What's Happening - July 31?

If you haven't been to Disney World in Orlando for a few years, be prepared for sticker shock.

An adult ticket to just the Magic Kingdom for one day is now $105.  A child's ticked is $99.

It's a little cheaper at Epcot:  $97.  Yikes!


AOL does such a good job.  Not!  Here are the "local" news events according to AOL for my central Florida city:

• Boston's bummer summer: Sox slump, Olympics snub, Brady out
• Germany wins 2nd straight world title in 5k team event
• Hikers drawn to geological gem along Arizona-Utah border
• Judge to consider fate of convent Katy Perry wants to buy

The world's most dangerous countries for travelers:  Nigeria comes in first.  That's not surprising.  Colombia is way up there because of terrorism, crime and violence, although it is said to be improving and has lots of cheerleaders.  Other dangerous countries include Yemen, Pakistan, Venezuela and Brazil.

Stay home and watch TV.


Two gangs in the Los Angeles area are said to have started a contest.  The first gang to kill 100 people wins.  What the hell is going on here?  Civilization is not improving, we're going backwards, fast!

I can't help but wonder what part our movies and TV shows play in the killings (many of which are random) we read about every day.  I'm appalled when I see ads for movie after movie that features killing and violence and the same goes for TV shows.

In all these cases, the value of human life is pictured as nil.  Nothing.  That's got to have an impact on people - especially the young and those whose minds are already messed up.

Amorality is another issue often featured in TV sitcoms, "The Middle," and "Fresh Off the Boat,"and "The Goldbergs."  In each case the female lead has no morals, but will do just about anything to get her way.  That's not funny, that's sad.  It tells our kids that ethical behavior is of no consequence.


Police in Manhattan captured a 2-foot alligator wandering the city streets.  How it got there is anyone's guess.  Alligators can't live that far north.  Maybe it got tired of Florida and hitchhiked to New York.  Maybe it decided to retire in that great city.  Sounds good to me.  Florida has welcomed a lot of New York "animals," so we're glad to return the favor!


Some scientists in the UK are warning of a solar explosion event which would be catastrophic here on earth, disrupting satellite systems, bringing down airplanes, etc.  And we are woefully unprepared for such an event.

The thing is though, that the likelihood of this solar explosion hitting the earth is very small.  Back in 1859, something like that happened; it was called the Carrington Event.

There's a 1% chance of that happening again.  Do you think this might be more of a media event than anything else?


The other day, we mentioned the Minnesota dentist who killed Cecil, the famous African lion.  There has been a tremendous backlash against the hapless dentist who did what some people think macho men are supposed to do - kill hapless animals.

There have been protests and he's had to shut down his practice.  Now PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has weighed in on the controversy.  This is from WRAP:

"Hunting is a coward's pastime," PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement Wednesday. "If, as has been reported, this dentist and his guides lured Cecil out of the park with food so as to shoot him on private property, because shooting him in the park would have been illegal, he needs to be extradited, charged, and, preferably, hanged."

Whew.  Talk about an eye for an eye.  While I'm all for the ethical treatment of animals, I'm having a hard time distinguishing between Palmer's action and Newkirk's suggestion.  Perhaps she was using hyperbole to get across a point.  If not, then she's lost her case on moral grounds!


The City of Los Angeles has just outlawed the sale of high capacity gun magazines.  Yea!  Maybe we still have a few adults in leadership positions in this country who don't confuse their manhood with a gun.


A message for our hypocritical "pro-life" politicians:

"I do not believe that just because you're opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don't? Because you don't want any tax money to go there. That's not pro-life. That's pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is."

--Sister Joan Chittister
Benedictine Nun, Author, Speaker

h/t to Daily Kos


Saw a story yesterday about a group that put together a list of the 35 "best" sandwich shops in the U.S.  How the hell could they know that?  There must be a million sandwich shops or more across the country.

Well, they pulled names of places they already knew, invited some experts to give their opinions, divided the country up, disregarded chain shops, and voila! they came up with their 35 "best."

What a crock.  Their selections may be great sandwich shops, but don't try to claim they're the best in the entire country.  I've also found that food experts and I don't often agree.  Gourmet be gone!  Furthermore, sandwich shops can change from day to day.  One day their Philly Cheesesteaks may be phenomenal.  They next day you couldn't sell them in Miami!


From GrindTV: 

A massive Burmese python large enough to ingest deer and alligators was captured by a permitted python researcher in the Everglades National Park in Florida recently, CBS Miami reported Tuesday.

The python, found along a tram road at Shark Valley on July 9, measured a whooping 18 feet, 3 inches and was only five inches shy of the largest snake ever captured in Florida. An 18-foot, 8-inch Burmese Python was caught in Miami-Dade in 2013.

Read more at here.

Yikes!  Shark Valley is a national park about 20 miles west of Miami.  My wife and I have often ridden our bikes on that tram road - a 15 mile loop out into the Everglades and back.  One day we counted 150 alligators either in the road or on the side of the road or in the canal next to the road.  We've seen a number of deer also.

But we have never seen a Burmese python of any size.