Thursday, February 7, 2013

[ZAZA’S for sale] Wrong location, wrong time, wrong demographics, wrong prices, wrong atmosphere and wrong food. Someplace on Duval St., South Beach or at the Falls Mall in Kendall, Miami would have been a better location, for a large amount of wealthy, year round customers.

In it’s present location, it would take a small fortune to downgrade the restaurant to something that could work, or a large fortune to substantially upgrade the entire Sugarloaf Lodge Resort to attract the kind of wealthy tourist clientele that would eat at least two of three meals there to make it worthwhile, and even then either way it still would have to be subsidized by the resort for the off season.

The small amount of snowbird residents who can afford to eat at Zaza’s usually bail back up North when the heat comes back. Then there is a lack of food variety factor as even the wealthy get bored of a restaurant and most don’t eat out every night anyway. 

Many of the wealthy in Key West or Marathon have more local places to go for the same food, without the long travel time. Forget the KW tourists renting a car to come up to Sugarloaf Key.

Perhaps if Zaza’s advertises and provides a courtesy KW pickup and drop off service in a stretch limo with free champagne and caviar along the way. Tiki torches out and more romantic nightly atmosphere inside and outside, piano music etc., to attract the want-desperately-to-get-laid-will-pay-anything crowd that typically goes to La Trattoria’s and Better Than Sex. Of course the lower class guests of Sugarloaf Lodge with their mangy hotel mutts will have to have a curfew at sundown and be in their rooms with their animals and drunk husbands tranquilized less they spoil rich guys trying to get some and wind up suing the restaurant when they don’t. Likely have a problem with those who do get lucky messing up the inside of the limos because of the long trip back to their Key West hotel rooms.

Zaza owners already blew away a half a million dollars on a failed experiment, what’s another hundred thousand for further adventure? Have fun, live a little more, it’s only money.

] Wrong location, wrong time, wrong demographics, wrong prices, wrong atmosphere and wrong food. Someplace on Duval St., South Beach or at the Falls Mall in Kendall, Miami would have been a better location, for a large amount of wealthy, year round customers.

In it’s present location, it would take a small fortune to downgrade the restaurant to something that could work, or a large fortune to substantially upgrade the entire Sugarloaf Lodge Resort to attract the kind of wealthy tourist clientele that would eat at least two of three meals there to make it worthwhile, and even then either way it still would have to be subsidized by the resort for the off season.

The small amount of snowbird residents who can afford to eat at Zaza’s usually bail back up North when the heat comes back. Then there is a lack of food variety factor as even the wealthy get bored of a restaurant and most don’t eat out every night anyway. 

Many of the wealthy in Key West or Marathon have more local places to go for the same food, without the long travel time. Forget the KW tourists renting a car to come up to Sugarloaf Key.

Perhaps if Zaza’s advertises and provides a courtesy KW pickup and drop off service in a stretch limo with free champagne and caviar along the way. Tiki torches out and more romantic nightly atmosphere inside and outside, piano music etc., to attract the want-desperately-to-get-laid-will-pay-anything crowd that typically goes to La Trattoria’s and Better Than Sex. Of course the lower class guests of Sugarloaf Lodge with their mangy hotel mutts will have to have a curfew at sundown and be in their rooms with their animals and drunk husbands tranquilized less they spoil rich guys trying to get some and wind up suing the restaurant when they don’t. Likely have a problem with those who do get lucky messing up the inside of the limos because of the long trip back to their Key West hotel rooms.

Zaza owners already blew away a half a million dollars on a failed experiment, what’s another hundred thousand for further adventure? Have fun, live a little more, it’s only money.

[First Drone] We were some of the first to have a drone above us.  It is/was none other than Fat Albert.  I feel special.

North Korea has posted a video on YouTube depicting a US city resembling New York engulfed in flames after an apparent missile attack. The video was uploaded by the North’s official website, Uriminzokkiri, which distributes news and propaganda from the state media. Link

I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.

Mariner 10’s Portrait of Venus. On Feb. 5, 1974, Mariner 10 took this first close-up photo of Venus. Made using an ultraviolet filter in its imaging system, the photo has been color-enhanced to bring out Venus’s cloudy atmosphere as the human eye would see it. Venus is perpetually blanketed by a thick veil of clouds high in carbon dioxide and its surface temperature approaches 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Launched on Nov. 3, 1973 atop an Atlas-Centaur rocket, Mariner 10 flew by Venus in 1974. 

