Here's an interesting story about a woman who has been eating at the same restaurant for the past 20 years. She goes once a week and orders the same thing—something she made up that's not even on the menu.

Now that's customer loyalty.

The closest that I've come to that is eating at ZivaZ about three or four times a month. It's walking distance to my house, and the food and service is light years beyond other fast-casual restaurants. I have a favorite—the eggplant Milanesa—but have recently tried other items on the menu, too.

Do you have a restaurant that you regularly patronize and if so, for how long and how often, and what do you order?  

-- The news from the Middle East keeps getting worse.

-- You know, in a way, you really have to feel bad for Lourdes Lopez.

-- If this is genuine, this could be really cool. But call me skeptical.

-- And finally, Lass Bass of 'N Sync has announced that he's gay. I think I speak for gay men everywhere when I say that I truly hope his former bandmate Justin follows him out of the closet.

On the rare occasion when I get really bored, or if I'm seriously procrastinating, I like to read Craigslist. Especially entertaining are the free and barter sections, because you get a nice glimpse of what we do not place value on in this culture. Which is nice for a change. Or, as in this case, you can witness the desperate lengths some people will go to in order to make a buck.

Perhaps this person is joking. Perhaps not. I don't know which scenario is worse.

This Agence France-Presse story, about the havoc caused by this nationwide heat wave, is not funny on first glance.

But let's analyze a bit. Here's the lede:

Americans are sweating through a searing heat wave that has caused major power meltdowns from coast to coast and knocked out the country's most popular website MySpace.

After some paragraphs about power outages, we get to this, in paragraph No. 7:

The Los Angeles Times reported 13 heat-related deaths in the California Central Valley and four in southern California. State authorities also were investigating the death of a 79-year-old woman in Stockton, the Sacramento Bee reported.

In other words, MySpace's temporary disruption is top news, with multiple deaths being mentioned six freakin' paragraphs later.

Nice!

-- Does it make any sense to allow relief flights into a country that you're simultaneously bombing the shit out of? NO, IT DOES NOT.

-- Jury duty in Washington, D.C., is soooo much more interesting than jury duty here.

-- And finally, the Star editorial page goes out on a limb to say that hackers are bad, but that Kerri Strug, ads on air-sickness bags (?) and text messages from laundry machines (?!?) are good.

Seriously ... is it just me, or has Thorns & Flowers become the most worthless dreck to appear in the local media over the last few months? And that is saying something.

-- Sigh.

-- Be thankful that we have power.

-- And finally, we'd like to send our best wishes to the Tucson Fire Department firefighters who were injured in a traffic accident this morning.

-- Are conservatives starting to turn on the prez?

-- Are lawyers starting to turn on the prez?

-- Condi makes a trip to Beirut to give some love to the Lebanese government. What a splendid conversation that must have been. "Yeah, we're not doing anything to stop Israel from bombing the bejeezus out of y'all, but, hey, we still like ya!"

-- And finally, James DiGiovanna (who SWEARS he is straight) sends us this, which makes us ask: "Mr. Gay Vatican City?" Mr. Gay IRAQ?!?"

On Tuesday, Aug. 1, city of Tucson residents are encouraged to hang outdoors in the evening to enjoy the company of their neighbors and meet new neighbors.

The purpose is to strengthen neighborhood spirit and police partnerships. In light of the fact that we're a city racked by burglaries and personal-theft crimes, I'd say it's a darn good idea.

Members of Tucson P.D. want to join your party, so check out all the details and make some calls or start knocking on doors.

I'm going to be the ringleader hostess on my block. Come back on Aug. 2 and share your experiences. 

Is this freaking scary or what? And in Indiana, of all places. Last time I was in Indiana, about the scariest thing I saw was some snow and some mud. And a Wal-Mart down the street from a Kmart and a Target.

Currently most of the wildfires burning in our state are contained or close to being contained—at least according to the Star—and of course, that'll probably all change once we get another lightning storm—but I've been wondering about how wildfires get their names.

According to a 2004 AP story, wildfires get their names from a landmark the first firefighter on the scene sees. But this year, we've had the Thumb Fire, and the Warm Fire—who saw a warm? And "Warm Fire" just doesn't sound very ominous. I'm definitely in favor of leaving the naming up to the firefighters, but there should perhaps be some sort of system, like with porn star names or pirate names.

For example, combine the significant geographic feature with a favorite food, or something, which would give us fire names like the "Big Rock Spaghetti" Fire, the "Chocolate Pine" Fire, or the "Sashimi Plateau" Fire. Aren't these much more interesting and provocative fire names?