Happy Thank God That's Over Day!
After an exhausting, contentious, expensive and occasionally tacky post-primary battle for the hearts and minds of the community, the 'Burg's mayoral race ended in a victory for incumbent Rick Kriseman. Progressives Darden Rice, Gina Driscoll and Brandi Gabbard all won their City Council races as well, reflecting what some are seeing as a somewhat surprisingly Democratic nationwide trend in yesterday's elections, given the left's traditionally low turnout numbers in non-presidential-election years. Who'd have thought race-baiting, xenophobia, divisive mudslinging, anti-LGBT sentiment, overt mainstream media bias and the odious intrusion of Big Money From Away into local politics would be such turn-offs?
SeaWorld's attendance and revenue declined again last quarter. The company blamed it on hurricanes this time, rather than people continuing to hate companies with a reputation for mistreating animals in captivity. We're gonna go with "both"'; it seems like every six-year-old we talk to these days is already a vegetarian with very strong opinions on animal rights.
And finally, former MLB all-star Roy Halladay died yesterday when his light plane crashed into the Gulf off of Pasco County. The 40-year-old Bay area resident coached youth baseball and was heavily involved in the community in myriad ways, and will be sorely missed. Our deepest condolences to his family and friends.
This article appears in Nov 2-9, 2017.