Last Day of the Month

Which means television sweeps starts tomorrow.  Sweeps, if you don’t know, is when television stations try to pump up their audience numbers so that they can charge more for advertising.  How do they do that?  Quite simple.  Sensationalism.  Try to find the cheesiest, most lurid, and outlandish stories and hype the crap out of them.  [...]

Sailboats Part II

Staring at a blank page with very little to write.  I guess it’s time to pull out Part II of my Sailboats Series.  This one is a little odd.
I can’t find a picture of a mid ’60’s Irwin 27 anywhere on the web.  This is as close as I can come, and it’s a very [...]

Stealth Boat and Summer Travel Roulette

I went to the marina for about an hour yesterday, to finish the radio installation.  I knew the four little tabs weren’t enough to hold the radio in the console, but I’d somehow hoped it’d be OK.  I was wrong.  It fell halfway out on the trip to Fernadina.
I tried suspending the radio chassis from [...]

Emergency TV’s and Cedar Plank Salmon

I had in interesting conversation with Andie this morning about the emergency televisions people own for use during a hurricane.
Next season, they won’t work any more.
She’d said something about getting a digital converter box for her $5.00 (that’s not a typo) little black and white TV she bought to have in her office, and that [...]

Much Ado

Had an interesting day today.  I moderated a panel for the Library Guild’s “Much Ado About Books” fundrasier.  My panel was two authors from the St. Pete Times, one retired, one still working.
Martin Dyckman wrote about a particularly tumultuous time in the Florida Supreme court.  Back in the ’70’s, there were a couple of SCOFLA [...]

More in Black and White

It’s been quiet week here in Lake Woebegone By-The-Sea.  (Again, with apologies to Garrison Keillor).  The Carrier preview was pretty much the only thing to break up the week.  Everything else was pretty much normal.  Tomorrow, I’m moderating a panel at Much Ado About Books, and Carl Hiasson is the luncheon speaker.  Then we have [...]

36 Hours Sort of In the Navy.

We had a screening of the PBS Series “Carrier” in our main studio tonight, which is going to be an outstanding show.  The film crew spent a cruise aboard the USS Nimitz, and shot some amazing footage.  The best part about it is, it’s not a total sales job for the Navy.  As is PBS [...]

$155,737

I got some exceptionally good news today.  Our on-air fundraising campaign raised $155,737.  That’s $12,000 over our goal.  Our listeners were extraordinarily generous this time around, and when ever this happens, I’m just in awe of what we’re able to accomplish.  So, if you’re a local person reading this, and you made a pledge to [...]

What’s in a Name

I’ve owned my boat since 2002.  Well, to be honest, the bank has owned it and I’ve been making payments on the boat since 2002.  August, 2002, to be precise.  And I’ve only got 6 more years on the note …
In all that time, I’ve never given the boat a name. 
I’ve been very good [...]

Another Boating Disaster

No, not me.  The only boating disaster I’m dealing with right now is $4.00/gallon gas.  But up at Fernadina Sunday … there was this.
There are a couple of ways this could have happened.  The most common is the scuppers in the self-bailing cockpit get clogged, and any rain that falls into the boat has [...]