Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Sticks of fire send three to area hospital.

Two struck by sticks of fire on Treasure Island:

A 16-year-old boy from Tampa and a woman from Texas were taken to Palms of Pasadena Hospital today after [sticks of fire] struck the beach behind the Tahitian Resort… Treasure Island Fire Chief Charlie Fant pointed out that a [stick of fire] can strike from up to 10 miles away. He said the average [stick] comes from 6 miles away and carries about 50,000 degrees of heat.

Man hit by sticks of fire at Sam’s Club in Brandon:

Paramedics took a 61-year-old man to Tampa General Hospital today after he was struck by [sticks of fire] about noon outside Sam’s Club at Highway 60 and Gornto Lake Drive… Hillsborough County Fire Rescue crews found the man sitting in a chair inside Sam’s Club. He told them he left the store with his wife and was headed to his truck when [sticks of fire] struck…
He said it was like being hit on a football field.

Don’t mess with Sticks of Fire.

The New Jersey Devils took the first game of their playoff series with the Bolts, and somewhere Elaine’s boyfriend Putty is high fiving somebody in celebration. The two things most people pointed to as the Bolts’ weaknesses prior to the playoffs, their penalty killing and goal keeping, proved to be their undoing in Game One. Game Two is Saturday at 7 pm in Jersey.

• (Glass Half Full) After last night’s game the Bolts Blog still thinks the Lightning will win in 6. Bolts Blog argues that despite never leading the game Tampa Bay was never out of the game, thanks in part to the fourth line. Optimism is nice but the Bolts must have pooched the game somehow.

• (Glass Half Empty) Here’s some of the fire and brimstone I was looking for, Erin’s Lightning Blog takes the Bolts to task for their mistakes. From Holmqvist to Lecavalier, no one is safe from Erin’s wrath.

• (Crawford Did What?) The Bolts weren’t the only team from Tampa Bay to lose last night, as the Rays let a win slip away from them in Minnesota. With the score tied in the 9th Carl Crawford gets a bit greedy in his base running, and creates two easy outs for the Twins. By the by, with it being Jackie Robinson week did you know the Rays have more black players (6) than any other MLB team?

• (You May Already Be a Winner) The NFL Draft is two weeks away and BucStats.com is holding a contest for the event. If you guess the most Bucs draft picks correctly you can win a gift certificate to BucGear.com (with second prize getting a spiffy looking Buc’s Draft day hat). Considering Gruden is at the helm you can’t go wrong just picking either quarterbacks or receivers in all seven rounds.

Alien Intelligencer presents a photograph of Sticks of Fire taken by Florida photographer Don Naumann.

(cross posted on Boltsmag)

You may have heard that the NHL plans to change the design of players’ jerseys.  While I was under the impression only the basic architecture (function) of the jerseys would change, Ron over at Hound Central has put up a slew of posts that include images of completely revamped sets (logo change) of uniforms.  Check out the possible new look for the Lightning. (click here for the bigger image)

See most other teams’ new looks at 2K Sports forums…

If these leaked images are accurate, they’d represent the first substantial change to the Lightning uniform since the team’s inception. Other than the font changes on the back of the team’s uniform (which was changed so players names are more easily read), nothing has really been changed for the Lightning in their 15 years in the NHL.

An unexciting but consistent occurance is rainfall in the summertime.  We think nothing of our afternoon summerstorms, which usually include thunder and lightning along with the rain.

Likewise, sitting in your car waiting for a train to complete it’s journey across one of Tampa Bay’s many railroad crossings, is not a real exciting event.  It happens to many of us on a daily basis, but who’s going to report that to anyone?

And while driving your car, how often do you sit there, nonchalantly resting your wrist or elbow outside your open window?  It’s comfortable, so why not?

But, put those three completely unexciting things together, and what do you have?  A once-in-a-lifetime chance to get struck by lightning.

As you know, Tampa Bay is the Lightning Capital, so you can get struck by those “sticks of fire” at almost any time, and lightning will kill you.  Luckily, Raymond Galusha only recieved some singed hair on his arm and back, and a numb tongue. 

As of the strike itself, Galusha says “I didn’t think I was going to make it.”  The lightning “actually grabs you and holds you.”  After not being able to see, speak or move for about 30 seconds, he drove a half mile to the home where he is staying with friends.

Other lightning strikes have “grabbed” people, and picked them up and out of the water.

When you notice Sticks of Fire nearby, you must pay attention. Your life could depend on it.

Witnesses say that one of the people struck by lightning over on Clearwater Beach was lifted up by the bolt, and thrown back down into the gulf.

It’s never a good idea to mess with Sticks of Fire.

Most of this was first written on the old Sticks of Fire site.

Some want to know why “Sticks of Fire?” What does it mean? Where can I buy some? Since the question has been asked a couple times, I thought I would address it this afternoon.

The word “Tampa” comes from the Calusa (sometimes spelled Caloosa) Indians. The Calusa Indians lived here until being virtually wiped out by explorers (and their diseases) between 1500 and into the 1800’s. They called this place Tanpa, which means “sticks of fire.” Some think that this refers to the abundance of kindling and driftwood along the Hillsborough river, but I agree with those that say it is a reference to the constant barrage of lightning storms in the area. Yes, Tampa Bay is known as the lightning capital of the US. When the white people came and took this land from the Indians, they had a difficult time pronouncing Tanpa, so they changed the N to an M.

So that’s where the name of this website came from. What am I doing here?

Many weblogs currently focus on national politics and news. The plan for this blog is to chronicle news items of varying interest to Tampa Bay in general, and Tampa in particular. Some have taken to calling local-focus blogs “urblogs.”

In addition to news items, this Tampa blog also offers trivial and historical tidbits about the area as well. We’ll see how all of that goes. If you have any questions about the Tampa area, whether current or historical, forward them to me via tommyduncnATTyahooDOTTcom, and if I don’t know the answer right away, I’ll have a good time learning about it.