Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

I was doing some ninebullets.net calendar updating and realized I just need to quit my job…so many good shows coming and I wanna make them all so I need money…thus I need a job, but getting up at 7 am makes getting to all of these shows difficult.

Oh well. I’ll just have to suffer or get with the Lohan coke plan or something. The following shows I am already starting to get excited about:

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Take a look at this bay area commercial from 1987:

Yes, the Bay City Plywood (watch the volume) guys have been screaming and laughing at the camera for decades. And no, Clark, we still don’t know why they are laughing.

Weatherguru76 has a bunch of old Tampa video, and posts the stuff he finds now and again. We certainly appreciate all the videos he posts at YouTube. If you like seeing this old local TV, you may want to take a look at these promos for NewsWatch 8 (WXFL) from 1986. You’ll see that Steve Overton was On Your Side, Irene Maher would give the latest in health updates, Dennis Roper was on NightWatch, and you can see what Gayle Sierens and Bob Hite (and Tom Brokaw) looked like 20 years ago. Oh, plus the Rockford Files is coming soon Monday afternoons.

Back in March, a Tampa woman boarded her child’s school bus and encouraged her to fight another student. She was convicted of trespassing and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Apparently, Karen Barber doesn’t read the newspapers or watch the news. Karen is a St. Pete mom, and she too got on a school bus to resolve a conflict with violence.

Her son (let’s call him Punk) picked up another boy’s (we’ll call him Joe) folder. Punk decided to keep Joe’s folder, so Joe punched Punk, and got his folder back. Even-Steven.

But Punk’s ma failed to ascertain that the situation had resolved itself, so she decided to head over to Joe’s house and threaten to shoot up the house. Joe’s mom rolled her eyes and went about her business. Of course, this didn’t sit well with Punk’s ma. The next day, she followed the kids’ school bus, and encouraged the driver to pull over. Punk’s ma boarded the bus with another of her children, a daughter. Before they left the bus, both the mom and the daughter gave Joe a couple of slaps on the face.

Where on earth are these people learning their parenting skills?

Needless to say, I’m not invited to the fundraising parties for the re-election of county commissioners Brian Blair & Ken Hagan. But I do have copies of the invitations, so let’s have a look at the host committees to see who’s backing whom.

Less than a week after Blair and Hagan appointed Hung Mai to the Planning Commission, Mai is soliciting funds for their campaigns, e-mailing the invitations out and handling the RSVPs. (Smell that disgusting odor? That’s cronyism.)

The host committees for both candidates are almost identical and include plenty of fundraising heavyweights, with lots of support from the development lobby. Sticks readers will recognize some of the hosts’ names, including Ralph Hughes, Todd Pressman, and Judy James. All 3 were used as references on Hung Mai’s recent application for the Planning Commission. (The Trib printed headshots of all 3 plus Mai with my Op Ed.) I told you Mai knew commissioners would hear that cash register a-jinglin’ when they voted for him. But I didn’t imagine it would be this blatant.

Stephen Dibbs, a leader of the recent attacks on our local wetlands regulations, is also on the host committees for both Blair & Hagan.

Most of the county commissioners are already taking sides in each other’s political campaigns, which is sure to bring out the nasty on this ridiculously dysfunctional board. Commissioners Blair, Hagan & Norman are all backing each other. Commissioner Sharpe is backing Hagan, but not Blair at these country-club soirées, while professed Democrat Kevin White is backing Republican Brian Blair, but not Ken Hagan. Higginbotham & Ferlita are sitting this dance out. How will they all work together from now until November 2008, while mired neck deep in each others’ politics?

This is all further evidence that the primary concern for most of our commissioners is not our county but merely their own campaigns. They can’t even maintain a pretense of integrity, because they have no idea what integrity is.

According to the city of St. Petersburg,

In 1875, General John Williams came down from Detroit and bought 2,500 acres of land on Tampa Bay. He envisioned a grand city with graceful parks and broad streets…

Thirteen years later, Peter Demens, a noble Russian aristocrat, brought the Orange Belt Railway to [the Pinellas peninsula]. On June 8, 1888, the first train arrived, carrying empty freight cars and one passenger, a shoe salesman from Savannah…

Historians say these two gentlemen are the co-founders of the now fourth largest city in Florida. But they didn’t agree on a name. Both of them wanted to honor their past by calling this new place by the same name as their respective hometowns. But how would they choose?

