I guess when you have AmeriKa's Sheriff in your backyard and you have a morning show like Good Morning Arizona in Phoenix, it's best to share recipes and make the stinker seem like not such a bad guy after all. Oy vey.

Dear Megan:

Maybe you can add this list to the bullying you feel you received after the piece you did on Washington State University and Pullman. But that's not my intention. In newspaper years, kinda like dog years, I'm an old lady, so look at this as a bit of advice, the kind of advice I give our interns and other young people trying to make their way into this business. I'd recommend a different path, but maybe we can talk about that over lunch sometime.

Like you, I got my start at the Arizona Daily Wildcat when I was attending the UA long, long ago. I loved my experience there, and know that that experience is a bit different for this new generation. I started off on the news desk, spent a summer doing layout and Police Beat and ended my time on the arts desk doing features and got my start as a theater critic. The Wildcat was my second home during my last two years of college and many of the people I worked with were like family.

Your story took me back to a time before the internet. I've been doing this for more than 20 years and only took five years off for a short stint in nonprofit work. I was in newspapers before desktop publishing. At the Wildcat, one of my last great editors always pissed people off with her editorials. One in particular was an experience the entire staff felt for several weeks. Back then, Lute Olson was being lured away by Kentucky and good ol' Lute said he'd stay if the UA gave him more money. Kind of like now, UA students were being stretched thin. Many of us were well-acquainted with Top Ramen, and my roommate and I shared an apartment in a Section 8 complex near Grant and Euclid. Great training for journalism life today.

The editor wrote that maybe the UA and Tucson had to face facts. Maybe we couldn't afford Lute Olson anymore and that he needed to move on. People freaked. The office had nonstop phone calls from angry Tucson residents. We had death threats and a few male staffers spent the night in the newsroom because some threatened to destroy our newsroom. We were worried. It was genuine. Our editor was calm, even as she was interviewed by AP, BBC, and local and other national news. Eventually everyone moved on and forgot about it, but I liked the fact that my editor stood up for what she wrote at the time, never flinched and never pointed fingers elsewhere. I mentioned it to her a couple of years ago when she was inducted into the Wildcat Hall of Fame, and she brushed it off.

Our story on the inner rumblings taking place within Tucson Pride, rumblings that have been going on long before the flight of 12 board members the past nine months, sparked even more calls from more people explaining why they had given up on Pride and even more who lamented they wouldn't be showing up this Saturday at the Kino Sports Complex soccer field off Ajo Way.

But one thing that was clear, folks did not want to see a Pride come and go this year without the traditional parade. That idea and the work put in to make it happen has unfortunately become another point of political contention in the mess that exists right now in our community — with parade posts being taken off the Tucson Pride Facebook page.

Here is what is happening, tomorrow, in conjunction with National Coming Out Day, Friday, Oct. 11, the Pride Parade starts at 6 p.m. in front of St. Augustine Cathedral, 192 S. Stone Ave. (staging begins at 5 p.m. in the parking lot east of the Cathedral behind the Scottish Rite Temple).

Because the parade is happening, Stuart Milk of the Harvey Milk Foundation, grand marshal for Tucson Pride, will lead the parade and honorary chair of the event is Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild. To participate and more information, call Bianca Lucrecia at 222-2669 or 551-8373:

There is no official entry fee to participate. Instead the Parade Committee is asking for donations to help pay for the estimated $1,500 expense for police personnel, permits, insurance, printed materials and other support items. Donations from the public will be accepted along the parade route. A representative from each entry must sign a release form in advance in order to participate. This will be done in the staging area at the Check-In station starting at 5 p.m.

So, dust off those lawn chairs.



The parade route goes from the cathedral and travels north on Stone, goes past Broadway, Congress and Pennington. At Alameda the parade will turn left, going west, and finish at the Church Street entrance to Tucson Meet Yourself. Here at the Church Street Stage, also known as the AIDS Ribbon Stage, Mayor Rothschild and other dignitaries will officially welcome Milk to Tucson and present him with a Proclamation making it "Harvey Milk Day" in the City of Tucson.

So, the parade goes on, and the organizers saved the day in many ways. Involving the mayor and making sure Milk gets the welcome he deserves — the kind we know Tucson is known for. But here's a question for you, are you still going to go to Pride? Because, guess what, I'm going to suggest you do.

There has been some chatter about a pathetic, racist club from North Carolina is recruiting here in Tucson.

Two applications to join the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan were sighted on the eastside, according to Tucson News Now. Of course you're never going to see what they look like because they are masked cowards. You'll never see them on your lunch break because they prefer to rally at night. I tried calling their KKK hotline (336) 432-0386, but I got a recording because they are too afraid to answer their own phones. The recording ends with "If it ain't white, it ain't right. White power."











I hope this is a sick joke because the majority of people around here don't tolerate this crap, but I can't speak for everyone. I'm not afraid to voice my opinion about this because I'm 100% positive that KKK members can't read. If you're responsible for this please go back to 1865 and wither away.

