I still find myself personally confused by what I'm supposed to get out of Google+, but we can't exactly allow the opportunity to have a page on the site pass us by, can we? So, we're on there, we'll provide links to stuff, and once I figure out what else the Weekly can do on Google+, we'll do that too.

Please follow us. It's a little lonely right now.

You might have noticed a new spot on our homepage, replicated above, mentioning the Tucson Weekly Date of the Hour. This exciting new development is part of our brand new dating service, in partnership with HowAboutWe. Sure, there are plenty of options out there for those trying to meet someone, from the creepy Christian-undertones of eHarmony to the total perv chaos of Craigslist, but we decided to work with How About We because it's actually fun.

Essentially, the process is simple, set up a really basic profile, then make a pitch for the sort of date you'd like to go on. "How about we...whatever you'd like to do." Get it?

Then, people see your clever idea and respond. Instead of going through hoops trying to figure whether you're compatible or figuring out which coffee shop to meet at, you're actually doing stuff. Stuff you like to do with someone who enjoys the same sort of thing. Want to check out the rock photography exhibit downtown and then go to El Guero Canelo? Put that down. Want to go for an early morning bike ride then drink mimosas at Ghini's? Type it out and find someone who also thinks that sounds like fun. Look through other people's date pitches and find something to do next week. Plus, it's free to check out. You'll just need a membership to start sending and receiving messages. Why wasn't it always this simple?

Plus, we're not the only ones who think this is a great way to meet new people. GQ, Marie Claire, The Frisky, the New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Gawker, and a bunch of publications have declared HowAboutWe to be the future of online dating. That's good, because the present of online dating sucks.

We'll be doing more to introduce you to Tucson Weekly Dating in the near future, but for now, try it out. Maybe you'll meet someone new and find something to do this weekend.

This harrowing, emphatically told story comes from commenter "fromnh46" on my post suggesting that you take some time off work tomorrow to grab a drink. I had to pull the comment because our rules prohibit posting in all caps, but the combination of personal tragedy, evangelical message and internet-shouting anger seemed worth some sort of a forum:

IDIOT!! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING POSITIVE. BOOZERS ARE LOSERS. ONE OF THE BIGGEST DESTRUCTIVE LIQUIDS OF PERSONAL LIVES AND FAMILIES! THE COUNTLESS PEOPLE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD THAT HAVE GONE DOWN THE TOILET BECAUSE OF ALCOHOL! AFTER VIET NAM, I TRIED TO DROWN THE HORRORS OF THAT WAR WITH ALCOHOL.....GOLLY IT DIDN'T WORK AND I GAVE MY HEART TO JESUS AND HE SET ME FREE! RESPONSIBLE DRINKING?! THAT IS A TOTAL JOKE AND IN THE VAST MINORITY OF ADULTS.....YEAH RIGHT?! 50,000 PEOPLE A YEAR DIE IN TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS DUE TO ALCOHOL! I WONDER HOW MANY WOULD DIE IF THEY WERE DRINKING MILK! MY FATHER WAS A DRUNK AND CAME HOME AND BLEW MY MOTHER'S HEAD OFF WITH A SHOTGUN; THEN HE STUCK THE SHOTGUN IN HIS MOUTH AND BLEW HIS HEAD OFF. TOO BAD HE WASN'T A HEAVY MILK DRINKER! ISOLATED INCIDENT? HORSE PUCKY! EVERYDAY, ALL DAY, EVERYWHERE! ASK TPD HOW MANY DRUNKS THEY HANDLE ON A DAILY BASIS?! YEAH....AND THEY ARE DRIVING CARS! IT'S ATTEMPTED MURDER! LIKE I SAID....BOOZERS ARE LOSERS! CHOOSE THIS DAY TO BE A WINNER!

If you couldn't get quite enough of your favorite Tucson Weekly writers, you can now "like" some of us on Facebook individually.

