MC Coolidge snags second place in Florida Press Awards
A while back I reported that I’d won a Florida Press Award for a humor column (Ben & Jerry Take a Hike) I’d written back in my Pelican Press/Reality Chick days. Well, I just found out what place I took (there are four places — 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and honorable mention.
I have to give a major THANKS to the editors at the Pelican Press — I wouldn’t have this award if it weren’t for Rachel Brown Hackney and Anne Johnson taking the time to submit this work from my 2008 column-writing days for them.
Boomer and the butterfly
And all men kill the thing they love . . . — Oscar Wilde, the ballad of reading gaol
Tonight, the story of Boomerang and the Butterfly.
I was walking Boomer, as I always do. Taking him out for his evening air, his nightly stretching of the legs, sniffing of the air, the remembrance of his life before adoption by the woman who keeps him inside. Away from his beloved nature.
And he did, and does, love his nature. When he was wild, he would sit a few feet away from me as I worked in the yard pulling weeds or digging up old tree stumps. He’d go to the pond nearby and try to catch turtles. He’d climb trees. He even killed baby birds in those months before I moved him indoors. (more…)
Blacklisting blackberry-heads and canceling cell phone companions
The next time a client or an editor or a so-called friend, or god forbid a man who has asked me out, or anyone who is sitting at a table or barside with me for whatever reason even THINKS about answering a cell phone (at the table) or even MAKES A MOVE toward a frickin’ Blackberry, I will get up and walk out. (more…)
Cash cows … free milk … and where’s the beef? The written word woes of Sarasota media.
Sarasota’s print pubs are no longer the cash cows they were in the halcyon boom days … and everybody from writers to readers are paying the price …
That’s my story — my new story in Creative Loafing newspaper — out on newstands next week (July 15), but already live and rantin’ on the paper’s website at: Written Word Woes.
Here’s a snippet in case you’re interested … and feel free to comment either on the CL website or back here — I blog back on both.
Fewer reporters are actually going out and covering live and in-person the news as it happens, he says, and that could mean Florida returns to its “good-ole-boy, backroom-deal roots because nobody’s around to cover its Government In The Sunshine meetings.”
Dogs and their peeps … in MC’s ‘hood
I have a love/hate relationship with most of my neighbors. Nearly all of them have dogs.
I love dogs.
It’s their owners I sometimes hate. (more…)
Pugnacious pitbull no more … Palin plays the petulant pooch
Sarah Palin is a big ole crybaby. Her whining press conference (poor, poor pitiful me with all my legal woes and people being mean!) and her complete abandonment of her responsibilities as governor … .
Nonsensical? Check.
Boorish? Check.
Utterly narcissistic? Double check. (more…)
Sarasotans show their love of American soil on Independence Day
Siesta Beach 7:30 a.m., the day after. Makes you proud to be an American, especially an American living in Sarasota, Florida.
The personal is political … never more so than on Independence Day
This column ran in 2006 in my Reality Chick column with the Pelican Press newspaper. It gives a hint of what was already happening — the pressure from advertisers, the displeasure of some readers. I had written this column as a sort of address to those people who were displeased with the political edge my columns sometimes took.
I’m a political woman. I’m concerned with matters of government, democracy, social issues, and whether or not my butt looks big in certain pairs of pants. Hell, I could probably politicize a banana peel if you give me two hours and a cocktail. (more…)
Act today to get a free feline! Feline Independence Day!
Hey, I just heard on Channel 7 news that today and Monday are Feline Independence Days at the Humane Society of Sarasota County. Basically, if you ADOPT A KITTY OR CAT TODAY OR MONDAY — YOU GET ALL THE FEES WAIVED COMPLETELY (at least that’s what I think I heard! — visit www.hssc.org to learn more. Apparently you have to say the words WHEN FREEDOM PURRS to get the kitty cat completely free — with all adoption fees and neutering and shots, etc., included — check out the website to make sure I’m right about this. (more…)
One of the coolest places in Sarasota … for kids and adults
Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge,” and that down-to-earth concept is the driving philosophy behind one of the best-kept secrets for cultivating young minds and bodies in all of Sarasota: The Children’s Garden. (more…)
