Not a very catchy headline is it? thought I might try some daily ramblings and see how it goes. They probably won’t be anything too heavy, just ramblings.
We watched the latest Presidential debate last night, this one from Philadelphia. I’ve been wondering when the candidates might get down to something substantial. It didn’t happen last night, although I can’t blame the two Democrats who were at the mercy of the ABC network’s moderators. They were more interested in the cult of personality that has become the trademark of our media and they worked it mercilessly.
- Today has been such a day of contrasts as the media focuses on that bizarre Texas cult and the coming of the Pope to the United States. It is on days like this we are reminded of our diverse and different we really are.

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So Farmer Buddy has been late or has not completely paid his property taxes for four years in a row. And this is the same Farmer Buddy who was looking for some exemptions on his property because he let someone else graze twelve cows there.
Farmer Buddy is hardly unique in Hillsborough County in being late or in working the rules to try to save a few bucks.
But Buddy Johnson is also the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections. Maybe we shouldn’t try to hold elected officials to higher standards or even as models of anything because we are so frequently disappointed . Buddy has a right to work the system as much as anyone else.
At the same time this is the same guy repsonsible for huge amounts of your tax dollars and for operating an elections department that needs to not only be efficient but squeaky clean. Historically this office has failed at both and something like this doesn’t do much to raise anybody’s confidence level in what’s going on down there. 

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Did you catch the Olympic torch todayas it made its one and only appearance in the United States in San Francisco?
With protest crowds lining the streets of the city, the torch bearer made her way off the platofrm, into a warehouse, into a motorcade and was last seen leaving the country faster than last year’s Christmas toys.
Most telling was the Chinese news agency, which reported back home that everything went just swell over in America.
It is going to be an interesting summer as China attempts to let the world in without the politics and winds of free speech that come with it..

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Now some members of the Tampa Art Museum’s board want to put up a rooftop terrace on the new art museum about to be constructed downtown on the river. The pitch is that it would act as a fund raiser for the museum, hosting weddings, bar mitzvahs and the like, providing an open air facility overlooking the minarets across the Hillsborough River. It sounds romantic, moonlight over Monet and all that ,but the more cynical out there might see it as just a venue for the artsy fartsy set that most of us would never see.
I say build it but, except for a designated number of occasions, open it up, put in a few potted palms and call it a public park.

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These days Wright Gres is a tugboat captain living on a bluff over the Altamaha River in southeastern Georgia. But he is a Tampa native, who grew up sailing and working on anything that floated around Tampa Bay.
Now Gres has written a novel, “Macedonian Passage: Dangerous Cargo.’’ It’s a good read and for a first novel a very good read. He’s back in town and will be at the Inkwood Bookstore in Hyde Park Thursday at 7 p.m. He’s a likable guy tells some great stories. 

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The bad news is that legislators are still meandering around Tallahassee. The good news is about the most important on their agenda these days seems to be the state song. After spending a few months holding an online contest to come up with a new song to replace “Old Folks At Home,’’ they have finally concluded that the winner sounds more like background music at a Disney attraction and are trying to salvage the current one.
Their solution is to keep the original with revised lyrics that replace the original words done in mock slave dialect. That’s OK by me except that some legislators apparently want to write their own, brand new lyrics. You have to figure if a legislative committee gets hold of that, they will spend the next six months trying to come with a verse that rhymes with “Seating the Florida delegation.’’

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The 10 judges were lined up on stools at the bar. Unfortunately the bar, like the Channelside restaurant where it was located, had closed its doors a few weeks back. We were using it as the secret chambers for judging this the 21st annual Steve Otto Chili Cookoff.
We were into our 20th or maybe it was the 21st sample cup and things were getting hostile. Chili is an iconic American dish. If you want a true bowl of red, you have to come to this country to get it.
The problem was, we weren’t getting it. Team after team, after sweating for hours outdoors in the Channelside courtyard, had turned in concoctions that sort of resembled chili, but tasted more like grout cleaner mixed with beans.
It had happened before in earlier contests, where the teams, maybe with too much time on their hands, saw other competitors dumping peppers and unknowns in the chili pot and figured they had to do the same. By judging time many of them were practically inedible. I think it was the 21st first cup that one of the judges suggested might make a good putty for bricks. Not only would it hold the bricks together, the aroma would kill any termites that dared come close.
Despite the pain, the judges pressed on and finally came up with a credible winner. I’ll probably give you some more on the contest in Wednesday’s column, but it did raise $13,000 for the Judeo Christian Health Clinic and that’s a good thing.

