Awakening

Who’s to say the effort to be real isn’t the beginning of wings? I love these lines that I read this morning in The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo. I know some will scoff — but that’s my desire — to be unmitigatedly real. Is that possible? I think so — despite the unreality […]

Love Books? Buy ‘Em Local at Circle Books

Watch this great “City Business” (from Sarasota government) clip about Circle Books on St. Armands Circle. I was there just a few weeks ago, looking for a specific book but couldn’t remember the author’s name and of course, with just a couple of words from me about what the book was about … the booksellers […]

Ringling’s Town Hall: Inspirations in Creativity

In today’s Sense and the City column in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune I write about what I learned by going to the Ringling College Library Association’s Town Hall lecture with General Stanley McChrystal. And I give a shout out to Ringling alumnus Brandon Oldenburg whose short film “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore,” has […]

Funny Feminist & Author Gina Barreca in Sarasota on Thursday

Gina Barreca,author of It’s Not That I’m Bitter: How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Visible Panty Lines and Conquered the World, will be speaking — and making the audience laugh out loud — on Thursday, Feb. 23 at Michael’s on East. The event, which is sort of a lead-up to the “big” 2012 Renaissance […]

Raccoony kind of afternoon

.There’s a family of about four or five raccoons who live near me. A while back, they came into my carport, with about three or four additional friends or extended family members, and pretty much threw a party in the ‘port. As I looked out the kitchen window at them, one of them came right […]

Things to do in Sarasota over the next few weeks

Lots of interesting people to see and learn about over the next several weeks, and this week’s Sense and the City column gives my top picks. From the Author’s Luncheon put on by the Literary Council of Sarasota to the Sarasota County Democratic Party’s annual Kennedy-King Dinner to learning about African-American Sarasotans … just click […]

My Pics for Sarasota’s Sexiest

Today’s Sense and the City column in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune rocks my picks for Sarasota’s sexiest six people and six sexy/romantic/love-and-lust-inducing activities. I cover people like David Baas, Kerry Kirschner of the Argus Foundation, the former Scenestress Veronica Pastore, the Sarasota Film Festival, funny-woman Christine Alexander, and more! Click on the hyperlink above to read […]

I ♥ Hart’s Landing

Honesty and integrity are the only things we leave behind when we die. Work on it today.” I’d like to have met the man who thought like that. But Hart seems to have left one more thing behind: A much-needed legacy of a simpler time – and a place where the heart of Sarasota lives […]

UFood Grill– Food U Might Like

I’m not a big stock market person, but over the past several months I’ve been buying some stock — not a ton, but just enough to make life interesting — in a penny stock called UFood. UFood Grill (www.ufoodgrill.com) is a burgeoning restaurant chain based in Boston. This new restaurant brand was founded by the […]