Tucson Weekly, Dec. 23, 2021

CURRENTS: OMICRON IS HERE!

DECEMBER 23 - 29, 2021 • TUCSONWEEKLY.COM • FREE

Ring In 2022!

Your guide to Tucson’s best New Year’s Eve parties

By Jeff Gardner

COMMENTARY: Brother Coyote’s Holiday Ode To Tucson

CHOW: Picture the Gallery of Food

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DECEMBER 23, 2021

DECEMBER 23, 2021

DECEMBER 23, 2021 | VOL. 36, NO. 51

TUCSONWEEKLY.COM

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STAFF

CONTENTS

CURRENTS

Senator Sinema to maintain filibuster

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CURRENTS

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Ode to the Old Pueblo: Reflecting on desert living

SONORAN EXPLORIN’

A day at the Dirty T Flea

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FEATURE

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Where to howl in Tucson on New Year’s Eve

CINEMA

ADMINISTRATION Steve T. Strickbine, Publisher Michael Hiatt, Vice President

EDITOR’S NOTE

Jaime Hood, General Manager, jaime@tucsonlocalmedia.com

Goodbye, Big Jim

Tyler Vondrak, Associate Publisher, tyler@tucsonlocalmedia.com Claudine Sowards, Accounting, claudine@tucsonlocalmedia.com

TUCSON LOST A LOCAL LEGEND last weekend with the death of “Big Jim” Griffith, a folklorist and author perhaps best known as the founder of Tucson Meet Yourself, the annual gathering that spotlights the music, storytelling and—of course—delicious food of the many cultures that make up our community.

Tucson Meet Yourself is a spectacular way to experience the many flavors of Tucson, but Big Jim’s contributions to documenting folk life in Southern Arizona and Northern Mexico are immeasurable. In his books, he captured stories and legends that could be so easily lost as generations pass from the earth.

He’ll be deeply missed. The Weekly will be doing a tribute issue to him in early January and I’m looking for contributions from the folks who knew him best. If you’ve got a story to tell about Big Jim, email it to me at jimn@ tucsonlocalmedia.com.

On a brighter note, this week we launch a new column from calendar editor Emily Dieckman. Sonoran Explorin’ will share stories about Emily’s adventures around Southern Arizona as she meets people and digs into what makes this place so special. This week, she’s visiting the new Dirty T Flea, an open-air swap meet at Park Place.

Meanwhile, Christmas is here and New Year’s Eve is right around the country. Manag-

ing editor Jeff Gardner has assembled a list of places you can ring in 2022—but do be careful, because the extremely contagious COVID variant, Omicron, has arrived in Pima County, hospitals are as full as the all the inns in Bethlehem, and far too many people remain unvaccinated. (A reminder to get your shot or your booster if you haven’t already.)

Elsewhere in the book this week: Staff reporter Alexandra Pere fills you in on the latest on COVID; States Newsroom reporter Jacob Fischler informs us that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is still unwilling to bust the filibuster to advance voting-rights legislation; Brother Coyote shares a Christmas ode to the Old Pueblo; contributor Christina Fuoco-Karasinski profiles Cheryl Cage, who has shifted from working in politics to writing children’s books; food writer Valerie Vinyard explores the Gallery of Food; and we’ve got more throughout the book, so give it a quick read before you use it as kindling for your yule log.

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Jim Nintzel Executive Editor Hear Nintz talk about all things Tucson Weekly at 9:30 a.m. Wednesdays during the world-famous Frank Show on KLPX, 96.1 FM.

Sheryl Kocher, Receptionist, sheryl@tucsonlocalmedia.com EDITORIAL Jim Nintzel, Executive Editor, jimn@tucsonlocalmedia.com Jeff Gardner, Managing Editor, jeff@tucsonlocalmedia.com Alexandra Pere, Staff Reporter, apere@timespublications.com Contributors: David Abbott, Rob Brezsny, Max Cannon, Rand Carlson, Tom Danehy, Emily Dieckman, Bob Grimm, Andy Mosier, Linda Ray, Margaret Regan, Will Shortz, Jen Sorensen, Clay Jones, Dan Savage PRODUCTION Courtney Oldham, Production Manager, tucsonproduction@timespublications.com Ryan Dyson, Graphic Designer, ryand@tucsonlocalmedia.com Emily Filener, Graphic Designer, emilyf@tucsonlocalmedia.com CIRCULATION Alex Carrasco, Circulation, alexc@tucsonlocalmedia.com ADVERTISING TLMSales@TucsonLocalMedia.com Kristin Chester, Account Executive, kristin@tucsonlocalmedia.com Candace Murray, Account Executive, candace@tucsonlocalmedia.com NATIONAL ADVERTISING Zac Reynolds Director of National Advertising Zac@TimesPublications.com Tucson Weekly® is published every Thursday by Times Media Group at 7225 N. Mona Lisa Rd., Ste. 125, Tucson, Arizona. Address all editorial, business and production correspondence to: Tucson Weekly, 7225 N. Mona Lisa Rd., Ste. 125, Tucson, Arizona 85741. Phone: (520) 797-4384, FAX (520) 575-8891. Member of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN). The Tucson Weekly® and Best of Tucson® are registered trademarks of Times Media Group. Publisher has the right to refuse any advertisement at his or her discretion.

RANDOM SHOTS By Rand Carlson

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Jingle All The Way director speaks at 25th anniversary screening

TUCSON WEEDLY

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AZNORML prepares for 2022 legislative session

Cover image from 123RF

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

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CURRENTS

OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO

Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) gives remarks before President Joe Biden signs the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Monday, November 15, 2021, on the South Lawn of the White House. Sinema continues to support the filibuster even though it means the Democratic Party can’t advance voting-rights legislation.

BALLOT BUST

Sinema opposes filibuster carveout to advance voting rights legislation

By Jacob Fischler States Newsroom ARIZONA’S ENIGMATIC U.S. SEN Kyrsten Sinema remains opposed to weakening the Senate’s 60-vote threshold for moving ahead on legislation, even as other Democrats are floating the idea of making an exception to the chamber’s rules to pass major voting rights measures.

In a statement to States Newsroom, a Sinema spokeswoman said the senator supports the voting rights bills but fears that changing Senate rules would ultimately undermine the bills’ goals and Americans’ faith in the legislative process.

Sinema’s fellow Senate Democrats renewed calls last week to bypass the 60-vote threshold for voting rights legislation as the end of the year and a holiday recess loom.

“Senator Sinema strongly supports and has voted for [voting rights legislation]—and will continue to support such efforts, because she believes that the right to vote and faith in our electoral process are critical to the health of our democracy,” her spokeswoman, Hannah Hurley, wrote in a Thursday email.

“As she has throughout her time in the U.S. House and Senate, Senator Sinema also continues to support the Senate’s 60-vote threshold, to protect the country from repeated radical reversals in federal policy which would cement uncertainty, deepen divisions, and further erode Americans’ confidence in our government,” Hurley continued.

Senate rules require 60 votes, rather than a simple majority, to override a filibuster, a tool the chamber’s minority party can use to block legislation by refusing to yield the floor and thus indefinitely delay a vote.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

DECEMBER 23, 2021

CURRENTS

COURTESY PHOTO

Daily COVID cases in Arizona are matching the summer 2020 surge thanks to omicron.

BREATHE UNEASY

Pima County supervisors pass a new mask mandate as Omicron variant arrives in Pima County As a result, although I firmly believed each of us should be wearing masks when we are in group settings, I’m certain that a sizable number of Pima County residents will defy or WITH THE ARRIVAL OF THE NEW COVID variant Omicron in Pima County, the ignore any mandate we may enact today.”

Whether the mask mandate will have Pima County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 much effect remains to be seen, as a new state to enact a new mandate requiring people to law passed last year allows business owners mask up while indoors.

Supervisor Matt Heinz said he was urging to ignore any mask mandate passed by local his colleagues to pass a new mask mandate authorities. because local hospitals are near capacity and Acting County Administrator Jan Lesher the new Omicron variant is highly transmis- conceded that the county has little ability to sible. require residents to wear masks.

But Supervisor Rex Scott, who voted “While admittedly there is no practical against the mandate, said that while he enforcement option, it has been shown in wished more people would wear masks, he this community and elsewhere in the country feared a new mask mandate would be unenthat the mere existence of a mask mandate forceable because the burden would fall on increases the likelihood of mask use by the ordinary workers at shops across the county. public,” Lesher wrote in a memo to the board.

“A county-imposed mask mandate would be Scott said that if the Board could pass a mandate that would result in universal mask a call-to-arms for everyone in the county to step up and do their part to help prevent the wearing in public places, “I would vote for it spread of a deadly virus, especially during the in an instant. Unfortunately, ever since the holidays.” pandemic began, there has been an ugly The county’s first case of Omicron was bevy of falsehoods, fears, and resentments detected last week, according to Pima County about masks fed to our citizens by some in health officials, who announced on Thursday, leadership positions who should be forever Dec. 16, that genetic sequencing detected ashamed of their ignorance and selfishness.

By Alexandra Pere apere@tucsonlocalmedia.com

Omicron in a random test sample from early December. On Tuesday, University of Arizona officials announced that the first case of Omicron had been detected on campus.

“We knew it was a matter of when, and not if, Omicron would be in Pima County,” said Pima County Health Department Director Dr. Theresa Cullen in a press release.

There is speculation the Omicron variant causes less severe symptoms than the original virus and the Delta variant, but more research is needed to accurately determine the variant’s severity. Thus far, it is clear Omicron is more transmissible than the original virus.

The high transmissibility of Omicron will most likely lead to more infections and break out infections in vaccinated people. COVID vaccines with an additional booster shot should effectively protect people from severe illness and death caused by Omicron, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Pfizer-BioNTech released preliminary results from a non-peer-reviewed study showing the Pfizer COVID-19 two-dose vaccination series will somewhat neutralize the Omicron variant, but three doses are most effective.

“Getting the vaccine is highly effective in preventing serious illness and death, including against the variants,” Cullen said.

“If you have been vaccinated, get boosted to stay protected. And follow the other layered mitigation strategies—wear a mask in public indoor spaces, wash your hands frequently and physically distance.”

The high transmissibility of the Omicron variant threatens to further overwhelm Arizona healthcare systems.

Banner Health, Arizona’s largest healthcare system, reported hospital inpatient numbers are at the highest level since the start of the pandemic during a Dec. 14 press conference.

Banner Health Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Marjorie Bessel said some Banner hospitals are operating above 100% capacity.

Although COVID patients aren’t the only people filling hospital beds, unvaccinated people are more likely to be hospitalized than vaccinated people. The Arizona Department of Health Services recently released a report showing unvaccinated Arizonans were 3.9 times more likely to test positive for COVID and were 15.2 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than vaccinated Arizonans.

“My top ask of the community at this time is for all who are eligible to get vaccinated and receive your boosters if you have not yet done so,” Bessel said. “This is the best way to prevent serious COVID illness that requires hospital-level care.”

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Bessel said Banner is at a contingency level of care but could transition to crisis standards of care if hospitalizations continue to rise.

“If our continued forecast holds true, we will be in a position where we will be unable to meet the care needs of all of Arizonans,” Bessel said.

Contingency level of care means that hospitals are not operating normally. Bessel said Banner staffers have been doing less documentation and certain patients may experience prolonged wait times for non-essential healthcare visits. Healthcare staff is also being moved to different units they don’t normally work in to support the lack of health care workers. The national labor shortage hit the healthcare workforce hard this last year.

Banner Health has hired 2,600 travel workers to support on-site staffing. Gov. Doug Ducey set aside $35 million to assist Arizona hospitals in staffing and state health officials filed for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for 133 hospital staff to support seven rural Arizona hospitals.

Crisis standards of care are determined by the State of Arizona and AZDHS has a procedural plan to provide healthcare institutions with guidance. According to AZDHS, crisis standards of care will only occur during the most extreme disasters that directly impact the healthcare system.