The winner

The winning team was The Krewe of Zingaro, which placed second last year. Here’s their recipe:

INGREDIENTS: 6 POUNDS LEAN BEEF, SIRLOIN TIP ROAST, CUT INTO HALF-INCH CUBES
4 POUNDS PORK TENDERLOIN , TRIMMED OF ALL FAT AND CUT INTO HALF-INCH CUBES
1 AND A HALF POUNDS PANCETTA, OR OTHER SMOKED BACON, CUT INTO STRIPS
2 LARGE VIDALIA ONIONS, CHOPPED
12 LARGE CLOVES OF GARLIC, MASHED INTO TWO TABLESPOONS OLIVE OIL , DIVIDED
6 TABLESPOONS GROUND CUMIN, DIVIDED
7 TABLESPOONS REGULAR CHILI POWDER
8 TABLESPOONS HOT CHILI POWDER
4 TABLESPPONS SMOKED PAPRIKA, DIVIDED
1 TEASPOON MEXICAN OREGANO
1 SEVEN OUNCE CAN CHIPOLTES IN ADOBE SAUCE, STEMS REMOVED, CHOPPED, SEEDED
2-3 TABLESPOONS OF MASA (OPTIONAL)
3 28-OUNCE CANS CRUSHED iTALIAN TOMATOES
16 OUNCES BEEF STOCK
1 12-OUNCE BEER, WARM
2 TABLESPOONS FLAVOR ENHANCER
4 TEASPOONS SEA SALT
1 TEASPOON CAYENNE PEPPER
OLIVE OIL


PROCESS:

Put the chopped bacon into a heavy-bottomed skillet and cook over medium high heat until the fat is rendered.
With a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon into a 15-quart heavy bottomed stock pot.
Saute the chopped Vidalia onions in the heated iron skillet with the bacon drippings until soft, about five minutes over medium high heat, then transfer the onions to the stock pot. 
Put one tablespoon of olive oil in the skillet and brown the meat in batches, alternating between the beef and pork. adding a little oil each time. When each batch is browned, add to the stock pot. When about halfway through the browning process, add half of the garlic, half of the cumin, one tablespoon smoked paprika, the regular chili powder, Mexican oregano, tomatoes, beer, beef stock, flavor enhancer, and two teaspoons of the sea salt to the stock pot and begin to cook over medium heat.
Continue to brown the remaining meat and add to the simmering pot.
Cook over medium heat, covered, stirring occasionally, to maintain a good simmer, about one and a half hours.
When the meat is tender, add the reamaining cumin and garlic, hot chili powder, remaining three tablespoons smoked paprika, the chipoltes in adobe sauce, and remaining two teaspoons of sea salt and the cayenne pepper.
If using masa, mix with some of the liquid, and re-introduce into the pot. Continue cooking for at least thity minutes to combine spices.
Invite the fire department over and eat.

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Now there is a study to see if teachers are having more sex with their students than in the past. This come after 10 Hillsborough County teachers in less than three years have been charged.
Last night I asked my third-grade teacher wife if there was something to this sex thing. She looked at me and said she had a headache and rolled over.

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Curtis Wienker wrote in to comment on last week’s column that mentioned the excativions in downtown Tampa and the “lack of proof’’ about whose bones we found.
Wienker is actually Dr. Curtis Wienker, Emeritus Profesor of Anthropology and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of South Florida. The man know his bones.
“I contact you regarding your column of today (3/17/08). You wrote that there was “never really any proof’ that the bones found at the site of the Fort Brooke Parking Garage were from American Indians. I am the physical anthropologist that studied the remains of more than 100 of the graves that were excavated during the project, which was under the direction of then Piper and Piper, a private archaeology firm. I studied them ‘blind’, in the absence of any archaeological information aside from whatever artifacts might have been included with the remains that were brought to the physical anthropology laboratory at USF , oh so many years ago. Then, near the end of the project, I was given a description of the cultural artifacts found in each grave.
“It was one of the more interesting projects I have been involved with since first coming to USF in 1972. Indeed, you are almost certainly correct that some of the remains probably were derived from early settlers of the village of Tampa. The site dates approximately to the time of the Second Seminole War, roughly 1824-1848. Historical records suggest that the cemetery (all interments appear to have been in wooden coffins) contained the remains of Seminoles, settlers, US military personnel, and American Indian scouts associated with Fort Brooke. 
“That some of the remains were American Indian is virtually incontestable. Some had dental characteristics definitive of American Indians and Asians and some were buried with typical Seminole artifacts. While not proof, the scientific evidence is incontrovertible, in my professional experience and opinion.
“My final report, and the comprehensive project report of Harry M. Piper and his wife Jacqueline are in the USF Library. It is almost certain that there are more graves in land immediately adjacent to the area that was excavated.
Sincerely,
Curtis W. Wienker, Ph.D.

