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.

The chickens of Key West: Disney couldn’t do better

If Disney did chickens, they'd be Key West chickens. Arrogant, independent, decidedly territorial, and, OK, cocky, Key West's 2,000 or so chickens -- though who's counting I can't imagine -- rank up there with the six-toed Hemingway cats as tourist magnets and the scourge of locals wanting to sleep in. A visiting friend did a double take one night at dinner at Blue Heaven. "That thing's alive," he whispered, watching one of the resident chickens scratch around under an adjoining table. "It's not one of those Disney re-creations, right?" Finish the column

Linda Grist Cunningham | Apr 4, 2019

The chickens of Key West: Disney couldn’t do better

Fort Zach visitors: What part of “take out the trash” do you not understand?

I've never understood the person who can toss a fast-food bag out the window. Or crush a cigarette out on the sidewalk and leave it there. Never understood getting up from a picnic table and leaving things to blow away -- including those environment-killing balloons and assorted other plastic single-use things. I look at the stuff left behind by the casually oblivious and wonder if their mothers actually did follow after them picking up. (And, then, swearing under my breath, I take it home to my garbage can.) Finish the column

Linda Grist Cunningham | Mar 8, 2019

Fort Zach visitors: What part of “take out the trash” do you not understand?

Is there a reason you had to park in front of my gate?

Few things are less important nor more irritating than coming home from Publix and finding a shiny, super-sized pickup truck with raised suspension, a crew cab, extended bed and over-sized tires parked smack in front of my gate. Or a mini-beater...

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Linda Grist Cunningham | Mar 1, 2019

Is there a reason you had to park in front of my gate?

About those snowbirds. What WAS I thinking?

Y'all remember last week when I posited that two kinds of people live in Key West? Those who love it; and those who don't? Got a whole lotta attagirls on the post. Felt darn smug about the love. Until, that is, a friend from up the street...

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Linda Grist Cunningham | Feb 22, 2019

About those snowbirds. What WAS I thinking?

A selection of LGC’s columns

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. Hurricane Irma includes the columns and news stories she wrote during the September 2017 storm, when she and John Teets created and managed the Key West Hurricane Irma Facebook page that reach almost a million readers over three weeks.

Dear Connor

Nov20182

Dear Connor | As the American democracy unravels, can there be hope for your future?

By Linda Grist Cunningham

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.

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Jan201723

Dear Connor | The day the young ones took charge

By Linda Grist Cunningham

History will remember the march as the coming-to-power of Xers and Millennials. Though there were aging baby boomers aplenty in the crowd and at the microphones, the marches around the world saw these elders step aside to open the way for younger women.

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Nov201612

Dear Connor: Breaking the loop of endless despair

By Linda Grist Cunningham

The 2016 presidential election will, on hindsight, be recognized as the precursor to the catalyst that ignites the transformation of America from fragmented, angry and disillusioned into cohesive, collaborative and powerful. America will move away from six decades of tearing down to four decades of building up and then we'll start the process over.

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Nov201612

Dear Connor: There’s no shaking off the coal dust

By Linda Grist Cunningham

We will draw the line at the hard-core wingnuts at the fringes. I'm not inviting willful haters to my table. They're not welcome. Period. We need to do whatever we have to to keep the haters corralled. And we must recognize there's such a thing as hate born of unknowing.

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Key West Hurricane Irma

Sep201823

Hurricane Irma: 9-23-17: Closing up shop. Saying Godspeed. Going home to the Cat 5s

By Linda Grist Cunningham

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.

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Sep20187

Hurricane Irma | One year ago, we awaited the storm

By Linda Grist Cunningham

Why did so many decide to stay on the island, defying the mandatory Hurricane Irma evacuation orders and flirting with destruction? The answers are as complicated as the Keys. Re-reading my 2017 columns reminded me just how powerful we were as an online community. To each of you who followed along, who shared your stories and your tears, I say "thank you." It was a tough time. It's been a tough year.

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Aug201831

Hurricane Irma | How did news coverage get so confused?

By Linda Grist Cunningham

By Sept, 5, 2017, five days before Hurricane Irma battered Key West and the Florida Keys, I was swearing -- or at least muttering unpleasant comments under my breath. I was, as some will remember, visiting my mother in the Shenandoah Valley and...

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Aug201820

Hurricane Irma | Are you ready for the anniversary?

By Linda Grist Cunningham

Sunday. Aug. 20, 2017 -- exactly one year ago -- was a perfect island beach day. High temps in the upper 80s, low humidity -- at least for us -- great breezes and sunny skies. No storms on the horizon; all quiet off the shores of Africa from...

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Hurricane Irma | Are you ready for the anniversary?

KeyWestWatch Media

KeyWestWatch Media builds custom WordPress websites, manages social media and develops digital marketing strategies for select small businesses and not-for-profits.

LGC Says

LGC Says is a collection of columns, essays and short stories written by Linda Grist Cunningham. The collection includes letters to her grandson and coverage of Hurricane Irma.

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