Monday, March 9, 2009

Cruising the Upper Tampa Bay Trail

Riding a bike on a cold day is never easy when you factor in wind chill. Today I dressed in a number of layers as I prepared myself for the 14.5 mile bike ride along the Upper Tampa By Trail...........more

Friends Of Stogie

At The Tally Ho

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Slavery Alive and Well in Florida

Immokalee is the tomato capital of the United States. Between December and May, as much as 90 percent of the fresh domestic tomatoes we eat come from south Florida, and Immokalee is home to one of the area’s largest communities of farmworkers........more

Clearwater's Ban Of Mural

The city of Clearwater may have backed itself into a legal corner in its efforts to regulate a painting of fish........more

Skyway Jack's - St Petersburg, Florida

This is the restaurant that Cracker Barrel aspires to be, a down-home country kitchen with kitsch and outstanding breakfast fare...........here

Tampa Heights Sanitarium

Dr. Hiram J. Hampton owned and operated the Tampa Heights Sanitarium in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, advertising his services........here
Local lore oft repeats the story that the Hamptons' backs are turned deliberately to the city.

Let's Find 10,000 Floridians Who Support SunRail

As the state legislature considers the final approvals to start construction on SunRail, it's time to rally the troops.This is a grass-roots group consisting of Floridians who believe Central Florida needs to expand its transit offerings - starting with SunRail...........here

The South Florida Blog War

Random Pixels: Blinded By Hate
I despise Fidel Castro and everything about his "revolution."Castro has enslaved and deprived an entire nation of hope, democracy and freedom for half a century. I despise all that he is, just as I despise all dictators. Imagine living in a country where every basic freedom is denied and the state decides at every turn what's good for you and what's not good..........more

Friends Of Stogie

At Baba Louies

El Goya Reunion In Ybor City

Club Czar in Ybor City returns to its roots for one night this week to celebrate Tampa's golden days of drag. The reunion event will star the same queens who performed there in the early 1980s when the bar, then called El Goya, was the only gay nightspot in Ybor...........more

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Strip Club King: The Story of Joe Redner

Loved...Admired...Hated!!! Charismatic to some and revolting to others. Joe Redner is most often associated with owning one of the most famous nude clubs in America...

3 Mile Sauce and Salsa In Ybor

While walking around the Ybor Saturday Market the other day, I ran across a booth selling one of my favorite things: hot sauces!.............more
3 Mile Sauce and Salsa

Florida's CSX Deal

Florida's CSX deal..from $491 million in 2006, to $650 million in 08, to 2.6 billion this year. And as this powerful editorial in The Ledger today points out....no one in the Republican legislature really pays much attention to it..........more

Tampa Man Wants His Cats Back

Peter Bordwell, whose 156 rabbits and four cats were confiscated for improper confinement six weeks ago, was in court Friday pleading for his kittens back..........here

Friday, March 6, 2009

Free Pizza In Downtown Tampa

Pizzaiolo Bavaro 514 N. Franklin St will offer free pizza tastings next Tuesday, noon to 2 p.m........here

Adam Hasner Is A Hate-Monger

Rep. Adam Hasner apparently opposes freedom of speech for Muslims. A group of Florida Muslims wants to go to the capitol during the session and lobby on behalf of education, healthcare and the economy...........here

Friends Of Stogie

At The Tally Ho

No Fun In Milton, Florida

here

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Tedd Webb's Obama Laundry List

It is amazing how much damage President Barack Obama has done to this country in his first 3 weeks of power. Most presidents govern… Obama rules..........here

Florida Republican Hypocrites

Here is a list of the hypocrites who were so bold, so principled about their opposition to the stimulus bill. Instead of spending their time trying to help fix a problem, they complained for political capital........here

Adam Putnam, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Tom Rooney, Mario Diaz-Balart, Ginny Brown-Waite, Cliff Stearns, Bill Posey And John Mica.

Matt Damon for U.S. Senate

With Democratic Party career politicians Gelber and Meek repeating the same tired old imperial foreign policy platitudes as the Republicans on the Middle East that will keep us in perpetual war that is draining our economy at the very time we are sinking into another Depression, the Democratic nomination race for U.S. Senate is shaping up as just another right wing echo chamber that shuts out any discussion of an alternative foreign policy and will deny Florida voters a fundamental choice that is at stake in next year’s election. Matt Damon has the potential to add that voice to the debate, and actually be electable...........more

Downtown Tampa

From Ballast Point

Project 3.0 In Ybor City

A hundred years ago, it served as a horse stable for Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders. Most recently, it housed a micro-brewery. Today, the 103-year-old building in Ybor City is reinventing itself again, this time as a model for sustainable development..........more

Friends Of Stogie

At Chubby's

PoHo: Is Rush Limbaugh the New Face of the Republican Party?

Kate In Her Hot Mama Jeans

Creative Loafing has a new website and I’m one of their contributing writers. They invited me to their launch party and I thought it’d be fun. That’s what I get for thinking. I put on my hot mama jeans, did my hair, and even applied some goddamn makeup. One of my favorite Republicans, Jim Johnson, said he’d meet me there so I stuck the boys with my mom for the evening and took off for South Tampa..........more

Cigars, Casitas and Children's Books

We took a trip to Ybor City, once the cigar capital of the world,where Cubans, Spaniards and Italians lived and worked........more

The Travel Slut's Gasparilla Photostream

here