"In this sticky web that we're all in, behaving decently is no small task." -- Novelist Stacey D'Erasmo

Monday, January 26, 2015

Pizza, and More!

     I'm not the only Baby Boomer who's recently visited the Sunshine state, or who has returned to face snowstorms and freezing temperatures. But Meryl Baer of Six Decades and Counting has an especially interesting take on the phenomenon. She came home after spending four weeks in the great state of Florida, and now offers some amusing insights about traveling in her post Four Weeks from Home.

     She lists the Ten Benefits of Being Away from Home (one of them: "I do not have to eat leftovers!"). And then she goes on to contemplate the Ten Advantages of Staying at Home ("Really good pizza.")

     As for me, I found a great pizza place when I was in Florida, better than anything I get around my neighborhood at home. So if you're ever in Bradenton Beach, FL, and looking for good pizza, give me a shout. I have a recommendation.

     Meanwhile, on a more serious note, Rita Robison, consumer journalist, writes on The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide about a consumer group that's questioning the marketing used by Life Line Screening, a national cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis screening company. The company's advertising makes unproven claims ("Helps save thousands of lives!") about the medical benefits of its screening package and omits information about the health and financial risks.

     Kathy at Smart Living 365 tackles an equally important, but much more personal issue, in her post Not My Monkey. Not My Circus. If you want to know what that phrase means -- if you've ever found yourself sucked into involvement and drama that is not of your doing, and not under your control -- then swing over her post and find out how to scramble out of the thicket of other people's problems.

     Finally, Laura Lee Carter, aka The Midlife Crisis Queen, proves that the mainstream media is beginning to take bloggers seriously, She received an invitation to Steve Harvey's Success Summit in Chicago, and will go on an all-expenses-paid jaunt to the conference sponsored by Strayer University, to debate and discuss the meaning of success. Harvey is also holding a mini-press conference just to meet VIP bloggers like Carter.

     Wish her luck!

 

17 comments:

Olga said...

Ah, the pizza discussion! Always a conversation starter in Florida!

Anonymous said...

I don't eat pizza very often, but do use the monkey-circus phrase,

Welcome back to the real world.

Anonymous said...

I love pizza, too.

Sally Wessely said...

We are going to Florida next month. It will be my first visit. I'll have to add my two cents worth when I get back.

stephen Hayes said...

I've never been to Florida, but it sounds familiar. I may have heard of it.

Unknown said...

Need the name of the pizza place. I will be on Anna Maria for 6 weeks (saw you were there).

Tom said...

I love Anna Maria Island. I'd retire there if only a) I could afford it and b) I could get B to consider living anywhere outside the Northeast.

I can't find the name of the pizza place (I think it recently changed hands); but it's a casual place with outdoor seating on the sw corner of Gulf Dr. and Bridge St., opp. the Bridge Street Bistro. Hope you enjoy! P. S. Stephen ... you've got to get your Gator on!

Rosaria Williams said...

We lived in Florida for six years. Too hot, humid and flat. Not to mention all those big bugs...

MaryAnn said...

Not my monkey is a very useful phrase, especially with prowl who have defines a list of shoulds for you

#1Nana said...

I have accepted the mission...find a way to weave the monkey/circus phrase into conversation. It's much harder now that I'm retired. There would have been many more opportunities when I was working.

DJan said...

Pizza is one of those foods that can be really good or really awful. I visit Florida usually once a year to visit my sister, and it's always in the winter. I cannot imagine what it's like there in the summertime. :-)

Kathy @ SMART Living 365.com said...

Hi Tom! Thank you once again for generously including my post in your blogger roundup! You are generous, thoughtful and a man who knows good pizza! Thanks again. ~Kathy

Laura Lee Carter said...

Hey Tom! Thanks for getting this out there for us all! Chicago was a BLAST! http://www.midlifecrisisqueen.com/2015/01/finding-sense-success-success-summit/

joared said...

Visited Fla. both coasts many yrs ago on our Sr. class trip, -- yrs later to Orlando on business coincidentally when Disney World opened. In between times had purchased Coral Gables lot when first opening. While there were aspects of Fla I enjoyed, I concluded I'd never want to live there after a night in Miami just before a hurricane arrived. Humidity @ heat at midnight overwhelming so later sold lot & have no regrets. Love the West, Southwest, whole West Coast..

Tabor said...

I do not remember if I have ever eaten pizza in my many trips to Florida. But they do have lots of good restaurants down that way.

Dick Klade said...

Don't recall any Florida pizza, but I do dimly remember several gin and tonics imbibed to ward off malaria possibly carried by those pesky mosquitoes. Must have worked, never got malaria.

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