Today’s blog is a follow up to yesterday’s BOLTON AND POMPEO GULF OF OMAN TANKER ATTACKS CHENEY’S WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. Took only 24 hours for Pompeo’s press conference to be debunked. He blamed Iran with zero evidence. His words were manufactured.

The owner and crew of one of the tankers said no mine attached or hit. Their vessel was “hit by a flying object.”

Pompeo and Bolton are known to be liars. Especially Bolton. What they intended was to manipulate the Iran narrative. Make Iran the bad guy. It was reported yesterday that “…..anyone you see hastening to blame Iran for the Gulf of Oman incident is either a war whore or a slobbering moron or both.”

Pompeo and Bolton top persons advising Trump on international affairs. Both similar to Trump in that they speak with forked tongues.

My education has been neglected. Here I am 83 and have never been to a massage parlor.

Mary is a walker. All over Key West. She mentioned the other day that there was a new massage parlor behind Starbucks and the ice ream stand on Front Street. Called Dancing Finger Massage Parlor. She had never heard of it before either.

Two days ago, we were driving into Old Town on Northern Boulevard. At the end of New Town at the intersection of the Boulevard and Eisenhower is a travel building. Next door, a Dancing Finger Massage Parlor.

Two! Worthy of investigation.

A Dancing Finger Massage Parlor has been in Key West for a few years. Initially in the 600 block of Duval. Must have had a back door entrance as I never saw it. I am assuming it moved to Front Street recently.

All I know! No, I am not going to make a personal visit. Too late and has never been my cup of tea.

Rarely do we hear of polio/tuberculosis. For many years. The disease in the U.S. was basically eradicated many years ago.

It was a different story in 1946. Especially in Key West. Twenty cases reported. Two died. Eleven were transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. Two to the Naval Hospital in Key West.

As is being observed with the present measles epidemic, certain prohibitions were enforced. In 1946 Key West, children under 16 were barred from theaters, beaches, and other public places. The restrictions rigidly enforced.

Dante came up in a conversation the other day.

A poet. His most notable work the Divine Comedy which he began in the very late 1200’s or early 1300’s. It consisted of 3 books: Hell, Purgatory and Paradise (Heaven).

I am concerned with the Hell portion.

Dante’s poem had Virgil as his guide. Virgil would also be his guide in Book 2 involving Purgatory

The Divine Comedy is considered the most important poem of the Middle Ages. Also the greatest literary work ever written in the Italian language.

I am ashamed to say I have never read the Divine Comedy. However, I learned about it almost daily in college and later as an attorney visited several times over the course of a year the statue of the Gates of Hell. It was on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

My Spanish professor in college was Professor Cantatore. The man lived for Dante! I studied under him for 2 years. Every day he would shout out at some point in his lecture: Read a page of Dante every day!

I became accustomed after becoming an attorney to stop into the Metropolitan Museum of Art for an hour when ever in New York on business. The visits were good for my soul. I was particularly interested in the Impressionistic gallery.

One visit, I noticed a sign indicating the Gates of Hell was on exhibit. I had to see it. Glad I did. Such magnificence. Such feeling. Such anguish.

The statue was actually 2 large doors representing the entrance to Hell. The inscription on top: “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” In Italian, of course.

The doors were huge. Two hundred figures made up heads, half bodies, of people trying to escape Hell. The figures were relatively small. Chaos prevailed. Their pain and suffering obvious. The depths of agony reflected on their faces.

It took Dante 37 years to do the statue. He was always adding, removing, changing something. Dante created the statue in plaster.

It was not cast in bronze till 1925. Rodin the artist. The bronze statue sits in the Rodin Museum near Paris.

I got to see it when the Met was allowed to exhibit it for one year.

Trump’s border wall. Actually a fence.

For well over a year, many U.S. Army soldiers have been stationed at the wall. Waiting for the hordes of thousands to attempt crossing the border into the U.S. I am not sure of the number of military. It keeps changing. Confusing as a result. It could be 3,500, 6,000 or 7,500. Or another number.

What are our soldiers doing? Even Trump realizes his thousand persons horde is not reality.

Trump promised a “big, beautiful wall.” What has been erected thus far is really a “fence.” The soldiers are presently painting the fence. One said it was a better tour of duty than Afghanistan.

Enjoy your day!