Since 2002. Published Wednesdays and Saturdays
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 It’s that time of year again. The Big Pine Key Flea Market will be open starting this Saturday. We have all been busy in our lovely summer rains, mowing grass, painting, adding new vendors, rebuilding our tables and awnings so everything will be bright and clean and new. We have a new website called bigpinekeyfleamarket.com. It is just starting up, so please check it often for pictures of our new vendors and all our merchandise.
We will be open every Saturday and Sunday from 8am until 2pm. It’s been a long, wet month and we are looking forward to a cooler, dryer winter season. Please come and visit, we have missed all our locals. Stop in and say hello. On a very sad note, we have lost one of our oldest favorite vendors. Jack the mini donut guy was killed this summer in a car accident while up in Wisconsin. He has been at the market for 38 years and we all will really miss him. He was a truly colorful character and his charm was a big part of many people’s memories |
| [Clear Cutting The Refuge] The Key Deer Refuge cleared 14 acres of pine habitat on Big Pine Key in August. They are in the three areas that were slated for burns. The easiest area to access is at the northwest corner of Eden Pines Subdivision. At the north end of Narcissus where Palm Avenue ends are two fire trail gates. You can walk north on the trail and see all the new roads heading all over the pinelands in that area. |
 [Amateur Hour] I am not loyal to any political party. I believe that loyalty to political parties, and I mean loyal to a political party like you are loyal to a sports team, is what has put this country into such a polarized state. People that are blindly loyal to their parties, believe that they must win. They concentrate so much on winning, that they must forget that their political party is not a sports team. And their goal is not to secure a win for their political party, their goal should be to work with the other party, who obviously has different ideas on how to run the country, and find a compromise that everyone will accept. I know nowadays that the word compromise, (and I don’t know why), has become such a negative thing in politics. When you live in a free country, a country that supposedly is free to all its citizens, you will find a multitude of diverse ideas. And the only way to respect and accept everyone’s right to be free, you must have compromise.
Now people want a politician who’s not a politician. They think that a non-politician can run a political machine like the United States government. To me that’s like saying that I really don’t like my doctor, he’s not very nice, he acts like he’s not really paying attention to what I’m telling him, that he knows everything, but I still feel like crap. Now on the other hand, I got this great mechanic. I bring the car in, I tell him what the trouble is, he looks it over, “No problem I’ll have it for you by the end of the day”; and when I come back the car is ready. So, when I develop a kidney stone, should I go to my mechanic to fix it, because he’s not a doctor, and I don’t like the way my doctor does his work? Just like mechanics, doctors, politicians, they’re all specific jobs. It usually takes years to become good at your job. Yes it’s true, that you can change careers, and be good at both of them. They could use examples like Ronald Reagan (I can’t personally say that I thought he was good at any of his jobs, but that’s just a personal opinion), many feel that he was good at his careers. My point is that he worked at his careers for years before he became good at them. He was an actor, president of the Screen Actors Guild, a governor of California for two terms before he became president. But now people think that you could just put anybody in office to be President. That logic to me doesn’t make any sense. I understand that people don’t like politicians, but a lot of people don’t like the police either, and you don’t hear them wanting to replace them with firemen! People would think that’s nuts, that’s not going to solve anything. They should think the same way when it comes to politicians. People should stop voting for politicians that just say the things that they like to hear, but have no real way to make it happen. They should vote for a President that has political experience, that has worked across the aisle, and tried to get the best deal that he could for the people that he represents, which is every American in the United States, no matter what political party they subscribe to. |
Outcome of political argument on social media. |
| Rednecks get very upset if you care for the environment or alternative energy. They use insulting language to try to make your argument look foolish. |
Church mice. |
| I am looking for a posting regarding a murder/shooting and Frank Randleman in Big Pine. The posting would have been posted between May 22, 2010, and May 25, 2010. I tried looking through your archive links but it is not operable. Can you help? |
Coconuts on Big Pine Key. The best kept secret in the Fabulous Florida Keys. |
| [Ballistics] Very slow motion shots. Note the second round jam failure in the first pistol firing. Video |
 [Old Time Radio] Here’s an unbelievable collection of all the old time radio shows. This is a chance to go back in time, and listen to radio. Find your favorite, click on it, and listen to all the episodes. Audio |
| [Mickey Mouse Boat Builders] Mickey builds a boat. Real Cartoon |
 I wonder who will take the responsibility when the new self-driving cars hit something? Like the blonde said after rear-ending another vehicle, “He stopped too fast!” What if the self-driving car owner does not speak English or is a blonde? Will self-driving cars do a bumper car thingy fighting over a parking spot at Kmart?
