BigPineKey.com

[Famous Person Coming to Big Pine

Author Tim Dorsey will be at the Big Pine Key Library to promote his new novel, meet admirers and sign copies of his books on October 28th, 2014, at 6:00 p.m. Tim Dorsey was a reporter and editor for the Tampa Tribune from 1987 to 1999, and is the author of seventeen novels. His newest novel “Shark Skin Suite” will be out on January 27th, 2015. He lives in Tampa, FL. with his wife and two daughters. Events

Wilo is a European manufacturer. A consulting engineer for FKAA prepared a formal comparison that found that it would cost $9,000 more to buy 2 European Wilos than to buy 2 US made Hidrostal pumps and it would take an extra 20 horsepower each to do the same job due to low efficiency of the European pumps. At current electric prices, it will cost an extra $238,520 over 20 years to use the pumps that were sole-sourced, not counting the electrical supply, VFDs and back-up generator, nor the shorter life of Wilo impellers compared to the stainless steel impeller of the Hidrostal. So you see, it’s not just about saving money after all, is it?

Be aware that the higher operating cost of imported pumps is charged to your sewer bill. That does not come from the infrastructure sales tax. Next, maybe FKAA will start sole-sourcing Audi staff cars instead of buying Fords or Chevys at discounted State Contract prices?

Picadillo
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium-size yellow onions, peeled and chopped
2 ounces dried chorizo, diced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 1/2 pounds ground beef or turkey
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
4 ripe tomatoes, chopped, or one 28-ounce can whole tomatoes, drained and crushed
2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 bay leaves
Pinch of ground cloves
Pinch of nutmeg
2/3 cup raisins
2/3 cup pitted, stuffed olives

Put the olive oil in a large, heavy pan set over a medium-high flame, and heat until it begins to shimmer.
Add onions, chorizo and garlic, stir to combine and cook until the onions have started to soften, approximately 10 minutes.
Add the ground beef, and allow it to brown, crumbling the meat with a fork as it does. Season to taste with salt and black pepper.
Add tomatoes, vinegar, cinnamon, cumin, bay leaves, cloves and nutmeg and stir to combine. Lower the heat, and let the stew simmer, covered, for approximately 30 minutes.
Uncover the pan, and add the raisins and the olives. Allow the stew to cook for another 15 minutes or so, then serve, accompanied by white rice.

Yield: 6 servings. Full Menu > Recipes

Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however — when intense enough — they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

-Why do ships and aircraft use ‘mayday’ as their call for help? Because this comes from the French word m’aidez – meaning ‘help me’ – and is pronounced, approximately, ‘mayday.’
-Why are zero scores in tennis called ‘love’? Because in  France, where tennis became popular, the round zero on the scoreboard looked like an egg and was called ‘l’oeuf,’ which is French for ‘the egg.’  When tennis was introduced in the  US , Americans (naturally), mispronounced it ‘love.’
-Why do x’s at the end of a letter signify kisses? Because in the middle ages, when many people were unable to read or write, documents were often signed using an x. Kissing the x represented an oath to fulfill obligations specified in the document. The x and the kiss eventually became synonymous.
-Why is shifting responsibility to someone else called ‘passing the buck’? Because in card games, it was once customary to pass an item, called a buck, from player to player to indicate whose turn it was to deal.  If a player did not wish to assume the responsibility of dealing, he would  ‘pass the buck’ to the next player.

-Why do people clink their glasses before drinking a toast? Because in earlier times it used to be common for someone to try to kill an enemy by offering him a poisoned drink.  To prove to a guest that a drink was safe, it became customary for a guest to pour a small amount of his drink into the glass of the host.  Both men would drink it simultaneously. When a guest trusted his host, he would only touch or clink the host’s glass with his own.

-Why are people in the public eye said to be ‘in the limelight’? Because, invented in 1825, limelight was used in lighthouses and theatres by burning a cylinder of lime which produced a brilliant light. In the theatre, a performer ‘in the limelight’ was the centre of attention.

-Why is someone who is feeling great ‘on cloud nine’? Because types of clouds are numbered according to the altitudes they attain, with nine being the highest cloud. If someone is said to be on cloud nine, that person is floating well above worldly cares.

-Why in golf, where did the term ‘caddie’ come from? Because when Mary Queen of Scots Went to France as a young girl, Louis, King of France, learned that she loved the Scots game ‘golf.’ He had the first course outside of  Scotland built for her enjoyment.  To make sure she was properly chaperoned (and guarded) while she played, Louis hired cadets from a military school to accompany her.  Mary liked this a lot and when she returned to Scotland (not a very good idea in the long run), she took the practice with her. In French, the word cadet is pronounced ‘ca-day’ and the Scots changed it into caddie.
-Why are many coin collection jar banks shaped like pigs? Because long ago, dishes and cookware in Europe were made of dense orange clay called ‘pygg’. When people saved coins in jars made of this clay, the jars became known as ‘pygg banks.’  When an English potter misunderstood the word, he made a container that resembled a pig.  And it caught on

I Don’t Look Good Naked Anymore

It isn’t the architect you want to shoot. Nor is it the engineer or the contractor’s masons and carpenters. Go back to your city’s planning board and present your issue with them. If they agree with you, you win and the round building in a neighborhood of squares won’t get built. If the majority votes against your proposal to ban round in squares, you lose. Suicide is your only option. Majority wins, just the same as the rest of our country works.

