Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

The tenth annual Environmental Film Festival began Saturday at Eckerd College in St. Pete. The festival ends March 1 and all programs are free and open to the general public. In addition to the films, the festival offers a one-day workshop for filmmakers on March 1 (info below schedule).

Here’s the schedule according to the festival website:

All screenings are at 7 p.m. in The Dan and Mary Miller Auditorium at Eckerd College. All programs will be preceded by a short reception with the presenter and will feature an opportunity for audience questions immediately after the program. Refreshments will be available in the lobby of The Dan and Mary Miller Auditorium.

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I don’t care if this is the first season ever the Rays are expected to break .500. I don’t care that they finally have a decent bullpen. And I don’t care that they got rid of Elijah Dukes and Delmon Young (although who’s gonna throw bats at their baby mommas now?). What I REALLY care about is the great unanswered question going into the season, are the Rays supposed to be fish or sunshine? Maybe one of these fine Rays blogs has the answer…

RAYS INDEX

RI has set the bar for excellence among Tampa Bay sports blogs (admittedly a bit of a niche market). From the Cork Board, to the Rays Index Confidence Graph, to the almost daily Devil Rays Webtopia, to the schwarmy know-it-allness projected by its writer Rays Index is worth five minutes of your day. It’s only a matter of time before Cork Gaines is picked up by a bigger outlet.

DRAYS BAY

The grandaddy of Rays blogs, no other Rays site is updated as frequently as the misnamed DRays Bay. The guys at DRays Bay have more access to Rays management than any other site, a fact they have little trouble flaunting in your face. So packed full of information it almost hurts to read the blog.

RAYS OF LIGHT

For whatever reason the MLB blogs are light years ahead of any other sports blogs and consistently provide some of the best reading out there. Rays of Light, the red-headed step child of Rays blogs, is no exception. Of interest are the player spotlights that are running now.

Other Sites Worth Checking Out

Rays Anatomy - Rays Anatomy didn’t make it into the top grouping but not because of lack of quality (the answer we’re looking for is lack of posting).

Rays UltraMega Preview - We’re still waiting on Part 3 of Manny Stiles’ 3 Part Preview of the Rays but in the interim there is more to digest here than any other Rays preview. For those that remember him, Manny Stiles ran a Rays blog last year after Rays prez Matthew Silverman donated $1,535 to AIDS research.

RaysBB.com - The Rays message board for all your messaging board needs.

The Heater and The Rays Report - The official Rays blogs from the St Pete Times and Tampa Trib respectively. The place to go for the access most other Rays blogs don’t have.

Book Review: Historic Photos of Tampa
text and captions by Ralph Brower (Turner Publishing).

Remember those carefully-packed time capsules your fourth-grade class buried in the school’s playground all those years ago? The book Historic Photos of Tampa is a time capsule of sorts, a peek into Tampa’s history, carefully packed with a variety of photos from all walks of life.

In the book’s preface, publisher Todd Bottorff states that “this book seeks to provide easy access to a valuable, objective look into Tampa history.” Using photographs from the Burgert Brothers — some not often seen in other photo collection books — Historic Photos of Tampa presents local history in four parts:

(1) Beginning of Cigar City to the Turn of the Century
(2) Tampa at the Beginning of the 20th Century
(3) The Roaring 20s, Great Depression and Economic Recovery
(4) World War II and the Baby Boom

Each chapter gives a brief, one-page summary of the local history of that era and each photograph has a caption that gives additional historical information while explaining the photo’s origins, date and subject matter. The book’s photos are marvelous. There are pictures of famous buildings, waterways, horse-drawn carriages, store marquees, parties, industries, Ybor cigar factories, traffic, parades, carnivals, buildings under construction, and a variety of people: famous, not so famous, at work, at play and walking down the street.

I wish that the captions had received as much time and attention as the photograph selection process obviously did. The captions were oddly inconsistent: some gave a great deal of information while others were short and choppy; some were carefully written and edited, while other captions — too many of them, sadly — had grammatical and typographical errors.

Overall, however, the captions are a small part of the book. Beautiful, wonderful photos are the center of Historic Photos of Tampa. The photographs are black and white, but the Tampa Bay area history is colorful.

Book Buzzometer: B+

(cross-posted at www.tampabookbuzz.com)

You never know what you’ll find out about here on Sticks of Fire.

