Long-time readers know that I take a certain amount of pleasure in mocking Florida, where I was born and raised. There\u2019s just something … unique<\/i> about it.<\/p>\n
Take, for example, a Tampa-area school firing a substitute teacher for doing a magic trick<\/a> for his students.<\/p>\n The telephone call that spelled the end of Jim Piculas’ career as a substitute teacher in Pasco County came on a January day about a week after he performed the disappearing-toothpick trick for a group of rapt middle school students.<\/p>\n Pat Sinclair, who oversees substitute teachers in the Pasco County School District, was on the phone. She told Piculas there had been a complaint about his performance at Rushe Middle School in Land O’ Lakes.<\/p>\n He asked what she meant. “She said, ‘You’ve been accused of wizardry,'” Piculas said.<\/p>\n He said the statement seemed bizarre to him, like something out of Harry Potter.<\/p>\n Piculas said he replied, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He said he also told Sinclair, “It’s not black magic. It’s a toothpick.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Oh sure, it’s a toothpick today<\/i>. But what about tomorrow? What will we tell parents when a substitute teacher starts trying to do spells? Or shows kids pictures of Willow from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”? Or accidentally turns someone into a newt? Hmm?<\/p>\n As Piculas — who, as far as I know, is not a warlock — explained it, he got a call after doing his trick from the head of supervisor of substitute teachers. “He says, ‘Jim, we have a huge issue, you can’t take any more assignments you need to come in right away,'” Piculas said<\/a>.<\/p>\n