, nine- or even 12-month-olds. I didn't expect to use them for months, but if I can get her focused on something, she stops screaming.

One toy has three shapes on it: a red square, a blue triangle and a yellow circle. When switched on, the toy asks, "Find the red square." I still remember sitting in our easy chair, half-asleep, holding my three-week-old daughter as she bats away at the toy. "Find the yellow circle ... Correct. Find the red square ... Correct." Through the fogginess of my exhaustion, I become aware that she's hitting the right shapes and colours. I look down, thinking it must just be coincidence.

"Janni, where's the yellow circle?" I ask, watching her arm stretch out, fist closed, as if struggling to make her body do what she wants it to do.

"Correct," the toy announces.

No. It can't be. She's not even a month old. "Janni, press the blue triangle."

"Correct," the toy announces.

Oh my God.

Read more after the jump.

A contentious episode of Arizona Illustrated's Political Roundtable, as Pima County Democratic Party chairman Jeff Rogers, Republican National Committeeman Bruce Ash and Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik unpack the U.S. Senate race between Jeff Flake and Richard Carmona, the congressional race between Jonathan Paton and Ann Kirkpatrick, a new ban on steroid shots for racing greyhounds, the city transportation department scandals, student housing in downtown and more. Watch it after the jump.

Casa Video's documentary section is almost endless. Last time I was there, I spent close to an hour reading the synopses on the back of a ridiculous amount of DVD's. Time flies when there are too many damn good options.

I ended up choosing 8: The Mormon Proposition. In spirit of the upcoming presidential elections, and considering Mitt Romney has not shown any support to the LGBT community, I thought this documentary would enlighten me as to why.

In short: the documentary brings to light documents, recordings and interviews dealing with the Mormon Church and its involvement with funding Prop 8 and blocking anything that would benefit the LGBT community. I mean, these people went out of their way — as far as spending mega millions — to stomp and spit on even a thought of equality for the LGBT community.

The Mormon Church is not alone in this fight, of course. But it was very interesting to learn about them specifically. Also, what about polygamy?

Watch the trailer. And, here's a critic's response to the doc. Make a trip to Casa, grab a bag of their free popcorn and rent a copy.

There's a banner hanging outside of the new U-Like Buffet at 5101 N. Oracle Road that says the place is open. Not much else to report on this one, but I wanted to squeeze in this little food tidbit before everybody packed it in for the weekend.

U-Like Buffet has another location on Wilmot Road. More on that over here.

As you may have heard, there's been widespread rioting and protests in northern Africa and the middle east as a result of "Innocence of Muslims," an inflammatory movie that mocks and insults the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

This is a somewhat-regularly updated map of a number of protests that have occurred around the world, which includes links to news stories for each protest.

View Muslim Protests in a larger map

Goes to show you what kind of effect a poorly-made, poorly-acted movie can have in today's interconnected world.

[h/t: Sam Inglot of Lansing City Pulse]

Every time I hear somebody busting on food stamp recipients I have to bite my lip. My family spent a good amount of time relying on aid like food stamps and other programs to survive when I was younger, and that was despite plenty of hard work by my parents.

The worst of the criticism comes in the form of "those welfare and food stamp people are living it up while we working middle or upper-middle people slave away at dependable and relatively lucrative jobs." People say the same sort of things about the homeless - that they choose to live on the street, that they make more panhandling than one can imagine - and I've done a bit of time living on the streets and, much later, working to help feed the homeless, and can say with full conviction that such lines of thinking are complete and utter nonsense.

All I have to say is: Give it a whirl. Live off food stamps. Be poor for a bit. It can be rather eye-opening.

And, as luck would have it, such an opportunity is coming up later this month in the form of the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona's SNAP Challenge. It offers a chance to see what it's like to live off what a food-stamp recipient gets each month.

There's more on the week-long event over here.