Iran’s new fighter jet doesn’t look like any we’ve ever seen before. Turns out, as The Aviationist explains, that’s because it maybe possibly almost definitely can’t fly. http://gizmodo.com/5981525/why-irans-new-indigenous-stealth-fighter-will-never-get-off-the-ground 

Does anyone know how many residents of Miami that Monroe County employs in law enforcement? They live here four days at places like the road prison? Any truth to that? Because after what ABC had on last night about there cops having coffee and shopping and ignoring calls, get ready for a rush on applications for MCSO. Can any one confirm or deny these rumors?

CheapShots will be back in the Keys this weekend doing low cost pet vaccination. Vaccine packages start at $38.00, dentals starting at $85.00, cat neuters $45.00, dog neuters starting at $85.00 and cat spays $65.00. Comfortis and heartworm meds at affordable prices too. Call 305-390-0325 or go to CheapShots.us for more info.

To label or not to label that is the question: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyWMuA8HcJk&feature=player_embedded

In the wake of NOAA’s incredibly misleading October report, we’ve done some digging into this organization and we’ll have some full reports soon. But in the meantime, I’d like to cover some recent scandals that are perfectly indicative of the sorry mess that NOAA has become.

Earlier this year, the director of the National Weather Service (which is run by NOAA) resigned after investigators found that the NWS had misdirected millions of dollars and operated “outside the bounds of acceptable financial management.”

NASA will hold a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EST, Thursday, Feb. 7, to discuss an asteroid 150-feet in diameter that will pass close, but safely, by Earth on Feb. 15.http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2013/feb/HQ_M13-027_Asteriod_Flyby.html

(Walter Williams) God bless Walter. God said there would always be poor people. Trying to reduce their numbers is like the government trying to reduce the numbers of say, pythons, iguanas, drunks, crack-heads, crooks in government, just plain crooks, hurricanes, global warming, rising tides, etc. etc. etc. We all need to do our best-darn it!

ZAZA’S at the Sugarloaf Lodge is for sale already. When will the transplants learn? The easiest way to make a small fortune in the Keys, is to come down here with a large one and open a restaurant/bar.

How to Miss a Childhood. “I can recall a time when you were out with your children you were really with them. You engaged in a back and forth dialog even if they were pre-verbal. You said, ‘Look at the bus, see the doggie, etc.’ Now I see you on the phone, pushing your kids on the swings while distracted by your devices. You think you are spending time with them but you are not present really. When I see you pick up your kids at day care while you’re on the phone, it breaks my heart. They hear your adult conversations. What do they overhear? What is the message they receive? I am not important; I am not important.”

In a 100-word paragraph this concerned woman who has cared for babies since 1977 revealed a disturbing recipe.  How to Miss a Childhood | Hands Free Mama

The next meeting of the Big Pine Computer Club is coming up this Saturday, February 9, 10 am at the senior center.  Hope to see you there.

Welcome to the Keys? Not if North Korea has it’s way!

I am writing to request that the link to the ZaZa’s for sale listing be removed from your website. This link was passed to a private individual who then passed it along. It has come to my attention that the link is on your website. This is not my listing, however, because of the link. It appears to be mine which is a misrepresentation to the public, not to mention, a little uncomfortable for me in light of the fact that it is another real estate professionals listing. This misrepresentation could be construed as a violation of the National Association of Realtors Code of Ethics and therefore, my broker’s license could be in jeopardy. I am requesting that this link and my name be removed from your site immediately.
Thank you very much. Your quick attention to this matter is greatly appreciated. 
-Laura Lynne Kennedy, Ocean Sotheby’s International Realty

Slow down and everything you are chasing will come around and catch you.

Mercury peaks in the early evening sky from February 11th to 21st, while much fainter Mars appears lower each evening. The two planets pass spectacularly close to each other on February 7th and 8th. Their disks are shown in their correct shapes and orientations, but their sizes are exaggerated hugely, roughly matching their appearance through a telescope at high magnification.

Drone strikes are good.   They are way better and cheaper then invading a whole country and screwing up thousands of people on all sides just to get one guy the way Bush did.  I bet the gun shows in this Country will soon be offering Stinger ground to air missiles so the gun nuts can defend themselves against the drones Obama will be sending after them and their Bushmasters.

Prime Rib Dinner    Live Music

Here is an opinion on those restroom hot air hand driers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8cOHG8nMdM

Boating accident review. http://myfwc.com/media/2231695/2011-boating-accident-review.pdf

When us Boy Scouts went camping, in tents in the woods, they would line us up and give each of us a piece of tin foil, a wad of hamburg, a potato, a carrot, and an onion.   You wrapped  all the food in the tin foil and put it in the camp fire until done.  Delicious, especially in winter.

