LONGBOAT
Observer
Longboat Key’s weekly newspaper since 1978
A+E Back to normal. PAGE 12
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
FREE • THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2022
VOLUME 45, NO. 21
YOUR TOWN
FEBRUARY
A PICKLEBALL SENSATION Pickleball has become a big draw in the two years since the town expanded public pickleball options at Longboat Key’s midisland park. Vee Arnold and Helen Smitz play a doubles match during a normally busy Saturday morning at Bayfront Park.
MARCH
HELPING UKRAINE Longboaters with ties to Ukraine did what they could to help the embattled nation with fundraisers and relief efforts while also educating others. Social media has helped the world tune in and realize what’s happening, and Anisa Mycak (above) has seen friends and neighbors acting as a microcosm of the global desire to help as the reality of the situation sinks in. Ukrainians have been fighting for their independence for years, and the world is now tuning in.
2022: Through the lens C
an we talk for a moment?
It wasn’t easy, but we’re here to tell you, we seem
We’ve been through a lot, huh?
to have made it. In looking back through the thou-
There we were, tooling along just fine a
sands of photos our reporters took in 2022, we
couple years ago. A round of golf here, a bike ride
were hard-pressed to notice much of a difference
there, a little ceviche and a nice cigar.
as compared to normal. No masks, no clear plastic
Then, whammo, we’re all wearing masks and
barriers and, with the exception of a photo we shot
checking drive times on Google maps to find some
in the first days of January, no signs of social dis-
place called Micco where a Publix store had a single
tancing.
COVID-19 shot appointment open at 8:30 tomor-
Just Longboaters doing Longboat things.
row morning.
So, as 2022 fades into a typically glorious Long-
Since then, we’ve dodged hurricanes, survived elections and worked like heck to get back to where
Lesley Dwyer
Whiskey, bourbon, champagne and Blitzen F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “Too much of anything is bad, but too much champagne is just right.” Switch champagne to bourbon and whiskey, and that’s the sentiment on Longboat Key this holiday season. “We’ve been selling a lot of this bourbon sampler. We’re out of it right now because we sold so much,” owner of LBK Liquors Jason Blomme said. “It’s small little bottles of bourbon. We put it together personally. You get the Woodford Double Oaked, Knob Creek, Buffalo Trace and Bulleit.” The shelves will be stocked again shortly. Until then, there’s a wall of whiskey to choose from. And for Fitzgerald fans, there’s champagne in a gift box.
boat Key sunset, we look ahead to even more normality in 2023.
—ERIC GARWOOD
we were when all this craziness started.
AUGUST
A DAY IN THE LIFE Have you ever heard of an executive director so hands-on they teach Zumba to their clients? Suzy Brenner does. And if you’ve met Brenner at Longboat Key’s The Paradise Center, you’ve also met Lahni, a 10-year-old pitbull mix. We saw a lot of them both when we spent a day with them.
APRIL
MASTER CLASS IN SERENITY Tai chi is a weekly thing at The Paradise Center on Longboat Key, but not so visits from Master Max Yan, front. As in past visits, The Paradise Center’s usual teacher, Reuben Fernandez, warmed up the students before handing them off to Yan during a class in the center’s parking lot.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
Lesley Dwyer
A little reading
The Little Free Libraries are adding up on Longboat Key. A fourth LFL was spotted in Longboat Village in the 600 block of Fox Street. When swapping books, look down at the painted coconuts. The first LFL to grace a front lawn was in 2009 in Hudson, Wisconsin. Two years later, there were more than 400 little libraries. Now, there are more than 150,000. The idea was inspired by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie’s creation of public libraries, except these eliminate all barriers to reading. They’re open day and night. The Longboat libraries aren’t registered on the LFL map, but there are more than 60 registered LFLs in Sarasota County. Find them at LittleFreeLibrary. org/map.