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Letter to the editor

Talk of the bay: JetBlue's latest promotion is a real Homer

By Times staff
Published July 4, 2007

JetBlue Airways touts itself as New York's hometown airline. But on Tuesday, the low-fare carrier declared a different affiliation: the Official Airline of Springfield. As in the home of Homer and Bart Simpson, Krusty the Clown and Montgomery Burns. As part of JetBlue's marketing deal with Twentieth Century Fox, the airline will adorn its first specialty airliner - christened "Woo-Hoo, JetBlue!" - with Homer's mug. On the airline's Web site, Simpsons characters declare their favorite destinations. Members of JetBlue's frequent-flier program, TrueBlue, can enter a sweepstakes for prizes, including a trip for two to Los Angeles for the premiere of The Simpsons Movie.

TECO's McDevitt calls it a career
TECO Energy's highest-ranking female executive has retired, effective this week. Sheila McDevitt, senior vice president/general counsel and chief legal officer, had been with the company for 26 years. Tampa Electric, the chief subsidiary of TECO Energy, first hired her as government affairs counsel in 1981. McDevitt, 60, will continue to work as a consultant and focus on her support of higher education. McDevitt is chairwoman of St. Leo's Board of Trustees, and vice president of the Florida Board of Governors overseeing the state's universities. Her successor as general counsel: Charles A. Attal III.

Top-dollar iPhones are hard to find
Apparently those delays in activating an iPhone aren't much of a deterrent to buyers. The iPhone was reportedly selling out at most stores Tuesday, less than a week after its debut. The $599 version, which was more popular than the $499 option, may have helped the device earn as much as $186.1-million in its opening weekend, based on estimates from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and iSuppli. In Tampa, the Apple store at International Plaza ran out of the more expensive 8-gigabyte phones, but as of Tuesday afternoon, it still had some 4-gigabyte phones available, said Wayne Traina, manager. Traina said he expected to have a limited-quantity shipment of 8-gigabyte phones today.

Markets closed
U.S. financial markets will be closed today in observance of the Fourth of July holiday.

[Last modified July 3, 2007, 23:08:40]