I’ve got mayors on my mind. I didn’t intend to. As I drove home from speaking in Safety Harbor on the anniversary of women’s right to vote (August 26, 1920), I thought I’d probably write more on that. When I sat down at my desk, though, the smiling face of former Pittsburgh mayor Sophie Masloff grinned up from Sunday’s Times obituary section. Read More
Doris writes a weekly column for LaGaceta, the nation's only trilingual newspaper, which has pages in English, Spanish, and Italian. Begun in 1922 for Tampa's immigrant community, it continues to thrive more than a century later. Her column is titled "In Context," as it aims to put contemporary issues in the context of the past.
Things are looking up
August 18, 2014
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
Fit for a king: Florida’s hearts of palm
August 4, 2014
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