If you listened to radio's "Prairie Home Companion," you know that Garrison Keillor regularly imagined throwing guys in suits off of cliffs.  Those most likely to be pushed were managerial sorts who were unkind artistic and intellectual sorts.  Righteous wrath always triumphed, as the businessmen who branded themselves with suits and ties could be heard screaming as they fell to the rocks below.  Craig Kopp, the newish general manager of WMNF Radio, doesn't appear to be wearing a suit in his Linked-In profile picture, but his attitude seems to be the same as that of guys in suits:  he appears to believe that his managerial role gives him the right to threaten thoughtful newscasters.  Or maybe his firing of community radio hero Rob Lorei is just plain jealousy. Read More 

If BBC ever sent us a bill, Hubby and I would owe a lot.  A big majority of our TV time goes to watching things produced by the British Broadcasting Company.  We like stories set in the British Isles, of course, especially unusual places such as the series about Britain's Atlantic Ocean island of Guernsey, which was occupied by the Nazis during World War II.  Other favorites have been set in colonies in Africa, India, the Caribbean, and more places of the far-flung Empire.  BBC just does a better job than American television of delivering not only interesting settings, but also of character development and plots that make sense. Read More 

I recently had the pleasure of reading the manuscript of the next book by Floridian Robert N. Macomber. This is the 14th in his series of naval novels with very accurate historical backgrounds. All of the titles include some form of the word “honor,” and in “Honoring the Enemy,” the enemy is Spain, as the US sided with Cuban rebels against their longtime European ruler. It is the second in a planned trilogy on the Spanish-American War of 1898 – which of course hits close to home: most of the soldiers destined for warfare in Cuba departed from Port Tampa. The first of the trilogy was largely set in Ybor City, where Cuban emigres planned the revolution.  Read More 

If you read this on Friday, it will be only a few hours after our local League of Women Voters has held a program on gun violence. If you missed it, you get a chance to redeem yourself with another event on an important, if generally unnoticed issue, the national popular vote. Put it on your calendar: Wednesday, February 20, at 5:30. It’s at the Children’s Board headquarters, which is at 1002 Palm Avenue in Ybor City. And yes, plenty of safe parking is available there, and yes, men are welcome to join the League. The speaker will be a national expert, and I expect to learn something.  Read More