Tucson Weekly September 3, 2020

RIP, Lute Olson: UA Coaching Legend Dies at Age 85

SEPT. 3 - 9, 2020 TUCSONWEEKLY.COM • FREE

While the coronavirus has taken its toll on the arts community, local galleries and stages are slowly returning to life

By Margaret Regan

Fall Arts 2020 Resilience & Rebirth

CURRENTS: What Happens If There’s an Outbreak at a School?

DANEHY: Recapping the RNC

MMJ: Going Cali Sober

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SEPT. 3, 2020

SEPT. 3, 2020

Southern Arizona

COVID-19

THE ARIZONA NUMBERS. The number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases topped 202,000 as of Tuesday, Sept.

1, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. Pima County had seen 21,286 of the state’s 202,342 confirmed cases. A total of 5,044 Arizonans had died after contracting COVID-19, including 576 in Pima County, according to the Sept. 1 report. Meanwhile, the number of hospitalized COVID cases continues to decline. ADHS reported that as of Aug. 31, 729 COVID patients were hospitalized in the state, the lowest that number had been since May 10, when 717 COVID patients were hospitalized. That number peaked at 3,517 on July 13. A total of 832 people visited ERs on Aug. 31 with COVID symptoms. That number, which peaked at 2,008 on July 7, the lowest that number has been since June 7, when 815 people visited ERs with COVID symptoms. That number peaked at 2,008 on July 7. A total of 253 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on Aug. 31, the lowest that number has been since April 9, when 248 people were in ICU. The number of COVID patients in ICUs peaked at 970 on July 13.

THE PIMA COUNTY NUMBERS. In Pima County, the week-by-week counting of cases peaked the week ending July 4 with 2,398 cases, according to an Aug. 26 report from the Pima County Health Department. Those numbers have dropped with Pima County requiring the wearing of masks in public but they have bumped upward recent weeks, with 804 cases in the week ending Aug. 8 and 930 cases in the week ending Aug. 15. (Not all recent cases may have been reported.) Deaths in Pima County are down from a peak of 54 in the week ending July 4 to 35 for the week ending Aug. 8 and 15 for the week ending Aug. 15. Hospitalization peaked the week ending July 18 with 247 COVID patients admitted to Pima County hospitals. For the week ending Aug. 15, 63 COVID patients were admitted to Pima County hospitals.

Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckleberry warned last week the fight against COVID was far from over. “In looking at the long view over the months since the pandemic started, we are not yet seeing any significant, sustainable decline in infections or deaths,” Huckelberry wrote in an Aug. 24 memo. “This data, as reported

Roundup

by the Arizona Department of Health Services, will and has varied significantly from day to day. This daily fluctuation should not and cannot be interpreted as a trend.”

THE NATIONAL NUMBERS. Nationwide, more than 6 million people had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, which had killed more than 183,000 people in the United States as of Tuesday, Sept. 1, according to tracking by Johns Hopkins University.

UA PAUSES RETURN-TO-CAMPUS PLAN. The University of Arizona administration announced they will delay their staged reopening plan just one day after the fall semester began on Aug. 24. In an Aug. 25 email to faculty, students and staff, UA Provost Liesl Folks said the administration decided to continue Stage 1 of the reopening (essential in-person classes only) during the second week of instruction, which begins Monday, Aug. 31. Stage 2 was originally set to begin on Aug. 31 and would have allowed small classes to resume in person, bringing another 9,000 people to campus. But Folks said they’ve decided to hold off on Stage 2 for the time being, after consulting with local public health officials. Out of more than 9,000 antigen tests performed in the university community between July 31 and Aug. 25, the UA has uncovered 37 positive COVID-19 cases. On Aug. 25 alone, 342 antigen tests were conducted and six positive COVID-19 results were identified. The university is using far more antigen tests—which are less expensive and produce rapid results—than traditional PCR tests, which can take 48 hours or longer to produce results. During the same time period, only 37 PCR tests were performed and reported no positive

COVID-19 results. For more information, visit covid19.arizona.edu/updates.

TESTING AVAILABLE. Pima County has three free testing centers with easyto-schedule appointments—often with same-day availability—with results in 48 to 72 hours. You’ll have a nasal swab test at the Kino Event Center, 2805 E. Ajo Way, and the Udall Center, 7200 E. Tanque Verde Road. The center at the northside Ellie Towne Flowing Wells Community Center, 1660 W. Ruthrauff Road, involves a saliva test designed by ASU. Schedule an appointment at pima.gov/covid19testing.

The centers are also tied into Pima County’s developing contact tracing operation, which aims to be able to identify potential clusters and warn people if they have been in contact with someone who is COVID-positive. If you’re interested in a test to determine if you’ve already had COVID-19, the UA has expanded a free COVID-19 antibody testing program to include 15 new categories of essential workers considered at high risk for exposure. The antibody test, developed by researchers at UA Health Sciences, determines who has been exposed to and developed an immune response against COVID-19. In addition to healthcare workers and first responders, the test program is now open to educators, childcare workers, agriculture, grocery and foodservice workers, hospitality employees, solid-waste collection workers, transportation services workers and members of the National Guard. More information and registration for the test is available at covid19antibodytesting.arizona.edu.

—By Jim Nintzel with additional reporting from Kathleen B. Kunz, Austin Counts, Jeff Gardner and Tara Foulkrod.

RANDOM SHOTS By Rand Carlson

Cover image “Quarantine Queen” by Theressa Jackson.

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SEPT. 3, 2020 | VOL. 35, NO. 36 The Tucson Weekly is available free of charge in Pima County, limited to one copy per reader. Additional copies of the current issue of the Tucson Weekly may be purchased for $1, payable at the Tucson Weekly office in advance. To find out where you can pick up a free copy of the Tucson Weekly, please visit TucsonWeekly.com

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SEPT. 3, 2020

CURRENTS

COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA ATHLETICS

metropolises in which an urban sport like basketball can flourish, it’s remarkable that the three meccas of the collegiate sport are Durham, North Carolina; LexRIP UA Basketball Legend Lute Olson ington, Kentucky; and Tucson, Arizona.

1934-2020 Even more than a decade after he stepped down, when a kid in Ivory Coast or Costa Rica, Budapest or Singapore

By Tom Danehy picks up a basketball, they know about tucsonweekly@tucsonlocalmedia.com Arizona. It’s a legacy well-earned and one cherished by Tucsonans.

IT’S PROBABLY FAIR TO SAY THAT Olson took a circuitous route to ArizoLinda Ronstadt is the most-impressive na after starting his coaching career as a Tucsonan ever born here. And, with his high-school coach in Southern California. passing on Thursday, Aug. 27, it’s undeIt’s rare, but not totally unheard of, for a niable that Lute Olson is the most-imprep coach to make the leap to a mapressive Tucsonan to have lived and died jor-college job. He started out coaching here. Olson had been in failing health high school ball in Minnesota, the state after suffering multiple strokes. He was in which he had graduated from Augs85. burg College. While at Augsburg, he There is no way to overstate what Olplayed four years of football and basketson did for the University of Arizona, its ball (going by “Luke” Olson). His senior basketball program, the city of Tucson, year, he even played a season of baseball and the state of Arizona. He was a tower- and was named the school’s athlete of the ing basketball god, recognizable worldyear. wide for his physical stature, his steely After coaching for a few years in Minpresence on the sidelines, and, most nesota, he took a year off from coaching notably, for his perfectly coiffed silver to become a school counselor in Boulder, hair. Through work ethic and excellence, Colorado. He would shake his head and he brought status and pride to the comroll his eyes when recalling that year, as munity and he was absolutely beloved for though unable to believe that he would his efforts. In a country with several huge ever spend an entire year away from

GOODBYE, COACH

basketball. He and his wife of 47 years, Bobbi (whom he had married when he was a sophomore in college) would then move on to Southern California, where he started off coaching a freshman team.

Within a couple years, he had grabbed a varsity job at Marina High School in Huntington Beach.

He was a powerhouse prep coach, but he wanted more. When the job opened up at nearby Long Beach City College, he grabbed it. Junior college positions are more likely to be dead-end jobs rather than stepping stones, but it’s an understatement to say that Olson made the most of it. Despite being told by his athletic director that his recruitment was restricted to the Long Beach area, Olson went 104-22 in four seasons, even winning the State JC championship in 1971.

Meanwhile, a man named Jerry Tarkanian was making a name for himself as the head coach at Long Beach State.

Tarkanian had pulled off the recruiting coup of the decade by luring one of the top prep players in the country, Ed Ratliff, to unheralded Long Beach State.

(The details of that particular recruiting violation are stunning.) Tarkanian built Long Beach State into a national power, then took the job at UNLV, getting out of town about a half-hour ahead of NCAA

investigators.

