Key West has had a few crocodile visits this past year. An alligator or two in the lower Keys.

This is the story of George. An 8 foot alligator that ended up on the doorstep of a home in Breaux, Louisiana sunday afternoon.

George refused to move.

Wildlife authorities said he was looking to mate. This is mating season. The alligator had traveled some distance to Breaux and the house.

George was removed. Returned to his natural habitat some miles away. Hopefully, he will find a mate and the two will achieve sexual satisfaction.

Divers galore in the Keys. It is lobster season. Diving for lobsters fun! I can attest to it, though I have not done so in years.

A husband and wife team were diving under Card Sound Bridge. The northern Keys. Card Sound Bridge connects mainland Florida with the Keys.

They did not find lobsters. Instead, a skeleton. A head and bones.

Police are investigating.

The more I read William Hackley, the more it is obvious that he utilized slaves to run his home. Does not seem to have owned any. Rented them.

A note in this date’s journal in 1856 indicates Hackley paid a Dennis $50 “in full for negro hire” and a few cords of wood.

Modern education scares me. Bush 2’s No Child Left Behind a disaster.

Perhaps another in the making.

Marion County, Florida’s Superintendent of Schools has banned homework for all elementary school children. Thirty one schools involved. She believes being relieved of the pressure of homework will lead to happier, better performing students.

Does not impress me! Time will tell if the Superintendent is correct. The problem if she is wrong is that the children relieved of homework will have lost something that cannot be recaptured.

John Keats, an English romantic poet. Compared talent wise to Shakespeare. Unfortunately, Keats died at the age of 25 in Rome from tuberculosis.

I write about Keats today because of a note I came across stating that this day in 1818, Keats returned from a long walking tour of the Lake District and Scotland. The trip was the first time symptoms of tuberculosis became evident.

Keats died three years later.

Thirty years ago, I was in Rome for a month long vacation with the wife, our four children and my parents. One day we had gone our separate ways. Everyone had something they wanted to do.

I had nothing. I walked. Ended up at the Spanish Steps. A good place to sit, rest, and contemplate the world going by.

If one stands facing the steps, to the right is a 3 or 4 story building. The brass plaque said John Keats. From my college English literature classes. I walked in. Top floor was where he lived, worked, and died.

Sort of a solemn place. One room contained some of his writings under glass. Handwritten notes, etc. One a line from a poem written by him. The line known to most of us…..A thing of beauty is a joy forever.

The line and its handwritten form on tan paper touched me. Brought tears to my eyes.

Scaramucci, poor Scaramucci. I thought him an ass. However, everything hit him the same day.

He was fired as Director of Communications. A Harvard Law graduate, he received that same day Harvard Law’s new directory of graduates. Scaramucci was listed as dead. Harvard apologized and said it would correct the mistake in its next edition. The only problem is the next edition is not due out for 5 years.

Sometimes you can’t win for losing!

Thomas Edison received a patent this day in 1876 for the mimeograph. I started practicing law in 1960. Copies were made via the mimeograph. A horrid machine. Makes me suspect it probably had not been updated since 1876.

You had to hand churn the copies. And the ink! So much! Most on your hands by the end of a copy job.

My podcast tonight. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou. Interesting topics. Like the Scaramucci story here, Hiroshima, the hurricane season, private prisons squeezing governments, teenage suicides, a policed officer saving a suicidal woman from being run over by a train, and a comment re lies and Trump.

Join me. Nine my time. Fast moving. An interesting half hour. www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou.

Enjoy your day!