Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Starting a discussion about what makes a “real” Cuban sandwich can elicit strong opinions and unearth longstanding feuds. There is one ingredient on which all the sandwich sectarians agree. It’s not a Cuban sandwich without authentic Cuban bread. The ingredients are simple enough; flour, water, salt, yeast and lard. But the result cannot be duplicated outside the family owned bakeries of Tampa and Miami; a crusty torpedo that would make any Frenchman envious.

My introduction to the staple came at age six, when I entered the Hillsborough County school system from more Northern climes. I doubt the recipe has changed much in 25 years. The public school version of the Cuban sandwich consists of one or two thin slices of cheap boiled ham and salami, one slice of stinky government cheese, pale neon green pickles and mustard on five to six inches of semi-fresh Cuban bread; a logic defying composition, MUCH GREATER than the sum of it’s parts.

The bread was so hard and chewy that it often led to the lunchtime extraction of the last of my baby teeth. New teeth grew in, almost as fast as I grew an appetite for that most Cuban of confections. At least once a week, and later as a daily option, the Cuban sandwich was the heart of the school lunch menu. As bland and unassuming as it sounds, that simple chewy sandwich was a welcome relief from the reheated Salisbury steak and chicken nuggets. Throughout our school years, my classmates and I consumed millions.

More than just a meal, the Cuban sandwich was my introduction to the history and cultural identity of Tampa Bay. The sandwich was a bridge that connected me to the Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders, the mysterious minarets of the Plant Hotel, cigar factory workers of Ybor and the Diaspora of communist Cuba’s refugees; some of whom were my classmates.

I’d like to think that the Cuban sandwich has given me a certain kind of cultural identity, something that everyone who has grown up in Tampa Bay has in some part shared. As I’ve traveled to and lived in other cities across the country, I’ve sampled many imitation Cubans. Their similarity to and difference from the five inch version that I had in school fondly reminds me of bay area and that culture and history that we’ve all shared.

That’s why it saddens me to read that Pinellas County schools will no longer be serving locally baked Cuban bread in their cafeterias. For the students and staff, who will now dine on soft and starchy instant-bake rolls of the frozen variety, it’s not just a culinary tragedy. It’s a cultural tragedy.

Here’s hoping that Hillsborough schools will not follow suit. For pennies on the dollar, Cuban bread is worth a little extra dough.

Despite a last-ditch effort by developer interests to weaken wetland protections last Thursday, interested citizens prevailed and your county commissioners adopted the final batch of wetland rule changes without any modifications.

Having failed to persuade EPC staff to agree to any weakening of the rules in this last part of the Hybrid, developers frantically lobbied county commissioners to stick last-minute changes into the proposal.

Speaking against those changes were representatives of the League of Women Voters, U-CAN, R-LAND, Sierra Club, Audubon, Tomorrow Matters!, Seffner Community Alliance, Taylor Road Civic Association, and several unaffiliated citizens. A few developers and agricultural interests spoke for looser regulations, but they were outnumbered and outmatched.

A key to the success of the conservationists was that many of their email and letters showed commissioners that they clearly understood the key points included in the changes.  Developers’ demands were couched in harmless-sounding doublespeak like “net environmental benefits” or “classification of wetlands,” but citizens pointed out how those innocent-sounding buzzwords would weaken wetland protections.

Still, Commissioner Jim Norman pushed hard for the “classification of wetlands” modification, which would have made it easier to destroy some wetlands deemed “low class.” This idea was opposed by EPC staff, all 3 advisory committees and the non-developer citizens involved.

Commissioner Brian Blair tried to lend support to Norman, but Blair didn’t seem to understand the issues well enough to do more than flail about, finally resorting to reading a letter out loud.  Blair wrongly claimed the letter was written by a member of the EPC’s Technical Advisory Group (TAG). In fact, the letter was written by Mike Peterson, speaking for the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors, not TAG.  Peterson is also known as a lawyer for developers.

(Side note - I wonder if Tampa Realtors approve of their spokesperson calling for weaker wetland protections?  He previously led Tampa Realtors to call for the total elimination of EPC wetland protections, and this letter reiterates that position.  It’s obvious how it would benefit Peterson’s developer-clients to be allowed to destroy wetlands to build more houses, but how would it benefit Realtors to have neighborhoods flooded by wetland destruction just so their market could also be flooded with more houses for sale, depressing prices?)

Thankfully, Commissioner Mark Sharpe argued firmly against Norman’s pitch for the requests for modifications, noting some of the economic benefits of strong environmental protections. 

Likewise, Commissioner Rose Ferlita moved to adopt the rules as proposed, and flatly refused to allow Blair & Norman to pollute her motion with any language that would direct EPC to weaken wetland protections.