Long Beach State offered the job to Olson and assured him that everything was fine with the NCAA. Olson coached Long Beach State one year, going 24-2 and reaching as high as No. 3 in the national polls, right behind the Bill Walton-led UCLA Bruins. But midway through the season, the NCAA hammer came down and Long Beach State was hit with a three-year probation that included a ban on post-season play.

Olson felt that he had been lied to by the Long Beach State administration and so he left after one year, taking the job at the University of Iowa, a team that had finished dead last in the Big 10. In only his second year, the Hawkeyes went 19-10. In the 1978-79 season, Iowa won the Big 10 title and made their first of five consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament. They even made it to the Final Four, but their title hopes were dashed when star player Ronnie Lester re-injured his knee in the first half against eventual champion Louisville.

It was the first of what would become multiple occasions when an Olson-coached team would be talked about in woulda/coulda/shoulda terms concerning a possible national championship. After nine seasons (and a record of 167-91) at Iowa, Olson shocked the basketball world by taking the job at lowly Arizona in remote Tucson. Over the years, Olson would use two standard lines when asked why he made the move. One was that he felt like he was living in a fishbowl at Iowa and the other, more lighthearted explanation was “Have you ever spent nine winters in Iowa City?”

Arizona, which had enjoyed some NCAA success under Coach Fred Snowden in the late 1970s, had fallen onhard times. Under one-year coach Ben Lindsey, the Wildcats had gone 4-24 and only an unexpected win the season finale kept the team from going 0-18 in Pac-10 play.

I FIRST MET OLSON NOT LONG after he arrived in Tucson. I was going to interview him for a magazine, but being a stay-at-home father to my daughter at the time, I was hoping to do the interview over the phone. However, Coach Olson invited me to his office and off I went, two-year-old daughter in tow. She sat on the floor of his office with a coloring book and crayons while I talked to Olson.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

OPEN AND SHUT

State needs better plan for COVID outbreaks in schools, educators say

By Kathleen Kunz Kathleen@tucsonlocalmedia.com WITH LOCAL OFFICIALS SAYING it’s only a matter of time before COVID outbreaks hit schools once they reopen for in-person instruction, state officials have yet to provide standardized guidance of what districts should do when students or teachers test positive for the virus.

The Tucson Unified School District has already closed two schools and another school’s classrooms since the beginning of the school year due to COVID-19 exposure. According to TUSD spokesperson Karla Escamilla, a student in the KIDCO program located at Irene Erickson Elementary (6750 E. Stella Road) tested positive for the coronavirus. Out of an abundance of caution, Pima County health officials and TUSD leaders decided to close the campus for two weeks, beginning on Aug. 25 until Sept. 7. Students using Erickson’s on-campus learning spaces will be moved to remote learning during this period.

A Rincon High School staff member working in two special education classrooms tested positive for COVID-19.

The district decided to shut down those classrooms but did not close down the rest of the school, located at 21 N. Arcadia Ave. Escamilla said special education classes will move to remote learning for 14 days.

According to the district’s website, Tolson Elementary School (1000 S. Greasewood Road) was closed from Aug. 18 to Aug. 31 at the recommendation of the Pima County Health Department, but no further information is available.

On Monday, Aug. 24, the Arizona Department of Health Services issued an emergency measure requiring schools, child care centers and shelters to report outbreaks of COVID-19 to their county health departments. This applies to public, charter and private schools with students in grades K through 12.

ADHS defines an “outbreak” as “two or more laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 within a 14-day period among individuals who are epidemiologically linked, do not share a household, and are not close contacts of each other in another setting.”

The state health department said this measure provides schools, child care

SEPT. 3, 2020

providers and shelters with a format for reporting COVID-19 cases within 24 hours of identification.

“Procedures on how to report and handle cases of COVID-19 will help schools as they navigate this most unprecedented school year,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman in a press release. “This emergency measure gives schools the instructions they need to correctly report cases as we head further into the new academic year.”

Right now, if districts do have a positive case of COVID-19 in one of their schools, they are required to fill out a form provided by their health department and work together to decide the best course of action.

The Amphitheater public school district plans to send home anyone at a school site who has symptoms of the virus. According to Amphi Communications Director Michelle Valenzuela, if the symptomatic person is a student, staff will quickly isolate them and call their parent or guardian to be picked up.

Amphi will follow Pima County Health Department guidelines for preventing the spread of coronavirus and will close down schools if needed. Valenzuela said the health department provides districts with resources, guidance and weekly Zoom meetings for updates on COVID-19 in the region.

At this time, ADHS recommends that school boards and county health departments discuss an emergency operations plan. They recommend the plans include: emergency communication strategies for sharing information with staff, parents and student about a COVID-19 outbreak; flexible attendance and sick leave policies for students and school staff; a developed system for alerting the local health department of large increases in student absences due to COVID-like symptoms; strategies for continuing education if schools are closed for an extended period of time; continuity of social, medical and meal services even if schools close; and designated isolation rooms and transportation services for students and staff who are sick.

But many educators in Arizona are dissatisfied with the state government’s strategy for reopening schools. In an Aug. 21 letter to Gov. Doug Ducey, Arizona Education Association President Joseph Thomas said a statewide school safety plan to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks in schools is desperately needed. He urged Ducey to create one or pass the responsi-

bility to Superintendent Hoffman.

“Everyone agrees students are best served with in-person instruction and with access to safe classrooms, qualified educators, and healthy meals,” Thomas wrote.

“This is most critical for students of color, whose communities have been more susceptible to the virus, and whose families are unable to be at home with the children because of professional obligations.”

Thomas said the safety plan should include a statewide face mask mandate for all schools and buses until the end of the 2020-21 school year; COVID-19 safety protocols for school districts regarding exposure notification plans for students and employees; cancellation of this year’s statewide testing; flexibility for school districts regarding the 180-day school year mandate; and additional funding that is “necessary” to ensure schools can provide “safe and healthy learning environments” when they do reopen.

The state’s dashboard shows that two of three metrics that guide reopening have been met statewide, with a two-week decline in cases and two consecutive weeks with hospital visits for COVID-like illness in the region below 10 percent. A third benchmark, with the number of positive tests below 7 percent of all people tested for two consecutive weeks, has been reached in four rural counties, but Pima County could hit that benchmark later this week.

Thomas said because of the state’s lack of a safety plan, district leaders are feeling pressured to bring thousands of students and employees back to campuses “regardless of community spread.”

Thomas wants to see local safety plans that include sufficient safety equipment and supplies for all districts. He said districts should provide alternatives for employees with underlying health conditions so they can continue working without having to put their lives at greater risk.

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Further on that point, he suggested school districts that do require employees to come to campuses provide justification that their work is “critical in nature and cannot be accomplished at home.”

“Thousands of education support professionals have already reported to their school sites, bus barns and maintenance facilities,” Thomas wrote. “These public school employees are putting themselves and their families at risk while districts struggle to acquire the personal protective equipment and disinfecting supplies necessary to maintain a safe workforce.”

Pima County School Superintendent Dustin Williams said Arizona’s decreasing trends in COVID-19 data are promising, but schools cannot let their guard down yet. He warned against the process of closing and reopening schools repeatedly, but said there are small opportunities for supplementing online learning with in-person interaction.

“What I think you might be able to see is some small cohorts of groups that follow the social distancing rules, you might see it in your younger grades to start with, and then you’ll have a blend of also remote learners that are still going to school in that fashion,” Williams said. “But for full-blown opening, at this very given time it’s still too high of a risk.”

Williams noted that public school districts, charter schools and private schools all have full autonomy over whether to bring students back to campus or not.

At this time, Pima County public school districts are holding off on traditional in-person classroom learning at this time.

But two charter schools, Leman Academy of Excellence and Legacy Traditional Schools, resumed in-person classes in August. ■ For more information on what districts and the Pima County Health Department are doing to keep school communities safe, visit the Back to School webpage.

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THE SKINNY SEPT. 3, 2020

PIMA COUNTY’S PURPLE DISTRICT

Can Democrat Rex Scott win an upset victory in the race for Pima County Board of Supervisors in GOP-leaning District 1?

By Jim Nintzel jimn@tucsonlocalmedia.com ONE OF THE KEY RACES TO WATCH this November is the contest for the District 1 seat on the Pima County Board of Supervisors, where Republican Steve Spain is facing Democrat Rex Scott.

District 1, which includes Marana, Oro Valley and the Catalina Foothills, has long been a solid Republican district.

But things have begun to shift. As the 2020 election looms, the district is home to roughly 55,000 Republicans, 52,000 Democrats and 44,000 independents who aren’t registered to the two major parties. That’s a narrow advantage for a Republican candidate, but it’s a margin that would be comfortable in some races.

