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Since 2002. Anonymous Letters to the Editor with pictures. Published Monday through Friday by Noon.
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| [“Folks trashing the Post Office”] I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone complain about the post office’s mail carriers or counter help (except for the bad hair of one of them)? It’s always the post office’s boutique hours that most complain about and their too many delivery options, boxes and envelopes, rates, fees, different labels, and other confusing stuff”] I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone complain about the post office’s mail carriers or counter help (except for the bad hair of one of them)? It’s always the post office’s boutique hours that most complain about and their too many delivery options, boxes and envelopes, rates, fees, different labels, and other confusing stuff |
 [The Interview] The Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy “The Interview,” shelved by Sony Pictures over terrorist threats linked to North Korea, is coming to a theater near you — Key West’s Tropic Cinema, 416 Eaton St. on Christmas Day. Doors open at 1pm. The film is only being released to independent theaters. |
| U.S. pays contractor Alan Gross $ 3.2 million in settlement. Gross was employed by the Maryland-based company when he was arrested in 2009 trying to provide cell phones and other communications equipment to Cuba’s Jewish community under a USAID program. The U.S. maintained Gross was trying to help Cubans access the Internet as part of democracy-building program in a country where information is tightly controlled. Video |
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| Yes to the person who saw the bobcat. We saw one about three weeks ago as well in the Pine Channel neighborhood. I reported it to wildlife who said it was not possible. |
 [Shitty Toilets] I am surprised I have not seen any comments on the situation at the Looe Key Tiki bar. I frequently bring out of town visitors with me, to enjoy local bands playing there. It’s evident that there is a huge expansion happening. Renovations (of the restrooms) have been going on for weeks. There has been an empty motel room that patrons have been able to use, if they weren’t comfortable utilizing the porta-potties. However, this past Saturday night, the motel room was locked and the porta-potties had not been emptied, they were unusable! My guests asked me what are the servers and food staff using. How is this permitted? |
| Contact Us. Click this link to post any opinion, ad, changes to an ad, complaint, kudos, or anything else. One link fits all. We read them all. Contact Us |
 “And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.” from Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! ~Merry & Blessed Christmas from Coconuts. |
| [Apple vs Mac] They’re both excellent operating systems, but we like to make fun of Mac user’s fanaticism and loyalty. After all their bragging Mac users still haven’t found one valid thing that Macs do better than Windows machines. Windows users like to point out Macs’ limits. There are no limits with Windows boxes. |
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| Lone hero stands up to gun wielding bullies who assault him on video! |
 [“Mac PC”] I was reluctant to get rid of my Windows PC, as that was all I knew from the first day I owned a computer. But my long distance girl friend finally browbeat me into getting rid of it & she ordered me an iMac. It’s been 4 yr now & I can say that it’s the best move I ever made. |
| [Correction] I stand corrected on my comment about first responders. I should not have mixed them up with the KWPD. Two completely different organizations entirely. Merry Christmas! |
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 Who’s the world’s third largest smartphone maker? Samsung is number 1 and Apple is 2, but who’s third? Xiaomi of China! People in China are expected to buy 500 million smartphones in 2015. That’s more than three times as many as will be sold in the United States. Xiaomi does not intend to enter the American market because the major carriers have it all sewn up already and can obstruct competition. Link |
| Contact Us. Click this link to post any opinion, ads, changes to an ad, complaint, kudos, or anything else. One link fits all. We read them all. Contact Us |
 Radio Shack on Big Pine Key has everything you need for your last-minute Christmas shopping! Including but not limited to:-iPhone 6 & 6+’s for AT&T and Sprint -No Contract Phones for Boost Mobile, AT&T GoPhone, Consumer Cellular, and more! -Beats By Dre available here! -Tablets: The newest Galaxy Tab 4, Kindle Fires, and even an inexpensive tablet for $60! (Perfect for a child, or a new tablet owner) -Laptop Computers -Digital Cameras (Some are even waterproof up to 200ft deep) -We have plenty of toys! -We also have all of the accessories to match the product you need for your new toys. Radio Shack on Big Pine will be open from 9AM to 5PM on Christmas Eve. Have a Merry Christmas! |
