bit more rain on florida's parade...
i reckon i dislike florida. bugs bunny had a great idea indeed when he knelt on georgia on sawed off that ugly appendage from the rest of the nation. then the nostalgic, undemocratic, stubburn and narrow-minded exiled cubans in the state would have their own island. and they can have it, right along those others voting for any ol' bush round and building homes out of cardboard when it doesn't take a degree from fiu (yikes!) to understand they are anchored smack in the middle of the path of one of the most devastating forces of nature... no not republicans, but hurricanes. glad georgie-boy has been down there buying votes with a few bottles of water and boxes of cereal... hopefully they'll decide to keep him at least until the passing of beautiful yet ominous ivan...so i welcome the opportunity to report that although the license plates proclaim florida the sunshine state, the national weather service confirms five other states catch more rays. arizona is no. 1, followed by california, nevada, new mexico and texas, according to the weather service, which monitors about two hundred sixty-five weather stations nationwide.
miami-based meteorologist jim lushine once suggested florida should call itself the «partly cloudy state» instead. see, florida has more days where between 20 to 70 percent of the sun is blocked by clouds than anywhere else in the continental united states. miami sees only an average of seventy-four clear sunny days per year (yuma, az, has two hundred forty-two)!
however, florida does rank in the top five nationally... for skin cancer... according to the centres for disease control and prevention.
thx to the arizona republic for such an enlightening bit o' news.
