Call him imaginative. Call him determined. Call him stubborn. Just don't call him blind. ...more

June 14, 2008

TAMPA PALMS - Call him imaginative. Call him determined. Call him stubborn. Just don't call him blind. Liberty Middle School eighth-grader Peyton Short can barely make out images because of a genetic condition that has left him visually impaired. But it hasn't kept Peyton from his first loves of reading and writing. His passion for the written word was evident with his recent score on the writing portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. He earned a perfect score, one of 22 students in his school to earn the top mark. ...more

June 10, 2008

It's that time again for some bon mots, or clever remarks, to help usher in the new year. The problem is I can't think of any even though we just stepped over 2008's starting line. When it's time to turn over a new leaf; to make new resolutions; to bury the hatchet; to forgive and forget. Perhaps it's a result of holiday doldrums that I've come up dry this year. The excitement and anticipation winds are out of my sails. I don't even feel like going into a rage over anything, which today seems to be the catchword. As in road rage. Just when I thought every type of occurrence was labeled I read about something that's called "wrap-rage" – the frustration one feels when they can't rescue a product from the stupid package it comes in. Maybe I can coin the term ring-rage to describe how one feels when that little tab on the top of a can separates from the top before the top separates from the can, and it takes a pair of pliers to get the top off, and juice is spilled all over you in the process. ...more

January 5, 2008