Remember everyone the Lower Keys Chamber is partnering with Jess Von Dee Studioz to host a Business Social this evening – Feb. 7 at 6pm at this beautiful new up-scale salon on Ave. A, across from Big Pine Liquors.  $10 donation to the Chamber.  Chamber members and their guests are invited to attend.

Tunes to the Key of Green. Free concert w/ Paul Cotton / Feb. 11th / 6-8/ Key WestBotanical Garden. If you can’t join please consider donating. https://ssl.perfora.net/kwbgs.org/donate.aspx

Last of the military reef wrecks? http://www.keysnet.com/2013/02/06/484900/last-of-the-military-reef-wrecks.html

Currently sweeping through southern skies, Comet Lemmon (C/2012 F6) was named for its discovery last year as part of the MountLemmon (Arizona) Survey. Brighter than expected but still just below naked-eye visibility, Comet Lemmon sports a stunning lime green coma and faint divided tail in this telescopic image from February 4. The greenish tint comes from the coma’s diatomic C2 gas fluorescing in sunlight. Captured from an observatory near Sydney, Australia, the color composite is constructed from a series of individual exposures registered on the comet. Across the 1 degree wide field of view, the star trails are a consequence of the comet’s relatively rapid motion against the background of stars near theSouth Celestial Pole. Moving north, the comet should grower brighter, reaching a peak (3rd magnitude or so) when it isclosest to the Sun in late March. By early April it should be visible from the northern hemisphere. Of course, this year Comet Lemmon may be just another pretty comet as skygazers on planet Earth also eagerly anticipate views of Comet PANSTARRS and Comet ISON. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1302/Lemm4febSUMward.jpg

Funny boat names this weekend:  Prop a Sea (prophecy), Propduster.

[Solitaire] Free app for those who enjoy a little variety. 250+ Solitaires
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/250+-solitaires-free/id444538941?mt=8

[Redux] Raccoon attacks and kills baby birds] This attack happened during the night in a birdhouse, the raccoon climbed up the wood pole to get the chicks. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgpUY1lecuI

[NOAA jobs] There are lots of good people working there but what people say is right when they say “dead end job”…..in the deck side there is no advancement, your going to be stuck at $36,000 per year (without much overtime in most cases) There is no split rotation, you work year around with about 30-40 days paid leave a year like in the military. There are civilian mates (a few) however NOAA has made it clear from the top that they don’t want civilian Mates and Captains anymore only NOAA Corps officers in those positions. 

It is a job however and the benefits are among the best in the industry, yet the pay is the lowest.

FIRM looks for public’s help with windstorm study. http://www.keysnet.com/2013/02/06/484903/firm-looks-for-publics-help-with.html

Chasing Ice captures largest glacier calving ever filmed. http://www.youtube.com/embed/hC3VTgIPoGU?rel=0

At least 35 small pyramids, along with graves, have been discovered clustered closely together at a site called Sedeinga in Sudan.

Discovered between 2009 and 2012, researchers are surprised at how densely the pyramids are concentrated. In one field season alone, in 2011, the research team discovered 13 pyramids packed into roughly 5,381 square feet, or slightly larger than an NBA basketball court. Very Cool.

In 2010, the NOAA was caught reporting hilariously inaccurate temperatures in some localities in an apparent attempt to report higher average temperatures. We’re not talking about slight massaging of the data — the NOAA reported temperatures of 430 degrees Fahrenheit in northern Lake Michigan. The more we dig into this shadowy, quasi-military organization, the more we’re frightened. We’ll have a full report in the days ahead.

Open coffins: On Noah Pozner & Emmett Till.  Let’s put a face on gun control.http://www.commondreams.org/further/2013/02/05-1

[School Board] Gentlemen: As you wrestle with the various and current problems associated with the HOB project, whether Change Orders, parking lots or whatever, I thought that you might find useful the attached list of “watchdogs”.  The list was produced on December 14, 2010 by Jesus Jara on behalf of then Superintendent Joe Burke. 

      At the outset of the HOB project, Stuart Kessler and I expressed concerns at a number of Audit and Finance Committee meetings that problems may arise and that it was imperative that clear lines of authority and responsibility be drawn.  Burke was dismissive, stating, as Margaret Romero reminded you at your January meeting, that dozens of people would be carefully overseeing the project. 

