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Somehow I wasn't surprised when I read that Pasco schools were talking about cutting music programs to save money. Not just music, but also guidance counselors, reading and computer specialists, cafeteria workers, secretaries and bus drivers. You know, all those superfluous little extras.
Over the decades, I've grown accustomed to schools cutting such positions and programs and watching the public accept it without much grumbling.
What the school administrators ought to do is cut the football, baseball and basketball programs first. Now that would get some attention, both from legislators and the public.
Mind you, I'm from a football/baseball family. My dad played, my son played and I was a committed athlete admirer throughout my youth, blissfully marrying the college football team captain and practicing my baton twirling for hours in order to add sparkle to the football game halftime shows.
Even so, my personal experience and considerable research show that arts programs provide valuable lifelong benefits for those involved in them, far beyond the pleasures of wistfully gazing at a row of little athletic trophies while inching toward Social Security.
One other thing. Though I have written numerous stories about high school and college athletes involved in violent crimes during my three-decade journalism career, I have never written or seen a violent crime story involving a member of the band or drama club.
And I've never heard of a musician hooked on steroids.
For those high school age and older who are into the arts, the ninth annual open art show for area artists (not just Pasco) is coming up at the Pasco Arts Center in Holiday.
The show started out in 1994 as the Promising Picassos show, but the agreeably alliterative appellation scared off some artists who thought it was limited to Picasso-like Cubism work.
The more inclusive Art Annual Exhibition name was adopted a few years ago, and participation has increased measurably.
Each artist may submit one piece of original art, ready to hang, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. June 23 through June 28 at the center, 5744 Moog Road, Holiday (about 1.5 miles east of U.S. 19, behind Centennial Library).
The entry fee is $10 for professionals, $8 for adult amateurs and $5 for students. First place awards are $250 for professional, $100 for amateur and $75 for students. There will also be second, third and honorable mention awards, as well as one Community Choice award chosen by people who go to the show from July 7-Aug. 29.
A reception to announce winners of all but the Community Choice award will be from 5 to 7 p.m. July 18.
If you have questions, call (727) 845-7322.
And go get to work on your prize-winning painting.
Good news for people who have the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis, about which I have written in the past.
The Food and Drug Administration has finally approved the new drug Forteo, the first on the market that actually builds new bone. Current treatments like Fosamax, Evista and estrogen work by slowing bone loss, but they don't build new bones.
The downside is that it has to be injected once daily.
But that's a small price to pay in order to have good, strong bones, isn't it?
Right now is the best possible time to be a Floridian. I know, I know. It's hot as heck already.
But the snowbirds have mostly gone back North, and the summer vacationers and all their kids haven't arrived yet. This is one of the two times during the year (the other is late September and early October, but then we're still dodging hurricanes) when Florida seems to belong to those of us who live here all the time.
The restaurants are less crowded, so we get personal attention.
The beaches are less crowded, so we have room to unfurl our blankets.
Even the roads seems a little less crowded.
The sparser crowds may be tough on businesses, but the rest of us can revel in this marvelous and all-too-short respite.