AZDHS guidelines say crisis standards of care will apply when most of the community’s infrastructure is in bad shape; local officials can’t perform their roles to assist the community; community functions are irregular, and there’s a major strain on regional resources.

Banner Health estimates that peak hospitalizations will occur in mid-January. Unsurprisingly, the surge estimates coincide with holiday celebrations. Public health officials have been reluctant to tell people to avoid family gatherings during the holiday season, but they recommend wearing a mask indoors if family members are not vaccinated and getting vaccinated before congregating with family members.

Vaccines and booster shots are widely available for free in Pima County. Local pharmacies, primary care physicians, and Pima County Health Department locations offer vaccines and booster shots. Pima County began offering Pfizer booster shots for 16- to 17-year-olds who received their two-shot vaccination series at least 6 months prior. This came one day after the federal government approved the Pfizer booster shot for 16- to 17-year-olds on Dec. 9. Parental guidance is required for this age group to receive the booster shot. ■

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DECEMBER 23, 2021

DECEMBER 23, 2021

record numbers of confirmed or suspected COVID cases in Arizona. During this time in 2020, around 55% of the state’s ER beds, or around 1,200, were in use by COVID or suspected COVID patients.

This year, the number has continued to How do this winter’s COVID numbers compare with last winter’s toll in Arizona? grow since August, up to more than 60% at times.

It reached its highest point this month, remain available, however, a smaller perBy Jerod MacDonald-Evoy when three quarters of the state’s emercentage of those beds are currently being gency department beds were in use by Arizona Mirror used by COVID patients than during the COVID patients. previous surge.

Over the past week, Arizona has Currently, over 600 of the state’s ICU AS ARIZONANS PREPARE FOR THE averaged 2,945 new cases every day and beds, or roughly 41%, are in use by COVID approximately 68.4 deaths. Over the past holidays, hospitals are surging with patients, compared to more than 800 COVID-19 cases in a fashion similar to 30 days, the state has reported more than what was seen at the end of 2020, but how around the same time last December, 103,000 cases of COVID and more than which amounted to half the state’s similar is the 2021 surge to the surge the 1,600 new deaths from the virus, accordcapacity. state saw in 2020? ing to data compiled by John Hopkins Clearly, more non-COVID patients In early November of 2020, the state University. are occupying ICU beds this year. Many began seeing a surge of COVID cases January, following Arizona’s Novemthat led to intensive care unit beds as well adults delayed medical care during the ber-to-December winter surge in 2020, as in-patient beds becoming increasingly pandemic; one study found that 1 in 5 still holds the record for the highest numadults delayed medical care and during scarce. By mid-December of 2020, only ber of cases and deaths for the state, with about 9% of all ICU beds in the state were the height of the pandemic last year, many more than 238,000 Arizonans contracting cancer and organ transplant surgeries available. the virus and more than 4,200 losing their were put off entirely.

This December, by around the same lives. An independent analysis found Emergency department beds are seeing COVID to be the leading cause of death time, only 5% of all the state’s ICU beds

CURRENTS

BED BUNCH

CLAYTOONZ

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in the state in 2020.

An analysis of more than 120,000 hospitalizations over a four month period this year found that the majority of those hospitalized were unvaccinated and those who had been vaccinated who had breakthrough infections were mostly elderly individuals who had other complications.

Still, fewer vaccinated individuals required interventions such as ventilators or experienced respiratory failure, unlike their unvaccinated counterparts.

Additionally, a report released by the Arizona Department of Health Services found that in October, unvaccinated individuals were 3.9 times more likely to contract COVID and 15.2 times more likely to die from the virus.

The vast majority of Arizona’s elderly population is vaccinated against the virus and Arizona’s vaccination rate sits currently at 58% of the state being fully vaccinated, putting the state in 29th place for it’s vaccination rate by population. ■ This article originally appeared on Arizonamirror.com, a nonprofit online news agency.

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KYRSTEN SINEMA

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

The rule has been updated several times throughout the chamber’s history.

A two-thirds threshold was established in 1917 and lowered to 60 of 100 in 1975. Democrats in 2013 under former Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada eliminated the requirement for executive branch and judicial nominees other than for the Supreme Court. Four years later, Republicans under Mitch McConnell of Kentucky included high court nominees in that exception.

Just last week, the chamber voted to change its rules to allow a simple majority vote to raise the debt ceiling.

In a floor speech Thursday, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), who before being elected was a preacher at Martin Luther King Jr.’s Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, called for using the same procedure to pass a voting rights measure.

SORENSEN

“As we cast that vote to begin addressing the debt ceiling, this same chamber is allowing the ceiling of our democracy to crash in around us,” Warnock said Thursday. “The rules of the Senate have prevented us from moving that conversation forward. We could not imagine changing the rules – that is, until last week.”

Sinema has called for a public debate on Senate rules so “all Americans can hear and fully consider” ideas, including ending the filibuster, Hurley said.

Sinema is willing to engage in “goodfaith discussions” with colleagues about changing rules, she added.

Democrats say a federal voting rights law is needed to counteract a series of voting restrictions passed by Republican-controlled legislatures across the country.

“GOP state legislatures are passing the most egregious restrictions on voting rights we’ve seen since segregation,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer tweeted last Thursday, Dec. 16. “We are working to respond to these

attacks by passing legislation to protect the right to vote.”

President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and a handful of Senate Democrats, including West Virginia’s Joe Manchin III and Rules Committee Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, met on a video call Thursday to discuss the path to passing voting rights bills.

Klobuchar said she favored eliminating the filibuster to pass one of Democrats’ major priorities, but understood that others in her party disagreed, according to Capitol Hill pool reports.

In a statement on his major domestic spending proposal, Biden said he was also working with senators to pass voting rights.

“We must also press forward on voting rights legislation, and make progress on this as quickly as possible,” he said. “I had a productive conversation today with several Senators about how we can get this vital legislation passed.

Our democracy is at stake.”

With Harris’ tie-breaking vote,

Democrats hold the slimmest possible majority in the 50-50 Senate. They have tried three times to pass voting rights measures that all Senate Democrats support, only to be blocked by a near-unified Republican caucus.

The House passed a sweeping voting rights package in March that dealt with dark money in campaigns, voter suppression and election security.

Senate Republicans blocked pared down versions in June and October.

In their latest attempt last month on voting rights on another bill, Democrats partially won over Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, who voted with Democrats to limit debate but stopped short of endorsing the underlying legislation. ■ This article originally appeared on azmirror.com, a nonprofit online news agency. States Newsroom reporter Ariana Figueroa contributed to this report.

DECEMBER 23, 2021

GUEST COMMENTARY

tacos, beef tamales, chile rellenos, & chicken enchiladas all in one sitting, home to star-crossed lovers who leave each other wilted flowers & melted candles at the El Tiradito shrine, home where drunks hover around a rickety picnic table in the shade of a mesquite on hottest summer days as they sip their cold ones while electric fans and evaporative coolers keep them cool and cozy thanks to 60-foot extension cords swiped from neighbors’ garages.

It may be the only city in this tarnation nation where chefs will place tiny bowls of wild chiltepins and ironwood spice crushers right alongside salt and pepper shakers, where kids call arroyos “rivers” when they’re dry and “floods” when they tinkle and trickle, where COURTESY PHOTO fish forget how to swim and teddy bear cholla forget how to hug, where drivers hydroplane off the asphalt, sliding into highway medians whenever it rains a millimeter, where chumps gaze, confused about the white-capped mounA reflection on desert living tains, wondering how all that cal or lime or pigeon poop got put up so high, where snowbirds have blue hair and wear sunglasses even after dark, where the snotty noses of street waifs get dry that Mayor Lew Davis hisself called our so quickly, they can pluck out their

By Brother Coyote main drag (Speedway Boulevard) the tucsoneditor@tucsonlocalmedia.com boogers & use them as razor blades to ugliest street in America… cut screens wide open and crawl into Yet, sixty years later, we now got Editor’s note: This guest commentary is windows to steal organically certified neighbors who stick creosote sprigs dedicated to local folklorist and author prickly pear cactus popsicles right out Jim Giffith, who died last Saturday, Dec. in their shower stalls to make it smell of the fridges in the rich kids’ homes. like desert rain all year long, who treat 18, at the age of 86.

How can it still be so untamed that in its musk as a fetish, a fetid fragrance the middle of the city you still see Gila YA KNOW, WE’RE STILL FIGGERING always calling one home, home to a monsters, jackalopes, sidewinders, colplace we know by the way wishful men lard peccaries, carbuncos, coatamundis out how to live in “this big bunch of nothin” here in the Stinkin’ Hot Desert, and women leave the hoods of their cars and occasional chupacabras appearing where the shrub the Mexicans call “hedi- popped up all night in hope of keeping on the most manicured of golf courses ondilla”—the little stinker—once spread packrats from eating & shorting out all and scaring the living piss out of old the vital innards within their chassis, its greasy limbs out across the desert floor like a heat rash on a nekked baby’s home by the way the waiters inevitably ask you whether you want red or green butt. or cream or all three like the Mexican Back then, it was worthless as an flag every time you request your favorite 8-track tape is today to all those Okies plate of enchiladas, home by the way who slipped right past it in the Dust you hear “our Linda” singing Canciones Bowl daze, worthless as a dry well de Mi Padre 366 nights a year in Mexuntil they brush-hogged all those little ican restaurants like Mi Nidito, where stinkers out of the caliche to plant oleanders, date palms, bermuda grass and ol’ Bill Clinton executively ordered “el Presidente,” a plate so shimmeringly yucca-lips in their stead. luscious with lard that he could prove to By then, it had grown so far beyond the ancient heart of old S-chuk Shon as the world that he could gorge himself its ticky-tacky turned so coyote-homely full on mounds of bean tostadas, birria

ODE TO THE OLD PUEBLO

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men wearing white shoes and Chartreuse slacks, or that the black light of a UV hand lamp will show that you sleep with hundreds of scorpions within a few feet of your bed, or that you stumble past black widows whenever you get up and pee at night?

Of course, desert living never seems dangerous if you keep all hyped up on the peyote buttons and sacred datura seeds that Carlos Castaneda left behind in the Nogales bus station the very day he met Don Juan Matus, a Sonoran sorcerer who was on his way back to Mexicali hoping to arrive in time to catch the first set by Calexico. Too bad they both got licked by Sonoran Desert toads while crossing the now-dry Colorado River delta.

We know we’ve hit Tucson when we can hear Petey Mesquitey on the air. We know we’re in the right place when Big Jim Griffith suddenly jumps out of nowhere to waltz in circles at an all-night chicken scratch dance. We know when we’ve survived the desert heat when we come (at last) through the pearly gates of the Guero Canelo’s fanciest taco salon, where we gaze at his first Sonoran Hot Dog Cart, now memorialized like the bones of Padre Kino, glowing in all its glory there inside a fully air-conditioned sanctum for all his adoring fans to relish.

We know we’ve returned to the Old Pueblo the moment we hear all the desert mockingbirds crooning Lalo Guerrero’s Barrio Viejo in perfect harmony, and all the torch singers cuss like Ellen Burstyn did when she realized Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Do we? ■

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DECEMBER 23, 2021

SONORAN EXPLORIN’

A DAY AT THE DIRTY T FLEA Sifting through “piddly junk” at one of Tucson’s newest outdoor markets

huge monthly market.”) It’s hosted by When + Where Co. and its offshoot Woolly Fern Oddities Shop, both owned by Bridgett Scofield, with the latter co-owned

by Jenny Martin.

One of the first things we see is a car topped with a WE WENT TO PARK PLACE MALL LAST WEEKEND, as Jeff said, almost purely to be masochistic. The rise mannequin torso wearing a green feather boa around its neck, two large pom poms atop its head and two of the internet has meant the steep decline of malls, tiny Santa hats over its nipples. The punk, avant-garde but things are always a little more bustling around the holidays. The goal was to soak up the atmosphere tone is set.

