Explorer, Sept. 22, 2021

EXPLORER The Voice of Marana, Oro Valley and Northwest Tucson

Sept. 22, 2021

Volume 28 • Number 38

Writers’ Corner

Local authors publish books and win writing awards | Pages 12 & 13

INSIDE

MOON MINING

Viticulture Venue

Researchers at the University of Arizona recently secured a halfmillion dollar NASA grant to develop autonomous robots that can mine and build structures on the moon. Read more on page 6.

Wine benefits the zoo | Page 14

Sports & Rec

Wildcats fumble chances at home | Page 16

Health & Wellness

Preparing for flu season | Page 23 $

Photo by Chris Richards/University of Arizona

COVID cases plateau in Pima County Jim Nintzel

Tucson Local Media

T

he number of COVID cases in Pima County remains on a plateau with some signs of a possible slight decline.

“Sometimes it looks a little too scarily flat, for my liking,” Pima County Chief Medical Of-

attributed to people with health issues besides COVID. He added that part of the issue came from staffing shortages.

Garcia said that 90% to 95% of the people in ICUs and on ventilators were not vaccinated against COVID-19.

Garcia said schools were also seeing a slight decrease in cases.

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ficer Francisco Garcia told the press last week. “But overall, it’s trending the correct direction.

I was hoping we’d have a much steeper decline. This really seems to settling or plateauing rather than declining right now.”

Garcia said that local hospitals remain “super-duper busy,” although part of that could be

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Picture Rocks residents oppose RV park plan near Saguaro National Park Jeff Gardner Tucson Local Media

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ore than 100 residents overflowed the Picture Rocks Community Center on Tuesday, Sept. 14, to voice their opposition to a proposed RV park on 75 acres near Saguaro National Park West.

The RV park would be located on Tula Lane, between Picture Rocks and Rudasill roads, on a lot that is currently undeveloped and less than a mile from the National Park’s border.

But before those plans can proceed, the Pima County Planning and Zoning Commission must recommend a zoning change from the current Medium Intensity Rural to Rural Crossroads land use designation, and then recommend that the Pima County Board of Supervisors approve a rezoning to the Trailer Homesite designation specifically for an RV park. The parcel is currently zoned for 48 houses.

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Explorer and Marana News, Sept. 22, 2021

Awareness Pullout

Help us color our papers pink to raise awareness about the disease, preventive research, and resources.

Coming October 2021

Reserve your space NOW! Call (520) 797-4384 or email TLMSales@Tucsonlocalmedia.com

EXPLORER The Explorer and Marana News is published every Wednesday and distributed free of charge to homes and in single-copy locations throughout the Northwest Tucson. To find out where you can pick up a free copy of the Explorer and Marana News, go to www.TucsonLocalMedia.com

STAFF ADMINISTRATION Steve T. Strickbine, Publisher Michael Hiatt, Vice President Jaime Hood, General Manager jaime@tucsonlocalmedia.com Claudine Sowards, Accounting claudine@tucsonlocalmedia.com Sheryl Kocher, Receptionist sheryl@tucsonlocalmedia.com EDITORIAL Jim Nintzel, Executive Editor jimn@tucsonlocalmedia.com Jeff Gardner, Managing Editor jeff@tucsonlocalmedia.com Mike Truelsen, Web Editor mike@tucsonlocalmedia.com Alexandra Pere, Staff Reporter apere@tucsonlocalmedia.com PRODUCTION Courtney Oldham, Production Manager, tucsonproduction@timespublications.com Ryan Dyson Graphic Designer ryand@tucsonlocalmedia.com Emily Filener, Graphic Designer emilyf@tucsonlocalmedia.com

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Copyright:The entire contents of Explorer/Marana News are CopyrightTimes Media Group . No portion may be reproduced in whole or part by any means without the express written permission of the Publisher,Tucson Local Media, 7225 N. Mona Lisa Rd., Ste. 125,Tucson, AZ 85741.

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Explorer and Marana News, Sept. 22, 2021

Picture Rocks: Environmental, traffic, noise concerns Continued from P1

The proposal will go to the Planning and Zoning Commission on Wednesday, Sept. 29.

Tuesday night’s meeting came after Pima County Development Services recommended approval of the RV park’s initial plans for rezoning. Neighbors and concerned residents crowded inside the Community Center with picket signs like “No No No to Rezone” and “No RVs!” The residents’ main concerns included the environmental impact of an RV park, crowding of the small adjacent streets, and noise and light pollution.

“The response has been much more than we thought,” said Tom Guido, with T and T Engineering who represents the landowner. “So we decided to delay the Planning and Zoning Commission we had originally scheduled for late August, to give folks a chance to ask questions and air concerns. We wanted to see what the community was thinking

and worried about.”

Firstly, residents brought up the potential environmental impacts of a 200 RV park in rural Picture Rocks. While T and T Engineering says the parcel has been assured a 100year water supply by Avra Valley Water, they may need a retention pond to deal with all the park’s waste. In addition, the rezoning would also require setting aside two thirds of the lot as open space to be able to continue. Guido argued the plan had set this amount aside, but room between the RVs is also considered open space, to the audience’s dissent.

In the public Planning and Zoning Commission staff report, Saguaro National Park chief of science Jeff Conn stated that three areas of focus for the park are light pollution, noise pollution, and invasive species.

Residents also expressed concern about large RVs maneuvering the small, rural roads of Picture Rocks, with one resident shouting, “It’s going to take an RV park

to get our roads fixed?”

Of particular concern is the winding Picture Rocks Road, which snakes through the National Park, connecting Ina Road with the Picture Rocks area. The property owner argued that they’d tell the potential RV visitors to take the easier Sandario and Rudasill roads.

But residents said visitors would likely just follow their GPS, which would take them on the shorter, more precarious route.

Finally, the crowd also worried about the population that may come to the park, referring to them as “transients.” Concerns range from RVs being abandoned to pets getting out to visitors walking through neighboring properties to get to Saguaro National Park. The landlord aims to avoid these by marketing the park as a “luxury” park, and only allowing RVs built within the past decade.

Local residents stated they were not against any and all development on the property. Al-

Photo by Jeff Gardner

Picture Rocks residents fill the Community Center on Tuesday, Sept. 14. The audience overwhelmingly resisted plans for a proposed RV park on 75 acres of land on Tula Lane near the border of Saguaro National Park West. Main concerns include damage to local wildlife, natural resources, additional traffic on rural roads, and light and noise pollution. ternate suggestions included subdividing the parcel, building a community park or simply building out the 48 houses without the need for rezoning.

“This would be a dis-

aster to the wildlife and the community. I’ve never seen people go to an RV park that is so far off the interstate,” said Bob Musgrave, who lives near the proposed park. “The housing market is so live-

ly in Tucson, and it makes me wonder why they’d give up 50 housing lots to turn them into 200 RV lots. That doesn’t make sense to me.”

Explorer and Marana News, Sept. 22, 2021

COVID: ‘Schools are absolutely doing what they need to do’ Continued from P1

Overall, he said roughly 47% of cases in schools were among children 12 years old and under, while about 40% were among children between 13 and 17 and the remainder of school cases were among adults.

Garcia said the Health Department had closed only 40 classrooms so far this school year.

“Schools are absolutely doing what they need to do, which is identifying those children early and getting those children home and making sure those children are not in

contact with the rest of the school population,” Garcia said. “I think we would have a hell of lot more classes shutting down if that were not the case.”

Dr. Joe Gerald, a epidemiologist with the UA Zuckerman School of Public Health who has been following the outbreak since March 2020, noted in his weekly report that the steepest decline in COVID cases on a week-to-week basis was among children aged 5 to 19.

“While difficult to draw causal conclusions, recent mask mandates in certain districts, aggressive case identification and limited classroom closures are likely

helping.” Gerald said.

For the week ending Sept. 12, 1,712 Pima County residents tested positive for COVID-19, which was a 4% decline from the previous week. Gerald noted that Pima County had experienced three straight weeks of declining cases, although cases were declining more quickly in the state as a whole.

Gerald said Arizona still had a high number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths, but “conditions are slowly improving except for a small number of counties like Greenlee County, which is near its all-time high.”

Gerald said Arizona’s

hospital occupancy “remains above seasonal levels.”

