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[Ride Of The Living Dead] Second annual bicycle ride on Big Pine Key. Sunday October 25 at 3:00 PM starting at the Moose, moving to Coconuts, onward to Bistro 31 and ending at Springers! |
| [Nothing Has Changed] In 1890, the Farmers’ Alliance successfully fielded slates of radical candidates in the West and Midwest. Mary Lease, a formidable proponent of reform, traveled around Kansas on behalf of Alliance candidates. “Wall Street owns the country,” she charged. “It is no longer a government of the people, by the people and for the people, but a government of Wall Street, by Wall Street and for Wall Street. “The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind.” |
 Investing in the stock market is incredibly exciting! This week I went “shopping” and dropped nine grand on great companies. This is a better place to store extra money instead of a savings account. A family member is hot for buying tax liens and the returns are actually very good. That is scavenger investing and if one ends up with the property they also end up with all of the code and title issues. If the Feds raise rates I will buy a safe bond or two as well. It is not brain surgery to DIY investing, especially when you have statements from a big bad bank to copy. Now, instead of wanting to have Ruth’s Chris (RUTH – not a good stock) for dinner once a week, I just want to keep sweeping cash into my blue chip collection and watch it go up and down a little. These are buy and hold, solid companies like CMI, TGT and CVX. I am finding this way more addictive than scuba diving with equal amount of a buzz. |
| [“Eunuch reporting”] Deer Editor, you deserve better than the bile and disrespect spewed from that poster. Years ago you (thankfully) separated normal things in the Keys (my impression of the purpose of the CT) from the political crazies like this eunuch person. FTR pays for his comments and opinions. So be it. If I wanted to comment on political crap I would pay to do it too. I don’t, and have no interest in things I cannot change nor have any influence whatsoever, so I always bypass FTR’s column and continue to enjoy my life. |
Ski Mount Trashmore. |
| Through the works of Marx and Engels, he was exposed to the idea that the state had a responsibility to foster social welfare. ~The Bully Pulpit |
 [Fish Food] A friend told me a few years ago that if a Sysco truck is delivering to a restaurant, be assured that all the fish on the menu are Tilapia- no matter what they say. I find it ironic that the local fish in the Keys are shipped off to China, and the poop-eating Tilapia from China (that the Chinese won’t eat) are shipped here. Note that about 75% of the Tilapia in the US comes from China. |
| [I’ve Got A Headache Department] Does menopause make women want to have sex less (not that they wanted to have sex in the first place)? |
Have you ever listened to somebody speak and wonder who ties their shoelaces for them? |
| [Record For Most Insults] “Affordable Housing” is another bleeding heart joke to make lots of money. Whose idea is it to give ‘affordable’ homes to those in our society that cannot or just will not work for their keep. In the old days, if you could not work hard enough to keep your cave clean and secure, you were turned out into the animal world. Not today, the low life’s, the weak, the bums, the thieves, all get supported by the cry babies who want to justify their charity egos by giving ‘help’ to the undesirables -the useless eaters -the waste of humanity. These weak-sister types will do anything for notoriety and profiteering, but would never think of letting the riff-raff move into their extra bedrooms. Follow the money to see who is for real and who is just making mucho dinero from the tax payers. Why not use all the empty lots on Shark Key? |
 “Nights and days came and passedAnd summer and winter and the rain. And it was good to be a little Island. A part of the world and a world of its own All surrounded by the bright blue sea.”~Margaret Wise Brown, The Little Island |
| The doctors up here on the mainland are required to suggest to each and every patient they need an anti-depressant, a beta blocker and a statin. All of which are very bad for your health. My friend who is a scientist at Lilly told me to never use big pharma unless your life depends on it. My 5th new family doctor, spent a good amount of time trying to talk me out of all supplements – including the monthly self administered B-12. She is now pregnant and her sales pitches are getting more absurd, now she’s suggesting I get a brain MRI ($5,000 with my insurance) because she suspects I have a brain tumor after trying to read my thyroid Free T3 & T4 which she was unfamiliar with. Second and third opinion doctors told me she was trying to make extra commission off the MRI. Evidently doctors don’t think they make much money unless they sell unnecessary treatments and meds.
My favorite doctors are Dr. Mercola (link), Dr Oz, and Dr. Andy Weil. The reason doctors diss the celebrity doctors is because they do not push pills. Keep taking your supplements and listen to your body and your brain. Be the captain of your ship. We tried out a new dentist, who told us last week that we only had to brush once a day. We 86’ed that one for another dentist, who may or may not be another con artist who told us that we are required by law to have a dental check-up twice a year. This includes dental cleanings. One hygienist, who probably works on commission, advised me that I would need four cleanings a year! |
1968 Cadillac station wagon. |
| The Big Pine Key Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla is offering a Boating Skills and Seamanship class beginning November 3rd thru November 19th. It is a three week program, Tuesday and Thursdays from 7:00 to 9:30 P.M. It will be held at the Big Pine Methodist Church 280 Key Deer Blvd. Big Pine Key. The cost of the program is $55 per person (materials included) and $80 per couple with shared materials.
