Did you know that dust masks were invented because someone had a lot of leftover bra pads? We’re thinkin’ whoever started Popcornopolis somehow had a windfall of pastry bags and decided “hey, we’ve got this company called Popcornopolis, maybe we should put some popcorn in these bags…”

It turns out popcorn fits in them just fine, and now the brand that sells over 20 kinds in three sizes of cone bags. The franchise arrives in Arizona today, landing at Chandler Fashion Center. Anyone who stops by the store today gets 25% off their entire purchase if they whisper the word “zebra” to their cashier. Why zebra? Because it’s their most popular flavor and zebras themselves are magical creatures.

They (popcornopolis, not zebras) hooked us up with some sample bags and it was all delicious. Flavors like caramel, nacho cheese, and cinnamon toast were all great (check out all their flavors here: www.popcornopolis.com). But not as great as emptying a bag of popcorn, filling the cone with icing, and making a delicious new treat that’s sure to take the world by storm. Watch the how-to here:

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You know, there’s a lot of stuff in this world that never gets old. Like when Johnny Knoxville connects jumper cables to his privates. Or dancing babies on YouTube. Or Larry David.

But there’s something else that never gets old: reading the comments to articles on AZCentral.com. Listen, newspaper, your days as a news source may be numbered, but we believe you’ve stumbled onto a possible future as a public forum for nut jobs, instigators, and bored housewives who just want somebody to listen.

Check it: So AZCentral does a story on this restaurant in Mesa that’s going to serve lion burgers for the next couple days. Nice score of a story! Writer Stephanie Russo even did a great job covering both sides–from Susan Cooper, the blowhard who raised her arms in disgust and rallied so-called lion-lovers in protest, to the restaurant owner, who’s buying extra bottled water for the potential protesters. (Classy move!)

But just sift through 55+ comments and you’ll find a distraction strong enough to keep you off Facebook for at least 5 or 6 minutes. That’s more attention than we give formerly entertaining time-wasters like The Onion, The Dirty, or The Glass of Wine Sitting in Front of My Monitor.

So Republic, embrace the end of news in AZ. Nobody here really cares. They just want to comment on an article they didn’t understand in the first place … and make entertainment for the rest of us.

Get your lion’s share here: www.azcentral.com

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Hey there. Good evening. Have you seen these?

If you have, well then look at you all cool and connected. If you haven’t—then you might want to pay closer attention to the Chow Bella blog, a daily collection of ditties pumped out by the Phoenix New Times. Chow Bella covers all things food and these drawings are a new regular feature called “What I Ate” by Chow Bella herself, Michele Laudig.

It’s refreshing to see someone in the foodie community do more than circle jerk a bunch of Twitter messages around the same handful of restaurants or write blog posts about inconsequential sh*t that serves no purpose greater than self promotion.

Woa. Did we just say that? Ironic, because there’s really no bigger self-promoting lush sluttier than our own Tyda. But let’s get back to those drawings… What we love more than anything (besides the fact that they’re really freakin’ good!) is that Laudig doesn’t seem to be doing them for any other reason than sharing a talent with all of us. There’s a refreshing honesty about them. Why hasn’t she done them before? Shy? Low on ink? Uninspired? Who knows. But now we can watch a tale of her life experiences unfold in a cool and original way. Love the drawings, Michele. Hope you keep it up!

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12 THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED TO THE ARIZONA BARBECUE FESTIVAL IN THE LAST 72 HOURS

1)   3 of the 9 slots for the Biggest Badass Bartender Competition have been filled. And the Judge—the Great Grand Niece of Jack Daniel, Lynne Tolley—has booked her ticket to come in from Lynchburg, TN. Can anyone pick her up from the airport?

2)   Chefs have begun crafting their menu for the April 9 Preview Dinner, a barbecupalooza under the stars with 13 of the Valley’s top chefs. You should come.

3)   Our first 3 entries to the Miss Arizona Barbecue Festival Queen Beauty Pageant have come in. Yes, that’s really the name of the pageant. No it’s not owned by Donald Trump. Know anyone that should enter?

4)   Our number of teams competing and serving barbecue to you has soared past 40. Which means you might want to hit the gym, now.

5)   We realize that residents of downtown Scottsdale might complain about all the BBQ smoke. So we integrated “The Best Damn Cigar Lounge” into the event, to cover up the smell of smoke with, well, the smell of smoke.

6)   Skeptics of our event should know that we’ve ordered our power generators. So at least we’ve got that covered.

7)   Skeptics of our event should also know that we’ve begun a Black List of Communists to be published on April 12’s EaterAZ.com – this list will include the people who promised their help to Rick & Dave but shunned them once called upon. Why aren’t you picking up your phones?! We’re sincerely disappointed in these people and companies. Nothing like a good ‘ole public shaming, right?

8)   Our hourly lineup for the Viking Kitchen Demo Stage has been set and includes Michael Stebner from True Food Kitchen, this cool guy, and a couple other great, entertaining chefs.

