I'm promoting my humor story anthology Funny Locations, and using the opportunity to go visit my college stomping grounds again (GO GATORS) while I'm there.
Update: Many thanks again to Batocchio at Crooks & Liars for including this at Mike's Blog Round-Up! Please do your part to support Harris-Walz for the Presidential ticket this 2024, as well as voting out every goddamned Republican hack at the state level especially here in Florida. /rage
In his 17-month stint as UF president, Ben Sasse more than tripled his office’s spending, directing millions in university funds into secretive consulting contracts and high-paying positions for his GOP allies.
Sasse ballooned spending under the president’s office to $17.3 million in his first year in office — up from $5.6 million in former UF President Kent Fuchs’ last year, according to publicly available administrative budget data.
A majority of the spending surge was driven by lucrative contracts with big-name consulting firms and high-salaried, remote positions for Sasse’s former U.S. Senate staff and Republican officials.
Sasse’s consulting contracts have been kept largely under wraps, leaving the public in the dark about what the contracted firms did to earn their fees. The university also declined to clarify specific duties carried out by Sasse’s ex-Senate staff, several of whom were salaried as presidential advisers...
Graft. Grift. Corruption. Paying off cronies and buddies in every direction. There's no other way to describe this.
It's been noted before that Florida's current Governor Ron "Pander Away" DeSantis is waging a war against "Wokeness," the current catch-all phrase by Far Right wingnuts describing anything that exposes our nation's history of racism, sexism, and bad behavior by conservative elites.
DeSantis has escalated his efforts across every level of education our state can offer. Not only are the classrooms at our public schools been emptied of every book so that DeSantis' foot soldier censors can refuse whichever titles they fear, but DeSantis is happily plugging in conservative political hacks into leadership roles at every major state university...
If any of this feels the same as the situation leading to University of Florida - a flagship institution that had become one of the top universities in the nation - hiring an unqualified political hack like Ben Sasse earlier this school year, don't be shocked.
Amid protests over his conservative track record as a Nebraska Republican senator, Sasse promised during his ascension to the UF presidency in Fall 2022 that he would divorce himself from partisan politics under what he called a vow of “political celibacy.”
But the senator-turned-university president quietly broke that promise in his 17-month term at the university’s helm, hiring six ex-Senate staffers and two former Republican officials to high-paying, remote jobs at the university.
Under Sasse’s administration, two of his former Senate staffers — Raymond Sass and James Wegmann — were among the highest-ranking and highest-paid officials at UF. Both worked remotely from the D.C. area, roughly 800 miles from UF’s main campus in Gainesville.
It's called "No-show jobs" and I doubt these guys even spent any actual minutes working for UF.
Sass, Sasse’s former Senate chief of staff, was UF’s vice president for innovation and partnerships — a position which didn’t exist under previous administrations. His starting salary at UF was $396,000, more than double the $181,677 he made on Capitol Hill.
Wegmann, Sasse’s former Senate communications director, is UF’s vice president of communications, a position he works remotely from his $725,000 home in Washington, D.C.
They invented new jobs - arguably without any defined duties and responsibilities - just to fill them with cronies.
Sasse appointed his former Senate press secretary, Taylor Sliva, as UF’s Assistant Vice President of Presidential Communications and Public Affairs, a new position. Sliva’s $232,000 salary made him the second-highest-paid employee in UF’s Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing, trailing only Wegmann.
The remaining three ex-Senate staffers — Raven Shirley, Kari Ridder and Kelicia Rice — served as presidential advisers to Sasse, though their specific duties remain unclear. Rice, Sasse’s Senate scheduler, is listed as a presidential adviser in UF’s salary directory but in practice remained as Sasse’s scheduler, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Sasse raised his former Senate staffs’ salaries at UF by an average of 44% compared to their Capitol Hill pay, contributing to a $4.3 million increase in presidential salary expenses over Fuchs’ last year in office.
Outside of his Senate staff, Sasse also tapped former Republican Tennessee Commissioner of Education Penny Schwinn as UF’s inaugural vice president of PK-12 and pre-bachelors programs. Schwinn, with a starting salary of $367,500, worked the newly-created position from her $1 million home in Nashville, Tennessee.
Additionally, Sasse hired Alice James Burns, former scheduler for Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC), as Director of Presidential Relations and Major Events. Burns, salaried at $205,000, also worked for UF outside of Florida.
