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5
May 15

The last Tuesday of the year

We had the departmental picnic this afternoon. We hold it indoors now. Two years in a row we could have drowned students in the rain. Today was lovely and warm. The picnic is great fun. You get to see all of the seniors pick up all of these awards that go onto their resume. Top of the this, best of the that.

And there are awards for underclassmen, too. I gave out one to a freshman and he got a standing ovation. He deserved it.

I got to give out the SEJC awards the students won in February. I gave a special award to our editor, Sydney. I always give a very brief speech for that one. I’d been thinking about what to say, and I kept thinking about when she was in my class her freshman year and about the young woman she’s become during her four years with us. We always miss them after that. So I flubbed the speech because it got almost-dusty in the front of that room.

When the picnic was over and everything hauled away and put back in to some semblance of order we all returned to the routine. This was the last night of this year’s newspaper. This is the last time they’d be together like this. We’ll meet tomorrow, but it will be different. I should have been grading — because this stack of papers is finally getting manageable, I’ve been on a roll — but I just stayed in the newsroom with them for much of the night.

We’ll lose four of the editorial staff to graduation. Sydney will be editing for Starnes’ newspapers. She had an internship there and they were wise enough to be impressed by her and offered her a job at the beginning of her senior year, I think it was. And now she’s going to be an editor, working on five community papers, in her first newspaper job. Rachael, who ran features this year, will go to grad school. Halley will be a media buyer in town. Adam, who ran a solid opinion section this year, will be heading to Ireland in a few weeks on a Fulbright scholarship. One of our underclassmen is transferring. Two more will stay on, Emily as the new editor-in-chief and Samantha will return to rule her fiefdom as photo editor.

As a group they did us all proud. Good journalism, taking slings and arrows and commendations and never getting hung up on any one thing or another, always ready to turn out the next good product. They did what I asked of them, don’t repeat mistakes and get better each time out. And they did it all with cheer and fun. Though not all of them would admit it out loud, they had a great time.

I’m glad they were at the Crimson. I can’t wait to see what they all do next.

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24
Apr 15

A tiger of a start to the weekend

The life of a costume character is pretty weird, if you think about it.

The life of a costume character is pretty good, if you think about it.

That all started because she pointed out that Aubie seemed to have some lipstick on his fur. He had something pink staining the mouth area. There was also something with a light peach shade. Who knows where it all comes from, girls, kids, cotton candy, a comic bit he did, the random impulsive smooches that a costume character steals.

Two classes today on broadcast scripts. That meant two more class preps and will somehow double the stack of papers I need to grade.

Ran late getting off of campus, but that just let me run into Katie, an old Crimson editor I worked with a few years ago. She has a photography business now. She was one of those you never worried about too much, good things were always in her reach.

We went to a cookout after the game and shot the breeze with a half dozen friends. Had a great time of it, too. Probably because of the food, which was pretty incredible. No one thought to bring any bowls or spoons for the beans, so they stayed on the grill, but the chicken and the deer were terrific. The company was great, too. I bet the beans would have been delicious.

Aubie didn’t show up at the cookout, but he could have and he would have been well fed.

The life of a costume character is pretty good, if you think about it.

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18
Apr 15

Day at the park

Enjoyed a doubleheader of baseball today. The first game was at noon, and A-Day was going on across the street. It was a busy afternoon, with people still filtering in at the end of the first game and staying through the second.

Like these guys:

The home team got beat in the first game, prompting the rally caps in the late innings. If you didn’t wear a cap you go with the rally sunglasses.

Auburn blanked Ole Miss in the second game 14-0 to take the series. We watched online as the Auburn gymnasts earned a sixth place finish at the national championships and the softball team won just down the street. Also, there was the win-either-way nature of A-day game. It was a fine day to be a sports fan.

Pizza for dinner, kitty cuddles after that. Think I’ll go read myself to sleep now.

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11
Apr 15

Our last day at SSCA

More panel sessions today. Some paper grading. A business meeting this evening for the mass communication division, where I served as chief note taker in charge of slowing down proceedings with interjections like “What was that again?” and the occasional “How do you spell that person’s name?”

For lunch we went to Colombia Cafe, big surprise. It is close — not much else seems to be — and it is delicious. We’ve been there for lunch for three days straight and, of course, went to their main restaurant last night for dinner. I could eat there a lot more before it became a chore.

Just in between our hotel and the cafe is the Amelia Center, where we saw the hockey game Thursday night. We were on the river walk and it was framed so nicely between the trees:

Sandwiches at the cafe. I did not have one, but I hear they are terrific. They do a great job with the bread, so I’ve no doubt. The secret, I was told several years ago, is in the bread:

Our friends Jenni and Gavin came to join us again for lunch. We shot this on the balcony of the cafe. There are better pictures, but I’m using this wide and high one to remind us it was an amazingly beautiful day:

The view from our hotel that we don’t have in our room. But the parking deck we can see on the other side of the building is attractive as those things go.

We had dinner with a few more of our friends and said our goodbyes. Our flight leaves tomorrow morning and we might not see them all again before then. You’re always sad to see it go, but that’s only because you bothered to come in the first place.

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10
Apr 15

Another day at SSCA

Here is a panel you missed this morning. We were, I think, both entertaining and thoughtful. It was both theoretic and nostalgic. And almost all of the examples that came out of the panel were tales that started with some dystopian or post-apocalyptic backstory, which I found to be interesting. Just read the description, and imagine you were there:

It led to this quote, from our friend and co-panelist Dr. Brian Brantley, which was spot on:

And I don’t even like zombie films. Or mobster films. I think they’re kind of the same, actually.

I also chaired a panel on politics and sat in on another one where The Yankee presented, and caught a fourth session elsewhere, as well. It was a good day at the conference.

We have friends here in Tampa — Jenni, with whom we ran the Augusta half-Ironman last year and her husband, Gavin, who flies rockets and works for the county. That sounds like he flies rockets for the county, and I think he would appreciate that dangling gerund, so I’ll just leave it as is They took us here:

They took us not knowing we’ve had lunch at one of their cafes for two days in a row. That’s OK. We’re going back there again tomorrow.

The neon side overhead:

Across the street, the local branch of “My bank is more patriotic than your bank.”

Inside the restaurant, I enjoyed the roast pork “a la Cubana.” I even enjoyed the plantains, and I don’t even like plantain. Gavin, meanwhile, ordered the flaming steak. That was a first for me. He said it was delicious:

The restaurant has been around for more than a century, aimed at the working man, but has evolved somewhat over the decades. It is still a family-owned place. The menu is covered in their history. This is one of the best stories I’ve read in a menu (and I always read the stories in a menu):

Outside and around the corner, here are the six generations of that family who poured their lives into the place:

The whole block, it seemed, was dressed up in the style. I wonder what happens to those tiles when the seventh generation comes along.