9:31 p.m.: The Good Luck Café in Ybor City mimicked a church – just for a moment – as partiers offered a minute of silence in honor of Barack Obama. ...more

November 4, 2008

8:30 p.m. Obama supporters continue to pour in the open doors of the Good Luck Café in Ybor City, joining about 85 partiers noshing on free chicken wings and meatballs, ready to cheer on their man. ...more

November 4, 2008

If you can't convince them — confuse them! ...more

October 22, 2008

Residents of Phuket, Thailand, are celebrating the Vegetarian Festival, which calls on devotees to purify themselves as they take on the sins of the community. A vegetarian or vegan diet is eaten for up to 10 days as a rite of spiritual cleansing. Devotees whom the gods enter during the festival manifest supernatural powers and perform feats such as walking on hot coals to bring good luck to the community. The festival originated in 1825 when the community noticed that illness spreading through a traveling opera troupe disappeared after its members ate a vegetarian diet. ...more

October 5, 2008

I happened to stop at Van's Bar-B-Q the other night to pick up a menu and take some ribs home. Needless to say the ribs were absolutely delicious! I haven't had ribs this good since I left Fort Worth, Texas, years ago. ...more

September 11, 2008

"The 19th Wife," by David Ebershoff (Random House, $26) ...more

September 7, 2008

Wearing a "Vote Obama" T-shirt, Joel Gennari of Lutz sat at a table at the Good Luck Cafe in Ybor City on Thursday, clapping and nodding with other supporters watching the broadcast of the Democratic National Convention. ...more

August 29, 2008

Readers offered words of encouragement and community pride in response to a story about the Citrus Park Little League team heading to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. ...more

August 20, 2008

JTLYK (Just to Let You Know), here are common texting code words and their English translations. For instance: ...more

August 16, 2008

While many couples across the country went out of their way to schedule their weddings for Aug. 8 as a way of securing good luck, a South Shore couple took the theme in a slightly different direction. Carmine and Joanna Caporaso planned for their second son, Ryan, to be born on Aug. 8 at Brandon Regional Hospital. However, the Caporasos ended up taking the 8-8-08 gimmick to the extreme — the infant was born precisely at 8:08 a.m. "We had selected that date a while ago and my surgery was scheduled for 7:30 a.m.," Joanna said. "Once we were in there, and we saw that it was getting to be close to 8:08 a.m., I told them, 'If we can make it happen, let's try to make it happen.'" ...more

August 15, 2008