Legend has it that these two guys flipped a coin for the naming rights to the city. The loser was to name the city’s first hotel.

Because of the flip of a coin a hundred years ago, you might look forward to the Detroit Grand Prix, hang out at the Detroit Pier, and get yer lottery tickets from St. Petersburg Liquors, on the ground floor of the old Hotel St. Pete.

Which leads to another question. If the coin had landed the other way, would residents riot at championship games?

Oh, and by the way, the original St. Petersburg now wants to be known as the Russian Detroit.

If you don’t already have tickets to Friday’s USF vs. WVU game at Raymond James, you’re probably out of luck and will be watching the 8:00 p.m. game on ESPN2.

Ticketmaster was reporting all tickets sold by noon Monday, though USF claims a handful of tickets will be made available soon. I myself got up at 6 a.m. to get to campus in time to pick up my student ticket and two for my companions — the Grapefruit Gal and a friend from my undergrad days who is flying down from West Virginia. A scant few student tickets are being withheld for distribution on USF’s satellite campuses.

USF students camped out overnight in order to ensure they’d get a ticket, with Coach Jim Leavitt stopping by to thank them for the support.

The game will set several records with its sellout: an overall attendance record for a USF home game, a season attendance record for the Big East (as we have the largest stadium in the conference, a sellout by de facto sets the record), and a record for largest student section in the NBE at 12,501. That’s not a random number, btw: the usual student section of 8,000 was expanded by 4,001 to both accommodate student interest and beat WVU’s student section of 12,500.

Yet beating WVU’s student section isn’t what’s on the mind of the USF team; I spoke this morning with a former student and current Bull, who said the team is focused and healthy after this past Saturday’s routing of North Carolina at RayJay.

Did I mention there’s a free concert before the game? Oh, yes, there is a free concert before the game. It features the Shop Boyz, whom I’ve written about before as being an exemplar of the downfall of rap. But that’s something else entirely, I suppose.

Last week, Gov. Charlie Crist named former Buccaneers linebacker Shelton Quarles as chairman of the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority. Lots of people are scratching their heads over a football player. From Quarles:

“I’m not a dumb jock. I went to Vanderbilt University, I didn’t have the easiest course load, and I was able to graduate in four years,” said Quarles, who won’t have to leave his job as a Bucs scout for this part-time position. “We have a lot of different possibilities as far as how we could alleviate the congestion here, so I’m looking forward to being a part of the solution.”

Loafie winner Michael Hussey suggests that Quarles’ $500 donation to Crist’s campaign got him the gig. That’s a pretty cynical reaction, without knowing Quarles’ qualifications. But even the St. Pete Times wonders why Crist appointed Quarles, and says the move suggests your governor doesn’t care about TBARTA.

Huh? Come on, the gig is only a part-time job - how hard can it be? These folks just like to whine. The main function of a board’s chairman is to provide leadership and ensure the agency stays on track. A middle linebacker on a great NFL defense certainly needs leadership and direction, and Quarles has those qualities in spades.

Anyway, you can find out more about his qualifications from Quarles’ biography on the Buccaneers website. Also take a look at the Shelton Quarles IMPACT Foundation. In addition to his many charitable initiatives and football-related accolades, you’ll find that Quarles is a bright and passionate guy. We think he’ll do fine as chairman of TBARTA.

Tampa Bay (and Tampa, specifically), have tried time and time again to figure out just what it is that they want to be known for. Wall St. South? Cigar City? Call Center Headquarters? Strip Malls and Strip Clubs? Tourist Mecca? It seems that nothing sticks.

But have the powers that be ever considered skating? Not ice skating, but sk8ing - rollerblades, roller skates, and yes, skateboarding.

There is already a truly world famous skate park here in Tampa. And of course, the historical Bro Bowl is in downtown Tampa. The Derby Darlin’s Roller Derby League continues to grow. I’m sure SPOT could tell us of more.

If the skateboarding rules were relaxed, we could even have conventions and the like…. Take that Art Museum, and turn all the concrete out front into a skate park. I don’t believe there is any de facto “skateboarding capital of the US.” Hey - it’s just an idea - thought I would throw it out there.

Of course, skateboarding is much too hip to draw the attention of old Tampa. After all, whenever a bunch of those sk8rs gather, they send the cops and arrest them for jaywalking. Individuals have been busted for “Unlawful Rollerskating.”