Your Morning Sift

Good morning.

I'm still in a weekend mode thus the late morning Sift and altered posting schedule. Things will get back to normal here at SFDB tomorrow as I return to the Daily Grind *sigh*, so until then I appreciate your patience. With that, here's your morning Sift.

A- Food for Thought starts this Monday morning out with their usual articulate description of a recent vegan meal they enjoyed.

Prior events have had decidedly more carnivorous themes, including Wagyu Beef and "Kiss My Pork Butt" dinners, and this was, I believe, the first time Chef Brana has done a vegetarian themed dinner. I didn't know when I signed up that the dinner would in fact be not only vegetarian, but entirely vegan, with no animal products whatsoever.

B- In their latest rant against FDOT, Transit Miami documents a few more crashes on Biscayne Boulevard and claims that if the roadway had a slower design speed the accident rate would go down because, I presume, people would not break the speed limit any longer.

Before someone mentions enforcement as the solution, please allow me to preemptively say that we need to design our roadways in order to achieve the speed we desire people to drive. In the case of Biscayne Boulevard, the design speed should not exceed 35 mph. The FDOT must stop practicing wishful thinking and begin designing roadways that discourage speeding and do not require enforcement. Properly designed streets enforce themselves.

C- The Chowfather gives his impressions of the latest Cobaya dining experiment that was held 2 weeks ago at Area 31.

The latest dinner took place on June 13, 2011 at Area 31, located on the 16th floor of the Epic Hotel in downtown Miami. Chef E. Michael Reidt recently returned to Miami to run the kitchen at Area 31 after successful stints on the west and east coast. When I heard that Chef Reidt was returning to the area, I was excited because I knew he was not only very talented but had Cobaya-esque skills.

D- Shorter Searching for Signs...

Julio Robaina is shady and dishonest but I'm voting for him anyway because Carlos Gimenez supporters robocall me.

E- Sex and the Beach highlights a relaxing waterside community to visit if you're ever traveling on the west side of the state.

Last weekend, on my way to Cape Coral from Orlando, I found myself in that happy place, behind the wheel of a sweet ride, not having to rush anywhere.

A friend recommended I stop by Casey Key, where I ended up spending three hours doing a whole lot of amazing nothing.

F- Eye on Miami shows us how Carlos Gimenez has attracted the support of the entire Miami-Dade community.

G- Bark Bark Woof Woof defends Michele Bachmann.

Regardless of what I or anyone may think of Michele Bachmann as a presidential candidate or what her chances are of winning the Republican nomination, and regardless of what part of the spectrum her ideas and interpretations of reality may come from, Chris Wallace of Fox News asking her "Are you a flake?" was way out of bounds.

H- Man or Maniac has some thoughts on the new cigarette warning labels.

So now the question is, if this is who we are, when do we start slapping pictures of morbidly obese people on McDonald's Happy Meals? How about sticking a photo of a mangled corpse on the side of our cars?

If the Congress honestly believes that these labels are a responsible and necessary approach to keeping Americans safe and healthy, then they are negligent in their duty if they don't mandate similar labels for other potentially dangerous products.

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