Death of a news station — a mini timeline

November 13, 2008: The Pelican Press reports on a “rumor” that the Sarasota Herald-Tribune’s 24-hour cable news station – SNN 6 – is on the sale block for $2 million. PP reports that Sarasota H-T Publisher Diane McFarlin answered their inquiry with the following statement “‘SNN 6 is not for sale.’” Though in the news item, PP reports that McFarlin “admitted to hearing the same rumor and the same price figure.”

Two days later, McFarlin says something quite a bit different: (more…)

SNN severance clarification … and a bit more about our man Bruce

Bruce Asbury contacted me this morning to correct one of his statements from our conversation of yesterday. “I made a slight error in the severance,” Asbury told me today. The 26-week severance payout mentioned in yesterday’s post was only for employees who’d been with SNN 6 for more than 13 years, Asbury said today, — not five years as he’d stated when I interviewed him yesterday. Asbury added that he believes that, “Under that rule, nobody at SNN is getting 26 weeks.” (more…)

Sarasota news takes another dive — SNN signs off!

Yesterday I gave a talk at the University of South Florida (more on that later) about blogging and the diminishing content of print and other local media in Sarasota. The class — full of inveterate newspaper readers — loudly lamented the decreasing size of the Sarasota Herald Tribune and the declining offerings of other local newspapers. I’m a newspaper-loving-gal myself, so it’s hard for me to see what’s happening with the disappearing pages in our local print media. (more…)

My date with Gwen … a woman in I-full

Hmmmmm … Absolut Yum! I went tonight to see and listen to Gwen Ifill speak at Hyatt Sarasota to a Sarasota audience about race and politics and the Obama campaign and the future of black candidates in American politics. (more…)

Not so social Sarasota

The following column originally appeared in print in 2007, and it brought a plethora of responses from readers. I actually ended up meeting some pretty wonderful people over the ensuing months — a group of wonderful women who’d read the column and invited me to join their book club, and a heavy-hitting businessman who invited me to lunch to talk — really talk — about the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful in Sarasota and beyond.

I received a fair amount of criticism to the column as well, but for the most part, Sarasotans said “Hey — we’re not that bad!”

The funniest part though was when the column was given proof positive by a well-known, local, late twenty-something Sarasotan who’d read it and wrote to me telling me “You’ve got it all wrong — there are people in this town who care nothing about all those superficial things. Let me prove it to you by inviting you to a dinner party to meet the “real Sarasota.” I said I’d be honored to attend as long as he didn’t mind that while I couldn’t claim to be wiser, I was fairly certain I was older than the crowd with which he typically dined.

The dinner invite dematerialized faster than I could sneeze. And I doubt the lad ever picked up on the irony. (more…)

Letter to the editors

Dear Editors

Back in the day, you’d buy the Sunday Sarasota Herald-Tribune and be assured of curling up for an hour of juicy reading, drinking one or two cups of coffee while fending off the cats who felt it was their duty to hold the paper down on the floor by sprawling languidly across it, flicking their tails with measured insouciance as you tried vainly to get to the next page.

But now, you can read the H-T faster than you can flip its pages practically, because it seems to be in a frantic free-for-all of diminishing returns on all fronts, and the major loss is to and of the reader. What papers like the H-T are missing is that people will — still — willingly pay for that experience of getting ink all over their hands and fighting the fold. But they want substance for their trouble. (more…)

The happy hangover — the final Inauguration/Inebriation post

I spent Inauguration Day glued to my television, working only intermittently on the client work piled up on my desk and in my Outlook e-box. That night, I went to a couple of Inauguration Day parties, beginning with one at the stunning home of A & F — one of the smartest, funnest (yes, I know it’s not a real word!), most hospitable couples in all of SRQ. After spending an inappropriate length of time drooling at their amazing art work, which I do whenever they’re kind enough to let me cross their threshhold, I made my way into the party gathering and found an old — and I mean that in both senses, but kindly — friend about whom I’d written previously in a column entitled Sarasota’s Real Rich.

I hobnobbed with some of the coolest, most interesting folks in Sarasota — including my friend, Ingrid, drank a bit too much (yep, still confusing the word inauguration with inebriation … but I’ll get it right one of these days), inadvertently kissed a complete stranger cum new acquaintance on the lips when I was aiming for his cheek (damn those phony French air kisses anyway!), and left the party early, stopping only to lust after the paintings again as I exited this belle maison and tripped along the way to the next party.

