Sideways in Sarasota … back on Main Street!

You all know how much I appreciated and miss (even still) our wonderful Sarasota News & Books (if you missed my column lamenting its departure, you can read it here at “Life Without Books is Death“. I miss SN&B not just as a bookstore, but as a community meeting place, and well, just a place where I felt super comfortable, surrounded by the sounds of newspaper pages rustling, being flipped and folded over, espresso steaming, people murmuring. I also loved SN&B because it was the first bookstore ever to have a book of mine on its shelves, and was also the first place I ever gave a reading and book talk.

Now, Media on Main has sprung up at the same spot and once again my books are on the bookshelves of a downtown Sarasota shop (it’s long been available at the ever-gracious Circle Books on St. Armands Circle, as well).

Media on Main is looking like it might hit — sure was busy when I swung by there last week to snap photos of my book — and I very much appreciate the prominent, facing out, exposure they gave me.

If you haven’t stopped by Media on Main, give it a chance … I’m thinking of taking my laptop there and trying it (the scene) out on a slow afternoon.

Little boy (cat) lost … found himself a home!

I’m super happy to report that the stray little kitty who has been living in my carport for weeks on end has been adopted!! (more…)

A Girl with a Guinness ….

Every St. Patty’s since 2006, I think, I’ve dragged out this favorite column of mine which has appeared in print in the Tampa Tribune, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, and Pelican Press newspapers … hope you enjoy it — whether you’ve read it before or not — and that it inspires you to go get a Guinness tonight in honor of the Irish, poets everywhere, and women who are not Irish, but think they could be at any given moment.

A Girl with a Guinness … or how to live life instead of just writing about it (um, I need to follow my own advice!)

The Irish have been known to knock out a poem or two (think Seamus, Oscar, Van). Poetry, which for me is just another form of philosophy, is in their blood it seems, and while I’ve been known to wax poetic, I’m neither Irish nor poet.

But I know poetry when I see it – a flock of geese flying over my head at dawn; feel it – rain on my skin when everyone else has run for cover; hear it – anything Beethoven; and smell it – a kitchen full of cooking.

But it wasn’t until recently that I learned you can even taste poetry – in a pint of beer, no less. Irish beer. Guinness beer to be exact. (more…)

Yes, I voted … and oh, no, I dit’nt

Yes, I voted … but not the way most of my friends, colleagues, clients, etc., would have thought I did.

As a woman, a writer, a sentient individual human being (I hope), I wouldn’t be a smidgen of who I am today if it had not been for the teachers who influenced and nurtured me from grade school on up. My greatest respect is reserved for teachers of all types and mediums through which they arrive at my experience.

And, um, of course I think children are great, need to be cared for and educated. And, no, I’m not a scrooge or some tightfisted cheapskate.

I voted in opposition of continuing the school tax in yesterday’s referendum …

for reasons I’d elucidate here in this blog if only I had somebody out there paying a special tax (that I’d already been receiving for a number of years and that I’d promised would only be a one-time thing — um, isn’t teaching children to “keep their word” one of the first lessons taught?) so that I could keep doing what I”m passionate about doing at a pay scale at which I’ve become accustomed and which is among the highest in the state — all this despite a recession that has many of the people I’d be taxing on the verge of losing their homes and jobs and pride.

This referendum was about teacher pay … not truly about the education — intellectual and cultural — of children.

All those parents who talked about how important it is for their kids to have a great education? I’m just curious … how many of them play Chopin on the radio during the afternoon so their children are infused with musicality? How many go on a nightly walk after dinner with their child to ensure they’re getting enough exercise? How many read Shakespeare or biographies of presidents, discuss reason and logic and morality, explain how the family budget works, or teach a foreign language to their children at night — instead of watching American Idol or its current equivalent — en famille, only speaking during commercials?

Sarasota Observer “Slice of the City” Column Helps Stray Kitty

The local newspaper, Sarasota Observer runs a weekly column titled “Slice of the City” with snippets and highlights about Sarasota and its residents. The paper’s Community Editor Loren Mayo took note of my Stray Kitty story and ran a brief article and photo about the adorable stray kitten who has been living in my carport.

Read the story on the Observer’s site (see link below) — and if you’re so motivated, leave a reader comment on the Observer’s site letting them know you appreciate their attention to this story — which will only help those 60,000 some-odd stray cats in Sarasota County! The paper must hear about a gazillion stories of the city every week and I really appreciate them noticing this one and trying to help the little guy!

Here’s the article on the Sarasota Observer website — or check it out in today’s issue of the paper on newsstands now (page 16).

