Joe Guidry is the deputy editorial page editor of The Tampa Tribune. He is a Tampa native and a graduate of the University of South Florida. He is married and has an adult son.

Jeff Stidham

Jeff Stidham grew up and lives in Bartow. He has been with the Tribune for nearly 22 years, the last 10 on the editorial board.

William Yelverton

William Yelverton is a Tribune editorial writer who has worked for the paper nearly 22 years. He lives in the Dade City area.

Jim Beamguard

Jim Beamguard is a Tribune editorial writer. He is a native of North Carolina and a graduate of Davidson College. He and his family live in Brandon.

Jackie Papandrew:

Jackie Papandrew is a freelance writer and editor. Her syndicated humor column appears in publications in the United States, Canada and India. She lives in Largo with her husband and children. Visit her website at www.jackiepapandrew.com.

Camille Beredjick

Camille Beredjick is a senior at Chamberlain High School, an avid musician and a scribbler with a quirky sense of humor. In the fall, she will be attending Northwestern University to study journalism, political science and music, and she plans to pursue a career in journalism.

Jim Harnish

Jim Harnish is in his 17th year as Senior Pastor at Hyde Park United Methodist Church in Tampa. He and his wife, Marsha, have two daughters and two grandchildren. He is a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary and received the honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Bethune-Cookman University. He is the author of six books and numerous articles and studies. He enjoys playing with his grandchildren and cheering for the Florida Gators.

Angela Hunt

Angela Hunt is a novelist living in Pinellas County with her husband and two 220-pound mastiffs.

Sheryl Young

Sheryl Young was a Tampa Tribune Community Columnist in 2005-2006. A freelance writer since 1997, including the Tampa Bay Business Journal, Tampa Style Magazines, St. Pete Times and nationally in Better Nutrition, Today’s Christian Woman and more. She’s received a First Place Amy Foundation national "Roaring Lambs" Writing Award, and has lived in Tampa Bay with her family for over 20 years.

Christie Gold

Christie Gold teaches English and journalism at Freedom High School in Tampa where she advises Revolution, the school newspaper. She has been both the Hillsborough County Teacher of the Year and Florida Journalism Teacher of the Year. She lives on a small farm in Wesley Chapel where she trains as a competitive equestrian.

Natalie D. Preston

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Gary Beemer

Interests include humor, politics, economics, community and world affairs, finance, people, religion, music, sports, current events, the arts and education.

Nicole Yunger Halpern

Nicole Yunger Halpern is an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, where she studies everything she can get her nerdy little hands on. Desired major: life. No, not necessarily biology. Life.

Kris DiGiovanni

Kris DiGiovanni is a Tribune Community Columnist, Huffington Post contributor, Daily Kos diarist, and teacher, who recently moved from NW Hillsborough to another planet - a small beach community in Pinellas County. She also blogs at www.sandscript.wordpress.com

H. David Braswell Jr.

H. David Braswell Jr. is an Information Systems Professional. He is a native New Yorker and a lifelong NY Giants fan. He attended college in California (Cal State Northridge) and moved to Tampa in 1998.

Sean Marcus

Sean Marcus teaches creative writing, journalism and reading at Chamberlain High School. He has one son and is expecting a daughter in early March. He can be reached at wuizabug@gmail.com

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A Home Away from Home at Home

Posted Aug 27, 2009 by Nicole Yunger Halpern

Updated Aug 27, 2009 at 07:53 AM

I didn’t used to think of Washington, DC as foreign. After all, how much more non-foreign can one get than the capital of one’s native land? And this capital, true to its capitalistic heritage, milks every cent it can from us natives by marketing enough red-white-and-blue merchandise to convince us that someone tattooed Old Glory onto our eyeballs when we weren’t looking.

Which is why, when I heard that I have an embassy in DC, I figured the tattoo artist had tampered with not only my eyeballs, but also my eardrums.

Not so! My fellow Floridians, we share a paradox par excellence, a home away from home yet also at home: the phenomenal Florida House.

Despite suspicions about my eyes and ears, I had no fear of anyone fiddling with my feet, so I hiked to number one Second Street, NE. A hop, a skip, and a jump from the Capitol and Supreme Court, I discovered a cool white building with a long green awning that smacked of the Floridian instinct to seek shelter from the sun. I hopped, skipped, and jumped up the steps…rang the doorbell…and fell in love.

The interior struck me as clean, cheerful, dare I say…sunny. Artwork covered the walls, including paintings by the Florida Highwaymen and one of Eatonville author Zora Neale Hurston. Below the paintings, couches and chairs clustered around newspaper-laden coffee tables. One table sported a photo of Governor Charlie Crist, the way mantels do photos of favorite uncles.

I think you get the picture.

In that case, enough with descriptions, and on to the top four reasons why the Florida House deserves my undying devotion!

1) Its staff members are ridiculously friendly. The two bubbly interns bombarded me with brochures, maps, and advice, and they seemed willing to bend over so far backwards to provide more assistance that they’d have ended right-side-up again if I’d let them. Then after wading through the brochures, we had a heart-warming conversation. That is, a conversation about how much we wished the weather were warmer. Which heartened me with the reassurance that I wasn’t the only person within a fifty-mile radius still wearing a winter coat in April.

2) Those ridiculously friendly staff members gave me free orange juice. In the heart of the capital of capitalism. Three cheers for Southern hospitality!

3) No other US state has an embassy in DC. Granted, this fact made me flinch at first: How can Floridians feel even more out-of-place in the US capital than secessionist South Carolinians? Then the answer occurred to me: We’re just that cool. Er, aside from having sweltering summers.

4) Florida taxpayers don’t fund their House. Or rather, they don’t unless they choose to, since the House relies on private donors. Who, upon visiting, probably ratchet up the House’s friendliness level beyond “ridiculous” and out the other side.

What purpose does the Florida House serve? In addition to rehabilitating tourists, it educates schoolchildren, provides internship opportunities, and offers bushels more services that you can read about here. (In fact, while you have a web browser open, why don’t you take a virtual tour of the House by clicking here, too? Then click here next. Then here. Do you even care what you’re clicking anymore?) More importantly, though, the embassy offers a taste of home for Sunshine State citizens.

Because while you can buy American apple pie at any DC dive, some days demand Florida orange juice.

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