At one booth, there is a man wearing a blue hat that obliterates the line between sentimentality and commercialism—that too-bright, overly glossy, smack- which reads “America” and features an image of Abrayou-in-the-face holiday cheer only a mall can provide. ham Lincoln in patriotic sunglasses. He tells one man, decked out in gold chains and rings, that anyone wearWe wanted to see a Christmas tree in a Dillard’s. We ing that much gold must have a ’vette in the garage. wanted to see parents deliberating between which “I do,” says the man dripping in gold, almost Lego sets to buy, men asking for advice at jewelry defensively. store counters, and winding lines for places like WetAbraham Lincoln man explains that he used to have zel’s Pretzels.

But just before we left the house, I learned about the a lot of gold too, once.

“Now,” he says, cracking himself up, “I’ve just got a Dirty T Flea, which takes place every third Sunday in the parking lot for what used to be Sears (RIP Sears) at bunch of piddly junk.”

The piddly junk is fun to sift through. Old patches, a Park Place. Why not?

The Dirty T Flea is a new market full of mostly not- pile of pocket knives, a tube of pennies from the 1950s, scattered pieces of jewelry, tchotchkes galore. I watch new items. It’s a treasure. We’ve hit our fair share of local markets this holiday season, and they’ve all been one woman buy a “Class of 1985” pin, while a couple haggles with the vendor over the price of a pair of lovely, but this one stood out for its self-described overalls and another customer plays with the knives. “punk rock” spirit. (Other descriptors on the website A market which embraces the adage “One man’s include “super freakin inclusive” and “one heck of a trash is another man’s treasure” is truly in the spirit of “The Dirty T.” Our friends at Visit Tucson explain this grittiest of nicknames perfectly on their website: “Tucson is more grit than gloss, more substance than sheen. If you want to call that ‘dirty,’ so be it.”

There are plenty of artisan booths, selling beautiful Christmas Eve 5:00 p.m. Family Christmas Eve Service handmade pieces, including jewelry, candles and em9:00 p.m. Christmas Eve Service (Carol singing at 8:30 p.m.) broidered bags. And there are sophisticated antiques, Think: Midnight Mass early, with carols, musicians, and sermon. like turquoise jewelry, carnival glass and vintage It is a Candlelight service.

Pyrex. But many booths are just like Abraham LinChristmas Day coln’s: tables covered in Christmas ornaments, dated 10:00 a.m. Christmas Day Service DVDs, costume jewelry, boxes of comic books, $1 vinyl Intimate service with carols and sermon. records, pots and pans, old pins, post cards from all over. I see a tiny statue of Gollum from Lord of the All services live-streamed at Rings, a coffee cup shaped like Sylvester the Cat, a tinyurl.com/GSPVirtual stack of oddly specific cookbooks, and a pair of salt and pepper shakers which look like ears of corn.

2331 E. Adams St. - (520) 327-6857 “All the Christmas ornaments are a dollar a box or a We respectfully request that only vaccinated individuals dollar a bag!” announces a man with a gray beard and attend services in person. squinty eyes, who looks like he could go by A Progressive Community “The Dirty T” himself, if he wanted to.

By Emily Dieckman tucsoneditor@tucsonlocalmedia.com

PHOTO BY EMILY DIECKMAN

“Where did you get all of these ornaments?” I ask him.

“Here and there,” he says, as though that’s an actual answer. It is the actual answer, though—and perhaps the only honest one.

Christmas shopping can feel meaningful and magical, but, especially in a year where so many of us are feeling burnt out and exhausted, sometimes it feels more like endless strolling up and down aisles, or endless scrolling up and down the internet, in search of just the right gift. Maybe the thing I’m looking for is in the next aisle, on the next curated online gift guide, at the next store, or at the next holiday market. At the Dirty T Flea, there’s pleasure in the search itself.

We leave with four books, a handmade ornament, a novelty coin trick and a stack of greeting cards from the 1970s. So it was a success, if success is to be measured by whether anything was bought. And you know what? When we did go to the mall afterwards, it was just the all-too-fluorescent, aggressively commercial ’90s mall atmosphere we’d been hoping for—but after leaving the flea with an armful of treasures, nothing in the brightly lit mall seemed worth buying. ■ The Dirty T Flea takes place every third Sunday of the month in the former Sears parking lot at the Park Place Mall, 5870 E. Broadway Blvd. Visit dirtytflea.com for more information.

DECEMBER 23, 2021

GUEST COMMENTARY

BUILD BACK BETTER

Congress Should Lower the Cost of Prescription Drugs by Passing the Build Back Better Act

By Bashar Malkawi tucsoneditor@tucsonlocalmedia.com

DRUG PRICES HAVE INCREASED tremendously over the last several decades. These price increases have affected a wide range of drugs, impacting nearly all Americans who rely on prescription medications to maintain their health. This increase in the prices of drugs in the U.S. represents one of the major threats to the health of the population, economic growth, and trade flows. This is not new information, of course. But what is novel is that the U.S. government is finally poised to do something about it—so long as Congress agrees to it.

In November, the House passed President Biden’s Build Back Better Act (BBB), which includes a crucial provision that would allow the federal government to negotiate drug prices

through its Medicare program. This provision must remain in the Senate’s version of the bill if we are to finally reign in the astronomical cost of prescription drugs in this country.

Heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, are major causes of death in the U.S., yet drugs for these conditions have become increasingly expensive. Because of this surge in drug prices, patients take fewer tablets to save money, worsening health outcomes. And for the millions of Americans without health insurance, higher prices hit especially hard, disproportionately harming the poorest patients.

In this context, the Build Back Better Act comes to play an important role in the debate over drug prices. It’s prime time for the U.S., a leader and shining torch for other countries, to move forward with a health system that works for all, including with affordable drug prices.

In terms of the actual provisions incorporated in the bill, it is fair to say that the bill is a win-win for all parties involved. BBB allows the federal government to negotiate prices for some highcost drugs covered under Medicare Part B and Part D. This would translate to lower prices of high-cost drugs without generic competition.

The new plan would be phased in, targeting the highest price medications that lack competition. More specifically, negotiations over prices would only involve 10 drugs in 2025, 15 drugs in 2026 and 2027, and 20 drugs in 2028 for single-source brand-name drugs that lack generic competition. These drugs would be selected from among the fifty drugs with the highest total Medicare spending.

In addition, BBB exempts from negotiations for nine years any small-molecule drugs and, for 13 years, any biological products, starting on their FDA-approval date. Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema helped secure this language, which should allay concerns by pharmaceutical companies that the popular prescription drug negotiation measures will hurt incentives for Research and Development (R&D). In sum, BBB is a well-bal-

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anced bill which incorporates rules that protect the interests of both the public and drug companies at the same time.

The BBB Act suffered a big setback last weekend with Sen. Joe Manchin’s announcement that he would not support the current package. It is critical that lawmakers continue working on some form of the legislation and that the final bill retains at least the basic provisions of prescription drug reform included in the House-passed version: Medicare negotiation, inflation rebates, and caps on out-of-pocket drug spending and cost sharing for insulin and adult vaccines. It is high time for the U.S. Senate to get its act together and approve these meaningful and commonsense ways to lower the cost of prescription drugs and put the interests of patients first. ■ Bashar Malkawi is Global Professor of Practice in Law at University of Arizona.

In addition, Prof. Malkawi frequently consults for a wide array of international organizations, governments, and international law firms with 20+ years’ experience in the private and public sectors.

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New Years Guide

2021

RING IT IN! WHERE TO HOWL IN TUCSON ON NEW YEAR’S EVE the new year with a special screening of the new film “Licorice Pizza.” The Hotel Congress. Always trying latest film by acclaimed director Paul to outdo themselves, Hotel Congress Thomas Anderson (“There Will Be isn’t settling for a centennial celebraBlood,” “Boogie Nights”), “Licorice SO, WE CAN ALL AGREE 2021 PASSED tion this year. They’re celebrating 101 Pizza” is a perfect choice for this New Years of New Year’s Eve, where you by faster than we would have liked.

Year’s Eve party because it takes place The downside is that the holidays will can enjoy live entertainment inspired in the early ‘70s, and 2022 will also be by some of HoCo’s spooky history, be gone before we know it, but the the 50th anniversary of the Loft, which upside is there’s plenty of New Year’s including magicians, seances and opened its doors in 1972. “Licorice Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl. tarot reading. But if that sounds a bit Eve parties across town in the meanPizza” is a groovy, oddball comedy The Arizona Bowl party starts early, too otherworldly for you, they’ll also time! We’ve rounded up what local that also works as a love letter to the have their classic DJs, cocktails, New with a tailgate festival that launches venues, clubs, parks and more are at 8 a.m. on the University of Arizona ’70s-era L.A. of Anderson’s youth. In Year’s photo booths, a champagne doing to ring in 2022. mall. Kickoff for the game, which pits addition to the screening, there will toast and more. This is the perfect Unfortunately, the one thing we’d love to leave far in the past just seems event if you’re looking to party down- Boise State against Central Michigan, also be a free champagne toast to start the movie, and vinyl prizes will is at noon. Following the game at 6 town but want more than the typical bound to stick around. With winter be awarded for the best decade-apweather and holiday gatherings, COV- 2021 sunglasses and confetti. 8 p.m. to p.m., you can attend the Taco Bell 2 a.m. Friday, Dec. 31. 311 E. Congress NYE Downtown Bowl Bash, which will propriate outfits. Co-presented by Zia ID cases are on the rise throughout Records. 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 31. 3233 E. feature food vendors, live entertainthe state and country. So before we tell Street. $75.

Speedway Boulevard. $10. ment and more. The evening’s Bowl you about all these great New Year’s Tucson Botanical Gardens. One of Bash, taking place at “Tucson’s Time Eve events, we also want to remind Monterey Court Studio GallerSquare” (Fifth and Toole avenues), is our favorite events around town this you to follow CDC guidance and get vaccinated! Being sick sure would be time of the year, the Tucson Botanical free to attend and open to all ages. Fol- ies and Cafe. If you prefer your New Year’s celebration to be more on the lowing the traditional midnight taco Gardens’ Wanderland (formerly Lua lousy way to ring in the New Year, drop from Hotel Congress, downtown acoustic side, stop by the charming minaria Nights) lights up the garden after all. venue Monterey Court for a perforwith thousands of lanterns and lights. will be treated to a fireworks show And without further ado, here are mance from Heather Hardy & Dusty from the legendary hotel’s rooftop. some great local businesses and ven- And while this event is more based City Blues. For $60 per person, you ues that are rockin’ ’til midnight (and around Christmas, the Botanical GarThe Loft Cinema. Tucson’s favorite dens are hosting them right through maybe for a few hours more).

CONTINUED ON PAGE 15 New Year’s, so we figured we’d include art house movie theatre is ringing in Jeff Gardner jeff@tucsonlocalmedia.com

it here as well. Take an evening stroll through the plants while enjoying festive music, hundreds of poinsettias, and plenty of colorful arrays. It’s easily one of the most photogenic events in Tucson every holiday season. 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Through Jan. 2. 2150 N. Alvernon Way. $15.

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New Years Guide NEW YEAR’S GUIDE

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get entry to the show, a four-course gourmet dinner including dessert, champagne toast and complimentary coffee and tea. Or you can pay a $20 entry and go a la carte. Both require reservations. Monterey Court celebrates New Year’s a bit differently, in that their shows stop at 10 for an East Coast countdown, and continue until 11 p.m. 7 to 11 p.m. Friday, Dec. 31. 505 W. Miracle Mile Strip. $20 to 60.

