• Arts writer Tanya Perez-Brennan is leaving the Times-Union for the Orlando Sentinel.
• Three 7-foot basketball prospects were outside Jacksonville University’s locker room Saturday night and the JU Coach, Cliff Warren, was asked, “Are those guys yours?” He answered, “Not yet.” He needs them, as was obvious when JU lost to Florida State by 30 points, 76-46.
• It was looking grim for the hospitality industry here when favored football teams started losing and dropping out of contention for the Dec. 3 ACC title game and the Jan. 2 Gator Bowl but it’s brighter today. The ACC game almost certainly will now bring Virginia Tech and their rabid followers here instead of Miami and their stay-home fans, and that should guarantee a sellout even with the discouraged Florida State fans on the other side. The Gator Bowl will have an excited Louisville, which may bring enough fans to offset their likely opponent, Miami. But it’s not over: the best ticket-buyers of all, the Clemson fans, still have a chance to get here.
• Former JEA spokesman Ron Whittington has opened his own public relations agency.
• • •
Attorney Carl Dawson passes along a suggested (and not serious) want ad:
“A law firm commanding
Position of standing
Requires a general clerk.
A man who’s admitted
To practice, and fitted
To handle diversified work;
Must know the proceedings
related to pleadings,
The ways of preparing a brief;
Must argue with unction
For writs of injunction
As well as for legal relief.”
• • •
• The airport authority’s Bob Simpson might be around Riverside during the holidays. His wife and daughter are setting up a Christmas shop at The Row restaurant and Simpson’s role will be to handle the heavy lifting.
• Lots of sports here in early December. The USA Track and Field Association has its meeting Nov. 27-Dec. 3 at the Hyatt and that will overlap with the Atlantic Coast Conference championship football game crowd.
• A new book on vaudeville includes some tales about Jacksonville’s Jimmy Edmondson. The book, “No Applause — Just Throw Money,” recalls the late Edmondson’s act as Professor Backwards. He could speak and write backwards and turned the oddity into a popular act during the middle of the last century.
• In the 2005 fiscal year, the Jacksonville Port Authority set several records. Total cargo shipped through the port grew to a record of 8,448,654 tons, a 10 percent increase over last year. There was a 78 percent increase from last year in passengers who boarded cruise ships departing from the cruise terminal: 138,289 passengers this year compared to last year’s 85,382. The port authority’s operating revenues rose to $33 million from last year’s $31 million.
• The FCCJ Men’s and Women’s Chamber Choir and Chorale will perform holiday favorites at 8 p.m. Dec. 2 at FCCJ South Campus. Director of Choral Studies R. Wayne Bailey leads the Chorale, which performed at the 2005 American Chorale Director’s Association National Convention in Los Angeles.
• If you think you might need a taxi on Thanksgiving this year, good luck. About 40 vehicles from Gator City Taxi will be helping St. Vincent’s Medical Center deliver more than 350 turkey dinners on Thanksgiving to people served by the hospital’s Meals on Wheels program. Gator City Taxi has been involved in the special delivery service on Thanksgiving for more than 10 years.
• Looks like Merrill Lynch might be bringing about 800 new “high-wage” jobs to Jacksonville. In a joint press conference Friday, Mayor John Peyton, the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce and Merrill Lynch & Co. announced that the company has applied for Florida’s Qualified Targeted Industry Tax Refund Credit in order to expand its Jacksonville-based operations. The proposed expansion would increase the company’s employment numbers in Jacksonville from 1,700 full-time employees to 2,500 and would increase its local payroll by almost 60 percent.
• The Jacksonville Port Authority’s annual Christmas barbecue is set for 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Dec. 14 at the Port Authority’s cruise terminal.