Week of Aug. 9, 2023

From the editor’s desk

People like using dating apps … except when they don’t. Reporter Taylor Harker quizzes local singles and hears tales of successful relationships—and a few horror stories—from people who went looking for love by swiping right or left.

André Wade, state director of Silver State Equality, writes a guest commentary about the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows businesses to deny service to same-sex couples. Wade says the ruling involved what was, in essence, a fake case concerning an imaginary conflict that was specifically engineered to usher in a radical, reckless ruling that is out of touch with the majority of the country.

As summer fades, folks get thirsty. Michael Moberly, our resident mixologist, has some tips about livening up those remaining barbecues and gatherings by making refreshing and fun drinks by the batch. Wine maestro Steve Noel explores the best cool whites to imbibe on hot August nights, and brews man Marc Tiar takes readers on a tour of Reno’s Brewery District along East Fourth Street, with stops at Pigeon Head Brewery, The Depot, Black Rabbit Mead and Lead Dog Brewing’s taproom.

In our latest 15 Minutes, photo editor David Robert quizzes Eduardo Yarhi, the lord of Kobold’s Keep, an eclectic game-top hobby shop in Sparks. The store specializes in a wide variety of card games, role-playing games, war games and board games, as well as their accessories.

The 37th annual Bowers Bluegrass Festival returns to the historic Bowers Mansion in Washoe Valley Aug. 24-27 for four days of a pickin’ and a grinnin.’ Matt Bieker reports that eight of the 12 bands scheduled to perform represent Northern Nevada’s own bluegrass community, with the Grammy Award-nominated Po’ Ramblin’ Boys as the headline act on Aug. 26.

If you’ve been pining for a decent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, your wait is over, according to Bob Grimm. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, he writes, tells the origin story of the shelled dudes with stylish animation and actual teenagers providing the voices of the superhero tortoises. Grimm also gives high marks to Sympathy for the Devil, which he says is a “routine hostage thriller … elevated somewhat thanks to a goofy, crazed performance by Nicolas Cage.”

I’ll see you in the funny papers.

Take care,

—Frank X. Mullen, Editor