But Republicans did not fare well in District 1 in 2018. Several Democrats won the district on their way to winning statewide. U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, Arizona Corporation Commissioner Sandra Kennedy, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman all won the district by an average of 3,000 votes. That’s despite the fact that roughly 9,000 more Republicans than Democrats cast a ballot in District 1 in 2018. That means that independent voters along with crossover Republicans helped the Democrats overcome the voter registration disadvantage.

And independent voters in District 1 appear to be leaning in the direction of Democrats this year. Of those who asked to vote in the primary, 3,049 asked for Democratic ballots, while 2,386 asked for GOP ballots—meaning 56 percent of independents were leaning towards the Democratic Party and 44 percent were leaning toward Republican Party.

All of that is good news for Democratic candidate Rex Scott. Scott is a

as the general approaches. But many members of the biz community—or at least the ones who write big checks— have tired of Miller’s antics after eight years on the board. And they may see Scott, a former Republican himself, as an acceptable option compared to Spain.

All of which doesn’t make Scott the favorite in the race—but it does mean it’s the most competitive race among the contests for Board of Supervisors this year.

TIME OUT

Pima County Board of Supervisors suspends troubled constable for the remainder of his term

cle. He’s also been reprimanded multiple times by the Constable Ethics, Standards & Training Board following a road-rage incident and an episode in which publicly urinated while delivering legal paperwork.

In December 2019, the Constable Ethics, Standards & Training Board ordered him to take courses in anger management and driver safety, which he failed to do by mid-July of this year, leading the ethics board to recommend that the Pima County Board of Supervisors suspend him for 30 days without pay.

The Board of Supervisors went even further, voting 5-0 this week to suspend Vasquez without pay through the end of his term in January 2021, even though he finally took his classes on anger management and driver safety. Vasquez, who didn’t return a phone call from the Weekly, and complained he was the victim of “one-sided media coverage” in his plea to the board to avoid suspension.

Vasquez is running unopposed for a second term in November. ■

former teacher and school administrator who worked as an assistant principal at Ironwood Ridge High School in the LAST WEEK’S SKINNY COLUMN Amphi School District and as a principal exposed the colorful career of Constable at Tortolita Middle School in the Marana Oscar Vasquez, who has managed—in his Unified School District, both of which first four-year term—to get banned from overlap with District 1. That gives him driving county cars after taking some of some existing name ID for voters in that them for spins at greater than 100 mph area of the district. and blowing up the engine of one vehiScott didn’t have much trouble in his primary race, capturing about two-thirds of the vote against political rookie Brian JEN SORENSEN Radford.

Spain, who has helped hotel chains with their technological needs, prevailed in his four-way primary, but he only captured 34 percent of the vote against former state lawmaker Vic Williams (who got 25 percent of the vote), Oro Valley Councilmember Rhonda Piña (who got 23 percent of the vote) and former Pima County Republican Party chair Bill Beard (who got 18 percent). Spain’s main asset in his campaign was the endorsement of incumbent Supervisor Ally Miller, who has been a vocal critic of her colleagues—both Republican and Democrat—on the Board of Supervisors as well as Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry. (To the minds of many on the right, Huckelberry is the great villain of Pima County, out to destroy roads, ruin business opportunities and generally make Pima County uninhabitable.)

Scott has also far outpaced Spain in fundraising. As of July 18, Scott had put together a campaign war chest of nearly $56,000. He’d spent about $23,000 of that, leaving him with close to $33,000 in the bank.

Spain, by contrast, had raised less than $15,000 as of July 18 and had less than $4,000 in the bank.

Given that he won the primary, Spain tucsonweekly will likely be able to raise more money

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SEPT. 3, 2020

DANEHY

THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION,

BY THE NUMBERS

By Tom Danehy, tucsonweekly@tucsonlocalmedia.com I WATCHED THE REPUBLICAN National Convention, mostly because Lovecraft Country wasn’t nearly scary enough.

(Actually, the racism parts were depressing and hard to watch, but the monsters were on the silly side. That sentence applies to both Lovecraft and the Convention equally.)

We all understand that political conventions are supposed to paint a pretty picture of one’s own party while casting aspersions on the other side. But this thing was from another dimension. It was falsehoods and vulgarity on acid…on steroids…on Fox. But, by watching the Republican Convention, I did learn that it was Donald Trump, not Lincoln, who freed the slaves. Trump also founded the National Organization for Women, personally insisted that coverage for pre-existing conditions be a part of the Affordable Care Act, and, through quick and decisive action, completely obliterated the coronavirus (which is why we—like all the speakers at the GOP show—can now talk about it in the past tense).

A while back, I suggested that people ignore the COVID-19 numbers that are read by TV news talkers. They just throw out a bunch of numbers without offering any analysis. I still think that you should

CLAYTOONZ By Clay Jones

ignore that nightly ritual, but there are other numbers that cry out for attention.

They include: • 11. That’s the number that the volume was turned up to in Kimberly Guilfoyle’s speech. It was absolutely amazing how she could shout her way through an entire speech. And she showed us that shacking up with Donald Trump, Jr. wasn’t an isolated episode of stupidity when she topped things off by claiming to be a first-generation American because her mother was born in Puerto Rico!

• ZERO! That’s the credibility that’s left for the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention after people who claim to be doctors tossed aside sound medical procedure in order to satisfy the blatantly political demands made by members of the Trump Administration who are desperately trying to pretend that the COVID-19 pandemic is somehow behind us.

It’s almost cruel to expect Donald Trump to understand math. It’s like picking on the handicapped. You might as well try to explain physics to a fencepost. However, the people at the CDC are doctors, for cryin’ out loud! They’ve all spent a double-digit percentage of their lives working to become healers of people. They are all of a higher—

perhaps the highest—calling. There isn’t a scenario imaginable where they should be bowing down to some boot-licking bureaucrat. I’m sorry, if some Trump Turd-licker comes along and tells a CDC doctor that the boss is going to fire him if he doesn’t fudge his results or alter his methodology to the detriment of science, the response should be, “Then fire me!”

Get fired, put on your resume why you got fired and by whom, and then immediately get a better, more ethical job. This bowing to political pressure is going to damage the CDC for generations.

• 3. That’s the grade level of people who think it’s funny to intentionally mispronounce the name of a person of color.

Actually, that number might be too high because a lot of third-graders understand that racism can be expressed in a lot of different ways, none of which are funny.

I turned on the radio the other day and I heard White Boy Dick talking about the Democratic nominee for Vice-President.

He said “KAM-uh-luh or Kam-AH-lah or KAME-ah-lah…” Seriously, who’s going to laugh at that? And who’s going to believe that it’s not racist?

• 74%. That’s the current line in Vegas that Kamala Harris will make Mike Pence cry when they have their debate Oct. 7 at the University of Utah. It’s gonna be nasty.

In all seriousness, it’s probably better than even money that Pence tries to come up with an excuse to get out of it.

Commenting on the Vice-President’s speaking style, Bret Stephens of the New York Times said that Pence looks like “the

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before part of a laxative commercial.”

• 70-29-1. Those are the current Presidential election numbers posted on 538.

What’s moderately scary is that Trump’s 29% chance of winning is the exact same number that he had on Election Day in 2016. The REALLY scary number is that 1, which is the chance that the Electoral College vote could end in a 269-269 tie.

They always talk about the “genius” of the Founding Fathers. But if you thought that the Electoral College was a dumb idea, wait until you see how they break the tie.

The newly-elected House of Representatives convenes to “elect” the President.

Each state’s delegation gets one vote, which means that California’s 40 or so Democratic Representatives would count the same as the one Republican from North Dakota.

While the Democrats hold a huge margin in the number of actual Representatives, the Republicans hold a 26-23-1 advantage in state delegations and that’s unlikely to change in November. That would mean that Trump would be “elected” by the House and, for the third time in six elections, we would have a President who lost the popular vote.

Here’s the kicker: While the House votes for the President, the Senate “elects” the Vice-President. If the Dems take the Senate (of which there’s a good chance), we could have President Trump and Vice-President Harris.

For four years, America’s salvation would be, like the song says, only a heartbeat away. ■

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SEPT. 3, 2020

GOODBYE, COACH

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

I started things off by mentioning my uncle, Alfonso DiMarco, who was the football coach and athletic director at a high school in West Des Moines. While coaching at Iowa, Olson had recruited one of his best players, Bobby Hanson, from that school.

His eyes lit up as he said, “Oh, Al DiMarco!

What a great guy!”(He actually talked like that; I once heard him use the word “swell” as an adjective.)

