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2019 April

Friday, April 26, 2019

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

[Ryobi Tool Warranty] I just had the most unpleasant conversation with Ryobi. I bought a chemical sprayer from them to spray Spectracide Termite, an over the counter chemical to treat termites. All rubber gaskets, seals, and the switch cover dissolved, leaking poison all over the place and me. This lady must have worked for an insurance company because no matter what I said, she’d come up with some foolish reason why I was wrong. Then I would have to explain why she was wrong. I would say one thing and she would “hear” something different. I wonder if it was intentional because it happened over and over again.  I didn’t want the sprayer gaskets replaced because they would simply dissolve again. Finally, after exhausting all her “no’s” she asked me to send the receipt. I still doubt Ryobi will stand behind their product.
[Sucralose] I like to take drinks to work and when driving long distances with more flavor and energization than just water. I’m finding it tough to find anything without the deadly insecticide sweetener sucralose. Monster’s “Java Monster” has sucralose buried way down in the ingredients list (because very small quantities of sucralose are super sweet when not cut with another filler like Splenda). Even Starbuck’s “Double Shot” espresso drink has sucralose. I don’t even want high fructose corn syrup in my drink, but sucralose is not acceptable at all. That fracking sucralose is in everything except commercial insecticide, yet it works better at killing fire ants than the “big promises, high precautions” ant killers and was initially developed as an insecticide. There is more money in sweeteners. Link

 

Life is not a fairy tale, if you lose your shoe at midnight, you’re drunk!

Deer Ed, At the top of the Coconut Telegraph please change “Letters to the editor with pictures since 0202” to 2002. (Ed: Oops, I changed it. Thank you.)

 

 

Coast Guard Station Islamorada presented an award to the Islamorada Moose Lodge and the United States Marines of Upper Keys VFW Post 10211, acknowledging their generous and steadfast support during the government shutdown.

Pictured left to right: Bill Hardy, Tony Carollo, Chief Harrington USCG, Bill Slaughter and State Attorney/VFW Post 10211 Commander Dennis Ward

[Free Tax Service] Highlights of this year’s United Way of the Florida Monroe county’s tax season include:
219 tax returns prepared (193 VITA and 26 MyFreeTaxes.com)
17 volunteers working 528 hours total
$31,856 in estimated tax preparation fees saved
$145,980 in total refunds generated through VITA
12 tax preparation sites throughout Monroe County
Client’s average Adjusted Gross Income $24,599

 

 

[Winn Dixie] Weekly ad. Link

[Complacent] Once you hit a certain age you become permanently unimpressed by a lot of stuff.

 

 

[Shark] 15 feet long great white shark filmed off Florida Keys. A great white shark swims beside a boat then eats the chum bag off the side of a boat. Filmed in 70 feet of water. Video

Local musician David Dipre is writing a musical score for “The Marathon Games” movie. Video

 

 

 

 

[Poor Posers] A bunch of rich kids trying to look poor. Go figure.

 

 

 

[AirBnB] The Airbnb invasion of Barcelona. In the tourist-clogged city, some locals see the service as a pestilence. Even in residential areas, wheelie suitcases constantly rattle over the cobblestones. Link

[National Heritage] The birth rate of a nation is the determining factor of whether a nation maintains its national heritage, and customs of its populace.
[“USA has best heart surgeons”] Mick Jagger is rich enough to afford heart surgery anywhere, but he choose to have it done in the US.  Why? Because we have the best health care in the world.  That’s the point I was trying to make.  However, I don’t  think it’s any coincidence that countries with socialize medicine don’t.  Don’t kid yourself that socialized medicine is free.  It’s not.  In fact, we do have socialized medicine in this country, Medicaid and Medicare.  They are funded by taxes paid by the middle class.  The poor (ie. those that don’t report their income) don’t pay taxes and the very rich aren’t affected by the amount they pay.  Many people who do understand what socialized medicine is, don’t want it.
[Debris] The Big Pine corridor is just a tip of the iceberg. Finally, most canals are clean, but have you looked at the shoreline. The County picks up the trash CRMA[?] hauls in. How about some government funding to get the rest of the debris removed? It’s not only unsightly, but continuing to poison salt life.
The next meeting of our Big Pine Computer Club is coming up this Saturday, April 27, 10 am at the senior center. Full Menu > Ongoing Events

 

The Ocean Reef Community Foundation has granted the Florida Keys Children’s Shelter $48,000 to help fund a Recreation Coach, Life Skills Coach, and Education Coach, all three employed full-time at the 19-bed Youth Center in Plantation Key.

I prefer my kale with the A silent.

[Love Stinks] CDC confirms that a Delaware girl was bitten on the face by a treacherous ‘kissing bug’ The “kissing bug,” which bites people around their mouths, can pass along the fatal disease Chagas. Video

Correction, 420 was not taken from Hitler’s birthday. Do the right thing here, Deer Ed. (Ed: Who cares?)
He was a fattish but active man of paralyzing stupidity, a mass of imbecile enthusiasms—one of those completely unquestioning, devoted drudges on whom, more even than on the Thought Police, the stability of the Party depended. ~George Orwell “1984”

[“Alternative energy”] What good does it do to “say” you support alternative energy if you’re not willing to stop using fossil fuel? That’s the point I was trying to make.  Saying, I support this, that or the other thing, does absolutely nothing. They’re just words.  Meaningless words, apparently. Expecting others to do something, when you’re not, is hypocritical.  That’s what Al Gore was faulted for.  His use of energy was many times that of the average household.  It’s like the preacher that condemns avarice while making millions on TV.

[Wrong Apocalyptic Predictions] Here’s what the experts were saying almost a half century ago on Earth Day, 1970.
“Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.” ~Harvard biologist George Wald
“It is already too late to avoid mass starvation,” ~Denis Hayes, Chief organizer for Earth Day

“We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human
abitation.” ~Washington University biologist Barry Commoner. Link

 

[Diving] How did this diver cheat death? Diver Chris Lemons was trapped on the North Sea bed for around 35 minutes without air. Audio

The best way to predict the future, is to create it.  ~Abraham Lincoln
[Xenophobe] Can you sue a doctor’s office if they hire a person who answers the phone and cannot speak English understandably? This is happening all over the country and is bad hire Americans, period.

 

[The Master Race] I see nothing wrong with racism. It makes people understand the differences between peoples and lets one protect oneself against the lower forms of humanity [that they are]!

[420] “The meaning of 420 was taken from Hitler’s birthday” Just look it up before posting such nonsense