Will a self-driving car need wiper blades, snow tires, tire chains, windshield scrapers, and how will the speed limits be obeyed? What happens when the software gets hacked? |
| Excerpt from online news article referring to the Duck Tour vehicle collision with a tour bus resulting in fatalities in Seattle. Critics say the large amphibious vehicles are built for war, not for ferrying people on narrow city streets. “Duck boats are dangerous on the land and on the water. They shouldn’t be allowed to be used,” Robert Mongeluzzi, a Philadelphia attorney, said Friday, renewing his call for a moratorium on their operation nationwide. His firm represented the families of victims in a deadly 2010 crash near Philadelphia. A tugboat-guided barge plowed into a duck boat packed with tourists that had stalled in the Delaware River, sinking the boat and killing two Hungarian students. “They were created to invade a country from the water, not to carry tourists,” said Mongeluzzi, whose firm now represents the family of a woman killed in May by an amphibious vehicle in Philadelphia. Some attorneys also question the focus of the drivers. In Seattle, tours are complete with exuberant operators who play loud music and quack through speakers. “This is a business model that requires the driver to be a driver, tour guide and entertainer at the same time,” said Steve Bulzomi, the attorney for a motorcyclist who was run over and dragged by a duck boat that came up behind him at a stoplight in Seattle in 2011. |
Painting by Ed Krane |
| [Horny Activist] An attractive, smiling dark haired woman “Cindy?” was introduced to me after the deep well public meeting on Sept 24th at Sugarloaf school. I wanted to talk with her, but we were interrupted and she disappeared into the crowd I had around me. Tell her my home phone is in the book and if she leaves a clear number I would very much like to chat with her. Thanks!. |
 In 1941 after six U-boats managed to sink 41 ships in the targeted waters of the East Coast and the Florida Straits, a second, larger operation code-named Drumbeat was launched by the German navy, the Kriegsmarine. At the time, many U.S. citizens were still ignoring the calls for coastal blackouts by the government, which meant that the freighters and tankers that moved along the shores at night were conveniently silhouetted for the German navy. Taking advantage of that, an armada of 22 U-boats approached the U.S. coastline and the attacks were constant. In March 1942 alone, 70 American ships were lost to the U-boats on the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast, in what the Nazis terrifyingly referred to as the “American hunting season.” This ongoing attack was kept largely secret from the American people by the U.S. government, which didn’t want to admit how thinly stretched and outclassed the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard were at this stage of the war – this despite several of the tankers exploding and burning for hours in plain view of port cities and their populations.
