Sarasota’s fun factor
Now, I’ve been given an edict to keep this column a little more focused on “fun” and last weekend I was a woman on just such a mission. Usually I work every day (ah, the exciting life of a struggling writer). But since last week went down as one of my personal worst weeks ever, […]
Planet America
Poor Pluto’s been relegated to the planetary sidelines by the addition of just one word. He’s still a planet of sorts, but now the distinction is clear – he’s a “dwarf planet.” A lot of people seemed to feel that this new label was a pejorative Pluto doesn’t deserve. Behind the sometimes serious, sometimes humorous, […]
Sheepish in Sarasota
Last week I wrote a column about Katie Couric. The week before that I wrote a column about Sarasota voters and the September 5th elections. I wrote about the hope I held for the possibility that Couric would choose to transcend mediocrity. I wrote about the hope I had that Sarasotans would rise above what […]
Vulcan tendencies
This column original appeared in print in July, 2006. “I’ve never understood the female capacity to avoid a direct answer to any question.” – Mr. Spock, Star Trek I get asked all the time by friends, strangers, readers of this column, and the occasional ex-boyfriend, — why I’m “still” single.
Sarasota’s All-America City Quest
This column appeared in the Pelican Press newspaper, June 29, 2006. Sarasota County was recently designated an “All-America County.” County Commission Chairman David Mills, quoted on the County’s website, predicted this recognition would have “long-lasting effect on the Sarasota community.” And County Administrator Jim Ley, quoted in a June 8 Sarasota Herald-Tribune article by Doug […]
Siesta at sunset
All the clichés are true. No day is a bad day if you’ve watched the sun set on the beach. It’s the one experience you can count on time and time again to reliably clear your head, give you perspective, and make you appreciate what you’ve got. And while it may cost you a small […]
The art of (yard) war
I’ve finally broken down and hired a yard man. It only took me a year and a half of sweat and struggle to finally accept that I’ve just got absolutely nothing on a man with a riding mower, a power blower, a nifty edger, and biceps bigger than Popeye’s. Oh, I moved to Sarasota absolutely […]
Priced out of paradise
Everyone’s always looking for the next great thing. I’m no different, I suppose, and in late 2004, for me, the next great thing was Sarasota. A native Floridian with Cracker in my bones, I’d spent a lifetime living everywhere but here. That is, until I found myself recently divorced and living in one of the […]
Congressional conundrum
A letter to our man in Washington… Dear Vern, How’s it going up there in our nation’s capitol? Lots of cool things to see and do, huh? But still, I know it must feel kind of crummy to be up there trying to settle in when things are in such a state of limbo down […]