Read Vanessa Gezari's story from Houston: On the way to Wal-Mart, they passed a mosque and a truck selling tacos. Inside, Jauney wondered at the food on the shelves: the giant taro root, rough-skinned and hairy, the dried chili peppers and lemon-flavored Lays.
"I wish they had crawfish," she said.
It's a shame that, right now on the St. Pete Times Web site, this elegantly written, incisive and timeless piece of journalism is just one of several links overshadowed by a whatever, people-got-sick-on-their-cruise-ship-that-has-docked-in-Tampa article that will be forgotten by the time I watch "Grey's Anatomy" tonight. (Sorry, Gershman, you certainly tried with the material at hand.) So much for stymying the death of newspapers when the Times web handlers can't highlight the best stuff for which the paper is celebrated. And what about the Times' investigation of the Hillsborough School Board? The one that appeared on A1 today? Someone who stops by the Web site won't even know it exists without doing the scroll thing, and picking Hillsborough, and clicking another link, etc.
If the newspaper is going to devote so much editorial effort to this story and others, then hey, let's showcase that good journalism for the online readers. Not everyone will care to read all those inches, of course. But let's make it an option alongside the cruise-ship virus headline that basically screams diarrhea.