I finally dug up a few more examples of the kind of front pages I design at the St. Petersburg Times. Click in the first link above, or click Design Portfolio in the link list on the left.

This batch includes a section front from May 11 with a peculiar centerpiece. A pair of lambs marauded around Tarpon Springs, and our photographer clicked a shot of the duo in the back of a police car. Fun art can inspire design. That page was produced in our old system. I designed it with pencil and pica pole on graph paper. After I finished, a “paste-up” assembled a full-sized puzzle of the page, which would get scanned onto a plate for the press.

It’s all done on computer - no paper, no pica pole. Any fronts after mid-June come from the new post-pagination era.

The latest batch of fronts also features a July 26 front about a fire. That one has dramatic art that I managed to put into an attractive package for the earliest deadline I work on.

Enjoy.

Ed. note: This is the first in a when-I-feel-like-it series of meditations on “third places,” spots to spend time that aren’t home or work.

I’ve attended two baseball games recently, a Tampa Bay Devil Rays game and a Clearwater Threshers game. The former, I think, cost too much to qualify as a viable “third space.” At the stadium, I spent almost $25 for an evening’s entertainment. That adds up for a family.

For argument, let’s put the cost of admission to the third dimension at about the cost of a movie, per person. Better less, but no more. The Threshers game was $6 for a decent spot off third base close enough to hear the players’ chatter. A bank promotion gave each ticketholder $1 in a gimmicky deposit envelope. Net: $5. (Grass seats were even cheaper at $3.) The game started at 7 p.m., and lasted until 10 p.m. A mere $5 for three hours of entertainment is a steal. Even if I had eaten at the stadium, like I did at the Rays game (a pretzel and a soda big enough to drown in), I bet I couldn’t gotten out for under $12. If your kids like popcorn, a baseball game runs cheaper than a movie.

The Threshers “dismantled” the Brevard County Manatees 11-5. It was fun to watch. The Manatee dugout even threw a fit at one point, adding to the drama.

I’ve had an indifference to sports in the past, though I’m learning. As a third dimension, a baseball game wouldn’t come first to my mind. Still, it makes the grade. It was cheap, and gives guys an activity where they can talk without having to make eye contact.

I bought the new release from 7L and Esoteric, A New Dope, as birthday gift to myself. Though I still have listening to do, I will say it switches backdrops on earlier efforts from the hip-hop duo. Esoteric’s beats invade lands ruled by the likes of Dangermouse or DJ Shadow. 7L lives up to the relentlessness of the album I first listened to, DC:2 Bars of Death.

As far as the birthday, it was Saturday and it’s 33 - one of those “so?” birthdays for me. Still, I had fun teaching myself again the danger of liquor Slurpies. Friends from work were kind enough to take me to Wet Willie’s at Baywalk. (I think I first thought it was a Fat Tuesday, but the concept’s the same.) I drank an icey thing named “Call a Cab.”

I’m still intent on another instant karma self-satifying birthday purchase, but haven’t found it. It’ll speak to me when I do. Maybe it’ll be a ticket to An Afternoon with Kevin Smith. Hmmm…tempting. Thanks for the heads up, Tampa Film Fan.

Today’s meditation is a crude euphemism for excrement.

In the S-bomb heard ’round the world category President George W. Bush, talking this week of the current Mideast crisis, issued a call of action to Arab nations: “What they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit, and it’s over.”

Tough talk. Hearing it, I laughed a bit. I think everyone did. The infrequency of unscripted comments from the White House, any administration, makes the few offhanded remarks that spill out things to cherish.

I won’t suggest that this event was scripted. I’m cynical, but not that cynical. Rather, I welcomed its bald-faced honesty. I empathized with Bush because I shake my head and hurl the same types of sentiments toward my TV. Why can’t Hezbollah just knock this sh*t off? Doesn’t Israel realize turning infrastructure into rubble isn’t f**king helping matters?

For just an instant, Bush’s spurt spurred a vision of a world stage where leaders speak forthrightly and honestly. A world where countries call out other countries and vice versa.

