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2020 January

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Letters to the editor with pictures since 2002. Published on Big Pine Key’s garbage days, Tuesdays and Fridays.

[Eat Healthy] A long time ago when I was a youngster, I kept crickets for bait and thought it might be good to do that again. Little did I know that they are healthy and reportedly tasty to eat!
Crickets are about 20% protein, 50% less calories than beef, and 25-30% fat including high Omega 3s, About a quarter of the world’s population eat bugs and it’s growing by about 24% annually. Reportedly, House and Banded crickets are the tastiest- described by one gourmet as a combination of mushrooms, parmigiana and nuts. What they eat has a big influence on flavor. You bake them or boil for 10 minutes to kill bacteria. I think a “meatloaf” would be most acceptable to serve guests. You can tell them that they ate as they are leaving and thanking you for the delicious meal. That way, they won’t spew on your carpet.
[Coronavirus Death Toll Jumps To 81] Nearly 3,000 people have now been infected as the Chinese government extended its Lunar New Year holiday by several days, to Feb. 2, to stem the spread. Many big firms are shuttering their branches nationwide or telling employees to work from home, while Shanghai has ordered all companies apart from supermarkets, utilities and medical suppliers to close until Feb. 10. What’s next? The director-general of the World Health Organization is in Beijing to collect more information, while Asian markets flashed signs of investor concerns and demand for safe-haven assets jumped.

 

 

I get static noise from the 23-watt guitar amplifier plugged into a pure sine wave inverter on my truck. The inverter is plugged into the car lighter thing. There is less static when the engine is running. Is there something I can do to stop the interference?

[Whalesong] Whales were being hunted to extinction, when in 1967, a biologist realised they could sing. It changed the perception of whales and helped found the modern conservation movement. Audio

 

 

[Test For Teenagers] If you are over the age of forty and need a good laugh watch these two teenagers attempt to use a rotary phone. Video

Here are some statistics for the Year 1920:
The average life expectancy for men was 47 years.
Fuel for cars was sold in drug stores only.
Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.
Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower .
The average US wage in 1920 was 22 cents per hour.
The average US worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2,000 per year.
A dentist earned $2,500 per year.
A veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year.
And, a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
More than 95 percent of all births took place at home
Ninety percent of all doctors had no college education! Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and the government as “substandard.”
Sugar cost four cents a pound.
Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
Most women only washed their hair once a month, And, used Boraxor egg yolks for shampoo.
Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.
Trulieve pot dispensary on Duval Street. Link
[United Way Unites] On Monday, United Way of the Florida Keys and United Way of Collier County announced that, as of April 1, 2020, the two organizations will merge, bringing us together as United Way of Collier and the Keys. Together, we can accomplish more, have a greater impact, and build capacity to strengthen our work for local families,” said Debbie Mathews Finch, United Way of Collier County Board Chair and Maria Jones, United Way of the Florida Keys Board Chair in a joint statement.  Both leaders look forward to managing this exciting transition. By working together, it will further our mission of improving lives of paycheck-to-paycheck ALICE residents, in both Collier and the Keys. This collaboration will move us towards achieving that goal.
[House For Rent] On 2 acres in the center of the National Key Deer Refuge on Big Pine Key, this secluded, large 3-bedroom house has two full bathrooms and central air conditioning. Tile floors, stainless steel appliances. Large elevated deck outside the living room. House is on stilts with a full concrete ground floor where the laundry room and the storage/workshop are located. The laundry room has washer and dryer hookups. Impact windows all around mean no hurricane shutters are needed. The house sits on two wooded acres that includes a lovely natural pond. Two minutes from shopping center. No smokers please. Utilities are not included. $2,700 a month, plus first, last and a $1000 deposit ($6,400 is needed to move in).
For more photos see Craigslist Link
[222 Pounds Of Liquid Meth] Agents arrest driver after finding hidden drugs in truck’s gas tank. Video

 

 

[Boating] They don’t tell you that you can’t open a can of beer going 40 mph because the foam will blow all over your face. I still forget about that from time to time depending how thirsty I am.