 [Quit Smoking Online] Many people prefer to quit on their own, but they’re looking for a bit more help and guidance to quit smoking. Tobacco Free Florida has an online program called the Web Coach® that has proven to work for many people. This free online program helps you create a personalized web-based quit plan that you follow at your own pace and in private. Motivational and educational e-mails will be sent to you throughout your quit plan. For more information about the program visit Link |
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| Joe Cocker and John Belushi SNL Feeling Alright 1976. Video |
 Thanks to Brian Roberts Santa’s heading for the Keys. Music video |
| [Dumb Voters] We all complain about politicians. We all know their votes are for sale, yet we keep electing those same politicians. |
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| [Take A Cab] With the holidays upon us I would like to share a personal experience with you all about drinking and driving after a social event with a friend. This past Friday I was out on this friend. I had a few cocktails, followed by several glasses of wine. Despite my jolliness, I still had the sense to know that I was over the limit. That’s when I decided to do what I have never done before: I took a cab home! Sure enough, there was a police road block on the highway, but since it was a cab, they waved it past. I arrived home safely without incident.
This was both a great relief and surprise because I had never driven a cab before. I don’t even know where I got it from and now that it is in my garage, I don’t know what to do with it. |
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 I am having trouble getting into the Christmas spirit the last few years. I really don’t like this time of year and just want the whole thing to be over. I am a little worried, however that the ghost of Bob Marley will visit me on Christmas Eve and show me the error of my ways. |
| Contact Us. Click this link to post any opinion, ads, changes to an ad, complaint, kudos, or anything else. One link fits all. We read them all. Contact Us |
 [“Bobcat spotted on BPK”] There are numerous types of bobcats that can be found on BPK. This seems to be the most common |
| Aol. UH OH! Email Returned Something went wrong. We were unable to deliver your message to the following address island@bigpinekey.com because: Message sender blocked by receiving server. Retry your message to see if it was a one-time problem or if the same error occurs. |
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 I’m Merry Christmas, not Happy Holidays old. |
| [“Black smoke from Cook Island”] I saw a similar sight last year from the same place. I now think it was someone starting up an unused generator for the first time of the season. I thought a bomb went off or something, there was such dense black smoke |
 [“Joe Cocker“] I think this was from the 70’s TV show Hullabaloo, Teen Beat or Music Scene. It was all a blurr. |
| Joe Cocker, clean and sober, was still rockin’ in 2013 and dead in 2014. |
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| Tipping your mail carrier is not necessary. They are already paid very well for doing their job. If they’ve done something extra for you during the year then you should tip them, but just putting your mail in the box doesn’t count as extra. There are a lot of low paid workers with no benefits who I’d rather tip. |
 [White Christmas] Three Colombian men in a go-fast boat who failed in their attempt to outrun a Navy frigate in the Pacific Ocean will be prosecuted in Key West after crews recovered about 168 pounds of cocaine ruining many people’s wishes for a white Christmas. |
| Contact Us. Click this link to post any opinion, ads, changes to an ad, complaint, kudos, or anything else. One link fits all. We read them all. Contact Us |
 I wish everybody well and a happy Christmas. Love to my family. I am very lucky they always have my back. I am blessed. Sincerely. |
| [“Bobcat”] A friend of mine thought they saw a bobcat in the Ships Way area about two months ago so you may have seen one. |
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| [“Thank your garbage man”] We thank them with our tax dollars. We thank them once a week 52 times a year. |