Topics include: Which Boat is for You, Required Boat Equipment, Operator Responsibilities, Rules of the Road, Handling Your Boat, Highway Signs, Orientation to Nautical Charts, Weather, A Look at the Coast Guard Auxiliary, Navigational Tools & Techniques, Navigation Exercise, Trailering, Boating Safety, Your Boat’s Radio, a Search and Rescue (SAR) Exercise, Florida Law, Hands on Knot Tying and a guest speaker from the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. For more information, visit Our Web Site (link) and select “Boating Safety Classes”. To sign up contact Diane Adam 305-872-4071 or Link |
 The tower’s light is out (1 mile east of Spanish harbor bridge, Gulf side). The light has been out 6 months or longer. It is an aviation hazard, not to mention important navigational aid to boaters. The cell tower is also the Monroe County Sherriff’s communications tower. They shouldn’t get a pass on not fixing it on a timely basis. The fines for having tower lights out by federal government could be very large. The should fix the tower lights before a plane crashes into it. |
| [Driver Education] Pet peeve: How many bazillions of tax dollars have we spent on building bike and walking paths along US 1? But still it’s impossible to have a day go by without seeing brightly colored Spandex clad pedal pumpers ignoring their very own private path, instead riding on the roadway putting themselves and others in danger. |
The Not My Job Award goes to … |
| [Rumor] Mosquito Control had a chemical spill at the airport. Word on the street is someone is in bad shape and mosquito control is telling employees to keep quiet. |
 Scientists have discovered a powerful new strain of fact-resistant humans who are threatening the ability of Earth to sustain life, a sobering new study reports. The research, conducted by the University of Minnesota, identifies a virulent strain of humans who are virtually immune to any form of verifiable knowledge, leaving scientists at a loss as to how to combat them.“These humans appear to have all the faculties necessary to receive and process information,” Davis Logsdon, one of the scientists who contributed to the study, said. “And yet, somehow, they have developed defenses that, for all intents and purposes, have rendered those faculties totally inactive.”More worryingly, Logsdon said, “As facts have multiplied, their defenses against those facts have only grown more powerful.” While scientists have no clear understanding of the mechanisms that prevent the fact-resistant humans from absorbing data, they theorize that the strain may have developed the ability to intercept and discard information en route from the auditory nerve to the brain. “The normal functions of human consciousness have been completely nullified,” Logsdon said. While reaffirming the gloomy assessments of the study, Logsdon held out hope that the threat of fact-resistant humans could be mitigated in the future. “Our research is very preliminary, but it’s possible that they will become more receptive to facts once they are in an environment without food, water, or oxygen,” he said. |
Harley-Ferguson |
| FKAA is putting the treatment plant on line using shallow wells. The Dept. of Environmental Destruction is allowing it. Gotta get that revenue stream going you know, because it’s all about the money. You know that shallow well test from the marginally qualified guys from Ft. Myers that said the wells work fine—in spite of Dr. Briceno and a team from FIU saying they are a disaster? The information that those last testers did not report is what matters more than the exaggerated baloney that they did. They only reported water level in monitor wells, and those monitors were all very close to the injection point. They did not report what happened to nearby surface waters! But we found out. FKAA would have caused less environmental damage with a direct discharge pipe to the shoreline than with these worthless shallow wells that flush the dump. Believe it. Read about it in detail shortly. |
Hand carved guitar body gives a whole new meaning to ‘hollow body electric’. |
| [Where Does Bob Dean Live] Just in case you are a new reader, view the squirming, guilty-looking canvassing board at as they betray your trust. Pathetic cowards knew they were helping perpetuate a lie. And still not a single cry of outrage from any public official or even the mainstream press. They are all accessories in my opinion. Link |
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| [“Anyone have the real lower Keys recipe for Palmetto Poppers”] Fry them. That’s the only way the restaurants down here know how to cook anything. (except the grouper) it’s easy to hide imported fish, shrimp and lobster in batter, so why not fry palmettos too?