The night was massively windy, as you might recall, and en route, I managed to flash a car with a Marilyn Monroe-esque glimpse beneath my skirt when the wind quite naughtily pulled its own version of a subway grate gust. My flimsy satin skirt flew up to my neck right as I was crossing the street, catching me frozen deer-like in the headlights of a newly arriving party guest. Luckily, I was wearing the blackest leggings to save me from total mortification. Moving on.

Next arrived at the WSLR Inauguration Extravaganza — the People’s Potluck Party for Change — held at the Art Center near Van Wezel Hall. I got another fabulous inundation of art (some very good stuff on the walls — have to go back when I’m less UI) and ran into quite a few people I know. One acquaintance said “Geez, you look ten years younger.” After I got over the implied insult that I must have previously looked ten years older, I decided I AM ten years younger!

Again had the good fortune of running into Sarasota Democratic Club President, Nancy Feehan, who was maddeningly chic in a hot, hot, shiny leather trenchcoat. I basically wanted to kill her. This is me, leaning over her Join the Sarasota Democrats table, politely ignoring her chicness.

Chic? Who cares about chic when you're the Reality Chick?!

By the way, if you want to join the Sarasota Dems — you can easily do so HERE!

So, enough of my rambling. I’m stone cold sober and I better be, right? For the work ahead? For my cats, my self, my community, my clients, my friends and family, the strangers at the gate, and for my country.

Sober, single (still!), and spectacularly happy.

Sarasota’s real rich

This column first appeared in print in 2006.
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I know some really rich people here in Sarasota.

George, for example. (That’s his nom de column.) I met George and his wife at a salon-style dinner and discussion group I attend from time to time. He’s a hot ticket.

George is unbelievably au courant when it comes to world happenings. He can discourse on any topic from history to philosophy and religion to politics and sociology. He’s funny and gallant, and seems to know everything there is to know about, well, everything.

He can talk, a lot. But it’s always interesting, I usually learn something, and he always makes me think. I admit to a wee crush on the guy. (more…)

Last night of being Bush-wacked!

I couldn’t stay home tonight, on this last night of being Bush-wacked for eight long years, so I put on my Obama earrings and headed out on the town.

Can you see our President Elect dangling from my ear?

I was running around Sarasota like a crazy woman asking people to tell me how they felt about their last night of being Bush-wacked and/or what they were going to CHANGE as of tomorrow for the betterment of their country.

First stop: three slacker dudes outside Sarasota News & Books. Hey, guys, care to comment for my blog? “No.” Um, okay, moving on.

Second stop: inside Sarasota News & Books, where a charming young man named Joey was more inclined to comment: “It’s about time,” he said; and I couldn’t agree more.

Third stop: Selva Bar on Main Street. A bartender who wished to remain anonymous (first rule of bartending she said — never talk politics!) simply said “I’m stoked!”

Fourth stop: Whole Foods Market, where a very cute guy standing in line at the coffee/juice bar told me “It will be interesting to see what happens to the stock market.” He said a lot of other things, too, but if I print them, he’d have to kill me. Something about Witsec and all that.

And last stop, my new fave spot in downtown Sarasota (as in, I think I’m moving in!) — Sarasota Vineyards where I did find one person — who actually admitted to having voted for Bush and then compounded my horror when she told me she didn’t vote in the recent election because she, um, couldn’t choose between McCain and Obama. Yowza.

But I was greatly cheered when I arrived home and found that my cats were jammin’ on the Obama groove.

Okay, to end this overly long blog (is anybody still reading?), I’ll just say this:

I'm ready for change! Here's wishing us/US peace and prosperity!

A little local color … in a Wonder-bread town

This column originally published in 2006.
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I keep getting asked to write less about national issues and more about local goings-on. Local “color” it’s called – stories that show the colorful characters, places and events of an area.

Believe me; I’ve been trying. Trekking it out to obscure cafés and trying to find a coffeehouse that isn’t Starbucks.

But Sarasota can be a pretty white-bread town, and the only thing I’ve discovered lately is that I’m not sure I’m white enough for it. (more…)