Howdy! Welcome to William Shatner Day here in the bay. Here's your midweek round-up of stuff that happened the day before the middle of the week arrived:

Among the many amendments added to a controversial open-carry bill making its way through the Florida state legislature was an item allowing licensed lawmakers to carry weapons on their chamber floor and in legislative meetings. I for one cannot find the words to express the depth of my support for this idea, and its inherent opportunities.

Another proposed bill moving through the state process would allow a "custodian" to take over the social media accounts and other "digital assets" in the event of a person's death. In the real world, this is known as "giving somebody your password."

Interesting: The Tampa Bay Times announced it has signed a five-year contract to print the Tampa Tribune and its "affiliated publications." I think we can go ahead and file that under "Ending Well, Things That Will Be Totally (Not Really)."

And finally, the Tampa man who has long claimed to be the illegitimate son of William Shatner will be attending The Shat's one-man show at The Mahaffey tonight, and hopes they can hang. Hey, given a choice between hanging with a guy who says he's his bastard and doing a meet-and-greet with a dozen grown men who want to know how many tribbles there were on the set or how they came up with that tricorder sound, The Shat just might opt for the former….

This article appears in Jan 28 – Feb 3, 2016.