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There was a memorial service today in Sun City Center for Merrill Pratt Thomas, who died last week and who was the subject of a column last Sunday. A lot of of are tourists on this planet. We pass through life like we’re on one of those tour buses, never getting out to meet the people. Merrill, who died at the age of 100, having led a life that took her from rural Mississippi to Shanghai and Manhattan, was one of those who got off the bus and got to know the local surroundings.
Merrill was full of life practically to the end. It was only last year we went out for a rich Indonesian meal full of spices. She was involved with the Community Foundation and a generous donor.
At the memorial service her close friend Sister Rosalie Hennessey mentioned that at the age of 97, she had come to the nun and asked her to read a two page mission statement. “At the age of 97 Merrill decided she needed a plan and so wrote what had to be the only mision statement ever done by a 97 year old,’’ said Hennessey.
The last line of Merrill’s stement reads, “My mission now at age 97 is to be as kind and loving as I can be. and try not to be miserable around the people who love me.’’
Sounds like a mission statement we could all use, and not wait until we’re 97 to start trying.

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Another day, another couple of Cubans have slipped out of Tampa hotel rooms and gone looking for a piece of the American Dream.
For a lot of us that dream seems to be a little more difficult these days and if you watch enough news, things look almost bleaak .
So at the very least you can thank a handful (so far) of Cuban soccer players for reminding us of the things that are important and that if you want to pursue your own dreams, then you are in the right place to do just that.

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Unless you spend anytime meandering around halls of the Haley Veterans Hospital you might forget we are currently fighting wars in two countries. The Bayshore Patriots, that group of people who have steadfastly stood on the Bayshore at Bay to Bay Blvd. every Friday for years, have not. This Friday they will again be out there from 4:30 p.m. to 6, joined this time by members of the 64-nationacoalition stationed at MacDill. You are invited to bring a flag and join them or just drive by and be reminded of the global conflict that continues every day.

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Most of you probably already have your weekend plans set. But if you do not it might still be possible to catch a flight to Hinckley, Ohio in time for Sunday’s great Buzzard Day event. As they have since 1957, the people of Hinckley will be holding a pancake breakfast along with dozens of other events to celebrate the return of the buzzards to Hinckley.
The thing about it is, those are our buzzards.
Those same turkey vultures who spread out over Tampa’s skyscrapers in the winter have left for Ohio and won’t return until November. We’re missing a bet here and if the chamber was worth its salt would put together a “Welcome the Buzzards back to Tampa’’ day sometimi next November. My buddy Bob Bishop has been trying to drum up interest for years but there is a lack of imagination around here that doesn’t recognize how the buzzards could put us on the same map as Hinckley. Somebody needs to call the mayor; tell her this could be bigger than the Super Bowl.

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Our youngest son made it back from FSU on spring break in time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of McDonalds in Tampa. He and his FSU buddy Tony spent the morning in line Saturday at the South Dale Mabry McDonalds where they were selling burgers and fries at 1958 prices. Apparently the rest of Tampa had the same idea and despite red cones and cops directing traffic, the line went on forever. The idea of 15-cent cheeseburgers and 10-cent fries cancelled out the crisis crisis as cars idled away. Despite the 10-burger limits it was enough to keep the boys away from the fridge until dinner. 

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I’ve heard all the reasons, from how it’s good for the economy to it saves on fuel oil.  All I know is by turning the clocks ahead one hour, I’ll be tired until we get that hour back in November. The only positive is I haven’t figured out how to reset the clock in my car so it is still on daylight savings from last year. Mayybe I won’t be late for the next eight months.

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