• shutterstock.com

Day of the Dead Dominoes caught my attention for many different reasons. I could care less if project manager Art Paredes is trying to use Day of the Dead for monetary reasons but his execution is all wrong.

I couldn't stomach the six minute video describing the history of Day of the Dead and how much fun it is to play with coffin shaped dominoes. No one in this day and age posses the attention span to watch someone talk about dominoes for longer than a Vine. The fact that Paredes has never backed a Kickstarter project before is also troubling. If you're not willing to support a project then why should anyone return the respect? I like to think of Kickstarter as community of people that are looking to help the little guy make his or her idea come to fruition.

The biggest and most obvious question: Why does Paredes need $249,850? Why don't you open a Day of the Dead Domino's Pizza while you're at it? Nowhere in the project description tells me how the funds are going to be used. These aren't the questions I should be asking when I back any kind of crowdfunding project. I believe in supporting new local entrepreneurs, but you shouldn't ask for an early retirement.

My family is Roman Catholic and (used to) attended mass at the Santa Rosa Mission off of Grant and i-10. The Priest never really talked about gay marriage or abortions, but he always preached against alcoholism and infidelity. It's not really safe, but drive around "OP" during the Fariseos and see why these are topics of discussion. My family is mostly comprised of bigots, continue to have more kids they can't afford, and proudly claim they are religious people and believe they are going to heaven. My cousins and family members my age aren't as racist as our elders, but I'm much more hopeful for their kids.

Hopefully Pope Francis' words in today's New York Times interview helps inspire a better crop of open-minded devout catholics for the future. Pope Frankie should take a trip to Washington and perform an exorcism and vanquish the gay hating, anti-women's rights demons and this banal mindset.

• The tweet the Suns apparently thought better of and deleted today.

First of all, I'm not saying that we shouldn't remember what happened on September 11, 2001. I'm not trying to minimize the sadness and tragedy of that day.

However, at some point, corporate social media accounts will be able to let the day go by without feeling the need to send out some sort of #NEVERFORGET message, right? There is not a single person who was waiting for Sizzler's response, to find out whether they're true patriots or not, but yet:

Today we honor the victims and heroes of 9/11. #neverforget #september11
— Sizzler Restaurants (@Sizzler_USA) September 11, 2013

Sandals Resorts? Don't worry, they'll #alwaysrember (I'm guessing they ran out of characters):

One love, one heart. Today we honor the resilience of the American people. #neverforget #alwaysrember http://t.co/oDe8gaNMJc
— Sandals Resorts (@SandalsResorts) September 11, 2013

If you'd like to follow along with the stream of social media memorializing, follow comedian Joe Mande on Twitter today. Perhaps the sentiments of ChristianMingle.com are exactly what you need today.

As you might have all recognized by now, Jan Brewer isn't actually making a move to implement some sort of crazy, anti-gay measure in this state, despite what your reactionary family, friends and neighbors have shared on Facebook. That's awesome—but what's not awesome is how these "satirists" are making everyone else look.

As noted last week by the Weekly's Mari Herreras, the "news" that our fair Governor was instituting a change to the public school curriculum that was intended to scare gay kids straight was, thankfully, false.

What's bothers me is that, by my count, this is at least the third "satirical" story that's caught a significant amount of fire in recent memory, with one being the Daily Currant's idea that Egypt issued a warrant for Jon Stewart's arrest, and roughly anything that Andy Borowitz writes for the New Yorker.

Now, while the Internet gives a voice to any idiot with a keyboard and an idea, the work that those idiots produce in the name of being "funny" distracts from real, thought-provoking ideas, becoming the noise that scrambles the signal.

Such as with the National Report, which sounds enough like the National Review to give the illusion of credibility; or the Daily Currant, which is one letter away from becoming the name of a legitimate news source and not a berry; or The New Yorker's Andy Borowitz, who is a damn fine writer, but should have the same rules applied to him regarding satire as sex offenders get regarding schools (not allowed within 500 feet of, regarded with disdain and disgust for his past acts, etc.).

Satire should be biting—it should call attention to the main issue by distorting reality; it should at least sound smart; it should be funny; and (most importantly) it shouldn't distract people from the point by stirring up outrage for page views.

And that's the problem with these websites —  they're too desperate for attention to realize that they're screwing themselves, their message, and incidentally, anyone who writes anything on the Internet

The Report's "Brewer Teaches the Gay Away" post sounded plausible because it was too busy citing CNN and Fox News as sources and falsifying quotes from (often deserved) liberal targets such as Brewer and Joe Arpaio to distort reality.

If you write satire just to screw with people and get pageviews, you're not just hurting your own image, but you're hurting the public's depiction of the medium you've chosen. For every savvy person out there who realizes that there are people who make things up on the Internet, there are 10 people out there who don't think critically enough about what they're reading to realize that it's bullshit. They screw up the curve for everyone else, causing people to further distrust what they're reading—and not in the "question everything" way, but in the "this is all lies, I have to follow the only folks I can trust" way.

