Florida

Beer Helps Ultra-Marathoner Run Around the World

Heineken beer bottle ©Creative Tools Irish ultra-marathon runner Richard Donovan has become the first man on the planet to run seven marathons on seven continents in less than five days–thanks to a bottle of beer. In just four days, 22 hours and three minutes, Donovan completed marathons at the Russian Novo science base in Antarctica, [...]

Disney Changes Rules and Lets Employees Sport Facial Hair

Disneyland Sleeping Beauty Castle ©Sean MacEntee Soon Disney theme parks will allow employees to wear goatees or beards–putting an end to a rule banning facial hair that dates back to the founding of Disneyland in 1955. Walt Disney Parks and Resorts announced the changes to the guidelines known as the “Disney Look” in a memo [...]

Flight Diverted Due to “Unruly” Passengers in First Class Requesting Champagne

Champagne Stems ©dps A Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to Costa Rica had to make an unexpected landing in Tampa, Florida, after a couple in first class began demanding food and Champagne and refused to sit down. The couple, Peter and Gabriele Strohmaier of Dusseldorf, Germany were forced to disembark the plane in Tampa. [...]

No Shirt, No Shoes, And Europeans Welcome at Floridian Nudist Commune

Dutch vacationers on an afternoon stroll ©au.news.yahoo.com An ad campaign set to launch in the new year courtesy of the nudist organization Pandabare, based north of Tampa, Florida, will strictly target Europeans. The first target market for the ad campaign will be Germany which, according to Pandabare’s application, is “a large and lucrative market whose [...]

Mystery Odors Delay Two US Airways Flights

US Airways Express ©abdallahh This week US Airlines was plagued by bizarre scents in their aircraft cabins and in one case the odor sent aircraft crew to the hospital. When passengers on Flight 439 from Philadelphia to Las Vegas noticed a persistant strange odor they were switched to a different aircraft. The aircraft switch delayed [...]

Passenger Sues Over Deadly Airplane Food

American Airlines ©Simon_sees Airplane food is bad, but is it lethal? American Airlines and the catering company that supplied the food to the airline–Sky Chefs–is being sued by a passenger, claiming that the food on a flight from Barcelona to New York caused food poisoning which later brought on a fatal heart attack. According to [...]

Hotel Offers Guests a “Flash Mob” Package

Flash Mob ©Valerio Pirrera What began as a way to enliven a company meeting at the Marco Island Marriott Beach Resort outside Naples, Florida has become a one-of-a-kind hotel amenity. Guests at this Florida Marriott can now take advantage of the resort’s new Mobbed at Marco Island group package, in which guests can participate in [...]

Pirate Tuck-Ins Offered at Luxury Florida Hotel

Pirate ©TheBusyBrain Kids staying at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Amelia Island, Florida have a lot more to worry about than just monsters under the bed. The hotel is now offering pirate bedtime tuck-in service as one of its guest amenities. For a mere $45 dollars per child, The hotel’s Pirate Luis Aury provides a bedtime [...]

Giant Lego Man Washes Up on Florida Beach

Lego man © tomsaint A 100-lb Lego man washed up onto the beach at Siesta Key, Fla., this week, baffling local residents….Curiously, this is not the only reported instance of a giant beached Lego figure on record. In 2007, a similar statue washed ashore in Holland, and a year later another one surfaced in Brighton, [...]

Florida Divers Left Behind

Diver © peteoshea If you’ve seen the movie Open Water, you can imagine how terrifying this would be: The US Coast Guard said Tuesday it was investigating a Florida tourism company that left behind two tourists while they were scuba diving. The tourists — Paul Kline and Fernando Garcia Puerta — were rescued by a [...]

Out-of-this-world Florida Holidays 2012

Variety is said to be the spice of life, they say, and when it comes to holiday destinations variety is an essential ingredient. Families, especially, find that it can be a chore trying to cater to a range of needs; Florida is one destination that is popular with British families for this reason alone. But [...]

Man Caught with Snakes in Pants at Miami Airport

Snake © LongitudeLatitude It’s been a wild week for animals in planes and airports. First a swarm of smuggled bees escaped on a domestic flight in Russia. Now comes news that a man was nabbed in Miami with no less than ten snakes and tortoises hidden in his pants, boarding a plane to Brazil. The [...]

48 Hours in Key West: Drinking, Diving and Diversions in Florida’s Southernmost Outpost (Day 2)

Assuming you survived your first day in Key West, it’s time to tackle the next 24 hours in true island style – with plenty of drinking and debauchery. First things first though: stop for a proper breakfast and a visit to the Hemingway House for a historic and cultural lay of the land.

48 Hours in Key West: Drinking, Diving and Diversions in Florida’s Southernmost Outpost (Day 1)

It’s been dubbed “Key Weird” and dismissed as little more than a “huge floating bar”. And by most all accounts, that’s exactly what it is. So much has been written about Key West, it’s a wonder that anything new and interesting can still be said of the continental United States’ southernmost outpost. As far as [...]

New Kids On The Block Hit the High Seas for ‘NKOTB Cruise 2011′

Last week, the second annual NKOTB Cruise departed from Miami. Finally! How the hell did I miss this?

Going Home Again: 96 Hours in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (Day 3)

I awake just after dawn on Tuesday. Day 3. I’m up early for one reason: to drive 100 miles west into the heart of the swampy void of the Florida Everglades for an amazing eco-tour. The forecast is 75 degrees and plentiful sunshine. Big Bird’s gonna love this.

Going Home Again: 96 Hours in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (Day 2)

I awake in my hotel bed at the il Lugano surprisingly lucid. Bright eyed and bushy tailed as they say. Considering last night’s final act at Fat Tuesday, this surprises me. A quick weather check reveals that today will be a warm 80 degrees, but raining. But, like back home in New England, if you [...]

Going Home Again: 96 Hours in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (Day 1)

I left the hustle of sunny, downtown Fort Lauderdale, Florida almost two decades – a full twenty years – ago. It’s where I spent most of my formative years. It’s my second home of sorts. But I was just a boy then and that feels like a lifetime ago. So much time has passed and [...]

Overzealous Florida Health Inspectors Now Targeting Nationally-Adored Puppies

© LET CODY STAY!!! The network of health regulations we’ve built is vitally important and wildly successful. Invested as they are with sweeping bureaucratic authority – and availing themselves of a broad array of institutional levers – health inspectors have all but abolished many contaminants that just a century ago were veritable plagues. No longer [...]

Photo of the Moment: Pelican Supper in Naples, Florida

Memo: Cohabiting with Monster Crocodiles and Alligators Is Inadvisable

© Tomascastelazo Yeah, listen. If you live in a place, and people write about that place, and when people write about that place they use headlines with the phrases “monster croc” and “swimming area” – that’s nature’s way of telling you that it’s time to move. All battles have ebbs and flows, and the constant [...]

Terrific: Giant Snakes Invading US Ecosystems, Destroying Endangered Species

© Karunakar Rayker The headline sounds scary enough: “Invading giant snakes threaten U.S. wilderness areas.” And it is pretty scary. A new report describes how five giant non-native snake species are destroying the south Florida ecosystem, having been released into the wild by the incandescently stupid pet owners who tried to raise them. Several of [...]

The Man Behind Florida’s Mysterious Coral Castle

A Latvian man built a castle. By himself. © CoralCastle.com It was meant as a monument to his lost love, his ‘Sweet Sixteen.’ Lovelorn in his native Latvia, Edward Leedskalnin fled for Florida, where he spent the next thirty years, building. He worked for most of every day, subsisting mostly on sardines and crackers. In [...]