Finally, after many of the vital fuel ships supplying the Northeast were sunk, the oil and gas industry informed the U.S. War Department that the burgeoning war economy would grind to a halt from a lack of fuel in only nine months. There were 19 U-boats operating on a daily basis along the coastline; the U.S. government was under pressure, and at something of a loss, to counter the serious threat. At the time, the U.S. Navy was still ramping up the building of new warships, while the existing vessels were occupied with convoy patrols to England and with fending off the Japanese in the Pacific |
| VW is in the black circle of a big world wide target. Just think if all advertisers were to be exposed for ‘stretching the truth’ about their products! |
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| How do you jump start an electric car? |
 This actually happened to an Englishman in France who was totally drunk. A French policeman stops the Englishman’s car and asks if he has been drinking. With great difficulty, the Englishman admits that he has been drinking all day, that his daughter got married that morning, and that he drank champagne and a few bottles of wine at the reception, and many single malts scotches thereafter.Quite upset, the policeman proceeds to alcohol-test (breath test) the Englishman and verifies that he is indeed totally sloshed. He asks the Englishman if he knows why, under French Law, he is going to be arrested? The Englishman answers with a bit of humor, “No sir, I do not! But while we’re asking questions, do you realize that this is a British car and that my wife is driving — on the other side?” |
| [Hero Activist] Check out the video of the FKAA Board meeting Friday when Cara Higgins brought up Bob Dean’s lack of the legal residency requirement to represent Key West on the Board. She also mentioned the hiring of convicted felon conch bubba Randy Acevedo over two better qualified candidates, that FKAA Counsel Bob Feldman will not answer her questions, Internal Compliance Auditor Tim Esquinaldo is not doing his job, that public trust in FKAA ceased about the time that Kirk Zuelch became Executive Director, and that FKAA has been quarantining emails from individuals to her. Go Cara! Video |
How can we be added to your Business Directory? Our name is the Lower Keys Women’s Club and we have been helping our community for 50 years. We are a 501C3 organization that raises funds to help those in our community who are in need. We invite you to visit our website. Business Directory > Government / NGOs |
| [How Rude] This woman just stared at the beer in my cup holder, like she’s never seen a cup holder on a grocery cart before! |
Have you been to the Blue Hole? One of Big Pine Key’s many treasures. |
| [Killing] An interesting detail that has emerged in several accounts of the “home invasion” shooting on Big Pine. While the husband was inside calling 911 and loading his Glock, the wife went outside to check out the intruder. Odd difference in reactions, methinks. |
Bahia Honda Bridge with roadway above circa 1950. |
| [The World] People worry me. Why? Because most do not give a damn about what is going on around this planet. Europe is about to crash into WW3. Mexico is killing their own people for the drug trades. Australia is about to cull out all Muslims like Northern Europe. South America is over breeding so much they cannot feed themselves. Africa is a meat locker for the ants. India is getting so crowded it may ration air soon. The Middle East wants the West to move. Alaska is about to form its own Army and recede from the union. Russia is going nuts for power because their prison system (the Gov.) sucks. The South Pacific is nothing more than a dumping ground for waste and old bombs. What is left? Canada, Greenland, Iceland and Antarctica are left, but you got to be young, strong, and rich to survive in those freezers. Not a hell of a lot of places left I would want to live in. Too many people! |
 The 5th Annual Votes for Notes will be a shared benefit for both Habitat for Humanity affiliates in the Lower Keys! Local musician Ray West is working with the affiliates to produce this friendly music competition with performers of all ages and genres. Local acts perform at shows held at three Lower Keys venues. The audience “votes” with cash donations in the act’s “vote bucket” while they perform. All donations go to support the work of Habitat for Humanity. Competing in two categories, solo/duo or band, the acts with the largest cumulative total after three rounds win Prize Packages containing free recording time, gift certificates and more. This year the two winners will also win $250 cash which has been generously sponsored by the venues. All shows are held on Wednesdays from 6 pm – 9 pm: Sept 23, Dockside Tropical Café in Marathon; Sept 30, Boondocks Grille & Draft House on Ramrod Key; and the Grand Finale on October 6, Smokin’ Tuna in Key West. |
| The female praying mantis devours the male within minutes after mating, while the female human prefers to stretch it out over a lifetime. |
