Few books in my lifetime have been more timely than David A. Kaplan's soon-to-be-released analysis of the U.S. Supreme Court titled "The Most Dangerous Branch." Advance copies already are out to reviewers before the book's September 4 publication date -- just as all eyes are turning back toward the U.S. Supreme Court this week. The retirement … Continue reading The Most Dangerous Branch
One of my earliest legal mentors was Miami's famed First Amendment lawyer Parker Thomson, who died last November. In 1986, I was fortunate to spend my last summer of law school working for his boutique media firm, then called Thomson Zeder. One case I helped research involved a subpoena that actor Don Johnson had obtained … Continue reading Remembering Parker Thomson
You might never find Broken Arrow Bluff Park in Gainesville if you don't know exactly where it is. The park sits behind a nondescript fence at the end of a nondescript cul de sac on the edge of a nondescript neighborhood of small homes. It is hidden just northwest of Archer Road and I-75. But … Continue reading Gainesville’s Broken Arrow Bluff
Haile Homestead near Gainesville is unusual because its long-dead people still talk. Not as haunts, but in penciled thoughts. You see, for reasons lost to history the family wrote on the walls of the house -- more than 12,000 words. Their notes tell a story of hardship and isolation in a harsh agricultural life here … Continue reading The Talking Walls of Haile Homestead
Imagine the scene: A man, his wife, and four children arrive in Central Florida in 1854 to hack a 1,500 acre cotton plantation out of the subtropical wilderness. How can they possibly do it with such a small family? -- Only with the help of nearly 60 enslaved men, women, and children they forced to … Continue reading Life of a Slave-Owning Family in Gainesville
No one knows how Lake Alice got its name. The name appears on historical maps for the City of Gainesville in the 1890s, replacing the earlier title off Jonah's Pond. Today the lake is the ecological beating heart at the center of the University of Florida. Alligators often sun on its shores as wading birds … Continue reading Lake Alice
Baughman Center is one of the most stunning images on the University of Florida campus. Rising from the shore of Lake Alice, its architecture leaps skyward with the natural geometry articulated so well by Frank Lloyd Wright. Today the chapel in the Baughman Center is open weekdays for meditation and personal contemplation. It is frequently … Continue reading Baughman Center at Lake Alice
There is no other way to say it. In the Florida heat, bat guano stinks. And not just any stink. No, it is a nose-twisting gut-churning stink that merges the worst qualities of a chicken yard with those of a pigsty and a cow pen. And throw in a sewage treatment plant while you're at … Continue reading The Wily Bats of Gatortown
One of the things I love about Gainesville is the way its landscape blends familiar southern trees like live oaks with lush tropical undergrowth. You can see this effect most fully around the area's natural springs. One of the best sites is the old Gainesville waterworks located at Boulware Springs just north of Paynes Prairie. … Continue reading Boulware Springs
It is official. I reach Social Security age tomorrow. Perhaps that explains why buzzards are circling my house. All my life I watched people shake their heads whenever anyone reached 62 as if to say, "What a pity. Can't believe a single word they say anymore." So, everyone just help me find my chair in … Continue reading On Reaching Social Security Age
Robert Craig Waters 