Weekly Wide Web

Thanks for Existing, Reddit Tucson

There's probably some traditional-media rule that you're not supposed to talk about the link-sharing site Reddit, but in a city where there are few definitive community websites, the portion of the site dedicated to the Old Pueblo (www.reddit.com/r/Tucson) is a great resource for information about the city, interesting events, and other stuff related to Tucson.

Maybe you're trying to figure out what to do with some baby frogs your kid found. Someone had an answer to that conundrum on Reddit Tucson. Need to come up with some cash in a hurry (legally)? There's someone out there with a breakdown of what to expect when giving plasma in town.

While Reddit does draw the occasional troll, the overall vibe is of a group of people trying to help each other out, and working together to figure out how to make the best out of the place we all live in. Example: There's a thread dedicated to local restaurants worth checking out that stretches on for pages—mentioning places that I had never ever heard of, but that I intend to try. In the midst of the "Occupy" movement, there was a discussion of which credit unions were worth joining after leaving the big banks.

It's hard to build an actual community online, and while I'm probably not going to make it to Reddit Tucson's Halloween party to meet the users in real life, I'm glad they're out there.


The week on The Range

We let you know that Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was traveling to North Carolina for intensive therapy; posted Congressman Raúl Grijalva's reaction to the news that troops would be home from Iraq by year's end; dissected the polling and the ad campaigns in the Tucson mayor and City Council races; brought you coverage of Occupy Tucson; noted that GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry was touting a flat tax; and shared the latest edition of Arizona Illustrated's Political Roundtable, with your moderator, Jim Nintzel.

We celebrated the release of Luz de Vida, benefiting the victims of Tucson's Jan. 8 shooting rampage; caught up with the latest in Tucson bicycling; were delighted to see that the Rillito and Santa Cruz river park paths have finally been joined together to create a car-free path through the Old Pueblo; visited the new downtown science center in the Rialto Building; and posted footage of the UA streaker.

We noted with sadness that Furr's Family Dining on Oracle Road had closed, and that several Mexican restaurants—including El Parador, Casa Molina's Speedway Boulevard location and La Fuente—were facing big financial troubles; ate at Mexican food truck KBORK; and gave you a head's-up about the new seafood restaurant that's opening at Mercado San Agustín.

We watched a Kodachrome view of old Las Vegas; noted that the UA was No. 15 on the "Sexual Health Report Card"; told you what music our critics were listening to; wondered if we should go ahead and mine the moon; told you how to spot the liars in your life; and discovered what the Police Academy sound-effects guy has been doing.


Comment of the week

"Unfortunately, there IS going to come the day when we will be faced with a decision that will affect how we will spend eternity! But since you have no concern of that day ever arriving, think this through if you would."

TucsonWeekly.com commenter "whisbell" chimes in on the fate of Dan Gibson's soul, and recommends the Left Behind book series ("Stupid Christian Idea of the Month," The Range, Oct. 8).


Best of WWW

After you peruse Adam Borowitz's feature on the formation of the Tucson chapter of the United States Bartenders Guild, check out some of the guild's members and their cocktail creations in our Secrets of Tucson Bartenders' series. Meet the people who concoct your beverages, and learn a few tricks in the process by watching this week's video—and going back through the archives!

Also, this week marks the return of Beavis and Butt-head, and we'll likely have some sort of recap of the first episode on The Range, possibly including Tucson Weekly editor Jimmy Boegle's expert analysis of the development of Cornholio's character arc.