After the interview was over, he got out from behind his desk, knelt down on the floor, and asked Darlene if he could help her finish that one page. He went to grab a crayon, but Darlene handed him a specific color and he went at it. Not surprisingly, he was really good at coloring inside the lines.

I’d see him over the years and he was always cordial, very friendly. One time, a full 20 years after the interview, I ran into him and he said, “Say, how’s Darlene doing?” I couldn’t believe that he would remember her name. (I sometimes called her “Hey, you!”) When I told him that she was at Cornell getting her master’s in engineering, he said, “I’ll bet she colors inside the lines now.”

EVEN LOOKING BACK AFTER ALL these years, the results were stunning.

Using a patchwork lineup built around junior-college transfers, Olson took Arizona to the NCAAs in only his second year. It would be the first of 23 consecutive trips to the Big Dance. The next year, Arizona won the Pac-10 title and two years after that, the Cats were ranked No. 1 in the country for much of the season before suffering a heartbreaking loss in the Final Four. That team was built around All-American Sean Elliott, a stringbean of a kid who wanted to be a baseball player and later played highschool soccer.

It also featured Steve Kerr, a kid that no other college recruited. Olson saw that the NCAA was going to adopt the three-point line and he recognized the value of an outside shooter of Kerr’s ability. Kerr would make All-American at the UA and would go on to play on several NBA championship teams before becoming a coach and winning even more NBA titles.

I RAN INTO HIM IN MCKALE ONE TIME

and he asked how the girls basketball team that I coached had done in the previous season. I told him that we had reached the Final Four at State but playing in the empty

GREEN LIGHT Movie theaters, gyms reopening as state hits COVID benchmarks, but some officials worry

By Austin Counts austin@tucsonlocalmedia.com

ed at 5755 W. Arizona Pavilions Drive and 5455 S. Calle Santa Cruz.

Midtown Tucson’s Loft Cinema MOVIE THEATERS, INDOOR GYMS, announced that it would start screensome bars, water parks and other busi- ing movies outdoors on the side of the nesses in Pima and Maricopa counties theater, with a limited number of tickets COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA ATHLETICS were allowed to reopen last week after available. The Loft remains available to and cavernous arena that’s home to the they reached certain benchmarks private rentals for groups of 10 or fewer Phoenix Coyotes hockey team, my team that indicated “moderate” spread of people. had shot a dreadful 7-for-60 in the game.

COVID-19.

With the shuttered businesses He gave me a “Yeah, we’ve all been there” The businesses were closed by Gov. allowed to reopen, Pima County Adminchuckle as he said, “Shooting that badly, at Doug Ducey when the rapid and uncon- istrator Chuck Huckelberry expressed least you didn’t suffer a close loss.” trolled spread of the coronavirus put concern about mixed messages coming When I told him that we had lost by 1 Arizona in the global spotlight. point, he gave me a different laugh, one from the state and federal government ADHS Director Cara Christ praised that said, “Well, maybe we all haven’t been regarding the reopening of businesses Arizonans for working together to slow there.” closed by Ducey’s executive order. the virus’ spread since mid-July. HowIn a memo entitled “COVID Confuever, she warned business owners and sion and Mixed Messages,” Huckleberry Arizonans alike to stay vigilant, keep IT’S ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO STATE pointed out that the White House Corowearing masks and staying at home the impact that Olson had on the Univernavirus Task Force had issued a report if sick to help keep the state’s metrics sity of Arizona and Tucson. It’s so trite to on Sunday, Aug. 23, that recommended trending downward. say that “he put us on the map,” but after mitigation efforts be increased in Tucson “Businesses not complying with the decades of Los Angeles being the center of “to decrease continued community required mitigation measures will be college basketball west of the Mississippi, spread’; testing efforts be scaled up, subject to strict enforcement,” Christ that focus shifted to Tucson, where it re“especially in Tucson”; and bar closures wrote. “The Department will continue mains to this day, more than a decade after to partner with local authorities, counshould continue and gyms should not his messy, health-related retirement. It was ty health departments, and other state reopen in Tucson. later explained by his doctor than Olson’s agencies to ensure proper compliance Huckleberry said the state’s guidance first stroke (which had gone undiagnosed) and protect the health and safety of cus- to allow businesses to reopen “directly had caused severe depression and impaired tomers and employees.” contradicts the (White House Coronavijudgment.

With the green light, many gyms and rus Task Force) guidance.”

Even after his retirement, he remained a some movie theaters announced plans to Huckleberry also took issue with the fixture at Wildcat games, always taking the reopen. recent CDC guidance that individuals time to sign autographs and shake hands.

Harkins Theaters reopened all of their who don’t show symptoms should not He leaves behind a body of accomArizona locations with new safety and be tested for coronavirus even if they plishments that will probably never be sanitation protocols last Friday, Aug. 28. have been exposed to someone who is duplicated. He was Pac-10 Coach of the Year seven times (and Big 10 Coach of the For their celebratory opening weekend, COVID-positive.

Year once). He coached the U.S. National Harkins screened new films like Marvel’s Earlier in the week, Huckleberry reteam to the FIBA World Championship “The New Mutants” and “Unhinged” leased a memo warning the fight against in 1986. He led Arizona to five Final Fours with Russell Crowe, as well as a special COVID was far from over. and his 1997 team won the NCAA title.

10th anniversary screening of “Incep“In looking at the long view over the He’s in the Basketball Hall of Fame and the tion.” months since the pandemic started, we College Basketball Hall of Fame. There is a New precautions require all customare not yet seeing any significant, suswell-deserved statue of him in front of the ers and staff to wear masks. If you do tainable decline in infections or deaths,” basketball arena and the names of Lute and not have a mask, one will be provided Huckelberry wrote in an Aug. 24 memo.

Bobbi Olson will forever adorn the court at by the theatre. There will also be social “This data, as reported by the Arizona McKale Center. Bobbi Olson died of ovardistancing required through the facilDepartment of Health Services, will and ian cancer in 2001; the Cats would go on ities, staggered showtimes to reduce has varied significantly from day to day. to reach the national championship game the number of customers in the lobby, This daily fluctuation should not and before losing to Duke. sanitizer stations, air filtration systems cannot be interpreted as a trend.” ■ He was an incredible figure, certainly and reserved seating in all theatres. the most-famous resident of his adopted Tucson’s Harkins Theatres are locatRead more online at tucsonweekly.com city. He was revered in life and will be sorely missed in his passing. Tucson lost a giant. ■

Fall Arts 2020:

By Margaret Regan tucsonweekly@tucsonlocalmedia.com REMEMBER THE EARLY DAYS of the pandemic, when staying home was a novelty? When everyone thought they could sail through a couple of weeks on the couch?

Painter Theressa Jackson has memorialized those now distant times in a self-portrait, a jaunty watercolor that she titled “Quarantine Queen.”

In it, a plucky Jackson is outfitted with every essential an isolation queen needs: a jar of spaghetti sauce, a box of pasta, and a bag of beans; a measuring tape for home repairs, the all-important TV remote; a painter’s brush; and a roll of toilet paper floating through the air like an angel. A crown of cactus flowers circles Jackson’s head.

“I created this painting when the strangeness of 2020 was first becoming reality,” she writes in an artist’s statement.

“Beans and toilet tissue and pasta were precious, the saguaros were still blooming, and all the oddities that now feel like everyday life still seemed peculiar.

“In many ways, I felt more optimistic than I do today.”

Jackson clearly is not the only one weary of the long months of isolation. Every part of life has been affected in the nearly six months since Americans went home to fight the spread of COVID 19. Weddings have been postponed, schools have gone virtual and funerals have been cut short. Millions of workers have lost their jobs and others have caught the disease on the job. Some 6 million Americans have fallen ill from the virus; more than 180,000 have died painful COVID deaths.

Tucson’s famously lively art scene has endured some bleak months. It’s been ages since art lovers have flocked to art museums or packed gallery openings or sat with strangers in theatres for hours on end.

But artists have been busy making art at home. Tucson painter Gail Marcus Orlen has been painting canvas after canvas

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RESILIENCE & REBIRTH

While the coronavirus has taken its toll on the arts community, local galleries and stages are slowly returning to life

that wrestle with the demon virus; posted on Facebook, the paintings feature deadly COVID orbs moving alongside her typical fantasy birds and angels.

Raices Taller 222 Art Gallery and Workshop has created an exhibition that probes life under the coronavirus. Jackson’s witty painting is a highlight of the online show, Corozones Unidos (Hearts United), which runs Sept. 12 to Oct. 24 on raicestaller222.com.

“It’s about work made during the pandemic,” says the gallery’s John Salgado.

As the entries showed up in late August, he was a little surprised that most of the images were “not dark. They’re about what the artists have been doing.”