As of Sept. 15, 2,050 (23%) of Arizona’s 8,747 general ward beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients, a 1% decrease from last week’s 2,061 occupied beds. Another 695 (8%) beds remained available for use, according to Gerald.

By the same date, 565 (32%) of Arizona’s 1,743 ICU beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients, a 1% increase from last week’s 561 occupied beds. An additional 143 (8%) ICU beds remained available for use.

“As a lagging indicator, hospital occupancy is plateauing but not

declining as expected,” Gerald wrote. “This may be attributable to persistently high transmission among high-risk groups and/or longer length of stay among younger patients.”

As of Monday, Sept. 20, a total of 19,513 Arizonans had died after contracting COVID, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

That means roughly 1 in every 350 Arizonans has died after contracting the disease. The national average shows 1 in every 500 people in the United States has died after contracting COVID. According to the CDC, 61% of Arizona’s adult pop-

5

ulation is fully vaccinated and another 10% have received one dose, wrote Gerald.

“The ADHS Vaccine Dashboard shows weekly doses delivered are declining with 70K doses per being administered last week,” Gerald wrote. “Based on national serology data, the combination of natural and vaccine immunity likely exceeds 80% in most parts of the country and among most age groups. Nevertheless, non-pharmacologic interventions like mask mandates, limited gathering sizes, and targeted business mitigations will help speed resolution and ensure this wave does not reignite.”

6

Explorer and Marana News, Sept. 22, 2021

UA Researchers Study Moon Mining with ‘Robot Swarm’ Jeff Gardner Tucson Local Media

P

resident John F. Kennedy famously said that the United States chose goals like traveling to the moon “not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” But what’s the harm in making moon missions just a little bit easier with the help of some robot workers?

In early September, NASA further strengthened its relationship with the University of Arizona by awarding two engineering faculty with a $500,000 grant to develop

space-mining technology in the form of autonomous robots.

Mining is a major element of Arizona’s history and culture, so it only fits that NASA would select UA researchers to advance their mining goals—even if those goals are off Earth. NASA announced an intention to return to the moon in 2024, and the space agency is testing out several new technologies that have been developed since humans last walked on the moon in 1972.

For a planned return to the moon, NASA has expressed interest in developing semi-permanent settle-

ments. However, shipping the materials for these settlements from Earth would be extremely expensive.

Some scientists argue that the answer to both mining and habitation on the moon may come in the form of autonomous “swarms” of robots.

“We’re building on the natural strengths of Arizona, which has historically been mining, with the emerging area of aerospace engineering,” said Jekan Thanga, associate professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering, and one of the grant recipients. “This also fits in with NASA prioritizing going back to the

moon, setting up a base, and being able to live there for extended periods of time. To make this whole enterprise possible, you need to mine and live off the local resources. And that’s been an area we’ve thought about for a while, and are now doing fundamental research on… The cost of bringing something from Earth to the moon sort of becomes exponential with mass. We have to expend significant amounts of energy to leave Earth’s gravity well. So it makes a lot of sense to make use of in-situ resources on the moon or Mars.”

The grant is part of NA-

SA’s Minority University Research and Education Project. Thanga and interim head of the Department of Mining and Geological Engineering Moe Momayez will use the funding in UA’s ASTEROIDS Laboratory, where engineering, science and math students work to answer design problems in space technology. ASTEROIDS (Asteroid Science, Technology and Exploration Research Organized

by Inclusive eDucation Systems) provides research opportunities for undergrads and mentoring opportunities for graduate students.

The current robot prototype Thanga and Mo-

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mayez are working with is a 3D-printed rover that would be able to form sandbags out of lunar soil, make structures, push large objects via teamwork and mine for resources. Or as Thanga puts it, any of the tasks that are too “dirty, dangerous and boring” for humans.

“Doing these kinds of base construction and mining tasks couldn’t be done with a single robot, because of the intensity and number of things that can go wrong in this type of work,” Thanga said. “Up until now, most missions are very well crafted for a single robot, but there are trade-offs.

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Explorer and Marana News, Sept. 22, 2021

You can’t do things that are high-risk or very dirty, but that becomes inevitable if you want to set up a base and go into mining.

So we’re forced to confront these head-on.”

Critical problems the team is tackling include structure assembly, sandbagging, 3D printing—and most importantly, how to do it all without humans present. Thanks to 3D printing, the “swarm architecture” can be scaled up, depending on the needs of the mission.

“The redundancy of having multiple robots is very important,” Thanga said. “The remainder fills in if one breaks down, but even more interesting for us is that the team can cooperate. They can become more than the sum of their parts. Depending on the

circumstances, if one robot breaks down, the others can pull it out of the way for repair. It’s all the tricks of cooperation and coordination that a human team could come up with, but we’re doing it with robotics.”

According to the Giant-impact Hypothesis, the Earth and moon came from the same original body and separated some five billion years ago. Because of this, scientists believe there are similar important metals on the Earth and moon, including titanium, gold and platinum. This may mean the mined lunar resources can be used either in-place or back on Earth.

With the funding, Momayez and Thanga plan to add a special space mining program to the ASTER-

OIDS Lab, serving students from both the Colleges of Engineering and School of Mining.

“They can test their robots at the mine, they can excavate, they can drill, they can blast,” Momayez said in a UA release. “And with the establishment of the new School of Mining and Mineral Resources, we hope to get more students from all over the world involved in mining.”

Thanga credits UA’s success with NASA missions as a combination of “timing, talent, luck and a mentality of exploration for the university and the state.”

“The University of Arizona is known colloquially as one of the space universities, and for that we’ve been given some great responsibilities,” Thanga said.

Photo by Chris Richards/University of Arizona

University of Arizona faculty Moe Momayez (left) and Jekan Thanga have received $500,000 from NASA to advance space mining methods that use 3D-printed, autonomous robots. They are pictured here on the UA campus with a prototype of a 3D-printed robot.

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Explorer and Marana News, Sept. 22, 2021

GUEST COMMENTARY

Northwest Healthcare remains steadfast in service to Tucson area Brian Sinotte

Special to Tucson Local Media

A

s our community experiences another COVID surge, I write today with gratitude for the resilience of our provider teams at Northwest Healthcare.

Each and every employee in our system has played a role in keeping our community healthy, and in caring for those who do become sick. I am incredibly proud of the work they do, but I am also proud of our healthcare system as a whole.

Northwest Healthcare is comprised of Northwest Medical Center, Oro Valley Hospital, Northwest Medical Sahuarita, free standing emergency centers in Marana and Vail, and urgent cares, physician practices and surgery centers throughout the region. Soon, we’ll add a fourth hospital— Northwest Medical Center Houghton—to our family of services.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how interconnected we all are, the impact each one of us can have and

the benefit of working together for a common cause. We care deeply about our community and remain steadfast in our commitment to deliver safe, quality healthcare services.

The arc of life is always present in a hospital, but its frailty has been very clear this past year. More than 800,000 patients received the medical care they needed thanks to our physicians, nurses, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, lab techs, housekeepers, food service workers and other providers who have worked tirelessly to maintain a safe environment. Our family of caregivers put aside their personal fears and concerns and came to help every single day, with bravery and courage.

More than 2,000 babies took their first breaths at Northwest Medical Center and we celebrated with their moms. Tens of thousands of our friends and neighbors walked away in better shape than when they came in—with less pain following a joint replacement, a heart beating stronger after open heart surgery or a

smile of relief when their screening mammogram or colonoscopy was clear.

With pride and relief we cheered hundreds of patients who left for home after beating COVID-19.

But there have been times of sadness too, as our caregivers helped patients transition at the end of life and comforted the loved ones who grieve for their loss.

Helping people get well and live healthier is rewarding work, and we are grateful for the trust every patient places in us.

And we feel the support of the community as you’ve extended your thanks and encouragement through countless meals, beautiful cards, hand-sewn mask donations, painted rocks around our campuses and so many other touching gestures. A year and a half later, we are still here daily, caring for COVID patients and the many others who need our help.

Your support—in the form of cards, banners, meals, and well wishes— is still so appreciated. If you know someone who works in our hospitals or clinics, please check in with them—and let them

Explorer and Marana News, Sept. 22, 2021

know you are grateful for the work they do.

Your support is critical in helping our team get through an incredibly difficult time.