 Please think about posting sighting of unusual animals. The mentality of FWS is to label them invasive exotics and kill them. Check out the post in yesterday’s and the day before yesterday’s BPK for the discussion of FWS research. It was spot-on accurate as I’ve read and critiqued a good deal of their research. They even had a whistleblower incident a few years ago because they were falsifying research about the Florida panther. And look what they did to the first cougar spotted in years in Kentucky–blew it away. So again, please think about posting sightings of anything other than key deer, rice rats, and marsh rabbits. |
| [Engrish] I spent 10 years learning to speak Spanish from Cubans, Nicaraguans, Puerto Ricans, etc to help those coming from Cuba who could not speak one word of English, to find out 10 years later they still refuse to learn our language. I remember a time when we learned other nationality’s language to visit their countries, and now we have to dial 1 for English and 2 for Spanish. |
![windows_pc_vs_apple_mac[2]](https://bigpinekey.com/wp-content/uploads/windows_pc_vs_apple_mac2.jpg) Apple and Mac models are PCs, just with a different label. All the guts are the same and have been for the last 4+ years. Microsoft writes the Apple code for the OS and Intel makes the processor, the hardware guts. Apple’s superior attitude is just that, an attitude based on image and an almost fanatical fan base. |
| We also had the experience of the U.S. Post Service delivering packages to us on Sunday. I was totally surprised to see her, but they’re out there on weekends. We’ve had to wait a little bit from time to time at the Post Office, but have always found the postal workers polite and accommodating…and working as fast as they can |
 [“Making 2014 the year bullshit died”] Now that’s some Christmas spirit. PS, Ms Oprah has given millions & millions of dollars to help folks of all colors. My question would be, what have you done to make a difference. My suggestion would be to live the change you want to see in the world. Merry & Blessed Christmas, friend. |
| Joe Cocker, for some reason, took on the role of a spastic singer when on stage. I saw him at Woodstock and it was kind of creepy. |
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 Joe Cocker’s House (former house) in Crawford, Colorado. Link |
| Contact Us. Click this link to post any opinion, ads, changes to an ad, complaint, kudos, or anything else. One link fits all. We read them all. Contact Us |
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| For now it looks like going to Cuba will remain the status symbol it is for the usual name droppers around here and off limits to the average Joe. |
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| [Hit Man] Ask Bruce Schmitt of Marathon about being almost killed and taking action to get the people who paid for it; only to have their friends get them off! |
 [Exotics] We tend to think of oil spills and mercury and we hear a lot about plastic these days. And all of that stuff is really disgusting, but what’s really insidious is the biological pollution that happens because of the magnitude of the shifts that it causes to entire ecosystems. And I’m going to just write today very briefly about 1 kind of biological pollution: one is introduced species and the other is what comes from nutrients. Another day I’ll address the second kind of biological pollution.
So this is the infamous Caulerpa taxifolia, the so-called killer algae. A book was written about it. It’s a bit of an embarrassment. It was accidentally released from the aquarium in Monaco, it was bred to be cold tolerant to have in peoples aquaria. It’s very pretty, and it has rapidly started to overgrow the once very rich biodiversity of the northwestern Mediterranean. I don’t know how many of you remember the movie”The Little Shop of Horrors,” but this is the plant of “The Little Shop of Horrors.” But, instead of devouring the people in the shop, what it’s doing is overgrowing and smothering virtually all of the bottom-dwelling life of the entire northwestern Mediterranean Sea. We don’t know anything that eats it, we’re trying to do all sorts of genetics and figure out something that could be done, but, as it stands, it’s the monster from hell, about which nobody knows what to do. Now they want to introduce genetically modified mosquitoes in the Keys. Why politicians are not addressing this I do not understand. Oh yeah, they are paid off. I forgot. |
 North Korea lost all internet service earlier this week. Here’s a photograph of the Supreme Leader on hold with Comcast. |
| Thank you Deer Ed, this site is freedom of speech and FTR Guy is always on the money. He may get carried away sometimes, but he is right 99% of the time. |
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 [“I’m so glad I lived in this era of automobiles. We’ll never to see anything like it again”] Yes you will. Obama just opened Cuba. There’s a ton of our old cars over there. They run and look great. I don’t know this personally, a lil bird told me. Soon it’ll be legal to go there to sip rum, suck on cigars and P4P[?] with all the local honeys! Damn, now prices will go up. |
