Weekly Wide Web

Name Game!

Now that the 2011 Tucson City Council candidates have turned in the required signatures, the election season is officially underway, and the various candidates are getting their promotional ducks in a row.

While we spent some time on The Range, our daily dispatch, mocking Ron Asta's lack of Facebook followers (up to 13 as of this following!), the real focus of any political campaign, as far as the Internet goes, is going to be the candidates' webpages.

Most of the candidates have them, even if Joe Flores' page looks like it belongs on Geocities circa 1997. However, for some reason, there's a strange obsession among the current crop of candidates with using domains that end in "4Tucson.com" or "ForCouncil."

That seemed strange to me. After all, what's easier to look up: ReginaRomero.com, or VoteReginaRomero.com?

I assumed that the candidates' names as domains must have been taken. There's no way you'd buy a domain name for your campaign, but not purchase your own name at the same time, right?

Well, in the case of RonAsta.com, ShaunMcClusky.com, JenniferRawson.com, ReginaRomero.com and TylerVogt.com, those addresses were still available. The key word there is that they were available.

We decided to pick them up ourselves.

Type in any of those Web addresses, and you'll be redirected to the Weekly's coverage of the candidate in question. The candidates should consider themselves lucky that someone with malicious intents didn't buy 'em.

Tucson's laid-back nature is charming at times, but when it results in amateurism among those who we're supposed to trust with our city government, it's definitely not charming.


The Week On The Range

We introduced you to the candidates for Tucson mayor and City Council; followed Scottsdale resident Sarah Palin's East Coast buscapade; described the new Tequila Party; and posted City Councilman Richard Fimbres' thoughts on the city budget.

We welcomed home the space shuttle Endeavour; shared the news that Federal Judge Larry Burns ruled that defense attorneys don't need advance notice if doctors choose to give psychotropic drugs to Jared Lee Loughner, who is facing 49 counts in connection with the Jan. 8 shooting rampage in Tucson; shared the disturbing news that some conspiracy theorists claim that the Tucson shooting rampage was a big hoax; gazed in horror at a different shooting rampage in Yuma; and invited you to an ethnic-studies forum.

We explored local food trucks with Janos Wilder; celebrated the return of Bill Buckmaster's radio show, now on weekdays at noon on KVOI AM 1030; filled you in on the latest cycling news; were dazzled by the latest in ice-cube-making technology; tasted some delicious pie at the New York Pizza Department; looked at the expansion of the Fourth Avenue Food Conspiracy Co-op; and previewed the final show of the Sand Rubies.

We followed the Tucson Padres' latest home stand; suggested you check out FC Tucson, our new soccer team; told you that Bill the Honey Man was getting hassled by The Man; ran down the contenders to become America's 2011 summer jam (we're guessing it'll be Katy Perry's "E.T."); coveted the new Muppet Star Wars action figures; and warned you to avoid music piracy in Tennessee.


Comment Of The Week

"I would have lost at croissant."

TucsonWeekly.com commenter "icecld2" doesn't think much of his or her own abilities after looking at the list of words correctly spelled by Sukanya Roy, the 2011 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion ("Learn to Spell Words You Didn't Previously Know Existed," The Range, June 3).


Best of WWW

One of the most popular videos Tucson Weekly TV has ever produced features Cardboard Shell (not her real name) and her accomplishment as the first person to defeat Something Sweet Dessert Lounge's Sugar OD challenge after the failure of 72 less-proficient mass eaters.

The fact that people are interested in the video shouldn't be too much of a surprise (the success of Man vs. Food should be a hint), but we haven't followed up with other competitive-eating-themed videos, because there aren't that many competitions in town. Thankfully, Boca has come through with a new taco/baked-potato event—and Cardboard Shell is slated to take the challenge.

Will she succeed? You'll have to watch the video to find out.