Surly Wench Pub. But if the ’70s aren’t quite your speed, stop by the Surly Wench Pub on Fourth Ave. for a special ’80s themed party. Don your neon, leg warmers, exercise clothes and any other questionable fashion choices you can think of, and head down to Surly Wench for plenty of

’80s music, drink specials, free giveaways and a “totally tubular” photobooth. DJ NoirTech will be spinning some classic ’80s discs as well. Starts at 9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 31. 424 N. Fourth Ave. 21+. $10.

Sky Bar. If you feel like getting a look ahead at the new year, it might serve you well to visit Fourth Ave’s Sky Bar during one of their beloved cosmic nights. Every Friday, Sky Bar hosts a free dance party until close featuring local DJs and drink specials in a safe and energizing environment.

This Friday, DJ L3XX is performing at Sky Bar. Astronomy and what’s to come have always gone hand-in-hand, so why not bring that tradition into next year? 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday, Dec. 31. 536 N. Fourth Ave. CONTINUED ON PAGE 17

Courtesy Photo

Heather Hardy & Dusty City Blues perform at Monterey Court Studio Galleries and Cafe’s New Year’s Eve show.

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New Years Guide CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15

Sunday, Jan. 2. $10 entry. 12000 S. Houghton Road.

JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort.

Trumpeter and band leader Rick Braun is hosting a luxury New Year’s Eve at JW Marriott’s Starr Pass Resort. Every year the southwest resort hosts different contemporary jazz performers to lead an evening full of music, food, masquerading and more.

It’s a true New Year’s Eve ball, with specialty drinks, dinner and midnight countdown and more. 6:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 31. 3800 W. Starr Pass Blvd.

Ticket prices vary.

IBT’s. Tucson’s signature gay bar is hosting their annual New Year’s Eve bash, which comes with their classic drag shows, a complimentary champagne toast, a balloon drop at midnight, and plenty of drink specials. Maybe your New Year’s resolution is to get a bit more in touch with your feminine side, or drag side, or any other side of yourself you feel isn’t getting enough attention. IBT’s is the place to explore, all while ringing in the New Year with fashion. 8 to 10 p.m. Friday, Dec. 31. 616 N. 4th Ave. $10 to 15.

NEW YEAR’S GUIDE

Monkey Bar. This southeast side bar is throwing it back for New Year’s, reveling in the decadence and pomp of Broadway and Studio 54. There’s just something about getting dressed in your fanciest clothes that makes sense during New Year’s Eve, like you’re trying to give the new year your best first impression. Or maybe it’s just an excuse to look good and have fun? Monkey Bar’s New Year’s Eve party kicks off at 9 p.m with DJs, photobooths, a disco ball, and more.

Costumes are optional but strongly encouraged. 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday, Dec. 31. 1120 S. Wilmot Road. 21+.

Tucson Dragway. If you want to break in the new year in a less traditional (and more noisy) way, head over to the Tucson Dragway, which is hosting its annual “Hangover Nationals.” Thursday, Dec. 30 through Sunday, Jan. 2., the Dragway is hosting all sorts of races from super pro to pro to junior. Beyond the cars, there will also be a cornhole tournament, golf cart races, food trucks, motorcycles, giveaways and more. Let’s just hope these cars don’t go too fast and pass 2022 by! Thursday, Dec. 30 through

High 5 Grille. Casas Adobes sports bar the High 5 Grille is hosting a special New Year’s Eve party bash.

This includes a special dinner and drink (while supplies last). Live entertainment will be provided by Tucson rockers Mary After Dark. And considering they’re known for screening all sorts of sports, this is probably your best bet if you want a nice balance of music and athleticism during your celebration. 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday, Dec. 31. 3682 W. Orange Grove Road.

Jonathan’s Cork. Longtime Tucson eatery Jonathan’s Cork is staying open for New Year’s Eve, and will be offering two dinner specials: fresh sea bass with crab cream sauce ($28.50) and bleu cheese-stuffed 6 oz. filet mignon ($39). A champagne toast will also be offered on New Year’s Eve. Reservations for both are recommended. 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, Dec. 31.

6320 E. Tanque Verde Road.

191 Toole. Plenty of New Year’s goals are based around exercising more and losing weight.

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PLANT BASED KITCHEN

LATIN KITCHEN&BAR

Voted Best Vegetarian/Vegan & Best Gluten Free “It’s all about food, serving the community by healing through food. Food is home. Food is family.”

Tumerico on 4th Ave. 4th Ave Location 402 E 4thst. Corner of 4th Avenue & 4th Street 520-392-0224

Three locations Tumerico Cafe 6th St location 2526 E. 6th Street 520-240-6947

La Chaiteria 1002 W Congress St Open Daily for Takeout or Delivery 520-400-7127

www.tumerico.com www.lachaiteria.com

DECEMBER 23, 2021

New Years Guide

Courtesy Photo

191 Toole is kicking off the New Year with a special dance show “Fluxx Productions Presents: CRUIZE New Year’s Eve” running from 8 p.m. past midnight.

NEW YEAR’S GUIDE

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If you’re looking to get a jump on your resolutions, stop by Rialto Theatre-affiliated 191 Toole for a late-night dance party. Count your way into the New Year with electronic music and a light show when Fluxx Productions Presents: CRUIZE New Year’s Eve @ 191 Toole. Or, if you simply feel like enjoying a dance party with no goals but having a good time, that works just as well. Doors open at 8 p.m., show starts at 9. 21+. 191 E. Toole Ave. $6.

House of Bards. It seems the obvious New Year’s Eve theme this year (and every year this decade) is roaring ‘20s, and we really can’t complain.

The music, the fashion, the games, they just all make sense for having a good party. Well, the House of Bards is embracing the theme by demanding no T-shirts, jeans or tennis shoes at their New Year’s Eve party. That means roaring ‘20s attire only! But when you make it in, you can enjoy a special speakeasy and ball with

live jazz, local artists, drink specials, and even prizes for the best dressed visitors! 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday, Dec. 31. 4915 E. Speedway Blvd. $20 for singles, $35 for couples. $150 VIP table.

Tap & Bottle. Both Tap & Bottle locations are hosting New Year’s events, so whether you’re downtown or in the foothills, you can party while enjoying Arizona craft drinks. Tap & Bottle’s downtown location will have live music from Parisian-meets-Tucsonan guitarist Naïm Amor playing with The Cocktail Hours. Amor’s music is a mellow blend of jazz and blues perfect for enjoying some drinks in the evening. The downtown location will also have complimentary champagne at 6 p.m. Off of Oracle and Ina, Tap & Bottle northside location will be hosting a family friendly celebration. Tap & Bottle North will have face painting, a balloon drop, live music from the 4th Street String Band and more. Tap & Bottle Downtown: 5 to 7 p.m. 403 N. 6th Ave #135. Tap & Bottle North: Noon to 2 p.m. 7254 N. Oracle Road.

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New Years Guide NEW YEAR’S GUIDE

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Westbound. And while we’re listing Tap & Bottle’s events, we should also mention that their sister location at the MSA Annex, Westbound, is hosting its own celebration. Westbound is partying past midnight, with a variety of entertainment around Mercado San Agustin. There will be vintage soul and funk records spun by the Freak Brothers, plus additional DJing by Steven “Rx” Ramshur and Clif Taylor. As it’s at the MSA Annex, there are also fire pits, food options, and specialty shots. And what New Year’s Eve celebration would be complete without some bubbly at the top of the hour? 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. 267 South Avenida del Convento #12. Free entry.

Casino del Sol. Casino Del Sol and Casino of the Sun are hosting New Year’s Eve parties, so hopefully you can start the new year with a bit of luck and pocket change. Casino Del Sol’s event center will host local cover band Gigi & the Glow performing a wide variety of glamorous music from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Casino del Sol’s bingo hall will have the David Farias Band and Texmaniacs with special guests Boni Maricio, Conjunto Romo, and a DJ from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. Finally, La Nueva Onda, Conjunto Compadre and a live DJ will perform at Casino of the Sun from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. 21+

Let our hungry readers know you are there!

Out door dining, Take-out, or Delivery!

Call Today: 520-797-4284

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Editor’s Note: While we are delighted to see Tucsonans once again gathering for fun events, we are also aware that variants are in widespread circulation.

Please consider getting vaccinated against COVID if you haven’t yet.

Holiday Evening with Cher, Streisand, Bocelli and MORE! There’s nothing that will keep your holiday spirits up quite like a special performance from big name stars like Neil Diamond, Tom Jones, Bette Midler and Rod Stewart.

In this holiday variety show, master vocalists and makeup illusionists The Edwards Twins will be bringing all of these stars to life. NBC Today called it “one of the most extraordinary shows we have ever seen,” so this is the real deal.

6 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 28-Saturday, Dec. 30. 7 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 31. The Gaslight Music Hall, 13005 N. Oracle Road in Oro Valley. $45 to $100.

for each show for virtual tickets. Saturday, Dec. 25. 4500 E. Speedway Blvd., #39.

Ballet Tucson’s The Nutcracker. The Weekly’s own Jeff Gardner pointed out recently that there may not be many pieces of classical music that the average modern-day person can identify, but The Nutcracker Suite is one of them. This is music that truly brings people together, and I don’t care how cheesy it is to say so! Seeing the ballet is an even more magical experience, full of snowflakes, dancing confections, giant toy soldiers, an ominous PHOTO BY ED FLORES mouse king, a brave little ballerina and (of course) a heroic nutcracker. 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 23. 3 p.m. Friday, Dec. 24. 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 26. Tucson Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave. GA $37 to $65, or $30 to $65 for seniors/students/military. Group discounts available.

Winterhaven Festival of Lights.

There’s still time to make it to Winterhaven to soak up the last few days of holiday magic! If you’ve never been, it’s a magical experience full of decorations ranging from Christmas trees and nativity scenes to zoo animals and Disney princesses. As always, the festival is free to attend, but everyone is encouraged to bring a donation of food or money for the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona. In 2019, the festival sent more than $22,000 and 46,000 pounds of food to the food bank! Drive through night is on Dec. 26, so if you’re exhausted from Christmas and don’t feel like doing anymore walking, it’s a perfect option. 6 to 10 p.m. until Sunday, Dec. 26. 3334-3398 N. Christmas Ave.

A Blue, Blue Christmas… and a White Elephant. Join Whose Blues for a colorful evening at this holiday Hotel Congress Cookout. They’ll be banishing those day-after-Christmas blues from the plaza stage, while you enjoy the fun from the audience. If you want, you can bring a gift to take part in the white elephant gift exchange. A perfect way to exchange one of those weird gifts you got from an aunt or coworker you’ll never end up using.

That’s what Boxing Day is all about. 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 26. Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress St. Free.

Not Burnt Out Just Unscrewed. Looking for something unconventional to do this Christmas? Or something kind of fun to fill those evening hours once the initial chaos of the day has started to fade? Unscrewed Theater is offering two comedy shows on Christmas night, and the best part is that you can attend live and in person, or tune in virtually from your couch! The family-friendly show is at 7:30 p.m. and the uncensored version is at 9 p.m. $8 for adults and $5 for kids for in-person tickets, or $8 per household

Cocoa, Cookies and Crafts. Looking for something that is both very festive and a good way to get some last minute gifts whipped up? This DIY class at AR workshop is a chance to make holiday wood ornaments or mini blocks. Materials are included, and you can pick your designs and paint colors at the workshop. You can also warm up with cookies and cocoa, and check out the in-house shop to add some other final gifts to your roster. Kids are welcome! Registration guarantees a spot, but walk-ins welcome if time and space permit. 10 to 11 a.m. and 11 a.m. to noon.

Thursday, Dec. 23. AR Workshop, 7119 N. Oracle Road. $12.

by Emily Dieckman

St. Philip’s Plaza Market Christmas Eve Celebration. You know how sometimes the anticipation for an event is almost as exciting as the event itself? That’s why I love Christmas Eve. It’s so, so full of magic, and it just builds up more and more all day. St. Philip’s Plaza, one of the most charming areas in Tucson, is the perfect place to spend the morning.

