The site for ranting and reporting by John Masters
Sometimes I just stumble across fun little facts and/or tidbits. When that happens, they will wind up duly noted in this category.
As is appropriate, a lot is being made of the 50th anniversary of the man’s first landing on the moon. I was just 10-year-old tyke at the time, but I have some pretty clear memories of that night and watching those grainy black and white photos of Neil Armstrong coming down that ladder and the hop down to the surface. It was an amazing time when we thought we could do anything.
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This past Saturday I went with some friends to the annual Tampa Bay Pride parade over in Ybor City. The parade was led off by a couple of Grand Masters of course, but then came all the candidates (Tampa is having municipal election runoffs) and local office holders. They kept coming and coming, and finally when the first actual float came by I looked at my watch, and it had taken nearly 25 minutes for all the pols to get by.
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The Deviled Pig opened within the past few months at 3307 S Dale Mabry Hwy, Tampa, FL 33629. I was getting good comments on a neighborhood message, and over 4.5 stars on Yelp. It does turn out it didn’t rate quite that high once Yelp realized that there were a sizeable number of recently created accounts that one review giving the location 5 stars (guess who that restaurant was). However, once that was cleaned out, it still had decent reviews, so we decided to try it last night (Friday) early.
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Well here’s some sad nostalgic news. Dorcas Reilly, the woman who invented one of my favorite dishes, the Green Bean Casserole, died on October 15.
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According to report in USAToday, “Employees at the Ke Kai Ola Marine Mammal Center in Hawaii were receiving mysterious calls last week. Only it wasn’t a glitch with their phone system. It was caused by a gecko.” Claire Simeone, director of the Marine Mammal Center’s Ke Kai Ola Hawaiian Monk Seal Hospital in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, was just sitting down for lunch when a call came in to her cell from the hospital, but there was only silence.
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Florida headquartered Publix Super Markets, has contributed nearly $670k to Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Putnam ($250K of the recently), now the Commissioner of Agriculture. The Tampa Bay Times has recently published an article calling this to the attention of everyone, and Publix’s has been in damage control ever since, issuing the typical PR-written, Lawyer-approved bullshit form letter. I’ve written my own letter in response to the form letter I’ve seen posted all over social media. Let’s see if Publix gets the message.
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One of our Deep Thoughts – “There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope.” — Bernard Williams
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Very good service, nice atmosphere, and clean restaurant. The food was good and Lay especially their “on-request” hot sauce, but it was a little pricey for what you get. We will eat there again.
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We went again to San Francisco two weekends ago for the Gay Men’s Chorus Concert, Tales of Our City, which included Armisted Maupin speaking about his adventures in San Francisco in 70s, 80s, and 90s, and his remembrances of people like Harvey Milk and other gay leaders of the time.
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Today is my birthday. I’ll admit it, I’m feeling my age more lately. It takes a little more duck tape and glue to keep me going. But today I’m thinking about a friend who died last week, and too short life he lived. It would be a good model for us all.
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This past weekend was my birthday. I love Lewis Black, and have never seen him in person, so I was excited to find that he was performing his current show, “The Rant is Due, Part Deux,” at the Straz Center here in Tampa Saturday evening, March 14. I love Lewis Black and his comedy, but was really disappointed when this show went nowhere.
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