       Stuart and I struggled with Burke for several months, repeatedly reminding him that every recent construction project had been fraught with problems, many financial.  At times, both the public and private conversations became quite heated as Burke balked at an oversight role by the AFC or anyone else. 

        As the attached demonstrates, we finally prevailed and Burke provided a list of “Job Duties”.  Unfortunately, what Burke gave us was overly generalized and very vanilla.  Our hope was to identify all participants in the project and to clearly delineate their responsibilities, hence accountability.  Our thought was that should any problems arise, as they have, the Board would know to whom to go for explanation and resolution.  The goal was an unambiguous statement of responsibility that would lead directly to accountability. 

        Obviously, this list of “watchdogs” was lost or ignored almost as quickly as it appeared.  To my knowledge, the list has neverbeen implemented with an eye for its original intent, responsibility and accountability. 

        Further, many of the “watchdogs” have changed as well as the assignments.  Michael Kinneer is no longer the CFO.  Ken Gentile does not function as the Board’s Internal Auditor and he never did “perform periodic audits”.  Fred Sims’ employment was terminated in July, 2011.  The list was never updated to reflect the dismissal of zumBrunnen and the hiring of a replacement, Bill Sprague. 

        All I can say is that the AFC did its level best to be proactive, but no one cared, neither the superintendent nor the School Board, until things began to unravel.  This is not the first instance, and I expect that it will not be the last, when the AFC tried to help the Board and to protect the public interest.  While not a member anymore, I continue to support and applaud the AFC for what it does, even if it labors in the wilderness.  ~Dr Larry Murray 

White Flies & Chemical (imidacloprid) Soil Treatments-Based on its high water water solubility (0.5-0.6 g/L) and persistence, both the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Pest Management Regulartory Agency, in Canada consider imidacloprid to have a high potential to run off into surface water and to leach into the ground water and thus warn not to apply in areas where soils are permeable, particularly where the water table is shallow. Recently the state of California published the results of a water monitoring study where reseachers found 0.5-1.5 PPB of imidacloprid was detected in 89% of collected water samples with 19% of the samples exceeding the EPAs threshold toxicity for aquatic invertebrates. The results of this study indicate that imidacloprid “can move offsite from agricultural fields and contaminate surface water concentrations that may be harmful to aquatic organisms (Aquatic Invertebrates. Source of information was Wikipedia.

With the Post Office cutting only letter delivery on Saturday, how much can they actually be saving?  They will still need to staff up for delivery of packages.  Heck for the junk mail I get, I could get it once a week and be satisfied.

American Bird Conservancy Best Available Science? http://www.voxfelina.com/2011/03/best-available-science/

It appears as if Monroe County School System is long overdue in recruiting a new Director of Finance.

[Captain Doom] Watch this and learn something!  Then think like I do! http://www.youtube.com/watch?hl=en-GB&v=lD08CuUi_Ek

one funny site:  http://www.bandersnatch.com/index.htm

WOLVES PROPOSED TO BE RELEASED IN NY CENTRAL PARK Western ranchers are pissed off about all the attempts to run them off their ranches in the name of the Endangered Species Act. They are now proposing to find out how New Yorkers feel about dealing with the same stuff they are.

Must be from MonroeCounty!?http://www.bandersnatch.com/goniff.htm

The last time humanity vilified cats = Plague We made the breeds of house cats and let them run wild, so now we are paying the price of natural selected species being wiped out. The rats and bugs will overcome all, if we do not control them too, if it is not already to late.

Ed, I got some flack from the R/S chick on the ZAZA For Sale post, saying it is not her listing and to pull the link.

Here is her feedback to the guy who sent her email to me.

Do what you want with that post. 

“Not sure that’s a good idea. It’s not my listing. I might be in violation of some ethics code or something. Can you please see that he removes the link? Thanks! 

About those NJ Girls (?), no human male could ever be that horny! UGH, they would make a shark puke!

The left wing posters (mostly) should be made aware that it is not necessary to explain when they post weather or not they are from the left or the right persuasion, as that fact is made painfully obvious to any functioning human being, In a way tho I am somewhat gratified
that the gentleman did make his political persuasion known as he was otherwise giving second graders a bad rap. as for F.T.R. I do not know where the man gets his patience from as day after day he attempts to correct the mindset of these children on the left, I have learned long ago, that it is like trying to teach my dog calculus , I never had any luck with that either.

With all the criticism about using drones against the enemies of the United States, citizens or not, we must remember al-Qaida used four drones to kill nearly 3000 innocent people on 9/11.

