Big Green, Deep Purple
I thoroughly enjoyed Andrea Brunais' story of her high seas adventure in the keys, in pursuit of the tasty "bugs" from the deep. All aspects of this story are indeed true and highly accurate, from the price-gouging resorts to the commercial bugging bastards. I was elsewhere down there within 12 miles south, and we managed to unload my wallet and expand my credit card indebtedness with great ease — all in the search-and-seizure efforts to collect a six-pack of jumbo-shrimp-sized spiny lobsters. Marina gas was $2.25; add oil, ice, water, lunch and all of the numerous necessities she mentioned in her feature article, and you can easily see the $250 bowl of Lobster Bisque is close. Drag the boat there from Brandon, pay the "I owe Florida $60" for that missing whistle upon Marine Patrol boarding inspection, and you get the picture. Was it fun? Of course. Will I do it again, as I have before? If I can afford it. Can I justify the bottom-line expenses? That depends. I am 52, my son and his cousin, 15, my nephew just back from Iraq, 24. Their smiles and our memorable photos are priceless, unlike the many hundreds of lobsters we could have purchased without even getting wet.
— M.P. McFail
Via e-mail
You probably have already received gazillions of messages about this, but just in case: In your otherwise fine "Stalking the Spiny Lobster," you write, "Islamorada (roughly translated, it means 'Island Abode') …" A better "rough translation" would be "Inhabited Island," but still faulty. Though it's true that "morada" means habitation, the word has another, much different, meaning, and that is the one which applies to the island. As an adjective, "morada" means "purple," and this is the meaning originally applied to that land because of its color. If you go to www.florida-keys.fl.us/isla.htm/, you'll read, "Hundreds of years ago, Spanish explorers sailed by Islamorada, saw the purple hue of its coastline (from the lavender shells of sea snails, Janthina) and gave it its name 'islas moradas,' Spanish for purple isles."
— Gilson Redrick
Via e-mail
Editor's reply: Mea culpa — I added the translation. And even though I used a reputable source, I like yours better. Thanks.
Hot, Hotter, Hottest
I noticed your topical reading list and thought it might be worth the effort to try to get you to belatedly include an excellent view of the Supreme Quirk's coronation of our alleged president. The Betrayal of America by Vincent Bugliosi, famous for his prosecutorial work, makes a good case that the "felonious five" are thieves. He also shows the obliging press and the limp Gore lawyers for what their roles were. A second book that has gotten a lot of notice, and rightly, is American Dynasty by Kevin Phillips, which is damning for its style and research but even more so because the author is or has been a conservative and was prominent as a Nixon adviser. One quote will suffice: "The Bushes appear to be a family that approaches a presidential election as something to be won with a CIA manual, not earned with commitment to Lincolnian precepts or popular sovereignty."
Before we get too high and mighty about establishing democracy in Iraq and the Middle East, maybe we need to bring it back to Florida and America.
— Bob Yardley
St. Petersburg
Editor's reply: Kevin Phillips has gotten some of that notice in these pages. In particular, see his "All Eyes on Dixie," which ran in our Feb 18-24, 2004 issue and is available online at www.weeklyplanet.com/2004-02-19/cover.html.
This article appears in Aug 19-25, 2004.