If you would like to have an honest, trustworthy and expert master mechanic work on your vehicles, you cannot find any better than Tom, owner of Tech Automotive located at the end of a short driveway off U.S. 27 behind Banyan Plaza near Sparta Road. The day a friend recommended Tech Automotive to me was my lucky day. If you don't know anything about cars or trucks, Tom knows everything there is to know. If you do know a lot about them, you will enjoy talking with him while he analyzes your vehicle's problem and clearly explains to you what needs to be done. Unlike most places, he won't tell you that you must have this or that replaced if it can be fixed. His premises aren't fancy, but his prices are the lowest in the county. ...more

October 9, 2008

Tampa Housing Authority commissioner Karen Peoples responded angrily this morning to a Tampa Tribune report that she is being evicted for violating federal housing guidelines. "Whoever was responsible for this article, may God be with you when the time comes," Peoples said near the end of the authority's monthly board meeting. "This was not necessary." ...more

July 16, 2008

Dear Abby: A friend was diagnosed with cancer. A single woman living alone, she rallied a group of co-workers, friends and neighbors to donate their time to help her with a variety of tasks. These included driving her back and forth to chemo and doctor appointments, fixing meals, cleaning her house (she has OCD and was superpicky about every detail, including cleaning the cat box), sleeping over to make sure she was OK (we had only a lumpy couch because she refused to set up a bed in one of her two vacant bedrooms!) and handling a variety of other tasks. ...more

January 27, 2008

Imagine this most improbable of situations: Just under half of the people you know of, in this country, don't really care for you, or they dislike you in varying degrees and intensities, including hatred. About 10 percent of the rest of the people you know of think the sun rises and falls because of you, but most of them want something from you, which you probably can't give them, at which time they will fall into the remaining group that think you are "Okay," but they too want something from you. You have just graduated from an unheard of college with only a 2.5 GPA. You are a single woman pregnant with sextuplets, and you already know they all will be born prematurely and with special needs for life, and all their needs are different. ...more

January 11, 2008

'Room For Love,' by Andrea Meyer (St. Martin's Griffin, $14) ...more

October 7, 2007