To many people, it's a health food. To others, it's simply soda in disguise. That virtuous glass of juice is feeling the squeeze as doctors, scientists and public health officials step up efforts to reduce the nation's girth. ...more

November 9, 2009

Dear Hillsborough River, You're boring. Sorry, nothing personal. I actually think you're pretty neat. I like your lazy brown waters and your ability to increase property values while simultaneously threatening the destruction of any structure built within your flood plain. I love what you did with your east bank. The new landscaping looks fabulous. It has that sort of retro-'50s mangrove-forest-meets-new-wave-cypress-swamp groove going on. And your sulfur springs! Wow! They're still going strong, percolating up from the aquifer to perfume the air with the delicate aroma of rotting eggs. As far as I'm concerned, the Suwannee has nothing on you. ...more

December 7, 2008

Dad's daughter gives Hillsborough River a thumbs down after Lowry Park Zoo's tour on the waterway. ...more

December 3, 2008

The AMG badge means superior performance. No matter which Mercedes-Benz model the AMG badge is attached to, everyone knows it can accelerate, handle and stop with the highest of standard. ...more

November 15, 2008

Nearly 30 years after Richard Simmons burst onto America's pop culture consciousness, his high-energy, positive-thinking, eat-better mission shows no signs of slowing down. ...more

November 13, 2008

Ever catch a 20-pound snook? Odds are that even if you have been so lucky as to get a huge fish in recent years, you're not actually sure of how much the lunker weighed. All snook longer than 33 inches (32 inches on the east coast) must now be released, and even weighing the fish is discouraged because weighing them requires suspending them from the jaw - a no-no for successful release. ...more

June 22, 2008

WEEKI WACHEE - The photographer eyed the tail. She looked worried as I held it up to gauge … well, whatever qualities one should look for — in a fin. "That's a small tail," Julie Busch said, glancing without subtlety at the girth of my own, real tail — wider than the average mermaid. ...more

May 11, 2008

The photographer eyed the tail. She looked worried as I held it up to gauge ... well, whatever qualities one should look for - in a fin. ...more

May 11, 2008

There's nothing like fishing at night and reeling in a real live monster. ...more

May 3, 2008

TAMPA - There's nothing like fishing at night and reeling in a real live monster. That's what happened when David Humphress yanked a 10-foot-6-inch hammerhead shark out of the Gulf of Mexico. Other Side Charters boat Capt. Daniel Long measured the girth and estimated the weight of the beast at just over 500 pounds. ...more

May 2, 2008