Led by a local administration and advisory boards made up of community leaders and physicians, we’ve been intensely focused on expanding access to healthcare throughout the region. We’re pleased to say that our plans are moving forward, even in spite of COVID-19. We’ve spent $125 million on expansions and upgrades, breaking ground on Northwest Medical Center Houghton last April and opening Northwest Medical Center Sahuarita in November. We’ve purchased new equip-

ment and made updates to Northwest Medical Center and Oro Valley Hospital, and we’ve recruited many new providers to our network to provide more opportunities for patients to get needed care. Many of our physicians are now offering telemedicine, making it easier than ever to see the doctor when you’re in the comfort of home.

We value our relationship with Pima County.

The nearly $29 million in taxes we paid last year support critical infrastructure such as first responders, schools and roads. Wages and benefits for our nearly 3,000 employees generate buying power for local goods and services and help drive the local economy.

And we deliver care for our most vulnerable residents, last year providing more than $52 million of charity and uncompensated care.

Although our community is currently experiencing another surge in COVID-19 cases, I believe hope is on the horizon—vaccines are readily available and many in our community have already been vaccinated.

While we look forward to a time when COVID-19 is a distant memory, we remain committed to serving our strong and vibrant community— now and in the future.

Brian Sinotte is the Market Chief Executive Officer for Northwest Healthcare.

READER PHOTO OF THE WEEK Reader Jan Busch caught this monsoon dumping down west of Pusch Ridge. Send your photos to readerphotos@ tucsonlocalmedia.com. Include your name, contact information and details about the photo, including who took it, where it was taken and the subject. Not all photos can be printed, see other photos online at www.tucsonlocalmedia.com.

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Explorer and Marana News, Sept. 22, 2021

Mission Garden still growing, despite weather and world extremes Jeff Gardner Tucson Local Media

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eing one of the longest continually inhabited and farmed areas in North America, it should come as no surprise Mission Garden on the flanks of Sentinel Peak was well-poised to survive both pandemic and drought.

Mission Garden is one of the main projects of the nonprofit Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace, which works to preserve and restore the “cultural heritages and historic landscapes” of Tucson’s origin: the Tohono O’odham settlement at the base of Sentinel Peak, where valley natives have practiced agriculture for more than 3,000 years.

Today, Mission Garden serves as a “living agricultural museum,” comprising multiple garden plots that exhibit early agriculture and heirloom crops. The volunteer-supported Garden also regularly hosts community events, including gardening classes, fruit and vegetable festivals, roundtable discussions, and cooking demonstrations.

Of course, most of these came to an abrupt halt in spring 2020 with the onset of the pandemic. However, Mission Garden staff says they handled the social distancing better than many, thanks to the nature of gardens. While they did suspend large community events, Mission Garden never closed their regular visitor hours.

“We’re fortunate we have a large outdoor setting where people can volunteer safely,” said Kendall Kroesen, outreach coordinator for Mission Garden. “We were getting people who were cooped up and looking to get out of the house, or maybe couldn’t volunteer at other locations. It really helped us get through the almost rainless summer of 2020, which was a tough time for the garden.”

Almost concurrent with the first COVID wave, Tucson sweltered under record-breaking heat; July and then August 2020 were the hottest months ever recorded in Tucson. Pair this with the second-driest monsoon on record, and 2020 was a formidable year for local agriculture.

However, Kroesen credits the dedicated community and agriculture practices like drip irrigation with getting Mission Garden through last summer. In fact, Mission Garden saw more than 200 different volunteers throughout 2020, which is more than their average number of volunteers during a normal year.

“It’s also a combination of being on the historic floodplain and good gardening practices,” Kroesen said.

“Our staff and volunteers have done a great job getting plants in the ground; a lot of tree roots reach down and break up the soil. And even areas we don’t plan to plant yet, we cover with a thick wood chip mulch, which creates an insulating layer above the soil, keeping it cooler, moister, and creates more soil microbes and insects. That alone helps the soil.”

In addition, Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace received pandemic benefits as a non-profit, including a Capacity-Building Grant in fall 2020 from the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona. This capacity-building grant was aimed at creating

Photo by Heath Hoch

Mission Garden grows a variety of native plants at their lot near A-Mountain as part of their goal to preserve and restore the “cultural heritages and historic landscapes” of Tucson’s origin.

and streamlining sustainable systems for garden operations to allow more time and energy for staff and volunteers to devote to garden work and outreach activities. Kroesen says this type of financial support was especially important due to the reduction in donations throughout the pandemic.

While Mission Garden is one of the main projects of Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace, it’s only part of a larger proposed mission and garden complex. Parts of the historic Mercado District,

mission and garden area fell into decay during the 1800s and 1900s, and were only set up for archeological work and reconstruction following Rio Nuevo legislation approved by Tucson voters in 1999. Plans for a larger “Tucson Origins Heritage Park” were conceptualized in 2003 and work began.

However, economic downturns in 2008 resulted in only parts of the originally planned Mission Garden being completed.

“Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace has always had

the dual mission of recreating this historic garden, and also advocating for creating the entire Tucson Origins Heritage Park. The garden was designed as just one component of that park,” Kroesen said. “We came through 2020 in reasonable shape, but going into this year we still were not hosting large public events until about June for a garlic festival and mesquite milling events.”

For one of their largest recent events, Mission Garden hosted the Arizona

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Explorer and Marana News, Sept. 22, 2021

Pomegranate Festival on Saturday, Sept. 18, which featured food tastings, art exhibits, speakers, and produce sales from the garden’s dozens of pomegranate trees.

In a reversal of last summer, just as visitor traffic began to pick up, so did the rains. Monsoon 2021 ranks as Tucson’s third-rainiest monsoon on record, dumping more than a foot of rain across the Tucson area since mid-June. While the deluge was mostly a welcome site for drought-stricken Arizona, it also resulted in a fair share of property damage, flash floods and swift water rescues. But again, Mission Garden endured and came through stronger.

“We have garden and orchard areas that are sunken down a bit below our pathways, which results in a good amount of rainwater harvesting. At times over the past 10 years, there have been times when rainfall caused those areas to fill up with standing water because it can’t soak in fast enough.

But this year, because of the gardening work and soil cultivation we’ve done here, the soil has become much spongier and the rainwater really infiltrates better,” Kroesen said. “The soils here, as they are on the entire floodplain of the Santa Cruz River, are better than in most parts of town because they are sedimentary soils laid down by river water and canals. They’re finer silts and clays. We have an advantage as compared to the foothills.

But that’s also the work that Mission Garden staff and volunteers have done to improve the soil.”

For more information, visit www.missiongarden.org

Tech Talk: A To-Go COVID Test and Software to Fight Cancer Jeff Gardner Tucson Local Media

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ued testing is vital, and our program has been designed with an emphasis on access so that testing is as easy and available as possible. We continue to adapt this program to best serve the campus community.”

The UA does not require testing. However, Robbins has encouraged all members of the campus to get tested weekly, regardless of vaccination status.

ith a major research university right in our backyard, a strong military presence and innovative companies throughout the metro region, there’s often a plethora of interesting science, medical and technology news to be found in Southern Arizona. Here’s a breakdown of the most interesting recent Pathology Partnerships. developments.

Roche, a global pharmaceutical and medical technology COVID-19 Testing to Go. company, has opened some of The University of Arizona has their software for outside deannounced a “Cats TakeAway velopers to use. The new RoTesting program” for students che Digital Pathology Open and employees to pick up a Environment allows software COVID-19 test kit on the go. developers to integrate their The test is a polymerase chain own image analysis tools for reaction test, which involves tumor tissue with Roche’s swishing and gargling a sa- software and workflows, to line solution and spitting into hopefully improve patient a tube. After, the tests can be outcomes and expand perdropped off at one of multi- sonalized healthcare. Roche’s ple locations on campus, with Oro Valley location Roche results generally available the Tissue Diagnostics, formerly next day. No appointment is Ventana Medical Systems, is required. Pickup and drop- involved in this collaboration off locations planned for the which also uses artificial inCats TakeAway Tests include telligence for better accuracy the Health Sciences Library, in pathology imaging. the Administration Building, “Roche is at the center of Facilities Management, the digital transformation for Global Center, McClelland pathology, and is investing Hall, the Student Recreation heavily in this innovation to Center, the Student Union improve patient outcomes,” Memorial Center and the said Thomas Schinecker, Student Success District.

