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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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Spring Cleaning

Posted Apr 22, 2010 by Jackie Papandrew

Updated Apr 22, 2010 at 10:43 AM

Last week, I decided to make my mother proud and embark on a vigorous program of spring cleaning, so I went to the garage for a broom and came across my long-neglected bike, which reminded me I’d been intending to exercise since sometime before the last millennium and, since there’s no time like the present, I pulled the creaky bike out to the driveway, where my eyes fell upon my very dirty automobile, so I pulled out a hose and began washing it, but this got my sneakers wet, which reminded me that I really wanted to do some serious shoe shopping, but then I remembered that I sorely needed a pedicure, only when I pulled off my socks to examine my foul feet, I realized I had no clean socks because I failed to find the time all week to do laundry, so I rushed inside to start a load, and speaking of loads, I suddenly wanted to read the newspaper to find out what kind of hooey those humble public servants in Washington are pushing, and speaking of pushing, I realized I should get back to the garage to grab that broom, but then I saw the mop right there next to it and that got me thinking about my hair, which lately has had more bad days than good, and so I thought I’d make an appointment for a haircut, but when I picked up the phone, I recalled the irate conversation I had a couple of days ago with my mother, who feels I should call her more often, and she’s undoubtedly right, but then she asked if I’d begun my spring cleaning and so, remembering this, I hung up the phone and gathered a tub full of cleaning supplies with which to attack the job at hand, but seeing the tub made me think of the word ‘tubby’ which made me think of my stomach, which reminded me that I’d left the bike in the driveway, so I rushed outside, only to notice the deplorable condition of my windows so I went in search of a squeegee and while I was looking, I started thinking about how much I like the word ‘squeegee’ and then I started thinking about how much I like words in general, and if one likes words as much as I do, one naturally loves books as well, which often leads to reading, and I really love to read and thinking about reading caused my brain to take a philosophical turn, which it has a habit of doing whenever cleaning is on the horizon, but then I was jerked back to reality with the realization that I’ve never actually owned a squeegee and therefore could not properly clean my windows, and I’m pretty sure that it was Plato who said that if one cannot correctly clean one’s own windows, any other kind of cleaning is not morally justifiable, which is why I decided to lie down for the day and put off cleaning until next spring.

Sorry, Mom.

http://www.jackiepapandrew.com

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