Florida Vets for Common Sense — hear all about it tonight
At 6:30 tonight on WSLR 96.5 LPFM, lradio program “Local Matters” host Joe Hendricks will be talking with Gene Jones, founding member and President of Florida Veterans for Common Sense — and organization that works to reintegrate returning veterans. I think they’re also going to be discussing the war in Afghanistan.
You can listen on the radio or on the website at: http://wslr.org/listen-live/
Tucson and the Palin Effect
We can’t — shouldn’t — blame Sarah Palin for what happened in Tucson … but (more…)
Skipping stones … in the age of distraction
My Sense and the City column in today’s Sarasota Herald-Tribune tells about my recent experience watching a Dad teach his two sons to skip stones across the water.
Skipping stones — I really didn’t think boys did that anymore. Didn’t imagine Dads taught that anymore.
Glad to see I was wrong.
The story is on page E7 in today’s TICKET section … or you can read it online by clicking the hyperlinked words above.
A Selby gentleman, lady, and scholar
Last week, I had the pleasure and the honor of participating in the William G. (the gentleman) and Marie (the lady) Selby Foundation annual Selby Scholar Symposium, held at Michael’s on East.
The Symposium is an annual event that connects “mentors” from the community with “scholar” students from the local school systems who are attending college in Florida and beyond. The Foundation helps these students with scholarships — which is tremendously important, but also connects them with people from their own community who work or volunteer in fields that relate to what the student is studying.
My Selby Scholar was a lovely — beautiful, in fact — very bright, poised young woman named Alexis who graduated from Riverview High School, and is studying Journalism and Political Science at UCF.
This is the second year I’ve been asked to participate in the program and I love it — it’s so rewarding to sit with a young student and listen to his or her hopes and dreams and then give them ideas, advice, pointers, and my special “don’t make the same mistakes I did” mini-lecture. Alexis was very gracious when I chattered on and on — I told her as a freelance writer I don’t get away from my ball and chain at-home computer too often so when I do — I talk … a lot!
There was a tremendous crowd at the event — I was seated with BIZ941 Editor Susan Burns, Mayor Kelly Kirschner and City Manager Richard Bartolotta (luckily, this was a few days before Kirschner gave Bartolotta a poor grade in the City Commissioners’ annual review session).
Organized by Selby Foundation President Dr. Sarah H. Pappas (along with an incredible support team who helped her pull the large event off without a hitch — and amazingly, given the big crowd, mid-day schedule, and people coming from all over the area — started and ended on time!) the event also raised several thousand dollars and collected a sizable donation of food goods for All Faiths Food Bank.
Other familiar faces included Williams Parker Attorney Dan Bailey, Chef Derek Barnes, Sarasota Herald-Tribune Prez Diane McFarlin, Architect Guy Peterson, CAP “Brandtrepreneur” Sam Stern, Janice Zarro, Exec Director of The Women’s Resource Center, and Ringling Pres Larry Thompson. And that’s just a smattering of the many, many talented folks from the community who signed on to mentor the young people who — who knows? — might wind up in their mentors’ shoes some day. Literally there was everyone from medical examiners to school principals to pharmacy owners, to artists, professors, bankers, construction industry bigwigs, and nurses.
Keynote speaker was Beverly Alter who gave us fascinating insights into the differences between generations of workers in the current workforce — a 22 year-old working with a 63-year old is going to have dramatically different expectations, desires, and context for interaction and vice versa. Was especially helpful for me because one of my biggest clients has a workforce of over 350 people — some who think email is an archaic communication tool, some who think Twitter is for nitwits. Since I help that company communicate internally — it was a lot of food for thought.
Overall, the Symposium was an incredibly productive event that wasn’t just “feel-good” — it was “do-good” on so many levels — for the scholar students themselves, the hungry in our community, and for the mentors who got to spend a little part of their year helping others begin their young, ambitious climb up the ladder of whatever kind of success matters to them most.
And none of it would have been possible without the original gentleman and lady (the Selbys) whose generosity way back when is still fueling dreams and realities in the millennium.
Morning — and a New Year — has broken
New Year’s Day was beautiful … and day two of 2011 isn’t too shabby either.
I got a feelin’ … that this year’s gonna be a good year
Want to see how I’m feeling about 2011?
http://www.musicloversgroup.com/black-eyed-peas-i-got-a-feeling-lyrics-and-video/
Just replace the words “good night” with “good year” … and you’ll get my perspective on 2011.
BRING IT ON, BABY!!!!!
A year full of beauty … and romance … and time for reading …
Hmmmmm … and time to think … with a “hunky” man, maybe (get it?) … and perhaps a visit back to Paris?
— A girl can dream, can’t she!?
She’s baaaack! Reality Chick is back — in the Sarasota Herald Tribune
What a way to end a year … and start a new one!!
When the announcement came earlier this month that the Creative Loafing newspaper publication was closing up shop and the Sarasota Herald Tribune was taking over its branding rights, I smelled opportunity … opportunity to return to my roots and get back to writing in a style more akin to my old “Reality Chick” days at the Pelican Press.
Reality Chick is back!!
I’ve enjoyed the last month or so of writing the After Hours column for the TICKET section of the H-T — heck, I finally forced myself to get out and have some fun –but my interest, and I think my strength, lies in writing observational essays — columns — about what’s going on around my town. People, places, events, the zeitgeist of our little corner of the world. Luckily for me, when I pitched the idea to the editors — they agreed!
That new column starts today — it’s called Sense and the City and it will be my weekly “reality” take on whatever’s topical or at the top of my admittedly sometimes “Sideways in Sarasota” perspective.
In this week’s column I touch on Sarasota Mayor Kelly Kirschner, the Second Line street gang, and Sarasota’s semi-obsession with dirty dancers. I hope you’ll check it out at Sense and the City.
This is all actually a huge deal for me personally. I haven’t had a regular, weekly opinion column in a newspaper since May 2008 and I’m thrilled to be back writing the beat I know best.
If you like what you see in Sense and the City, don’t hesitate to let the editors know — it’s always helpful for them to know whether writers have a healthy readership or not — you can send an electronic LTE by clicking here.
Thanks for sticking with me as readers — whether I was in print or online — and I hope you enjoy this new column!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR, INDEED!
A kicked-back Christmas
In the hubbub before Christmas Eve last week — 
I can’t believe it, but I forgot to post a link to my Sarasota Herald Tribune column After Hours — where I gave tips on how to have a kicked-back Christmas out on the bar scene over the Christmas weekend.
Well, here it is — A kicked back Christmas.
And, I had one, thank you very much. Maybe not out at the bar scene, but just a quiet kind of Christmas, mostly at home. Hope yours was quiet and happy. I was deluged with presents — not sure why I received so many this year — must have been either very good … or very bad!
Don’t Whisper … JUST YELL!!!
FINALLY!!!!
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell — finally repealed.
President Obama just signed it into law. That stupid policy had ended the careers of over 14,000 military personnel — people who just wanted to serve our country — that policy now dead and done. (more…)
