Support Free Speech, Local Matters, and Great Music in Sarasota & Beyond

Hey, if anyone out there enjoys WSLR 96.5 LPFM radio — now’s your chance to help keep great community radio on the air! At the same time, your donation in the minimum amount of $15 will net you a nice “premium” (aka thank you for donating gift). (more…)

Gotta Get to Gecko’s! Today at 3 p.m.!

Hey, a new restaurant is opening up today at 3 p.m., on Hillview Street (not too far from the 5 o’clock club) in Southside Village– Gecko’s Grill and Pub. You may already know about this locally-based chain that-totally-does-not-feel-like-a-chain restaurant — they’ve got other Gecko’s down in the Landings, Bradenton, and other locations in and around Sarasota. (more…)

Smooth moves at the Sarasota County Fair

Hey, has anyone seen the Bird/Magic documentary on HBO? It’s so interesting. I’m only thinking about that because I’m thinking about dunking … and I thought, up until last Friday, that dunking only occurred in basketball.

Little did I know there’s dunking in baseball too. But I digress a bit.

Here’s the story … (more…)

Back in the Land of (Online) Living!

Whew!!!!

The “cable guy” just left a little while ago and my Internet connection is now THANK GOD back in action. I was so happy I almost kissed the guy. I mean, c’mon, he was from Jersey, had the accent down, and pretty much saved my sanity and my business (which is mostly done through email).

We shook hands instead.

Okay, give me a little while to catch up with work and then I’ll catch up with my blog buds.

Community Food Packing Day … this Saturday!

CLICK ON THE POSTER TO LEARN MORE!

Bravo to the boys — local biz journalists snag awards

I’ve got to hand it to the boys* at the local daily — Sarasota Herald Tribune Business Section — they’ve raked in several well-deserved awards for investigative pieces they dug into and reported on over the past year. The reporting the team of reporters did on suspicious property flips and real estate fraud was fantastic. That team won “Best of the Best” business award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and also picked up a national Scripps Howard award. Another team of reporters at the H-T was recognized for its coverage of the Nadel Ponzi scheme and saga as it unfolded (and continues to unfold). And, yet another reporter snagged a first-place shout-out for his story-telling on the Chinese drywall fiasco. (*pretty sure there are no females on the Biz staff)

A lot of people in this town (including me occasionally) bitch about our local daily — it should be more this, less that, yada, yada. But the Biz reporters really took center stage over the past year and reported in meaningful and very illuminating ways about the unfortunate sh*tstorm that was raining down on our little piece of normally sunny Paradise. Bravo and congrats … and actually, thanks, too.

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…)

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!!!