Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Bay News 9:

Would a mass transit rail system benefit the Bay area?

The Trib:

Imagine a light rail system connecting New Tampa and Tampa International Airport, enabling suburban residents to reach the airport by train as they do in Atlanta.

What provocative talk. How refreshing it is to see someone finally asking these questions.

Actually, it is exciting to see these questions being raised on the big outlets. Still, this conversation isn’t new; plenty of local blogs have been making noise about the subject of light-rail and other transportation options, but none more specific and vocal than David Pinero’s Tampa Rail.

So kudos to David. It’ll be nice when the other papers take the Weekly Planet’s lead in recognizing Tampa Rail, but for Dave, I’m sure the widening discussion is rewarding enough.

I’m sure you have heard.  Ronda Storms has officially resigned from the Hillsborough County Commission BOCC.  The resignation will be effective in November, when she hopes to be your next Senator.  She’s running for Senate District 10, which includes most of Eastern and Southern Hillsborough, and bit parts of Pasco (Zephyrhills) and Polk (Lakeland) Counties.

She’s also finally gotten her very own campaign website: RondaStorms.com.  At least I think this one is truly hers.  I’m pretty sure these didn’t have the “paid for by blah blah blah” that you sometimes see.  Then again, you never know these days. 

85 years ago…

June 30, 1921 – The post office in the small south Hillsborough County community of Gulf City closes. Gulf City had been served by the post office since 1885. Processing of local mail shifted to the “new” community of Ruskin.

Courtesy of the Tampa Bay History Center.

Since the Weekly Planet Tampa 100 went over so well, I guess they encouraged the sister to come up with a similar list.  Creative Loafing Atlanta: 99 things to do to call yourself a true Atlantan.

After reading through it a bit, I can confidently say that Tampa has much better choices.

Saturday the wife and I managed to spend 10 hours at Busch Gardens.  Yeah - ten hours getting sunburns, whiplash and funnel cakes.  Shiekra was definitely fun, but short.

I especially enjoyed the Clydesdales. What an exhibit!

Unfortunately, I missed my two free beers because I spent too much time in the arcade trying to win a stuffed animal with the giant crane.

Did you know a local TV station broadcasts Greek, Canadian, German, Italian, and more Greek? The transmitter is in Oldsmar, and the station can be viewed in Pasco, Pinellas, and Northwest Hillsborough over the air on channel 48. Along with related radio stations, they claim to have “about a million ethnic listeners/viewers.”

I have told you that if you want to know any part of the Tampa Bay area, all you gotta do is Ask a Tampan. Well, someone did:

Ok, I’ll cut to the chase. My wife and I are middle-aged professionals looking for some hot times in the summertime; our youngest will be in band camp from July 16-21 and we want to getaway. We aren’t swingers (yet?) but are looking for adventure. Are the str*p clubs worth a flight from Greensboro NC? Will we have a good time, or just be ripped off? ‘Course we will be enjoying more conventional stuff as well (good restaurants, etc.) but want what William James called a “moral vacation” as well.

Tampa? Or elsewhere on the planet?

Dirtyoleman

Band Camp? Heh.

I checked with the Tampa Visitors’ Bureau, and they had no suggestions. Even the new Digital Visitor Guide reveals nothing about your request. No matter. We’ll do our best to find these things for ya.

Editor’s note: as you might guess, the rest of this deals with content that may make some people uncomfortable. Most links are NSFW (not safe for work). Also, Sticks of Fire makes no assurances to the morality, viability, safety or legality of any of the below. In other words, try it if you want, but we are not responsible for any unintended consequences. Hell – we’re not even responsible for intended consequences.

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75 years ago…

June 29, 1931 – It is announced that over 445 million cigars were produced in Tampa during the past year. This number translated into $2,098,510 (over $23 million in today’s dollars) in revenue (taxes) paid to the federal government. The bulk of these cigars were Class A (5¢ or less apiece, 55¢ in today’s dollars) or Class C (8¢ to 15¢ apiece, 88¢ to $1.66 in today’s dollars) cigars, with the majority of those cigars made by hand.

Courtesy of the Tampa Bay History Center.