 When it is pursued, the ostrich begins to move away, gently at first, but gradually increasing its speed, running with wings extended, as if flying, and keeps doubling. It generally takes two days to run one down; but the hunter gets the best of the race at last; and, when the ostrich finds itself exhausted and beaten, it buries its head in the sand; and the hunters, coming up, kill it with their clubs, taking care not to spoil the feathers. ~Missionary Travels in South Africa-–David Livingston circa 1868 |
| 750 pages comprise the addition to the FKAA Board meeting on Friday that questioned Bob Dean’s right to represent Key West on that Board. Wow! I guess that explains the long download. Link
Cara Higgins did a fine job of assembling the evidence. Will she be able to turn the FKAA around? There was a time when people at least more or less trusted the FKAA to get relatively safe drinking water down the chain of islands and to charge less than you could make your own drinking water from seawater. Few trust the FKAA at all anymore–for anything. Fraud, fraud, and more fraud. Did you see that gaping hole in US1 where the water transmission main sprung a leak? A photo was on the front page of Saturday’s Keynoter. Wait until the under-designed raw sewage forcemain blows! That’s when we make the national TV news and the TDC goes into damage control mode. FKAA’s new motto: “Your tax (and rate) dollars at work- irresponsibly building shit to move yours!” |
I want a closed-casket funeral. However, towards the end of the services, please have the organists play “Pop Goes the Weasel” over and over. Until everyone in attendance is staring at my coffin with mute horrified anticipation. |
| [Prescribed Burns Postponed Due To Lack Of Rain] Prescribed burns done by federal wildlife officials on Big Pine Key became controversial after Sept. 15, 2011, when a 21-acre controlled burn of pine rocklands got out of control. The blaze scorched about 100 acres and forced many residents to evacuate. |
 Muslims win prayer case against Webber Academy. Alberta’s leading independent school, the Webber Academy, was just ordered by that province’s so-called “Human Rights Commission” to pay $26,000 to the families of two Muslim students who were refused permission to pray in that non-denominational school. Gone mad in Canada. Watch, this will spread to the USA and the rest of this world! Video |
| Did anyone video the deep well permit public meeting Sept 24th? Or audio record it? There were some good public comments. One of the good ones was from the individual who was regularly testing the salinity level in the shallow waters surrounding the Cudjoe treatment site at a culvert on Blimp Road. The salinity dropped dramatically during well testing, although I think most of the test water traveled further. FKAA suggested it might have been due to rain, but the timing was all wrong. Rainfall was recorded during well tests and reported. I think he said salinity dropped from 59 to 36 ppm! Who has a recording? |
 Springer’s Bar & Grill
Italian Tuesday — Get a large pizza with two toppings for only $11. (pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, black olives, tomatoes, broccoli) Happy Hour Every Day from 12:30 pm – 7 pm Sunday Ticket NFL – Every Live Game. Great Food & Drinks. Bring a friend or 2 Myles Mancuso on Thurday Evenings — Live Music |
| American consumers were feeling more confident again this month, good news for the U.S. economy. The consumer confidence index rose again to 103 in September after surging in August to 101.3. The September reading was the highest since January. |
[Low Rider] Bet you can’t do this! |
| [Crooks] Carl Hiaasen: Brazen theft of our Amendment 1 bucks. Most embezzlers try to conceal their thefts, but not in Tallahassee. The looting of Florida’s Amendment One conservation funds took place in broad daylight, orchestrated by two poker-faced swindlers named Andy Gardiner and Steve Crisafulli.
Gardiner is president of the Senate. Crisafulli is speaker of the House. Remember their names, because they ripped you off big-time — and it will happen again next year, if they think they can get away with it. More than 4 million Floridians voted last November to set aside 33 percent of the revenues from existing real-estate stamp taxes for buying conservation and recreation lands, and for the restoration of such areas already owned by the state. The plan offered hope for the Everglades, the Indian River Lagoon and other places endangered by over-development and pollution. Amendment One was approved by a landslide, an unprecedented mandate to protect what remains of Florida’s wetlands and wild places. And the Legislature, led by Gardiner and Crisafulli, responded with a bold statement of its own: Screw you, folks. Link |
 Looking for a home in the Florida Keys? Look no further – here it is! This home’s beautiful wood ceilings, tile flooring, granite countertops and convenient kitchen island are only some of the features waiting for you in this open and airy home nestled in nearly 3/4 of an acre of land surrounded by wetlands with stunning sunset views over Newfound Harbor and the Pine Channel Bridge. If you value nature, peace and quiet…this home is for you! …..asking $324,900.
