Something happened last Tuesday night a couple of miles from we live but closer to where my wife works. Some may question why this is even being mentioned on this board and I guess the reason is that the incident seems almost surreal, something that a writer might write about, but would perhaps never occur except in a story of fantasy.

It has been very dry down here with brush fires destroying many acres and homes being destroyed. The dryness has lowered the levels of water in the Everglades which we live about two miles from. When this occurs alligators started roaming (amd, I guess, tied in with their mating season)and venturing forth into the many canals that intersperse our area.

Tuesday evening a 28 year-old lady went jogging. After a while she called her mother on her cell phone. She was planning on becoming a model and jogged to keep in shape. Her mother offered to pick her up, but she said that she would jog back to her home. She never made it back.

Wednsday morning her bitten and mutilated body was found floating in a canal, her arms ripped off at the shoulders. Although, I found out now, there had been incidents of attacks on humans, this was the first death in 48 years in southern Florida.

Immediately Fish and Wildlife personnel, as well as law enforcement and others, went searching for the killer alligator. They figured that the alligator had to been about ten feet long. They found three over the past few days, but they were short, five and seven foot, long. When their stomachs were opened, racoon remains were found and in one a football and tennis balls.

Earlier today another alligator was captured, one they thought might be the killer. It measured out at 9 foot, six inches in length and when its stomach was opened they found the remains of a racoon and two severed human arms.
They had found the killer alligator. It was subsequently destroyed.

Although they are still not sure just what happened, they think perhaps that the young lady stopped to dip her feet into the canal and the lurking alligator grabbed her.

A sad story, one that appears more to be from a horror story, not the front page of the Florida Sun Sentinel.

That is crazy scary dude!

Every once in a while there is a story on TV about an alligator being found in someone's backyard, and recently one was found in a storm drain in Plantation, a community just south of where we live.

It is creepy and just goes to show that no matter where you live, you have to be careful of the surrounding environments and its inhabitants.

Thats true. Have you ever wondered when you forget your car keys and go back in the house whether that small moment in time could place you either in harms way in front of the dumptruck or just missing it, its all according to the roll of fates dice. Still does not hurt to be careful though.

Sorry, dude, there have been 9 or 10 alligator deaths in Florida in less than 35 years: http://www.ecofloridamag.com/archived/alligators.htm

You're not so safe as you may think.

Wow, am I lucky. All I’ve got to worry about is the cat across the street sunning itself.

Worry changes nothing.

Dandelion, I was only going on from what I had heard on the Telly. But tonight on the news there were two more fatal attacks this week end by alligators, both women. What is going on?

Dandelion, I called Donn and he already had a copy. He said that he had been out to California a couple of weeks ago to see Ray and Ray had received all kinds of stuff from the Florida Center of the Book.

Good, then send me his copy, too. I have another deserving friend.

If the skeeters don't getcha, then the gators will!

"If the skeeters don't getcha, then the gators will!"
Dandelion -
Is that a Kingston Trio reference? (Or was the song done by someone else originally, and I don't know it?)

Hey, the Kingston Trio is still rolling along (though a bit "greyer in the muzzle," to quote RB): Good for them!
http://www.kingstontrio.com/content/discography1.htm

As for Gators, I can remember back in the early '80's travelling to the St. Lucie aree for some training. Working out on the back lawn in outskirts of the city, there were always ravines that served as drainage for the rapidly developing region. The typical warnings: "Don't get burned to a crisp by the FLA sun. Keep your feet moving or protected from the carnivorous Fire Ants. Put on repellant to slow down (never possible to completely stop) the carnivorous mosquitoes. Whatever you do, stay away from the edge of the drainage ditches because they routinely harbor carnivorous alligators."

In retrospect, I suppose the baking FLA sun only serves to make victims a bit more toasty for all of those meat eating creatures that inhabit the environs of friendly Florida. You think, Biplane!?

Butch, I was always a Limeliters fan myself. I saw what was left of them last fall. Lou Gottlieb died, Glen Yarborough is off on his own and Alex Hassilev is retiring. The group I saw included him, though. I also saw the Kingston Trio about 10 years ago. Good stuff.

http://www.limeliters.com/

Hey Frank! Thankfuly, I have not run into any fire ants. The last I saw of them was in Viet Nam. It is coming up five years May 28th that I have been down here and in that time I have seen three flies and about four mosquitoes. I kid you not.

The only alligators I have seen are those sunning themselves along the canals bordering 75 going across the Everglades to Naples, but there fences keeping them off of the highway.
Oh, yeah, I have seen some up close while in an airboat out in the Everglades.

I have seen one snake although people have been dumping off pythons and boa constrictors into the Evergaldes after they grow to be unmanageable. There they grow up to ten feet and sometimes more. There have been photos of alligators and snakes in a fight to the death.

Down here, as it is other places as well, you just have to learn how to live within the confines of the envrionment.

Braling II--more memories come flooding back when you guys mention the Kingston Trio, The Limlighters, and what about the Lettermen?

...and The Hi-Lo's!
"...Life is just a bowl of cherries!"

...and The New Christy Minstrels. All of these folks seem to be doing the cruise line scenes, now a days. Not my cup of tea, so I'll have to get the music on disc.

I'll try to find some of the Limeliters, Br2. Not familiar with them, but the web info look good.


Biplane, I once did the "see the Big alligators" on the "East Chop" excursion to L. Okeechobee. "Don't get off the boat!" No reminder was necessary...