Ever since the Europeans decided they could vacation in the sun more conveniently and for less money away from Longboat Key, certain merchants have been claiming they would all return if the 30-day rule on residential leases were rescinded.

All of us get frustrated. Some of us blow up when we do. The lucky ones do it in relative privacy and usually make their amends privately. Andrew Hlywa, the recent owner of the Whitney Beach Plaza, unfortunately vented his frustration on the editorial page of the Longboat Key News. I am sure when he calms down, he will realize his outburst was unseemly and mean-spirited. However, done is done, and so are Andrew and his charming companion Dawn di Lorenzo with Longboat Key.

With the judge’s decision to place The Colony in Chapter 7 liquidation, the final chapter of the first edition about this vital part of Longboat Key has been written. We will now hear and read accolades to the warm outgoing hospitality of its founder and owner, Murf Klauber, and how he will be missed. Some of us will wonder why we never got to know this person.

The Shannon Corporation, the forerunner of the Loeb Realty Group, paid Arvida $26 million for the two golf clubs and the right to operate the Islandside hotel, the Inn on the Beach.

Despite all the rumors floated about that Joe Lesser doesn’t like to be involved in lawsuits, his team has landed him right in the middle of one, as IPOC has challenged the decision of the town to allow the expansion of the Longboat Key Club & Resort.

Occasionally I will get an e-mail from a reader that tells me that I am not always communicating my point of view as accurately as I think. With your indulgence, let me try to clarify my guiding principles during my Longboat Key life and beyond.

One of the various ways I keep up with the goings-on 1,100 miles away is with e-mails. E-mails go both ways, and I can get a glimpse of what is happening just from reading my mail.

If you run into a town commissioner in Publix or in a restaurant, you might find it amusing to ask them to describe what it was they voted for when they approved the development at Islandside. I expect you would get at least six different answers. The way it finished up, it wouldn’t surprise me if some of the commissioners gave you a different answer each time they were asked.

Jonah Goldberg summed up the problem with the current debate on energy policy with one marvelous paragraph: “For years, environmentalists have been selling snake oil about energy policy, claiming that we can give up on nasty but affordable carbon-based energy such as coal, oil and gas and embrace wind, solar and geothermal (but not nuclear) at little to no cost. In fact, if you listen to people such as the New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, switching to solar panels and wind farms will make us richer and more competitive, if not cause unicorns to poop ‘green jobs’ and rainbows as far as the eye can see.”

For the past few years, it has appeared to outside observers that Longboat commissioners are so concerned with being liked that they do back flips to avoid up and down votes. I know I write too much about the old days, but you never caught Hart Wurzberg, Kit Fernald or Carleton Stewart trying to make nice with anyone sitting in front of them.