Shame, shame on Sarasota City Commissioners

Read my column in today’s Sarasota Herald Tribune Op/Ed Section (page 9A) or read it online by clicking this link: Shame, shame on Sarasota City Commissioners

Here’s an excerpt:

Even if our commissioners didn’t have the intellectual breadth to deal with this problem in a less knee-jerk fashion, I’m surprised they didn’t have the necessary selfishness to consider that it’s a very thin line that separates the haves from the have-nots and that one day, they too, might one day find themselves sitting on a park bench.

You also might want to check out Eric Ernst’s excellent column on the same subject — front page of the B section or here: Childish to Remove Benches

It’s the economy, smartypants — can’t miss Economic Forum on Monday night

Monday night (May 23), there’s going to be a great forum on the economy … right here in Sarasota! With folks from the Poynter Institute, Rob Lorei of Florida This Week, and and our own backyard … including Kelly Kirschner and Raul Elizalde. Read my column in today’s Sarasota Herald Tribune TICKET (next to last page) or click below to read it online.

Economic Forum Will Answer Your Questions … (um, will they tell me how I can retire with no worries and money in the bank!?)

Eye-candy for the sophisticated voyeur

A few weeks back, I wrote a column about how “sex sells” and questioned whether women as a group are empowered or disempowered by our culture’s commercialization of female sex appeal. I mentioned, among other examples, pole-dancing at Sarasota fundraisers and the Black Diamond Burlesque troupe that has been sizzling up Sarasota’s sexy factor.[/caption]

To read my update on “eye candy for the sophisticated voyeur, check out my Sense and the City column in today’s Sarasota Herald Tribune Ticket by clicking the link below:

Black Diamond Burlesque — ‘Eye-candy for the sophisticated voyeur’ — at McCurdy’s Friday

Listen Up … for the best Mom’s Day present

My “Sense and the City” column this week is about … what else? Mother’s Day! I give my best advice on what to give to really make your Mom happy all year-round.

You can read it in today’s TICKET in the Sarasota Herald Tribune — or find it for free at TICKET boxes around the city tomorrow! Or, check it out online at Listen Up for Mother’s Day.

The Season of Zen

The Sarasota Film Festival is over. Easter has come and gone. “Season” is slowing waa-aay down. As much as I love the hubbub between November and April, I’m ready to breathe deep and exhale. In other words, time to get back to yoga…

To read more, check out my Sense and the City column in this week’s Sarasota Herald Tribune Ticket by clicking the link below:

Sense and the City: The Season of Zen

Truth Goes Missing in Sarasota

In the category of I-can’t-believe-this-is-happening …

Read my Sense and the City column in today’s Sarasota Herald Tribune

The gravy train of selling sex

(This essay ran in my Sense and the City column in today’s Sarasota Herald Tribune TICKET, but for some reason they didn’t post it online — so I’m posting the piece below. All rights reserved by the Sarasota Herald Tribune.)

I just can’t get into the whole pole-dancing and burlesque scene that, by all accounts, is sizzling up the sexy quotient in Sarasota.

Go ahead, call me a prude. But before you get your knickers in a twist, let me assure you – I could care less who likes taking their clothes off and who likes paying for the pleasure of watching them do it. I have no personal objection or moral disagreement with it. But I do have a question or two. (more…)

“Uncivil liberties” — my op/ed in today’s Sarasota Herald Tribune

If you have the time, I hope you’ll take a moment to click on the link for this opinion piece that I wrote that appears in today’s Sarasota Herald Tribune.

Main Street youths take uncivil liberties.

It’s about what happened to me and a date recently when we went out for dinner on Main Street in Sarasota. Well, it’s about a lot more than that … . (more…)

Book Junkie’s Paradise

Hi. My name is MC, and I’m an addict.

But before you go thinking I’m mainlining vodka, let me clarify: (more…)

It’s fashionista to be a feminista

My Sense and the City column in today’s Sarasota Herald-Tribune (all photos courtesy of Cliff Roles Photography:

The Women’s Resource Center of Sarasota recently held its 4th Annual Frances Kraaymes Lecture. This year, the event was a panel discussion on “Men, Women & Relationships,” moderated by Dr. Willa Bernhard, who posed questions such as, “How have your relationships with the opposite sex changed since your 20s?”, and, “What has affected the balance of power in your relationships?”

I was one of the panelists, and while I can’t claim the professional bona fides of the others

– author Dr. Nancy Schlossberg; Ringling College of Art and Design President Dr. Larry Thompson; local physician Dr. Jon Yenari; the Honorable Larry Eger, Public Defender; and mental health therapist Lauren Alston of Coastal Behavioral Healthcare — I still had plenty to say about how physical attractiveness, financial ability, sexual viability, and aging can tip the balance of power in personal relationships..

The discussion was lively: opinions flew, and amid a lot of straight talk and good humor, the panelists shared personal experiences and perspectives about male/female roles, communication, child-rearing, money, housework, even online porn. It was a refreshingly frank conversation, slightly rare in Sarasota, but judging by the audience response, very welcome.

I learned a lot from the panelists, and I’d like to think I shared something as well. For example, after I commented that one of the reasons U.S. women continue to struggle for power in their relationships and within their communities is because they’re still earning under eighty cents for every dollar a man earns in comparable jobs, one panelist stated that he wasn’t aware of any such discrepancy. I muzzled my impersonation of Scooby-Doo’s quizzical woof of disbelief –“Huhrrrr?”, but wondered how anyone in the working world could be unaware of the pay gap between men and women. (To learn more about the Paycheck Fairness Act, visit www.whitehouse.gov/issues/women.)

Another interesting point was raised when one panelist said the word “feminist” was irrelevant in his work and home life because he’s already so egalitarian that self-describing as a feminist would be moot. I’ve heard that argument before – that women have come so far, there’s no longer a need for either sex to carry the “feminist” calling card.

The word has always carried a lot of “angry-female” baggage, exacerbated by Rush Limbaugh’s coinage of the term, “Feminazi.” I’m a feminist and don’t mind saying so, but in the past decade, fewer and fewer of my friends use the term. I’ve got girlfriends who pay half the mortgage and expect their husbands to help change the diapers, and men friends who gladly let their wives bring home the bigger slice of bacon and want their daughters to have every opportunity to grow up to be President, but in both groups, many say, “I wouldn’t call myself a feminist.” As if it’s a dirty word.

But judging by the comments made by my fellow Kraaymes panelists, there’s a new breed of modern-day feminists out there — the men on the panel talked about how they share responsibilities and chores with their wives, and the women talked about how they contribute their fair share financially to their relationships –even if none of them used the dreaded “F-bomb” to describe themselves specifically.

So, taking a page from the Limbaugh playbook, I’m coining my own term to describe anyone who believes in the “social, political, and economic equality of the sexes” (that’s the definition of feminism, by the way). This new word isn’t really new — it’s just the Spanish word for feminist – feminista. But just like the Italian word “barista” turned coffee servers everywhere into über-hip coffee designers, I’m betting “feminista” will finally make it fashionable to be a feminist. And in any language, I’d call that fabulous.