Things are looking up. I’ve come to this conclusion despite a greater lack of enthusiasm for the 2014 gubernatorial election than in any in my life. But optimism nonetheless is a reasonable conclusion because Charlie Crist demonstrates that people can evolve. Even someone once known as “Chain Gang Charlie” can grow intellectually and expand his ideology to include the depths of understanding that are necessary to deal with complex issues, including those of crime.  Read More 

I’m being nibbled to death by ducks. Or at least that’s the feeling. Actually, I’m being nibbled to death by the devils haunting the details. If you read this column regularly, you know that I recently returned from Eastern Europe. I still have laundry to do from that trip, but I’ve procrastinated on it while focusing instead on my next book, which was waiting here for copyediting when we got home. It is a history of Florida women and will be published by the University Press of Florida.  Read More 

On the plane to Warsaw, I sat next to a young woman who was leaving Marietta, Georgia for her hometown in the former Soviet republic of Georgia (which they pronounce so differently than I could not begin to comprehend). There is a Georgia-to-Georgia exchange, she said, but her scholarship had run out. She was near tears as she told me this, and very unsure about her future. I gave her my card, but I’ve not heard from her and probably never will.  Read More 

I was driving down I-75 on my way to play bridge when NPR ran another of its unexpectedly relevant reports. As you may know, hubby and I just returned from Eastern Europe, where I spoke at a conference in Poland that was near the Russian border. We visited four nations on the Baltic Sea and read guidebooks for all of them and more – and nowhere did we see or hear of any evidence of the radio’s exciting news: It turns out that we have the beginnings of a bike trail that follows the border of the former Iron Curtain. I’m too old to bike it, but maybe they’ll let us take an electric scooter. I want to go.  Read More 

I was a child in Minnesota during the 1950s, when US Senator Joe McCarthy of neighboring Wisconsin terrorized intellectuals with his accusations that many Americans – especially authors, actors, and diplomats – were communists. I didn’t know what a communist was, but I heard the radio news and was certain that the Soviet communist threat was real and that they soon would march down the street in our town of Jasper.  Read More 

Hubby and I are travelers, not tourists. We don’t play well with others in terms of wake-up calls, getting on a bus, and seeing predetermined sites. We’d rather do things the hard way to keep our independence, even if it results in some discomfort -- which usually happens.  Read More 

Hubby and I are extremely fortunate to have met Larry Bracken when the three of us were young back in Arkansas. He moved to Florida before we did, to do PR for what then was Pensacola Junior College. Decades later, Larry retired as the dean of higher education lobbyists in Tallahassee. He started a free electronic news service for friends who had mutual interests soon after the internet began, and I’ve gotten those news links every day since -- including weekends and holidays and come hell or high water. Literally.  Read More 

Last week I said that I would continue with the speeches at two more year-end luncheons. Here goes.  Read More 

May is the month for end-of-the-year luncheons, and they have been coming fast and furious. Because many Floridians head north in the summer, civic clubs want a last shot at members and guests. Some guarantee good attendance in May by giving annual awards.  Read More 

Republicans recently had an election down in Congressional District 19, the House seat that centers in affluent Naples – a special election that was necessary to replace the young man they chose at the very last election. This may seem a little remote, but I think it makes a good topic for “In Context” because it is important to put elections in the context of their voters. Elections are how we make decisions in a democracy. We also have an obligation to look at what voters in neighboring districts are doing because Florida’s congressional delegation makes decisions for all of us, and indeed for the entire world.  Read More