CEO Roche Diagnostics.

“What we’re looking for, “Providing pathologists with of course, are those asymp- access to innovative digital tomatic people who have no tools from Roche and our idea that they’re infected and collaborators through an are infecting others,” said UA open environment is critical president Robert Robbins for laboratory customers and in a press release. “Contin- the patients they serve.”

Future Mining. The star in the center of Arizona’s flag represents copper and our state’s mining history, producing more copper than any other US state. To further this focus, the Arizona State Legislature recently approved $4 million in funding to the University of Arizona’s new School of Mining and Mineral Resources for 2022.

The new school is part of a collaboration between the UA Colleges of Engineering and Science, and is planned to strengthen the university’s student “pipeline” to the local mining sector. The funding will be used to hire staff, re-

cruit students and improve facilities.

“This investment was one of the most important issues to me this session,” said David Gowan, Senate Appropriations chair and sponsor of the school’s appropriation bill.

“Mining is one of Arizona’s main industries that contributes to our state’s and country’s rapid population growth and economic prosperity.

Mined resources are required to create roads, hospitals, vehicles, houses and computers; to generate power; and to offer the many other goods and services that consumers need in today’s technological

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world.”

The funding is part of the Arizona Board of Regents’ New Economy Initiative, which targets “high-value workforce development” at the state’s three public universities. The UA has reported they’ve also received $6.5 million in donations for the school, thanks in part to large support from the mining industry.

“This funding is critical to fulfilling our vision of establishing southern Arizona as the Silicon Valley of mining,” said David Hahn, dean of the College of Engineering.

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Explorer and Marana News, Sept. 22, 2021

Local author finalist in national book awards Jeff Gardner Tucson Local Media

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lthough she refers to herself as a prolific procrastinator, Marana author MJ Miller has certainly kept busy over the past few years. Following a career in marketing, she has published three full-length novels and two novellas and is currently working on a serial, all in the realm of suspense, romance and “cozy mystery.”

This work recently landed her in the American Book Fest’s American Fiction Awards, where her book “Phantom of Execution Rocks” is a finalist in the romantic suspense cat-

egory. For five years, the awards have focused on honoring excellence in new fiction writing.

“Phantom of Execution Rocks” blends history and legend on the coast of Long Island. While none of her books have focused on Tucson yet, Miller, a former Oro Valley resident, says she is working on a new series of books that will take readers on a tour through the landscape and myths of Arizona.

Have you always been interested in writing, and what was the process to publishing your first book?

since the time I was small.

And whether I was actually writing down stories or just making them up and telling them to people, it’s just who I was most of my life.

But practicality took over and after college I got into advertising and marketing, which is where I wrote for years. So I was always on the fringe of publishing.

One day I started to realize that with self-publishing becoming a thing, there was no reason to leave all my stories in a hard drive.

So about five or six years ago I decided to finish all those stories and throw a few of them out there.

When did you find out I’ve always been writing, you’d been selected as a

finalist for the American Fiction Awards?

This was the third contest I submitted to, and you never hear back unless you actually place or win. So it really was gratifying to place as a finalist because you know the book has some merit, regardless of reviews and editorial. It was really gratifying because I was competing with other writers, and still stood out.

You are a finalist in the Mystery/Suspense category. In your opinion, what makes a good mystery story?

Courtesy photo

“Readers want to be entertained,”Miller says.“They want to fall into the story and let it capture them. They want to feel like they’re invested and that the See MJ Miller, P14 outcome is important to them.”

13

Explorer and Marana News, Sept. 22, 2021

Three books by Tucson authors nearly vanished beneath the waves of the coronavirus Margaret Regan

Special to Tucson Local Media

L

awrence J. Taylor had a great launch plan last year for his book Tales from the Desert Borderland.

The novel is set across the desert southwest, from California and Baja California to Arizona and Sonora, and Taylor had arranged to introduce the book right on the border line, in the Mexican Consulate in Nogales, Arizona. And he had plenty of readings lined up in Tucson and southern Arizona.

But, he says, “The darkness descended and all was canceled.”

The date was April 2020 and that darkness was COVID-19. It nearly buried the book.

Taylor did get a little help from his friends. He lives both in Tucson and in Ireland, where he was long a professor of anthropology at Maynooth University near Dublin. Now emeritus at Maynooth, he is affiliated at the UA’s Center of Latin American Study. So the team there, along with the Southwest Center, organized a virtual launch. Book clubs here and there invited him to speak. And this Friday he’ll lead a virtual talk from the UA, explaining how this book of fiction converges with anthropology. las.arizona.edu/events He’s written five ethnographic books, three about

the U.S. Mexico border, including a well-received study of the Tunnel Kids in Nogales. Tales, his sixth book, is his first work of fiction, and, he would say, his first “ethnographic fiction.”

That doesn’t mean Tales is a difficult academic read.

Enhanced by photos by Maeve Hickey, it’s a gripping volume whose linked stories tell the truth about the heartbreaks of the border. The cast of characters wander through desert landscapes and dusty towns: a couple of Border Patrol agents, one hardcore, another not so much; a young undocumented woman barely surviving in Yuma; Canadian snowbirds who take on an unexpected enterprise.

Near Ajo, there is a troubled young Tohono O’odham man and his aunt, a traditional Hia-Ced woman. Closer to Tucson, vigilante rangers scour Cochise County for undocumented prey; an indigenous young mother and her baby try to get to the promised land; and a band of teenagers hang out inside the treacherous tunnels of Nogales.

It’s not hard to see why Taylor calls it an ethnographic novel. In his beautiful writing about the traditional religious walk to Magdalena, just for example, we can see the anthropologist at work as well as the storyteller.

Taylor’s not the only lo-

cal author whose book was almost smothered by the pandemic.

Rebecca A. Senf, the chief curator at the UA’s Center for Creative Photography, wrote Making a Photographer: The Early Work of Ansel Adams. The book takes a fresh look at Adams, zeroing in on his early years, and it was published by the prestigious Yale University Press, in association with the CCP. The book came out in February 2020, just a month before Taylor’s, and the CCP went all out to celebrate. Senf put together a companion exhibition, “Ansel Adams: Signature Style,” On Feb. 29, leap year day, her book had a lively launch. The center hosted an Ansel Adams birthday party, complete with cake.

Senf gave a talk about her show and the book, and then had a joyful book signing.

Fourteen days after that merry party, the CCP—and art spaces across the nation—shut down to evade the deadly pandemic. Senf arranged zoom talks to help the book along, but various invitations to give book talks were postponed or canceled. Her show lasted just 16 days, and it did not resurface when CCP reopened its doors in August this year.

One good thing in this sorry story is that books last longer than exhibitions.

And Senf’s tale is interesting. Adams fans love his dramatic deep-black and white photos of mountains and cliffs “but his photographs did not always look that way,” Senf writes. “Adams’s work of the 1920s and 1930s offers a more intimate, familiar, subtle and human-scaled landscape. Those early prints are warmer and softer, and they emphasize shape and abstract form much more than do those in his mature period.”

Adams himself thought he did his best work from the 1940s and beyond; he changed his style, Senf discovered, after the National Parks Department commissioned him to photograph the parks. It was then then he began to switch to “bold contrast, operatic treatment and sense of grandeur,” she writes.

Interestingly, various important photographers and critics prefer early Adams.

The late John Szarkowski, a respected—and acer-

bic—curator at MoMa in New York thought the early works were best. He called the later work “melodramatic and, at its worst, bombastic”—fightin’ words for Adams aficionados Coincidentally, Dr. Julie Sasse, chief curator at the Tucson Museum of Art, published a rigorously researched art book at the same time Senf brought out her deep-dive Adams tome.

After four years of Sasse’s writing and researching, Southwest Rising: Contemporary Art and the Legacy of Elaine Horwitch was released. The date: Feb. 29, 2020.

Sasse had worked for 14 years with Horwitch, a colorful dealer who was a powerful force in the southwest art world. Operating from 1964 until her death in 1991, she opened multiple galleries and propelled hundreds of artists into successful careers. Sasse’s book details her influence on Southwest Pop, and a companion show she put

together for the museum displayed the work of Horwitch artists.

