• One who’s hoping the New England Patriots will be in the Super Bowl is new Winn-Dixie boss Peter Lynch. He’s a big fan of the team.
• FM-89.9 will have an African-American talk show host in 2005 after all. They’ve been running a show hosted by Tony Cox, but National Public Radio couldn’t work out a new contract with him so they’ve signed on Emmy Award-winning journalist Ed Gordon. He’ll start sometime in January.
• ImprovJacksonville will welcome 2005 with two New Year’s Eve performances at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Both shows are 90 minutes and will feature ensemble players in a totally improvised, unscripted comedy show.
• The David A. Stein Jewish Community Alliance will host the third annual Family Wellness Expo and Open House on Sunday, January 9 from 1-4 p.m. It’s free and open to the public.
• A local development has won a national promotion award and all it took was a can of shoe polish. St. Johns Forest, a Taylor Woodrow community off I-95 South, won first place in the Idea of the Year contest sponsored by the National Sales and Marketing Council of the National Association of Home Builders. The can of shoe polish came with the invitation with the words “After a party like this, everything else will look a little dull” along with an invitation for prospects to attend a tour of the construction site. The idea was that you’d get your shoes dirty ... and they provided a shoeshine man at the party.
• The Rev. Bruce Grob, vice chairman and chief operating officer of FreshMinistries, will lead the organization’s Africa HIV/AIDS initiative. Grob, a former Bolles School vice president and college professor, will oversee the project, which seeks to help African churches improve and increase their health outreach programs.
• Better arrive early if you want a decent seat at today’s Gator Bowl Hall of Fame luncheon. Former Florida football Coach Steve Spurrier is among the inductees and he’ll be on the dias with two former Florida State players who are being inducted. Might be a few laughs along the way.