SARASOTA/SIESTA KEY
Observer
A+E Back to normal. PAGE 14
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
FREE • THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2022
VOLUME 19, NO. 5
YOUR TOWN
2022 Year in Photos C
an we talk for a moment?
We’ve been through a lot, huh? There we were, tooling along just
fine a couple years ago. A round of golf here, a bike ride there, a little barbecue now and then and a nice cigar. Then, whammo, we’re all wear-
File photo
The annual Pineapple Drop New Year’s Eve bash is Saturday.
Pineapple Drop almost here If some 20-somethings quizzically stare pineapple-ward in wonder at why Sarasota’s New Year’s Eve street bash would revolve around SpongeBob SquarePants’ house, well ... enter that conversation at your own risk. The rest of us will be reveling in the annual Pineapple Drop — just like New York City’s Times Square one, but with a pineapple and without a drunken Anderson Cooper — on New Year’s Eve. The event with music, food, drinks and more will be centered at Lemon Avenue and Main Street but spreads out over several blocks. The Sarasota Police Department asks those planning to celebrate to leave backpacks, coolers and alcohol at home.
ing masks and checking drive times on Google maps to a place called Micco where a Publix store had a single COVID-19 shot appointment open at 8:30 tomorrow morning. Since then, we’ve dodged hurricanes, survived elections and worked like heck to get back to where we were when all this craziness started.
File photos
MARCH
GET ON THE BUS, GUS The city’s Bay Runner trolley went into service shuttling tourists, residents, and on its maiden voyage, city commissioners and other leaders, between downtown and Lido Key. The free service, financed by a Florida Department of Transportation grant and the city’s economic development fund, subsequently won mobility innovation awards.
It wasn’t easy, but we’re here to tell
APRIL
you, we seem to have made it. In looking
RADIOCONTROLLED FUN More than 160 kids from elementary school through high school and their families either raced radiocontrolled creations at Suncoast Science Center/ Faulhaber Fab Lab 7th Annual Remote Control Custom Car Open or they were cheering on the 60 teams from 18 schools. Jonathan Keisacker’s car apparently did well.
back through the thousands of photos our reporters took in 2022, we were hardpressed to notice much of a difference as compared to normal. No masks, no clear plastic barriers and, with the exception of a photo we shot in the first days of January, no signs of social distancing or anything. Just Sarasotans doing Sarasota things. So, as 2022 fades into a typically glorious Siesta Key or Lido Key sunset, we look ahead to even more normality in 2023.
SEE PAGE 3
Courtesy photo
Nearly 1-year-old Zev Mellits may be dressed for Philadelphia weather, but he doesn’t have to enjoy it.
Winter? It’s just better here Dr. Mark Kauffman and his wife, Irene, recently had a fittingly photographic (and adorable) reminder of why Florida winters are preferable to most anywhere else. As our area returns to normal from one of the chilliest Christmases in years, we submit as evidence a snap (Dare we call it a cold snap?) of their great-grandson, Zev, on a recent visit to Philadelphia with his Sarasota parents. As Dr. Kauffman put it, “It made me think again of why I moved to Florida!”
JANUARY
GOOD, CLEAN FUN Recreational use of soap was on full display at the Bazaar on Apricot and Lime when bubble artist Blaise Ryndes arrived with his acclaimed Sphere Bubble Show. Between massive bubbles big enough to envelope a child to tiny ones that prompted squeals of glee, there was plenty going on to entertain. Oh, and moms and dads had the chance to sample boba tea, otherwise known as bubble tea.
APRIL
TRYING TO GET AHEAD City leaders grappled with the problem of a series of St. Armands Circle statues that are missing appendages because of accidents, tomfoolery or outright vandalism. Though not part of the city’s official public art program, the various statues have a following in the shopping district.