The Key West Mystique
Key West Island News
Key West Island News connects Key West residents and friends of the island, fosters our One Human Family culture and advances understanding of shared goals for our island community
Linda Grist Cunningham | Columns and news analysis
Key West Island News editor Linda Grist Cunningham has written more than 4,000 columns — in print and on the web — since 1968. She hates writing and is compelled to do it anyway.
Key West snowbirds | 5 things to get you up to speed
Back before Covid upended the rhythm of our island and turned every month into off-the-charts occupancy rates, I counted the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas as the best of the year. From the day after Thanksgiving to the last twinkling light on Christmas Day,...
Key West Thanksgiving | We really are a small town
You knew I couldn't get past Key West Thanksgiving without the obligatory "thanks" list. Around the holidays, every columnist (and, of course, every politician, business and social media poster) runs out of things about which to opine, to sell or over which to spit a...
Key West Crud | It’s a thing. It’s back. And it’s not Covid
I made Ranger Ed move six feet across the room and handed him a mask. "If you've got the Covid, I don't want any part of it." As he sniffled and hacked, I walked him through a Covid-19 test. Negative. No fever. No aches. Oh, crikey, Key West Crud is back. Even his doc...
Key West election | Democracy works just fine in the Keys
We laughed. We clapped. We cheered. We petted puppies and made smiles with kids. All in a Key West election day's work at Precinct 7 in the Moose Lodge in Key West. That was my day Tuesday, working the polls, checking in voters, handing out ballots, chatting with...
Fantasy Fest 2022 | The year locals took back the party
Of this I gar-ron-tee you: No matter what I write about Fantasy Fest 2022, someone's gonna disagree. Fantasy Fest is like that cliched elephant; one can describe only what one touches. Let the arguments run amok; I'm going to say this...
Key West signs | Let’s get rid of them all
Me: Lady Bird Johnson's dead, right?You if you're not my age: Who?You if you are my age: Yeah. Long time ago. Like maybe 1994? (It was 2007, but, you know, memory has sink holes.) Why?Me: I wanted to invite her to Key West. On Oct. 22, 1965, Lady Bird's presidential...
Dear Connor is a collection of columns Linda writes for her grandson, Connor. Though he may never read them, they help her make sense of the world.
Dismantling the 14th Amendment: Keeping it upbeat in Key West when the world isn’t
I love my Key West Bubble, but national dissonance is dribbling through today. I am unsettled at the prospect of living through the dismantling of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The 14th Amendment, ratified by the states in 1868, can be boiled down to this: Oops, when we wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments), we were thinking only of straight white men with money. Perhaps we need to fix that?
Dear Connor | As the American democracy unravels, can there be hope for your future?
American history is filled with "times like these." Three times we have been here. I believe we will be OK. Though my rage boils over too often, I believe in Americans-in-the-middle. I believe there are extremists on the right and the left -- and I believe they do not, do not, represent who we are as a people. They get the attention and the headlines today; spoiled children clamoring for their own ice cream cone, unwilling to share and willing to fight to the death to keep what they believe is theirs and theirs alone. Getting through this transition will not be for the faint of heart. But get through we will.
Hurricane Irma | In September 2017, Linda Grist Cunningham created and launched a Facebook Page that aggregated news coverage during Hurricane Irma. She was off-island at the time visiting her mother in Virginia. Her husband remained in Key West. Over the three weeks that she and her partner journalists John Teets maintained around-the-clock coverage, they reached almost a million people around the world. These are the columns she wrote each day. Hurricane Season is always June 1 – Nov. 30.
Hurricane Irma | 5 years that changed Key West and the Keys
Once a month I drive to Marathon and back for a board meeting. I've done that since before Hurricane Irma clobbered Key West and the Florida Keys on Sept. 10, 2017. For five years that 100 mile round trip has been my gauge for our recovery from...
Hurricane Irma: 9-23-17: Closing up shop. Saying Godspeed. Going home to the Cat 5s
When we launched Key West Hurricane Irma, our online news coverage, we weren’t sure when “quit” would happen. We were confident we'd know. Today is the anniversary of knowing. It was time to wish our house guests farewell and Godspeed.
