Pelican Press Stan “the Man” Zimmerman Ousted by Observer Group

As most of you know, the Observer Group (of the Sarasota, Longboat, East County Observers) purchased the much-loved island-and-beyond Pelican Press newspaper a couple of weeks back. Word on the street was that axes would soon be swinging … and at least one has already swung.

Highly respected and gazillion-award-winning shoe-leather newspaperman Stan Zimmerman was let go by the Observer Group on Thursday of last week.

Zimmerman had just nabbed a 2010 second-place award from the Florida Press Association for his investigative reporting on the FBI’s investigation into former Sarasota County School District employees involved in the purchase of classroom ActivBoards. He collaborated on that piece with another former Pelican reporter William Mansell.

Zimmerman holds an MA in Journalism and Public Affairs from American University, Washington, DC, and is the author of “A History of Smuggling in Florida;” The History Press, 2006. The guy is widely known and respected for his straight reporting and pull-no-punches news-gathering. I know I’m not the only one in Sarasota who will sorely miss seeing his columns and articles in print.

But … good news: Stan let me know that he’s “moving his pen” over to SarasotaPatch.com, where I believe he’ll continue to cover Sarasota County people, government, shenanigans, places, hoopla, and news of import. In fact, I notice he’s got a story up there today — check it out by clicking this link http://sarasota.patch.com/government, and I notice you can do an RSS subscribe to his county coverage so you can count on continuing to receive his excellent reporting.

Good luck, Stan!

She’s baaaack! Reality Chick is back — in the Sarasota Herald Tribune

What a way to end a year … and start a new one!!

When the announcement came earlier this month that the Creative Loafing newspaper publication was closing up shop and the Sarasota Herald Tribune was taking over its branding rights, I smelled opportunity … opportunity to return to my roots and get back to writing in a style more akin to my old “Reality Chick” days at the Pelican Press.

I’ve enjoyed the last month or so of writing the After Hours column for the TICKET section of the H-T — heck, I finally forced myself to get out and have some fun –but my interest, and I think my strength, lies in writing observational essays — columns — about what’s going on around my town. People, places, events, the zeitgeist of our little corner of the world. Luckily for me, when I pitched the idea to the editors — they agreed!

That new column starts today — it’s called Sense and the City and it will be my weekly “reality” take on whatever’s topical or at the top of my admittedly sometimes “Sideways in Sarasota” perspective.

In this week’s column I touch on Sarasota Mayor Kelly Kirschner, Heidi Godman, the Second Line street gang, and Sarasota’s semi-obsession with dirty dancers. I hope you’ll check it out at Sense and the City.

This is all actually a huge deal for me personally. I haven’t had a regular, weekly opinion column in a newspaper since May 2008 and I’m thrilled to be back writing the beat I know best.

If you like what you see in Sense and the City, don’t hesitate to let the editors know — it’s always helpful for them to know whether writers have a healthy readership or not — you can send an electronic LTE by clicking here.

Thanks for sticking with me as readers — whether I was in print or online — and I hope you enjoy this new column!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR, INDEED!

Girls gone wild — Sarasota Style

In my After Hours column in today’s TICKET section in the Sarasota Herald Tribune — I offer my opinion on what one thing you must do tonight — if you want to have fun — check out the girls (and boys) gone wild members of the Lazy Fairy Improv group —

I also dish the dirt about the mousy martinis at Hyde Park; and I take a swipe at Sarah Palin.

You can read my column on page 7E in print; or click here: MC’s Must-Scene

MC’s bar-hopping Saturday night

Yes, I’m normally curled up in my PJs, snuggled up to the remote control on Saturday nights — watching murder and mayhem on 48 Hours Mystery … but after last Saturday’s Sarasota Holiday Parade down Main Street, I ventured out for a night on the town … checking out a few bars, listening to some music, flirting my way past the bouncers … .

You can read all about it in this week’s After Hours column in yesterday’s Sarasota Herald-Tribune TICKET, page 7E, or at the newspaper’s website at Drink Dine & Dance Post-Parade.

One of the places I stopped at was Owen’s Fish Camp in Burns Court — wicked cool!

If you haven’t been, you’ve got to go! Good food, good vibe, and for all you men out there — gorgeous, female bartenders and servers!

Fall … ing … in … giddiness with this gorgeous weather

Windows wide open. (more…)

Best of the Suncoast … four years running!

I really can’t thank the readers of this blog enough for voting for me in this year’s Creative Loafing Best of the Suncoast contest! Merci Beacoup! Grazie!! Danke!!! … um, just plain … thanks a bunch!

This is the fourth year I’ve nabbed a Best of nod from CL readers/voters — in the Best Reporter, Best Columnist (grrrrr … that darn Tom Lyons … he’s the 2010 winner in that category! )and Best Blogger categories.

It’s a true honor and I appreciate every one who took the time to go online and cast a vote for my little patch of blogospheric reality.

Heat Bomb to Explode in Sarasota …MC Coolidge launches new print column!

What’s black and white and read all over? I sure HOPE it’s my new column!

After something like two and a half years — TWO AND A HALF YEARS, folks! — I’ve finally landed a regular print gig again. I can’t believe it. But here’s the proof: Heat Bomb to Explode in Sarasota (more…)

Safe sex is better than scary sex …

I’ve never been to Planned Parenthood’s annual Safe Sex Halloween Bash. (more…)

Dog Days turn to Deal Days in August Heat

Yesterday, the Sarasota Herald Tribune ran an article I wrote about all the fun, completely FREE, things to do during the dog days of summer.

It’s got everything from free “street” music to where to find a summer-ending splash bash for your kids, complete with a free dinner from Lee Roy Selmon’s, free movies, free ways to fire up your brain cells, to getting your thrills watching Nik Wallenda doing a high wire act and maybe being filmed by the Discovery Channel in the process …

including how to get free lessons in “improv” — with the Lazy Fairy Improv teaching you how to make ‘em laugh — yes, all for free.

The story was the cover story in the paper’s TICKET section. You can read it online at: Free Fun!

Free falling fireworks

I’ve been pretty lucky to see some pretty gorgeous fireworks from some pretty inspired places — at the Shell in Boston with about a million other people; gliding slowly on a bateau-mouche down the Seine during a July 4th American Embassy party in Paris; and my personal favorite was in Ashland, New Hampshire, a gazillion years ago with fireworks that I still haven’t forgotten — I think it was literally some sort of display that enacted a scene of two boats firing missiles at each other.

Last night I went to see some fireworks in Sarasota. And though they were pretty subdued … the end of the show was, as they always are, ahhhh-inspiring. (more…)