Now, while you will have to push a button that says "like" and for at least a few seconds before you go and hit the delete button, your friends will see that you did so, you don't have to actually be a fan of any of us to find this new development useful. Before when you had something hurtful to say about one of us, you had to broadcast it out into the generality of the Weekly's page. Maybe Jim Nintzel wouldn't read it, maybe I would wonder briefly if you were calling me a moron or someone else. Now you can go directly to the source and tell us exactly what you think of us and occasionally our mother's dating habits from the convenience of Facebook! How exciting!

Of course, you might actually think we're interesting people and you'd like to hear more from us. "Liking" us individually would work for that too.

Like away! Now we'll know who's the most popular!

Jimmy Boegle
Mari Herreras
Jim Nintzel
Linda Ray
Dan Gibson

Today marks art-guy/maker-of-advertisements-and-such Andrew Ling's last day here in the office, and while it's not like he's dropping off the face of the earth — he's leaving for another job in town — he will be missed here, if only because he's a good enough sport to be the subject of my jokes here on The Range.

Los Betos won't be quite the same without you, Andrew. Good luck at the new job, jerkface.

In case, he conveniently "loses" my theme music again, feel free to play this video around 8:05:

You may have noticed that when you login in TucsonWeekly.com to leave your comment/restaurant review/angry rant that the option to login via Facebook now pops up. While the idea of more Facebook in your life might leave with a mild sense of discomfort (other than visiting our always scintillating page, of course), this is part of a general site revamp this summer which should make it easier to comment, easier to share articles and blog posts with your friends, and just make your TucsonWeekly.com experience a little cooler. For now, you can link your Weekly account with your Facebook profile and save yourself some typing. As the other new things pop up, we'll let you know how we're using them and what you might get out of them as well.

The Tucson Weekly took home seven honors in the Arizona Press Club’s annual contest—and six of those were first-place wins.

Five of those wins came in writing categories. In comparison, the Arizona Daily Star only took home one first-place writing prize, and three first-place awards overall.

All of the Weekly’s writing honors came in metro or “Best in Arizona” categories, meaning that the Weekly’s entries competed against those submitted by all of the state’s largest newspapers.

Tim Vanderpool won two first-place trophies. His “Predators and Prey” (May 20, 2010) took top honors in the Public Safety Reporting category. Judge Jordan Smith, of the Austin Chronicle, noted: “Vanderpool does a nice job of making a personal experience the jumping off point to navigate the often-charged topic of sex offender laws. The subject matter is complex and often under-reported outside of spot news related to individual arrests. Vanderpool does a good job of navigating the core issues of crime and punishment in this area of the law without succumbing to the sensational.”

Vanderpool’s other win came in the Health Reporting category, for “Death by Study” (March 4, 2010), about a potential childhood leukemia cluster in Sierra Vista. Judge Meg Kissinger, of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, wrote: “This story was as effective in telling what is known about cancer cluster studies as it was fleshing out the frustration of what is not known. Compelling examples. Excellent writing.”

Tom Danehy, Margaret Regan, Emily Bowen, Linda Ray and Anna Mirocha shared top honors in the Personality Profile category for their Local Heroes contributions (Dec. 23, 2010). (The Weekly entered the entire Local Heroes package, featuring profiles of 10 people, but the Press Club board decided that only five “stories” could be included as one entry, and therefore only sent five of the 10 profiles to the judge.) Judge Tracy Ahrens, of the Chicago Tribune, raved: “A beautiful blend of five short portraits of community heroes. The works are easy to read and hold the reader. These pieces make you want to meet every person showcased. More publications should do routine personality profiles like this of often hidden, unsung heroes in every community.”

Renée Downing won the Don Schellie Award for Column Writing, for a selection of her work including "To Annoy a Mockingbird: Meet Fu’s New Mortal Enemy” (May 27, 2010) and “A Disturbing Revelation: Downtown Phoenix Has Recently Become … Nice” (April 1, 2010). The Orlando Sentinel’s Mike Thomas noted: “Downing has what I like to call writing genetics. Her topics were clever and her writing crisp. She ably turned mockingbirds into villains and Phoenix into, well, something almost desirable. Being from Orlando, I certainly could relate!”