Visualize with me. Imagine President Jimmy Carter checking Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini when he insisted the U.S. was the “Great Satan” during the Iran Hostage Crisis. “With all due respect Khomeini, kidnapping civilians is the work of cowardly a**holes.”

Think of Reagan: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this f**king wall.”

Think Clinton: “Frankly senators, that’s none of your f**king business. And, furthermore, you can take this impeachment trial and shove it up your a**.” Then he could dance a la Lisa Simpson out of the Senate chambers playing his sax.

It doesn’t work that way. But I draw comfort from the fact that it can, if only sometimes. I could use more laughs watching the news.

Today’s meditation subject is simplicity.

I cleaned out a few tubs from the storage area yesterday. I put myself through this cathartic exercise now and again to counter a strong pack-rat instinct.

Judgement by judgement, I picked through old computer boxes and cell phone cords. I found the original packaging for my 3rd generation iPod, now more than three years old. Trashed. Look, promo tote bags from each journalism seminar or convention I’ve attended. Good riddance.

Simplicity. It’s about clearing clutter. It also means taking surplus options off the table. America enjoys a mean freedom-of-choice streak. That streak can devolve to the point that we spend energy chasing options without quite grasping those options. But, I digress.

I narrow three tubs into two. It’s a small accomplishment, but satisfying in its way. Things we own have weight - both physical and mental. Getting rid of the former transforms the latter.

Me and my better half recently went to Belize, where I bought a walking stick. I’ve grown quite attached to it. Here’s a detailed view. It’s carved from the hard wood zericote.

Nothing makes a man feel more like a king than an elegant, well-carved scepter. If it were longer, I might forego the remote and use it to change the channels on the TV.

Weekends are for relaxing. Today’s the first full day of my weekend. Ergo, I’m relaxing. The agenda:

1. A strong cup of coffee. Cafe Bustelo, to be exact. Measure the right proportions into a French press, you have thick black heaven with a crema.
2. A little writing, hence this post and maybe others later.
3. A little reading. I’m planning to finish Republican Like Me, and next on deck are selections from Feet to the Fire.
4. Yoga. Stretching keeps this mortal coil flexible and springy.

Of course, that agenda’s written on an Etch-A-Sketch. I reserve the right to shake it up.

Sen. Ted Stevens seems to be.

Let this primer video clear things up for you.

Thanks to trashing stinks for the link.

Oh, and in the flurry of the recent days I passed a milestone: blocletter’s 200th post. If you’re reading this, thanks.

This post wraps up suggestions for “beginning within” to improve personal and, eventually, public character and discourse. Read the first installment here, and the second here.

As I hinted in the first post, disappointment inspired this series. I’m disappointed in an American public sphere that includes shouting, name-calling and righteous intolerance. We can do better. This third post continues to explore goals that can help us overwhelm that disappointment.

Work. Hard. Enjoy your work, but at the same time don’t live to work. I’m guilty of this; I often work overtime, sometimes at the expense of other, more important, parts of my life.

On the other side of the spectrum, don’t be a burden. A social safety net is necessary. It’s intended to catch those who cannot avoid falling into it. If you have an able body, use it. I cannot understand it when able-bodied people teach themselves helplessness and sink into life by charity.

Example, I was approached by a man on the street two nights ago. He gave me a story about needing a $27 bus ticket, and quickly added that he didn’t expect me to give him all of it, but would appreciate whatever I could give. I know I’m better off financially than many, so I gave him $1 (all that I had in my wallet). Not only did he act vexed that all I gave him was a free $1, he glanced as the ATM behind him as if he expected me to get more cash. Um, no. Whoever you are, don’t be that person.

As another example, I mentioned in the previous post that I volunteered at a food pantry for a while. I handed out free groceries for needy families. If I had a nickel for every time I took armloads of free groceries out to a family’s car, only to see a massive bass woofer in the trunk, I’d have at least $1.50. If you’re that person, get your priorities straight.

