The site for ranting and reporting by John Masters
This category is used of the post has some direct relationship to Tampa.
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
I don’t know if some people just don’t think, or feel entitled in some extreme sort of royalty-like way. I recently came across a Facebook Group for people who are complaining about the sound of airplanes landing at Tampa International Airport, despite having bought homes they knew to be right under the primary approach path. Go figure.
Read more
There are three candidates for this at-large seat on the County Commission. In keeping with my commitment to talk to people running in local elections, I’ve talked to Kimberly Overman and Todd Marks. I’m endorsing Kimberly Overman.
Read more
Right this minute, at 5:15 PM we’re getting a pretty good downpour that started about 10 minutes ago. According to
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
I suppose it will come as no surprise to anyone that these two will wind up with multiple DBoTD awards. Along with a number of other fundamentalist nut-jobs, these two are blaming Irma and 9/11 on LGBT people.
Read more
A recent experience caused me to gain some insight into the process the local transit authority, HART (Hillsborough County, FL) for those with medical requirements needing their door-to-door services. It is, as it turns out, way more complex than it should be, and likely makes flat impractical from some people who need the service on a shorter-term basis to be able to use it.
Read more
This one is interesting I know, but they are all three of the same situation…if it really is three. Let me explain. Last week, Hillsborough, FL, County Commissioner and conservative firebrand, Stacy White (who I will note claims to be a Methodist), supposedly got a report of an anonymous employee who found flying the Rainbow Flag in memory and honor of the victims in Orlando created a hostile work environment for her. White was quick to call the flag a, “divisive, politically-charged symbol.”
Read more
There, I said it. Back in late August I traded in my 2005 Nissan Pathfinder for a supposedly new 2015 Rogue. I based it on test drives and comparisons with a variety of similar crossovers, and reading reviews on several auto websites, combined with the price I got it for. I was fairly pleased, but in the past two months a number of critical components have failed, and Nissan and the dealership are unconcerned and actually fairly rude about it.
Read more