Jesus. I doubt any of them ever set foot on campus except for the occasional photo op with Sasse and to pick up their paychecks (oh wait, they probably used direct deposit). How the hell could any of them claim to know what they were doing when they were NEVER there to do it?
In Sasse’s first full fiscal year at the university’s helm, travel expenses for the president’s office soared to $633,000 — over 20 times higher than Fuchs’ annual average of $28,000. Sasse spent more on travel in his 17 months at UF than Fuchs’ entire eight-year tenure.
Notice how Republicans love to claim they're the party of fiscal responsibility? How can they be, when they're more wasteful with money than drunken teenagers ahold of their parents' credit cards (Gods, this is a phrase I've been using since 2010). In all seriousness, Republicans are fiscally responsible only when it's their money: They will waste other's people's money to their hearts' content.
Remember how I said earlier Sasse had some experience running a college? Well, UF is a university: Vastly larger, more complex, and requiring more skill than Sasse apparently brought with him... because he hired in private consultants at expensive rates to walk him through it:
His track record in higher education administration was limited to his five-year presidency at Midland University, a small, private liberal arts college in Fremont, Nebraska. At UF, which enrolls over 60,000 students and pulls in an annual $1 billion in research grants, Sasse faced a steep learning curve.
He turned to consultants for help.
During his presidency, Sasse spent $7.2 million in university funds to consultants for advice on his strategic planning and to fill leadership gaps — over 40 times more than Fuchs’ total consulting expenses over his eight-year term.
Sasse paid nearly two-thirds of the $7.2 million to McKinsey & Company, where he once worked as an adviser on an hourly contract. The firm carries prestige as one of the “big three” management consulting giants, but is notoriously secretive about its dealings and shielded its work from public view using records laws protecting trade secrets.
A critical “scope of work” attachment, which would outline McKinsey's responsibilities to UF, was redacted from a copy of the contract obtained from a public records request. The redaction, permissible under state public records laws, makes it virtually impossible for the public to know what the firm did to earn its fees...
For all we know, those fees were for covering their tee times and martini luncheons at whatever golf courses they visited. It'd be nice to prove me wrong, McKinsey & Co.
Everything about this situation screams corruption, intentional wasteful spending of public dollars for private use and straight-up greed.
There is no way the crooks at the top of this chain - DeSantis and the state Republican leadership - will do anything to investigate these allegations (and will likely replace Sasse with one of their own corrupt colleagues).
Goddammit. Call in the feds. Get the Department of Education down here, get the Justice Department, bring the U.S. Marshals, whatever it takes. Find out how bad the rot is before it eats at everything else in the Sunshine State that hasn't been broken yet.
And for the love of GOD, Floridians: Vote these corrupt Republican SOBs out of office.
It's been noted before that Florida's current Governor Ron "Pander Away" DeSantis is waging a war against "Wokeness," the current catch-all phrase by Far Right wingnuts describing anything that exposes our nation's history of racism, sexism, and bad behavior by conservative elites.
Carrying signs and wearing stickers and buttons Tuesday, hundreds of students, faculty and alumni filled the courtyard outside the building where the six new trustees appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to New College’s board of trustees were to meet for the first time.
“Jesus would not have wanted this,” one sign said. Others declared: “Stop the Steal,” “Queer Lives are Welcome Here,” and “Are we too woke or do you need to wake up?”
They rallied to save their school from what New College President Patricia Okker later called a “hostile takeover” by the new conservative appointees. They didn’t know that a key decision had already been made.
State Rep. Anna Eskamani, an Orlando Democrat, told protestors she was “damn proud to stand with them,” and led a chant to “reject fascism and protect freedom.” Then she dropped a bomb: Okker was to be replaced by Richard Corcoran, the former education commissioner and Florida House speaker, who would serve as interim president...
It should be noted that Corcoran was rejected as a candidate for the Florida State University President opening a few years back, because the hiring committee considered him a straight-up political hack whose own educational background is dubious at best. This time around, DeSantis rigged the New College's board of directors first, and then got them to fire Okker to make room for Corcoran.
This is essentially a hostile takeover, not just by DeSantis but also by Far Right Republicans obsessed with dismantling higher educational systems they fear are too liberal.
