In case you hadn't noticed, our fair governor Jan Brewer stepped out this weekend, informing Secretary of State Ken Bennett that she was going to be out of the state for the week, making him acting Governor as per the state constitution.

However, Brewer hesitated to explain exactly where she had gone off to—and her staff wasn't much help. According to an Associated Press report yesterday, Brewer's spokesman Matthew Benson said that she was out of the state on official business, and that was "all I can disclose at this time," which is exactly the kind of thing you want to tell the media when a state's top executive skips town.

Well, it turns out that Brewer has made an appearance, visiting an Arizona soldier who is recovering from injury in a Washington, D.C. area hospital.

According to the AP, Brewer paid a visit to Army combat medic Mason Steill at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Apparently, Steill is the grandson of a Maricopa County employee, and was reportedly "thrilled" by the visit, said his grandmother.

No word on where the Gov. is off to next (though any guesses that she's on her way to the White House are to be treated as "ridiculous"), but we'll be paying attention. After all, it's nice knowing where the head of our state is from time to time, right?

just got out of a great meeting with my wonderful staff of writers and art directors. so far I love my new job as EIC of #RollingStones !!!
— timheidecker (@timheidecker) December 3, 2012

Tim Heidecker, of Adult Swim's Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! fame as well as the new film The Comedy (opening at the Loft this Friday), is clearly a talented, albeit strange, guy. He's also scheduled to perform at Club Congress on Saturday night with Neil Hamburger. However, if his online presence is to be believed, he might be too busy to get to Tucson, considering he's telling the world that he took over as editor-in-chief of Rolling Stone today.

Among the changes, Heidecker is considering in his seemingly imaginary new role, according to his Tumblr page:

- I’d like to slightly revise our rating system for music - I believe we should add a star so there is the potential for a six star review (perhaps only as a nod the the “six string” guitar)

- would like to introduce cartoons in the style of the New Yorker but with rock themes.

- return focus to the bands and artists that helped build Rolling Stone into the Icon that it is, with celebratory stories, covers and features on Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt, Eagles, Rolling Sones, The Beatles, Zeppelin, etc…

The delusion/elaborate prank continues on Twitter and possibly on stage Saturday. Who knows?

If you'd like a preview of Heidecker's comedy stylings, here's the first episode of new series "On Cinema, At the Cinema," with co-host Gregg Turkington (who is definitely not the same person as Neil Hamburger). Note: if you're a Michael Keaton fan, this will be of particular interest:

• This probably isn't actually Dennis DeConcini.

The campaign to pressure former U.S. Senator Dennis DeConcini to resign from the board of directors of Corrections Corporations of America looks like it's heating up again. We first wrote about the campaign in March when local immigrant rights groups were challenging the lawyer-politician to get rid of his ties to the private prison industry.

Yesterday, a few hundred folks out there in Facebook land woke up to a special treat — an invitation to become FB besties with the CCA board member. Turns out the page is a great resource for folks interested in learning more about Arizona and our state government's love affair with the private prison industry folks. And wow, looky there, the senator has something to say about his own love affair with the industry:

Dennis DeConcini
12 hours ago.
Just another long, hard day in the life of a wealthy ex-Senator. Juggling my law firm, real estate company, lobbying firm and position on the Board of Directors of the nation's largest prison company sure is tough. But at the end of the day, if I can look back and know my wallet's a little thicker than the day before, it's all worth it.

I say you better friend the guy, before he gets all shy and this page goes down.

Apparently, a Las Vegas Denny's has decided that there's just a bit too much class and grandeur involved in quickie Vegas weddings, electing to create a place where people can get hitched with a minimal amount of fuss—and, potentially, eat a Grand Slam mid-ceremony.

According to Reuters, this particular Denny's is said to be among the ten largest Denny's restaurants in the world, one of the few Denny's to offer a full bar and will offer a sandwich consisting of bacon, peanut butter and bananas between two pieces of french toast, called "the King Stack," in honor of Elvis—and which I'm challenging Lindy's on Fourth to improve upon right now.

But the main event for the 24-hour diner on Fremont Street is the wedding chapel, set to start hosting a number of hastily-conceived bad ideas weddings early next year—including a celebrity wedding whose participants have yet to be announced.

While the building's architect, James Wines, hopes for a Kim Kardashian wedding ("because then you could have repeat performances," he said), I'm personally rooting for Justin Bieber to marry whoever the hell he happens to be dating at the time—hell, maybe there can be surprise Bieber-Kardashian nuptials and everyone can be happy.

I'm sure you're saying to yourself, is it time for the Adult Video News nominations already? It sure is, as the 147 categories full of surely excited nominees were revealed yesterday, from Best Lubricant Manufacturer to Best Big Butt Release.

While I haven't seen any of the films nominated in the video categories to remark on their relative quality, here are a few of the titles that seemed interesting on some level and that I was willing to bring myself to cut and paste in this blog post:

Subtle Fragrance of Her Private Parts
Nacho Vidal: The Sexual Messiah 2
His Booty Is My Duty 2
El Gordo y La Flaca XXX
This Ain't Avatar 2 XXX 3D: Escape From Pandwhora
Inglorious Bitches
Brazzers Worldwide: Budapest 2
Put Your Feet on My Meat 5
Oil Overload 7
Ghostlusters
Booty Clappin’ Superfreaks
Deep Tushy Massage 3
This Ain't The Expendables XXX 3D

The winners will be announced at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on January 19. Tickets in the rear balcony (still, by my understanding, close enough to smell the despair) are available for $224 (plus applicable fees).

