Categories
2020

Friday, October 9, 2029


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

 

[Another One Bites The Dust] Eddie Van Halen, the pioneering guitar player whose hard-rocking band emerged from the Sunset Strip music scene in Los Angeles in the early 1970s to stand at the top of rock ‘n’ roll for a decade, died of cancer on Tuesday. He was 65. He was best known for songs like “Jump” and “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love,” One of the best rock guitar players ever. Link

[Friday Joke] Mark Lowry talks about his motorcycle accident. Video

 

[Bahia Honda Beach] Sandspur day use and campground’s latest delay is the rework required for the older campers’ bathhouse with damage so severe that it needs to be stripped to the studs, and new plumbing and electric installed. This required new drawings, approvals, and permits. Camping areas are mostly complete, 1 lot is repaved, and a new bathhouse for the swimming area is mostly complete.
The park had hoped for a Fall opening there, but more likely the 1st of 2021.
Thank You, Gary, VP of Friends of Bahia Honda Sate Park

[Tyrants] Remember that all through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always. ~Mahatma Gandhi
Right-Wing Terrorists tried to kidnap Michigan’s Governor. Six people have been charged with a plot to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, that involves links to a rightwing militia group. Another seven people were charged with plotting to target law enforcement and attack the state capitol building. Link
[Covid-19 and Wildlife] Update from Save Our Key Deer Inc. While the newest issue of National Geographic Magazine summarizes known cases of animals being infected with Covid – all due to human-to-animal transmission, the latest report is not included. The NGM article lists a few dogs and cats that made headlines to get sick, most likely from their owners who had the disease, and most famously several tigers and a lion got sick at the Bronx Zoo in New York, likely from an asymptomatic care-taker. But tonight we have a new one:
Over 8000 minks have died of Covid-19 on 3 Utah ranches since August. “The virus first appeared in the creatures in August, shortly after farmworkers fell ill in July, according to Dr. Dean Taylor, state veterinarian of Utah. Initial research shows the virus was transmitted from humans to animals, and so far has not seen any cases of the opposite.” This is the first outbreak among mink in the United States, though other cases have been detected in the Netherlands, Spain and Denmark, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
Minks have no immediate relatives in the Keys but still…wash your hands before you deal with our wildlife! Thank you, SOKD
[Twin Particles] When Albert Einstein first theorized what is now known as quantum entanglement, it was only to highlight the absurdity of it. Entanglement is this seeming impossibility, predicted by the equations of quantum mechanics — that every now and then, two particles can be born with an intrinsic connection to one another. Once that happens, they are never again truly apart. You can separate them across galaxies, and the relationship remains. Poke one, and the other feels it. Immediately. With no delay. No matter how far they may have traveled. To Einstein, this meant quantum mechanics was fundamentally broken, offensive both to the laws of nature and common sense. He derided entanglement as “spooky action at a distance.” Surely, there could be no hidden interaction that travels faster than light, which he believed to be the universe’s ultimate speed limit.

Yet, in recent years, quantum entanglement has been verified in laboratories many times, in experiments of increasing elegance and certainty, using both particles and entire systems of particles. Scientists have demonstrated that once you determine certain properties of one member of an entangled pair, you instantaneously and irrevocably change the other. And this mysterious coordination remains intact at every distance yet measured. Smack a particle in one place, and its partner immediately says “Ouch.”

[Elk Attack] Colorado man sent to hospital after being gored by elk while golfing at the Evergreen Golf Course. Link

[Don’t Feed Key Deer] When Key Deer consume too many simple carbs or fermented food, problems can start almost immediately. The “good” bacteria in their rumen (stomach) is rapidly replaced by harmful Streptococcus bacteria which produces lactic acid. Rumen motility is reduced and it becomes filled with excessive fluid, resulting in severe bloating and dehydration. The deer may become unable to drink, and the condition leads to permanent rumen damage or death. The young buck (above left) died of rumen acidosis after consuming a large amount of unsecured cracked corn. The doe (above right) had to be euthanized. Acutely Weak and in severe distress, drooling and with a distended abdomen, she was unable to stand, and was suspected of suffering from rumen acidosis. Please don’t feed the Key Deer.

