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Daniel Ruth, Times Columnist

Daniel Ruth

Daniel Ruth has been scribbling away for four decades as a reporter, film critic, television critic and columnist for the Tampa Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Tampa Bay Times. He also has worked as a radio talk show host as well as an adjunct professor for the University of South Florida, the University of Tampa and Columbia College in Chicago. Daniel is a Peter Lisagor Award recipient for his columns in Chicago and has been honored by the Pinellas County Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union with the Irene Miller Vigilance In Journalism Award.

Email: druth@tampabay.com

  1. Ruth: Turanchik's ferry plan makes sense but is likely doomed

    05/18/13ColumnsBy Daniel Ruth, Times Columnist

    Commissioner Choo-Choo has just morphed into Commissioner Anchors Aweigh!

    You do have to hand it to former Hillsborough County Commissioner Ed Turanchik — at least he thinks big. There's something to be said for that, even if some of what Turanchik's critics might say is unprintable.

    It was Turanchik who led the effort to bring the Olympic Games to Tampa Bay. Yes, those Olympics, even though the probability of landing the Games was about the same as Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods double-dating....

  2. Ruth: For Obama, a bad week to quit smoking

    05/16/13ColumnsBy Daniel Ruth, Times Columnist

    You're the president of the United States sitting there in the Oval Office reveling in the power of it all, including access to Vladimir Putin's code name (Mr. Snagglepuss, by the way). While watching the Daily Show, you're informed that Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Inspector Javert, is trying to turn the botched reaction to the Benghazi attacks into Teapot Dome, the Dreyfus Affair and Mel Gibson getting stopped for speeding....

    McClatchy Newspapers

  3. Ruth: This Winter means cold, hard cash

    05/13/13ColumnsBy Daniel Ruth, Times Columnist

    Given the success of Dolphin Tale, based on the story of Winter, the tailless dolphin nursed back to health at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, it was probably only a matter of time before state Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Air Kiss, and state Rep. Ed Hooper, R-Let's Have Lunch, would discover their inner Hollywood's Darryl F. Zanuck.

    If this goes on much longer these two chaps are going to start showing up in Clearwater wearing ascots, name-dropping Brangelina and threatening people that "they'll never work in this town again!"...

    Winter the Dolphin, whose story was told in the film Dolphin Tale, has caused attendance at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium to soar.

  4. Ruth: Christie's weighty political considerations

    05/09/13ColumnsBy Daniel Ruth, Times Columnist

    Don't you suspect it's likely New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took a long hard look at himself and mused: "Whoa, I think I'm gonna need a bigger mirror."

    Think of this as Christie's "Come to Papa John's" moment.

    So it was understandable when Christie announced he had recently undergone a stomach-reducing Lap-Band procedure in an effort to get his weight — estimated to be in the Tony Siragusa range of 350 pounds — under control....

  5. Ruth: Mothers provide enduring lessons on laughter

    05/08/13ColumnsBy Daniel Ruth, Times Columnist

    As a small child I learned many valuable life lessons from my mother — how to brush my teeth, remembering to say "please" and "thank you," and what a really, really ill-advised idea it is to throw a grade school report card laden with D's and F's down the sewer.

    Yeah, that was a really, really bad idea. She was not amused. Nor were the Sisters of the Consecrated Thumbscrews.

    Time passes. And so, too, do the lessons to be gleaned from a mother over a lifetime. My mother, Ruth Ruth, has chosen to live and lead by example, even if the example from time to time was Eva Perón....

  6. Ruth: The governor who wasn't

    05/06/13ColumnsBy Daniel Ruth, Times Columnist

    Only in political life do we stumble across people who aspire, yearn, crave to hold high and powerful offices without the slightest clue about what the job requires.

    And yes, you would be forgiven if the first name that comes to mind is Gov. Rick Scott.

    It was telling that Scott needed a civics 101 class when he admitted after being sworn into office that he hadn't fully realized he was the guy who has the authority to sign death warrants....

  7. Ruth: Public again feels wrath of Legislature

    05/02/13ColumnsBy Daniel Ruth, Times Columnist

    First some good news. By the end of the today, the Florida Legislature will declare "sine die," which is Latin for "thank goodness we're done with all this time-wasting lawmaking piffle and can now get down to the real work of stuffing our pantaloons with fat, juicy campaign contributions."

    Or words to that effect.

    The bad news is that the Legislature will have been in session for 60 days, which effectively means a Gitmo detainee has gotten a fairer shake from government than your great unwashed member of the body politic....

