A few random notes ...
• Congratulations to the Weekly's Jim Nintzel, who's celebrating 16 years at the newspaper this week. In that 4/25 of a century, he's held almost every job here imaginable, on his way to becoming one of Tucson's most respected scribes. Wow, 16 years ... that's a long time. I felt the need to remind him that when he started here, I was in between middle and high school. (I don't think he appreciated me telling him this much.) In any case, congratulations to Jim, and here's to another 16 more!
• There's something disturbing about celebrating the Fourth of July on the verge of what could be one of the ugliest Supreme Court nomination battles ever, and while a lot of men and women--many of whom could still be called "kids"--are dying in Iraq, in a war that we got into as the result of lies. Sigh.
• Is it just me, or does it seem that Tucson has been involved with a whole lot of important stuff? Look at some of the biggest national news stories of the last couple of weeks--Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement, the whole Deep Impact comet thing, the whole CardSystems credit card-account exposure debacle--and there's a strong Tucson angle. Just an interesting aside.
• Finally, in tribute to Mr. Nintzel, I would like to point out that as far as I can tell, the No. 1 song in the country on his first day at the Weekly was "Baby Don't Forget My Number" by Milli Vanilli. On that note, enjoy this week's issue.
