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Just Wait, If You Think This Week Was Super

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By STEVE OTTO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 6, 2008

Don't know about you, but it's only Wednesday and I'm about supered out. This was one of those strange, harmonic convergence weeks when two "supers" collided, not an easy thing for mere mortals to deal with.

Not only was there that most super-inflated event of our time, the Super Bowl, but the almost equally overblown event known as Super Tuesday rolled in two days later.

"Super" is definitely not what it used to be back in the days when Superman was faster than a speeding bullet.

These days, being super is pretty much only a starter. I mean, if you "supersize" your fries, all you're getting is a few more fries.

You can't even have your own music tour unless you are, at the very least, a superstar. Stars are out; superstars are the standard. The truth is, super is no more special than anything you could buy at the supermarket.

We Started These Things

The good news is we won't have to go through another Super Tuesday next year. Did you know the first presidential primary was held in Florida in 1904? I don't recall who won, but it has come down to this year where it's entirely possible the Florida Democrats won't even have their delegates seated and the Republicans will only get half of theirs. That's what you get for wanting to be a part of the nominating process.

But hold on to your Doritos. If you think this was a super week, then wait until next year when the Super Bowl comes to town for the fourth time, and Tampa regains its rightful place as the center of the universe.

This also means there is a temptation from the powers that be to somehow merge the Super Bowl festivities in with a similar event, Gasparilla.

Gasparilla is another event that began in 1904, beginning an association of pirates with Tampa.

I checked with the Tampa convention and visitors people and they told me that right now the plans are to have the Children's Gasparilla parade one weekend; Super Bowl the next weekend and the Gasparilla invasion and parade the following weekend. Two weeks after that there will be the night parade. Then there will be the Florida State Fair, the Plant City Strawberry Festival and, of course, my chili contest.

This all happens about the same time most of us have just recovered from taking down the Christmas trees and braced ourselves for the first attack of credit card bills.

Going Super Nutty

We probably won't go as nutty as we did the first time the event came to Tampa in 1984. Of course, that's back when everyone thought they were going to make fortunes renting out bedrooms to the thousands of visitors. I remember going to a Super Bowl planning meeting at Mother Trib, where we literally divided the stadium and parking lots into quadrants, assigning reporters to every nook and cranny of the place. I recall one writer wasn't as upset about being assigned one of the men's rooms in the old Tampa Stadium as the fact he wouldn't get to see the game.

And it's likely we won't pull another Bamboleo like we did in 1991 when, to appease the NFL and deal with an all-white Ye Mystic Krewe that refused to bend its rules, the city came up with an alternative parade that struggled through a driving rain to almost no spectators.

Super Bowl XLIII should still be super week - a super week I'm beginning to suspect is going to run about nine months long.

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