lionfish should be on every menu but I’ve been told there’s No profit in it. Profit over environment is the reality for these carpet bagger transplants from the north. I can’t wait for Season! Cheap taco night, imported shrimp night, tilapia specials. Are those porta-potties or food storage at that place on Ramrod? |
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| [Fast Delivery] Amazon, Wal-Mart, Macy’s and other retailers are working behind the scenes to make sure they can deliver online orders to shoppers faster. Retailers are building bigger warehouses —some the size of 20 football fields — to handle shipments. They’re also sending orders to shoppers directly from their stores and using sophisticated software that tells them the quickest, cheapest way to get orders shipped. And Amazon is cutting the time it takes to process an order from hours to minutes by using robots to pull items for shipment in its warehouses. |
We have truly gone too far. |
| [The Future Looks Dim] The study found that historically, two vertebrate species out of 10,000 went extinct every 100 years. When they added humans
to the equation, the rate increased a hundredfold. In the past century they calculated, nine species should have disappeared. Instead, 477 did! |
Getting older really sneaks up on you. One of my students asked me why I had such small Tupperware containers on my desk. |
| Home Depot put up its Christmas decorations last week! |
1950’s Mercury XM Concept car |
| [German Wonderland in Hamburg—Amazing!] it was started by two brothers as a place to show their hobby began to grow by leaps & bounds. Soon they were joined by other model railroad clubs and other craftsmen. Some were electricians, model makers, carpenters, computer programmers. Their wives would stop by to see what they were doing and usually bring them a lunch. One thing led to another. Three of the ladies had worked at a bakery, several visitors would ask if they had a snack bar. The idea was planted; some of the carpenters came and built a nice restaurant area for the bakery and a kitchen, too. If the fresh coffee smell didn’t get you, then the bakery definitely would. Over 400,000 man hours were spent making this dream come true. This was about 5 years ago. One of the breweries came and furnished all of the tables and chairs, serving counter and, etc. Their latest finished area is the airport. Planes look like they are flying and landing. Video |
If the country is in so much trouble and everything is so terribly bad, why are the rich getting so much richer so fast? |
| Want to see what humanity is doing to Earth? Go on Google Earth and unclick every tool except Ocean, Dead Zones and Ships. It’s scary! Link |
Electric towers in Iceland. |
| [Comedy] Wedding photographer takes her job in total control with quickness and finesse. Video |
How would you like to have your bathroom floor painted like this one. |
| Don’t even think about cutting your own beautiful hair! Call Cyndee’s at 305-395-0789 “Snip & Sip Hair Saloon” Located in Coconuts. Men & Woman’s cuts. |
$3.39 for a hundred plastic pennies? Somebody is buying them. |
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| [“Tried to Avoid the Holocaust”] Yes, when the Jews had weapons, they fought. The Warsaw Ghetto (where a few poorly armed Jews held off the Germans for three weeks), Sobibor, Treblinka, not to mention the many partisan groups. |
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| The Monroe County School District is plotting and planning the construction of two new facilities, Plantation Key School and Gerald Adams School, and significant upgrades at Switlik School in Marathon. The total cost of these three projects could easily reach $100 million, no small sum.
Ideally, these new schools should be operational for 30-50 years or well into the middle of the 21st century. That being the case, should not these schools be the state of the art, not a carbon copy of what we currently have? Should we not be thinking of the future as we plan today? The School District is faced with a marvelous opportunity to assume a leadership role in construction, particularly to build the most environmentally friendly and ecologically advanced facilities. The District has lagged when it comes to implementing measures with regard to the protection of the environment. For example, it most recently purchased diesel school buses when more ecologically advanced options were available and were recommended to the District. Similarly, the District has balked at opportunities to employ wind and solar energy, taking the posture that it was unwilling to spend the money but willing to work with someone else who would make the investment. School districts by their very nature should be leaders in the community. As our School District submits its plans and proposals to the architect, the statement of work as it were, a premium should be placed on employing the most ecologically advanced and environmentally friendly techniques. Or, will we continue to send our 21st century children to 20th century schools? The University of Florida has a “green” LEED program that could be of considerable value in planning the construction. I urge the School Board to take a close look at what UF has to offer. ~Dr. Larry Murray, Fiscal Watchdog and Citizen Activist |
[Bacon Bloody Mary] Oh look! Three of my favorite food groups, bacon, fried foods and of course alcohol. This Bloody Mary is complete with bacon wrapped deep fried pepper jack cheese. And everything comes with a beer chaser! |
| The restaurant situation will be the bane of the Florida Keys. Gone are the days of the Mom-n-Pop stops. They are those places where dad works the kitchen as cook, dishwasher, prep person, deals with buying stock & keeping inventory, then cleans it all after his 15 hour day. Let’s not forget Mom, she can take orders, serve the food, drinks, bus & clean the tables & counter, pack up the to-go orders, someone has to make the ice tea, mom can do that when she gets done stocking the coolers, maybe they get a day off to do bookwork. Mom & Pop joints are dead. The cost of doing business in Monroe County is over the top. The Keys of yester-year have been gone for a long time. There are some very nice spots to eat, but like the rest of the new Keys, they are costly. Free beer tomorrow! Ha. |
