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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

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Apocalypse at Starbucks

Posted Oct 25, 2011 by Nicole Yunger Halpern

Updated Oct 26, 2011 at 11:33 AM

After paying at a Starbucks last week, I pulled a book from my shoulder bag. Smoothies take a long time to prepare, and I don’t have enough tech-savvy to own an e-reader. Not only did I start reading—not only did I start reading a wad of paper—but I’d borrowed the wad from a library. The 1984 book explained mid-20th-century economic policy. Hand me a Sony Walkman, and I’d have looked as though I’d stepped out of the Stone Age.

Within a minute, I’d buried myself in Greece’s post-World War II economic collapse. (Perhaps, despite the Walkman’s decline, times haven’t changed much.) As the U.S. decided to bail out Greece, a family joined me in front of the counter. The family contained a boy and a girl—both between four and six years old—a mother, and a father. The boy stuck an index finger in my direction.

“What’s she doing?” he demanded.

If I hadn’t heard him, I wouldn’t have believed a child would ask such a question. His inability to recognize that I was reading a book seemed too stereotypical to exist.

Publishers gripe about waning respect for books; politicians haggle about fixes for our educational system; bibliophiles bemoan the Kindle’s replacement of hardcovers. Evidence, they would have called this boy. His response offers evidence that literary Armageddon is approaching. Batten down your hatches, readers! Line your libraries with sandbags, and stock up on Faulkner!

“She’s reading,” the boy’s father answered. “And it’s rude to point.”

Young people don’t only fail to recognize books; they also have no manners! An earthquake rumbled beneath the foundations of Western civilization. Culture would collapse around my ears in seconds.

Then the boy pointed at his father. “What are you doing?” he demanded.

“We’re all waiting for our Starbucks,” the father replied.

Civilization survived World War II; it’ll survive six-year-olds who enjoy listening to themselves even when they have nothing to say. Civilization might even survive Greece’s latest economic collapse. I worry less about six-year-olds than about adults who insist that the sky is falling.

Yes, I advocate the cracking open (or powering on) of more books. Yes, I advocate the cracking open of Emily Post’s Etiquette. But perhaps the Four Riders shouldn’t gallop into our daydreams yet. Perhaps the harbingers of cultural doom are working themselves up more than necessary—or the Starbucks coffees that contain enough caffeine to jump-start Frankenstein’s heart work them up more than necessary.

The next time you encounter a letter-to-the-editor screeching about technology and youth destroying civilization, remember the last time a friend texted you a smile. Recall the last time a teenager held open a door for you. Order an herbal tea from Starbucks, or blend yourself a smoothie. Those go well with books.