Your Evening Sift

How long has it been since it rained in South Florida? Lawns in my neighborhood are looking a lot more like the desert landscaping of Arizona these days.

Here is a very busy evening Sift for you to contemplate.

A- Shorter babalu...

I don't want to pay more for my stupidity and bad habits.

This seems like a great time for my complaint du jour: I wish I didn't have to listen to these effing idiots who insist on sucking smoke into their lungs and then whine how much it's costing them to do it. If you want to do something stupid, feel free to do it. After all, this is America. But remember, those taxes that you're b*tching about go to help take care of your ignorant as* when you fall ill with some disease that everyone has warned you about since the very day you started sucking on cancer sticks. It's a choice that you, and you alone are making, so either learn to exercise some self-control or just stop the whining already.

B- There's a whole bunch of new stuff over at Miami Fever to check out.

C- Jaded in Paradise had an "only in South Florida" moment last night.

In the background, I heard a noise that I haven’t heard since my trip to Scotland.

The sound of bag pipes.

I quickly turned around and saw a solo man walking over the railroad tracks, playing the bagpipes. He was wearing jeans and a black t-shirt going on his way, playing those bagpipes as if no one else was watching.

Hmm…interesting, I wonder why he doesn’t go full blown and wear a kilt?

I looked over at my friend just to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating and we both exchanged WTF expressions.

“I love this town!” she said, “Only in Fort Lauderdale!”

C- The South Beach Bum has lots of photos of South Beach scenes posted today.

D- Miami Metblogs discovers an interesting building in downtown Miami while enjoying Bike Miami and it sparks some creative thinking.

A nondescript building in faded tones of pink, the Public Fish Market sits on NW N River Dr, almost under the SW 1st St bridge and ideally accessible from SW 2nd St. The building is obviously abandonded, not necessarily falling apart, but very much unused for years, all painted lettering almost unreadable at this point. When I first rode by I completely ignored it; it just didn’t exist in my peripheral vision, a phenomenon, I dare say, happens to most passerbys. It was only when we were riding back into Downtown that my wife took notice of it. She read something written on the wall out loud and that’s what made me look right and see the derelict structure for the first time.

E- If you're traveling to DC and are wondering what the club scene is like there, you might want to check out this MiamiNights post that compares the two.

Most places are small as a result of the architecture. In addition I found that all the clubs I went to are generally restaurants during the day. There isn't really that haute fervor Miamians treasure here. It was pretty refreshing to be in a place where it didn't matter what your style was. I didn't really see an "scene" crowd or a fancy crowd.

F- The Burger Beast takes an enthusiastic look at Fatburger on Miami Beach.

The toppings I added to my Kingburger were cheese, ketchup and mayo. I liked the burger a lot , a great fast food burger, very reminiscent to me of Gabe's Burgers (long gone but not forgotten by me at least, as I recall they had three locations, one on Bird across from Bird Bowl, one near the airport and the other near the B.J.'s (wholesale warehouse, don't jump to conclusions) original location in Hialeah on 49th st.) Their big deal though is that they have a Turkey Burger, I did not try it though it's not something I'm against eating, I prefer the real deal, I'm not trying to save any calories here.

G- Rakontur posts their usual Black Sunday video from this weekend. Rock on!

H- Transit Miami links to and then discusses an LA Times story about "the transit paradox" and it's application to our Tri-Rail service.

Tri-Rail service cuts are expected to reduce trips from 50 trains a day — the result of a $450 million investment to meet demand ad expand service two years ago — to 20 trains a day. This would not only nullify render the original investment useless, but also discourage a continued growth in ridership. After all, if the train isn’t running when and where you would like it to, who is going to take it?

I- Miami City Diggs takes a close look at Miami Beach's The Yacht Club at Portofino and offers us recent rental and sales data.

The Yacht Club at Portofino is located in the SOFI area of South Beach of Miami Beach. It is located at 90 Alton Road. Built in 1999, the Yacht Club at Portofino is one of the older high end luxury buildings in the South of Fifth Area. It is located on the bay side of Miami Beach, with direct views of Brickell, downtown Miami, Fisher Island, Miami Beach and more. There is a marina that is located off the back side of the building.

J- Miami For Change reports on what Liberty city community leaders are doing in the wake of last week's mass shooting.

K- Bark Bark Woof Woof says to let the Republicans vote no on Obama's stimulus package. I agree.

Fine. Let them vote no. Chances are they didn't plan to vote for it no matter what because in the end, they're more interested in political posturing than anything else. For example, the hue and cry over family planning funds is a manufactured kerfuffle because it's been a part of the budget for generations and was first put in by Republicans...back in the day when family planning wasn't the code word for James Dobson's direct mail deluge.

To have John Boehner carry on about deficit spending, especially after all the years he spent rubber-stamping the Bush administration's budgets, is rich, so to speak.

L- Shorter East Florida Gazette Online...

The State of Florida should allow insurance companies to charge Floridians exorbitant premiums so that they'll want to stay and do business here.

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