A gala opening at the end of February did double duty: introducing the big exhibition to patrons and providing a book signing.

On the bleak day of March 17, when TMA shut down, the glittering evening already seemed like a dream.

But Sasse has had some good luck. TMA opened at the end of July 2020. The Horwitch show was still up on the walls; it ran until Sept. 20. The exhibition has already traveled to the Booth Western Art Museum in Georgia, and this month Sasse is off to the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe for a slightly different Horwitch show.

Sasse will give a talk and do a book signing. And in 2024, Briscoe Western Art Museum in San Antonio, will host the Horwich show.

By that time, we can hope, COVID will have been conquered. And good riddance.

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14

MJ Miller Continued from P12

romantic suspense.

A good mystery is one that keeps you turning the pages and trying to figure out what exactly is happening, without getting confused, and without having it revealed to you in any obvious way. I like to challenge the reader to help figure it out. When I’m writing, I let the story take me where it’s going and sometimes don’t even know the ending until I get there. And I think that helps make it a good mystery, because if I’ve already figured it out, then the reader may have as well.

It also means occasionally you’ll have to write your mystery three, four or five times. Readers want to be entertained. They want to fall into the story and let it capture them. They want to feel like they’re invested and that the outcome is important to them. Because if they don’t care, they won’t finish it.

What is Phantom of Execution Rocks about?

You specifically won in the romantic suspense subcategory. Do you think mystery stories lend themselves toward romance?

I do. Romance comes in a variety of forms, and it’s always about the connection between people. But it’s not always the star. Romance isn’t the point of the book, nor is it all the reader is invested in. To me, it makes what’s happening more interesting. There are elements, but it’s not the focus. That’s what differs between a true romance, and a mystery romance or

That’s always a tough one. Phantom of Execution Rocks is based on some childhood misfits I grew up with, and an actual lighthouse sitting on an island called Execution Rocks. So there is some truth, with real history behind it, but it’s about a journey into the past where the blurred lines of history are coming to the forefront. It’s based on slavery in the north, the maritime abolitionists, and also based on the concept of amateur mystery dinners. It’s a lot of things all converging on this wealthy enclave on Long Island.

Phantom of Execution Rocks doesn’t take place in the Southwest, but do you think the Tucson landscape has influenced your writing at all?

My next series actually takes place in Colorado, but there are a lot of travels throughout Sedona, Flagstaff and Tucson. So I’ve taken a completely different approach for that series. It takes in a lot of the elements that I enjoy here, especially when it comes to Sedona, the vortex, Red Rock. I think all these elements are Arizona’s shining quality. They bring a sense of power and mystery, and my next series has a lot of influence from them.

For more information, visit authormjmiller.com

Explorer and Marana News, Sept. 22, 2021

Vineyard bottles Wine of the Wild to benefit Reid Park Zoo Matt Russell

Special to Inside Tucson Business

H

ave you heard the one about the African elephant, squirrel monkey, giraffe, flamingo, white rhino, and anteater that walk into a bar? A wild time was had by all.

Ba-dum, bump.

But in this case, premium wine is the foundation of the festivities, and whenever a love of animals and passion for wine intersect, Rancho Rossa Vineyards always seems to be at the heart of the story.

This winery located about 50 miles southeast of Tucson has been supporting animal welfare and rescue programs since they planted their first vines in 2002.

As the 20th anniversary of this historic moment in Arizona viticultural history draws near, they’ve released a special wine that pays tribute to six of the more than 250 animals that reside at Tucson’s Reid Park Zoo. And in collaboration with Rescued Hearts Cellars, their sister non-profit organization, Rancho Rossa Vineyards will be donating 100% of the profits from bottle sales to the zoo.

The “Wine of the Wild” is a Bordeaux-style red blend made from Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes that were grown onsite at the winery’s 24-acre estate in the Elgin-Sonoita wine region. Each of the more than 1,500 bottles produced features one of

Courtesy photo

six animals that call our local zoo home, with a corresponding color and creative design on the label to make it unique.

In evaluating the styles of wine that would be a suitable fit for their philanthropy, the winery’s owner Breanna Hamilton knew right away that some of the five grape varietals that define the iconic Bordeaux region would need to be in these bottles.

“We really love Bordeaux wines and we grow Bordeaux grapes, and it’s the style of wine that our fans love the most,” said Hamilton. “We blend Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot every year, sometimes adding other Bordeaux varietals like Petit Verdot and Malbec, and our goal is always to produce nice, well-rounded blends.”

The six animals that made the cut for the Wine of Wild series are the African elephant, squirrel monkey, giraffe, flamingo, white rhino, and anteater. Though

many individuals have purchased all six bottles in the series as a collector’s set—I mean, wouldn’t you?—the one that’s sold the most so far is the African elephant.

“Everyone loves big animals, especially kids who think they’re out of this world,” she said. “Elephants are big, cool, fun, and funny, with great personalities.”

While the elephant currently leads sales, Hamilton’s personal favorite is the rhino which represents the one at Reid Park Zoo who she refers to as “a big puppy dog.”

“Here you have this huge scary animal that enjoys being rubbed and just wants to be loved,” she said.

Hamilton’s winemaker husband Chris reportedly relates best to the squirrel monkey, testimony that didn’t surprise her because “he’s a little bit of a monkey himself,” she revealed.

Wine of the Wild bottles are $25 each and can be purchased at the Rancho Rossa Vineyards tasting

room at 201 Cattle Ranch Lane in Elgin. They can also be ordered online at RanchoRossa.com/shop.

Samples of the wine will be poured at ZOOcson as well, an evening gala at Reid Park Zoo on Friday, Oct. 8, featuring cuisine from local restaurants, samples of local wine, beer, and spirits, auctions, animal ambassador presentations, and live music. Tickets can be purchased at ReidParkZoo.org/ event.

As I take my own walk on the wild side, I think my Wine of the Wild choice would be the anteater. Ants can ruin a backyard party, and I have a reputation to uphold.

Contact Matt Russell, whose day job is CEO of Russell Public Communications, at mrussell@russellpublic. com. Russell is also the publisher of OnTheMenuLive. com as well as the host of the Friday Weekend Watch segment on the “Buckmaster Show” on KVOI 1030 AM.

15

Explorer and Marana News, Sept. 22, 2021

HAPP EN INGS

THEATER

Visit www.tucsonlocalmedia.com/livenup/calendar to submit your free calendar listing.

For event advertising, contact us (520) 797-4384 or tlmsales@tucsonlocalmedia.com

• Enjoy the Pima Community College Music Piano and Soprano Concert season opener featuring “Songs my Mother Taught me.. and Songs I will Teach my Daughter” performed by Dr. Kirsten C Kunkle and Kassandra Weleck. Details: 3 p.m.; PCC West Campus, Center for the Arts, Recital Hall, 2202 W. Anklam Rd.; $5-$6; 206-6986.

FRIDAY AND SUNDAY, SEPT. • Listen to Kevin Sterner and the 24 AND 26 Strait Country Band honor the man • Welcome back the Tucson and his music at Fugitive, A Merle Symphony Orchestra with Opening Haggard Tribute performing timeless Night Tchaikovsky Fourth featuring classics such as “Silver Wings,”“Okie Wednesday-Thursday, 6 and 8:30 conductor José Luis Gomez and From Muskogee” and many more. p.m. Friday-Saturday, 3 and 6 p.m. trumpeter Pacho Flores. Details: Details: 6 p.m.; Gaslight Music Hall, Sunday; Gaslight Theatre, 7010 E. 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Sunday; 13005 N. Oracle Road; $27; 529-1000 Tucson Music Hall, 260 S. Church Broadway Blvd.; $21.95-$23.95; or gaslightmusichall.com.

