by David Safier
Tucson deserves tips of the hat from both of our most recent presidents (Obama with his left hand, Bush with his right, naturally).
Counter to TUSD's generally held (and overstated) bad image, C.E. Rose, a TUSD K-8 school, was given a national ed award for excellence for, according to the Star, "a school with students who are not expected to excel but who actually achieve results that are better than the state average." It's the first time an Arizona school has received the award — 1 of 7 elementary schools in the nation.
It gives me a great deal of pleasure to give TUSD well deserved praise for the work its employees do with their students. I spend lots of time bashing the District for its bad MAS decisions, but I know for certain hundreds of staff members all over the District — teachers, administrators, aides, secretaries, bus drivers, etc. — work their asses off every day to give their students as much as they possibly can. It sounds like many of those fine staff members are gathered at this one fine school.
Tucson has one of the nation's 6 best tea houses? Who knew? The answer is, I imagine, lots of serious tea drinkers. Seven Cups at 2516 E. Sixth St. won the recognition from Travel + Leisure magazine.
"Seven Cups owner Austin Hodge, the only American with a license to export tea from China, sources the best of the best from Wuyishan, Yunnan, Qimen, Anxi, and beyond."
I'm a coffee drinker myself and have found a new addition to the scene which produces the best whole beans I have ever brought home — Savaya Coffee Market at 5350 E. Broadway Blvd. and, recently, in La Encantada. It's great to know both tea and coffee drinkers can get world class products in town.