[Serenity] If you want peace and quiet don’t tour the Grand Canyon. There are up to 400 flights a day that fly across or fly below the rim each day ruining any solitude hikers might expect

 

[Moon Protest] Protestors decides to moon police officer. What better place tor pepper spray. I would have loved to see her reaction.  bet she jumped 5 feet high!

[Rome] Romulus who killed his brother like Cain and Able, was the first emperor of Rome. Numa was the 2d. He wasn’t even a Roman, he was a Sabine, Rome’s southern neighbor.
[Dopers] The Nazi regime preached an ideology of physical, mental, and moral purity. Yet as Norman Ohler reveals in this gripping new history, the Third Reich was saturated with drugs: cocaine, opiates, and, most of all, methamphetamines, which were consumed by everyone from factory workers to housewives to German soldiers. In fact, troops were encouraged, and in some cases ordered, to take rations of a form of crystal meth—the elevated energy and feelings of invincibility associated with the high even help to account for the breakneck invasion that sealed the fall of France in 1940, as well as other German military victories. Hitler himself became increasingly dependent on injections of a cocktail of drugs—ultimately including Eukodal, a cousin of heroin—administered by his personal doctor. Thoroughly researched and rivetingly readable, “Blitzed” throws light on a history that, until now, has remained in the shadows.
[Sham Charities Scammed Consumers Out of Millions] As much as 90 percent of the money raised by the defendants for these sham charities went to the defendants themselves as payment for their fundraising services instead of the charitable programs. Link

 

 

Before I agree to 2021, I need to see some terms and conditions!

[Blood] For those eligible there are two opportunities to donate blood this month & receive a special OneBlood Halloween t-shirt. Please click on the link & book a required appointment.
Monday, October 12 – https://donor.oneblood.org/donor/schedules/drive_schedule/977062
Thursday, October 29 – https://donor.oneblood.org/donor/schedules/drive_schedule/977103
As a thank you for saving lives, all blood donors will receive a OneBlood Halloween T-Shirt! Plus, all donors will receive a wellness checkup including: COVID-19 Antibody test, blood pressure, pulse, temperature, iron count, and cholesterol screening.
[Friday Joke] Do not let them take the temperature on your forehead as you enter the supermarket, because it erases your memory. I went for macaroni and cheese and came home with two cases of beer.
[Fly Fishing in the Keys] Saturday I scored what would probably be rated a 10 on any reality-type show while just sitting down on my cooler and thoroughly enjoying a perfectly mixed  egg salad sandwich on homemade bread with organic eggs. Jilly really got the olive-egg-mayonnaise ratio perfect! Yumm! And odd for me that I was actually eating it slowly, savoring every bite. Of course it is easier for me to do that while fishing alone, as I have no tendency to talk while alone, at least not always. There were several bites to go when my favorite 20 year old Loomis 2-piece 9 weight fly rod, which was leaning up against the port gunwale arched downward like it would with a poon bite. Certainly no poons where I was, in 24 inches of water paralleling a grassy bank. To maximize the timeout and be prepared to be able to immediately begin casting when that scrumptious sandwich was devoured, I stopped in a spot that would allow me to be within perfect casting distance to the entire edge of a nicely scalloped-out cove of high grass, where the water was flowing out of on the falling tide. Instead of employing the PowerPole, I employed the anchor function on my favorite labor-saving device of all time, the trolling motor. The unique anchoring function of the trolling motor is predicated on GPS functions, and it is buffered with slight delays to prevent the motor from being in constant motion. So to crassly put it, the motor kicks in, in fits and starts, to amend the position of the hull. I’m being a touch irreverent, as it really is pretty cool, and I don’t have any gripe about it, when it works. I do love that function!