I’ve been like a dog with a bone.
Bone, begins with B.
What triggered this obsession with the second letter of the alphabet? Not sure exactly, but somewhere in the middle of a brainstorming meeting for this year’s Summer Guide, it occurred to me that just about everything that’s fun about the summer begins with the letter B.
This revelation didn’t exactly light up the room — the reaction was more “oh, right,” followed by quizzical expressions that suggested doubts about my sanity — but I couldn’t let go. An alliteration addict, I didn’t stop till everyone else was hooked on the beauty of B as a guiding principle for the Summer Guide.
Baseball.
Beaches.
Beer.
Bands.
BBQ (Burgers, Brisket, Baked Beans, Baby Back Ribs…)
And so on, and so on. The power of B could not be denied.
Granted, you could probably do this with any letter (S: Sun, Surf, Sandcastles, Salmonella … Summer). But we liked B for the additional reason that Tampa Bay, despite its Super Bowls and World Series, its national conventions and natural beauties, is all too often consigned to the B List when we should be ranking up there with the big boys. How we move from second tier to first is a question that remains to be answered, but I think another benefit of the Summer Guide is that it shows just how much great stuff our area does have to offer, and I hope you’ll think so, too.
By the way, there’s one category missing: “Bullshit.” We tried on that one. We asked readers: What popular myths about summer are just that? Bullshit?
We got just one response. Kevin Ellis informed us:
“Against the law to drive barefoot. Not true.”
Kevin is correct. According to barefooters.org, the website of the Society for Barefoot Living, driving barefoot is legal everywhere except California. (And Alabama makes a point of forbidding barefooted motorcyclists, which seems sensible to us.)
So kick off those flip-flops and put your pedicure to the metal. Or, in keeping with this issue’s theme, barefoot that BMW, baby — and have a big, bad, beautiful summer.