The six DeSantis-appointed trustees asserted their presence early, proposing to rid the school of its diversity office and talking about the “crisis” that needed to be solved. But confusion over procedural matters and their unfamiliarity with some issues took up more than an hour...
Earlier in the day, (Christopher) Rufo accompanied DeSantis at a news conference in Bradenton, just north of the New College campus. The governor pledged an infusion of $15 million at New College to be spent on hiring new faculty and scholarships for students, with an extra $10 million every year thereafter. As a part of a larger plan to reform higher education, he also denounced diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at state colleges and universities, saying they would no longer be funded...
DeSantis is essentially saying that things like civil rights and Title IX protections won't be upheld at state universities. Segregation and racial discrimination, sexual harassment, hostile workplaces, hostile classrooms... all of this will become the norm in DeSantis' Florida.
This is all echoed in DeSantis' efforts to shut down ANY discussion of "Critical Race Theory" essentially meaning our state cannot teach one iota of Florida's history regarding racism, slavery, Jim Crow, Civil Rights marches, all because Republicans are terrified that White People's Feelings (tm) will be hurt if we teach the facts that Yes Goddammit racism happened and keeps happening. He's just making sure that college students will be kept ignorant as much as our K-12 students.
Goddamn Rufo. Goddamn DeSantis. Goddamn this wingnut Culture War that's committing serious acts of censorship against our children's' collective right to a fair and informed education, and an assault on our state's ability to promote higher education at all.
If I were a student today, at University of Florida (Alum 1992) or University of South Florida (Alum 1994), I would be walking the fuck out. I do not want the value of my college degree to turn into shit, all because a partisan hack of a Governor is weakening the quality of my university so he can score cheap political points for a 2024 Presidential run.
I am calling on all Florida college students: Just walk the fuck away. Yes, many of you have college loans to pay off, but you can start GoFundMe campaigns to help pay those down. Apply to out-of-state universities that won't go Red-State apeshit on you. Empty out the classrooms across Florida so that DeSantis has to live with the embarrassment of having our state's high-quality institutions void of any students. I know in some respects DeSantis would revel in the images of empty classrooms - "Look," he will say to his rabid anti-education voting base, "They would rather quit than learn a Godly conservative education!" - but he is going to have to live with the reality that he oversaw the dismantling of a statewide university system, something that has never happened to any other governor before him.
At some point, the shame of killing off Florida's educational system from kindergarten to doctorate ought to slap DeSantis in the goddamn face.
After whining non-stop about tech company “censorship” when private businesses enforced their terms of service on Agent Orange (AKA trump), Florida Governor Ron DeSantis showed us what honest-to-dog censorship looks like when he signed a bill banning the 1619 Project and discussions of critical race theory in Florida’s public schools. Now he’s out to identify thought-crimes at state universities...
In his continued push against the “indoctrination” of students, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed legislation that will require public universities and colleges to survey students, faculty and staff about their beliefs and viewpoints to support “intellectual diversity.”
The survey will discern “the extent to which competing ideas and perspectives are presented” in public universities and colleges, and seeks to find whether students, faculty and staff “feel free to express beliefs and viewpoints on campus and in the classroom,” according to the bill.
The measure, which goes into effect July 1, does not specify what will be done with the survey results. But DeSantis and Sen. Ray Rodrigues, the sponsor of the bill, suggested on Tuesday that budget cuts could be looming if universities and colleges are found to be “indoctrinating” students...
And as Betty notes, the goddamn governor can't even define what the hell it is he's looking for:
When asked, DeSantis didn’t name any instances of indoctrination — he says he hears “worries” from parents. But lack of evidence that legislation is needed to address a problem is no obstacle to DeSantis, who follows the Trump-GOP model of government by trolling. DeSantis couldn’t identify a single example of critical race theory being taught in K-12 public schools, or trans girls dominating girls’ sports teams, or widespread voter fraud. Yet he championed and signed legislation addressing all these fictional problems...
So under threat of slashed budgets to universities already under tightened restraints, this survey will be forced onto professors, faculty, and students all in the great name of purging "indoctrination" of unwanted thoughts. Arguably this is against the Republicans' hate for Critical Race Theory but in truth it's a potential purge of ANY liberal or progressive belief as punishment for refusing to toe the Far Right Wingnut line.
