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Half-Backs Might Be Holding Back This Summer

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By STEVE OTTO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 14, 2008

We were inside a small pottery shop in the North Carolina mountains, and that's like being in a Cuban restaurant in West Tampa: They are everywhere.

The guy who owned the shop, probably in his mid-20s, came over and asked us where we were from, and we told him Tampa, which didn't get him all that excited. He was from Sarasota, and most of the people who stopped by his shop seemed to be from Florida.

In fact, there are so many Floridians in North Carolina they call them "half-backs," figuring they had originally moved to Florida from up North and were now half-way back in North Carolina.

But not in this summer of $4 gas and job layoffs everywhere. "It has been slow," he admitted. "Real slow.
Michael Lombardi of Lakeland was one of those who wondered why we left town this July. "It would have been wiser," he e-mailed, "if you stayed home with the AC and spared yourself the stress and $250 in fuel costs."

I suppose he's right. You have to wonder how long the Great American Road is going to be just that, and if it's still going to be the thing to do to pack up the kids and the dogs and hit the road in the summers to come. They're going to have to make those experimental electric cars just a tad bigger and go more than 50 miles if it's going to work.

You Want To Talk Weird?

A few of you wrote in to comment on a column on former Plant City Mayor John Dick's campaign to unseat first-time Congressman Gus Bilirakis in the District 9 race.

Robert Pollard, taking aim at my comments on the gerrymandering of District 9, wrote, in part: "Thanks for the beat down on Republican Gus Bilirakis in District 9. Since you started talking about weird districts, it is only proper to mention Corrine Brown's 3rd Congressional District in Jacksonville, and it goes where? The length of the St. Johns River, ending in Pine Hills, only about 130 miles end to end.

"Kinda funny-looking; funny like Rep. Alcee Hasting's 23rd District in South Florida. Now there's a Democrat of note: the only federal judge impeached from his judgeship, serving in Congress (I know, don't bother you with facts; we're talking about a federal election). I wonder how these fine Democrats would do in a less weird district?

"Yeah, let's hope a solid Baptist Democrat like John Dicks gets a chance to go to Washington, like Kathy Castor did, and sell out the local economy by trying to raise taxes on the cigar industry in Ybor City by more than 1,200 percent.

"That Democratic plan failed, but not for lack of effort on Ms. Castor's part. Besides, it was for the children. Tax those nasty cigars and spend the money increasing the income cutoff of the SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Plan) from poverty level to three times poverty level, or more than ($60,000) family income."

Early Green

In other Ottographs from you, long-time lawyer Dallas Albritton noted a piece on the late Judge Harry Ryder's July Fourth celebrations.

"You will recall," writes Albritton, "Judge Ryder frequently spoke about environmental matters, especially the Everglades. He was ahead of his time, and I'm not sure the word 'environmentalist' had even been invented."

Finally, Candace Howard noted in our July 6 paper the headline, "Staring Into The Face Of Foreclosure."

"What was ironic," she writes, "is that in order to see the headline, you had to peel off an advertising sticker. It read: 'Foreclosure Home Auction.'"

Keyword: Otto Graphs, to read and comment on Steve Otto's blog.

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