| Contact Us. Click this link to post any opinion, ads, changes to an ad, complaint, kudos, or anything else. One link fits all. We read them all. Contact Us |
 [“I saw a bobcat in the woods on BPK. Has anyone else seen one here?] Yes, there is one in my neighborhood on Big Pine. I managed to get a photo of it. |
| [Captain Doom and Gloom] “Trying to argue with and old man who’s still fighting the cold war” Then you better wake up and smell the BS because that Cold War never ended and is just as hot today as it was in the 60’s only the media is not making money on it! F Cuba, let them eat tacos! |
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| As it turns out a major Al Queda leader was let free from Guantanimo and now carries a high price on his head for his recapture. Im sure Conservatives agree the President must be held accountable for his release. The Obama administration is scrambling to track down an Al Qaeda terrorist released from Guantanamo Bay years ago, offering a $5 million reward for information on him and placing him on a global terrorist list. Ibrahim al-Rubaysh was originally released in 2006 by the George W. Bush administration and put into a Saudi Arabian “rehabilitation” program. However, al-Rubaysh returned to the battlefield and now serves as a top leader with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula — one of the most dangerous Al Qaeda affiliates. Demand former President Bush explain this Al Queda leaders release. A congressional hearing and inquiry with an investigation to follow should be held. Im sure Conservatives agree. |
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| This is a very special season. It is a time of gift giving, spending time with loved ones, dear friends, and celebration. Many will also reflect on warm memories of loved ones who have passed. For many it is a time of great religious importance. Christmas, December 25th, is the day that has been chosen to celebrate the birth of Christ.
For others it is a time of commerce and hard work. But that commerce is based on the gift giving spirit of the season. It is also the time of Hanukka, also known as the Festival of Lights, The Feast of Dedication. It is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple (the Second Temple) in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire of the 2nd century BCE. Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar. For the Jews, it is also a time for gift giving. Some greet this season with anger, some in high dudgeon. They resent and resist the religious aspect of Christmas and the season. Many rail about it. Many take great pains to point out that the Christmas holiday may have originally been a pagan winter festival. But in an ancient list of Roman bishops, compiled in A. D. 354 these words appear for A.D. 336: “25 Dec.: natus Christus in Betleem Judeae.” December 25th, Christ born in Bethlehem, Judea. This day, December 25, 336, is the first recorded celebration of Christmas.
It is also indisputable that Christ, as no other being in human history, has influenced mankind as has Christ. Innumerable religions have sprung from his teachings. While there have been atrocities committed in the name of Christ, those atrocities were committed by men whose interpretations of his teachings were deeply flawed. Our society, our Constitution, our laws, all are based on Judeo Christian precepts. As are many of the societies in the civilized world. While many flit about in pursuit of commerce, huge numbers of Americans express their religiosity by attending church and honoring Christ. I have a deep and abiding belief in a Supreme Being, but I am not a practitioner of any religion. Nonetheless I have deep respect for those who are. To those persons: I wish you and your loved ones a joyous, holy, and reflective celebration of the birth of Christ. To those who are not religious but celebrate the holiday in a secular fashion by a coming together of family and friends, I wish you and yours a wonderful, happy day.
To the atheists: Have a nice day. Part 2) As this is written, Mr. Obama is enjoying his vacation in Hawaii. In NYC protestors/rioters, roam the streets of NYC claiming racism by police. Two police officers, one Latino, one Asian, were assassinated by a black man in an act of revenge for claims of racist behavior of police. The situation is deteriorating. Mr. Obama is silent. Why? |
The cliché could not be more true: “Christ is the reason for the season.”
Who is correct? On what day was Christ born? No matter, the indisputable fact is that the 25th of December has become the defacto birthday of Christ, and it is celebrated worldwide as such. It has been so for centuries.
To those who share my convictions, I wish you and yours a contemplative day full of joy, family, and friends.