So, we had the hint of this a while ago here and I do love me some garlic!

Wild Garlic Grill is slated to open on Dec. 7, located at 2530 N. First Ave. Chef Steven Schultz's concept seems to be one of “California Wine Country Cuisine,” with an open kitchen, patio seating and, well, garlic. Hours of operation are said to be 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. with later hours Friday and Saturday. I can't wait to see a menu.

Yes, "Just Say No to Latent Homosexual Crusades" is the actual title of the ebook that was waiting for me in my inbox this morning.

Written by David Huttner, the official written-by text reads "by David Huttner, pp George" — apparently, the author has written this book on behalf of a fellow (one can assume) by the name of George. Which is where things get interesting.

An English teacher in China and author of a number of ebooks on the social sciences, Huttner confesses that, despite "representing [himself] as the world's greatest social scientist," he's nothing more than a fraud. Apparently, the information he's written on was not researched and discovered by him, but given to him...by this George.

George, according to the first chapter of the ebook, is the name of a voice (apparently that of an extra-terrestrial) that appeared in Huttner's head one fall evening as a child, and has been with him ever since, helping him in basketball, on the multistate bar exam ("so that the secret police and the New York State bar examiners they controlled could not fail me by giving me zeroes on the essay part," Huttner writes,) and in life in general, as Huttner explains that he learned to "go where and write as [George's] spirit moved me."

So, to recap: In the first chapter of his treatise on the nature of government, human sexuality and political parties, he basically says that he's heard a voice in his head since he was a child that has told him to not tell anyone because they'd think him crazy.

It appears that George was on the money there.

The ebook continues on from there, with chpters on the lessons George taught Huttner, before going into suppositions that latent fraternal homosexuality is why government gets nothing done in this country, that the Western world will fall if they do not do more to compete with China (which makes sense) by ending all aggression (sure, I guess) and launching "equal opportunity and population control programs" (what?) over the next thirty years.

There's more, but I gave up after a while. Call me unenlightened or closed minded, but this book just seems kinda out there. Maybe it's something about the voice that hangs out in the author's head that throws me off. Can't say for sure though.

If you're interested in picking up the work of David Huttner (and George) you can find it here. Good luck.

You may be too old to write letters to Santa and it's far too early to have started the Christmas letters. So put your penmanship to good use to thank a soldier or veteran from around these parts.

US Rep. Ron Barber's offices in Tucson and Sierra Vista will be collecting holiday cards for troops deployed overseas from or at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and Fort Huachuca. Some well-wishes could make their way to the Southern Arizona VA Medical center, according to a release sent out by Barber's office.

“I ask Southern Arizonans to join me in sending a holiday message to each of these men and women to let them know that our thoughts and good wishes are with them," said Barber in a press release.

They office asks that each card, no envelope needed, includes a few words of gratitude. If you want to include an envelope, make sure it's blank and unsealed. The deadline for dropping off cards at either location is Friday, Dec. 14 at 5 p.m.

Barber's Tucson office is at 3945 E. Fort Lowell Road, Suite 211 at the northeast corner of East Fort Lowell Road and North Alvernon Way.

In Sierra Vista, drop your notes at 77 Calle Portal, Suite B-160.

Grab your favorite pen and festive stationary— you can even make it a family activity! If you're writing as part of a school group, leave a return address and a teacher's name in case the recipient wants to respond.

Poor guy. He rides a motorcycle for his publication's YouTube page, snags a hard-case saddlebag on a pylon (forcing him and the bike to take a spill into a sailboat) then has to live through the indignity of having the the video posted on YouTube, for all the world to see.

On the bright side, at least the bike didn't go into the water!

The Range still considers it too early to start talking about 2016, but we're going to break our embargo to note this nugget in a HuffPo story today:

Brewer has also been included in a list of Republicans who may be positioning themselves for a presidential run in 2016. Politico reported on Monday that she had met with billionaire casino mogul and powerful GOP donor Sheldon Adelson during a recent trip to Las Vegas.

C'mon, seriously? All due respect: As the GOP looks around for a more viable national candidate, we don't imagine that Jan Brewer fits the bill any more than the Project White House candidates do. What are these people thinking? That she'll somehow help win over the Latino vote?

BTW, the HuffPo article in question notes that Brewer didn't exactly draw a crowd to her keynote address at the Western Regional Governors Association winter meeting:

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) played something of a host this weekend as her colleagues convened for the Western Governors Association's annual winter meeting in Paradise Valley, Ariz. When it came time for her to deliver her keynote address, however, most of her fellow governors were nowhere to be found.

As 3TV News reports, only two of the 19 governors gathered at the conference were in attendance as Brewer spoke on Saturday night. The two governors present, Colorado's John Hickenlooper (D) and Utah's Gary Herbert (R), serve as vice chairman and chairman of the Western Governors Association.