Tucson Weekly: Cheap Thrills (December 10

CANYON MELODY: The hills reverberate in harmony as the Friends of Sabino Canyon and the U.S. Forest Service team up to present their fourth-annual Music in the Canyon gathering.
This free holiday soiree features a night of beautiful sounds in a lovely setting, including choral and music groups performing in the historic Lowell House, located near the canyon's entrance, with seating extending out into bleachers and on hay bales. There will also be a raffle and silent auction.
Cheap Thrills At dusk, strolling folk musicians from the Tucson Kitchen Musicians Association will lead guests up a luminaria-lit path to the performance area, for appearances by the Tucson Boys Chorus, the Utterback Middle School Jazz Band, The Ronstadt Cousins, Dale Clark, and Mariachi Aztlan del Pueblo. And of course, Santa and Smoky will be rubbing shoulders with the revelers. Food and drink will also be available.
Event proceeds benefit The Friends of Sabino Canyon, a non-profit group dedicated to preserving the canyon, and educating visitors about its importance.
Music in the Canyon runs from 5 to
9 p.m. Friday, December 11, in the Lowell House, 5700 N. Sabino Canyon Road. Admission is one can of food for the Tucson Community Food Bank. For details, call 749-1900.
GET THIS: Did you know that Tucson issued work permits to hookers in 1910, or that the police chief banned an issue of Life in 1938? Or how about these tidbits: A whipping post was erected here to fight crime; the first local speed limit was
7 mph; an 1878 double murder prompted a lynching; the first movie in Tucson was, appropriately, a western; and the city's public transportation system often came to a halt when the mules sat down to rest.
If this is the kind of information needed to make your life complete, you're in luck with The Book of Tucson Firsts, a new publication by Larry Cox.
Cox will be on hand to discuss and sign copies from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, December 12, in The Book Mark, 5001 E. Speedway. For details, call 881-6350.
LIT BIT: If you take your ability to sit down and read the paper for granted, take stock: There are hundreds of folks in Pima County alone who can neither read nor write. And that's where the Tucson Adult Literacy Volunteers comes in.
Right now, the non-profit group has a glut of eager learners, and a severe shortage of teachers. "We're expecting another surge in January of those who want to learn to read, but we are extremely short of volunteer tutors," says George Ware, TALV president. "We train tutors to help adult learners to read, and then we offer them a broad choice of 20 supervised centers where they can teach. It's truly astonishing how much can be accomplished in so little time with these motivated students."
Actual tutoring time varies from two to four hours per week, in addition to a few hours of training. The next training class starts in January. For information, call 292-0092.

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