There were several friends who commented somewhat favorable about last week's column regarding our country's financial state and what I surmised was causing the problem. One fellow found an error and wrote me an e-mail on the story about a couple who could not pronounce the name of the town they were in and asked the employee of a Burger King to pronounce the name of where they were very slowly Burrrrrr, gerrrrrr, Kiiiing. ...more

April 2, 2009

The issue: Capt. Scott Bierwiler's untimely death. Our Opinion: We are blessed that he walked among us. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God" — Matthew 5:9 ...more

February 27, 2009

Janis Krums was just trying to catch the last ferry out of Manhattan so he could get to a meeting in New Jersey. ...more

January 17, 2009

Janis Krums was just trying to catch the last ferry out of Manhattan so he could get to a meeting in New Jersey. ...more

January 16, 2009

I noticed at the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Bucs game on Sunday on television that in the last few minutes of the game the camera took a side view of the Saints' coach giving directions to his quarterback and not the usual frontal view. ...more

December 4, 2008

Too many NFL coaches couldn't tell you whether the sun was shining, let alone how well their team played on any given Sunday, without looking at the videotape first. ...more

November 11, 2008

Excuse me while I say a few words on behalf of us Fake Americans. ...more

October 24, 2008

Nicolas Cage didn't wind up in Bangkok by accident. As the Oscar-winning actor explains it, there were reasons both personal and professional that compelled him to change gears after the mega-dollar success of the family-friendly action-adventure "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" and travel across the globe in pursuit of a new career iteration. ...more

September 7, 2008

It was just the sort of party Bette Lou Corcoran would have loved. Glasses tinkling, voices buzzing, the occasional eruption of laughter. Although weather forecasters delivered ominous warnings about a possible hurricane named Fay, the panoramic sunset view of Tampa Bay from the 38th-floor University Club was positively sublime. ...more

August 24, 2008

If there was ever a pop performer who could reasonably be expected to improve with age, it's Randy Newman. Newman's first albums may have been released during the Age of Aquarius, but his songs didn't chronicle the dawn of anything. ...more

August 22, 2008