Whether you’re picking up some seriously last minute gifts at the market, grabbing some lunch at one of the plaza’s award-winning restaurants, or just soaking up some shade under the eucalyptus trees, it’ll be a be a day well spent. 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, Dec. 24. St. Philip’s Plaza, 4280 N. Campbell Ave. Beginners Salsa. Sometimes I like to try to start my New Year’s Resolutions a few days early. Maybe because it feels like a good way to ramp up into it so the first day of the year doesn’t have so much pressure on it. Or maybe it’s so, when I slip up on Jan. 3 or something, I can defend myself by saying I started early.

All this to say, this class is a great option if your resolution is to learn how to dance, or to get more exercise, or to be more social. Dream Dance Studio will teach you the basic steps of this dance on the cheap. And, hey, maybe you can use what you learn to strut your stuff at a New Year’s Eve party. 8 to 8:45 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 28. Dream Dance Studio, 405 E. Wetmore, #125. $8, or $5 for Dream Dance Students.

Christmas Eve Trivia at Catalina Brewing Company. ’Twas the night before Christmas, and up in Marana, people weren’t just sitting around and waiting for Santa. At Catalina Brewing Company, they formed into teams, and trivia (not sugarplums) would populate their dreams. With Raynu hosting trivia and Kristen serving beers, ‘twas a night full of laughter and holiday cheer. The Jersey Grill was there to keep everyone fed, before all went home and nestled snug in their beds. 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 24. Catalina Brewing Company, 6918 N. Camino Martin, #120.

DECEMBER 23, 2021

CHOW

Gallery of Food 2522 E. Fort Lowell Road 884-5033, galleryoffood.com 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays to Saturdays

PHOTO COURTESY OF GALLERY OF FOOD

Gallery of Food owner Kristine Jensen, 60, moved from Boulder to Tucson in 1984, partly because her husband was an avid rock climber.

GALLERY OF GOURMET Reinvented bodega fulfills even the most esoteric tastes

By Valerie Vinyard tucsoneditor@tucsonlocalmedia.com GALLERY OF FOOD IS A CORNUCOPIA of about 700 food, beverage and personal care products in a relatively small space.

There are unusual fruits, vegetables, meats and cheeses, along with specialty coffees, teas, herbs and spices.

Owner Kristine Jensen, 60, moved from Boulder to Tucson in 1984, partly because her husband was an avid rock climber. The Santa Fe native first worked as a bookkeeper, but she had been interested in food since she was a teen.

She started Gallery of Food as a catering business 30 years ago, but the concept has evolved into a specialty shop and most recently, a take-out restaurant.

Its original location at 256 E. Congress Street was last occupied by the now-closed Elvira’s Mexican restaurant.

Her space and evolving concept were born out of the pandemic. Jensen was oper-

ating Café Botanica at the Tucson Botanical Gardens, but it closed in March 2020 because of COVID-19. She transformed the Fort Lowell location from a storage and office spot into a bodega, and immediately started delivering food.

“I made an online store in four days flat,” she says.

On August 4, she debuted a take-out menu. The often-changing menu features soups, sandwiches, desserts and entrees.

A couple tables are inside the shop, and a recently expanded patio has seating.

A recent sampling of walnut mushroom soup with spruce tips and a side of bread was a flavorful, filling delight. Other regular soups for sale can include Southwestern chicken mole, smoked watermelon gazpacho and beet apricot.

Christopher Baldwin, who formerly helmed Delectables, serves as Gallery of Food’s executive chef.

One of the most popular take-out dishes includes corn pudding from a Frida Kahlo

recipe. Jensen featured it on the Café Botanica menu, and it quickly became a favorite.

Though she still has the online store, the inviting shop, which opened to the public last October, is worth exploring in person.

“Many of the things in here you can’t get anywhere else,” Jensen says. “We focus on local, sustainable and artisanal products.”

Though not all her products are local, they share a similar trait.

“Even the far-away stuff still has the farmto-table mentality,” she says.

Cindy Elliott, a piano teacher who lives in Midtown Tucson, has shopped at Gallery of Food and discovers something new each time.

“I like to go in there and find something I’ve never had,” says Elliott, citing the variety of unusual cheeses, coffees and her favorite, a garlicky baba ghanoush that’s made at the bodega and sold in the refrigerated section. “The shop is a mecca

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for foodies.”

Other delicacies in the freezers include soups, meatloaf, cinnamon rolls, chicken quarters and pecan bars.

Because of the focus on small purveyors and businesses, the prices can be a bit higher than what you’d find at big-box store.

With its approximate 800 square feet of space, the bodega is cozy but manages to offer variety.

“I had to decide what I was going to have but also what I want,” Jensen says.

Jensen tries to get her products from local farms and purveyors. Almost all the grains, produce and meat are local. There also are local pecans, pistachios, syrup and candy. And the shop sells loaves of Tucson’s Barrio Bread.

As Gallery of Food’s website states: “We are inspired by the culinary traditions of the Sonoran Desert and the abundant food that is indigenous to the surrounding area and the tenacity of the many farmers and ranchers who are trying to make a difference in the community and the quality of our local food.

“We add some contemporary ideas, a little rebelliousness, and come up with what we hope will be some delicious food!” ■

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Cage called her husband’s friend, Tucson illustrator Dennis Caldwell, and the wheels started turning. The drawings, she says, were “perfect.” Cage hosted her first reading of “Norman the Interested Cat” on March 13, 2020, and two Political consultant turns children’s author at 66 days later was the pandemic-dictated shutdown.

“I went from having these great ideas for marketing and doing book readings cynical as adults. Working in politics,

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski and school readings to not having anyyou either become a terrible cynic tucsoneditor@tucsonlocalmedia.com thing to do as we all were in this situyourself or you find an outlet to help ation,” says Cage, who has two rescue make the change that you’re passionate pups, Jake and Bert. about.”

CHERYL CAGE SAYS THERE’S NO The book encourages readers to be So far, it’s been “a ton of fun,” she says. good community members and emage limit to starting anew.

“Norman the Interested Cat” has its A 15-year political consultant who has pathetic toward others. Norman, she worked in aviation for 35 years, the Tuc- roots in guests to Cage’s home. “Young explains, does not waste his time thinkson resident is now part of the children’s friends” visited for eight months in 2015 ing about what others are doing. He’s while their home was being built. With book world at 66, as she released her intentional in adjusting his mindset and them came their cat, Norman. debut series, “Norman the Interested doesn’t assign value to his activities.

“I never had a cat before,” she says. “At Cat.” Cage asks readers to spend time with the same time, they were pregnant with people and activities that energize them, “I’ve been publishing and writing books since 1994,” Cage says about tech- their first child. I really fell in love with and to embrace the humor in life. this cat and started thinking about the nical books in her previous career.

“All my messages are quite gentle, but “The children’s books really came out new baby and what I would want for her they make an impact,” Cage says. ■ and what kind of world she would grow of the desire to reach a wider audience into.” and an audience who wasn’t maybe as

ARTS & CULTURE

PURRFECT WORLD

PHOTO BY HOLLY HARRIS

Cheryl Cage lives in Tucson with her two rescue dogs, Jake and Bert. She penned a series of books about a feline visitor to her home, Norman.

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highest levels of enthusiasm, but seeing the middle and high schoolers with their eyes swelling and some tears shed really drove home the goal of this project.

I feel confident that this project was successful in building the school comBuilding School Community Through a Handmade Gift Exchange munity and bringing happiness into these students’ worlds. I recorded videos of the students opening their gifts, so I could show the other classes how everyone felt. Plus, watching the videos

By Caroline Eimer students, grades 1-9, I printed out the tucsoneditor@tucsonlocalmedia.com results and cut them into individual slips. allowed the students to see their special I created two gift pools, one with the first person opening the present they had worked so hard on! through fifth graders, and one with the Looking back to where this 200-person THIS FALL I DESIGNED A PROGRAM sixth through ninth graders. I had the wide chain of kindness began, I decided to increase the school community and younger students make for the middle/ to arrange a meet-and-greet between teach about art as a tool for kindness. high students and vice versa. the two young boys that sparked it The project was sparked by one of my The chain of kindness is a true pheall. Macario and Edgar really enjoyed sixth-grade students, Edgar, who made nomenon that is demonstrated here. getting to meet each other in person a piece of art for one of my first graders, Edgar’s one act of kindness towards Macario. Edgar had never met Macario, Macario, a person he did not even know, and thank each other for their cool art. but after I had chatted with him about had not only made Macario feel wonder- Kindness wins! ■ how much Macario loved Spider-Man ful and cared for, but would now allow COURTESY PHOTO University of Arizona graduate Carand Venom, Edgar thought Macario nearly 200 other people to experience Teacher Caroline Eimer with students. sounded really cool and he wanted to the same thing. Edgar was humbled and oline Eimer is a first-year art teacher at Nosotros Academy in Tucson.

Contact make him a present. A few weeks later, speechless from the praise he received Edgar came into school with a detailed when I told him how he had inspired this her at ceimer@nosotrosacademy.org. drawing for Macario, so I passed it on to school wide project. him.

My students were given a wide range I explained to Macario that Edgar of choices for the medium in which found out how much he liked Spithey could make their gifts. Materials der-Man, and he made this for him! included clay, digital art, collage, beadMacario was speechless. His eyes lit up ing and more! I was very pleased to see as he delicately held this piece of art in not only my younger students, but even his hands. I showed Edgar a video of the eighth and ninth graders excited to Macario thanking him for his present; make gifts for their “special person.”

Edgar was so glad that he liked it.

It was a great confidence booster for I gushed to a group of high schoolers the students, as they had to overcome about what had occurred and one of the idea that their artistic talents and them asked if I had thought about doing ideas were not good enough for somea project like this school wide. I was one else to see. Providing information on immediately sold on the idea and began what their special person liked helped + tax and gratuity. working on the logistics. immensely with generating ideas, Thinking about how Secret Santa something that middle and high school exchanges normally function, I collected students tend to struggle with. + tax and gratuity. some information from my students, Once all of the presents were made, I Champagne included in price. such their favorite animal, color or sports carefully wrapped, labeled and sorted all Ve team. I did not inform the students why of them. This process ensured that each Vanery Specia Don’t Forget About Gift ssa H I was doing this, but I recorded all of the student was accounted for. l ollingGuest Cards For the Holidays! information into a Google Sheets. I felt Finally, it was time for the students shea d that personalizing the gifts towards stu- to open their gifts! You could see in the dent interests would enhance the comstudent’s eyes that they were so hummunity building, as they would be able to bled and happy when they opened their get to know a little about the person who presents. They were pleasantly surprised they would be making a present for and to see details of their favorite team or not feel so much like a stranger. character depicted in their presents. I Once I had interviewed all 188 of my expected the young students to show the

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CINEMA

‘OH WHAT FUN IT IS’

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Jingle All The Way Director Speaks at 25th Anniversary Screening

By Emily Dieckman tucsoneditor@tucsonlocalmedia.com JINGLE ALL THE WAY IS A MOVIE THAT defies expectations.

For example, as the movie opens on a hulking Arnold Schwarzenegger playing an all-American dad named Howard Langston, you might expect there to be a brief acknowledgement of or explanation for why this massive bodybuilder with an Austrian accent is working in an office job in Minnesota. You would be wrong.

Later, when Howard finds himself wearing a superhero costume to participate in a holiday parade, you might not expect the costume to be equipped with an ACTUAL jetpack. Incorrect. And when he poses as an undercover cop to a group of real cops, you

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might expect them to notice that the badge he flashes at them is a plastic toy. Nope!

The movie defied director Brian Levant’s expectations as well. As he explained to me in advance of last weekend’s 25th anniversary screening of the film at the Fox Theatre, he thought it was going to be a hit.

“This was a huge opportunity to do a big holiday release for a major studio with one of the biggest stars in the world,” he says.