9)   We’ve ordered so much pork, beef, and chicken, that we’ve decided to pay our staff in hams and sirloin steaks.

10) The Whole Foods Farmer’s Market is pretty much booked up and ready to roll. Whole Foods, you’ve been a joy to work with and we appreciate it!

11) Back to that Viking thing—they are also providing grills for that Preview Dinner. Really, if you’re a foodie and love our local chefs, you should check out this event. We know, it’s $150, but it will be unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. In a good way. Promise.

12) Our water sponsor, redleaf, gave away 6 pairs of Spring Training tickets to our Twitter followers last week as a way to stir up the buzz before the event. Man, you Canadians really are nice people.

13) Plates, cups, forks and knives, and napkins for the Preview Dinner just arrived from these people—www.LetsGoGreen.biz. How cool is it that our servingware will be made from Post-Consumer Waste?!

14)   Something about Tobias?

15)    Waste Mgmt?

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We thought we had seen a ghost of Mardi Gras past. But in fact it was Theresa Romero herself, the former owner of Baby Kay’s Cajun Kitchen, having dinner at the place that has since inhabited her original Baby Kay’s location, Petite Maison. She was enjoying the patio of the cozy French bistro operated by Chef James Porter and Wendy Goldman with a friend before we bugged her enough to get up and chat with us for a bit.

Was she there to throw some beads one last time? Say hello to Cajun Casper? Or just have some French Onion Soup? Watch the video below to find out, or head over to our YouTube channel. Oh, you’ll also have to watch it if you wanna know what the title to this article means… Good stuff, Ms. Romero. Good stuff.

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Ah, Chompie’s. When we think of you, we think comfort, we think corned beef, we think streudel and knishes. Chompie’s, you represent a pre-social networking time in our lives when a loud deli counterman yelled “wadda ya want?!” Way before the word twitterati even entered our sordid vocabulary.

But this Twitter stuff is like the blob. No one is safe. Not even an order of lox.

Yep, Chompies is on Twitter. (http://twitter.com/chompiesaz). Now don’t get us wrong, we’re HUGE Chompie’s fans and nothing will keep us from eating there, but wow, tweets from the Chomps. It’s a strange day indeed.

However, what’s nice about their twats is that they’re all business–which is actually what we want from restaurant tweets. Specials, discounts, offers, and news … all tweeted in their best Yiddish accent.  Mozzletweet!

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Today, we’d like to put something up for discussion. New York Magazine recently excerpted a chunk of “Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It),” a new book that analyzes (among other things) how we are all tricked (or should we say, swayed) by restaurateurs to order a certain way.

Priceless’ author deconstructed Balthazar’s menu and applied certain theories of suggestion, design, and all-out trickery, to illustrate his point. Check out the NYM excerpt here: http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/62498/

So we ask: can you think of any local menus that illustrate these points? Maybe you know of a place that uses heavy bracketing? Maybe you’ve been stuck in “menu siberia” or column hell? Take a read and let us know! We’ll follow up.

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Yep, we were the kids who claimed the dog ate our homework. So today, we’re claiming that we were too damn busy to write a post. But busy with what, you ask? Oh, you know, making history.

A funny thing happened back when we went in for our first meal at St. Francis. Or hit the bar at Posh. We really hated both restaurants on paper. They seemed pretentious, high-brow, and not sensitive to the current “We’re all goddam broke!” zeitgeist. But you spend 5 minutes with Francis’ owner Aaron Chamberlin, or Posh’s Josh Hebert and the story changes. These guys have created restaurants based on solid philosophy and they themselves are just a blast to talk to. THEY are what makes the story all come together.

So it gave us the idea to produce a series of films called “Chefographies.” We built a studio to video interview about a dozen chefs to talk less about the spice in their puree and more about the spice in their lives, how rough the hours can be, and all the behind-the-scenes crap that makes their business so maddening yet addicting. The filming has taken three days and now the story will be edited together.

So really, this post is for those 12 chefs. We laughed, we cried — Cats!

Thanks so much for your candor and taking the time to visit our little home in the hood.

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So someone hacked our Twitter account @eateraz over the weekend and sent some bullsh*t quiz to our followers.

We had to, as Conan would say, “Delete That Tweet,” and change our password. In the next tweet, we joked that our new password was “jamesporter.” Well, a buncha numskulls actually tried logging in with that password and now Twitter thinks we’re some kinda spammer. So thanks folks for breaking our bird.

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…And by “dead” we mean “alive with good writing” because a couple months ago, 944 Editor DB Mitchell asked us to compile a list of things you all should eat before you die. Our picks appeared in the November issue.

And it’s great because The Reaper called us after reading the story to say, “Man, your choices are killer.” To which we replied, “Oh, Reaper, you’re so ironic. Let’s go to Fogo!”

Click here to read article.

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