Anyone who has ever enjoyed the food at Frankie’s South Philly Cheesesteaks knows that TastyKakes are all part of the experience. But apparently there are some issues with the company and owner Frankie Santos can no longer get TastyKakes delivered to his shop of North Campbell Avenue. There are faux TastyKakes out there, but people who know want the real thing.

Inside Tucson Business (a sister paper of Tucson Weekly) columnist Matt Russell has the info:

Recent developments at the TastyKakes parent company, involving complex mergers, debt payoffs and exclusive distribution rights, have resulted in Santos’ inability to sell them at his restaurant. The plot has all the makings of a Martin Scorsese thriller, with the requisite drama and mystery, and Santos — who I imagine would be played by Joe Pesci in the film adaptation — is loaded for bear.

In short, a corporate merger has dramatically changed the distribution mechanism through which Santos has historically obtained the product. As a result, TastyKakes are no longer being shipped to Southern Arizona. What is now available is what Santos calls a “TastyKake knock-off,” a competing product that looks similar to the original, but a poseur nonetheless. “It ain’t a real TastyKake, and I ain’t selling it!”

Last week on Facebook, Frankie asked his fans to write to TastyKakes and I’m passing on the info and ask that you help the cause.

Tell them you want the real thing back at Frankie’s!

If you love baseball, I mean really love baseball, then you love Roberto Clemente. And if you love Clemente, then you will think of this video as I do — an absolute gift.

Enjoy:

And my favorite Clemente quote:

"I felt kind of bashful (when the fans went crazy). I'm a very quiet, shy person, although you writers might not believe because I shout sometimes."

• Noelle Haro-Gomez
• Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend, who last played Tucson on a bill with Hot Chip in 2008, announced new show dates this morning, including a stop on Tuesday, October 1 at the Rialto. Tickets go on sale June 28 and cost $32.50 for general admission or $40 for reserved seats in the balcony. Tickets will be available at the Rialto box office or online to http://www.rialtotheatre.com/events.php

An open letter was published in Friday's Washington Post to Exodus International's Alan Chambers from the Rev. Jay A. Wiesner, cofounder of The Naming Project. It's a beautiful letter that gets to the point: "I wonder how you plan on making amends."

Dear Alan:

We have never met, but we were on the same Our America With Lisa Ling episode called “Pray the Gay Away?”. You spoke about the ability to change your sexual orientation. I spoke about my own experience (and the experience of many others) that it seems to be impossible to change your sexual orientation and that God loves all people no matter whether they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, asexual, or heterosexual. I have thought about you and prayed for you ever since I saw the episode.

I have just read your letter of apology and the news of the “shutting down” of Exodus International. First of all, I want to thank you for your apology. Admitting that you have done wrong is always difficult. Admitting you have done wrong publicly is much more daunting than simply admitting it privately. Your organization has caused a great deal of turmoil, heartache and pain for the past three decades. I do not envy you the task that you have taken on.
I have already read comments from a number of people who don’t trust your apology and who have been so hurt by Exodus in the past that your words seem incredibly hollow. I hope and pray that is not the case. After your eloquent apology to the damage that Exodus International has done, I wonder how you plan on making amends? I have a couple of ideas.

I have just looked at the Exodus International Web site and I wonder what it would look like if in your list of resources you might include organizations like “The Trevor Project”, “Trinity Place Shelter”, and the program I co-founded ten years ago, “The Naming Project”, just to name a few. These organizations work hard at healing just a fraction of the damage that has been done to LGBT youth; damage that quite tragically has been done much of the time in the name of Jesus Christ. You could also offer a link to the Gay Christian Network, an online organization that gives LGBT Christians a place to listen and share their joys, struggles, and lives.

Clif Taylor's keening guitar solos stood in for the ubiquitous '70s saxophone parts as David Slutes crooned the era's hits and the waxing moon out-romanced any lava-lamp-lit waterbed for the second Yacht Rock party at La Cocina. As the Platinum Foxes played, hilariously vamped and occasionally dogpaddled through under-rehearsed material and requests, some partiers, including co-organizer Kenny Stewart, joined the performance by bringing their period-sleaze costumes and funky dance moves to the front of the stage. It was a vision of '70s porn stars, but the clothes, by and large, stayed on.

• Noelle Haro-Gomez
• Party co-organizers Kenny Stewart and Kitty Kat McKinley are photo-bombed by lovely yachtresses.

• Marylee, The Potted Desert Gardener
• Potted Cactus with Recycled Glass

Full Sun Cactus Pot Tips:

1. Be sure the base of the plant is not buried in soil or rock. If need be, remove some soil away from the base so the top roots are exposed.

2. Add some landscape rock to the top of the soil and snug it around the plant stem(s).

3. Deep water the cactus every two weeks.

4. Use the shower setting on your hose nozzle or a watering can with a shower nozzle.

5. Water the entire area of the soil. It is fine to get the leaves and flowers wet.

6. An average of 30 seconds of the shower setting is usually enough water for a 20”-24” pot. Larger pots need a proportionate increase amount of time.

7. Water should drain out from the bottom drainage holes.

8. At the same time, use the jet setting on your hose nozzle to blast water onto all plant surfaces. This is a great way to prevent and treat pest and disease. Be sure you are doing this in the morning so the plant has plenty of time to dry during the day.

9. Use a water soluble fertilizer monthly to help replenish nutrients during its active growing season.

Sign up for the Potted Desert News by visiting www.potteddesert.com Receive monthly potted garden information as well as SW Arizona freeze alerts, heat and wind advisories.

Tucson Weekly photographer C. Elliott takes us there.

• C. Elliott
• Iris Dement

Tucson Unified School Board member Mark Stegeman, who was the lone no vote when the governing board voted 4-1 to hire Ector County Independent School District's interim superintendent H.T. Sanchez. And of course with that kind of decision making, Stegeman issues a letter to his constituents, which you can read below the cut:

Tune into AZ Illustrated Politics tonight, as Arizona Capitol Times reporter Hank Stephenson and I talk about the legislative session with state Reps. Ethan Orr and Bruce Wheeler. Should be a good conversation about the highlights of the session, including the Medicaid expansion, the overhaul of election law, key budget takeaways and more.

A witness in the wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the family of Michael Jackson has some curious credentials, according to CNN:

Czeisler — who serves as a sleep consultant to NASA, the CIA and the Rolling Stones — testified Thursday that the "drug-induced coma" induced by propofol leaves a patient with the same refreshed feeling of a good sleep but without the benefits that genuine sleep delivers in repairing brain cells and the body.

The CNN report suggests MJ really needed to get some shut-eye:

Michael Jackson died while preparing to set a world record for the most successful concert run, but he unknowingly set another record that led to his death.

Jackson may be the only human ever to go two months without REM — rapid eye movement — sleep, which is vital to keep the brain and body alive. The 60 nights of propofol infusions Dr. Conrad Murray said he gave Jackson to treat his insomnia is something a sleep expert says no one had ever undergone.

"The symptoms that Mr. Jackson was exhibiting were consistent with what someone might expect to see of someone suffering from total sleep deprivation over a chronic period," Dr. Charles Czeisler, a Harvard Medical School sleep expert, testified Friday at the wrongful-death trial of concert promoter AEG LIve.

The symptoms documented by e-mails among show producers and testimony from his chef, hairstylist and choreographers included his inability to do standard dances or remember words to songs he sang for decades, paranoia, talking to himself and hearing voices, and severe weight loss, Czeisler said.

"I believe that that constellation of symptoms was more probably than not induced by total sleep deprivation over a chronic period," he testified.