The headlines in our two dailies were notably different. The Times story ran on the front page, proclaiming “No Child’ school policy is history.” The Tribune put it on page 16, and the boring headline was “Education law revision easily clears the House.” The point, though, could be lost in either one: in December, when few people are paying attention, Congress repealed the Bush administration’s educational experiment of “No Child Left Behind.” Like much Republican philosophy, it was a good slogan with pitifully little thought. The politicians who adopted it have repented, but not so openly that you would know.  Read More 

I’m writing this on December 7, Pearl Harbor Day. Arguably I should have written it last week, prior to the anniversary, but the Miami Book Fair was a more timely topic last time. And the past never is past, so it’s okay to get to it late.  Read More 

he Miami International Book Fair always is the weekend prior to Thanksgiving, and this year was its 32nd anniversary. I was very happy to be invited, as it truly is international with relatively few Florida authors. They treated us like royalty, too, with transportation provided between the Biscayne Boulevard Hilton where they put us up and the Wolfson Campus of Miami-Dade College about a mile away. There were hospitality rooms in the hotel and on campus, which made it possible to talk with many colleagues.  Read More 

I drive most of Kennedy Boulevard, the “main street” of our town, approximately once a week. The one that is named “Main Street” is about a half-mile north, in West Tampa, and just north of I-275. It is no longer “main” to anything, and West Tampa is no longer the separate municipality it was when the street was named. The most constant thing about Tampa is change, and what now is Kennedy used to be LaFayette. It’s interesting, too, that we always call it “Kennedy Boulevard,” not John Fitzgerald Kennedy -- although we say the full name of Martin Luther King, not “King Boulevard.”  Read More 

I went over to Lakeland recently for another of the excellent history lectures at Florida Southern College. This one celebrated a book by my friend Mike Denham -- on which he’s labored for 23 years. He’s published three others while working on this close-to-his-heart baby, which required spending summer research time in Kentucky, Texas, and Tarrytown, New York. It is a biography of William DuVal – whose name was spelled that way, not as in modern Duval County. I’m looking forward to reading it and shall tell you more about it later.  Read More 

Just a couple of weeks after they brought down their own Speaker of the House, the rightwing Republicans who targeted Planned Parenthood seem to have forgotten that cause. When the end-of-October budget deadline neared, these hypocrites put a finger to the wind and acknowledged that voters – especially the businessmen they revere -- care more about continuity in government than about encouraging that government to interfere with a private organization dedicated to women’s most private decisions.  Read More 

Baby teeth. That’s what has been on my mind lately.


A kitten took up residence on our deck a couple of weeks ago and refused to go away, despite the lack of welcome by last year’s new resident, Valeria. I think there must be an invisible sign in our driveway that says “suckers live here,” and cats can read this and welcome themselves. We also were blessed with an older and pregnant cat last year. We named her Luella for my last living aunt; Valeria was named for an aunt-by-marriage. We managed to give all five of Luella’s kittens to good homes, but she was a disruptive presence compared with this fall’s arrival. He’s a joyous little boy, and we’ve decided to call him Eddie in honor of Hubby’s last uncle.  Read More 

We are nearing the end of 2015, which means the end of the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. Combat ended in the spring of 1865, with dates that vary from April to June, but the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery was not ratified until December, and so the 150th should go on to include that. Military histories almost always end with the last battles, ignoring the fact that social and political history does not end when armies call it quits.  Read More 

I spoke recently at Ocala’s main library and was so pleased with it! It seems that a new supermarket had gotten zoning near Marion County’s Veterans Memorial Park and then almost immediately went bankrupt. The county commission bought the big empty building and moved their antiquated downtown library, which offered little parking, to this relaxing space about a mile away. The result is just joyous.  Read More 

Last week I said that Hubby had pneumonia and was in intensive care in Tampa’s VA hospital, adding that this week I would write about that experience. Let me say at the beginning that the actual health care professionals – doctors, nurses, pulmonary specialists, etc. were great, but the administrators who create the policies and procedures under which they work could use a few clues.  Read More