He's famous now!!!

Sarasotans Support ShelterBox USA

We’ve all seen, read, heard the news reports on the situations in Haiti and Chile … but if you want to get a snippet of what it’s like to be a Sarasotan who makes hands-on sacrifices to be on the ground as a volunteer responding to disaster events around the globe … read my piece on ShelterBox USA — online here at Creative Loafing’s website, or in print in the CL newspaper on Wednesday, March 10.

I interviewed three local ShelterBox volunteers — and couldn’t get over the commitment these Sarasotans have made and continue to make to helping disaster victims throughout the world.

John Freeman traveled to the Congo.

Beverly Hill (wearing headband) traveled to England for intensive training.

Alan Monroe (left) unloading ShelterBoxes in Taiwan last year.

To make a donation or learn more about volunteering with ShelterBox, visit shelterboxusa.com, or follow on Facebook (Shelter Box.) and on Twitter (ShelterBoxUS).

Things that make you go “Huh?” City hires first, negotiates second?

Sarasota City Commissioners hire a new City Clerk and THEN begin salary and benefits contract negotiations? That’s what all the news reports have mentioned, as an almost irrelevant aside, in the print papers ever since Pamela Nadalini was hired.

Does that process sound backward to anyone else but me?

In their search for a new City Clerk, this language was included in the posting on the City’s website: “Salary is negotiable. Qualified candidates should have demonstrated experience that would justify a six-figure income.” Okay, well, at least we know that the salary to be negotiated is $100,000-plus. And, yes, I know how government works — with their pay scale ranges and all that … but still, something’s on the table, or else they wouldn’t be negotiating any contract at all.

I’ve hired (and fired) and been hired (never fired) more times than I can count, and not once did salary negotiation begin AFTER after hiring someone. After making an initial offer, sure … but after hiring someone and splashing the news all around town? Exactly how much leverage do they expect to have in their negotiations? Maybe none at all?

The new city clerk, and I wish her well and offer congrats, and yes, I’m glad to see a woman, and a black woman, at that level in local government (though I’ll be glad for the day when/if we ever can just laud someone for their experience and not for their being the “first” of some group to break the erstwhile all-white/all-male bastions of higher up government positions). But here’s my advice to Nadalini: she should hold the City up for every dime on and even off the table. She’s got ’em on the ropes … they’ve got zero leverage — what are they going to do … fire her? — especially after all the “first woman/first black” write-ups they’ve been getting from the press? I’d like to know what precisely is on the table for negotiation? A range of $10,000? Five weeks of paid vacation instead of three? A government auto? I don’t know — I wish the local reporting covered that, and I just haven’t had time to investigate it myself. If anyone knows — feel free to add some input in the comment section of this blog.

I’m sure the city would say this is just business as usual, everybody does it, yada, yada, yada. Color me stupid if you want, but how about doing business unusually?… by that I mean, how about doing business intelligently and with forethought. Even if hiring first, negotiating second, is de rigueur among government types … why not break the mold and think for ourselves as city leaders? The formula should be simple: search, interview, determine the best candidate, express an initial interest in hiring subject to salary and benefits discussion, if the candidate is interested too, then you move on to negotiate salary and benefits, and, then, if the negotiations end up with the candidate you want at the price you can afford, you then offer the job, they accept or don’t accept, and you hire or don’t hire.

Look, I know this is a very small matter in a big world of big matters. But it’s stuff like this — multiplied times a gazillion — that creates inefficiencies, irrelevant time-wasters, and inflated costs in our government.
I know — I’m just a simple taxpayer, so what do I know? — but in my book: negotiate first; hire second.

Kitty, kitty

One more photo to tug at the hearts of potential adopters!

Stop! Oh, yes, wait a minute, Mister Postman!

Now, I hear the USPS might shut down Saturday service … I’m okay with that — as long as they continue five days a week.

But what I lament is the idea that people just don’t write old-fashioned letters anymore. We’re losing something — an archive of loves, loves lost, travels, penmanship, the ability to coherently write down our thoughts without the benefit of the backspace button or cut and paste rearranging of our thoughts. (more…)

60,000 stray cats in Sarasota? Let’s make that 59,999!!

Did you read Eric Ernst’s recent column on the subject of the estimated 60,000 stray cats in Sarasota county? It’s shocking — and important — reporting. I had no idea there were that many. I’m trying to do my part to solve the problem — I’ve adopted and neutered or spayed three cats and made them a part of my family … but three’s my limit!!

Stray kitty in front of his carport box and blanket home ... but he wants a REAL home!!