But that's not all. Florida went through its' own purge against "indoctrination" at the state level, officially called the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee but better remembered as the Johns Committee for the SOB who oversaw that shit-show. Openly formed as a response to the Supreme Court's Brown vs. Board of Education ruling desegregating public schools (a clear act of racism by the by, Gov. DeSantis), state senator Charley Eugene Johns led that committee against any civil rights activism and then expanded it to hunt down suspected homosexuals especially at the major state university of the time, U of Florida in Gainesville. Basically, giving themselves the power to ruin any lives they wanted to hurt. Students got expelled, faculty and librarians were fired, and everyone else failed to defend their due process rights because they feared retaliation if they even did that.
The year was 1958, and while other students were worrying about class and their lives off campus, UF sophomore Art Copleston was in the University Police’s basement.
A single lightbulb hung by a string over a wooden, four-legged table with a tape recorder placed in the middle. Blinds covered the windows, and two UPD officers sat with Copleston.
A UPD officer said he knew Copleston was gay. Then, he ordered the student to tell him the names of everyone that he knew on campus who was gay.
Copleston said he sat there for hours that day, and was brought back to that room four or five more times. If the officers could prove that he was gay, they told him, they could kick him off campus...
In many cases, UPD forcibly removed students and faculty from class and interrogated them without a legal representative present. Interrogators threatened to expose their sexual orientation during a time when “exposure would mean social death,” (UF Lecturer Steven) Noll said.
At the time the committee was at UF, (college President) Reitz did not stop the committee’s acts. He needed money from the state to develop the university, Noll said, and the Johns Committee was a state committee. He also believed that being gay was a major problem in American society.
In a 1988 interview, Reitz called anyone who was gay “a complete aberration.” He also communicated with Johns through letters, thanking the committee for its work...
Organizations on campus have addressed the Johns Committee’s history at UF, including LGBTQ Affairs. Its history recognizes the committee leading to the dismissal or resignation of faculty and students. It also recognizes that Reitz cooperated with the committee.
Director of LGBTQ Affairs Tiffany Richards declined to comment on LGBTQ Affairs’ history, or the fact that its office is held in the Reitz Union, a building whose namesake supported the committee. Graduate assistant of LGBTQ Affairs Logan Neser did not respond to The Alligator’s emails or calls.
Florida State Senator Lauren Book wrote a resolution late last year asking state legislators to acknowledge the injustices the Johns Committee caused and apologize to the victims of the committee. The bill failed March 14 in the Senate’s Committee on Governmental Oversight and Accountability...
Instead, it seems the Florida Legislature along with DeSantis decided to go the other way and bring that intimidating bullshit back. And bringing back the same hammer - the threat of cutting funds - to ensure the colleges comply.
DeSantis and his lackeys are not railing against "Critical Race Theory," they're railing against any study of racism at all, and opposed to any effort to confront racism as the problem it is. In the process, they're setting up the weapons they and the Far Right can use to attack anyone they view as deviants, not just transgenders and gays/lesbians, but also feminists and women who stand for pro-choice, anyone they deem "socialist" or worse if you happen to speak against income inequality. Just how far you think this slippery slope is when this kind of "investigation" goes after anyone "anti-religious" or non-Christian (which you're bound to find at a large university with active Muslim AND Jewish groups).
We've seen this movie before, Florida. And goddammit, it wasn't that great the first time.
This remake of the Real Witch Hunts of the 1950s is going to be directed by an even worse artist in DeSantis who has no vision and is working from a lousy rehashed script, pandering to a viewing audience of raging angry White folk who view anyone educated as "elitist" and evil.
What the Florida Republicans are attempting here are direct violations of everyone's First Amendment rights to Peaceably Assemble and the Freedom of Speech. They're going after the academic ideals of open debate and honest discourse, seeking to intimidate enough people to go silent and avoid punishment at the hands of the State of Florida.
This shit shouldn't stand. Every student and every teacher need to fight back. Your rights, your very lives are at stake even if you roll over and let DeSantis and his bullies win.
I wrote this five years ago, about what happened in Gainesville at University of Florida:
We shouldn't forget the lives taken that didn't need to go. There are so many of them taken from us every day across the globe, and the sorrow of it is how much waste and loss and pain there is when that happens.
If the killer had never been, right now Sonja or Christina or Christa or Tracy or Manuel would be my age or close to it, in their 40s. Likely married or with kids of their own. Kids old enough to be attending UF themselves by now, twenty-five years later. All five of them could be working somewhere, as doctors or engineers or teachers. Writing books, or painting, or composing music. Creating, adding to the world.
