Welcome to Thinking Out Loud, a blog that contains postings from The Tampa Tribune’s Editorial Board and from various Tribune Community Columnists. Unlike the unsigned editorials that represent the newspaper’s institutional voice, the blog postings offer personal perspectives on the issues, personalities and events of Tampa Bay.
We invite you to participate by posting your comments. We’ll do our best to respond.
Contributors:
Joe Guidry
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
Natalie D. Preston is a karaoke singing, only-child pouting, Seminole Tomahawk waving, newlywed bride blushing, 50-state traveling, girlie girl who loves to shop, read, run and jump up and down on her soapbox.
Fernando Figueroa
Fernando Figueroa is a researcher, educator and lives in Riverview.
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
One of the downsides to having children is they gradually start to notice all that’s wrong with their parents. You get just a few golden years when they think you’re the best thing since sliced bread. Then, seemingly overnight, those young lips curl in distaste when you use an old-fashioned phrase like “best thing since sliced bread.” Or worse, they begin making condescending statements about your physical appearance.
Like the other day when my son suggested that I join a gym.
“It’ll do you good, Mom,” he said in the same patronizing tone he’ll probably use when he’s checking me into a nursing home. “It’ll give you some motivation.”
What I was thinking was that I was becoming highly motivated to cut him out of my will. What I said, like an idiot, was, “OK. A gym sounds like fun.”
Now you should know that I am no slouch in the fitness department. I walk my dogs daily. Occasionally, I’ll even do a pushup or situp. And I’m a devotee of the Fitness Channel, which features many highly motivating exercise shows that promise to quickly whip you into shape. My favorite is a bootcamp-style program led by a woman in stunningly good shape named Cath e. Yes, that’s ‘Cath’ and then an ‘e’ set off from the rest of the name, italicized and gussied up in a different color. This kind of confidence impresses me so I watch Cathe several times a week. Someday soon, I’m going to stop just watching and let her actually work me out.
But in the meantime, I went ahead and followed my boy’s suggestion, joining a gym that offered me a free session with a trainer named – no kidding – Jim. At our session, I made a couple of clever jokes about getting to come see Jim at the gym, but I think my trainer’s biceps are a lot bigger than his brain because he didn’t even crack a smile. Jim questioned me closely about my current activity level and seemed unimpressed by my dog-walking and Fitness Channel-watching routine. Still going for a laugh, I told him I spend a lot of time exercising my mind. He actually snorted at that. I quickly decided I didn’t much like Jim.
I did what he told me to do, though, warming up on the elliptical machine, then lifting every weight he gave me, flopping around on every beach ball, squatting and stretching, contorting and curling until Jim seemed at least somewhat satisfied.
Of course, you know what happened next. The following morning, I could barely walk. I couldn’t laugh. It even hurt to breathe. Just about the only thing I could do was sit on the couch with a big tub of Haagen Daz (and a backup bar of chocolate) and spend several hours immobilized in front of numerous Brad Pitt movies. That kind of therapy works wonders.
Eventually, though, I was able to get off the couch long enough to grab a piece of paper and start revising my will. I haven’t yet been back to the gym but maybe I will go soon. I’ll bet Jim misses me.