Richard Zelens, for instance, has made a sun-filled painting, “In Isolation,” that tallies up the pleasures of sheltering in the Sonoran Desert spring. Pink flowers stretch up toward the blue sky, and we can see the Catalinas in between the plants’ green stems. A faithful dog stands ready to banish loneliness.

David Contreras’s “Santa Sombrita” (Saint Shadow) is more foreboding. A black and white linocut print, it pictures a person in a mask, looking like a scary La Llorona, the folklore character who haunts the borderlands.

But if the virus is a kind of La Llorona, Tucson arts have begun fighting back, armed with every health protocol possible. The Tucson Museum of Art opened up in late July, and in August Tohono Chul followed suit. Etherton Gallery is up and running and Philabaum Glass Art Gallery just reopened Sept. 2.

Arizona Theatre Company has pushed back its live performances until January, but other companies are trying out live performance again. The feisty Invisible Theatre is planning live shows with a vastly reduced audience. The Rogue Theatre is also hoping to perform live plays, backed up by filmed versions for fans wary of returning to the theatre.

COURTESY PHOTO

“Quarantine Queen” by Theressa Jackson, is on display at Raices Taller 222 Gallery and Workshop.

Over at the University of Arizona, the Center for Creative Photography and the University of Arizona Museum of Art are still closed,. CCP director Anne Breckenridge Barrett wrote to museum patrons that she’s hoping to open up this fall, but that won’t happen any earlier than Sept. 30.

Here’s a quick look at the state of the arts at the beginning of month seven of COVID-19. Be prepared to follow the health rules in all the venues. Wear that mask!

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FALL ARTS 2020

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VISUAL ARTS The Tucson Museum of Art reopened to the public on July 30. The just-built Kasser Family Wing, housing the Latin American Art collection, is “grand and beautiful, and shows off the collection,” chief curator Julie Sasse says. It holds 3000 works of Latin art, from Pre-Columbian clay works to contemporary paintings.

In the main gallery, Sasse’s show, Southwest Rising: Contemporary Art and the Legacy of Elaine Horwitch, takes a deep look at the gallerist who put southwest artists on the map, including famed Native artist Fritz Scholder. Sasse even spent four years writing an accompanying book. The show opened to fanfare Feb. 29, but few saw it: the museum shut down within weeks. Art lovers have one more chance; the show has been extended to Sept. 20 Also this fall, the competitive Arizona Biennial opens Oct. 1, which will feature work by 83 artists around the state. The usual festive Biennial opening party is definitely not happening.

Like other reopened venues, TMA requires masks and social distancing.

Timed tickets sold online help control the numbers of visitors. Hand sanitizing stations abound and guests can wash hands in the bathrooms on every floor.

Reduced hours, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday through Sunday.

Tucsonmuseumofart.org.

COURTESY PHOTO

An artwork by Douglas Johnson, featured in the Tucson Museum of Art’s “Southwest Rising” exhibition.

Etherton Gallery downtown is open, and still exhibiting Go Figure, a show that debuted in March just before the statewide shutdown. It features four artists, multimedia artist Holly Roberts, painter Jack Balas, wood sculptor Robert Wilson, and Tucson painter Titus Constanza, who is showing interesting new work, of collages made from his own paintings and drawings.

Not too many people have seen the works, gallery owner Terry Etherton laments, but he’s enjoyed having them up all these months because “they’re so great.”

In the fall, Etherton normally brings works to art fairs in the U.S. and abroad

but most have been cancelled. Right now, he and the staff are putting together some 180 photos to be sold at an online auction. As for the next show, Etherton is pondering whether to mount an exhibition of Michael O’Neill’s acclaimed photos of yogis worldwide, originally scheduled to be up this summer. He might put up the O’Neills in October, Etherton says, but he’ll wait to see how it goes before he decides. As an alternative he might display some pieces from the gallery’s own collections.

In these uncertain times, he says, “Everything’s on hold.” Ethertongallery.com.

The nearby MOCA-Tucson is still closed but in mid-August a commis-

sioned mural went up on the vast windows of its Great Hall.

Black artist Jibade-Khalil Huffman created the giant multimedia work out of vinyl, video projections and sound, exploring “layers of violence.” Video of the marching band at Florida A&M, a historically black university, provides a continuing cultural backdrop for the blurrier scenes of protests. Look for a monument it being toppled. The sound of the band’s drums are intermixed with fragments of speeches from the civil rights movement.

To see it, stand outside the museum windows on West McCormick St. at Church Ave. or watch from your car.

Twilight is the best time. The mural will be up 24/7 through Sept. 27.

Moca-tucson.org.

Two Black Lives Matter murals by women, made shortly after the killing of George Floyd, are outside the MSA Annex, south of the Mercado on S. Avenida del Convento. The artworks are on the west wall of the annex and can seen day or night. Adia Jamille’s work celebrates the happy times in lives that have not been lost. The brightly colored images include books, a binocular, running shoes, a rainbow, a child with a basketball. “Black Lives Matter,” the lettering says, “When They Are Alive.”

Nearby, artist To-Re-Nee Wolf created a series of panels of Black people: a woman kissing a man, somber adults in front of the stars in an American flag. In one, a family of three mourn the death of a loved one. The words “Remember My

Fall Arts 2020 COURTESY PHOTO

The virtual exhibition “Virus 2020” is currently being hosted by the new downtown gallery Pidgin Palace Arts.

Name” are wrapped around them.)

The small downtown galleries are mostly going virtual. Contreras Gallery near Sixth and Sixth is hosting an online political show from Oct. 1 to Nov. 29, just in time for the election and its aftermath. Satirical artists Gary Aagaard, Arnie Bermudez and David Wayne “Fitz” Fitsimmons do the honors.

The gallery is nominally closed, but if you wear a mask you can go inside during regular business hours, 10:30 to 2 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, and see Michael Contreras making jewelry and Neda Contreras painting. Contrerashousefineart.com.

The artist-run Untitled Gallery, physically in the Steinfeld Wearhouse, is staging a virtual reception for its show “Art as Resilience, Resistance and Respite,” 6 p.m., this Saturday, Sept. 6. Watch on Facebook live. David Andres, curator of Louis Carlos Bernal Gallery, will judge

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the entries. Winners will be invited to put their artwork in a real-life show at the gallery in October. untitledgallerytucson.com.

Pidgin Palace Arts, a brand new downtown gallery, bravely opened in August. Danny Vinik has curate mounted a timely virtual exhibition, Virus 2020, featuring Mario Garcia’s hallucinogenic drawings of plagues across the ages, from COVID to hanta to leprosy.

Photographer Michael Berman’s Trilogy of Stillness of the desert thoughtfully provides an image of a mask. Pidginpalacearts.com.

Nearby, the long-lived Philabaum Glass Gallery is back from summer vacation and showing off glass artworks and jewelry by some 50 artists, including Tom Philabaum. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday.

Philabaumglass.com.

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Fall Arts 2020 FALL ARTS 2020

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COURTESY PHOTO

Jibade-Khalil Huffman created this giant multimedia work out of vinyl, video projections and sound, exploring “layers of violence” for MOCA-Tucson.

from The Whimsical Village of Medow

www.theminitimemachine.org

New Exhibitions for Fall 2020 Include: Fanciful Fairy Houses by Kristy Thomas, Model Behavior: Scale Models by Sonoran Desert Model Builders, Buzzard Creek: Jean LeRoy’s Ghost Town, and The Whimsical Village of Medow. See us online for more information about visiting and new virtual programs.

On the eastside, the Tucson Desert Art Museum re-opened Sept. 2 with limited hours, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday to Friday; 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.

Two shows that were shut down in the spring have been extended through Dec. 27. The REDdress Project installation by Métis artist Jaime Black brings to light the high number of missing and murdered Indigenous women in the U.S. Red dresses are hung throughout the space, evoking a “presence through the marking of absence.”

In Buffalo Soldiers, David Loughlin has painted a series of works portraying Black soldiers who served in Arizona in the U.S. Cavalry in the late 1800s. The museum is also reprising a popular earlier show, The Dirty Thirties: New Deal Photography Frames the Migrants’ Stories. tucsondart.org.

Up on the Northwest side of town, Tohono Chul has reopened both its botanical gardens and its art Exhibit House for limited hours. Galleries are open 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday through Sunday; guests are welcome in the gardens 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Curator James Schaub has extended the spring show, On The Desert: The Discovery and Invention of Color, a landscape group show that “sets the color wheel spinning across the desert.” Among the artists are two Tucson titans, Jim Waid (Along the Tanque Verde) and Barbara Rogers (Cultural Alchemy.)