We are them and they could have been us. Maybe doing better, maybe not. But we'll never know, we'll never see.
...At other anniversary points of this pivotal tragedy, the Gainesville community has gathered for vigils or services of commemoration. This time, with the coronavirus pandemic preventing that, the anniversary might seem overlooked.
The University of Florida stopped anniversary recognitions such as tolling the carillon bells of Century Tower five times after the 25th anniversary. There are lasting reminders on campus, however. There are also five palm trees planted in the median near the wall in memory of the students, as well as five trees on campus near Library East...
New students to Gainesville might see the memorial of trees and placards in the median of Southwest 34th Street south of Second Avenue and not realize who it’s for.
Or they might see the center panel on the graffitied wall beside the road and not realize it is a sacred spot...
Photo by Sam Thomas for the Sun
The locals defend that spot. Anybody tries to paint over it, within hours the spot is repainted so the five names - Sonja, Christina, Christa, Manuel, Trudy - and the hearts are put back up.
The sin and sorrow of murder is the void we endure when the lives are gone. They could be doctors, teachers, parents, artists, travelers, thinkers, dreamers... All that potential gone.
And it's just these five lives. There are so many others killed in acts of rage and lust all across the world, all that pain and sorrow to endure more and more.
Just want to live in a stronger loving world, can't we just have that, someday...?
Oh man, trump's only been in the Sunshine State as an official resident for less than two months and already his crooked family is f-cking over my alma mater (Journalism 1992). To wit, there's an impeachment process underway in Gainesville (via Megan Reeves at the Tampa Bay Times):
Last month’s visit to the University of Florida by President Donald Trump’s oldest son is still reverberating through campus, with some student leaders pushing to oust the student body president who invited him.
For only the second time in the school’s 115-year history, a student president faces impeachment — and this time it’s happening with a U.S. president under the same threat...
Michael C. Murphy received a formal resolution for his impeachment Tuesday afternoon, which was signed by more than 100 students and alumni. It was delivered to his on-campus office and sent to his UF email. Student senate president Emily Dunson, received a copy, too, in accordance with student government rules...
Those behind the effort say Murphy conspired with an official for Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign to bring Donald Trump Jr. and Trump campaign adviser Kimberly Guilfoyle to campus for speeches on Oct. 10.
Questions have been raised about the legality of the visit, as Murphy agreed to pay the pair $50,000 in publicly funded student activity fees and the law says public funds cannot be used to support political campaigns...
I saw this event announced awhile back, and I was horrified that UF was inviting Fredo donnie junior for what seemed to be a partisan speaking tour. Granted, political figures have been invited to the campus - to many campuses across the U.S. - all the time, but those were usually over established debate issues in a public forum. Junior's visit - which came across as a fete instead of a forum - didn't seem to fit that mold. Back to the report:
Then an email surfaced, as first reported by UF’s independent student newspaper, The Alligator (disclosure: I did stringer work for the Alligator back in 1990, just one article about the then-built Harn Museum), showing Murphy worked to set up the event with Caroline Wren, national finance consultant for Trump Victory, a fundraising committee for the president’s campaign...
At the same time, Murphy has come under fire for his apparent ties to the Trump family. Photos on social media show him and Emily Dunson, who leads UF’s Gator Party, together at Trump events in Washington, D.C. Campaign finance records show the student president’s father, Dan Murphy, donated $5,600 to Trump’s campaign this year.
Michael Murphy and Dunson did not respond to calls seeking comment.
“Public records show that Michael Murphy colluded with a member of the Donald Trump campaign,” student senator Ben Lima said during a student government meeting last week. Lima is leading the impeachment charge.
“If this was not a campaign event, then why was the student body president in communication with the Trump campaign to bring these speakers to campus?” he asked.
The whole thing reeks of a campaign rally / fundraiser type event, using student funds to cover the costs, and reaching far past the level of action that the student President should be working. If you read the rest of Reeves' article, you'll notice the parts where Murphy seems more interested in cultivating a future career in politics rather than focus on his job serving the students' on-campus needs.
This is how corrupt conservatives have gotten, all the way down to their college-level rank and file. Wasting other people's money for partisan gains, lining their own pockets and setting up deals to serve themselves further down the road.
