Fall Cleaning

We here at Weekly World Central are in the process of sprucing up the office a bit. We're repainting, reorganizing and throwing all of the unnecessary crap away.

Unfortunately, this meant I had to tackle The Bookshelf.

For the last (almost) six years, The Bookshelf has been my dumping ground for everything that didn't have an obvious home somewhere else. Last week, during three days of off-and-on work, I cleaned off The Bookshelf, and in the process uncovered some items that were, to say the least, deeply interesting.

The most startling find, by far, was an issue of OVER 50 from 2003. OVER 50, I am sorry to say, is a not-exactly-tasteful porn magazine featuring naked older ladies. It was on The Bookshelf because of "Swing Shift," a story the late Chris Limberis did for the Weekly way back on May 22, 2003, about the not-exactly-tasteful photos of a Tucson High School guidance counselor in that very issue.

The coolest find was the rediscovery of something I knew was on The Bookshelf, but had sort of forgotten about: some of the very first issues of the Tucson Weekly. I took a break for a bit to read through our March 21, 1984, issue (Vol. 1, Issue 5), including the cover story, a piece on the fundraising drive for a new Center for Creative Photography.

Some stuff from The Bookshelf remains on The Bookshelf (like Vol. 1, Issue 5), albeit in a more orderly way. Other stuff was placed in the recycle bin (like OVER 50). Today, The Bookshelf is neat, clean and well-organized.

We'll see how long that lasts.