Snowbird readers Tom & Joyce Harkema contacted us from Sarasota before they make their way home to Michigan:

… we want to inform you of what is happening back home in Sparta, MI.

Our son, Lt. Dan Harkema is a firefighter for Sparta Fire Department. He came upon a topic that most fire departments don’t even know about. After hours of research, Dan contacted WOOD TV in Grand Rapids MI.

Wood TV newsman Joe Lefurgy and a camerman went with our son to test smoke detectors in a vacant building. The results of the tests showed that it took 43 minutes of smoldering smoke before the detectors alarms went off.

Do you folks know that there are two kinds of detectors? The TV station did a marvelous job of airing this. Sparta Fire Department has been overwhelmed with responses. Please contact them at WOODTV.com and click on smoke alarms. Please get the word out to the public that they need two kinds of detectors, not just ionized but also the photo electric.

We are snowbirds from Rockford MI and will be in Sarasota FL for another two or three weeks. If you need any further information, you may contact us at the above e mail address. We are having this information published in our monthly newletter in our park. We hope this will save lives!!

We found the WOOD-TV piece about new smoke detectors. In a nutshell, you probably have an older, Ionization detector. Those sense the smoke from big bright flames (think grease fire or trash can). The new ones are photoelectric detectors. These can sense smoldering, smoke producers (think of a foam-filled couch or bed). Your best bet is to install both.

Thanks to Mr. & Mrs Harkema, and their curious son (Lt. Dan!) for the tips!

I don’t have time to rehash some of the ridiculous things that your local governments have been doing lately.  Luckily, we have a couple of daily newspapers who take it upon themselves to point out the shenanigans at least now and again.  Here are a couple of editorials that you should read, and know that they are close enough to be endorsed by the editorial board of Sticks of Fire (uh, that’s just me).

St. Pete Times:  Don’t padlock the parks - In response to budget cuts, the county is ceding control over its parks to private sports leagues.  With the county’s OK, those leagues have been kicking tax paying residents out of the parks for "not paying."  The Times says it is a "lazy form of money management" and "indefensible."

Tampa Tribune:  Jim Norman’s Disappointing Focus - Hillsborough commissioners agreed that they need a better relationship with the city of Tampa.  It’s campaign season, so Norman’s first idea is to replace Tampa’s fire-rescue department from with his buddies in the county’s politically powerful firefighters’ union.  The proposal is a solution in search of a problem. The Tribune also says that "Norman is incapable of rising above personal, petty politics" to focus on the big challenges facing this community.

Tampa Tribune:  Giving Tampa Codes Some Teeth - Get rid of the ridiculous hoops that Code Enforcement must jump through, start giving out fines, and make life difficult for repeat violators.

That’s enough for now.

Sticks of Fire reader Taylor sent this to us recently:

A group of Tampa residents headed by Mimi Conneely are pushing for a crosswalk at the north end of Bayshore. Currently there is no safe accommodation of foot, bike or wheelchair traffic to or from Davis Islands, leaving S.O.L. anybody without a car who needs to get to or from Tampa General Hospital, or any Davis Islands public or private amenity. Not to mention kids who live on Davis Islands and go to Gorrie, Wilson or Plant. Website is very preliminary for now, there is a petition going…

Actually, there is a footbridge to cross Bayshore, as part of the automobile bridge to DI. But then we heard from Mimi, who says that bridge is only accessible by stairs.

To Parents and Tax payers,

My name is Mimi Conneely, I have seen people in wheelchairs negotiating Bayshore to go from Davis Island to Publix and some who just want to wheel up and down Bayshore. There is no safe access from Publix to Bayshore or vise versa, until Howard. There is, however, an overpass for the ambulatory on the Davis Island bridge leaving the island.

We need support when we present to the Mayor. Please sign petition at, http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/bayshoreforall/

For more information, including pictures of light locations, go to www.bayshoreforall.com.

For pedestrians, just jump up those steps, scoot across the Bayshore, and head north. The walk from Tampa General to Publix is almost half a mile. But there is no way for wheelchair-bound folks to get up on that bridge; they must use crosswalks.

Going south of the DI bridges, the next crosswalk is the new one they installed at Howard Av., about two miles away, making a round trip better than 3.7 miles. So the obvious route is north. But in addition to the lack of crosswalk on Bayshore, there is no way to cross Platt without going all the way to Franklin. On the north side of Platt, there is no way to cross Ashley without going to Brorein. Yeah - it’s confusing, that’s why I made a map. You can clearly see the most direct wheelchair route is more than a mile, making a round trip 2.3 miles.

