It can be strange to write for a print publication these days.
Last Friday, I had an article written for this space featuring a bunch of jokes about the royal wedding and the social-media age. Then on Sunday, when everyone's Facebook page had a link to President Obama's routine at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, I thought I should probably write about that instead.
But by Sunday night, it was clear one of the biggest social-media stories in ages was the death of Osama bin Laden.
Once there was an announcement from the White House that Barack Obama would be speaking to the nation at 7:30 p.m. (although it actually ended up happening much later), Twitter exploded with speculation about what the news could possibly be. Sure, there was a lot of discussion that the news had something to do with Moammar Gadhafi, but it didn't take all that long for the news to spill out that bin Laden was dead.
Strangely, someone dug through tweets coming from Abbottabad, and an IT guy living in the city inadvertently live-tweeted the action, mentioning that he heard helicopters and a window-shaking bang as the compound was being invaded. Obviously, he didn't know what was happening, but it was recorded online.
Meanwhile, one person on Twitter said he found out that bin Laden was dead via an alert from the Mike Tyson iPhone game that he was playing. There's no running from the news these days—even while trying to win the animated heavyweight championship.
THE WEEK ON THE RANGE
We saluted the U.S. military's elimination of Osama bin Laden; said goodbye to Air Force Capt. Nathan J. Nylander, a Davis-Monthan airman who was killed last week in Afghanistan; watched Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' travel from Houston to Florida and then back after the Endeavour launch was scrubbed; tracked the fallout after Mexican-American studies students shut down a Tucson Unified School District board meeting; and took at look at Gov. Jan Brewer's string of vetoes.
We smiled at the release of President Barack Obama's birth certificate; let you know that the Baja Arizona movement is now collecting signatures to put the matter of splitting off into a new state on the 2012 ballot in Pima County; let you know that a man survived after driving his car off the South Rim of the Grand Canyon; and explained why we couldn't get outraged over the news that the city was building artistic shelters along the downtown streetcar route.
We continued to follow the Tucson Padres' season; alerted you to the amazing run of shows coming up in the next few weeks at the Rialto Theatre; suggested you check out Ed Gein: The Musical at the Screening Room; celebrated the news that Something Sweet Dessert Lounge will not be closing after all; shared a taste of Tucson's many food trucks; told you that Java Edge's Rita Ranch location was closing; shed a tear over Michael Scott's last day at The Office; and told you about editor Jimmy Boegle's absolutely batshit Thursday.
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
"PURE SMOKE!! If this were real, why was it not made public 2 1/2 years ago? Just another load of crap from a deceptive Democrat looking for weak-minded followers, namely the liberals who voted for him in the first place."
—TucsonWeekly.com commenter "Desertmang" isn't giving up the "birther" beat quite yet ("Hey, Birther Clowns: Can You Please Now STFU?" The Range, April 27).
BEST OF WWW
Since the Web producer was sick most of last week, and therefore too busy coughing and sneezing on things to shoot video, the promised videos from A. Greene's campaign and the Coca-Cola Freestyle machine were delayed until this week. Sorry, but it's tough to keep the camera still while hacking up a lung.
However, speaking of A. the Intern's campaign, one of the highlights of the campaign (to date) happened last week. Dan Gibson (Web producer), Jimmy Boegle (esteemed editor) and A. Greene were eating lunch at Cup Café, and someone recognized A. as the mayoral candidate from the videos. The campaign may be slow-going, and A. might be moving to Portland, Ore., but there's still reason to believe!
