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“If you get lost, go to Cinderella’s Castle.”
Sage advice comes in many forms.
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The Places You Go for the People You Love
Everywhere you’ve been has value.
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Chicken Gizzards
I have Chicken Gizzards to thank for my first trip to Disney World.
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Whistler
During my most recent trip to Canada, I had the opportunity to visit Whistler, which is the ski resort mecca of British Columbia. That was a surreal experience. Everything was clean and well-manicured. Even the concrete looked somehow artificial. It was like being in Disney World without the rides. That is, if everyone who visited…
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Karma’s a B****
Back in the 80’s I must have been the only Floridian who didn’t realize that Waldo, Florida was a speed trap. I got a ticket. This little town is in the middle of nowhere, and after going through miles and miles of, well, nowhere, you suddenly enter their town and the speed limit quickly drops…
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Real Cities
The other day I was looking up the hours of operation of my local library branch in my newly adopted city of Seattle, and I discovered it is open seven days a week. I have to admit I started to giggle. Jacksonville, Florida, with nearly twice the area population, can barely manage to keep its…
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Portents of Summer
Summer is only a month away, but as usual here in Florida we get it early. People envy us, until the temperature tops 100 degrees Fahrenheit with 100 percent humidity. Then, not so much. (And I want to know how it’s possible to have 100 percent humidity without having rain. Could someone please explain that…
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Big Jim—Jacksonville’s Longest Running Tradition
A friend of mine calls our city, Jacksonville, Florida, “a truck stop that got out of control”. Actually, he has a point. Jacksonville is a sprawling monstrosity of a city with, frankly, not much to recommend it for its size. Tourists generally drive right on through here on their way to Disney World. They don’t…
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“Enthusiosity”
There’s a streak that runs through my family, and it’s as wide as the Mississippi River. For lack of a better word, I call it “enthusiosity”. It’s curiosity mixed with a great deal of enthusiasm. My mother had it more than anyone else. She’d get interested in a topic such as Australian History, and she’d…
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Jacksonville, Florida: America’s Best Kept Secret
Since we all seem to have survived the Mayan Apocalypse, it’s time to climb out of our bomb shelters and live a little. Get on the road. See the sights. For those of you who are in the mood for a road trip, Jacksonville is that big city that you drive through on Interstate 95…