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Lightning fever lit up two downtown office towers Monday night.
On two sides of the Park Tower, also known as the Lykes Building, lights were left on in specific windows to create a giant lightning bolt pattern. The nearby 100 N Tampa building, the AmSouth building, spelled out Go Bolts down the length of one side.
I marveled at the messages and wondered what kind of computer program was used to help craft the giant patterns. Turns out the method was more akin to one of those Lite-Brite toys I played with as a kid.
Computers? Ha. The property management teams for both buildings said a simple, albeit exhaustive, approach was used to help the Lightning strike the skyline. Engineers took pictures of the buildings and colored in certain windows to form the patterns.
At the Park Tower, four staffers went to each office and either closed or opened the blinds in them, leaving some dark from the outside and some lit. They placed stickers on light switches reminding custodians to leave the lights on.
"It took every bit of four hours," said Mary Ayo, property manager for the Colonnade Properties building.
Jennifer Palmer-Nicholson, real estate manager for 100 N Tampa, told a similar story. They even had someone view the building from atop the Fort Brooke Parking Garage to tweak the design.
It wasn't their first effort at lighting up the night skies. The 100 N Tampa tower featured mouse ears for Disney's anniversary and "XXXV" for Super Bowl XXXV.
GIVEN THE EXCITEMENT over the Lightning, how many babies do you think will be named Stanley? Or Ruslan? Or Nikolai? Or Brad or Martin?
FOR THE RECORD, it was me and only me who came up with Tuesday's stellar Times headline: Lords of the rink. Whatever monetary awards yielded from headline contests should be sent directly to me.
Okay, that's not exactly the truth.
The headline actually was crafted during a pregame brainstorming session at Four Green Fields between myself and an anxious group of Lightning faithful: Times staffers Rob Farley, Mike Readling and Chris Tisch and Times correspondent Eric Vician. If asked, those guys may try to minimize the creative role I played in coming up with the now-infamous line.
But remember this: I called it in to the editors.
OF COURSE, we came up with other headlines that didn't quite meet the paper's lofty standards. For a Lightning victory, we offered Cal-Gone; Shut Up Calgary; Take That And The Metric System; Cup De Gras and O Tampa Bay.
Dixie Cup resonated because this is the first time the Cup will reside in the deep South, and I'm really surprised management didn't go with Naming Rights Deal Sparks Cup Victory.
If the Lightning had lost, these gems could have been used: Mia Cupa; This Stinks, Eh?; Down in Flames and my personal favorite, Cupable Negligence.
KUDOS TO THE BUCS, who celebrated the Lightning's championship victory with a special intro on its Web site featuring Jon Gruden and John Tortorella toasting with the respective trophies. City of Champions? I like the sound of that.
THE BEST-DRESSED AWARD for Game 7 should be split between the guy wearing a suit with Tortorella stitched on the back and the guy wearing the tattered Calgary jersey. Tattered jersey? Hey, he said, he had been struck by Lightning.
THE FOUR GREEN FIELDS purists probably saw nothing wrong with the famed Irish pub choosing not to televise Game 7. Maybe there should be one watering hole that never allows a television to interrupt the flow of conversation, not to mention the flow of beer.
But I did have a problem with the fact that a projection television and screen were set up in FGF, making it look like the game would be shown there. By the time we realized the TV had been waylaid by technical difficulties, we had less than 30 minutes to scramble and find a new place to watch the game.
Thankfully, we found our way to the indomitable Tiny Tap and huddled around a TV above the pool table. Sure, I had to leave during the first intermission to get something to eat, and the smoke was palpable, thanks to one guy who chose to enjoy a cigar and a cigarette ... at the same time.
But when the strains of We Are The Champions played over the jukebox at game's end, the Tiny Tap ambience was unparalleled.
That's all I'm saying.
- Ernest Hooper can be reached at 813 226-3406 or Hooper@sptimes.com