One last idea on work: Try to work ethically. Buddhists call it “right livelihood.” Work honestly and try to make that work reconcile with your own and prevailing ideas of right and wrong.

Save. This goes hand-in-hand with work. Again, a social safety net is necessary, but why would you not save? It only aggravates issues like Social Security and Medicare, which currently dominate the public discourse.

Moderate. I don’t advocate temperance, because I wouldn’t expect (or want) that of myself. I enjoy a drink now and again (and again). But soberness of mind means soberness of discourse and expression.

When I was young, my parents had a bar sign that read, “Never trust a man who doesn’t drink.” I like that sentiment. Somehow, people who don’t drink seem stuffy and Ned Flander-ish to me. Still, don’t overdo it. Same goes for drugs and cigarettes. No excuses for hard drugs like cocaine and heroin. If you like to smoke pot (which I maintain is safer than alcohol), fine, but don’t make it your lifestyle. As for tobacco, it’s a free country, but don’t ask me to pay for your health problems.

Moderation also includes ideas, but that comes back to the first goal, listening. Don’t get all of your information from the same source; your understanding of the world - and contribution to it - will be richer for it. That includes Fox News. That includes The Daily Show.

Work. Save. Moderate. Those are the ideas I have for now, though I may (and likely will) return to these themes. You might say I drifted. I began in the first installment of this series by asking of public discourse, what is constructive? How does one push ideas forward to improve things for himself and those around him?

In asking those questions, I quickly concluded that sound discourse begins with sound mind and body. I didn’t want to lecture, but if you made it through all of this, you probably felt quite a bit of finger-wagging. If you did, maybe you needed to feel it. I sure did.

And, in case you weren’t paying attention, let me distill this nearly 1,800-word diatribe down to two words that can do wonders for how we see and act toward each other in the public sphere: Begin within.

This post continues on the themes and ideas in the previous post. Those themes discuss matters of character and personal choice that contribute to a smoother, more sane, public discourse.

In the earlier post, I explored listening, learning and speaking up as important building blocks to mature interaction with others. They apply to chatting with strangers at the pub, friends at a party or family around the dinner table. They also apply to the podium, the political platform and (please, oh, please) cable television current events shows.

This post goes into more personal goals, though the same disclaimers described in the previous post apply. These goals help round out the person. Begin within.

Act. Okay, so you’ve listened and learned. What next? Practice. In this sense, I mean what Christians call “good works” and Buddhists call “right action.” Provide an example of good living to others through responsible, thoughtful and charitable actions. Open doors for people. Greet others on the street or in the office with eye contact and a good-natured attitude. Know that, save for the grace of God or circumstance, you could be that other person.

Part of acting is sacrifice — of time, money or knowledge. Whatever it is, pass it on. Volunteer. Mentor. I volunteered at a food pantry for more than two years, and that experience continues to inform my passion and compassion. Do things you don’t have to do just for the sake of doing them. You’re a richer person for it.

Cultivate. Go out and make friends, lasting ones. Watching TV the other night, I heard a definition of friend: someone who’ll hide you. If ascending fringes in society come knocking on your door with guns and grimaces, do you have friends who’ll Anne Frank you? Once you have a few friends like that, pay your people bills. Call them on their birthdays. Visit their home for dinner. Go shopping. Go fishing. That’s what friends do.

Lighten up. It’s frequently, gravely, unfunny. But life is still a joke. You enter this world and leave it in a blink. Why spend your time in between with your panties all bunched up? Stressed out? Knock it off. Take yourself too seriously? Chill out. This goal is not meant to drain meaning from day-to-day action. Just because it’s a joke, doesn’t mean it’s meaningless. Work past that nihilism, and laugh at it too.

Act. Cultivate. Lighten up. These goals build on the “begin within” ideas I put forth in the previous post. Again, I write these as a means of focusing my thoughts on what it means to be a constructive person and, thus, citizen. Any inspiration or challenge they may offer to readers is purely coincidental.

Next post: more constructive criticism of myself and others.