Hughes regarded reporters as if we were a cootie-infested alien life form and we pretty much thought of him as ……]]> The Book Of Ruth 2008-06-30T19:39:00-05:00 http://www.tboblogs.com/index.php/opinion/comments/please-put-that-back-on-now/ Some years ago when I was with the Chicago Sun-Times, I wrote a travel story about the efforts on the part of some resorts in Jamaica to rebound from the devastating effects of several hurricanes.

As part of my tour of the island, I was taken to a place…]]> The Book Of Ruth 2008-06-24T20:07:00-05:00 http://www.tboblogs.com/index.php/opinion/comments/the-mean-and-sleazy-streets-of-tampa/ Not that this is information you really need to know, but it would appear - perhaps in a cost cutting move - the producers of hard-core pornography have decided to do away with such extraneous and needless time-wasting filmmaking devices like plot and dialogue.

Up on the screen at…]]> The Book Of Ruth 2008-06-20T19:37:00-05:00 http://www.tboblogs.com/index.php/opinion/comments/a-tribute-to-a-good-man/ He was the reluctant politician.

In 35 years of scribbling, covering the hustings and hanging around pols, I don’t believe I ever a met a man more ill-suited to the demands of retail politics than Bill James, a career federal and state prosecutor, who died earlier this week at…]]> The Book Of Ruth 2008-06-18T18:27:01-05:00 http://www.tboblogs.com/index.php/opinion/comments/you-cant-get-there-from-here/ It has generally been accepted that Tampa International Airport is one of the greatest airports in the world.

It is a crown jewel in this community, one of the relatively few public facilities that has ever been built where we can all pretty agree really does work - that…]]> The Book Of Ruth 2008-06-13T18:12:01-05:00 http://www.tboblogs.com/index.php/opinion/comments/torpedoeing-the-swiftboat-bloviators/ If you have an Internet account, by now you’ve probably been inundated with all manner of political propaganda from across the ideological spectrum.

Such is the nature of the hustings landscape today - a cornucopia of lies, distortions, character assassination, duplicity and misstatement’s made all the more cancerous by…]]> The Book Of Ruth 2008-06-12T16:26:00-05:00 http://www.tboblogs.com/index.php/opinion/comments/thous-shalt-not-profiteer/ What’s next? A Scourging At the Pillar paperweight?

It was probably only a matter of time, especially after the success of those What Would Jesus Do? rubber band bracelets twhich were all the rage and probably still are among the Bible Thumper set that wearing one’s faith on one’s…]]> The Book Of Ruth 2008-06-11T18:54:00-05:00 http://www.tboblogs.com/index.php/opinion/comments/history-we-hardly-knew-ye/ It was 40 years ago today that I awoke, like millions of Americans in the eastern half of the United States, to learn New York Sen. Robert Kennedy had been assassinated following his victory in the California presidential primary.

Hard though it maybe for so many younger readers to…]]> The Book Of Ruth 2008-06-05T19:58:01-05:00 http://www.tboblogs.com/index.php/opinion/comments/a-gaping-hole-in-the-obit/ Among the many accolade’s taking note of the passing of actor/director Mel Ferrer, while they all mention his marriage to Audry Hepburn, none pay due homage to his appearance in what is unarguably, indisputably, without a doubt one of the worst movies ever made - “The Norseman,” which was shot right…]]> The Book Of Ruth 2008-06-04T18:29:00-05:00 http://www.tboblogs.com/index.php/opinion/comments/fast-food-mccarthyism-oh-dear/ This is what happens when a gutless corporation runs head long into a feckless, dim-wit with a syndication deal.

What should we call this insanity? Fast food McCarthyism?

A few days ago an American corporation, Dunkin’ Donuts pulled an advertising campaign featuring food goddess, Rachel Ray, simply…]]> The Book Of Ruth 2008-05-30T17:11:00-05:00