Florida News Stories

"What If?" (by Eliot Kleinberg, Palm Beach Post, February 17, 2008) "Florida has been the scene of several near-misses that would have dramatically changed history."

"Mud-spattered tales from the Forgotten Coast of Florida" (St. Catherines Standard, February 9, 2008) "Lash a dead deer or a couple gutted wild boars to the ATVs racks, and you could likely run for sheriff. "

"Miami in June" (Isle of Man Today, February 15, 2008) "After graduating from the University of Kent in June, a friend and I felt we definitely deserved a holiday."

"Vultures Settling Into Urban Areas" (Miami Herald, February 9, 2008) "The winter visitors rest on high-rise balconies and peck at the rubber around automobile windshields. They leave abundant whitewash, and on rare occasions have flown into jets at altitudes greater than 3,500 feet. They roost, and often dine, communally."

"A stylish tradition: Mr. I Got 'Em's spirit lives at the Saturday Morning Market." (St. Petersburg Times, February 9, 2008)

"First lady Laura Bush visits Everglades" (Miami Herald, February 7, 2008) "Airboat rides and snake shows weren't on the itinerary for first lady Laura Bush's maiden trip to the Everglades."

More Books

Some more books about Florida or related in some fashion to Florida:

The Black Stallion Challenged, by Walter Farley. A children's horse racing story, set at Hialeah Park.

Cassadaga: The South's Oldest Spiritualist Community, edited by John J. Guthrie Jr., Phillip Charles Lucas, and Gary Monroe. A look at the history, people, beliefs, and architecture of a east central Florida community.

Walt Disney Imagineering: A Behind the Dreams Look at Making the Magic Real, by The Imagineers. Does knowing how something was created take away from the experience, or increase the appreciation for what was accomplished?

American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn, by Ted Steinberg. Read a review of the book from the Christian Science Monitor.

Florida Cracker Houses

Wow, Florida Cracker Houses sure have come a long way ...

Florida Cracker stock house plans from Houseplans.com

Photos of a Florida Cracker Homestead from Exploring Florida (Florida Center for Instructional Technology)

Suggested Reading:

Classic Cracker: Florida's Wood-Frame Vernacular Architecture, by Ronald W. Haase

Cracker Farmhouses: 1840-1929, from Old House Web

Cracker: The Cracker Culture in Florida, by Dana Ste. Claire

No White Shoes After Labor Day, or, Is Florida a Southern State?

Today is Labor Day, an occassion first observed 125 years ago to honor America's workers. In the intervening years, Labor Day came to symbolize the end of summer. Somewhere along the way, Southern women adopted a tradition that white shoes should be worn only only after Easter and before Labor Day.

So where does this leave women in Florida? Is this a Southern state, or not? A common generalization is that the further south you go in Florida, the further north you are. One professor I know sometimes muses that the line between the two is marked by whether you are served grits or a croissant for breakfast. I'm wondering -- could the line be drawn by whether or not women wear white shoes after Labor Day?

I don't want to get into North v. South debates -- we're all part of Florida's culture and heritage. But I am curious -- will women in Tallahassee be wearing white shoes this week? How about women in Miami?

Summer Road Trip Without Leaving Your Desk

A few months ago I blogged about other state and local history and culture blogs ("There's a Big World Out There"). Well, it's time for a little summer roadtrip --

BlogOklahoma.us ("Exploring Oklahoma's History") won the 2006 Okie Blog Award for Best Culture Blog. Read about a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere buried as a time capsule 50 years ago and recently unearthed.

Arizona Preservation -- "Posts and Musings from the Arizona Preservation Foundation"

Searching for Minnesota ("Things That Make Minnesota Great") With "quirky" prairie chicken, otter, and viking statues.

North Carolina Miscellany, "...a blog produced, edited, and maintained by the North Carolina Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill." Recent posts about barbeque and Cheerwine, and lots of historic images.

Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi -- learn about growing zucchini and the history of bentonite mining, among other things.

And last, but certainly not least, two very thoughtful blogs about a region rather than a particular state: Appalachian History and Hillbilly Savants.

New Florida Books

Michael Gannon's History of Florida in 40 Minutes (hardcover + cd, University Press of Florida, $24.95)

If you like to judge books by their cover, you'll be glad to know this one is exactly what it claims. Eminent Florida historian Michael Gannon summarizes Florida's past into ten key populations, ~70 widely spaced pages of text, and a 40-minute CD (included with the book). Good for commuters, a quick refresher for long-time residents, or an introduction for people who just moved here.


Florida's Living Beaches: A Guide for the Curious Beachcomber (Blair and Dawn Witherington, softcover, 326 pages with index, Pineapple Press, $21.95)

There you are at the beach, looking for shells, and you find them, along with lots of other neat (or gross) things. But what exactly are your treasures? Even if you do remember to pack the nature guides in the beach bag, how many different books would you need to lug out there to identify the shells, the birds, the fish, the everything. Now it's all in one tidy book, with clear color photos and text, from chicken liver sponges to sea purse beans.


Faces on the Frontier: Florida Surveyors and Developers in the 19th Century (Joe Knetsch, softcover, 214 pages with index, The Florida Historical Society Press, $23.95)

This book is a collection of 15 essays and articles about the men who mapped the Florida wilderness. In it you will meet Robert Butler (who married Andrew Jackson's wife's niece, and was the first Surveyor General of Florida), John Wescott (who fought to have money from sales of state lands -- every Section 16 -- put into a school fund), John Jackson (who put Tampa on a map), and Albert W. Gilchrist (who struggled to survey the mangove coast of Sanibel Island years before he became Governor).


Southern Comforts: Rooted in a Florida Place (Sudye Cauthen, hardcover, 192 pages, Center for American Places, $29.95)

Blending memoir, local history, family stories, and ancient cultures, Sudye Cauthen shows us the Alachua as she experiences the place. This book isn't in the stores yet, but you can order it online. Last week at the Florida Historical Society meeting, I heard her read a selection from the book, in which she wove memories of a beloved aunt with a description of archaeologists unearthing burials at a long-forgotten Spanish mission. I'm very much looking forward to reading Southern Comforts from cover to cover.

Florida Cookbooks and Kosher Food

"A Taste of Manatee" (County, that is) in today's Bradenton Herald reminds us that food is a important part of regional culture. Treasured Editions celebrates the 75th Anniversary of Bradenton's Entre Nous Club, and What's Cooking in Cortez is a community cookbook benefitting the Cortez Village Historical Society and F.I.S.H.

The Walton Sun recently published a review of Seasonal Florida, a regional (Florida panhandle) cookbook originally conceived as a way to raise money for repairs to the Stuart-Knox-Gillis House in DeFuniak Springs.

It's not a cookbook, but another food-related article in the press recently was "Kosher Wars Hit South Florida." Evidently Publix, Winn-Dixie, and Albertsons are duking it out over the kosher market sector. And on another tangent, did you know that the Florida Department of Agriculture has a "Kosher from Florida" marketing program?