Tucson Festival Of Books 2017

I went to the University Of Arizona Mall this weekend to help staff the tv/radio tents for the Tucson Festival Of Books.

This event is ridiculous in size (as in huge). Estimated crowds of 130,000 over the two days the festival takes place and over 450 authors in attendance.

It was an unusually warm day for March, around 90 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. It wore me out a bit being in the heat for several hours. I wasn't used to the warm weather (usually we have a little time to get acclimated to it again, spring is usually very short around these parts) but it wasn't too miserable.

We also had a visit from Sarah Whitcomb Foss and Jimmy McGuire from the Jeopardy Clue Crew (as in, the Jeopardy game show), who chatted it up with KGUN viewers and posed for photos.

A cardboard stand up of Alex Trebek, Jimmy McGuire and Sarah Whitcomb Foss

from the Jeopardy Clue Crew, and some random attendee of the

Tucson Festival Of Books

The Reading Pig, the fake Alex Trebek, Jimmy and Sarah from the Jeopardy Clue Crew

I tried to give the fake Alex Trebek a kiss and he didn't even ask for my number

Tucson Festival Of Books attendees visit the radio and tv tents

Chief Meteorologist Erin Christiansen chats with KGUN viewers

I take a picture of anchor Stella Inger taking a picture of her

husband and daughter

We're all representin' at the Tucson Festival Of Books

One of us has a pig head and smells like bacon

and the other has a red shirt and a book

Bow down to the greatness that is Alex Trebek

More visitors to the Scripps village

The young man in the plaid shirt had to spell a few words

to get a little spelling trophy at the radio tent

This guy in the grey shirt tried to do the same thing

Tents and people as far as the eye can see

Taking advantage of shade provided by the KGUN live truck

This leash cord would come in handy at work

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

Jimmy from the Jeopardy Clue Crew, KGUN reporter Craig Smith with a sneaky

fake Alex Trebek lurking behind, Sports Director Jason Barr, Sarah from the

Jeopardy Clue Crew

I knew I left my brain somewhere...

Loaded Curly Fries at Arby's

TV commercials excite me. I love commercials, infomercials, almost more than actual programs. I learn about products and things going on and I am always fascinated by how they're presented.

Arby's has been running national TV campaigns for various specialty menu items in recent months "We have the meats!" and one item caught my eye, the Loaded Curly Fries. They looked wonderful on TV and the description sounded amazing. Curly fries with bacon, cheese and ranch on top.

You should know that I love and prefer fast food to fancy sit down restaurants. Eating always upsets my stomach no matter what it is, so there is little joy in dining. Fast food is quick, cheap, and gives me the same stomach churning result that a $50 dinner does. So why waste money?

Back to the loaded curly fries, they were in a pretty small bowl and had four little pieces of bacon (my best guess is they took one strip and cut it into pieces, the cheese sauce they put on the Beef and Cheddar sandwich, a sprinkling of shredded cheese (why that was added in addition to the cheese sauce was a mystery to me), and ranch dressing.

My review: It wasn't very delicious. And I usually adore this sort of thing.

I'm sure they skimped on the bacon because that's the expensive ingredient. But what would make the loaded ranch fries rock stars would be to skip the cheese, amp up the bacon, and the squirt of ranch is fine. As they served it to me, once I stuck my fork in and started to kind of blend the items in the bowl it literally made it a curly fries, cheese and ranch soup.

The roast beef sandwich I had with it was wonderful as they always are at Arby's. A little Arby's Sauce on that and it's freakin' amazing.

This is where Anthony would have been sitting

if he had come with me to Arby's.

This is the little card that was on the table with a photo

of the loaded curly fries.

They look delicious in the picture.

Here's what I ordered:

Loaded Curly Fries, Classic Roast Beef, and a Diet Pepsi

because the Diet Pepsi cancels out whatever calories

are in the food items.

A close up of the Loaded Curly Fries at Arby's.

I had high hopes and they were crushed.