Monday morning bragging rights
Some good news appeared about me in the media over the last couple of weeks — and I’m in the mood for a little Monday morning bragging (as opposed to quarterbacking!)
MC in today's Sarasota Herald Trib Business People section
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 …
Photography by Herb Booth Booth Studio, Inc. Sarasota Florida; courtesy of Lazy Fairy Improv
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!
Best blogger and braggin’ ’bout it!
What a great way to start a long weekend. Sarasota Magazine editor Pam Daniel let me know the wall plaque recognizing me as “Best Blogger 2010” — according to the magazine’s Readers Poll earlier this year — was ready and waiting for me to pick it up at her office.
So I swung by, said hello, and swung back out again, plaque in hand and huge smile on my face. 
Say I’m a big dork. Go ahead. But it made my day. Just something fun — and meaningful at the same time. It means a lot to me that Sarasota Magazine readers and readers of this blog voted for me in the blogging category. It means a lot that people enjoy the blog and cared enough to take the time to cast a vote.
Plus, it’s just plain fun!!!
Wishing everyone a super fabulous Fourth!
Local boys, hot babes, and fast boats — it’s Super Boat Grand Prix Time on the Suncoast!
The Sarasota Herald Tribune is running a piece I wrote on three father and son teams who are battling it out in the wave breaks off the beaches of Lido Key this weekend. 
You can read it in today’s paper — in the TICKET, page 4E — or online at Boys and Their Boats.
I don’t have photos of one of the teams featured in the piece — the Bryants — but the photos on this blog post — all courtesy of www.superboat.com‘s team information webpage — gives you a look at the boats the boys (and their dads) will be driving.
“Stand-In” Dads helped me make my life
The Sarasota Herald Tribune published one of my columns today — “Stand-In Fathers Show What Makes a “Real” Dad”
It’s on Page A18 of today’s paper, or you can read it online by clicking the hyperlinked text above.
Happy Father’s Day to all fathers — the biological ones as well as the ones who nurture young people whether they were their “real” Dads or not.
MC’s Guide to Showing Your Dad Some Love
Hey, I’m happy to report that the Sarasota Herald Tribune is running a piece I wrote on things to do for this coming Father’s Day. The story appeared in today’s paper in the TICKET section; page 6E if you’re an old-fashioned get-the-ink-on-your-hands kind of person. Click here Celebrating Dear Old Dad to read the story online.
Girls’ Night Out — Coolidge talks Camaraderie in today’s Sarasota Herald Tribune
When the working day is done, oh, girls, they wanna have fun … girls just wanna have fun.” — Cyndi Lauper
Photo courtesy of the Sarasota Herald Tribune website
I couldn’t agree more. Hell, I want to have fun even before the working day begins … .
The Sarasota Herald Tribune TICKET is running a piece I wrote about how girls can have fun in the Sarasota area — in and out of the bars. The piece is running in today’s paper, the TICKET section on page 4E — it’s the cover story, actually — whoo hoo!.
You can read the story here: From Bar Hopping to Kayaking, It’s All About Camaraderie.
If you like the story, or have any comments about additional things women can do together for an evening (or even a day) out on the town, either leave a comment on the H-T site, or come back here and comment.
Coincidentally, I’m actually going out tonight for a mini-kind-of-brief girls’ night out … just meeting up with a great girlfriend to chat over a glass of wine — however short it is, it still counts! Whoo Hoo, can’t wait for this workin’ day to be done.
Sarasota Sky Pilots Do It in the Air
When someone says they’re going to play golf, it conjures up images of lugging expensive clubs around, riding in a cart, and hitting a little white ball toward a hole in the ground on a neatly manicured green, doesn’t it?
But for many Sarasotans – men and women of all ages – “playing golf” means playing “disc golf”. And disc golf means showing up with little more than the shirt on your back, carrying a lightweight flying disc (e.g., a Frisbee®), walking an 18-hole “natural-landscape” course, then, using nothing more than a well-muscled arm, throwing that disc over hole lengths of up to 500+ feet and sinking it into a metal disc basket (called a “pole hole”) (more…)
MC Coolidge Best Blogger 2010 — Sarasota Magazine Readers’ Poll
Holy Cow! Back in early January I posted a short blog inviting readers to vote for me — if they felt like it — in Sarasota Magazine’s Annual “Best of” issue for 2010. Well, apparently, at least a few of you did just that because guess what? I won! (more…)
Frailty, thy name is Economic Development?
Does it seem like everything being done under the Sarasota sun lately is being done in the name of worshiping at the altar of “economic development”?
The ubiquitous use of the phrase bugs me nearly as much as phrases like “Vote for the children,” or “Vote for family values.” I’ve got nothing against looking after children’s best interests, or having values that support families — albeit, for me, families come in all shapes, sizes and sexual orientations. And I largely support the idea of developing a strong platform for attracting and supporting diverse businesses and industries in our community.
But just as I disdain knee-jerk, emotionally based stances on political issues, I don’t think economic issues should be approached with the same stars-in-our-eyes approach that Sarasota has used for way too long to way too little end. Sure, some people got rich off the gold-rush pursuits of the past (think real estate bubble), but many more crashed and burned (think real estate bust).
As a city we seem hell-bent on “economic development” — thrashing about wild-eyed for whatever might get us back into our McMansion/Nadel dreamscape of yesteryear. Hot topic du jour is the concept that the film industry will get us there. (more…)