This Week on the Island 10/11/2009

'This week on the Island' is written by Doug Bennett and is an update to friends about happenings in Key West last week. Everything is true except for those parts that are lies.----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The picture this week (click to enlarge) is a ‘Parrotfish’. It's hard to decide which of the colorful parrot fish's many unique characteristics is most remarkable.(1)There’s its diet, which consists primarily of algae extracted from chunks of coral ripped from a reef. The coral is pulverized with grinding teeth in the fishes’ throats in order to get to the algae-filled polyps inside. Much of the sand in the parrot fish's range is actually the ground-up, undigested coral they excrete. (2)There's its gender, which they can change repeatedly throughout their lives, and their coloration and patterns, which are a classification nightmare, varying greatly, even between the males, females, and juveniles of the same species. (3) Finally, there are the pajamas. Every night, certain species of parrot fish envelope themselves in a transparent cocoon made of mucous secreted from an organ on their head. Scientists think the cocoon masks their scent, making them harder for nocturnal predators, like moray eels, to find.

Weather: Hot! We broke a couple of heat records this week.

This week I continued ‘The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway’ by Ernest Hemingway.

Things Tourist Say: We have a Schooner in the Key West Bight named The Western Union. It was owned by Western Union and was used to lay cable all over the Caribbean. There is a little booth near Schooner Wharf that sells tickets for sails on the Western Union. A woman said ‘I need to send some money by Western Union.’ The ticket sales guy said ‘We are a boat’. Then she said, ‘Well how long will it take?’

The local election is over and ‘Big Mac’ McPherson is out. Our new Mayor is Cates. Jimmy Weekly, voted out as Mayor in the past, is now back as a Commissioner. The referendums to, (1) allow the city to sell land and (2) to extend the office of Mayor to four years, were voted down. It was a good election and lots of people are happy with the results.

Friday was another trip to Miami on the VA bus. Still working on those plantar warts.

Key West, You have got to love it
'Living the life that others dream'
Doug Bennett
Lat 24.55967N, Long 81.80169W

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Sassi dancing to Schooner Wharf Bar Dog. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow_l9kgPmuQ