These are the people who are de-legitimizing thought-provoking writing on the Internet, because they're too busy trying to put themselves and their work over to do real, actual good—or at least be entertaining, like The Onion.

In other words, the National Report and its ilk are responsible for Fox News.

Thanks, dicks.

But my son's first seven years of school haven't been easy. The special education challenges have been tremendous and the stress it caused on our family over the years took its toll, especially the past three years. However, through those challenges, we worked hard, he especially.

Last year, my son attended Utterback Magnet Middle School in TUSD. For the most part he loved it; it ended up being a great supportive environment for him to help him become a better advocate for himself. He left the trappings of a self-contained classroom behind early in the year and realized he could excel academically—honor roll with straight A's at the end of the year. (Yep, I am a damn proud mama.)

The problem, as my son stretched and grew, ended up not being teachers, or special education confinements, but bullying. It started to become physical and it really changed my son's outlook on school—although he remained committed to keeping his grades up. But with resolve he made it clear he didn't want to go back to Utterback the following year. He wanted a change. We did, too.

My ex-husband and son took a couple of days to look at schools, though the final decision was based on a whim—change districts. It seemed like a good idea. Move into the district, give him a chance to start over without the IEP and the history it brings from school to school, and hope to hell this is going to work.

Yesterday, we published a short item about Gio Taco, the latest venture to come from the folks at Metzger Family Restaurants, who are also responsible for Jax Kitchen and The Abbey.

The plan, according to the release announcing the forthcoming restaurant, is to move into east end of Congress St., in Downtown Tucson, where Gio will be producing their own spin on tacos — apparently, tacos "without rules." I mean, why not? Seis, for an example, ventures away from the traditional Sonoran-style taco, working hard to create something that's fun and tasty as hell. I say that there's room for more than one place that doesn't want to serve simple chicken or carne asada tacos in this town.

But it seems that some of you would disagree. From the Tucson Weekly Facebook page:

Great, one more place trying to reinvent something that doesn't need to be reinvented and one more place I shant be setting foot in, ever, along with everything else in the shiny, new downtown. Now get off my lawn. xoxox - Dave, part of the "Keep Tucson Shitty" crowd...

This is exactly what downtown Tucson does not need. Seems like besides another "foodie" place on east Congress, someone would open a damn diner downtown, especially on west congress, near The Fox Theatre, and fill a much needed niche left by the closure of The Grill.

Those are definitely very good points opinions.

But here's the thing about downtown's dearly-departed Grill, and all of its similarly departed, scruffy, "character"-filled places: they closed for a reason — and many reasons, in some cases.

Let's focus on Grill: As great a place as it was, as much character as it had, and as good as the food was (particularly for being one of the few options that was open at three in the morning) is that it was, in fact, a shithole.

The food was, putting it nicely, inconsistent (a hamburger cooked to medium probably should not be dripping with blood). One of the things that people seemingly loved the most about the place, the tater tots, could easily be found in the freezer section of your nearby Fry's or Safeway. The bathrooms didn't lock. Spotting a giant cockroach crawling around wasn't an uncommon occurrence. At one point in time, the sewer lines under the restaurant broke, filling the kitchen with sewer water.

And you people who supposedly loved this place, who wish it was still around, who wanted it kept shitty, so you can continue living your artsy, bohemian, arrested adolescence? You're the reason it closed:

If we had more nights like last night, maybe we wouldn't be closing. Keep it coming, the countdown continues.
— Grill Tucson, Nov. 21, 2011

That was from the first night after Grill announced its impending closure. (A personal note: My then-girlfriend and I were among the last people to be served before the place finally shut down, because I just had to spend a little more time at the first part of this city that I fell in love with. I stole one of the newer paper menus that replaced the amazing laminated turquoise menus. It still sits on my desk at home.)

Grill, and its ilk, are and were great places. They were accepting, they were comfortable and, most importantly, they were convenient.

But they failed, because they treated customers terribly. Because nostalgia has a shelf life. Because "shitty" should be an ambiance, not the reality of the place.

Tucson should not be burnt out, filled with cracks, crawling with roaches, covered in drunken, paint-marker-and-chalk scrawls, just because that's what we remember.

Tucson is a vibrant, passionate, scrappy community. We shouldn't be tearing down the local people who love the soul of this city, who are trying to build up new, interesting projects to tie into the hardworking, local feel that we love. The heart of this city, the grit, will always be here — partially because you can never completely get rid of sand and dirt — but the shittiness doesn't have to be.

Y'know, that might just be it. It's not that Tucson is shitty, and that we should keep it that way. It's that the crowd that wants Tucson to remain shitty is, in fact, shitty in and of themselves.

Well, you might want to get out of the way, guys. Whether you like it or not, Tucson is changing — the skeletons of developments rising around town are proof of that. So you've got a few options: work to maintain the grit in Tucson's soul as the changes happen, or stay shitty.

You might want to be careful though if you take the latter path, because shit tends to get stepped on, scraped off, thrown away, and crumble into dust.