And don’t think this is just about shopping at Publix. From the residential side, wheelchair users must currently go at least 5 blocks out of the way just to get a good look at the bay.

“Free is for me!” is and has always been my motto.

I like to cut coupons and look for bargains all day long! In a sense, this is the only reason we get to do what we do and not owe thousands in credit card debt.

On weekends I like to keep busy but I don’t want to hand over my entire paycheck to do so. I have gone on wild weekends and spent a small fortune but then the regret kicks in on Sunday night. Of course, there have been a few exceptions where we had so much fun it was worth every dime!

With all that being said I scour over many different lists of things to do in the Bay area to find the ones that look fun and will not cost a ton. This week we have the little one - and our niece to keep busy as well - so we are looking for kid friendly. No, not martini hour!

I already knew about the Rays Fan Fest (free) so that is on the agenda and I found two more free events to run by as well. Here’s all the information, enjoy and have a great weekend!

The Rays Fan Fest is Saturday, February 23 from 10am-5pm at Tropicana Field and has free admission and free parking. A team autograph session will take place throughout the entire event and the Rookie, Jim Morrison will be present. You can tryout to star in a Ray’s commercial; I have two of the cutest kids so this should be a shoe in! Kids and adults will be able to run the bases and there will be several other on the field activities for everyone. You can go to the Rays website for all the details on the event and of course how to purchase season tickets at a discount during the event. http://tampabay.rays.mlb.com/tb/fan_forum/fan_fest.jsp

Ybor City’s Fiesta Day is also on Saturday, February 23 from 10am-6pm in Ybor City. I think I can do both of these if I start real early! First to Gunn Hwy to pick up the niece, shoot over to St. Pete for the athletic portion of the day. Then on the way home stop off in Ybor for a free sample of Spanish food for dinner then home! This event looks like a lot of fun there will be a parade of flags from Cuba, Germany, Italy and Span. There is an annual flan fest to determine who makes the best flan, the contest begins at noon and winners will be announced at 2:30pm. Complimentary Cuban bread, Spanish Bean soup and Cafe Con Leche will be given out to visitors! There will be music, children’s activities and the fresh market place will be huge this week with vendor’s, artists and more! Stop by the CC Event Productions website for all the details at http://www.cc-events.org/fiestaday

Olde Hyde Park Village is hosting their 19th annual art festival this Saturday and Sunday, Feb 23 & 24 from 10am-5pm. Thank goodness it is on Sunday too, because I want to go again this year. I always enjoy strolling around Hyde Park for their festivals. There will be a lot to look at with all the artists displaying their work of sculptures, paintings, ceramics, photography and much more. The shops will be open and nearby Kate Jackson Park has one of the nicest playground areas for the children. You can look at Howard Alan Events website for all the information on this event and others they promote at http://www.artfestival.com.

Whatever YOU do, I hope you have a great weekend!

An entire floor at the University of Tampa dorms got in a bit of trouble.

Prospective students and their parents were touring the honors floor last weekend, and it seems that some of the residents there wanted to give them some inside information. So they put up a note to the visitors. It detailed “what they don’t tell you on the tour,” describing sex and drinking in the dorms. Bulletin board letters were also rearranged to say something offensive.

No one ‘fessed up to it, so the entire floor was disciplined. By writing lines.

…all residents on the floor were told they had to write the 30 lines or their housing would be terminated…

What? I guess Bart Simpson is now a resident assistant at the University of Tampa. Seriously:

“I will not vandalize the floor, and I will help prevent others from vandalizing.”

“I will not vandalize the floor, and I will help prevent others from vandalizing.”

“I will not vandalize the floor, and I will help prevent others from vandalizing.”

“I will not vandalize the floor, and I will help prevent others from vandalizing.”

“I will not vandalize the floor, and I will help prevent others from vandalizing.”

Thirty times each. I assume cut ‘n’ paste was not allowed. More from The Minaret:

Several students on the floor said they first learned of the vandalism after seeing signs along their hall informing them of an emergency meeting that night.

“When I heard, ‘emergency meeting’ I though something awful happened,” one student said. “It was the most ridiculous thing I’ve had to do since elementary school.”

Hey - you better quit complaining, or you will be sent to your room without supper!