Lodge on the Desert's restaurant (306 N. Alvernon Road)—which closed back in July for renovations and a concept change—is reopening this week with a new chef and menu.

A press release put out today says the restaurant will begin serving dinner on Friday, Nov. 20, with lunch service beginning on Monday, Nov. 30.

The place has named Ryan Clark, the former sous chef at The Dish, as its new chef. Clark—a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America who has also worked at Canyon Ranch and Fuego—has redesigned the menu with a focus on "the freshest products and ingredients, most locally grown and locally sourced," according to the release.

"And we believe our guests have a right to know the source of the food they are enjoying as well as the methods used to prepare it. Our role is to facilitate the food’s journey from farm to fork,” Clark stated in the release.

Reopening the restaurant is the final touch on a $15 million renovation. Originally a private residence, Lodge on the Desert first opened as a business in 1936.

Call 320-2000, or visit their Web site for more information.

The dust is still settling from our 2009 City Council election, but candidates are already preparing themselves for next year’s midterm election.

In 2008, we had the seven-way super-slam in Legislative 29, where seven Democrats jumped into a primary for two House seats.

Something similar may be brewing for next year in midtown Tucson, where District 28 Rep. Dave Bradley is hitting his four-term limit.

Bradley’s seatmate, Rep. Steve Farley, will be seeking reelection, although he tells us he may not be using Clean Elections this time out because the publicly financed election program is facing a constitutional challenge that may eliminate matching funds, which would leave candidates who use the system in a bind should another candidate or an independent expenditure committee decide to spend a lot of campaign cash.

At least five other Democrats are looking at the race:

• Local Ted Prezelski, who made a run for the seat in 2006, has gotten a much earlier start on his campaign. Prezelski’s brother, Tom Prezelski, lost a House seat in the aforementioned seven-way super-slam.

• Democrat Tim Sultan, who lost a 2004 congressional primary to Eva Bacal back in the Age of Jim Kolbe, has lowered his sights to the state Legislature.

• Mohur Sidhwa, a former Democratic chair of LD28 and a current vice chair of the Arizona Democratic Party, is making her first run for a major office.

• Former LD28 House member Ted Downing is making noises about running, although he has not formally filed for the race. Downing now has an exploratory committee for an unnamed office.

• Bruce Wheeler, a former Tucson city councilman and a one-term lawmaker waaay back in the 1970s, is talking about making a political comeback.

Andrew Sullivan, as you might expect, is having a field day:

As this blog persistently demonstrated in last year's campaign, Palin is a delusional fantasist, existing in a world of her own imagination, asserting fact after fact that are demonstrably untrue, and unable to adjust to the actual reality after it has been demonstrated beyond any empirical doubt. The campaign's media strategy of making sure she was never in a position to be asked anything in an uncontrolled setting, and of never holding an open press conference (unprecedented in the history of presidential campaigns) were a response to this. The only interview that dared stray even a little from this fawning celebrity-deference, Katie Couric's, revealed Palin to be an astonishingly inept know-nothing, camouflaged by incessant victimology.

She is a deeply disturbed individual whose grip on reality is very weak, and whose self-awareness is close to nil. This much is not a leap, let alone unfair. It is simply unavoidable if one examines her surreal invention of reality - even when she must surely know that the evidence exists out there to contradict her.

As I have long noted, this is not the usual political mendacity and spin. It is far weirder and more disturbing than that. She creates her own reality. And the fact-indifferent, editor-free marketing company, HarperCollins, is only too willing to make some money off it.

A conversation with Ernest Calderon of the Arizona Board of Regents, after the jump.

It's our first post-Ann Brown Friday Roundtable, after the jump!

The new astronomy-themed Sky Bar (536 N. Fourth Ave.) located right next to Brooklyn Pizza Company will be open for business as of tonight, says owner Tony Vaccaro.

The place has piped in images of deep space and other planetary goodness going on throughout. A planetarium with a full bar? Be still my cosmological heart.

• Kimchi is awesome.

The place opened a few weeks back at 4951 E. Grant Road. It's a family-run eatery with 10 or so tables and a simple décor. It seems to pull in a pretty steady crowd and was relatively busy on a recent Wednesday night.

Korean food had always been a mystery outside of my obsession with kimchi, so I was flying blind. When this is the case, I just order whatever is the most fun to say. That turned out to be "be bim bap," a variety of vegetables topped with a fried egg. I didn't really know what to do with it when it arrived, but the owner sensed my confusion and helped with instructions on how to enjoy it properly.

The meal was preceeded by miso soup (included in the price of the meal) and came with two types of kimchi (also included). Both the kimchi, and the be bim bap (damn, that is fun to say) were hotter than summer asphalt, but in a way that was less painful than many spicy dishes I've tried.

The nicest touch though was that the bill came with a tiny, chilled yogurt drink that all but extinguished the spicy oral wildfire that lingered after the meal. Nice touch.

Prices are in the $5 to $12 range. Call 881-7777 for more information.

The Yes Men Fix The World opens tonight at the Loft Cinema. You can read about these Merry Pranksters, who specialize in media and corporate hoaxes, right here.

One of the Yes Men, former Tucsonan Andy Bichlbaum, will be visiting the Loft to talk about his work at a special screening at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 16.

Details on the Loft run here.

Reporter Tony Davis has a lovely remembrance of Maeveen Behan in today's Star:

Maeveen Marie Behan was a renaissance woman whose drive to protect the Sonoran Desert was fed by love and a sense of justice.

She was a lawyer who knew that the best way to reach people on a wonkish subject such as the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan was by telling stories.

She was a thirsty learner who earned three degrees but knew little about the Endangered Species Act until she started putting it into practice in 1998. Three years later, she taught it to lawyers at a continuing-education class. She also was an unsung visionary, shunning publicity as a top aide to County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry.

Together, those traits allowed her to change the face of Pima County, friends, family members and colleagues said after her death of cancer last week at age 48.

The community owes a tremendous debt to this unsung hero of the Southwest.

Maeveen, you'll be missed. Thanks for all you did.