“We expected to have a hit movie and the hottest toy in the world.”

It was not a hit. Critics called it “tedious and painfully not funny.” One raved, “If there is a bottom of the Hollywood barrel, Jingle All The Way has been gleaned from the filth upon which that bottom rests.”

Another insisted that “even the Grinch wouldn’t like this one.”

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THE MOVIE TELLS THE ABSOLUTELY bananas story of Howard Langston, who forgets to buy his son the year’s most popular Christmas present, a Turbo Man action figure, and sets out to try and find one on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, so does seemingly every other parent in America.

It’s a madhouse of people desperately trying to buy Turbo Man dolls at the last minute.

He runs into the Santa mafia. He develops a rivalry with a postman gone postal (played

by Sinbad). He considers and (to his credit, I guess?) reconsiders stealing from a child.

But he does lunge at another child in a ball pit at Mall of America.

In the end, he somehow ends up unwittingly dressed as Turbo Man in the Twin Cities’ holiday parade. Then, he flies around on a jetpack to save his son from what starts off as fake parade villain “evil” but, due to an intervention from Sinbad’s character, becomes actual, real danger. And, obviously, Howard and his jetpack and his unacknowledged muscles save the day.

So yes, it’s cheesy. And it’s wonderful. Because cheese is what Christmas is all about.

When the movie flopped, Levant didn’t feel very proud of it. It wasn’t the critical panning that bothered him. As the director of Beethoven and Are We There Yet, he says critics hate everything he’s ever done anyway.

“Damn the critics; I make films for audiences,” he says. “It was the fact that it didn’t perform the way you believed it would, and you question your choices, your abilities and your confidence.”

Levant, an avid toy collector, got to keep one of the Turbo Man action figures that was manufactured for the movie. He tucked it away in a box.

A SECOND COMING ABOUT 15 YEARS AGO, LEVANT WAS on a university campus, and small group of people came up to him and shyly asked him to sign their VHS copy of the film. They told him about how their family watched it every year for the holidays. He was stunned.

The film just got bigger from there. There are marathons on television. It’s become an internet meme sensation. This year, a tabletop game based on the movie was announced, and Funko released FunkoPop editions of both Howard and “Howard as Turbo Man.” Levant has them all up display, along with the original action figure, which he pulled out of storage a few years ago when he started to feel good about the film again.

“What started as a bit of a sprinkle has turned into a bit of a flood over the years,” Levant says. “It has found a place in people’s consciousnesses and hearts, and I’m thrilled, truly. Everybody involved with the film has enjoyed our phoenix-like rise from the ashes.”

At the anniversary screening, he offers to “maybe” answer a few questions from audience members after the movie. He seems almost nervous nobody would have questions, like the movie’s cult status is still an illusion that could shatter at any moment.

Of course people have questions, and he has answers. One person says the movie was a staple for him growing up in Italy, and asks about which scenes took the longest to get right. Levant speaks about how the parade scene at the end used almost no CGI, and, with an elaborate system of scaffolding, specialized pulleys and 1500 extras, it took an entire month.

Another asks about whether Levant had any theories about why the movie hadn’t done well initially, and Levant mentions how quick the production time was—he estimates it was greenlit just 8 or 9 months before it came out. While he doesn’t think he can entirely blame the timing, Jingle All The Way was competing with films like 101 Dalmatians and Space Jam, which had both had years-long marketing campaigns.

“It wasn’t first choice,” he tells me on the phone. “But now, I think, if you were in the video store of life, it is first choice.”

WORTH THE WAIT ONE OF OUR HOUSEHOLD FAVORITE scenes from the movie comes when Howard and Sinbad’s character hear that a local radio station is giving away a Turbo Man doll to the first caller who can name all eight of Santa’s reindeer. They fight so much for access to the payphone that they break it, so they go sprinting down the street to the radio station offices, where their plan is to scream “DasherDancerPrancerVixenCometCupidDonnerBlitzen” into the DJ’s face and then go home with their prize.

When they get there, the terrified DJ has to explain that he doesn’t have a Turbo Man doll in the studio with him. What he has is a gift certificate to go get one later.

“What I actually said,” he explains meekly, “Was whoever won would get a doll… eventually.”

It hits home: It might have taken a quarter of a century, but Brian Levant did get his successful movie, and his Turbo Man doll on display… eventually. ■

TUCSONWEEKLY.COM 29

DECEMBER 23, 2021

SUNDAY, DEC. 26

By Xavier Omar Otero tucsoneditor@tucsonlocalmedia.com Where the pa-rum-pum-pum-pum of the drum bangs all day. This week: SouthWestern Stars, Ballet Tucson, The Rosano Brothers, P.D. Ronstadt, Fat Tony, Christy Lynn, Dub Society, Nancy McCallion, Pup Punk and Los Esplifs can be found playing theaters, clubs, and joints about town. Read more.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS… THURSDAY, DEC. 23 With a penchant for woodwinds and brass, the Rosano Brothers shift effortlessly from unscripted melodic lines, popularized during the Jazz Age of the early 1900s, to disciplined and cultivated techniques in keeping with classical music. Becoming the vessel through which song flows, their performances are often hallmarked by the unpredictable, whimsical, if not quirky, facilitated by their command over a range of instruments: Cornet, piano, clarinet, baritone sax, melodica, guitar and percussion. The Rosano Brothers present A Christmas Extravaganza on the eve of Christmas Eve. At Tap & Bottle (downtown)… Hankering for good eats? SouthWestern Stars, featuring a line-up of Tucson luminaries—Mamma Coal, Steff Koeppen, Hans Hutchison, Alvin Blaine, Thøger Lund and Les Merrihew—serve-up a Country-Fried Christmas. At Club Congress… In 1890, Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky was commissioned to compose both an opera and a ballet. This timeless work takes the audience on a journey through a winter wonderland with swirling snowflakes, giant mice and soldiers, and a kingdom of sweets. Ballet Tucson presents The Nutcracker. In the first of three performances. At Tucson Music Hall… In observation of the Winter solstice, Americana/rock singer-songwriter Amber Norgaard & Friends—Doug

COURTESY PHOTO

Whose Blues present a Blue, Blue Christmas on the Hotel Congress plaza.

Floyd, Seth Murzyn, Joe Ferguson, Casey Hadland, Jay Trapp—are putting on a Holiday Show. At Monterey Court… An offshoot of reggae, dub was pioneered in the late 1960s by producers and recording engineers—Osbourne “King Tubby” Ruddock, Lee “Scratch” Perry, and Errol Thompson—who looked at the mixing console as an instrument, manipulated and reshaped riddims electronically, pushing stripped-down drum-and-bass tracks upfront in the mix, to expand the scope.

Dub Society skank with abandon. At Chicago Bar… A class act, Silk and Soul perform smooth R&B and Motown soul on the outdoor stage. At St. Philip’s Plaza… Representing the East Coast, West Coast, and Bay Area, longtime DJ Papa Ranger drops hip-hop and reggae love bombs. Good Vibes Thursdays. At Kingston Kitchen (formerly CeeDee’s Jamaican Kitchen)…

rapper’s style is based around storytelling. His latest album Exotica (2020) chronicles a spate of short stories about rolling the dice. Embracing change, continuing a monthly DJ residency, Fat Tony can be found telling stories from behind the turntables. At Hotel Congress (plaza)… Beatsmiths DJ Herm and King Otto mix sets to cut winter’s chill. Xmas. At Union Public House…

Post-modern Americana songster P.D. Ronstadt & The Company perform original Southwestern roots and folk, while placing their own unique watermark upon traditional compositions. At Monterey Court. With Liz Cerepanya and Wayback & Friends… This quartet’s sound, although ever evolving, is rooted in Chicago blues—a brash, electrified sound, heavy on guitar and harmonica, pioneered by Muddy Waters, developed in clubs to cut through noisy crowds. Whose Blues present a Blue, Blue Christmas. At Hotel Congress (plaza)… Singer-songwriter Andrew Daniel Cates offers a dose of “desert country music medicine” for the benefit of all.

At St. Philip’s Plaza… This tribute show promises to deliver hit after hit—from The Beatles to The Turtles, The Archies to The Rolling Stones. Fronted by Mindy Ronstadt (niece to Linda Ronstadt), The Tributaries present Super Songs of the ‘60s. At Gaslight Music Hall (Oro Valley)…

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FRIDAY, DEC. 24 Smooth, melodic electronica with elements of hip-hop, acid, and trance describes this disc jockey’s sets. Like the sole tin soldier enwreathed by sugar-plum fairies, DJ Aud holds down the late-night festivities. Christmas Eve Party. At Hotel Congress (Tap Room patio)…

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XOXO

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 29

MONDAY, DEC. 27 Nada mucho. Stay in, estivate.

TUESDAY, DEC. 28 Soft-rock guitarist, piano player and singer Corey Spector entertains in the open air. At St. Philip’s Plaza…

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 29 Imbuing strains of folk and country with sweet vocal harmony, from Asheville, North Carolina, the Christy Lynn Band conjure up the revenants that inhabit the Appalachian Mountains. Followed by elder statesman of folk Don Armstrong & The Whiskypalians to continue the musical adventure. At Monterey Court…

THURSDAY, DEC. 30 Their name, like the lo-fi techno-cumbia music they are known for, embodies a decidedly mischievous spirit. For those who have led a sheltered life, spliff is slang for a tobacco and marijuana-laced cigarette. Caleb Michel, co-founder of Los Esplifs (along with Saul Millan), expands. “Saul came up with the name because I smoked a lot of cigarettes and he smoked [umm] ‘substances.’” Rising like a thorny peyote cactus in the arid sand, Los Esplifs’ debut album Estraik Back (2021)

stays true to the weather-beaten spirit of the desert Southwest, with a starkly psychedelic bent. Recording during the lockdown, the band tracked the record in a few frenetic weeks, old-school. “There are a lot of complications with new technologies.” Michel adds, “We were trying to stick to the old way [with] very little mixing. We were trying to [take] a new approach to Latino music that is inside a space of art and the lore of art music.” Michel recalls a moment of insight— performing for a predominantly white audience at Phoenix’s Rebel Lounge—where the concept of unity in diversity manifested. “Saul and I are brown, the rest of our band is whiter, and we’re playing this super Afro-Latin music [sung in Spanish].” To his elation, “everyone was dancing hard to our music, getting down, and really enjoying it.” That’s the takeaway. Caleb explains, “What matters most is inclusiveness.” Los Esplifs stir up their signature oddball Latinx rhythms.

At Club Congress. With Lucky Baby Daddy and Earthsurfaceopen… Misunderstood by their parents and dissed by their detractors, Pup Punk’s pop-punk parody is a thing, apparently. Despite having “Peaked In High School,” Pup Punk are still “Misbehavin’.” At Encore… With an eye for detail, Bee Gees Gold—featuring the smooth falsetto of John Acosta—brings the look and sound of the Bee Gees at their zenith. At Casino Del Sol Events Center… Celebrate Eve’s Eve with the Bryan Dean Trio, Wayback & Friends, and Bullwinkle’s Corner. At Monterey Court… Saxophonist Jed Paradies leads his trio through a succession of bossa novas, ballads and blues, with aplomb. At The Coronet… Perhaps best known for her time spent as vocalist for Celtic-Norteno, folk rock, cult band The Mollys, Nancy McCallion’s solo work—eloquently spinning tough-hearted tales about situations lesser scribes would just as soon keep at arm’s length—has garnered substantial critical acclaim. The Washington Post expressed high praise. “McCallion has evolved into a major-league songwriter, deserving of comparisons to Gillian Welch and Iris DeMent. [She] takes much more of a wisecracking, bawdy approach to the world than her two peers, but her songs are no less substantial for it.” On “Go to Ground” (a song off of her 2021 album bearing the same title), McCallion and co-writer Danny Krieger tell the all-too-real story of an aging musician working two minimum-wage jobs, in order to survive the pandemic, because all the bars have closed down. They sing, “You used to think that at your age, you’d be playing guitar like Jimmy Page, rocking at the local bar with an IRA and a Vox guitar.”