  8. Ruth: Florida's running of the fools

    04/29/13ColumnsBy Daniel Ruth, Times Columnist

    When you hear the words Dade City, the elegant, old-world charms of Pamplona, Spain, do not immediately leap to mind.

    Pamplona was forever engraved in literary history when Ernest Hemingway wrote about the annual running of the bulls through the city's streets in his 1926 novel, The Sun Also Rises.

    And ever since, certified morons have been flocking to Spain to see if they can be among the 200 to 300 people who get trampled yearly, or, if they are looking for that special distinction of stupidity, one of the 15 or so who have gotten themselves killed over the decades. Good times, good times....

  9. Ruth: Creating two types of high school diplomas shortchanges teens

    04/27/13ColumnsBy Daniel Ruth, Times Columnist

    If you're the parent of a teenager as you might be reading this at the breakfast table, take a long, hard look at that mono-syllabic, brooding life form attached to his or her iPhone and ask yourself a simple question.

    As much as you love them, as much as they might be really great kids when they aren't regarding you as a complete idiot, is that young man or woman remotely qualified to make a life-altering decision for themselves?...

  10. Column: Florida's best and brightest, in Scott's eyes

    04/25/13ColumnsBy Daniel Ruth, Times Columnist

    Apparently Gov. Rick Scott has a rather flexible bar when it comes to determining "greatness."

    With the governor passing out "Great Floridians" secret decoder rings as if they were Gasparilla beads, it is only a matter of time before our beloved skunk ape, the Creature of the Black Lagoon and lap dance impresario Joe Redner are recognized for their distinguished contributions to the state's quality of life....

  11. Ruth: More gambling? Report is a sure thing

    04/22/13ColumnsBy Daniel Ruth, Times Columnist

    Here's an offer the Florida Legislature can't refuse.

    The Founding Moochers in Tallahassee have decided to pay $400,000 to a New Jersey company, Spectrum Gaming Group, for a term paper to determine the efficacy of expanded gambling in Florida.

    Now what do you think the Spectrum Gaming Group of New Jersey is going to conclude after it analyzes, studies, dissects and chin-rubs its way through flow charts, statistics, graphs and focus groups?...

  12. Ruth: Terry Kemple's school board candidacy a columnist's conundrum

    04/20/13ColumnsBy Daniel Ruth, Times Columnist

    This ambivalence probably qualifies as the columnist's conundrum.

    Our fair hamlet's resident Good Book political huckster Terry Kemple, the Harold Stassen of the New Testament, has announced he plans to run for the District 4 Hillsborough County School Board pew in 2014, which certainly deserves an extra olive in a perfectly dry martini, or two, or three.

    And therein lies the conflict of self-interest....

  13. Ruth: Out of gun barrel, the end of normal life

    04/18/13ColumnsBy Daniel Ruth, Times Columnist

    ‘Let's kill 'em."

    There are some words and some nights you never forget. They linger. They become an old, chronic ache seared into your memory — forever.

    On March 18, 1967, I was an awkward 17-year-old kid on a date to attend a charity basketball game at St. Vincent High School in Akron, Ohio, which pitted (ironically) faculty members against members of the Summit County Sheriff's Office....

  14. Ruth: Lieutenant is a major waste of resources

    04/15/13ColumnsBy Daniel Ruth, Times Columnist

    At $124,851 a year, Florida's lieutenant governor has to be the most expensive professional ribbon-cutter in the state.

    My goldendoodle Gracie, who stares out a window all day long occasionally barking at a falling leaf, has a more demanding workload.

    But the fact that former Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll made Maynard G. Krebs seem like a burning-the-midnight oil workaholic didn't prevent Gov. Rick Scott's No. 2 from racking up $300,000 in Florida Highway Patrol security costs. And that was probably just the No-Doz expenditure....

    Protecting former Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, right, cost Florida taxpayers $300,000.

  15. Ruth: Potential disaster abounds in aquarium three-way

    04/13/13ColumnsBy Daniel Ruth, Times Columnist

    Please forgive an indelicate question.

    Traverse the by-ways of our fine hamlet and you will invariably be exposed to billboards touting the Clearwater Marine Aquarium and its resident Laurence Olivier of critters, Winter the dolphin.

    By now everyone is pretty familiar with Winter, the star of Dolphin Tale, the cute-as-the-dickens creature who was fitted with a prosthetic tail fin, which went on to save her life as well as the much beleaguered aquarium that rescued her....