By the looks of things, Murphy's not going to last long as student President. But I guarantee you he's going to find fleeting fame among the Fox Not-News crowd as "another martyr" of campus political correction gone amok. Even though Murphy was honestly caught breaking the rules, even though by all rights Murphy is no damn martyr.
Here's hoping UF kicks the bum out. And Go Gators.
P.S. I hope the bum doesn't transfer to South Florida, my other alma mater (MLIS, 1993). Go Bulls.
So you know me, geek that I am, whenever there's a comic-con in driving distance I am prone to showing up and clogging the narrow vendor aisles.
You might remember I went to this SwampCon at UF last year. They've actually been doing this for awhile, but 2016 was the first I'd heard of it and hey, it's a chance for me to head back and check out my alma mater (also, I'm doing a shit-ton of research on Pragmatism, so to the shelvers at Library West I'm the guy who left three piles of philosophy books on that reading table on the First Floor).
Good news is, the worst thing was Trump getting into a Twitter war with civil rights hero John Lewis. Everybody else on Twitter was punching back and making Trump bleed, so it's all nice sweet schadenfreude.
As for the convention itself, here are my takes (and some photos and video):
The registration / wristband tables are set up at the entrance walkway to the Reitz Union.
I didn't dress up this trip. I'm saving the Jedi outfit for the SyFy street convention this February. I basically dressed as I usually did when I was a student here from 1988 to 1992: with a blue button shirt over a Batman tee.
Deadpool! My old nemesis! This time working on his foam sword skills.
Last year was before Pokemon Go came out. This year, I looked at the map and damn near fainted. The University campus has Pokestops all over the place within easy walking distance of each other. As soon as you step out of one Stop's range you're already in range of two others, meaning the spawnage rate with well-placed Lures would make this an ideal hunting ground for Pokemon. IT'S PIKACHU HEAVEN!!!
Also I finally caught a Tauros - my birth sign! - and an Onix, both of which don't naturally spawn where I live.
I need to come back to campus someday, with my bicycle and about 9 Incubation jars with 10km eggs to hatch...
Funny thing about living on a campus for Florida Gators. We get real gators floating in the Reitz Union pond. It's cool, he's cool, we're cool, right Bitey?
Except for this guy. He was pissed he couldn't go wading in that pond.
In terms of vendor space, this one room doesn't compete with the massive floorspaces that MegaCon and Tampa ComicCon work with. This is still a pretty small, regional con. There were a lot of anime/manga vendors though.
Told you I had some homework to do, so I walked from Reitz Union to Library West that afternoon, and en route there's Turlington Hall and THIS statue. Everyone seems to call it "The Potato". Even the Pokestop description labels it "The Potato".
IT'S NOT A FREAKING POTATO, PEOPLE! IT'S A FREAKING GLOVE! Look, to the right of that rocky shape. THAT'S THE THUMB! Sheesh!
Also, that's Century Tower in the background.
After I did some homework on Pragmatism, I walked off-campus across 13th Street to go to Leonardo's Pizza. While there, I got a photo of this... GAUDY MONSTROSITY being built at the corner of University Ave. and 13th.
It's that long-planned condo project the city's been dying to build since I had been back in Gainesville working at Library West from 2003 to 2006. It wouldn't look out of place in New York City or downtown Tampa, but it sticks out like a sore thumb in the middle of a mid-sized city where it will dwarf the college buildings right across the street from it. It blocks out the sky, it's getting built right on top of the roads, claustrophobic... Gods. Look, I know there's a problem with residential properties in Gainesville, as more and more UF students stay in-town when they graduate, and that Gainesville is growing in population. But you need to be more responsible with what you're actually building and where. This thing is gonna clash with the old-style architecture of the UF campus, no lie. Something of this size and complexity could have easily been built maybe a mile away, closer to downtown Gainesville where you want more of a nightlife community to sprout (or maybe closer to Oaks Mall or Archer Road strip malls). You all should have been something half that height and with an eye towards matching the campus architecture to where it would COMPLEMENT the scenery, not consume it.
Speaking of consumption, here's the pizza slice from Leonardo's I ate.
This was a mainstay eatery within walking distance of campus back when I was a student, and it'd been around for years before then. Last year, the place has been bought out by the university (they're looking to build more campus offices I believe) and I've been told that June 2017 is when it will close. So that pizza slice might be the last one I'll ever eat from there.