The McCallion Band play original Americana and rock ’n’ roll with joyful, punkish abandon. At Tap & Bottle (downtown)…

Happy Holidays. Until next week, XOXO…

DECEMBER 23, 2021

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DECEMBER 23, 2021

POLITICAL PROFICIENCY AZNORML prepares for 2022 legislative session

By David Abbott tucsoneditor@tucsonlocalmedia.com CHRISTMAS IS NEARLY UPON US, and while our vaunted political leaders go home for extended holidays—killing Democracy is hard work, apparently—Arizona NORML is getting to work on its 2022 legislative agenda, training citizen advocates to throw their voices into the conversation.

Arizona NORML Director Mike Robinette hosted the organization’s introductory legislative training Zoom session last week and intends to follow up after Christmas.

“One of the upsides to the COVID pandemic—if we can take anything positive from it—is that we found we can amplify our voices through virtual meetings,” Robinette said. “Rather than having a single lobby day, where we have to go to Phoenix for in-person meetings, we can spend a week with our legislators and they can see our numbers in real time.”

The hour-long training went into detail about how the legislative process works and gave a roadmap to help navigate the azleg.gov website.

Additionally, Robinette walked participants through the legislative process and how to read and understand proposed bills.

After the upcoming reprise of the first training, there will be another round in the weeks leading up to the next legislative session to help register speakers in an arcane system that requires a road trip to Tucson or Phoenix to access the Request to Speak (RTS) system that allows people to comment during public meetings.

Lobby week takes place from Feb. 7-11 and AZNORML hopes to build on 2021’s successes, where it hosted 51 meetings with state lawmakers.

AZNORML, and by extension South-

ern Arizona NORML, is connected to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a consumer advocacy organization founded in 1970.

As a 501(c)4 nonprofit, the organization gets some “operational support” from national NORML, but survives completely on donations from the public and the work of volunteers, including Robinette and those in other leadership positions.

And while cannabis in Arizona has been legalized via voter initiative, given the current political climate in Arizona and the U.S., nothing is ever really settled.

“We wish we lived in a world where cannabis law is settled,” Robinette said.

“But we often have to fend off attempts to weaken established laws by prohibitionists who want to limit access through legislation that’s directly opposed to the will of the people.”

Given its position as a consumer advocacy organization, AZNORML’s approach is not partial to any specific interest beyond what it determines will strengthen cannabis law. Most of its platform is taken directly from public input.

But NORML is not the only group watching the legislative calendar. There are prohibitionist organizations like Arizonans for Health and Public Safety, the now-defunct political committee that opposed Prop 207, and MATFORCE, a Yavapai County group that has worked with prohibitionists to limit zoning for dispensaries and has backed bills limiting access to pot.

On the other side of the coin, there are trade groups that employ lobbyists to advocate for laws benefiting their own economic interests.

Sometimes those interests intersect with NORML’s work and sometimes they do not.

The Arizona Dispensaries Association employs its own lobbyists who monitor

the legislative agenda and work in concert with other pro-cannabis groups when there are similar goals.

Sam Richard, executive director of the ADA, has a lobbying background himself, but the organization employs high-level cannabis attorney Pele Peacock Fischer as a lobbyist to keep an eye on what’s transpiring in the halls of the Capitol. Several dispensary owners do their own lobbying as well.

Richard said that most of the time the ADA is in a “defensive posture,” keeping an eye out for bills that could ultimately damage a fast-growing industry that has become an economic powerhouse, despite being hampered by often conflicting state and federal laws.

“We know that there’s going to be things that we need to be looking out for,” he said. “To use a football metaphor, we’re going to look a lot more like an SEC team than a PAC 12 team. We’re just gonna run up the gut and make sure that we run a nice, prevent defense. That’s what we’re really focused on.”

For example, when Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers proposes THC caps on legal marijuana products, the ADA is there alongside AZNORML to oppose the legislation.

Ultimately, the ADA is watching out for the interests of business owners who, in just about any other business enterprise in the U.S., would be hailed for the exponential growth of their industry.

According to Richard, Arizona’s legal pot industry generated an estimated $1.5 billion in economic activity this year, employs 20,000 to 25,000 people and is on track to contribute more than $200 million to the state’s tax coffers in 2021. By this time next year, there will be cannabis operations in all 15 Arizona counties.

“The biggest difference between us and almost any other industry is that the legislature doesn’t think that we should exist,” he said. “It doesn’t matter that well over a million Arizonans have walked through the doors of a dispensary; it doesn’t matter that nearly 2 million people voted yes on prop 207 and we won by a 20-point margin. There are still going to be people in the Capitol that are looking to score quick political points, making offhanded jokes that science has proven untrue about cannabis, (such as) making people schizophrenic and taking a baseball bat to family members. That just doesn’t happen.”

Ultimately, both Richard and Robinette, who have monthly meetings to discuss the

TUCSONWEEKLY.COM 33

legal landscape, believe the core mission in any lobbying effort is educating the public on what is happening in the halls of government as it pertains to marijuana.

“We’re often scared of the things that we don’t know about,” Richard said. “Once we actually give ourselves an opportunity to welcome that experience in, it’s less scary, and cannabis definitely is one of those things. It doesn’t have to be as scary as we make it.”

Robinette says that while there are occasional times when AZNORML’s agenda diverges from that of the cannabis trade organizations, ultimately everyone is interested in the normalization of the industry moving forward.

“The ADA works to represent the interests of dispensaries to further legislation that benefits their organization,” he said.

“Since our advocacy focuses on cannabis consumers and the cannabis community, we will not always align with the interests of the ADA, however, we are more than willing to work with the ADA when congruence exists relative to our goals.”

For anyone interested in joining in the lobbying effort, the next training will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 28, from 7 to 8 p.m.

More information can be found at arizonanorml.org or at the group’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/NORML2.0.

NEWS NUGGETS GETTING WITH THE PROGRAM: Eight years after unceremoniously dropping cannabis research pioneer Dr. Sue Sisley and her attempts to make the University of Arizona a hub for clinical research into the plant, the UA recently announced it is offering three new noncredit Cannabis Certificate Programs to “help address workforce needs in the growing cannabis industry.”

The courses will be offered through the university’s Continuing and Professional Education program and will be conducted by “cannabis education company” Green Flower.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 35

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DECEMBER 23, 2021

WEEDLY

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 33

According to a recent press release, the certificate programs are the Business of Cannabis, Cannabis Law and Policy, and Cannabis Healthcare and Medicine.

Certificates can be earned through eight-week online courses, and can be completed in approximately six months.

Green Flower “works with a number of colleges and universities across the U.S., including the University of New Mexico, Syracuse University and University of California, Riverside.”

“We are delighted to partner with Green Flower to help learners gain skills necessary to be a professional in the burgeoning cannabis industry,” said Craig Wilson, UA’s vice provost for online, distance and continuing education. “Understanding multiple viewpoints like business, law and policy, and health care and medicine as it relates to the cannabis industry will help our learners establish a solid foundation.”

Registration is open for the programs, the first of which begins March 7. The cost for each certificate is $2,950. A $500 registration discount is available for the first cohort.

The Weedly suspects that UA is finally getting on the bandwagon now that pot has become a multi-billion-dollar industry nationwide.

FEDERAL FAILURE: Just when we thought it was SAFE to delve into politics again …

Prohibitionists can breathe a sigh of relief, as the recently passed $770 billion National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2022 will still fund our unsightly war machine, but we won’t have to worry about your local cannabis dispensary owner being treated like any other business by

the banking industry.

On Dec. 10, the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act was (naturally) removed from the largest budget in the federal government.

SAFE was attached to the NDAA by Congressional Democrats to circumvent Republicans—and Democrats—bent on continuing the vilification of weed.

The law would have allowed “legitimate” cannabis businesses access to a full range of banking services, yet despite wide-ranging support, both in the cannabis and banking industries, it was once again—to borrow a phrase from Grove Norquist— drowned in a bathtub.

This is the fifth time House Democrats have introduced the bill in some form and it has been killed by soldiers in the endless War on Drugs.

AND YOU THOUGHT IT WAS ALREADY LEGAL: On Dec. 14, Pima County Attorney Laura Conover announced her office would no longer charge people arrested for “simple drug possession, paraphernalia, or related personal-use incidents,” a policy “intended to protect both Pima County jail employees and people who are detained against the surging threat of Covid.”

Conover noted that with many area residents rejected the vaccine, herd immunity remains out of reach.

“COVID is now spreading inside the jail, putting people there at risk,” Conover wrote in a memorandum to law enforcement officials. “The health and safety of our community are paramount.”

We here at the Weedly satellite office sincerely hope Conover is not referring to low-level cannabis arrests, as we thought those days ended with the passage of Prop 207 by 60% of the voters in the state.

Happy holidays, folks!

TUCSONWEEKLY.COM 35

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SAVAGE LOVE OUTWARD BOUND

By Dan Savage, mail@savagelove.net

I’m extremely kinky, with an emphasis on extreme. To give an example, I love long-term and extremely restrictive bondage. Think full-body casts or getting locked up for an entire weekend. I’m a 32-year-old straight male who has been married for five years. In the last year we opened up our marriage because my sexual desires were putting too much of a strain on the marriage. My wife is incredible, and we do many wonderful kinky things together, but I needed more. More frequency, more intensity. Since then, I’ve seen some other women but looking around I came to the realization that gay men have all the fun! I often see these incredibly intense sexual experiences that I so desire in amateur gay porn or on various gay men’s fetish profiles. I think men have a higher propensity to pursue these kinds of things. I’ve been talking to a guy who shares a very similar set of kinks, and it’s been great. He showed me Recon, which has opened a whole new world up to me. I’m struggling right now. It’s like a battle between my identity as a kinkster/fetishist and my identity as straight. I think the former is going to win, but certain things concern me. I don’t know if I’ll feel repulsed to have, say, a dick in my mouth. And I don’t want the poor guy that I play with to have to deal with my own internal psychological drama. I grew up in a very rural area that was extremely homophobic. I was bullied and called a faggot constantly. I’ve just recently been feeling less shame about being kinky and now there’s this whole other level of shame that I am scared to contend with. Am I silly for considering doing stuff with men even though I’m a lot more attracted to women, just in order to fulfill these kinks?

—Brooding Over Unmet Needs Daily “I felt very much in this person’s shoes at one point in my life,” said bondage porn star James “Heavy” Woelfel.

Just like you, BOUND, Heavy was always turned on by extremely heavy bondage scenarios. That was the reason he chose “Heavy Bondage For Life” as his porn name. And just like you, BOUND, Heavy once felt conflicted about getting tied by other men because he didn’t identify as gay or bisexual at the time.

“I was really worried that if I played with men that meant my identity had to change too,” said Heavy, looking back at that time in his life. “But seeking out oth-

er genders to play with doesn’t necessarily have to change your identity.”

Heavy’s identity ultimately did change—he now identifies as queer—but he wants you to know that your identity doesn’t have to change. “I view bondage the same as getting together with friends for a round of golf, or shooting hoops, watching a movie or game together,” said Heavy. “I’ve had many bondage encounters that involved sex, but I’ve had even more that were simply about the bondage itself.”

What Heavy is suggesting here, BOUND, is that you can meet up with another guy for a heavy bondage scene and enjoy the bondage—and even get off on the bondage—without having “sex.”

You can consent to being a guy’s bondage sub for an evening or a weekend without having to consent to sucking his dick or letting him fuck your ass.

“BOUND just needs to be direct about what he’s looking for when he reaches out to the guys he might like to play with,” said Heavy. “He needs to have the same conversations he had with his wife about limits, comfortability levels, and intentions. And if someone’s pushy about certain things that he’s unsure about, then they’re likely not the right person for him.”