If not for the concerted efforts of those above-mentioned groups and other interested parties, it is my belief that the already compromised rules would have been put off again, eventually leading to further weakening of wetlands rules. Instead, the concerns of citizens were heard by your county commissioners, and Mark Sharpe’s compelling arguments thwarted attempts to delay. With no commissioner wanting to be singled out as voting against wetlands (given all the heat the public & press has directed at them on this issue), the motion passed unanimously.

For more, see the Times and Tribune on the hearing, and the Times’ preview. The Tribune also printed an editorial and Denise Layne’s Op Ed before the hearing, both calling on commissioners to approve EPC staff’s proposal as is. At the hearing, all 3 of Blair’s Democratic opponents spoke in favor of EPC’s staff recommendation. Hear them all on this audio clip of WMNF’s excellent coverage. Full captioning of the hearing is here.

This is rich.

The St. Pete Times theater performing arts critic rips the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center for putting on popular shows instead of being edgy and taking some “artistic risks.”

[Forever Plaid] is being produced for the sixth time in 15 years at the Jaeb Theater. Why is it being brought back when there is so much great theater that hasn’t been done here?

He’s itching for some Stephen Sondheim, which is perfectly fine.  But then he suggests you are a bunch of brainless dweebs:

… Sondheim can be challenging, and it is not a sure-fire hit at the box office, … but instead, the Jaeb has played to the lowest common denominator… 

It’s as if TBPAC is trying to appeal to those who never go to the theater.

Yeah, that’s you - the “lowest common denominator.”

David Jenkins does a great job in responding to Fleming, and suggests that the local newspaper not only doesn’t help with encouraging edgy, artistic performances

And don’t even get me started on the irony that the newspapers generally bend over backwards to write story after story on Spamalot! or The Lion King, but we fight tooth and nail to get any mention at all for a show like the Beijing Modern Dance Company or the Turtle Island String Quartet or a South American adult-oriented puppet troupe coming in to do Romeo and Juliet in Spanish with marionettes.

, but that they should maybe take a look at their own journalism industry for a great example of pandering to build an audience:

… hard news old school shows just didn’t pull the numbers, but hide a camera in a house where a guy is going to go try to pick up an underage girl and they’re through the roof. People are voting with their remote, and the market follows…

David’s a classy guy.  I would have put an image of a TBT* cover in the piece, perhaps with an observation that “It’s as if The St. Pete Times is trying to appeal to those who never read a newspaper.”

Freakin’ hilarious.

Great Job, David!  Best of luck with your upcoming production of Tim Robbins’ Embedded, coming soon to the Tampa Bay Performing Art Center.

Disclosure:  Sticks of Fire is a proud sponsor of Jobsite Theater.

Looks like another local media outlet is experimenting with citizen journalism.

Since 2005, the Tampa Tribune has offered you a chance for you to be one of their “Community Columnists” and write opinion pieces found on their op-ed page.  They also added “Reel People,” including the beautiful and talented Lisa Ciurro, to write movie reviews that show up in Friday Extra now and again.

A few months ago, Creative Loafing introduced their “Fix It Now” blog, and made the call for interested citizen journalists to contribute to the site.  Since then, a couple have added their voices to the blog.  I’m not sure if they have been published in the printed Loaf, though.

Other than those efforts, not much has been done by local media to get regular citizens involved in the news gathering process.  But Tampa Bay’s 10 is gonna give it a try. 

They plan on handing out video cameras, and want to air your video reports on Tampa Bay’s 10. 

Tampa Bay’s 10 is looking for twenty people around the Bay area to help us with a special project. We will teach twenty lucky people how to shoot a video camera, and how to get the video to us here at the station.

… These clips can be about many different subjects. Things that happen in your community. Anything from bad weather to your childs play at school. Maybe your neighborhood meeting.

Not only that, but they are going to pay you and let you keep the camera (emphasis is theirs)!

Each time you send me a video story that either makes it on the news or on our web site, Tampa Bay’s 10 will pay you TWENTY DOLLARS!

If you hold up your end of the deal, after a year, you will KEEP the video camera we assign you.

In addition to the camera, you will get a tripod, a camera bag, a battery, and everything you need to download video into your computer. 

Former Tampa Bay reporter Amani Channel doesn’t think that’s enough:

I don’t think tampabay10’s “citizen journalism team” has taken the right approach. It’s great to encourage public participation, but this initiative sounds like a low paying job. Stringers can make up to $500.00 bucks for each piece of newsworthy content they capture, and sell.

We’ll be looking forward to the results.If you want to be one of Tampa Bay’s 10’s new Citizen Journalists, send Mitchell Wallace an e-mail mwallace@tampabays10.com.

