Letters to the editor with pictures since 2002.
Published on Big Pine Key’s garbage days, Tuesdays and Fridays.
The Un-social Media with 60,000 Followers
 Bosco Vertical Forest. The Vertical Forest is the prototype building for a new format of architectural biodiversity which focuses not only on human beings but also on the relationship between humans and other living species. The first example, built in Milan in the Porta Nuova area, consists of two towers that are respectively 80 and 112 meters high, housing a total of 800 trees (480 first and second stage trees, 300 smaller ones, 15,000 perennials and/or ground covering plants and 5,000 shrubs, providing an amount of vegetation equivalent to 30,000 square meters of woodland and undergrowth, concentrated on 3,000 square meters of urban surface. Video |
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| [“Art is a waste of time”] It is not a waste of time, but is should not be funded by any tax money. Private donations only. If the artist is any good they’ll make money or find a patron. |
[Electrocuted] Never trust an electrician with no eyebrows! |
| [Drone Over Norwegian Fjords] This is magnificent for most who will never have the chance to see this in person. Video |
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| [Coral Restoration] United Way of Collier and the Keys (UWCK) is excited to announce the awarding of $2.1 million to support coral restoration efforts by two local organizations, Coral Restoration Foundation and Reef Renewal USA. These competitive grants are part of UWCK’s Revitalizing the Florida Keys through Reef Restoration and Beyond initiative, with support from the United Arab Emirates.
Coral Restoration Foundation has been awarded $1,945,926 to expand their work at Carysfort Reef off northern Key Largo, and Reef Renewal USA will receive $176,356 to implement revolutionary coral outplanting techniques at Sombrero Reef near Marathon, over the next five years. |
[Golf Carts] I have a funny question. Is there not a weight limit for Key West golf carts traversing the roads and lanes? Not that we are svelte, but a cart passed us carrying 5 three hundred pounders, with fruity drinks, blaring music, etc. Help! |
| [Greed] People are still dying from this plague everywhere, but KW wants to open to ships and tourists for the money not caring who gets sick as long as they are making money. When whole countries lockdown I think it is time for the greedy Keys to do the same. Why is Key West so different than the rest of the world? |
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| [No Flu Shots] Something is very wrong when doctors won’t give us the virus shots and we have to go to a pharmacy or retail store to get them. Smells like a big con job to me! |
 [New] Ford F150 Lightening electric pickup. 0-60 mph in the mid-4-second range! How to sell it? Price it less than the gasoline version. 300 mile range (the $90,000 version will even power your home for 4-5 days). This aluminum electric pickup truck might be a game changer in the truck field. Link |
| [Friday Joke] An Amish husband, wife and son travel to the city on vacation. They visit a shopping mall and while the mother is shopping, the father and son are standing in awe in front of an elevator (having no idea what it is). As they watch, an elderly lady walks into the strange silver doors and the doors close. The father and son watch as the numbers go up, and then back down. When the doors open, a beautiful young woman walks out. The father leans over and whispers to the son, “Son, go get thy mother!” |
Cremation it is, then! |
| [The Tube] We refer to the television as the “tube”. No longer, as there are no tubes any more. All were replaced by “chips”, but we ‘ll never call it the chip. |
  [Art in the Park] They’re best described as egg-shaped fish traps. The thing I noticed most after my initial suprise was that they were made in New York and the artist’s patron paid to have them installed on Big Pine. I commend the patron for this. But I wish someone had noticed that steel rusts when placed next to salt water! Rust has already started to get under the powder coat and along the welds and they’ve only been there a very short time. I hope the County isn’t responsible for maintaining these “eggs”. Some outdoor art is designed to rust, but this is not, or they wouldn’t have gone through the process of powder coating the thousands of parts. Maybe when it gets too rusty they could sandblast the remaining powder coat. |
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[Lineman] I just realized that there no longer any of the traditional linemen climbing poles with spikes on their boots. Every pole is now reached with a people bucket mounted on a truck. |
| [Water Tragedies] Two men died on the water during the weekend, according to FWC and Key West Police reports. A 59-year-old man died Saturday after the boat he was driving crashed into the mangroves in Key Largo. Joseph Charles Guenther, of Key Largo died after he was impaled on a mangrove. Only the operator of the boat was on board at the time of the crash.
The 21-foot center console boat was traveling north in Blackwater Sound at a high rate of speed when the operator turned wide to the left into Dusenbury Creek, according to Dube. The boat made contact with the mangroves on its right side. The captain then turned hard to the right and penetrated the mangrove shoreline. The operator of the vessel sustained a serious head injury and was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami by Trauma Star. Meanwhile, Key West Police detectives are investigating the death of a man found floating in the water around 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning. The 60-year-old Key West man was discovered in the water near Garrison Bight by a passer-by. Key West Rescue retrieved the man from the water and he was pronounced dead at the scene. No foul play is suspected at this time. |
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| [Lobster Mini-Season] The Florida Keys environmental group Last Stand proposed creating a tag system to curb divers from multitripping and exceeding the bag limit of six lobsters a day. The group also proposed limiting the number of divers who could hunt for lobsters during the sport season to reduce the impact on coral heads and other important habitat and on residents’ quality of life. State fishery managers said no. |
[Harmony] Why can’t we all get along? |
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| I have reached an age where falling asleep on the couch has nothing to do with coming home drunk. |
[Mandatory Vaccine] OSHA releases guidance to employers who recommend or require employees to receive COVID-19 vaccines. Link |
| [Shop Online With Care] Lately there has been lots of bogus emails stating you ordered something from some company and are being billed for it and you are supposed to give them the account information. DON’T! It’s usually a scam. If you keep getting these emails, stop buying things online with your credit cards or the companies account and set up a buyers account with your local bank. That makes them account for any bogus items that sneak by in your email. If your bank won’t set up such an account, set up your block senders tool for all unwanted incoming emails. never reply or email those emails. Once the bad guys get your credit card numbers they can strip you to the bone! |
 [Cop Loses Fight with 13-year-old] For a third time in month, authorities are conducting an investigation into possible criminal activity at Sugarloaf School. Monroe County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a 13-year-old eighth-grader on Tuesday after reportedly shoving and resisting a Sargent Mixon. Both Sgt. Mixon and the student ended up on the ground after the student shoved Sgt. Mixon as Sgt. Mixon tried to curb the student from fighting further. The student stopped resisting when Sgt. Mixon began having a medical issue and was taken to Lower Keys Medical Center where he was treated and released. Link |
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| Politics used to attract the best and brightest; now it attracts the dumbest and meanest. ~ Hunter S Thompson |
[Finding Jesus] You’d think if people were serious about finding Jesus there’d be posters everywhere and his face would be on every single milk carton. |
| Israel has been encroaching on Arab land since its inception. They continue expanding even though they say they are not. They sign treaties promising not to expand. Israel violates most agreements about expansion and then pretends they don’t know why the Palestinians are so pissed all the time. |
[Designer Handbags] Sorry ladies, but handbags are the biggest waste of money a woman can spend to impress a man. Expensive handbags only impress other women. It appears woman buy them to impress woman. It’s such a waste of money that the maker has to put his name on every bag so woman will know it’s a quality bag and cost a lot. |
| [Heavy Rains] Flood threat continues across the southern U.S. Link |
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