Ave.; $17-$83; ticketmaster.com. $13.95 children; 886-9428 or • Listen to the Tucson Pops Orchesthegaslighttheatre.com. tra fall concert series featuring SATURDAY, SEPT. 25 music director/conductor László WEDNESDAY TO SUNDAY, • Watch authentic performances Veres with selections from “My Fair NOV. 17DEC. 5 of the biggest and most iconic Lady.” Details: 7 p.m.; DeMeester • It’s not too early to get tickets for songs at Return to Woodstock Outdoor Performance Center, 1100 the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical with the Tributaries. Details: 6 S. Randolph Way; free; 722-5853 Hamilton that created a revolup.m.; Gaslight Music Hall, 13005 or tucsonpops.org. tionary moment in theatre featur- N. Oracle Road; $27; 529-1000 or • Listen to two-time Grammy-wining a score that blends hip-hop, gaslightmusichall.com. ner and cultural phenomenon Rickjazz, R&B and Broadway. Details: • Rock the night away with “rocka- ie Lee Jones delivering a memorable 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, 8 billy’s greatest modern ambassa- live concert experience. Details: 7 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 pm. Saturday; dor” Chris Isaak with his longtime p.m.; Fox Theatre, 17 W. Congress 1 and 7 p.m. Sunday; UA Centenband Silvertone. Details: 7:30 p.m.; St.; $35-$58; foxtucson.com. nial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd.; Fox Theatre, 17 W. Congress St.; broadwayintucson.com. $43-$98; foxtucson.com.

MONDAY, SEPT. 27 • Celebrate the classic lineup of the • Don’t miss The Music of the legendary superstar band at MiTraveling Wilburys and Solo Hits rage A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac. starring Mike Hebert, Todd ThompFRIDAY, SEPT. 24 Details: 7:30 p.m.; DesertView son and Mike Yarema. Details: 6 • Get your feet moving with music Performing Arts Center, 39900 S. p.m.; Gaslight Theatre, 7010 E. that has truly stood the test of Clubhouse Drive; $30; 825-2818.

Broadway Blvd.; $25-$27, $15 time at the Rock & Roll All Nite children; 886-9428 or thegaslightDance Party with Vinyl Tap. Details: SUNDAY, SEPT. 26 theatre.com.

7 p.m.; Gaslight Music Hall, 13005

time-traveling Irish love story Bloomsday dancing backwards TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY, through time as an older couple SEPT. 25OCT. 16 retraces their steps to discover their • Catch a performance of the younger selves. Details: 7:30 p.m. delightful award-winning musical Thursday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday; My 80-Year-Old Boyfriend about Live Theatre Workshop, 3322 E. Fort the magic that happens when we Lowell Rd.; $15-$20; 327-4242. throw aside our fears and cross generational barriers based on the WEDNESDAY THROUGH true story of a Broadway perform- SUNDAY THROUGH NOV. 7 er. Details: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Sat- • Comedy comes alive at the new urday, 7 p.m. Sunday; Temple of spoof Frankenstein with the classic Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave.; story of a scientist who brings his $40-$73; arizonatheatre.org. experiment to life. Details: 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY TO SUNDAY THROUGH SEPT. 26

• Catch a performance of Looped about original bad girl from the golden age of Hollywood Tallulah Bankhead on an infamous day in film history. Details: 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday-Saturday, 2 p.m.

Sunday, Invisible Theatre, 1400 N. First Ave.; $40; 882-9721 or invisibletheatre.com.

THURSDAY TO SUNDAY THROUGH SEPT. OCT. 3

• Catch a performance of Jacqueline Goldfinger’s Babel featuring a dark sci-fi comedy set in the near future raising the specter of eugenics.

Details: 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday; Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre in the Historic Y, 738 N. Fifth Ave., #131; $28-$30, $15 students and teachers; 448-3300 or scoundrelandscamp.org.

THURSDAY TO SUNDAY THROUGH OCT. 9

• Catch a performance of the

N. Oracle Road; $20; 529-1000 or gaslightmusichall.com.

• Don’t miss multi-platinum and Grammy Award-winner John Legend live at his Bigger Love 2021 Tour. Details: 8 p.m.; Casino del Sol AVA Amphitheater, 5655 W. Valencia Road; $32-$75; casinodelsol.com.

MUSIC

THURSDAY, SEPT. 30

• Tap your toes to the traditional tunes performed by Old Pueblo Bluegrass and Cadillac Mt. Bluegrass at the return of the Bluegrass Jamboree. Details: 6 p.m.; Gaslight Music Hall, 13005 N. Oracle Road; $27; 529SATURDAY TO SUNDAY 1000 or gaslightmusichall.com.

FRIDAY, OCT. 1

CLASSES AND PROGRAMS

SPECIAL EVENTS

FRIDAY, SEPT. 24

• Learn to make the right Plant Selection for the Desert Garden with tips from AZ Plant Lady Noelle Johnson presented online by SATURDAY, SEPT. 25 • Bring the entire family to the Tuc- Tucson Botanical Gardens. Details: 10 a.m.-noon; Zoom link provided; son Comic and Toy Expo featuring vintage toys, comics and collectibles $30, discount for members; tucsonbotanical.org; 326-9686. with vendors from across Arizona and California. Details: 9 a.m.-4 p.m.; The Fraternal Order of Police Hall, 3445 N. Dodge Blvd.; $2; 322- SUNDAY, SEPT. 26 0422 or tcatexpo.com.

• Don your running shoes for the • Help raise funds for The Humane Everyone Runs Holualoa Reverse Society of Southern Arizona at Resthe Course with 5 or 10-mile races cue Me featuring dinner, live auction through the park followed by and guest speaker. Details: 5-9 p.m.; breakfast after the run. Details: Hilton El Conquistador Resort, 10000 6:15 and 9 a.m.; Catalina State N. Oracle Rd.; hssaz.org.

Park, 11570 N. Oracle Rd.; $46 and

OUTDOORS

SATURDAY, OCT. 2

• Come to the grownup fundraiser

Let our hungry readers know you are there!

Give us a call today 797-4384 The Northwest’s Newspaper

THROUGH OCT. 10

• Oktoberfest is back at Mt. Lemmon • Get ready to experience a high with authentic food, traditional energy show with all the bells and German-style music and dancing, whistles and the biggest hits from children’s games and live music by Motley Crue, Guns n Roses, Van the Musikmeisters band. Details; Halen, Quiet Riot, Bon Jovi, Def Lep- noon-5 p.m.; Ski Valley, 10300 Ski pard and more performed by The Run Rd.; skithelemmon.com.

Dirt – 80’s Hair Metal Experience.

Details: 8 p.m.; Casino del Sol AVA Amphitheater, 5655 W. Valencia Road; $9-$20; casinodelsol.com.

Calling all Bars & Restaurants Out door dining, Take -out, or Delivery!

Evening of Play at the Tucson Children’s Museum featuring food from local restaurants, live music

by Naim Amor, dancing, karaoke, lawn games and roving entertainment. Details: 6:30 p.m.; 200 S. 6th Ave.; $150; eveningofplay.org.

up; everyoneruns.net.

16

Explorer and Marana News, Sept. 22, 2021

SPORTS EXTRA POINT WITH TOM DANEHY &RECREATION

Wildcats fumble chance to win over fans at home opener Tom Danehy

Special to Tucson Local Media

I

got an email from a dad of a girl I coached in basketball a few years back. I have to say that he came close to being the perfect sports parent. He would show up to the games, root for his daughter and her teammates, not say anything to or about the refs, and never forget that no matter how heated things got, it was still just a game. Of course, the fact that his daughter was a starter

on a team that went 25-4 her senior year probably made it easier for him to remain even-keeled.

The thing that kept him from achieving a perfect score? He had this really annoying habit of asking me why my team didn’t have anything resembling a set offense. (None of my teams ever do. I want them to play basketball, not play plays.)

Anyway, he wanted to share with me (so that I might share with you) his experience at the Arizona-San Diego State football game. Everybody

knows that the Wildcats took a serious whuppin’ that night, but that wasn’t the bad part. Well, it was a BAD part, but it wasn’t the worst part.

I thought that the ad campaign this summer involving Arizona football was brilliant. They made subtle mention that the Wildcat program is at perhaps the lowest point in its history, but the focus was on a new vibe, a new intensity, new leadership.

It sounded and looked really good, especially considering what it had to work with.

The San Diego State game would be the first in Arizona Stadium with a live crowd since 2019.

COVID-exhausted fans were raring to return to the mass ritual of emotional release. The relatively close loss to BYU in the opener in Las Vegas added to the (guarded) groundswell of enthusiasm.

“I was really looking forward to it,” he recalls.