A smaller show, Slices of Sonora by a married couple, Janet Windsor and David Windsor, finds the beauty in desert trees. “It’s a beautiful show,” Schaub says. “It was installed the day we closed.”

A third exhibition highlights colored ceramics by Nicholas Bernard.

Schaub plans to keep these works up through September but, like Etherton, he’s waiting to see what happens before he programs for October. “We’ll see how things proceed. Our goal is to be open seven days a week.”

The Foothills galleries have been humming along all summer; most opened by late May, after Gov. Ducey ended the

stay-at-home order.

Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery specializes in Native American and western art, including paintings by the revered Maynard Dixon. No workers were laid off during the shutdown, says staffer Katherine Wesolowski. Sublette kicks off the fall season Sept. 15 with Small Works by Howard Post, a western painter whose unique works—almost impressionistic—were celebrated in an exhibition and tribute at Tucson Museum of Art. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. medicinemangallery.com Jane Hamilton Fine Art is on summer hours, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. The 28-year-old gallery shows some 50 artists, local and out of town, including western landscape painter Tom Murray. janehamiltonfineart.com.

Settlers West Galleries is gearing up for a Great American West show Nov. 21 to Nov. 28, featuring 53 invited artists.

Meantime the 39-year old gallery will be showcasing an array of western and wildlife paintings and sculptures. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday to Saturday. settlerswest.com

THEATRE The Rogue Theatre, now entering its 16th season, is using every possible weapon against COVID-19 to get its devoted fans back into the theatre. And in doing so, its two directors have managed to create a new art form.

For sure, Cynthia Meier, managing and associate artistic director, and Joseph McGrath artistic director, are doing all the usual things: requiring patrons to wear masks and reducing seats by two-thirds, limiting the number of patrons and allowing for social distancing.

They’ve hired a cleaning company. And going a little farther in the pandemic playbook, they are retrofitting toilets, faucets and doors to make them handsfree.

But here’s what’s different. In a usual performance, actors speak loudly, inadvertently spewing saliva into the air.

Droplets like these are a major culprit in the transmission of COVID-19.

Fall Arts 2020

COURTESY PHOTO

Arizona Theatre Company is hosting digital play readings with shows like “Slow Food.”

“To attack the problem of aero-spread, the actors will not speak at all during the play,” McGrath says.

A sound technician will record the actors speaking every word in the play—in advance. Come the night of the performance, the masked actors will move around the stage to the rhythms of their own recorded voices.

“It’s a kind of mime and dance,” Meier explains. “We found creative limbs we didn’t know we had.”

Even so, before each play, the directors will check the current COVID numbers.

If cases are not limited to 0.1 percent of the population (meaning fewer than 1 in 1,000 Pima County residents have the virus), they won’t allow the show go on live. But their fans will still get to see it.

The directors hired filmmaker Tim O’Grady to film two nights of rehearsals of each play in the season, using three cameras one night and two the next,

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creating a professional-quality movie that patrons can watch at home. And if the show does go on live on stage, the film will serve people who don’t yet feel comfortable going out to the theatre.

“We’ll make our decision whether to open the week before opening night,” Meier says. That means they will decide Sept. 3 if the season’s first play, Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge, scheduled to run for Sept. 10 to 17, will be performed live.

The only other Rogue play this fall, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein by David Catlin, running Nov. 5 to 22, will undergo the same health protocols—and the audience will see the same novel dance-mime moves. theroguetheatre.org.

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of Health Services and she has a formal document to prove it.

The season’s first play, Filming O’Keefe

by Eric Lane, running Sept. 1 to 12, will have only 22 audience members at each performance, using only 25 percent of the seats—“boutique seating,” as Claassen calls it. The play will be a “chamber” piece, with the actors performing while sitting on stools on the stage.

Masks are required, social distancing will prevail and patrons can’t linger in the lobby. They’ll use either the front door or back door to enter, whichever door is closest to their assigned seats. The play runs only 70 minutes with no intermission and the theatre will be cleaned by a pro service after every performance.

Invisible is also hosting two concerts this month. To-Ree-Nee Wolf steps up on Sept. 15 and 16; a Sept. 17 jazz concert with Christine Vivona and Rob Boone is sold out. Invisibletheatre.com.

The stage will go dark for a number of troupes this fall. Broadway in Tucson will not bring any of its traveling musicals to Centennial Hall until, COVID willing, Jersey Boys alights at Centennial Hall for a three-day run Jan. 22-24. The UA’s Arizona Repertory Theatre has also cancelled all of its fall shows, unfortunately disrupting the training of the university’s seriously talented theatre students.

Arizona Theatre Company is pushing all of its scheduled fall plays to the new year, leaving the Temple of Music and Art

COURTESY PHOTO

Invisible Theatre is so determined to continue, actors are performing in masks.

empty for months. But making up for that loss, ATC has organized a bevy of works in progress that will stream online. Next up is “Slow Food” by Wendy MacLeod, available Sept. 15 to 19; “Somewhere Over the Border” by Brian Quijada, Oct. 7 to 11; “Covenant” by York Walker, late October; and “The Realness,” by Idris Goodwin, November. The digital shows will be readings rather than fully staged productions.

The company is also doing various online interviews and talks. Arizonatheatre.org.

Gaslight Theatre has temporarily suspended plays in its theatres but at its Broadway location, it’s staging outdoor

music concerts in its new Porch Series (gaslighttheatre.com). Up in Oro Valley, the Gaslight Music Hall is offering drivein concerts (gaslightmusichall.com).

Most of Tucson’s theater companies are taking their talents to the internet.

Borderlands Theater is staying busy with a host for activities, mostly in partnership with other groups around the country. Lunada Literary Lounge livestreams Latinx poets on Sept. 17, Oct. 16, Nov. 15, Dec 14. Next up is a festival of Latinx plays, organized by Milagro Theatre and presented by Latinx teatros around the country, Sept. 27 to Oct. 4.

October also brings a tribute to Tucson playwright Silviana Wood, Oct. 17 and 20.

Borderlands is collaborating with Teatro Bravo in Phoenix on the short play Antigone at the Border, Nov. 20 to 22. borderlandstheater.org Winding Road Theater Ensemble is having an “all digital season” with two plays scheduled for the fall. Tucson’s Toni Press-Coffman debuts her new play Consolation, running from Sept. 25 to Oct. 11. Bryan Harnetiaux’s comic play Dusk is next on Nov. 6 and 8. Playwrights can enter new short works for the third annual Eight 10s play festival (with each play just 10 minutes long). Entries must arrive by Sept. 30 at the latest but hurry - the contest closes whenever 300 entries arrive.

Windingroadtheatre.org Something Something Theatre has one short play now on YouTube, in two versions, performed by two different actresses and shaped by two different directors. Valerie: A Cosplay Monologue

by Asher Wyndham. Search on YouTube under the play’s title.

Somethingsomethingtheatre.com.

Scoundrel and Scamp Theatre puts on a radio play, It Is Magic, Sept. 28 to Nov. 3. A Late Night with Scoundrels Cabaret kicks off at 8 p.m., Sept. 19. Tune in at scoundrelandscamp.org.

Live Theatre Workshop is presenting Musical Menageries for children online at 7 p.m., Friday, Sept. 11. The company is also offering kids’ online theatre classes during challenging school year compromised by coronavirus. Livetheatreworkshop.com. ■

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ALCOHOL ALTERNATIVE

More people are going “Cali Sober” as Americans warm to the idea of legal cannabis

By David Abbott david@tucsonlocalmedia.com WITH THE WIDESPREAD acceptance of cannabis as medicine—33 states have now legalized medicinal marijuana since California led the way in 1996—and with access becoming easier and less stigmatized over the course of the past quarter century, pot is emerging as a popular alternative to alcohol.

There is even a new term for those using weed as a means to reduce their booze consumption: “Cali Sober.”

Medical Marijuana The term cemented its place in our lexicon in the wake of an essay published in 2018 by a young writer named Michelle Lhooq when she moved from New York to California to cover the rave scene. Once she moved west, Lhooq realized alcohol was harshing her drug cocktail mellow.

She decided to give up alcohol and harder drugs, but continued to use psilocybin, LSD and, of course, cannabis.

Other writers—why is it always writers?—have reported the same phenomenon of giving up alcohol for the herb, particularly among those we refer to as millennials. So now in our meme-centric society, Cali Sober has become a thing.

But can you call yourself sober if you enjoy catching a buzz from weed?

The subject of cannabis use in relation to alcohol abuse is a subject very near to me. Since I didn’t die young and leave a pretty corpse, the things I filed

under “sowing oats,” or that were easily explained away when I was young, didn’t seem quite so charming once I hit my 50s.