Weekly scribes took the top two places in the all-encompassing Criticism category. Margaret Regan took first for “The Whole Picture” (Feb. 4, 2010), “Tiled Roofs and Borrowed Styles” (July 15, 2010) and “Deposited by Angels” (Oct. 28, 2010). Mark Feeney, of The Boston Globe, commented: “Serious without being solemn, Regan’s reviews demonstrate intelligence, range, and a consistent ability to provide context and make larger connections.”

For the fifth year in a row, James DiGiovanna was honored as Arizona’s best film critic, as he took second in the Criticism category, behind Regan, for “Tolstoy, Plus Boobs” (Feb. 18, 2010), “Emotion Exposed!” (March 25, 2010) and “Tragic Remake” (April 22, 2010). Judge Feeney said: “Possessing an impressive knowledge of film, a knowledge he wears lightly, DiGiovanna writes with frequent verve and consistent passion.”

Photographer David Zickl took first prize in the non-metro Portrait Photography category, for his picture of ranchers Robert and Phil Krentz. The image was used on the April 29, 2010, cover of the Weekly, along with the story “The Krentz Bonfire,” about the as-yet-unsolved murder of Robert Krentz.

Daniel Gonzalez, of The Arizona Republic, was named the Virg Hill Journalist of the Year at the awards ceremony, held Saturday, May 21, at the Sheraton in downtown Phoenix. Jen Levario Cieslak, also of The Republic, was named Designer of the Year, The Republic’s Michael Chow was honored as Photographer of the Year. The Explorer’s Thelma Grimes was named the Community Journalist of the Year for the second year in a row for work she did at the San Pedro Valley News-Sun.

Also, she's still not moving here, in two different comment threads!

From "Finding the Bottom":

At one time, the news about even lower Tuscon housing prices would have been wonderful. My husband and I have made several trips to southern AZ to look at real estate. We've looked in Cochise, Pinal, Maricopa, and Pima counties. We're the lucky retired government employees who have a house in the DC area that's paid for, savings to pay cash for our future retirement home, great health insurance and pensions. We started subscribing to the AZ Daily Star and Tucson Weekly to get a feel for the politics, social, and financial issues of the area. Thanks to the national TV stations and newspapers, we've gotten the feel. We've come to the conclusion that Tuscon isn't a good fit for us. Since Tuscon is in Pima County, we are eliminating the whole county for our real estate search. I think of the saying, "as you sow, so shall you reap." I agree totally with Tucson and Pima County's desire to secede from AZ. You really should be annexed to Mexico.

Yes, it's Tuscon to me, not Tucson.

and from "Jon Justice: 'Call Chuck Huckelberry and Tell Him to Fire Richard Elias'":

The comment about people avoiding AZ is true. We live on the east coast and have taken yearly, sometimes twice yearly, vacations in AZ since 1985. We still have great memories of wonderful trips taken throughout the state, and being avid birders and hikers, we have been everywhere. We've been looking at AZ real estate for several years on the Internet and have made several trips to southern AZ to look at properties. The national news stations portray Tucson as a crazy place that visitors and woud-be retirees should avoid. Our friends have been questioning us for a while about why we would want to visit, and actually consider buying a property there. We've decided that we're better off just visiting the area for a few weeks at a time, and not commit ourselves to buying a property.

Later this year—once Arizona’s medical-marijuana system is functioning—the Tucson Weekly will need the services of a medical-marijuana critic. This individual will review Southern Arizona’s dispensaries, clinics and other medical-marijuana-related businesses for the Tucson Weekly and TucsonWeekly.com.

Prospective reviewers must have:

• A prescription for medical marijuana, for a legitimate medical condition.

• Some writing experience.

• No serious conflicts of interests. In other words, prospective reviewers should have no direct financial links to medical-marijuana businesses, and no close personal links to an individual or individuals running a medical-marijuana business.

• A driving record with no major convictions, including DUI.

This is an independent-contractor (i.e., freelance) position. We will make an exception to the Tucson Weekly’s no-pseudonym policy and will allow the critic to use a pen name in his/her byline.

Send a resume, cover letter and clips/writing samples to Jimmy Boegle at [email protected] no later than noon on Wednesday, June 1.