You can't go home again to the same pizzeria, can you? :(
On the way back, I took a slight detour to go visit one of the iconic locales on-campus.
THE FRENCH FRIES STATUE
On the lawn, they were prepping another group of foam swordfights, so I got some video clippage of that. Ooh, wait, I can't, Blogger can't handle the file size. Gimme five minutes to YouTube it instead.
I made it back to SwampCon for the afternoon, and I wanted to go into the "So Bad It's Good" Anime revue. Sadly, by the time I got there the room was packed. Note to the con organizers: next year, bigger room for these guys (or any other anime-themed shows, that culture is HUGE on-campus).
Other observations of note:
There was a shit-ton of Steven Universe cosplayers (I should have gotten more pictures of them, but was busy catching Onixes). Only two Deadpools. Where's my plethora of Deadpools?!?!?!
I'm used to an Artists Alley at other cons where local and published artists set up tables for autographs and print sales. The SwampCon folks should look into that, especially since there's an art college on-campus where up-and-coming sketchers and inkers are learning their trade (and there should be a number of Florida-based artists who'd love to show)...
The UF Bookstore needed to do a better job advertising and promoting the works of the authors who showed up for discussions on writing and publishing. These are authors who either live in Gainesville, are graduates of your school, or authors of some renown who put in the time to help with activities and events for the day. Putting a small pile of books on top of a table with little signage shoved into the corner of the Vendors room does not cut it.
Things have really changed in the year I've been away. Wal-Mart is no longer where it was on Archer Rd. and nearly 90 percent of that mall had been bull-dozed. Half the restaurants I knew are long gone, it took me an hour to find a Mexican eatery (for some reason I was in the mood for Mexican to balance out having pizza for lunch. I don't normally do that...) before I got back on the road to drive home and feed mah kittehs.
I did find time for one thing, to pay my respects:
The ad was released by Scott’s official political action committee, Let’s Get to Work, which backs him and funded his reelection. The the ad is titled—really—“Latte Liberal Gets an Earful.” (For accuracy’s sake, of course, let’s be clear about the fact that it was Scott who got an earful—beating a retreat so hasty he didn’t even get any coffee, while Jennings scolded him like a Voldemort-looking, dick-resembling disobedient puppy.)
FEELING A LITTLE TOUCHY THERE, ARE WE RICK?
Of course, the ad accuses Jennings of being "terribly rude" for dropping the 'asshole' bomb in public. WELCOME TO FLORIDA, B-TCHES.
Granted, Jennings did serve a term in local office as a Lake Worth City Commissioner and she is working free-lance - hence her being at a laptop in a work-friendly eatery - for the SEIU (making her pro-union). But it's not like she's going to be Scott's primary adversary for his planned run for the 2018 US Senate seat (unless Senator Nelson retires and picks Jennings to be his heir).
The Jezebel article links to a public statement Jennings gave to the Sun-Sentinel, so let's link it here:
Jennings said she was at the coffee shop working on a freelance job for the Service Employees International Union. She said she doesn't receive public assistance right now, but even if she did, it shouldn't matter.
"Gov. Scott and his PAC are bullies," she said. "Instead of addressing the issues I brought up he's using the power of his PAC to try to intimidate someone who spoke out against his policies."
Jennings said the viral video of her tirade doesn't capture the beginning of the conversation, which she said was civil.
She wants to discuss Planned Parenthood, voting disenfranchisement, increasing the minimum wage, climate change and deaths in Florida's prison system. (Note: Damn, I hope she DOES run for Governor now)
"A lot of people in their life fall into a gap of work," Jennings said. "They need to be on public assistance, and they shouldn't be admonished for that."
She said she fell into the Medicaid gap and was unable to get coverage when she took a year off to care for her infant son...
If this is how Scott handles a single person shouting at him in public, just how easy is it going to be for everyone else in the state of Florida who HATES HIS UGLY THIEVING SELF to get under his skin and make him flake out?
Meanwhile, I'm upset because I've been yelling and insulting this Medicare Fraud for YEARS - lemme reach back into the archives for this, ah here we go from August 2010 - and yet *I* don't rate a fookin' attack ad. My ego's in the gutter over this one.
There are days I miss living in Gainesville, FL. The place just kind of agrees with me, even though I never really took advantage of some of the sights and activities of the city.