Why guys like redheads. |
| [Service With A Smile] I went up to America for the weekend and was pleasantly pleased with the excellent service and happy smiles from all the service people I encountered. Even the McDonalds clerk was all happyish! What happened the them when they started working down here? I’s day is was lack of training by management. |
[Alien World Contact Day] If aliens located 60-65 million light years away from us, looked at earth through a really powerful telescope today, they would see dinosaurs! Video |
| [R.I.P.] Along with all of Key West, the Key West Orchid Society mourns the loss of our good friend and past president Joe Liszka, who died Wednesday morning of complications related to pneumonia. Joe and his long time life and business partner, the late Frank Romano, were key figures in the establishment of Fantasy Fest. Joe was working on plans for a memorial fountain for Frank. It is hoped that now the fountain will be built to memorialize both of these key players. In 2004 Joe was named Red Cross Humanitarian of the Year. He was also KWOS’ Unsung Hero. |
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| [My Drink Tastes Like Piss!] I’ve heard, from several places, for years, that it can be very therapeutic to drink one’s own urine. My question is, do you drink it warm or chilled? |
[Mystery Questions] How can you tell if bagpipes are out of tune or if blue cheese has gone bad? |
| The way humanity is destroying itself is amazing. We are blind to the fact that this planet can only hold so many creatures. We multiply with abandon and pollute the environment in so many uncountable ways. Air, water, and earth are the only things we have that mean anything and we are breeding like a run-away fungus in a mad dash to extinction. It is understandable that so many think only of their day to day existence, pursuit of money, and their thrill to breed. This is the pitiful part of their base mentality. They have nothing else to occupy their lowly lives. Too stupid to get fixed, to release tension in other ways, they breed like insects. There should be laws governing the masses of baby hatchers. Tax relief is a joke because the majority of these baby pumps do not work or pay taxes in the first place. Maybe mosquito control could be used another way? |
Tom Jones & The Moody Blues? I’d never Tom Jones sing like that! Video |
| [“Paid Duncan Ford $157.98 for a key to my 2010 pickup”] I know someone that just paid $260 for the same thing. I wouldn’t take a wheelbarrow there, it would probably never run right again! |
 [Scotland vs England] After his betrayal Wallace was carried to London. He was taken on horseback to Westminster, the mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen, with a great number of horse and foot, accompanying him. There the mockery of a trial was held, and he was in one day tried, condemned, and executed. He defended himself nobly, urging truly that, as a native born Scotsman, he had never sworn fealty or allegiance to England, and that he was perfectly justified in fighting for the freedom of his country. Every cruelty attended his execution. He was drawn through the streets at the tails of horses; he was hung for some time by a halter, but was taken down while yet alive; he was mutilated and disembowelled, his head then cut off, his body divided in four, his head impaled over London Bridge, and his quarters distributed to four principal towns in Scotland.
A nobler character than Wallace is not to be found in history. Alone, a poor and landless knight, by his personal valour and energy he aroused the spirit of his countrymen, and in spite of the opposition of the whole of the nobles of his country banded the people in resistance against England, and for a time wrested all Scotland from the hands of King Edward. |
The love of money is the root of all evil. |
| My unforeclosed foreclosure is being allowed by the bank to cave in. Why is that? I had a perfectly good realtor open it up after 7 years, shut and empty it, and he was itching to sell it. But code put a $130,000 lien on it for weeds and some some company is paying the taxes so the little NY goober next door doesn’t try to buy it. Does code take ownership of all the abandoned empty houses down there with various fines? Why don’t they make all of those 25% ghost homes in to affordable housing? Mortgage brokers tell me they are waiting for the neighborhood to go up so they can sell the place. But it is not happening. Double lot homes are not worth half a million dollars in BPK. Sorry sweetie. One out of four homes down there are swirling the toilet and nobody wants to live near eyesores. People want fresh fish and unbleached coral reefs in addition to having nice neighbors. Photogenic it may be, but the over-fishermen have ruined what used to be a lovely destination. It is so sad to read the news down there. RIP Flori-duh Keys |
 [FTR] Hopefully you will remember that H bragged that she was “proud” to count “the health insurance companies” and “the drug companies” as her enemies. She spoke with a forked tongue. Her so called enemies actually love her, and she plays kissey-face with them. By mid-July, seven of them had raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for her presidential campaign, according to campaign finance records. They include Heather and Tony Podesta, she represents health insurer Cigna, while Tony lobbies on behalf of pharmaceutical firms Amgen and EMD Serono, a division of drug giant Merck. And they have forked over about $150K to the Clinton foundation aka Clinton slush fund. Continued on NATIONAL POLITICS… |
| Submit anything but National Politics to island@bigpinekey.com |