[Avoiding Depression] Rather than slip into depression, man quits job, sells possessions, and travels the world with a ferret. Link

 

 

[Cold in the Keys] Have you been hit by a frozen iguana falling from a palm tree? You may be entitled to a settlement.

[Bureaucracy] Florida sits on $900M in aid while storm victims wait. HUD’s disaster recovery grants are slow to go where they’re needed. Link

 

 

Watering a manatee.

[Colonial French] Around 1928 the French went into Algeria and took everything they wanted. They merely had the courts they installed write deeds. With these deeds they evicted  Arabs families who’d lived there for generations. The Arabs had to leave their homes, sometimes with just three days’ notice.  They had no deeds–no kinds of papers at all. Just dirt and a goat or two. That’s how the Colonial French were ‘legally’ able to take their homes by writing their own deeds. By 1930 France had completely ruled Algeria and the north coast of Africa as a colony for their exploitation. The Arab residents tried to expel them in 1954, but the French secret police brutalized the Arabs. Killing them indiscriminately to create fear and thus quell the revolt. It didn’t work. The French were defeated by 1962.
Dyslexics are teople poo!
I was mystified watching a sewing machine work and the stitches it made. Convinced that it was not really magic, I researched how the machine locks two threads together to make a stitch. Along the way, I found a brief history of the invention. In 1833: Walter Hunt (1796–1859), inventor of the safety pin, built a lock stitch sewing machine, but initially declined to patent it, and later abandoned it for fear of putting textile workers out of a job. John Greenough pulled the first patent in 1842, Elias Howe improved on it in 1845, and Isaac M. Singer copied from Howe and patented an affordable machine in 1851 which he sold on “hire-purchase” (credit) and made a fabulous fortune. The Singer company announced a computer controlled machine in 1978 and in 2016 a robotic clothing sewer was introduced by Jonathan Zornow of Seattle. It remains to be seen if Bangladesh sweat shop workers will lose their jobs to Seattle robots. The lock stitch sewing mechanical principle is fascinating and perhaps best shown in the images. Link
[Power Outage] “A distribution line outage affecting approximately 3,800 Keys Energy customers in the lower Keys was triggered at 5pm. KEYS’ crews are working to restore power.” Cause was attributed to a fault within the Cudjoe Key Electrical Substation”.  Really? There were a lot of tree planting/hauling trucks in the right of way during the outage.  Electrical companies say “Call Before You Dig” for a reason.

 

 

 

[Grateful Community] United States Marine Corps Sergeant Ray Gutierrez presents VFW Commander and State Attorney Dennis Ward with a $500 check, as a donation to Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10211 to assist in Veterans Programming and Wounded Warrior Ride. This contribution was generously donated by Mr. John Sweeting of Sweetwater Homes.

[Anger] I think it’s unfair that I have to manage my anger just because people can’t manage their stupidity

 

 

 

 

This unique gate at the Sugarloaf Lodge restaurant is made of fishing rods.

[Trivia] The first reported waterbeds were used over 3,000 years ago when Persians filled goatskins with tar, sealed seams with water and left them in the sun to warm.
The first in-flight meal served was turkey and vegetable aboard the zeppelin Ilia Mouriametz in 1914.
Eratoshenes measured the radius of the earth in the 3rd century B.C. and was 99% accurate. (while sailors elsewhere worried about falling off the earth hundreds of years later)
The first Ford cars had Dodge engines.
A snail has two pair of antennae- one pair sees, the other smells.
The Yale Book of Quotations most memorable quote of 2007: :”Don’t tase me, bro!”
Sir Isaac Newton was only 23 when he discovered the law of universal gravitation.
There is zero gravity at the center of the earth.
A black hole in the Perseus galaxy emits sound waves in B-flat.

 

 

[Cold Weather] The only good thing about this cold weather is the iguanas freeze to death

I’m sitting on the front porch because my wife is singing in the house and I don’t want the neighbors to think I’m hitting her.

 

Florida Keys Concierge MedicineLink