Updates and Promotions

There are a number of things I wanted to talk about tonight, and things I wanted to show you.  But it's past 3 AM, Roswell is on Sci-Fi, and I'm starting to get tired.  Don't worry: I have no intention of getting up before 2 PM Saturday.  No, wait. I've got church stuff to do late tomorrow morning.  Fine.  I'll take a nap.

It's been a busy day.  I was awakened a minute before the alarm by a wrong number from Chicago, got to work at 8 AM (more or less), came home for lunch after a quick stop at Safeway and another one at St. Michael's, went back to the office, went to Best Buy after work to replace my mouse (which was doing nutso things like maximizing windows and opening stuff and undoing stuff the moment I tried to do them), came home, went online, went to the Dirty Duck Pub and Snail Races at the St. Michael's English Faire, stopped at Lucky Wishbone, came home, (deep breath), watched the Friday night lineup on Sci-Fi, shot and edited photos...and here we are.

Okay, enough prologue.

Update #1: Tucson doesn't have much of an autumn, and that's very true as the season starts this year.  The monsoon officially ended early a couple of weeks ago, but that didn't bring an end to summer-style weather.  Here.  Take a look!:

When I started digging for my camera this afternoon, the thermometer in my car actually said 107.  It dropped a degree while I was finding the Canon in my purse.  It's also been cloudy, but I don't think it's actually rained here since the meteorologists said the monsoon was over. 

Promo Number One: Saturday is the second and final day of this year's scaled-back English Faire at St. Michael & All Angels Church, corner of 5th & Wilmot, Tucson AZ.  You've missed the virtual snail races (at least, I didn't see you there - did I?), but Saturday brings very different offerings.  There are church tours from 10 to 11 AM.  At 11 AM there's both an organ concert on our wonderful Aeolean-Skinner organ (remember my pictures?) and an Artisan's Sale that runs until 4 PM.  There's also a Traditional English Tea at 2 PM.  The tea is $10.  The other stuff is free admission.  I don't know whether anyone in Tucson actually reads this blog (other than John, who actively avoids churches), but there you go.  End of promo #1.

Update #2:  El Con Mall is the name of the moribund midtown shopping mall I wrote about a couple of months ago.  Aside from a few "big box" stores added on the periphery of the place, there's a whole lot of nothing going on at that mall these days.  Today in the online edition of the Tucson Citizen, a columnist named Anne T. Denogean had a really interesting article about "El Gone Mall."  She has a much better handle on the situation over there than I did when I wrote about it - and even she can't figure out why El Con is the way it is.  Apparently there's a whole plan to turn it into a great place, but nobody's doing anything to make it happen.

Promo Number Two: "Are You a Heroine or a Villainess?" has the following stats to this point:

Are You the Heroine, or the Villainess?

Owner: Mavarin

Rated: Everyone

Created: Wed Sep 21 22:51:03 2005

Last Changed: Fri Sep 23 1:33:31 2005

Votes and Average: given 9, average of 4.22

I'm halfway through writing my second quiz, titled "Why Aren't You Asleep?" (Hi, Vince! *waves*)  It should be fun.

Meanwhile, though, please notice that the quiz is rated for Everyone.  You are a subset ofeveryone.  So take it, okay? (Guys, you may want to wait for my next quiz, but you can take it if you'd like.)  I'll be interested to know which of the six categories you get for your result. So far, the spread is pretty even except for the psychokiller category.  Good to know we don't have too many of those in the blogging and quizzing community! ;)

Update #3:  You know how I'm always interested in stuff that dates from the 1950s to early 1960s, all the midcentury modern and Roadside America type stuff?  Well, after leaving the snail races tonight, I stopped off at Lucky Wishbone.  This is a family-owned chain of Tucson eateries, founded in 1953.  The location at 22nd and Wilmot opened in 1963, and hasn't changed much since.  Inside are older Coca Cola signs that they probably got when the signs were new.  On one wall are faded pictures of recent country fair hogs, and of the location's grand opening. Even the sign outside, and the company logo on the boxes, probably hasn't changed in decades, if ever.

There's only one thing I don't like about Lucky Wishbone, and that's the less-than-healthy food choices that dominate the menu.  Back before people worried about cholesterol, deep fried chicken and fish and shrimp, served up with fries and Texas toast, probably sounded like a reasonable and tasy meal.  Heck, I used to eat similar fare at the Broaster Hut in Manlius, except that they served it with a red wedge of spiced apple.  But we know better now, don't we?  Oh, it's tasty enough, but it's not very reasonable.  Not as a steady diet, anyway! 

Still, I wish the Lucky Wishbone well. It's a real piece of living Tucson history.  In fact, it's directly across the street from that circa 1963 "55 Merchants to Serve You" sign that I showed you last month.  There's another one at Broadway and Swan, with an elaborate flashing sign. That stands in front of one of the surviving commercial buildings in town with midcentury modern architecture.

And speaking of classic midcentury eateries near Broadway and Swan, let me take this moment to mention that I have a new write-up about my beloved Kon Tiki restaurant and lounge over on the RoadsideAmerica website. 

Promo #3:  Round Robin Photo Challenge.  It's time for a head's up on the next challenge, coming up this Wednesday.  Subject, as chosen by Patrick of A Stop at Willoughby: "Secrets."  I'm looking forward to seeing how you can post photos of things, and still keep them secret!  I'll manage it somehow, though.  Will you?

Karen