means of getting a candidate's opponent. name on the ballot. If this woman wouldn't do SThe woman glowers and her homework about the can- waves around the hose. Mak- didates now, when would she? .ing it clear that she will not Does she even know who her sign, not now and notever, she elected representative is? I by Andrea Brunais nevertheless wonders aloud don't efhbarrass.her by asking. whether Karen Perez will stand "I don't like signing blindly," l t up and say that gay marriage the woman continues. From Flat-Footed Soldier in the W ar for Dem ocraC y is wrong. Marriage should be immense respect for Karen I Karen Perez is smart, com- between a man and woman. decline to answer: "I guess you. mitted, dedicated to children, I think it's at this point prefer voting blindly." passitnate about making a dif- that I-sputter and some of my Down on the sidewalk cam- ference just the sort of person ginger water deposits itself on paign maager Margaret Cribbs we need in our -special-inter- my quadricep or what would smiles. "Don't worry," she says. est-bound Florida Legislature. be riy quadricep if it weren't "Last week, I had a man who Because I believe in Karen and covered with new white Ann saw that Karen is a Democrat her story (former victim of do- Taylor fabric. Despite having tell me, 'you people are on the mestic violence improves her- delivered her opinion of gay wrong side of God.'" selfwith advanced degrees and marriage, she still isn't inter- At least he gave a cogent now seeks to make the world a ested in dialog. She began to reason for refusing to sign. :better place), I did something water down the stucco. I can see neighborhood :e|||g pc ln of mrukthing,, ee unthinkable. a 9 By this time I start to learn residents wanting to keep the I hauled my 20-pounds- l tthe territory. Forest Hillsstreets soap salesmen, child-candy overweight body out of bed are charminglynamedTallTree hawkers and door-to-door and into new Ann Taylor white and aOk Vine and such. Many evangelists at bay At the sme pants on Saturday morning, residents are not so pastoral. I. time, I know that yong men put on my green designer flop- fall into the "thinker" category are being shot up in Iraq so py straw hat, tied a dollar-store on personality tests, so I am that we can keep democracy scarf around my sun-averse not quick.to discern someone's alive. Democracy means that neck and met Perez's campaign emotions. -But 30 minutes someone just might show up manager, Margaret Cribbs, in int the job even I .recognize on your doorstep on S turday Forest Hills near T a Pams outright hostility. to ask for your signature to get Forewst Hils nearTampa Palms.re don't know anything a flesh-and-blood candidate on knewustonethingforsure: VolunteerEdithBergold and campaignmanager about her," one woman says the ballot. before te m g ws ove Margaret Cribbs seek signatures in Forest Hills. in a brittle tone, drawing her I left Forest Hills :after an blue bathrobe close to her hour, having gained aflushed The C o f y as some sort of odious stain ginger water in purse, I find throat. She isn't about to let me fac, three pounds of water been doingsies in would have'deposited itself on myself trdging door to door teli her anything about Karen weight and two signatures. Ybor Cty since 1906" my new pants.. having mastered .the spiel, Perez, either. I am somewhat Somehow it wasn't the stain on To digress, for a moment... "I'm out here campaigning for hurt, because I have held my my pantsthat distressed me so one of my idiot sisters (there Karen Perez,. State House seat tongue and declined to rub much as the mark of indiffer- are three) talked my 79-year- 60, your district. She needs the woman's nose in the fact ence marring our democratic old mother into sending a 900 signatures of registered that Karen Perez was the very soul. saliva sample to some labora- voters to get on the ballot." woman who ran in this very I think of Plato: "Those who tory that tracked our maternal Front-doors in Tampa are districtjust two years ago, col- are .too smart to engage in SiDNA. We now have way too: scary. Cobwebs, dead plants, lecting 42 percent of the vote politics re punished by be- much information about our tacky lawn ornaments. Few despite having one-tenth of the ing governed by those who are personal hominid evolution. people are home at noon on volunteers and money of her dumber." Our ancestors, it turns out, Saturday. I pass a woman in FRAN OSTANTINO were of the Cro-Magnon tribe pink stretch pants watering DeS t Tous ua Se OKthat wentnhorth to the Russian her lawn with a hose and think DeSoto Tours Juan Sebastion Ssteppes before heading over to I may score. Europe. This explains my pale She gestures with the hose skin, which burns on the way toward her front porch. "You 5 COMPANY to the car. I should never be can leave the literature there REAL ESTATESERV S outdoors in June. and my husband will look. at But nooooooo. Tall, lithe it later." 2216 4TH A6 4TH AVE. E. Karen Perez is a former stunt I squelch what I'm thinking STAMPA, FL 33 5 double in the movies, a thera- about her delegating that ce- pist with Hillsborough Kids rebral-cortex task to her hus- P~E8 1 and the kind- of person who, band. (I also suppress my opin- after you meet her, makes your ion of pink stretch pants.) I say FAX: 813-241-6868 life never the same again. So that her signature would not with clipboard in hand and be an endorsement but, only a "A Toast to all Fathers and to Our Founder on Father's DA Y" FO NTE BROTHERS PIONEER ONE OF AMERICAS FINEST DRY CLEANERS Celebrating 90 years SHIRTS BEAUTIFULLY HAND FINISHED FAMILY OPERATED SINCE 1915 The City of Tampa hosted a special field trip for Fonte Family History Tampa, Florida 80o students from DeSoto Elementary School to 71915-2006 tour the official Spanish Training Vessel "Juan After two years of working as a barber Ignazio would befriend a young man named BL Sebastian de Elcano" on Monday, June 5, 2006. Reers. The young German immigrant was a fabric dyer and would convince Ignazio to open his The ship was docked at the Port of Tampa, Ter- own shop in Roberts City in the rear of the barber shop. Reers would leave Tampa for minal 3. Charleston, leaving young Ignazio to dye clothes and the cutting of hair. Reers would work his The field trip provided the students with the way back to Tampa, stopping in Atlanta and working for a man named Stoddard. In one of opportunity to tour one of the largest antique Tall these trips to Atlanta, Mr. Stoddard was experimenting with a 'dryclean' process for wool Ships on duty. The ship is currently used as the clothing using gasoline instead of water. This prevented the wool from shrinking. When he official training vessel for the Spanish Military returned to Tampa he introduced his good friend Ignazio to this "dry clean" process for and referred to as a floating embassy. Captain woolens. Salvador M. Delgado and his crew welcome dthe Now the residents of Tampa did not have to send their better clothes to Atlanta for this students along with Mayor Pam Iorio. method of cleaning! Juan Sebastian de Elcano is a 37o-foot topsail In 1915 Harry Roberts would construct a building for Ignazio. The brick building had living schooner from Spain that was launched in 1927 quarters above the clean and dye business below. After Reers married, his wife did not want to for the then Royal Spanish Navy. The ship has remain in Tampa, so he returned to Charleston leaving the business to his friend Ignazio. made numerous trips around the globe and is In 1954 Ignazio's sons incorporated the dry clean and laundry business he started in 1915 and named after the Spanish seafarer who sailed with it was given the name "Fonte Bros. Pioneer Cleaners". It has been a family business since 1915! Magellan and took over after Magellan's passing in the Philippines. If you have to drink Please do not drive IAdvertisc in La Gaceta: 248-32, LA GACETA/Friday, June 16, 2006/Page 13