Zona Politics Eps.20 from Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel on Vimeo.

We're excited to announce a brand-new look for Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel this week! We've got a fresh new set that our team at Brink have been putting together with the help of designer Kevin Crete and, while we're biased, we think it looks great. Giant thanks to all the folks whose support have gotten us to this point.

This week, we're previewing the Tucson Festival of Books, which happens next Saturday and Sunday, March 14-15. It's one of my favorite weekends in Tucson and a spectacular opportunity to see authors, scientists, journalists and whole bunch more. Our interviews on this week's show include Brenda Viner, who is one of the co-founders of the festival; Tucson Weekly's Margaret Regan, whose new book Detained and Deported examines what happens when undocumented immigrants end up in custody; and novelist Elizabeth Evans, whose As Good As Dead has just arrived in bookstores.

An important programming note: Zona Politics will be airing at 9 a.m. instead of 9:30 a.m. this week and next week on KGUN-9.

Known as the president who repealed Prohibition, Franklin D. Roosevelt fancied himself the mixologist-in-chief, Abrams says, but many of his colleagues disagreed.

"A lot of his friends and colleagues said that he was an awful bartender," Abrams told NPR's David Greene on Morning Edition. "I think that he really had a fondness for the mixology culture that was born in the Prohibition years."

Abrams says Plymouth martinis were FDR's specialty: He'd toss in interesting ingredients, such as a combined garnish of olives and lemon peels. Sometimes he added a few drops of absinthe. Guests often complained he used too much vermouth.

"There was a Supreme Court justice [Samuel Rosenman] who poured his cocktails in a potted plant almost every time," Abrams says.

FDR's "deplorable invention," according to his son James Roosevelt, was the Haitian Libation, which consisted of orange juice, dark rum, an egg white and a dash of brown sugar on the rocks. Yuck.

I suppose this one of those Gen X/Gen Y things, but the Choose Your Own Adventure series, generally purchased via the Scholastic Book Club, were a big part of my reading youth as I kept a finger on the last choice, turning to page 77 to see if I managed to avoid the clutches of the Abominable Snowman.

The original author and publisher of the series, R.A. Montgomery died in Vermont on Nov. 9 at the age of 78.

The story of the series, from Wikipedia:

According to Packard, the core idea for the series emerged from bedtime stories that he told to his daughters every night, revolving around a character named Pete and his adventures. Packard stated, "I had a character named Pete and I usually had him encountering all these different adventures on an isolated island. But that night I was running out of things for Pete to do, so I just asked what they would do." His two daughters came up with different paths for the story to take and Packard thought up an ending for each of the paths. "What really struck me was the natural enthusiasm they had for the idea. And I thought: 'Could I write this down?'"

Packard soon developed this basic premise into a manuscript titled The Adventures of You on Sugar Cane Island. He set out in 1970 in order to find a publisher, but was rejected by nine different publishing companies, causing him to shelve the idea. In 1975, he was able to convince Ray Montgomery, co-owner of Vermont Crossroads Press, to publish the book and it sold 8,000 copies, a large amount for a small local publishing house. The series was later marketed to Pocket Books, where it also sold well, but Montgomery believed that it would sell better if a bigger publisher could be found for the books. After some discussion, Montgomery was able to make a contract for the series with Bantam Books. Packard and Montgomery were both selected to write books for the series, including the contracting out of titles to additional authors.

Poetically, the font on Montgomery obit on the CYOA site should be very familiar to fans of the series.

Here are Antigone Books best-sellers for the week ending Sept. 5:





1. Mood Indigo

Boris Vian ($14)



2. Spider Woman's Daughter: A Leaphorn & Chee Novel

Anne Hillerman ($9.99)



3. Ninja Red Riding Hood

Corey Rosen Schwartz ($16.99)



4. The Mindfulness Revolution: Leading Psychologists, Scientists, Artists, and Meditation Teachers on the Power of Mindfulness in Daily Life

Barry Boyce, ed. ($16.95)



5. The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Neil Gaiman ($14.99)



6. Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

Natalie Goldberg ($14.95)



7. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Ransom Riggs ($10.99)



8. The Lowland

Jhumpa Lahiri ($15.95)



9. Murder on Bamboo Lane

Naomi Hirahara ($7.99)



10. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

Haruki Murakami ($25.95)

USA Today reports the actor will voice the character next year in an episode of Disney XD’s animated “Ultimate Spider-Man,” which in its upcoming third season carries the subtitle “Web Warriors.” In the “Spider-Verse” story arc, a dimension-hopping Peter Parker (voiced by Drake Bell) tries to prevent the Green Goblin from collecting the DNA of Spider-Men from parallel universes, including Iron Spider, Spider-Man 2099, the Amazing Spider-Girl and Miles Morales.

• Image courtesy of shutterstock.com

If you're one of the first 1,200 attendees through the door, you'll get free books for kids in Spanish and free backpacks.

It's the sixth annual Bilingual Literacy Fair, Saturday, 10 a.m. to noon at the El Pueblo Neighborhood Center, 101 West Irvington Road.

Story time readings will be held in both English and Spanish. Art projects, face painting, free snacks and other educational activities will be available as well.