I worked at Boca Chica Bar for my Dad in the early 70s on the weekend, 11PM to 7AM. Hardly anybody played golf at the course so it was a great place to have a picnic. Those days everybody knew everybody. Great fun. During the week I worked at FKAA so I will stop here.

I am not against the county providing pump out services for liveaboard boats; in fact, I believe that is necessary, but liveaboards should pay for pumping out, just like all Keys property owners pay for sewerage collection and treatment. As for Tugboat Tilly, I personally saw the email sent by Naja and Arnaud Girard, who co-publish Key West the Newspaper, to all the county commissioners, warning them the Tilly was going to sink in the channel if it was not towed to port. And I read the email George Neugent fired back, beating up on the Girards for bothering him and the county commissioners with the Tilly, which soon did sink in the channel.

I pulled this from the Monroe County Supervisor of Election’s website:
Active Registered Voters – 10/13/2014
Democrats – 16,994
Republicans – 18,765
Independents – 15,577

Easily, Florida Keys Democrats and the Independents can elect Eleanor McAdams in the November 4 general election. Maybe just as easily, the readers of the popular Coconut Telegraph can elect Eleanor. To follow the Coconut Telegraph, you’d think about 99 percent of its readers do not care for career elected officials. ~Sloan Bashinsky former candidate for everything

Crist had violated, broken the rules, of the debate. Rules that he had personally signed off on. The rules specifically forbad any fans in the podiums. Those rules had been negotiated many weeks prior to the debate. Charlie agreed to the rules, and signed them. On the evening of the debate, Crist demanded that a fan be put in place, he refused to participate if there was no fan. One can only guess why he is so obsessed with a fan.

Scott’s team said no, rules are rules. Both Scott and Crist were on the premises. Scott had been told that Crist was refusing to go on stage without his security blankey, a fan. Scott waited for a resolution to the problem, he believed that Crist was hiding off stage refusing to go to the podium.

Just before “show time” a Crist team member went on stage, and put the fan in place, clearly another example of Crist’s disdain for rules and the truth. Shortly thereafter Crist came on stage. The stage temperature was 67’.

Because of the dust up that Crist had created, Scott was unaware that Crist had taken the stage, it took several minutes to clear up the confusion that Crist had caused. Scott was not told that Crist was on stage for several minutes after Crist took the stage. Crist managed, by breaking the rules, to pull off an example of Democrat political theater, another dirty trick.

Remember that Crist had stated that he would not appear unless he had his security blankey, a fan. Even the moderator criticized Crist for breaking the rules. But Crist breaking rules and promises is no surprise.

The poster also wrote of Crist’s support of a huge hike in the minimum wage. That is yet another of Crist’s loving embraces of Obama’s reckless fiscal policies. Only 4.3% Americans make the minimum wage, most are youths just entering the labor arena. There are very few families who live on the minimum wage. It is a gateway wage usually earned by people with little skill and little experience in the work force. It is the first rung in a ladder of increasing wages. There is no way to know how many persons choose to stay on the minimum wage, supplementing their income by food stamps and other government largess. The Congressional Budget office has reported that imposition of a higher minimum wage will kill half a million jobs. That would be a huge setback for our terribly meager recovery, the longest and weakest in our nation’s history. Please recall that the recession ended just 6 months after Obama took office. We still are suffering the effects of Obamnomics and Democrat control of our economy.

Part 2) The same poster discussed above, also wrote: “But wait, he (FTR) has moved on now claiming (with absolutely no proof) that certain childhood diseases have been caused by immigration policies.”

FTR’S RESPONSE: The surge in EV D-68 in the U.S. became evident in mid-September when the CDC first reported it had reached epidemic levels in six U.S. states: Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky and Missouri. There is a serious outbreak affecting our children across all but 4 states and on an epidemic scale in at least 7 states. Infected children are suffering from polio like symptoms and children are dying. The surge in the disease coincides with the surge of illegal immigrant children from Central America. It must be remembered that the administration dispersed the illegal immigrant children all over our nation.

The virus, EV D-68 is common in Central America. It is nearly certain that the Central American children have built up immunity to it, our children do not have such immunity. Link

Part 3) Once again, Roger Cousineau, candidate for FKMCD board has chosen to address the CT community. I’m sure that we all take comfort in his statement that: “I know the earth is round (No Zombie Mosquitoes!)”. Certainly Mr. C. was making an attempt at humor. But, this race is much too important for silly jokes. His comment reinforces my belief that his mind set is frivolity. I urge each of you to look again at the photo he submitted yesterday. The job of FKMCD commissioner is serious business, not a Zombie bike ride replete with cutesy caricatures of mosquitoes, and a goofy cap. Mosquitoes can be deadly, they are not cute, not funny.

The balance of his posting is the functional equivalent of Moms apple pie. It is all sweetness and light.

But he does not tell you that he supports increasing FKMCD spending and raising your taxes. He does not tell you that he supports the frivolous idea of wasting tax dollars by spending long tons of money to house fiscal staff in a special facility nearly 50 miles away from the Administrative office of FKMCD. He does not tell us why he contemplates increasing the size of FKMCD when we now and always will have just 137.3 sq. miles of land to service.

And we must wonder why Mr. C. has hidden from us his experience in management, budgets, and personnel matters.

Mr. C. presents as a silly man with silly ideas. Mosquito control is a deadly serious task, it requires competency, dedication, and vision.

If you want serious, qualified, and dedicated oversight of the FKMCD, please vote for Phil Goodman. We need him.