Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Sometimes I sure love mayor Pam. Not sure about how good a Mayor she is, but pictures like this make me smile.

Can’t see Dick Greco or Sandy Friedman having a photo like that show up anyplace, can you? Unfortunately, for a lot of folks Gasparilla day was not going to end with smiles such as Mayor Pam’s.

This year saw 166 arrests on the day of the big parade. That is 46 more that just one week prior (I guess the children’s parade isn’t quite as wild) or a 28% jump. Last year the same comparison from the day of the parade and the Saturday one week prior only saw a 3.5% increase in arrests.
Of course I know that beer has no direct correlation with the number of folks jailed but something was sure in the air.

If you read the St Pete Times on Sunday the morning after the parade you might notice that they only indicate one person arrested for Boating Under the Influence. That may be the total of those arrested by the Tampa Police but the State Fish and Wildlife officers arrested quite a few boaters on Saturday for overindulgence. Gasparilla Day is reviled by some boaters for the damage inflicted by inattentive/inebriated boat owners in the crowded bay and channel.

Maybe the Trib’s Daniel Ruth summed up the day best of all,

Today is the big day when Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla will, in honor of a rapacious phony pirate, invade the city in a cocktail-fueled parade of bacchanalia during which pulchritudinous maidens of dubious age of consent will expose themselves in return for cheap beads made by some of the finest Chinese political prisoners money can buy.

It’s a family event.

(Don’t worry guys I had to look up “pulchritudinous” also- Jason)

I hope that all of our dear Sticks of Fire readers and contributers were safe this weekend and that the hangovers have faded nicely. If you did wind up in the pokey let us know what happened in the comments, but be sure to tell us your name so we can look at your mugshot and laugh at with you.

*** The pictures used in this post were taken by Jonathon Robinson (hire him! w32.jonathon.x [at] gmail [dot] com) and if you want you can see the rest of his Gasparilla 2007 set at his flickr.com page.