Many of the flags at residences and businesses along Gulf of Mexico Drive flew at half-staff on Tuesday, in memory of Longboat key Police Chief Al Hogle, 63, who unexpectedly died in a motorcycle accident on Monday, May 14 on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina.
As we approach the winter season the topic of sunshine comes up again in local news. Just to get you up to speed; the winter solstice in our northern hemisphere occurred this year at 0530 (UTC), Dec. 22. At that time the sun reached its most southerly declination — the North Pole was tilted 23.5 degrees away from the sun. In the northern hemisphere the December solstice marks the day of the year with the least hours of daylight (north of the Tropic of Cancer). You knew that.
This column should reach you, our loyal readers, a day or two before Christmas. That means we might depart from the usual opinion, to concentrate on well wishing. I’d like to do that as I approach my 75th Christmas.
I’ve been reading of late a lot of correspondence from almost all quarters about dogs, dogs on beaches, our beaches, use of beaches, etc. It all reminds me of controversy along the Jersey Shore some years ago over just who could venture onto the beaches of the many shore towns there. They used bathing suit patches to identify suitable bathers; one town even proposed a small tattoo to the exposed skin of honest and true residents. Here it sounds like some locals or wannabes desire to identify or maybe ban all canines from the shore.
There seems to be an awful lot of discourse on cell phones and their maybe necessary cell towers around here of late. That is for a technology that has been around for almost 30 years. Maybe we just discovered it. I’m no ‘techy’ but I am an engineer and I think I understand the basics of the technology. I’ll suggest that we should start with the basics, so I offer the definition following.
Several weeks ago I wrote in these pages (“A while ago,” Sept. 29, 2011): “These scholars and practitioners of government made it very clear that in their view the purpose of government was the redistribution of income. This ‘fact’ pervaded thought there on JFK Street in Cambridge, as I’m sure it did throughout Harvard Yard.
Consistent with my minor political activity around here I asked an acquaintance here in District 3 to sign a nomination petition for a neighbor who is running for our Town Commission. That targeted signer asked me whom the new candidate was running against. I answered: David Brenner, the current commissioner from this district, our district. The person seemed not to know who David was. Wow!
A relatively short article in The Economist struck my eye. I like to read this newspaper, even though it represents a more liberal view than my own. I started on the British publication during my days at Jubail in Saudi Arabia. I often read it cover to cover then and there. That might tell you how much we had to do on that other Gulf coast.
I’m here in my previous Tiny Towne on a beautiful autumn afternoon. In spite of early and heavy snows just a bit north and west of our location on the coast, it is tranquil here close to the spot where America all began. The ocean is blue, as is the sky. Leaves are turning vibrant reds and yellows thanks to some frosty mornings.
In honor of Veterans Day this year, an American flag that was previously flown at sea aboard the USS Enterprise off Cape Hatteras is now flying over Veterans Memorial off Bay Isles Road. The flag was given to former LBK Commissioner and retired Navy veteran Peter O’Connor by the ship’s captain. O’Connor had the privilege [...]