So I woke up one morning in 2016 and after four decades of excessive drinking, finally gave up the grape (and the hops and the malt and even the potato, as vodka martinis were a particular favorite on my cocktail menu). I have been living Cali Sober ever since.

There appears to be three schools of thought on the concept of Cali Sober. For the hardcore AA types, there is no wiggle room and the only alternatives to mind-altering substances allowed are coffee and cigarettes (along with the amorphous and mysterious “higher power”).

At the other end of the spectrum, there are the users like Lhooq, who feel that an acceptable alternative includes moderate use of hallucinogens, which enjoyed a brief period of acceptance in the 1950s and ‘60s before the misguided War on Drugs took its grip on American society with the help of fear-mongering politicians who identified drug use with minorities and “dirty hippies” in the ensuing decades.

Finally, there are the MMJ advocates who see various forms of cannabis as medicine that can serve as homeopathic

or naturopathic remedies for any number of ailments, including relief from pain or stress, sleep disorders or other afflictions such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

I fall in that latter category and, fortunately, I am not alone.

“I like to think of sobriety as ‘harm reduction,’” said a local, longtime Tucson rehab professional who chose to remain anonymous due to the nature of his work.

“There’s a wide range of acceptance for medical marijuana, but the corporate facilities treat it as a class I drug.”

Since it is federally a Schedule I substance on par with heroin or unprescribed opiates, large corporate rehab facilities view cannabis use as a dependency to be “cured” rather than a tool in a treatment arsenal.

The source, who has worked in all aspects of treatment since kicking his own habits decades ago, was skeptical about the value of cannabis as a helpful agent until health issues changed his thinking.

“I resisted because I thought it was a gateway drug,” he said. “But recently, I’ve had a lot of health issues and it’s alleviated anxiety and helped me with sleep and pain control.”

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The level of acceptance depends on the level of operation where a facility exists.

Big, national chain rehab centers hardline against cannabis, but at a lower, more local level, the dynamic is rapidly changing and medical pot is “gaining acceptance to treat opioid dependency and psychosis,” among other medicinal uses.

The insurance industry is playing a role too, since cannabis use alone is not covered as an indicator to get into residential treatment, according to the source.

“The treatment community overall is on the fence about it, but people are starting to ease up on things like marijuana and MDMA,” he said. “Things are changing slowly. It’s like a toehold on the beachhead.”

When I first applied for a medical card several years ago in Northern California, my intent was to smoke weed without the hassles or worries of being arrested for possession. The first MMJ doctor I visited took cannabis so seriously as “medicine” that I was quickly confronted with my own perceptions and immediately looked at cannabis in a different way.

Sure, I was still just interested in freely smoking weed, but I also began to consider the drug in relationship to my life and the challenges that led me to self-medicate with alcohol. It wasn’t until I stopped drinking that I had the opportunity to really feel the effects MMJ had on me.

It didn’t turn out to be a miracle cure, but after four years of sobriety, I can safely say I would probably not be alcohol-free without medicinal cannabis.

There are any number of peer-reviewed studies enumerating the adverse effects of alcohol abuse and polling shows a majority of Americans are either pro-legalization or ambivalent about it at best.

Given that alcohol abuse can disrupt sleeping patterns and destroy brain and liver tissues—not to mentioned the havoc that drunks can wreak on themselves and their friends and families—it’s not surprising that the research weighs in favor of cannabis as a safer way to medicate. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism reports that alcohol use is the third leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. Additionally, recent Pew Research data found that an astounding 91 percent of Americans are in favor of legalization in some form, while only 8 percent think it

should be totally illegal.

The economic indicators show an American preference for weed as well. A 2017 joint study by the University of Connecticut, Georgia State University and the Universidad del Pacifico in Lima, Peru found that spending on alcohol dropped by as much as 15 percent in states with medical marijuana laws between 2006-2015.

Since the early 1970s we’ve been discussing legalizing weed. Fear-mongering— brought to you by the pharmaceutical and alcohol industries and spread by culture warriors with a puritanical belief that we can force people to behave a certain way—have created a mélange of conflicting laws that have led to confusion in enforcement, unfair banking and tax regulations and other problems associated with the half-measures you’ll find in any endeavor.

Our prisons are filled with low-level drug offenders, and the over-prescribing of opioids is inflicting untold damage on our society, even as the architects of the problem shrug their shoulders and say there is nothing we can do but continue the arrests.

Cannabis should be legalized now, not just on a state level, but also on a federal level, where most of the problems with cannabis law can be laid.

If not now, when? ■

SEPT. 3, 2020

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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): “A new idea is rarely born like Venus attended by graces. More commonly it’s modeled of baling wire and acne. More commonly it wheezes and tips over.” Those words were written by Aries author Marge Piercy, who has been a fount of good new ideas in the course of her career. I regard her as an expert in generating wheezy, fragile breakthroughs and ultimately turning them into shiny, solid beacons of revelation.

Your assignment in the coming weeks, Aries, is to do as Piercy has done so well.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “Every day I discover even more beautiful things,” said painter Claude Monet. “It is intoxicating me, and I want to paint it all. My head is bursting.” That might seem like an extreme state to many of us. But Monet was a specialist in the art of seeing. He trained himself to be alert for exquisite sights. So his receptivity to the constant flow of loveliness came naturally to him. I bring this to your attention, Taurus, because I think that in the coming weeks, you could rise closer to a Monet-like level of sensitivity to beauty.

Would that be interesting to you? If so, unleash yourself! Make it a priority to look for charm, elegance, grace, delight, and dazzlement.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Author Renata Adler describes a time in her life when she began to notice blue triangles on her feet. She was wracked with fear that they were a symptom of leukemia.

But after a period of intense anxiety, she realized one fine day that they had a different cause. She writes: “Whenever I, walking barefoot, put out the garbage on the landing, I held the apartment door open, bending over from the rear. The door would cross a bit over the tops of my feet”—leaving triangular bruises. Upon realizing this very good news, she says, “I took a celebrational nap.” From what I can tell, Gemini, you’re due for a series of celebrational naps—both because of worries that turn out

to be unfounded and because you need a concentrated period of recharging your energy reserves.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): “I like people who refuse to speak until they are ready to speak,” proclaimed Cancerian author Lillian Hellman. I feel the same way. So often people have nothing interesting or important to say, but say it anyway. I’ve done that myself! The uninteresting and unimportant words I have uttered are too numerous to count. The good news for me and all of my fellow Cancerians is that in the coming weeks we are far more likely than usual to not speak until we are ready to speak. According to my analysis of the astrological potentials, we are poised to express ourselves with clarity, authenticity, and maximum impact.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Of all the mournful impacts the pandemic has had, one of the most devastating is that it has diminished our opportunities to touch and be touched by other humans. Many of us are starved of the routine, regular contact we had previously taken for granted. I look forward to the time when we can again feel uninhibited about shaking hands, hugging, and patting friends on the arm or shoulder. In the meantime, how can you cope? This issue is extra crucial for you Leos to meditate on right now. Can you massage yourself?

Seek extra tactile contact with animals? Hug trees?

Figure out how to physically connect with people while wearing hazmat suits, gloves, masks, and face shields? What else?

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “Like any art, the creation of self is both natural and seemingly impossible,” says singer-songwriter Holly Near. “It requires training as well as magic.” How are you doing on that score, Virgo? Now is a favorable time to intensify your long-term art project of creating the healthiest, smartest version of yourself. I think it will feel quite natural and not-at-all impossible.

SAVAGE LOVE FANTASY FIGURES

By Dan Savage, mail@savagelove.net

I’ve been married for thirty years to the same man. I have dealt with his tantrums, his screaming and his fits. He’s always had anger management issues.

He strangled me once a few months after our son was born and never did it again.

I would have left otherwise. He’s had relationships with other women but always swore it was just online. Then, a few years back, I got into an online relationship with someone. I never actually met this person, just as my husband claimed he’d never met the women he was talking to online. I had opened up to this person about our troubles and I talked about my husband’s anger issues and some other private things. This person encouraged

me to have an affair but I kept putting him off. Finally, I told him I did it, I had an affair, it was great, etc. It wasn’t true but it seemed like that’s what he wanted to hear. About 30 minutes after I told him I got a call from my husband! This person had sent it all to him! All of our conversations, everything, every detail.

My husband flipped out but we worked it out and moved on.