[Bad Presidents]  Yes, Obama is listed as our 44th President. One could also argue that he is our 43rd, as Grover Cleveland’s two terms were not consecutive… he is listed as our 22nd as well as our 24th President. So there have actually been only 43 men serve as President of the United States.
http://www.accuracyproject.org/presidents.html

Illegal immigrant population, state by state. Link

[Justice Department memo reveals legal case for drone strikes on Americans] The 16-page memo, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News, provides new details about the legal reasoning behind one of the Obama administration’s most secretive and controversial polices: its dramatically increased use of drone strikes against al-Qaida suspects abroad, including those aimed at American citizens, such as the September 2011 strike in Yemen that killed alleged al-Qaida operatives Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan. Both were U.S. citizens who had never been indicted by the U.S. government nor charged with any crimes. link

At least Obama hasn’t, as of yet, used his shotgun on a fellow human like the great Republican god Dick Cheney did.

FROM THE RIGHT

Recently a poster wrote: “Obama has been rated as the 4th best president ever: A study group recently released its findings as to the best president of the United States of America. Obama has been rated as the 4th best president ever: Reagan and 9 others tied for first, 15 presidents tied for second, 18 other presidents tied for third. Obama came in fourth.” The other day I pointed out that Obama himself had proclaimed that HE was the 4th best President. Yesterday a poster corrected me. My sincere thanks to that critic whose math skills are far superior to mine. Now that he/she has so graciously pointed out my error, I agree with that poster’s statement that there have been 43 better Presidents than Mr. Obama.

Part 2) We’re beginning to hear chatter from the left that the looming sequestration is the handiwork the those Wascaly Wepublican members of Congress. It’s interesting that the chatter actually sounds a little panicked.  If the Congress and Obama fail to come to agreement on the upcoming crunch and on fiscal responsibility, the sequestration will kick in and there will have to be massive across the board federal spending cuts. The cuts will be brutal.  There will be nothing that is sacrosanct. Education, entitlements, and defense will take huge hits.

The threat of sequestration is not new.  It first reared its head just prior to the ’12 presidential election. It was touted as a doomsday machine that would guarantee that the all sides would come together to mend our finances.  The theory was that sequestration would come into force only if no agreement was reached.   Now, the left is in the process of ginning up a propaganda war that accuses the Republican Congress of foisting sequestration on us.  Deer Friends, the left speaks with a forked tongue.

POLITICO reports that it was the White House who first proposed the ‘sequester’ – a plan they devised because the president didn’t want to deal with another debt limit debate before his re-election campaign. According to POLITICO, the book ‘The Price of Politics,’ by Washington Post Associate Editor Bob Woodward, makes it clear the idea for the draconian spending cuts” which would jeopardize our national defense originated in the White House – and not in Congress.

Congress and the White House initially dodged the sequestration bullet by kicking the can down the road.  Now, its baaaaaack!

Now, team Obama fears and despises sequestration. And so he and his accuse the Wascally Wepublicans of being the mastermind.  Deer Friends, it was not the idea of the Republicans.  The concept was created in the White House and sold to Congress so that Obama would not have to shoulder any responsibility for the pain that drastic spending cuts would engender.

Bob Woodward’s skill as a chronicler of DC shenanigans is legendary. Certainly you will remember his book “All the President’s Men” that revealed the facts of Nixon/Watergate.  Woodward’s new book: “The Price of Politics”  reveals that Obama’s OMB Director Jack Lew, then the White House chief of staff, and White House Legislative Affairs Director Rob Nabors pitched the sequestration idea to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Under the deal, which Republicans accepted after several rounds of bargaining, the federal debt ceiling was raised — staving off a potential financial crisis …That was then, and this is now, the crisis is back. Redrum returns.

The latest sequestration crisis was created by the White House and Democrat governance which steadfastly refuses to get treatment for their crippling addiction to spending.

The Republicans in the House and Senate have offered an excellent common sense way out of the dilemma. Among other treatments, they suggest that we downsize the civilian  federal work force through attrition, and  freeze pay for members of Congress.  It is crystal clear that Team Obama has no interest whatsoever in even attempting to cut spending and to put our nation back on solid fiscal ground.

If you doubt that, just ask yourself why Obama, has once again, contrary to our law, refused to submit a budget. We now in the 5th year of the Obama presidency, we have not had a budget since his inauguration.  Team Obama is not serious about mending our finances.

Respectfully submitted: FTR@bellsouth.net