Monday's widows; Fergie's charms

Tampa columnist HOOPER E-mail: Click here Archive

© St. Petersburg Times
published September 27, 2002

I'm never surprised to see my friend Fred Skinner get excited about something. After all, he was president of the pep club in high school. But I never thought it would be jigsaws, routers and sanders that would get him psyched up.

As a manager of the Home Depot near Gandy, Fred is fired up about a new program at the store called Monday Night Widows -- a series of instructional classes for women (and men) abandoned by their spouses or significant others for Monday Night Football.

For the next six weeks, attendees will get the chance to learn how to handle tools, build Halloween projects, design garden items and etch glass. The first class starts Monday at 7 p.m., and it's free.

I don't know how much Westfield Shoppingtowns pay the Duchess of York to be a spokesperson, but they got their money's worth Thursday.

Not only did Sarah Ferguson appear at all three Westfield Shoppingtowns in Tampa Bay (Countryside, Citrus Park and Brandon), but she also gave a brief speech at the Tampa Bay Visitors and Convention Bureau's annual luncheon.

Ferguson often speaks about how the support of the public in the United States helped her rebound from the string of errors she made in Britain. Her daughters, she says, believe Americans gave their mother back to them.

When she was asked why we've been so supportive, Ferguson said she believes it has to do with her unpretentious approach.

"I guess they can tell when someone is faking it," she said.

Fergie readily admits to her mistakes, blaming herself first and wrapping it all in humility. She has transformed herself from a royal gone rotten to an underdog beating the odds. And America loves an underdog.

Word on the grapevine is that Tampa is on an NFL short list of cities under consideration for the 2008, 2009 and 2010 Super Bowls. The city is likely to receive a request for proposals for all three years, but its best bet may be 2010.

The next four Super Bowl sites already have been designated, with Detroit hosting in 2006. I've been to Detroit, and if they can get one Super Bowl, surely we can land a fourth.

Thanks to Gov. Jeb Bush, Dr. David Lubin has found his way into Mad magazine. Lubin, a well-known Tampa doctor and photographer, got a snapshot with the governor while holding a copy of the magazine that has caricatures of George and Barbara Bush on the cover.

The photo will be in the magazine's Mad Celebrity Snaps issue. And for his efforts, Lubin gets a one-year subscription to Mad and another photo for his annual calendars.

Fernando Noriega, the mayor's administrator of development, called Thursday's TBCVB luncheon his coming-out party. Noriega had been sidelined for months after complications from a blood clot forced doctors to perform brain surgery.

He spent 13 days in intensive care, missing the dedication of the Fernando Noriega Parking Garage in Ybor City. But he looked fit as a fiddle Thursday.

"I have nothing bad to say about the medical profession," Noriega said. "They're miracle workers."

This was my second time meeting the Duchess (she was in town in January for Weight Watchers) and I'll be back a third time if she returns. Any time I get a chance to see someone who has been the subject of an E! True Hollywood Story, I'm there.

When's Anna Nicole coming to town?

That's all I'm saying.

-- Ernest Hooper can be reached at (813) 226-3406 or Hooper@sptimes.com.

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