“I’ve been a season-ticket holder for decades. It’s one of the few ‘luxuries’ that my wife and I have indulged in. We’re not wealthy, we can’t afford

to sit up in the skyboxes. Our family vacations have always been to pile the kids in the SUV and drive to the mountains or a lake.” He pauses, then adds with a chuckle, “One time we went to a lake that was in the mountains.”

He and his wife arrived at the game about 45 minutes before kickoff. In the past, they have walked around the tailgate, soaking up the sights and smells, but the recent resurgence of COVID made them skip that part of the festivities. (They knew that they would still be sitting in a crowd, but it would be among people with whom they have sat and cheered for many, many years.)

It turned out that there was no need for concern.

By the time they finally got to their seats, it was like a ghost town. With a nod to technology and a blind eye to customer comfort, the University switched to an electronic ticketing system, eliminating printed tickets while requiring digital tickets that have to be scanned.

“It was a nightmare,” he explains. “My wife and I are both college gradu-

ates, but like many people our age, we lack the ability to navigate our phones. A 16-year-old could do it in their sleep. A 50-year-old, not so easy.”

And there was another issue with the ticketing system. A hardcore and sentimental fan, he has kept the ticket stub for every game he has ever attended. He writes the score on the ticket and files it in a shoebox in the garage. That ended last week.

“We were in line for more than an hour trying to get into the stadium.

Lots and lots of people were having trouble getting the ticket on their phone. That’s probably user error, but somebody told me that the WiFi around the stadium is sub-standard.”

There also weren’t enough people working.

After the COVID year, some workers didn’t come back. Others weren’t properly trained and the UA may have underestimated the crowd size (which was the smallest opening-night crowd in decades).

By all estimates, hundreds—if not thousands—

of people just left out of frustration. “There were some really angry people, swearing that they’d never come back.”

They finally got to their seats shortly before halftime. The UA was losing by about a million. He decided to go to the concession stand, but when he got there, somebody told him that they had been in line more than 20 minutes and the line had barely moved.

He went back, empty-handed, to sit with his wife. The stadium was three-fourths empty, the Zona Zoo long gone.

He remembers that he laughed and said, “Well, at least there isn’t a plague of locusts.”

And then came a horde of those crunchy black beetles.

And then, a week later, NAU came to town...

EXTRA POINTS: The Marana Tigers continue to be the surprise football team in Southern Arizona, if not the entire state.

The Tigers moved to 3-0 on the season by throttling Tucson High, 48-7.

Marana led 34-0 at the half and then just cruised… It

Explorer and Marana News, Sept. 22, 2021

is possible that Marana could be 8-0 heading into November, when they would close out the regular season with home games against powerful Cienega and Ironwood Ridge… The Ridge improved to 2-1 on the season with a tight 13-7 win over non-conference foe Campo Verde…

Last week, Canyon Del Oro lost a tough one by the score of 35-28… This week, it was another loss by almost the exact same score, 34-27… The Dorados are 0-3… Flowing Wells got its first win of the year, 37-21, over Empire. The Caballeros face Marana this Friday, with the game being played at Amphi… About onethird of the way into the season, Canyon Del Oro and Flowing Wells have the best records in girls volleyball among Northwest schools. CDO is a perfect 7-0, while Flowing Wells is 5-2…

Know Us Know Your Community

Athlete of the Week Boe Reh: Top athlete, top scholar Tom Danehy

Special to Tucson Local Media

I

t has been a long, strange journey for Amphi junior Boe Reh (pronounced Bo Ray), but it’s going quite well right now and should be even greater in years to come. Boe and his family are Karenni, an ethnic group from Burma (now Myanmar) that was the subject of attempted genocide. Many Karenni escaped into Thailand; that’s where Boe was born. His family eventually made it to America, where they have adapted incredibly well.

Boe is absolutely devouring high school, taking classes like AP Physics and Calculus (as a junior), while playing not

one, two or three sports, but four, a feat almost unheard of in this day and age of club teams and coerced specialization. And he’s just killing it in the classroom.

His distant cousin, Mi Meh (also a Karenni), is on track to be the valedictorian for this year’s senior class at Amphi, while Boe is the front-runner for that honor in the Class of ’23. I asked him what his grade-point average was. He knew that he has straight A’s through high school, but he had to whip out his phone to check his weighted GPA (from all the AP classes he’s been taking).

For what was a minute or so (but probably felt like an eternity in teenage time), Boe poked and prodded and furiously

swiped at his phone, but couldn’t gain access to his school records. He finally gave up. I told him that, a million years ago, I had also been valedictorian and I can never get stuff off my phone, either. It’s probably just a valedictorian thing.

He’s currently playing cornerback for the undefeated Panthers. He has made several big tackles, but has yet to break up (or intercept) a pass. “They don’t throw the ball near me,” he says, completely guilelessly.

Boe and his teammates are certainly hoping to make it to state this year (the Panthers were a perfect 4-0 last year when the Health Department shut down the season due to an exploding COVID-19 situation). But, whenever the

football season comes to an end, it will just be time for Boe to move on to his favorite sport, soccer.

“I’ve been playing soccer since I was very young.

I remember watching the Karenni soccer team play in Phoenix.”

But after soccer will come the real test of his athletic prowess, not to mention his time management. Boe is the setter on the boys’ volleyball team (which plays in the spring). However, several of his friends (and Mi Meh) are trying to talk him into playing tennis, not instead of volleyball, but as well. Boe is such a good athlete, if he were to go out for tennis (a sport at which he has simply dabbled in the past), he would instantly be the No. 2 player on the varsity squad.

17

Courtesy photo

Looking ahead, he wants to go to college, but not in California or anywhere in the South.

His field of study?

“Something in medicine… or maybe engineering.”

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18

Explorer and Marana News, Sept. 22, 2021

HOROSCOPE By Holiday Mathis

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ACROSS

Breaded and topped with tomato sauce and mozzarella, for short 5 “Holy mackerel!”

9 Instrument played by indie rock’s Sufjan Stevens 13 Black-and-white item in a sleeve 14 V.I.P. on base 15 Winter bugs 16 With 26-Across, game that uses a blindfold 18 Part of the food pyramid 19 Gardening tool 20 Fruit in the William Carlos Williams poem “This Is Just to Say” 22 Edward Snowden’s former employer, in brief 23 Black History Mo. 26 See 16-Across 29 “Why?” 31 Puts up 32 Bird that had no natural predators until humans arrived

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DOWN

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33 Tick (off) 35 Babe Zaharias was the first

woman to compete on its tour, in brief 36 Item exchanged in a so-called “yankee swap” 41 John Lewis was born here: Abbr.

42 Org. that oversees O.T.C.s 43 Campaign expense 45 Get situated 48 Pacify 50 Frequent reveler, or a hint to 16-/26- and 36-Across 53 Hit the slopes 54 “___ be my pleasure” 55 Lots 56 Hearty laugh 58 Tidy 60 Cartoonist suggested by this puzzle’s theme 65 Brand in the ice cream aisle 66 Aches (for) 67 Words after a gasp

Know Us, Know Your Community

Dad “Midsommar” director Aster ___ faire (historical re-enactment event, for short) 4 Fly-by-night type?

5 Fuel up, in a way 6 Visual in an annual report 7 Nimble 8 Hornswoggle 9 Toggle option 10 Artist’s starting place 11 Get-go 12 Guest ___, what The New York Times calls op-eds 14 What an asterisk might suggest 17 Centaur’s foot 21 Transform 23 Repeated string in a chain letter subject line 24 Website with articles like “10 Surprising Ways to Use Mayonnaise Around Your Home” 25 Things best kept under one’s hat?

27 Data structure with a root node 28 Undo 30 Half of a half-bathroom 34 Tiny toymaker 37 Tucker who had her first hit in 1972 and won her first Grammys in 2020 38 Cheese used in Babybels 39 Fruits whose seeds can act as a substitute for black peppercorns 40 Something to do 44 Latin gods 45 Shared one’s views 46 For all ages, as a video game 47 Tell 49 Also 51 At all, in dialect 52 Combined 57 Pretzel, basically 59 Shaming syllable 61 Drug dosages: Abbr.

