I'm searching for a classic Winter Haven photo (well, semi-classic) of the old "Barrel-of-Fun" arcade from the Winter Haven mall. I need this for a project I'm working on, so if anyone can help out, please let me know in either the comments or by email [me at adamweeks dot com]

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I've been traveling quite a bit and working hard as well....and as usual EP has been suffering. Next week is more travel and then it's vacation time. With that said it might be slim-pickings here till 2008.

You've been warned...so maybe see you next year :-)

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There were some big snakes at Polk Museum of Art today. And I mean big. Like sixteen feet and 140 pounds big. There were a couple of smaller ones too, but that big one is the one that caught everyone's attention.

Bruce Shwedick from Reptile Discoveries was here today to talk about snakes and show off a few of them. We figured that since the current exhibition, Robert Stackhouse: Swimmers & Floaters, has so much snake imagery in it, having someone bring some live ones to talk about would be great. And it was!

Shwedick discovered his love of reptiles as a young boy growing up in Maryland. He and his brother shared this passion, and spent most of their childhoods learning about snakes, crocodiles, lizards and turtles. So they have dedicated their lives to caring for and teaching about reptiles. Not only does Shwedick give lectures for students and children, he also helps teach US military doctors and medics about poisonous snakes and what to look for in snake bites. And, at one point, he was in charge of the reptile habitat at Cypress Gardens.

He gave everyone a lot of good information and interesting facts about snakes in the wild and in captivity. But the things that kept everyone enthralled were his stories and his snakes as he brought them out of their custom made boxes. One of the most interesting things I learned was that a snake's head can continue to bite - and inject venom - for several hours after it has been decapitated! So don't just cut its head off and assume you're safe.

So, if you missed it, you missed a great show! The kids in the audience all got a chance to hold one of the snakes, a 4 foot long Royal python named Bashful. Everyone walked away with a little more knowledge about these beautiful reptiles.

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It was only a matter of time before the Flying Spaghetti Monster or FSM visited our fine county. The Ledger has an article today about how the Polk County School Board has been introduced to the FSM.

The official FSM blog posted about the intelligent design debate in Polk County. As of this post there are 113 comments on that post. The blog encourages supporters of the FSM to e-mail the school board members...which it looks like they did.

The tactic is done to mirror/mock the argument that ID supporters put forth. That is while their 'theory' is not scientifically valid, it does have 'support' so it should be taught.

Yes folks our Polk County School board has once again put the county on the map, I think we can officially add this to the list of Polk County's image makers.

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Chuck Welch points out that Wired magazine recently mentioned Florida and Polk County directly in an article about intelligent design:

Just before Thanksgiving, four Polk County school board members said they don't support the new standards and think intelligent design ought to be taught as a valid alternative to evoultion.

For many years the goal of the local economic development groups was to attract high tech industry and that oasis of a chip manufacturing plant. While high-tech is still a big target, I don't see the full-court press that we had a few years ago. One of the major issues with drawing any tech firm to this location is the quality of the schools (along with a number of other factors).

Now when an important geek/tech/culture publication points out that a community, notably the school board is having the ID debate, I think it sets us back years in the pursuit of 'tech'.

What site selection consultant is going to recommend Polk County over say Orange or Hillsborough counties when the external impression of the school board is not that great.

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Grace is Gone, a film starring John Cusack which had scenes filmed at Cypress Gardens is officially released this Friday in a limited capacity, but will go wider December 14th.

Grace Is Gone is a romantic heartbreaker starring John Cusack as a freshly widowed father who can't bear to tell his two young daughters their mother has died. It's also a family comedy as his character, desperate to hide the truth, takes them off to a Disneyland-type park on an impromptu road trip that the girls find extremely weird.

That 'Disneyland-type park' is Cypress Gardens. The film initially ran at Sundance this year.

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Driving through downtown Lakeland today I saw a Mercedes Benz A-Class in front of City Hall. What's interesting about this is the A-Class is not on sale in the U.S. The car I saw was a beige or champagne color. I didn't get a chance to see if it was badged to Central Florida Eurocars or another local dealer. Has anybody else seen this car? (The photo below is stock)

For a while Mulberry of all places was also a good place to see European cars being tested in the U.S. One of the testing firms used U.S. 37 south of Mulberry as a test route. I remember seeing one of the first VW Beetles in the U.S. there, along with an Audi TT way before it was for sale state-side.

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Yesterday I was eating at Crispers in downtown Lakeland with a friend. I used the opportunity to try the new Bistro Vegetable sandwich (which replaced the Garden Party). My friend asked, "how is it?"...my response, "decent enough, nothing too exciting." He quickly responded with, "Well is there such a thing as an exciting veggie sandwich?"

Actually there is and it can be found at Cafe Latte in Winter Haven. Or I should say, 'they' can be found. 'They' because Cafe Latte changes its menu almost daily and there are always good vegetarian selections.

Cafe Latte is one of my favorite hang-outs. It's small, low-key and they have great food. The recent addition of wifi makes it perfect.

If you remember the Ledger had an article about vegetarian dining in Polk County. I also offered up my favorites.

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If you've driven in downtown Winter Haven recently you'll notice that some of the stoplights have been removed and a few more are 'under review' for removal.

I e-mailed Joy Townsend with the city to get all the details. Here is what Joy had to say:

Currently, the traffic lights on Third Street at Avenue A NW and Avenue A SW are still being reviewed for removal.

Traffic lights on Second Street Northwest at Avenues A and B have already been reviewed and will be removed as soon as the 90-day notification period is complete. That will be in February.

No other lights are, or will be reviewed for possible removal in the near future.

I welcome the removal since many of the lights used to run on a basic timer and would hold up traffic for no need. Of course the down-side is that Winter Haven may soon become a 'One-Stoplight' town. Come to think of it, that's not a bad 'nostalgic' marketing gimmick :-)

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