A performance that could help save a life

Image courtesy of Flickr user lilbluelola.

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Performance Against AIDS: Frankly Scarlett in downtown Fort Walton Beach will again be the venue for Performance Against AIDS V, a fund-raiser for OASIS and its efforts to improve the quality of life for local folks who are living with AIDS.

Expect a variety show, also starring local folks, on June21 at 10 p.m. Ticket prices are $8, with limited VIP tickets going for $50. That’ll get you a reserved seat at the show and two complimentary drinks, but more importantly it’ll sponsor a second ticket for a person living with AIDS or who is HIV-positive and wants to attend the show.

There’ll be hors d’oeuvres, door prizes, and no-show tickets that people who can’t attend but want to help can buy.

It’s all for OASIS, which provides financial assistance and support services to people in Okaloosa and Walton counties affected by HIV and AIDS.

For more info, give Melissa Welch a call at 314-0950, or fax her at 314-0952. Frankly Scarlett is at 217 S.E. Miracle Strip Parkway.

Bay Day in May: Camp Timpoochee was the site for the first Bay Day – a fascinating celebration of science and environmentalism that organizers hope to make a yearly event.

The flora and fauna that make up the bay and its watershed were on display, and Steve Rider of the Department of Environmental Protection even brought his Okaloosa darters, the endangered fish that in the past has stirred up more than just sediment around these parts.

An afternoon thunderstorm swept away brochures and knocked over planters, but everybody crowded under the camp enclosure and waited for Mom Nature to get her act together. It was all part of the scene.

The Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance did a good job with its first festival and they’ve got a year’s preparation time to make the second an even bigger and more elaborate event. Plan on it for ’98.

That coveted Bowlegs loot: The Bowlegs treasure hunt winners are promised $500 in gift certificates from downtown businesses.

That’ll buy a lot of skull tattoos.

And a whole FLOCK of partridges in a pear tree!

Words that should be words: “Phonesia,” as in the affliction of dialing a phone number and forgetting whom you were calling just as they answer.

This week’s wire weirdness: ASSEN, Netherlands (AP) – A pilot dubbed Capt. Flinstone because he insisted pm singing the theme to the popular cartoon series over his small plane’s radio has been sentenced to four months in jail.

Authorities jailed pilot Wim de Nijs because his March 1996 prank tied up a radio frequency used by air traffic controllers at the airport in the northern Dutch city of Groningen.

By bellowing out “Flintstones, meet the Flintsones, they’re a modern stone-age family” for 20 minutes, de Nijs drowned out controllers’ contacts with other aircraft, prosecutors said.

Redneck computer terms: “Mouse,” as in a fuzzy, softy thing you stuff in your beer bottle in order to get a free case.

Headlines that did not work: “British Left Waffles on Falkland Islands.”

This column was originally published in the Wednesday, June 11, 1997 edition of the Northwest Florida Daily News.

About the author:

Del Stone Jr. is a professional fiction writer. He is known primarily for his work in the contemporary dark fiction field, but has also published science fiction and contemporary fantasy. Stone’s stories, poetry and scripts have appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Eldritch Tales, and Bantam-Spectra’s Full Spectrum. His short fiction has been published in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; the Pocket Books anthology More Phobias; the Barnes & Noble anthologies 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, and 100 Astounding Little Alien Stories; the HWA anthology Psychos; and other short fiction venues, like Blood Muse, Live Without a Net, Zombiesque and Sex Macabre. Stone’s comic book debut was in the Clive Barker series of books, Hellraiser, published by Marvel/Epic and reprinted in The Best of Hellraiser anthology. He has also published stories in Penthouse Comix, and worked with artist Dave Dorman on many projects, including the illustrated novella “Roadkill,” a short story for the Andrew Vachss anthology Underground from Dark Horse, an ashcan titled “December” for Hero Illustrated, and several of Dorman’s Wasted Lands novellas and comics, such as Rail from Image and “The Uninvited.” Stone’s novel, Dead Heat, won the 1996 International Horror Guild’s award for best first novel and was a runner-up for the Bram Stoker Award. Stone has also been a finalist for the IHG award for short fiction, the British Fantasy Award for best novella, and a semifinalist for the Nebula and Writers of the Future awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award. Two of his works were optioned for film, the novella “Black Tide” and short story “Crisis Line.”

Stone recently retired after a 41-year career in journalism. He won numerous awards for his work, and in 1986 was named Florida’s best columnist in his circulation division by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001 he received an honorable mention from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his essay “When Freedom of Speech Ends” and in 2003 he was voted Best of the Best in the category of columnists by Emerald Coast Magazine. He participated in book signings and awareness campaigns, and was a guest on local television and radio programs.

As an addendum, Stone is single, kills tomatoes and morning glories with ruthless efficiency, once tied the stem of a cocktail cherry in a knot with his tongue, and carries a permanent scar on his chest after having been shot with a paintball gun. He’s in his 60s as of this writing but doesn’t look a day over 94.

Contact Del at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, TikTok, Ello and Instagram. Visit his website at delstonejr.com .