

While Some Floridians Slog Through Hell (Iraq) . . .
. . . others are buying up-to-$100k doghouses for their pooches (built by Doggie Mansions of West Palm Beach), in styles such as Key West cottage and New England colonial, with Spanish-tile roofs, flat-screen TV's, and of course a/c [South Florida Sun-Sentinel] "This Is Just Something We Do" Well, the something Nikki does is run…
Technical Difficulties
Due to pesky phone-line problems in the neighborhood of Yr Editor, today's F State post will make its appearance somewhat belatedly, either tonight or tomorrow a.m. Check back then – thanks!
Should We Appoint or Elect our Judges?
Michael Hussey over at Pushing Rope has an interesting post this morning about judicial elections. It follows a Palm Beach Post editorial that calls for them to be changed to appointed positions, taking the voters out of the equation. Hussey disagrees. The Post raises an interesting point: In Sarasota, the 15 percent undervote (those voters…
Civil War?
Like a network hungry to declare the winner first on election night, NBC News â with great fanfare â on Monday "branded" the fighting in Iraq as officially a civil war. I woke up that morning to Today Show host Matt Lauer announcing the importance of NBC's decision and promising to explain it in the…
Morning Roundup
It's good to be the king: The leading anti-immigration congressman calls Miami "a third world country." He's being kind. "They took the bar. The whole fucking bar." Dems back on the paper trail. God, I used to give a great pithy quote when I was a political consultant. This South Florida lawsuit hasn't drawn a…
An Armed Cartoonist in Downtown MiÉ Wait, What?
Jos Varela, a regular free-lance cartoonist (a cartoonist!) at the Miami Herald's sister paper El Nuevo Herald, barricaded himself in the building on Friday, armed with a gun that turned out to be fake, complaining about sinister (pro-Castro, or at least insufficiently-anti-Castro) things happening that the two top editors were somehow responsible for. He gave…
Morning Roundup
Did you work out this morning?: I just love it when the upper crust takes on the proles. Great. The 2008 ballot just might includes votes on gay marriage and stem-cell research. Good thing it won't be bothered with such trivial issues as growth, property taxes and hurricane insurance. Not real deep, but an overview…
Wesley Snipes: “They”‘re Out to Get Me!
Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell released pieces from a remarkable e-mail from Wesley Snipes, who has been hard to reach since his indictment in Tampa last month for evading $11m in federal income tax via a lame loophole "discovered" by people you wouldn't trust to explain how a toothbrush works, much less tax law. Why…
The Wrestler
Name of Kama Sutra Position: The Wrestler On a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate position (1 as horrible, 10 as sexual nirvana)?While I would say it actually has the possibilities of becoming a solid 8, I had to give it a 3. Unless your partner is a contortionist, this position is…
Harrison’s Strength
Tampa City Councilman Shawn Harrison is going to be hard to beat, as we've been discussing in the earlier Mary Mulhern threads. His campaign kick-off at Fly in downtown Tampa on Dec. 11 has a host committee that is a who's who of Tampa politics, with former Mayor Dick Greco at the top of the…
Morning Roundup
We'lll be on a short holiday hiatus, but then again, I may try to post from home in a post-tryptophan haze: I'm proud to have counted Sheriff Jim Coats as one of my political clients back in the day. For reasons like this. County Commission changes. The losers: Ken Hagan fails in his bid to…
Tampa Bay
Overrated Sacred Cows
A yum-yum opera
THEATER
Gettin’ Ziggy widdit
Also, Significant Event
Still waters run deep?
The Fountain
Miscellaneous debris
Bite-size newsbits from the music wire
Blame It on the Fish
Primus
A body of work
Berni Searle gets more than her hands dirty in the name of art
In Cold Blood
G.E. Sassani
They’re out there
Find your soul mate by weeding out the rest
In a funk
Why is the nation’s happiest party still so unhappy here at home?
Letters to the Editor
‘That’s methed up,’ ‘Independent living’
CL‘s must-do list for the week
The Hush Sound, Los Lobos, O.J. Simpson
Music
Overrated Sacred Cows
Party in the park
HOLIDAY
Soul spinner
The enduring appeal of Jazzy Big Daddy’s radio R&B
The Culture At Large
Overrated Sacred Cows
CL‘s picks for the week’s best shows
Sean Lennon, bluegrass festival, Ska Brawl Tour
Join the club
The pros and cons of having wine shipped to your door
Early deadlines
Dancing penguins and the PS3
Deck your halls and walls
ART/HOLIDAY
Trees for UPARC
Festival of Trees
Folk of the Philippines
DANCE
Peaceful teachings
LECTURE
Suspicious minds
Conspiracies, murderous intents and cryptic dialogue drive this tautly written new play
Capsule reviews of recently released movies
For Your Consideration, Tenacious D
Backspin
The Velvet Underground
Serenity now
Chase away the stress of Thanksgiving with soothing sushi
The Wine List
Events around the city
Trading crack for caffeine in St. Pete
Staying sober at the Lionheart Café
Film/TV
Overrated Sacred Cows
Spins
My Chemical Romance, J.J. Cale & Eric Clapton, more
Overrated
Over-praised, over-hyped and just plain over: CL’s Top 40 sacred cows.
Concerts
Papa Grows Funk, 3 Powerman 5000, Circle Jerks
Arts/Literature
Overrated Sacred Cows
Murder by numbers
From 23 to 987
The Blotter
Bizarre crimes from Tampa police files
The replacements
Learning the lessons of motherhood
DVDs for the new dark ages
Two gems cast a welcome light across cinema’s bleak landscape






