Letters to the editor with pictures since 2002.
Published on Big Pine Key’s garbage pick-up days,
Tuesdays and Fridays.
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| [Ignoring Covid] A County commissioner dies of COVID. The coconut Telegraph posted a picture of those in attendance including Miss Holly R. None wore a mask. The Honorable Miss Holly gets the governor’s nod to fill the dead COVID victims’ Commission seat and the WEAKLY paper shows a picture of her and her kid getting sworn in — no masks. Also in that same paper, The WEAKLY, they touted an event where everyone who is someone in Marathon showed up, again no masks. Enough already with fakery. It’s do as I say, not as I do for the elite in the Keys because they think COVID isn’t for the elites I guess. |
 [Social Media Outage] Facebook and all of its apps go down simultaneously. Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were down for 6 hours. The outage comes the morning after “60 Minutes” aired an interview with a whistleblower who said Facebook is aware of how it amplifies hate, misinformation and unrest but claimed the company hides what it knows. The whistleblower will testify before Congress at 10am, today, Tuesday. Video |
| [Boycott English] The fact that Kansas & Arkansas are pronounced differently bothers me more than it should. Pronouncing words that end in ‘ough’: Cough, bough, rough, dough, through, though, thorough. Is the “S” or the “C” silent in science and scent? Why does Fridge have a “D” in it, but refrigerator doesn’t? Why are Zoey & Zoe pronounced the same, but Joey and Joe aren’t? You can drink a drink, but you can’t food a food (to be fair, you can eat eats). The word “Queue” is just a Q followed by 4 silent letters. [It may be the only word with 4 silent letters in a row. Do you know of any other English word that has 4 silent letters in a row?] Why is a “W” called a Double U when it is clearly a double V? |
 [“Why does my kitty not do as I command”] Do as you command? This is either a joke or you’ve just met your first cat! Let me tell you a quick story. I brought Bella & Daisy home about 3 months ago. I’ve used a very gentle approach with them to get them past their shyness. Bella is very persistent about trying to get to my food and sticking her face in whatever I’m drinking. I move the cup, she goes with it and sticks her face in it. One night not long ago we had been doing this for about 10 minutes when I finally snapped and yelled, “STOP IT!” They had never heard this tone before and looked at me like I had lost my damn mind. After a few days of them giving me the cold shoulder and me kissing their furry little butts, we reached a treaty of epic proportions and it goes like this: They will continue to do whatever they want, whenever they want. I will not yell. If I would like to eat or drink in peace I am more than welcome to eat in the bathroom with the door closed. In return, they will allow me to pet them, feed them, clean their litter boxes and play with them. Rules are subject to change depending on their mood. Any questions? |
| [Free Money] I am Mr. Hui Ka Yan. I am donating a grant of $10,500,000 USD to you. Contact me for further details. Thanks and God bless. |
 The Eagles tackle their 1976 classic ‘Hotel California’ backed by an orchestra at the X. Of course, this isn’t the same Eagles that recorded the original “Hotel California.” Following the 2016 death of co-founder Glenn Frey, fellow co-founder Don Henley said the Eagles were now history. But soon after, Henley reversed course, hired Frey’s son Deacon and country legend Vince Gill and hit the road running.Back in 1976, the Eagles had reached what turned out to be the peak of their power. They opened the year with the compilation “Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975),” which has since become the best-selling album of all time. Henley also noted the Eagles signed their first record deal 50 years ago this month. Friday night’s show proved they’ve still got the goods. Video |
| The October AARP calendar is here. Full Menu > Ongoing Events |
[What’s an 8-Track] I stopped by a little country dinner this weekend and they had this on the shelf. |
| [Facebook Revealed] Don’t listen to anything they say. They are the masters of algorithms. They can tell you how long they can prolong a topic or debate down to the second. They are that good at it. They can create the perfect selection of words to perfectly and completely bamboozle us. |
[Witness Protection] This is what happens when you rat on the dog and you need to enter the witness protection program. |
| [Politics Page] Some people only want to complain and spew lies and hate. These people never look at the bright side. Poor souls. It’s no wonder they are relegated to the Politics Page! |
 I just saw a novel way of reducing crime statistics from Chicago. There, it seems, that when there is a shootouts between 2 gangs, the county prosecutors claim it was “mutual combat” and therefore the changes are dropped and therefore no crime. Un-believable! I remember back in the land of bad things, we had free fire zones, where anything that moved was killed. Sounds like Chicago has evolved into a free fire zones. Glad I left there back in ’84. |
| [Too Big To Control] With two billion users, Facebook is too big to control. That is why the government must regulate it. Users don’t want it regulated because they like all the lies and hate. That’s what makes it so wildly popular. Who wants to read good news, right? Not many. Facebook knows it’s a cancer on the world, but they make so much money there’s no way they’ll change. They only pay lip service to self-improvement. |
 [The Great Aluminum Foil Debate] Which side of Aluminum foil should be in contact with the food? Reynolds Aluminum, the makers of aluminum foil have ended this debate. The dissimilar sides of aluminum foil behave exactly the same in use. The dull side comes from contact with the rollers which squash the aluminum into a thin sheet. Reynolds doesn’t cause a dull and shiny side to appear on purpose, it’s a result of the manufacturing process that they can not control.
Reynolds has also done extensive testing and determined that both sides behave exactly the same when used to cook food. If you are stuck on a deserted island and need to use a sheet of foil to signal an airplane, using the shiny side will increase your chances of being seen by about 100% though. For cooking purposes, they’re exactly the same. |
There was a fire last week on a vacant house on Ashe Street in Key West. The Citizen published a really good photo of it |
| [Lies Removed] YouTube is going to remove all anti-vaccine misinformation. Videos that say approved vaccines are dangerous and cause autism, cancer or infertility (and growing tails) are among those that will be taken down |
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| [Getting Bamboolzed] One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. ~Carl Sagan |
[Clint Eastwood] Interviewed in 2003 with terrific questions and terrific answers. Video |
| [Truth] In March, Twitter announced that users who repeatedly shared misinformation about vaccines would be banned from the platform. Video |
| Q: What do you call an ICU full of anti-vaxxers? A: Inevitable |
[Movies] Why is it that when they draw straws to go on a dangerous mission the short straw is always the last one. How come the bomb’s ticker always stops at 001? It’s the same with Russian Roulette, the last click has the bullet |
| [National Refuge Week] Clean up on Long Beach October 17th. We will be passing out tools and setting up the app. for those who want to use it (see below) from 8:30-9 a.m. 9-11 a.m. is clean up. Cruise along Long Beach Drive and you’ll find us on the left at the Refuge path. Please bring gloves and water. |
Climate change is affecting fall foliage. New research suggests that trees might shorten their season, despite warmer temperatures. Link |
| [This app makes it fun to pick up litter] The earth is a big place to keep clean. With Litterati — an app for users to identify, collect and geotag the world’s litter — TED Resident Jeff Kirschner has created a community that’s crowdsource-cleaning the planet. After tracking trash in more than 100 countries, Kirschner hopes to use the data he’s collected to work with brands and organizations to stop litter before it reaches the ground. Link |
Me: Please bring me a screwdriver. |
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