Bondage tops on Recon with the kind of gear required to put you in truly restrictive bondage will most likely have heard from other straight and/or straight-identified guys who were in it for the bondage, not the sex. If simply getting to tie you up isn’t enough—if a gay bondage top isn’t interested in a bondage-only scene with you—he’ll decline to play with you.

“The most important thing is to find good and genuine people to share these kinds of experiences with,” said Heavy.

“Bondage is inherently dangerous, especially when you’re the one being put in bondage, and it requires a lot of trust. BOUND needs to make sure he’s putting his trust in the right people.”

So, how do you know if you’re interacting and negotiating with and possibly playing with the right kind of guys?

In addition to trusting your gut—always trust your gut—check their references. If you’re meeting bondage tops on Recon, you can send messages directly to the guys listed as friends on their profiles.

Someone with a lot of friends (and a lot of original play pics) is a much safer bet than someone with no friends or pics,

BOUND, but if you’re tempted to play with someone without friends listed on his profile, ask to be put in touch with other men he’s played with. If he refuses, BOUND, don’t play with him.

“The gay men I played with when I was still identifying as straight were generally very respectful,” added Heavy.

“I did have a few experiences where my limits weren’t respected. But thankfully I’m OK and I learned from those experiences.”

And Heavy wants you to know that there are women out there who are into intense bondage.

“It’s a myth that only men play to the level BOUND is interested in playing at,” said Heavy. “Though I’ve had many incredible experiences with men, I’ve met just as many women that wanted to lock me up in the most serious forms of restraint you could ever imagine.”

Follow Heavy on Twitter @ for_heavy, on Instagram @_heavybondage4life_, and Only Fans at Heavybondage4life.

As we come into the holidays, I am dreading having to spend time with my sibling-in-law. They are fake, self-absorbed, and delusional. At family dinners, they always serve themselves first. They don’t wait until everyone is served before starting, and they are often finished before everyone is served. They chew with their mouth open and talk with their mouth full. They talk about themselves constantly. They are rapidly approaching middle age and have never held a full-time or permanent job. As far

as anyone knows, they have never been kissed or even on a date. At first, I tried to cut them some slack. They are sheltered and don’t really have any friends. Recently, I have taken to muting them on social media so that I don’t have to see their insipid posts. I have also started skipping events with my partner’s family, but I feel guilty when I do this. Also, I feel like it would be inappropriate to tell my partner how I feel. So, what do I do? Continue to suck it up, or further distance myself and risk hurt feelings for being absent? Or do I come clean with my partner and risk hurting them? I don’t know what I would expect them to do other than offer me absolution for missing events.

—In-Law Lacking Substance If someone has terrible table manners—if someone chews with their mouth open—don’t you want them to serve themselves first and finish before you sit down to eat? As for the rest of it… it’s hard not to feel sorry for your siblingin-law, ILLS, but it’s easy for me to feel sorry for them because I don’t have to watch them chew or listen to them talk about themselves. And while avoiding your sibling-in-law this Christmas would be pretty simple (just plead Omicron), I don’t see how you can avoid seeing your partner’s sibling in the future—seeing and tolerating and, perhaps, finding some pity in your heart for them. questions@savagelove.net Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage.

Columns, podcasts, books, merch and more at www.savage.love.

DECEMBER 23, 2021

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

By Rob Brezsny. Go to RealAstrology.com to check out Rob Brezsny’s EXPANDED WEEKLY HOROSCOPE 1-877-873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700 $1.99 per minute. 18 and over. Touchtone phone required.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): You may become a more audacious storyteller in 2022. You could ripen your ability to express the core truths about your life with entertaining narratives. Bonus: The experiences that come your way will provide raw material for you to become even more interesting than you already are.

Now study these words by storyteller Ruth Sawyer: “To be a good storyteller, one must be gloriously alive. It is not possible to kindle fresh fires from burned-out embers. The best of the traditional storytellers are those who live close to the heart of things—to the earth, sea, wind, and weather. They have known solitude, silence. They have been given unbroken time in which to feel deeply, to reach constantly for understanding.”

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus author May Sarton wrote a poem celebrating her maturation into the person she had always dreamed she would be. “Now I become myself,” she exulted. “It’s taken time, many years and places; I have been dissolved and shaken, have worn other people’s faces.”

But at last, she said, “All fuses together now, falls into place from wish to action, word to silence. My work, my love, my time, my face: gathered into one intense gesture of growing like a plant.” I invite you to adopt Sarton’s poem as a primary source of inspiration in 2022. Make it your guide as you, too, become fully and richly yourself.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In 2012, the writer Gore Vidal died the day after Gemini writer Maeve Binchy passed away. They were both famous, though Bincy sold more books than Vidal. Vidal was interesting but problematic for me. He was fond of saying that it wasn’t enough for him to succeed; he wanted others to fail. The misery of his fellow humans intensified his satisfaction about his own accomplishments. On the other hand, Binchy had a generous wish that everyone would be a success. She felt her magnificence was magnified by others’ magnificence. In 2022, it will be vital for your physical and mental health to cultivate Binchy’s perspective, not Vidal’s. To the degree that you celebrate and enhance the fortunes of others, your own fortunes will thrive.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian political leader Nelson Mandela was wrongly incarcerated for 27 years. After his release, he became President of South Africa and won the Nobel Peace Prize. About leaving jail in 1990, he wrote, “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.” Although you haven’t suffered deprivation anywhere close to what

Mandela did, I’m happy to report that 2022 will bring you liberations from limiting situations. Please adopt Mandela’s approach as you make creative use of your new freedom.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): French poet André Breton wrote, “Je vous souhaite d’être follement aimée.” In English, those words can be rendered as “My wish is that you may be loved to the point of madness” or “I wish you to be loved madly.” That’s got a romantic ring to it, but it’s actually a curse.

Why would we want to be loved to the point of madness? A person who “loved” you like that might be fun for a while, but would ultimately become a terrible inconvenience and ongoing disruption. So, dear Leo, I won’t wish that you will be loved to the point of madness in 2022—even though I think the coming months will be an interesting and educational time for amour.

Instead, I will wish you something more manageable and enjoyable: that you will be loved with respect, sensitivity, care, and intelligence.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Many people in our culture are smart intellectually, but not very smart emotionally. The wisdom of feelings is undervalued. I protest! One of my great crusades is to champion this neglected source of insight. I am counting on you to be my ally in 2022. Why? Because according to my reading of the astrological omens, you have the potential to ripen your emotional intelligence in the coming months. Do you have ideas about how to take full advantage of this lucky opportunity? Here’s a tip: Whenever you have a decision to make, tune in to what your body and heart tell you as well as to what your mind advises.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl said that a sense of meaning is crucial. It’s the key gratification that sustains people through the years: the feeling that their life has a meaning and that particular experiences have meaning. I suggest you make this your theme for 2022.

The question “Are you happy?” will be a subset of the more inclusive question, “Are you pursuing a destiny that feels meaningful to you?” Here’s the other big question: “If what you’re doing doesn’t feel meaningful, what are you going to do about it?”

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Scorpio guitarist Rowland S. Howard spoke of “the grand occasions when love really does turn into something far greater than you had ever dreamed of, something auto-luminescent.”

Judging from the astrological configurations in 2022, I have strong hopes and expectations that you will experience

prolonged periods when love will fit that description. For best results, resolve to become more generous and ingenious in expressing love than you have ever been.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “I’ve been trying to go home my whole life,” writes poet Chelsea Dingman. I know some of you Sagittarians resist the urge to do that.

It’s possible you avoid seeking a true and complete home. You may think of the whole world as your home, or you may regard a lot of different places as your homes. And you’d prefer not to narrow down the feeling and concept of “home” to one location or building or community.

Whether or not you are one of those kinds of Centaurs, I suspect that 2022 will bring you unexpected new understandings of home—and maybe even give you the sense that you have finally arrived in your ultimate sanctuary.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): To ensure that 2022 will bring you the most interesting and useful kind of progress, take good care of your key friendships and alliances, even as you seek out excellent new friendships and alliances. For best results, heed these thoughts from author Hanya Yanagihara: “Find people who are better than you are—not smarter, not cooler, but kinder, and more generous, and more forgiving—and then appreciate them for what they can teach you, and listen to them when they tell you something about yourself, no matter how bad—or good—it might be.”

Comics

TUCSONWEEKLY.COM 37

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Sometime during the Northern Song Dynasty that ruled China from 960 to 1127, an artisan made a white ceramic bowl five inches in diameter. About a thousand years later, a family in New York bought it at a garage sale for $3. It sat on a mantel in their home for a few years until they got a hunch to have it evaluated by an art collector. A short time later, the bowl was sold at an auction for $2.2 million. I’m not saying that 2022 will bring a financial event as dramatic as that one. But I do expect that your luck with money will be at a peak.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In the Quechuan language spoken in parts of Peru, the word takanakuy means “when the blood is boiling.” Every year at this time, the community of Chumbivilcas stages a holiday called Takanakuy. People gather at the town center to fight each other, settling their differences so they can forget about them and start over fresh. If my friend and I have had a personal conflict during the previous year, we would punch and kick each other—but not too hard—until we had purged our spite and resentment. The slate between us would be clean. Is there some humorous version of this ritual you could enact that wouldn’t involve even mild punching and kicking? I recommend you dream one up! ■ Homework: A year from today, what do you want to be congratulating yourself for?

Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com

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DECEMBER 23, 2021

Edited by Will Shortz ACROSS

1 Vaccination site 4 Tap alternative?

8 Take the wrong way?

13 ___-tzu 14 Ancient region of Asia

Minor 15 Where the Nez Percé Reservation is found 16 → Di ← Gaga Godiva 18 Inventor of dynamite 19 Approved, with “to” 20 Bit of baloney 22 Like the soles of Louboutin shoes 23 Bird’s-eye view?

24 R.p.m. → m.p.h. ← k.p.s.

27 Singer Baker 29 Pair at sea 30 Its name comes from the Greek for “uncuttable” 31 Total jerk 32 French word at a coffeehouse 34 One crying foul, say 36 Art → Calculus ← Spanish 40 Long-snouted fish 41 Bread eaten with curry 42 Marcille who won “America’s Next Top Model” 45 Dieci meno due 48 Heaven on earth 50 How you might recall a childhood memory 52 Housewarming masquerade → tailgate ← 55 Influential icon 56 TV coach Lasso

In which four raised fingers and a curved thumb is “B,” in brief 58 Letting up 60 Fossilized tree resin 62 Ha-ha chortle → tee-hee ← 65 Not claim, say 66 Do some tailoring to 67 Woman’s name that sounds like a letter 68 Paid (up) 69 Mouth off to 70 Slip 57

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Title character of an ’80s sitcom 2 What toes can resemble after a long bath 3 Excessive righteousness 4 Some business casual shirts 5 Fraudulent medical treatment 6 “Ice Age” sloth 7 Swift to climb the Billboard chart?

8 Docked, in a way 9 Vow-sealing words 10 Common experiment subject 11 Cause of some orange fingers 12 Poker variant 14 “___ be a shame …”

17 Alluvium 21 Put down 23 Silence of the lambs?

Just the opposite!

25 Wedding vendor 26 Speaks on the record?

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on old TV 33 Sellers of airtime, informally 35 ___ of honor 37 Dr. Frankenstein’s aide 38 Dance-offs, e.g.

39 Shirtless, say 43 Many a YouTube star 44 Writer Rand 45 Chief tributary of the St. Lawrence River 46 Oppressive authority, informally

47 Tasty morsel 49 City with the longtime

slogan “Big things happen here” 51 Pelvic bones 53 Had the courage 54 Richard who wrote “Revolutionary Road” 59 35mm camera type 61 Inhabitant of 48-Across 63 Similar to 64 What’s-___-name

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