See what all the fun’s about! Video |
| [Syria] Why is the USA supporting ISIS, Hezbollah, al Qaeda and a slew of other terror groups against the lawful Syrian regime? I think the Russians are right on this one. It reminds me of Iraq, toppling a stabilizing (albeit brutal) leader to start an Islamic revolution where everyone loses but the terrorists. |
Utah |
| Marine reserve planned for Kermadec Islands off New Zealand. Link |
 [Gunslinger] “I couldn’t see the three men go fer their guns. An’ though I was lookin’ right at Lassiter lookin’ hard -I couldn’t see how he drawed. He was quicker eyesight thet’s all. But I seen the red spurtin’ of his guns, en’ heard his shots jest the very littlest instant before I heard the shots of the riders. An’ when I turned, Wright an’ Carter was down, en’ Jengessen, who’s tough like a steer, was pullin’ the trigger of a wabblin gun. But it was plain he was shot through, plumb center. An’ sudden he fell with a crash, an’ his gun clattered on the floor.” ~Riders of the Purple Sage—Zane Grey |
| [Sewers] AWT may not be such great treatment after all! See failure of inspection section 9 in the Big Coppitt WWTP inspection failure report as posted on the DEP Oculus document site for facility FLA567591. It can also be quickly viewed at this Dropbox link.
This section discusses numerous incidents that I believe are required to be reported to DEP, but I did not find the incident reports in the records provided by DEP in response to a Public Records Request. Things like a “plant upset” basically means inadequate treatment (understatement). Did FKAA not report them or did DEP hide them? In explanation, if turbidity of the plant effluent is high or if the chlorine residual is too low, then everything coming out of the plant is automatically dumped down the shallow wells and no reuse water is stored. If the influent flow is excessive or for some other reason the plant is not processing properly, then everything through the plant, no matter how bad, goes to the shallow wells. Compliance with AWT in reports to DEP are based on averages of samples taken maybe 3 days per month- on good days. Some days can result in very, very poor treatment that never get mentioned by FKAA. The recent Cudjoe shallow well testing report by Water Science Associates, on page 1, claims that effluent from AWT plants results in “water quality that meets all primary drinking water standards”, or as FKAA says, “Tap water- the best drink in town!” Is it any wonder that FKAA is so mistrusted? If you are interested, here is a link to the hyped-up WSA report with its false and misleading data, like claiming a 1,163 gal/min test flow down well 4 when the well meter actually recorded a maximum of 647 and an average of only 204 for the test period. Or you might look for this bogus test report that inspired a lawsuit settlement in the library under the Fantasy section. Link |
[The First Glastonbury Festival] We hear from farmer Michael Eavis, who began the Glastonbury music festival in 1970 and whose family still runs it today. Audio |
| [Captain Doom and Gloom] DEF: Water Broading n, A system of torture used on female prisoners and kinky hookers. DEF: Terrorist n, A nutcase who wants to make you obey his nutcase boss. DEF: Dope n, Any substance that makes you stupid. DEF: Pimple n, A growth usually appearing larger than another growth before puberty! DEF: Dinner n, The third meal of the day unless you live in Africa then it might be you! DEF: Wine n, Blood from dead grapes. DEF: Salad n, Chopped up life forms that cannot talk. DEF: Salami n, A long hard thing made from useless ingredient |
| Does Mexico have big boombooms? |
[Sock Heaven] This is a new record for me. I put 8 pair of socks in the washer and dryer and took out 3 pair and 5 singles. That’s absurd. And hopefully not an omen. I may start a single sock dating site. It might even be a good way to meet other single single sock owners (except I’m not gay). I suppose it is less hassle to just run over to Bealle’s, buy another sack of socks, and rejoice in having 5 unique new polishing rags. (they slide over your hand to become a polishing glove) Also, one is going over the boat compass right now as it keeps the sun off. The Nike sock would look rather classy, right? Divorced socks- gotta love ’em. |
| What makes me not only mad, but scared, is the mentality of the traffic cop. That lowest of low uniformed officer who cannot get a real job producing something worthwhile, but has to leach off the people that actually do nothing harmful except break idiot laws that were designed to make money for the juntas. The meter maid at least has to walk to ticket vehicles who’s parking meter has run out, but that is another sad profession in today’s useless-eater world. In the Keys we also have Water Nazis, who do the same things, tormenting old guys fishing for their dinner. Airport Police are also suspect for justifiable philological testing. The military? Now there is a mass of dysfunctional road warriors if I ever have seen any! No, these groups of questionable sanity people are what has developed because the majority of the rest of us are too lazy to defend ourselves or to use common sense and logic to survive outside our caves. |
| Submit anything but National Politics to island@bigpinekey.com |