62 Light bulb moment sound 63 Show with the recurring character Target Lady, in brief 64 “Piggy” 1 2 3

TAURUS (April 20-May 20). You see into a future that others are ignoring. You correctly sense that it’s time to bring greater intentionality and dedication to a matter. This is even more urgent than it seems. The change you make will positively affect many. And if you don’t make it, many more will be adversely affected.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). Sometimes, trying to be in the moment actually ruins your chances of achieving it. The hyperfocus on having the now experience forces presence out of the way, clouding the mind with questions like “Am I doing it right?” and “Is this it?”

Breathe the moment in; breathe out your requirements of it.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21). Your cosmic gift of the week is an improved ability to delay gratification. You’ll think before acting and switch quickly from short-term thinking to long-range vision of possible consequences and benefits. This is no small talent. You will be the lighthouse that keeps others on course and away from dangerous rocky shores.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). Miscalculations will be costly, so it’s important to get the math right the first time around. Double-check the address before you leave the house. Ask about hidden costs and things like delivery, tax and insurance. Most snags are avoidable, and your spirit of research and inquiry will bring benefits beyond financial.

CANCER (June 22-July 22). Your emotions are as accessible as liquid from the tap this week.

You have an uncanny knack for turning them up or dialing them down at will. What you don’t have, however, is the ability to choose what flows from this tap. Its connections are mysterious and deep. There’s no such thing as an incorrect feeling.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Collaborations with people who understand how to collaborate will be golden. Trying to build with those who don’t observe good sportsmanship will still be better than going it alone, if only for the chance to favorably influence others.

Lessons in teamwork are life-changing regardless of the result.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). You want to give a pure part of yourself, but it’s a tricky thing to pull off. Self-consciousness sets in, which ruins the effect. You can’t will this awareness away, but you can practice and get comfortable enough for insecurities to melt off. The more immersed in the present you are, the less self-conscious you’ll be.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). Plenty of people around you are reaping the benefits of the problem-solving and other work you do with your unique, marvelous brain. You deserve more credit than you get for this. At the very least, you should be giving yourself attention, care and resources to keep the mental energy flowing strong.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). The ones familiar with a certain kind of work know what it entails. Those who are naive on the matter will make unreasonable demands. It’s nothing to take offense at. If they are willing to learn, educate them. If they are not, cut your losses.

What you give is too valuable to waste on immature prospects.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). Since no one thrives alone, the skills that bond you with others are crucial to your prospering. Your accurate self-awareness shines among your many talents. The ability to understand yourself is at the core of this week’s success and will be the reason for your advancement in a social, economic or professional setting.

Crossword Puzzle Answers

21

in gum

E G A R T A P T H R E E E L F

20

68 Its underside might be covered 69 The first cloned mammals 70 Yarn

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36

12

O B O E F L U S F A T S N S A N K E Y E C T S G A A N T T V A D E A S E S K I K N A S T O H N O T A L E

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A D G E I L L U M E D O E R P E P H D A A P P M A L Y U M A S G S S

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I N O N E

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9 15

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N O H O W

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P A R M O R E O S P I N T H E H O E F E O N W H T F O D O O T W I T E L A E N T T Y A A T T L E

5

T S K

4

B A D H A I R D A Y S

3

R A T E D E

2

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). You will see what you expect to see, which makes it harder to see anything new. Even the new views, colored by what was advertised, are seen through eyes that have witnessed them already. For this reason, it is of utmost importance to go where you haven’t been and know very little about.

O P I N E D

1

ARIES (March 21-April 19). Your high self-esteem doesn’t mean you think others are less valuable than you. It only means you know what you can trust yourself to do. This week, you are more powerful than you realize. Just by showing up and doing your best, you contribute to the rising tide that carries all ships.

19

Explorer and Marana News, Sept. 22, 2021

Worship Guide 520.797.4384

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20

Explorer and Marana News, Sept. 22, 2021

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Explorer and Marana News, Sept. 22, 2021

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Explorer and Marana News, Sept. 22, 2021

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HEALTH & WELLNESS

Flu season on top of COVID! Mia Smitt

Special to Tucson Local Media

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s if we do not have quite enough to worry about health-wise, the flu season will be upon us soon. Coughing, head and chest congestion, achy muscles, runny nose… is it COVID, influenza or another viral illness? We often do not know except through laboratory testing. Supportive care (such as rest, fluids, anti-inflammatory medication and TLC) is often the best course for milder symptoms. Sadly, some people can become very ill and require hospitalization and intensive care treatment. For the vast majority of us, prevention is the key.

Prevention is the first defense against both COVID and influenza (flu). Numerous studies in various settings have shown that hand washing is a foremost preventive strategy that costs pennies but saves dollars.

Hand washing prevents the spread of viruses and should be done before eating, before and after working with young children, after using the rest room, shopping and handling money…this list could be endless. Masking has been popular in Asian countries (and Asian communities here in the US) for decades. Masks were adopted worldwide during the 1918 Influenza pandemic and now we are again wearing masks to try to prevent the spread of COVID. It is

interesting to note that last year’s flu season was lighter, possibly due to increased diligence with preventive measures. Vaccination is an essential component in prevention of disease. Yearly flu vaccines save lives.

Every fall, we see the recommendation that we all get the flu vaccine posted in everywhere from social media to the side of buses.

Many people heed the advice and bare their arms for the injection or their noses for the nasal spray to protect themselves and the people around them from the flu and its potential complications. Others reject this and other vaccines, arguing that they don’t need it or they fear it will make them ill or that vaccinations in general are an infringement on their rights. (The right to get sick and possibly infect others?)

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 49% of the U.S population was vaccinated against the 2018 -2019 seasonal flu. This prevented an estimated 4.4 million flu illnesses, 58,000 flu hospitalizations, and 3,500 flu deaths. The 20192020 statistics are complicated by COVID survey restrictions as well as illness overlap and are still being evaluated but the CDC estimates that influenza vaccination prevented 7.52 million illnesses, 105,000 hospitalizations, and 6,300 deaths associated with influenza.

The Canadian Cardiovascular Congress presented two studies that the flu vac-

cine cuts the risk for a heart attack or stroke by 50%. Dr. Jacob Udell led a team of researchers from the TIMI Study Group (“Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction,” an Academic Research Organization affiliated with Harvard Medical School) who examined published clinical trials dating back to the 1960s. The trials included 3,227 subjects whose average age was 60 years and half of whom had been diagnosed with heart disease previously. They were randomly assigned to a group which either received the flu vaccine or a placebo and their health status was monitored for the following year.

Those who had the vaccine were half as likely to face the risk of a major cardiac event such as stroke or heart attack and there was a 40% reduction in death from any cause compared to placebo after a year of follow up for those with and without already diagnosed heart disease. The New England Journal of Medicine (January 25, 2018) reported that the risk of having a heart attack was six times higher within a week of a flu infection. The October 20, 2020 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine published a study that evaluated 80,000 adults in the US who were hospitalized with the flu over eight flu seasons (2010-2018) and found that 12% (one in eight patients) developed serious heart complications.

Of interest is an “inflammation connection.” The

body’s response to viral and bacterial illness is an inflammatory response—which can be healthy in certain circumstances but deadly if this inflammation causes the rupture of plaque in arteries.

This plaque rupture is a major cause of heart attacks and strokes.

Flu symptoms can be similar to COVID symptoms. Fever, shortness of breath, headache, fatigue, sore throat, nausea, diarrhea, and muscle aches can be indicative of either illness and should be investigated if they persist after a day or

two. Complications can be serious to life threatening, especially in those over 65, people with chronic illness, and very young children.

Testing can determine if either virus is present or quarantine or isolation measures should be taken to prevent transmission.

Flu vaccines are available now. The optimal time to get them is late September-early October in order to get good protection through the flu season (mid October - early March). Most pharmacies do not require an appointment, primary care offices have them, and often vaccine centers are established as the need arises. Vaccination saves lives, prevents serious

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illness, and fosters community health. The American Heart Association and The American College of Cardiology recommend the flu vaccine for all patients with any cardiovascular disease and the CDC advises the vaccine for everyone over the age of six months.

As a nation we are still woefully under vaccinated against influenza. Senior citizens have the highest vaccination rate. We need to follow the example of our wise elders and get that shot!

Mia Smitt is a nurse practitioner with a specialty in family practice. She recently retired and settled in Tucson She is originally from San Francisco.

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Explorer and Marana News, Sept. 22, 2021