Using 24 different criteria, AXE Deodorant Bodyspray has determined this is not exactly the best city for single folks.
In its "America's Best and Worst Cities for the Dating Game," Tampa ranked 49th of the 80 largest metro areas. While our fair city ranked high for numbers of single people going to bars and dating online, it ranked low for overall population of people ages 19 to 24.
Austin, Texas, and Colorado Springs, Colo., topped the list of good dating cities. At the bottom were Houston and Charlotte, N.C.
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ORLANDO RANKED 21st in the AXE survey ... maybe because some of Tampa's single folks are partying over there.
I was mildly surprised to learn people here are frequenting places like Universal CityWalk and Disney's Pleasure Island. One person told me it's only a 40-minute drive (I must be getting old, because it takes me 80 minutes) to the entertainment complexes, and they seem to be attracting bigger names, especially from the hip-hop/R&B world.
This week, reggae/rap superstar Sean Paul is at the Universal Studios Mardi Gras celebration. Next week it's disco diva Donna Summer for all the grown folks like me. And House of Blues has neo-soul queen Erykah Badu with Floetry on Sunday.
Drive a little farther and you find a vibrant downtown Orlando which has sprouted a number of bars without becoming a freak show.
If you go, get a hotel room. Don't try to drive back.
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BLIMPIES IS selling Cuban sandwiches. In this town. Yeah, I laughed too.
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AT LEAST traffic in Tampa is better than in Orlando ... for now. How long we can continue to make that claim remains to be seen. Sure, a lot of road construction has slowed us lately, but there also seem to be road jams at the oddest times. Defining rush hour is more difficult than ever.
I wish our County Commission would come to the obvious conclusion that something needs to be done. Some folks in County Center are even suggesting we don't have a major problem.
Please, y'all gonna make me lose my mind.
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HOW BAD is traffic? It's so slow I can read bumper stickers: There's only one God, quit applying for his job.
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MY WIFE went to the grand opening of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on Thursday while I stayed home with the kids. She saw Hootie and the Blowfish perform and raved about how nicely the casino is decorated. Summation: It's not the old bingo hall anymore.
I think she was just rubbing it in to make me feel bad.
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SAY WHAT you will about Ronda Storms, but if Johnnie Byrd had called her a sheep, he would have ended up getting sheared.
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TWO EVENTS to look out for today: the ninth annual "I Have A Dream" Festival and Kaleidoscope at Ballast Point Elementary.
"I Have A Dream" runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Al Lopez Park with food, entertainment and a fashion show. Tax Collector Doug Belden and Florida Sentinel-Bulletin publisher Sybil Kay Andrews Wells are the co-chairs.
Meanwhile, the Kaleidoscope arts festival runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with musical entertainment (featuring Fred Johnson), a petting zoo, workshops and a petting zoo.
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SEEN ON a bumper sticker in Brandon: God wants spiritual fruits, not religious nuts.
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I SAW Congress holding hearings about steroids in baseball and I thought, why doesn't it hold a special hearing about something that really matters, like gas prices?
Five years ago, I could fill my gas tank for $15. Now it takes $22, which probably explains why I'm still driving the same car.