For one thing, I never go to a Starbucks. I just don't drink coffee.
There is a wall on 34th Street in Gainesville Florida reserved for graffiti. Technically, it's illegal to vandalize walls, but the locals have decided it was easier to let the kids and University of Florida college students tag it with their work over the years rather than cope with the hassles of stopping it or repainting over it.
According to local experts, most sections of the wall have over 250 layers of paint now. In some places they had to replace concrete blocks because the weight of all those layers were weakening the stone.
There's also a memorial there that the city and the college students honor. It's rarely painted over, and when it is there is someone on hand to quickly repaint the memorial back in place.
1990 was my third year at UF. Studying towards a Journalism degree, although my middling grades were telling me I would have been better off going into Political Science or something. That August I started trying to do stringer work - freelance - for the school paper the Alligator and had gotten an article about the Harn Museum published (it would be the only one the Alligator would ever take from me, and I moved on to work for a local alternative monthly instead).
Classes were starting back up. The college town was packed with young men and women returning or arriving for the first time. Bicycles and cars everywhere. Apartment complexes surrounding campus packed with 35,000 students. Football season with Coach Spurrier starting up for the first year.
I had recently moved in with my twin brother. I went first year to live in a dorm whereas Phil went to apartment living, and the second year my dorm roommate and I tried a year at Gatorwood Apartments before Phil needed a replacement roommate for the third year. So there I went to Oxford Apartments on Archer Road while Mike moved on with some of his marching band-mates (funny story: if you ever watch the Florida-Notre Game bowl matchup (1992?), you'll see Mike being the one photobombing Coach Lou Holtz during a halftime interview. The Irish went on to beat the crap out of the Gators during the second half, so yeah, the loss is totally Mike's fault. But I digress).
That first week back in college... in my mind, I keep remembering it as being cold that week. A chill wind for some reason, even though it was Florida in the late August month. Maybe I'm remembering it that way because of what happened. Because of the sorrow.
The first day killings shocked the campus. The second day confirmed there was a serial killer on the loose and targeting young women. Rumors got out about what the killer did to the third victim's body. That weekend nearly every woman that could fled the city. My brother and I stayed. I have to admit, it was because as guys we wouldn't be targets. We were worried, obviously. Our female friends were threatened, but the ones we knew had fled to safety and they were going to be okay.
The third day of killings had a couple - girlfriend and boyfriend - dead in their apartment at the Gatorwood complex. I remember biking by the apartments - it was just down the block from Oxford - and all those cop cars, all that yellow tape, and I feared the worst.
Everybody - even the guys - panicked. Some of Phil's fraternity brothers came over to crash at our apartment that night. The thinking was "safety in numbers" although fear was rampant. Classes were cancelled for a few days.
Things calmed down once there was no sign of continuing atrocities, but things didn't fully return to normal. Every apartment building went through massive security redesigns. Some of the departed students never came back.
The police finally caught a suspect who used the same tools to commit burglaries elsewhere, and the man confessed. He was executed by lethal injection about ten years ago. Never say his name. The sonofabitch wanted to be remembered as a mass murderer like Ted Bundy. Screw him.
In time, memorials popped up. Five trees planted outside of Library East. The 34th Wall Memorial began that winter, and for all intents remains to this day and for as long as there is a wall there. Five palm trees bearing signs of the victims names - Sonja, Christina, Christa, Tracy, Manuel - are planted along the street median where the Wall Memorial resides. There may be others.
Gatorwood was bulldozed down years ago. It had been an aging complex when Mike and I lived there. There's a fancy expensive apartment tower there now. Oxford Apartments was still there last I visited Gainesville with my brother Phil and my nephews for a football season opener. Some of the places in town have changed. Places always do.
The memories and memorials never should change.
We shouldn't forget the lives taken that didn't need to go. There are so many of them taken from us every day across the globe, and the sorrow of it is how much waste and loss and pain there is when that happens.
If the killer had never been, right now Sonja or Christina or Christa or Tracy or Manuel would be my age or close to it, in their 40s. Likely married or with kids of their own. Kids old enough to be attending UF themselves by now, twenty-five years later. All five of them could be working somewhere, as doctors or engineers or teachers. Writing books, or painting, or composing music. Creating, adding to the world.
We are them and they could have been us. Maybe doing better, maybe not. But we'll never know, we'll never see.
