Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
A large military presence in the Florida Panhandle makes for an area that is generally
quite conservative in its politics, but, thanks to overseas rotations, is a bit more cosmopol-
itan than the deep piney villages of the north Florida interior.
When former
David Letterman
writer Rodney Rothman burned out, he decided to test
drive 'retirement' in Boca Raton - at age 28. A good Jewish boy, Rothman crafts a very
personal anthropological study of the unsentimental world of Florida retirees in
Early Bird:
A Memoir of Premature Retirement
.
In
Dream State,
bawdy, gimlet-eyed journalist Diane Roberts weaves her family's bio-
graphy with Florida's history to create a compelling, unique, hilarious masterpiece.
Roberts is like the troublemaking cousin at Florida's family reunion, dishing the dirt every-
one else is too polite to discuss.
Floridians at Play
Floridians are passionate about sports. If you let them, they'll fervently talk baseball, foot-
ball, basketball and NASCAR through dinner, dessert and drinks on the porch.
For the majority of Floridians, college football is the true religion. Florida has three of
the country's best collegiate teams - the University of Miami Hurricanes, the University of
Florida Gators (in Gainesville) and the Florida State University Seminoles (in Talla-
hassee). Between them these teams have won nine national championships, but, if any-
thing, they are even more competitive with each other. It's hardly an exaggeration to say
that beating an in-state rival is - at least for fans, who take deep pleasure in
hating
their
rivals - almost more important than winning all the other games. If you want to cause a
scene in Florida, tell an FSU student how much you love the Gators, or mention to a UF
student how great the 'Noles are.
Florida also boasts three pro football teams: the Miami Dolphins, Tampa Bay Buccan-
eers and Jacksonville Jaguars. There's a reason college football is so popular in Florida; In
recent years all three professional teams have (sorry, it must be said) royally sucked. The
Jaguars in particular seem to have made it a point of pride to be consistently the worst
team in the NFL. Florida has two pro basketball teams, the Orlando Magic and Miami
Heat. The Heat, who won back-to-back NBA championships in 2012 and 2013, are loved
in Miami and pretty much loathed everywhere else. The Stanley Cup-winning Tampa Bay
