This year's Territorial Cup showdown between Arizona State and the UA was particularly painful for Tucsonans who harbor resentment toward the Girls Gone Wild mainstay to the north.
Losing to the Sun Devils is bad enough for Wildcat diehards, but when Alex Zendejas' extra-point attempt in the second overtime went into the backs of his linemen instead of between the uprights—his second game-deciding miss of the game—there was a Scott Norwood-esque goat to focus their furious ire toward, and there's no better forum for senseless rage than Facebook.
To someone's credit, he or she foresaw the need for a dedicated "Alex Zendejas Sucks" page (1,282 "likes" as of this writing) a few weeks before the ASU game on Thursday, Dec. 2, but after the Territorial Cup, the deluge began, as at least seven pages popped up in opposition the UA placekicker, ranging from the sarcastic ("ASU Loves Alex Zendejas," 396 likes) to the surprisingly focused ("Alex Zendejas should never show his face in Tucson," 166 likes).
There are opportunities to give Zendejas a virtual pat on the back, but since the likes for those pages don't add up to the number of people who believe 88-year-old Betty White is a better kicker (355 likes), that goodwill can't quite make up for the collective spite of the Internet.
While this particular burst of spite might be a little misguided—there aren't pages attacking members of the UA secondary for dropping passes like a tough class—it'll definitely be a while before Zendejas turns Google results back in his favor.
THE WEEK ON THE RANGE
We noted the latest developments in U.S. Sen. John McCain's campaign against the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and let you know that U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl was promising to block all legislation until Democrats capitulated on extending tax cuts for the top earners in America. We also told you about Congressman Raúl Grijalva's vote against censuring fellow Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel.
We expanded on the Beyond the Border package found in last week's print edition; followed the strange developments in the case of Pinal County Deputy Louie Puroll, who was suspended after a strange interview he gave to Paul Rubin of the Phoenix New Times; and introduced you to Congressman Steve King, the man who will be heading up the GOP's immigration-reform proposal in the U.S. House of Representatives. (King has previously called for an electrified fence on the border, if that gives you any idea of what's probably ahead.)
We shared a piece of tin art from Rand Carlson's show at Temple Gallery and a painting from Judy O'Toole-Freel's show at the Oro Valley Council Chambers; shared a slideshow about downhill skateboarding by UA journalism student Joey Silvestri; and let you know about the first TED conference in Tucson, at the Rialto Theatre.
We taught you about the old fashioned that can be found at Downtown Kitchen + Cocktails in the latest installment of our "Secrets of Tucson Bartenders" series; let you know that Janos Wilder was hosting a new batch of cooking classes in January; and broke the news that Planet of the Crepes was naming a crepe after Weekly listings dude and food-gossip-gatherer Adam Borowitz.
BEST OF WWW
Our "Secrets of Tucson Bartenders" series takes some time off this week, but it'll be back next week with another cocktails tip for your holiday-party needs. Instead, we went down to South Sixth Avenue to visit Tucson's latest addition to the coffee scene, Café Aqui. Local musician Oliver Ray, formerly the guitarist for Patti Smith's band, had a nearly religious experience with coffee in Guatemala and now brings his passion for roasting beans from around the world to his new Tucson establishment.
Also, Mari Herreras attended a conference on ethnic-studies programs at the UA, and she brought back footage featuring readings of poetry and prose by Leslie Marmon Silko, Elena Díaz Björkquist and Andea Hernandez Holm.
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
"Autocorrect is why I offered to drop off some cocks for my mother instead of coffee."
—Facebook commenter Erica Lira, on the autocorrect curse of the iPhone's text-message display, which we found a way to falsify for fun ("A Way to Kill Time and Falsely Incriminate Friends," The Range, Dec. 3).