PS:  Tampa Bay’s 10 is also running the new local Metromix website, as well as something called “Hey Juicy,” which defies explanation.

It’s time once again for Creative Loafing’s annual Best of the Bay voting for 2008!

In previous years, we have been honored to be recognized by Creative Loafing’s readers and editors as being one of the top local websites:

• 2007 - First place Creative Loafing Best of the Bay 2007 - Best Local Blog, Readers’ Choice.
• 2006 - First place Creative Loafing Best of the Bay 2006, Reader’s choice for Best Local Blog.
• 2005 - First place Weekly Planet’s Best of the Bay 2005, Editor’s choice for Best Local Website.
• 2005 - Third place Weekly Planet’s Best of the Bay 2005, Reader’s choice for Best Local Blog.

We certainly are proud of these honors from all of you, and are happy that you are keeping Sticks of Fire on your reading list.

Alas, the time has come once again to see if we can still hang.  There have been a bunch of new blogs and bloggers started up in the past year, and some of them are simply fantastic.  We enjoy reading several of them, and any number of them could knock Sticks of Fire out of the top spot.

Of course, there is so much more to Creative Loafing’s Best of the Bay than just websites. You can vote for the best neighborhood, your favorite art gallery, the worst road, the best thrift store, and so much more.  In fact, you must vote in 25 of the categories (there are 100 categories this year, and we list them all after the jump below).

Make sure you vote for YOUR FAVORITES by Aug. 13, 2008, and CL promises to publish the results on Sept. 17.

So vote for the Best of the Bay right now, or cut & paste the list of categories below in order to give ‘em all some thought.

(more…)

Have you been reading about the soap opera-like story of Winters & Yonker’s breakaway from long time bay area TV commercial lawyer Richard Mulholland?

The St. Pete Times points out it is “A case of money, deceit, sex and lawyers,” where W&Y were found liable for theft from their former boss. 

On the slow-loading Winters & Yonker website, you can find out that they are known for their “Attentive Personal Service,” their first priority is “Top-Quality Medical Evaluation and Care,” and they brag about their efficiency.

Nowhere does it mention that they would rip off their own mentor in order to increase the chance of business success.

But remember, not all attorneys are like this.  As the old saying goes, it’s that 99% of lawyers that give the profession a bad name.

No matter.  This isn’t really about Mulholland v. Winters & Yonker.  The real loser in all of this is Beltz & Ruth.  Well, them and Morgan & Morgan.  And Catania & Catania (no direct link, cuz Google don’t like the site).

With the wacky story being played out in the media, the names Winters, Yonker, and Mulholland have been all over the place, giving them all a bunch of free publicity. 

Now look for the others to counter with something just as crazy.  Come to think of it, forget the “soap opera” comment - this is more like rasslin’.  We ought to get Morgan, Ruth, Winters, Catania, Mulholland, Catania, Morgan, Beltz, & Yonker in a Battle Royal and crown one the King of Ambulance Chasers.

Instead of just shaking your head, a new program allows you to report litterbugs - at least in Eastern Hillsborough County:

Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful, a nonprofit organization aimed at keeping the county free of litter, has started a pilot program in the Mango, Seffner and Thonotosassa areas called Trash Troopers.

The program works like this: Residents who see someone, say, toss a drink can out of his car can call a hot line and leave information about what they saw, when the littering happened and any identifying information, such as a license plate number.

The organization will send letters to offending motorists informing them that someone in their vehicle was spotted littering and that littering is illegal. A trash bag or pocket ashtray will also be provided.

We hope Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful (be friends with KHCB on myspace!) can keep the program going, and expand it to the rest of the county.

For now, if you see someone out east tossing trash somewhere outside a garbage can, don’t confront the violators. Simply turn the violator’s information into Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful (KHCB) via their contact page, or download the online report (doc), call the Trash Trooper Litter Hotline 1-877-Y-LITTER or 1-877-954-8837, fax the report to 813.960.5044, or send e-mail to KHCB3@yahoo.com,

Litterbugs suck.

Was asked to do an interview Monday based on my post about Holly Benson.

The interview happened so fast I didn’t have time to do my hair or make-up so viewer discretion is advised.

I swear the camera adds twenty pounds, but yes, I recognize the fact that I made fun of Holly’s hair and then got on television with a brillo pad atop my own head.

Laugh it up, fuzzballs.

Thank God they didn’t mention my site - I’d like to charm my co-workers before I start alarming them.

I’ve only been back a month. That’s gotta be some kind of record.

Update 5pm: Commenter Lee Nelson noticed that the Buzz also picked up the story.