Then a few months ago, right at the start of the pandemic, I found out that my husband has been speaking to other women. I also found out that he’s been meeting other women in hotel rooms in other cities and all this time I believed him about never meeting with anyone

In the coming weeks, you’ll have a finely tuned intuitive sense of how to proceed with flair. Start by imagining the Most Beautiful You. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): I propose we resurrect the old English word “museful.” First used in the 17th century but then forgotten, it meant “deeply thoughtful; pensive.” In our newly coined use, it refers to a condition wherein a person is abundantly inspired by the presence of the muse. I further suggest that we invoke this term to apply to you Libras in the coming weeks. You potentially have a high likelihood of intense communion with your muses. There’s also a good chance you’ll engage with a new muse or two. What will you do with all of this illumination and stimulation?

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Each of us has a “soul’s code”: a metaphorical blueprint of the beautiful person we could become by fulfilling our destiny. If our soul’s code remains largely dormant, it will agitate and disorient us. If, on the other hand, we perfectly actualize our soul’s code, we will feel at home in the world; all our experiences will feel meaningful. The practical fact is that most of us have made some progress in manifesting our soul’s code, but still have a way to go before we fully actualize it.

Here’s the good news: You Scorpios are in a phase of your cycle when you could make dramatic advances in this glorious work.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “Life is the only game in which the object of the game is to learn the rules,” observes Sagittarian author Ashleigh Brilliant. According to my research, you have made excellent progress in this quest during the last few weeks—and will continue your good work in the next six weeks. Give yourself an award! Buy yourself a trophy! You have discovered at least two rules that were previously unknown to you, and you have also ripened your understanding of another rule that had previously been barely comprehensible. Be alert for more breakthroughs.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “If you’re not lost, you’re not much of an explorer,” said rambunctious

in person! He claims he has erectile dysfunction but it was clear from the messages I saw that he is having sex with these other women. So he’s somehow fucking other women despite the erectile dysfunction that prevents him from fucking me?!?

I’m beside myself because over 30 years we built a life together and now I don’t know what my future is going to look like because of this. I can’t provide for myself monetarily. I still work full time but if I lose this job or retire, Dan, I will have nothing. And we both have medical issues. I don’t want a divorce because a secure future for both of us really does hinge on us remaining together. I know for a fact that he’s still seeing these women while forbidding me from having even online conversations—to say nothing of relations—with another man. Neither of

activist and author John Perry Barlow. Adding to his formulation, I’ll say that if you want to be a successful explorer, it’s crucial to get lost on some occasions. And according to my analysis, now is just such a time for you Capricorns. The new territory you have been brave enough to reconnoiter should be richly unfamiliar. The possibilities you have been daring enough to consider should be provocatively unpredictable. Keep going, my dear!

That’s the best way to become un-lost.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “Dreams really tell you about yourself more than anything else in this world could ever tell you,” said psychic Sylvia Browne. She was referring to the mysterious stories that unfold in our minds as we sleep. I agree with her assessment of dreams’ power to show us who we really are all the way down to the core of our souls. What Browne didn’t mention, however, is that it takes knowledge and training to become proficient in deciphering dreams’ revelations.

Their mode of communication is unique—and unlike every other source of teaching. I bring this up, Aquarius, because the coming months will be a favorable time for you to become more skilled in understanding your dreams.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In June 1876, warriors from three Indian tribes defeated U.S. troops led by General George Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn in Montana. It was an iconic victory in what was ultimately a losing battle to prevent conquest by the ever-expanding American empire. One of the tribes that fought that day was the Northern Cheyenne. Out of fear of punishment by the U.S. government, its leaders waited 130 years to tell its side of the story about what happened. New evidence emerged then, such as the fact that the only woman warrior in the fight, Buffalo Calf Road Woman, killed Custer himself. I offer this tale as an inspiration for you Pisceans to tell your story about events that you’ve kept silent about for too long. ■ Homework: Maybe sometimes it’s OK to hide and be secretive and use silence as a superpower.

Example from your life? FreeWillAstrology.com.

us can make it on our own. I don’t know what to do. Why wouldn’t he want an open relationship?

—Divorce Invites Serious Consequences Or Real Distress Your husband doesn’t want an open relationship, DISCORD, because he doesn’t want you to have the same freedom he does. And while he doesn’t want to be sexual with you for reasons that have nothing to do with erectile dysfunction, he doesn’t want you seeking sexual attention—much less sexual fulfilment—in the arms or inboxes of other men. Which means your husband sees you not as a human being like him, i.e. a person with needs and feelings and agency, but more like a car he keeps in his garage and refuses to drive and won’t let anyone else take for a spin.

SEPT. 3, 2020

You’re not a car, of course, and you’re not his property. You were also faithful to him even as he cheated on you—even after he assaulted you—and you stayed in this marriage despite being deprived of sex and other forms intimacy.

But even if you guys had been fucking on a daily basis for the last thirty years, DISCORD, even if your husband wasn’t an abusive asshole with anger issues, you would still have every right to indulge in sexual fantasies that don’t involve your husband and every right to explore those fantasies on your own time. Partnered or not, monogamous or not, we are all entitled to a zone of erotic autonomy.

You say divorce isn’t a viable option for you, DISCORD, so I’m gonna recommend a different d-word: detach.

Make peace with your circumstances and the best of your living situation.

Don’t go searching for evidence that your husband is cheating on you, just accept that he is. Don’t feel the need to confront him about his fucking hypocrisy, just accept that he’s a huge fucking hypocrite. And then, DISCORD, just like your husband, go and do whatever and whoever you want. You don’t need his permission to seek attention elsewhere.

And if being honest about the attention you get elsewhere upsets your husband—if being honest swapping dirty texts with other men makes your husband and your homelife unbearable— then don’t be honest about it. Just as he made an effort to be discreet in order to hide the scale of his cheating and his hypocrisy from you, DISCORD, you can be discreet in order to avoid conflict and drama.

Get back online, DISCORD, go make a new friend. And just because that last guy turned out to be a sadistic asshole who drew you out in order to blow up your life, that doesn’t mean the next guy you meet online is going to be a sadistic or vindictive asshole.

Billions of people get online every day to chat with strangers and millions of people share explicit fantasies with strangers every day. While revenge porn is definitely a thing—and definitely a crime— it’s almost always jilted IRL lovers who lash out like the way that asshole did. If it was even remotely common for people to be exposed to their spouses the way you were exposed to yours, DISCORD, if it happened even .01% of the time, we would hear about constantly. We don’t because it isn’t.

But to be on the safe side, DISCORD, you might to keep it anonymous. Don’t share your real info with someone you only wanna swap hot fantasies with and never intend to meet in person. And when your husband is being an asshole or just generally getting on your nerves, DISCARD, you can fantasize about the statistical likelihood that you will outlive your husband by many years. Because orgasms aren’t the only sweet release.

I just read your advice for CATMAN, the person who asked if there was a name for his specific and newfound fetish: he wants to marry a submissive bisexual guy and then pick up and dominate submissive women together with his guy.

As I read it, I wondered is this a sexual fantasy or is it a fetish? Then I wondered what the difference is between a fantasy

and a fetish. Is there one? Does it matter?

—Knowingly Investigating Newly Kinky Yearnings What CATMAN described—what CATMAN was looking for—was a relationship. He was fantasizing about his perfect partner and wondering if he was out there somewhere. Since literally everyone does that, KINKY, I wouldn’t describe fantasizing about a perfect partner/partners as a fetish or a kink. Vanilla or mildly kinky or wildly kinky, we all want that perfect match, i.e. a person or people whose sexual desires and/or relationship goals parallel our own. And a lucky few manage to find someone who comes really close.

People don’t just fantasize about sex, of course; people fantasize about dream jobs, dream vacations, dream weddings.

(Wedding fantasies aren’t about who you’re marrying but how you’re marrying them, e.g. a destination wedding, a traditional wedding, a non-traditional wedding, etc.). But when it comes to sex, KINKY, fantasies are best understood as scenarios or situations that incorporate important elements of a person’s sexual desires—desires which may involve kinks or fetishes or may not. Think of

Th e

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fantasies as sexy little movies we screen for ourselves in our heads and kinks or fetishes as optional plot points and/or props.

The natural follow-up question: What’s the difference between a kink and a fetish then? While people often use those terms interchangeably, KINKY, they mean different things. Dr. Justin Lehmiller recently unpacked the difference on Sex & Psychology (www. lehmiller.com): “Kink is a very broad concept that encompasses pretty much any form of sexual expression that falls outside of the mainstream. This includes the eroticization of intense sensations (such as mixing pleasure and pain), playing with power differentials, deriving pleasure from inanimate objects, role playing, and more... [whereas] fetishes involve heightened attraction to certain objects (like boots and shoes) and/or body parts beyond the genitals (like feet and armpits).”

So, all fetishes are kinks but not all kinks are fetishes. I hope that clears things up! ■ mail@savagelove.net Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage savagelovecast.com

Coming Oc tober 22!

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Last Week’s Crossword Answers S L U R P

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