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I may not have been able to make it to this week’s episode of the Creative Loafing Half-Hour Variety Hour, but I’m keeping our radio fans satisfied this week thanks to a kind invitation from WSLR 96.5 LPFM. Local Matters host Joe Hendricks contacted me a few weeks ago about appearing on tonight’s episode, which is focused on “the state of print media,” and I gladly accepted the chance to sit in with him, cohost Steve Norris, Pelican Press Staff Writer Stan Zimmerman and Sarasota Herald-Tribune City Editor Robert Eckhart. So tune in at 6, and the party don’t still 7!

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When the Sarasota Herald-Tribune informed us that the North Orange Avenue Quick Stop sold the winning lotto ticket that’s bringing in $1.4 million to a Sarasota resident, we hurried over to the Best of the Suncoast award-winning convenience store to snap a shot of the woman who sold the ticket: Donna Meyer.

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This column should have perforated edges so people can tear it out. It answers the number one wine question that echoes in my inbox and phone: What’s really tasty and affordable right now? Ever since this recession withered wallets around the world, it’s been my quest to find the best deals:

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Can a game succeed solely because of pop-culture fandom? Thankfully, Ghostbusters manages to capture enough ghost-wranglin’ gameplay that we don’t have to answer that question. We love the plot, find some fault with the repetitive — occasionally brutal — gameplay, and appreciate the light hand with Ghostbusters 2 fan service.

So, does bustin’ make the GammaTesting.com guys feel good? Sure. Good, but not great.

Listen up! (Then check out all the other Gamma Testing episodes.)

Gamma Testing Podcast Ep14: Ghostbusters

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Sam Raimi, the director behind the Spider-Man trilogy, The Evil Dead and Drag Me To Hell, is set to direct the upcoming live-action Warcraft movie announced Acitivison-Blizzard early last morning. Not only is the director of the Spider-Man trilogy behind the impending blockbuster, but the producer and production house behind The Dark Knight and Batman Begins, Charle’s Roven and Atlas Entertainment, will be at the helm of the Warcraft movie as well.

If you ignore Spider-Man 3 for just a moment, this team seems like it might do justice to a video game in movie form. Could it finally be?!

Press Release:
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Cliff Roles interviews Julie Hyzy

From our boy Cliff Roles:

White House executive Chef Ollie Paras has a lot on her plate, what with holiday meals to map out, the First Lady’s matchmaking plans to deflect, safety classes to take, and terrorist plots to avoid. Oh, and a senator’s assistant has been begging Ollie to rig the countrywide gingerbread-man-decorating contest in favor of the senator’s kids …

Then a cautious, kindly electrician is electrocuted, and the First Lady’s nephew doesn’t show up for an important event when not twenty-four hours before he was happily cleaning shrimp with Ollie. Ollie suspects there’s something going on that’s fishier than shrimp cocktail. Now, she’ll have to watch her back — and find a killer unlikely to be pardoned …

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Here’s how it works: Tell us why you deserve free tickets for a night with Dave Matthews Band in the comments section below, then email us your contact information. We’ll announce our winner on Fri., Aug. 7!

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Admittedly, visiting a ton of questionable Suncoast dive bars and then reporting back to you on what we found was probably not the most original idea for a special issue. But hey, as an excuse to walk into bars we’d never visited before and expense the beers we ordered to the company, the 2009 Drinking Guide: The Outsiders served its purpose. And if nothing else, it helped out the local dry-cleaning industry. My clothing stank from cigarettes after pretty much every watering hole I checked out.

But if Creative Loafing’s exporation of area dives could hardly be called original, what do you call a feature that rips it off?

Pick up the current issue of SRQ and flip to page 70 to find out what I’m talking about. Titled “Sweet and Low Down,” the article by Brian Hughes features a rundown on a series of Sarasota dives, more than half of which we covered in our Drinking Guide — Red Barn, Eight Ball Lounge, Entersection Bar & Grill and T-Katz — amidst the expected references to Bud and Golden Tee. (I’d link to the story, but the SRQ website hasn’t been updated yet with the current issue’s content.)

Now, we’re ecstatic that SRQ is bringing more attention to the fabled Beneva/Webber “four corners,” but how about a little acknowledgment coming our way? SRQ, we expect an apology. This is some bullshit.

CORRECTION

Hughes points out in the comments below that he wrote the article several months ago, and that SRQ merely held off on publishing it till now. I admit that I should have contacted Hughes to get the whole story first, and that I totally failed to make it clear that my beef is not with him at all, but with the magazine itself. Language like “rips it off” seems to refer to Hughes and not the magazine, and for that I do apologize.

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Ed. note: This piece, by Cecil Adams, will appear in next week’s issue of Creative Loafing.

I’ve seen pictures of Pangaea, the giant land mass that eventually separated into the continents we know today. But why were the continents smushed together like that in the first place? What made the land higher on that one side of the earth? Were there other continents we can no longer account for? Is it related to the asteroid that may or may not have smashed into the earth and helped form the moon? —Chris D., Cranston, Rhode Island

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Creative Loafing Half-Hour Variety Hour: Episode #22 (Part 1)

Creative Loafing Half-Hour Variety Hour: Episode #22 (Part 2)

It’s that time again! Time for more of the best banter on the Suncoast!

I’m taking a break from the podcast this week, leaving Food Editor Brian Ries and Events Editor/Staff Writer Tim Sukits to pick up the slack. How’d they do? You’ll have to tell me.

Brian leads the charge, with an in-depth discussion with a very special guest, former County Commission candidate Jono Miller. Miller is heavily involved in the CLUCK movement, as you’ll know from reading this week’s cover story. After the chicken-talk gets wrapped up, the boys move along to discuss the touching Allman Brothers Band documentary Please Call Home, which Burns Court Cinemas is screening this Friday.

Listen up!

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