HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARK WATSON

Mark Watson, Happy Birthday!

Mark is one of the most beloved persons in Key West. Drag queen at Aqua, a Dueling Bartender, wednesday night Back Door bartender, present King of Fantasy Fest. On and on.

A nice guy besides.

I shall be sharing this day with him at a dinner party tonight.

My yesterday began with a haircut at Blown Away with Lori. My haircutter and friend of 15 years.

Lori is moving Blown Away. To a new building on White Street. Across from Fausto’s and Sandy’s. Next door to the building where I did my first radio show 10 years ago.

Then lunch at the Cuban Coffee Queen. Lovely Ruby working. The lady is talented. Hard working. Her work ethic impresses me.

Jay. Former chef at Sq. 1. Sq. 1 bought out. Jay moving on. Going to be the owner of his own operation. A sandwich shop. On Southard next to Bank of America. Around the corner from Key Lime Square. Near the Cuban Coffee Queen. Five door’s from Lori’s Blown Away.

From gourmet chef to sandwich maker. The sandwiches should be terrific!

Across the street are two coffee houses, a veggie restaurant, and Mr. T’s. A couple hundred feet up Southard, a noodle restaurant. All have been in business in the immediate area for many years. Jay should do well.

Opening, September 26.

Bocce last night. Ran into Jay. He has played bocce for years. My team Don’s Place doing well. I am the cheerleader. The team won all 3 games last night. 16-3, 16-0, 16-15.

It always happens that way. You kill the opposing team in the first two games. Then complacency sets in. An extra drink. Joking around. Concentration disappears.

Don’s was winning 14-7 in the third game. Needed only 2 points to win. All of a sudden, the game was tied 14 all. Finally, a one point victory eked out.

Norm is one of the player’s on Don’s team. A nice guy. We have been friends for years. Better friends because of bocce. One of my partner’s when I played.

Norm’s wife is involved community wise. She is a Rotarian. As was her father and grandfather before her. Rotarians have their hands in many of the Key West charity fundraisers. The Brewfest last week. She was one of the ones running the event. This week, she is working hard on Poker Run.

Ten thousand bikes start roaring into Key West today. For Poker Run Weekend. Big, expensive bikes. Drivers in black leather and crazy helmets. Look dangerous. Their ladies similarly dressed. Breasts dramatic. Intentionally so.

The humor is that most are doctors, lawyers and CPAs having what they consider a wild weekend. No more wild than any other, however. They will drink a bit too much, dine at the finest restaurants and have a great time!

You and me and the federal government are not the only one’s being hacked. The Monroe County Tourist Development Council’s website has been hacked. Florida Keys & Key West Facebook page 1.

Pics of beautiful Key West deleted. Replaced with photos of scantily clad provocatively posed women.

The Tourist Council cannot remove/delete the photos. Nor can they reach anyone at Facebook for help. Nor can they post an explanation.

My suggestion is they get a computer geek immediately to work on the problem. There are several in Key West.

The Mayflower departed England this day in 1620. Sixty six days later, landed at Provincetown. Not Plymouth as most of us have learned. Several months later, a group departed and landed at Plymouth. Of Plymouth Rock fame.

The Mayflower gave us the Mayflower Compact, Plymouth Rock, and Capt. Myles Standish.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Selective Service and Training Act into law this day in 1940. A draft law.

It is time we had a draft law again. Our professional voluntary army has been pushed too hard. Several deployments. As many as seven for some. No wonder 20 veterans a day are committing suicide.

I would require two years military service following high school graduation.

Guaranteed, I am going to receive a lot of comment on the position.

Enjoy your day!

CHICKENS DYING?

Someone commented in this morning’s Citizens’ Voice that the chickens are dying all over the island. The person asked why?

I have not noticed fewer chickens. Perhaps I have not paid attention. If someone agrees with the comment that the chickens are dying, please write and share what you know.

The Tropic Cinema is one of Key West’s gems. In front of the theater standing on the sidewalk is a life size statue of Marilyn Monroe with her skirt blowing upwards. A scene from a movie Marilyn made where she was standing over a subway grid.

The significance of the comment is that scene was filmed this day in 1954.

The Mosquito Control Board met last night. Voted not to proceed with the $4.5 million new building. Instead, voted to construct certain portions so the total cost would be less.

A garage and storage facility would be built. Together with the purchase of three work trailers. Total cost, $2, 995,000.

Sounds like a sales number.

Still don’t know if the number flies. Tax dollars pay for it all. Can the bucks be cut even further? As many people, I no longer have faith in the Board’s judgment.

I learn as I go along. Sometimes late.

There is a new diving experience in Key West. SNUBA. Not snorkeling, not scuba diving. Something between the two.

For those 8-80. Started 20 years ago in Hawaii. Described as an underwater guided tour. Dive certification not required. Ability to swim is. Instruction given before the dive.

My column in KONK Life is on the stands today. A Peek At The Truth.

Don’s Place first last night. No one, but Keith. Don, David, Larry, Boomer and others are in Miami on a golf trip. They will be back today. Eighteen holes the first day, 36 each of the next two days.

Tiring golf! Glad I set the game aside several years ago. We used to play hard, drink hard and stay up most of the night. I got too old for the trips. Could not handle all the fun.

Dinner at the outside bar at La Te Da with Keith. Tonto bartending.

Wednesday is prime rib night at La Te Da. George and Dillon had recommended it to me last week. I went specifically for the prime rib. We were there at 7. No prime rib. A popular wednesday special. Gone by 5.

Enjoyed wings instead.

The Battle of Britain effectively ended this date in 1940. The RAF shot down 56 German planes that day in two separate dogfights.

The next day, Hitler ended daytime air attacks on Britain. The move also postponed indefinitely Hitler’s invasion.

Winston Churchill said re Britain’s RAF pilots:  “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

Bocce tonight. The last two weeks have been rained out. I hope to stop by and watch for a while.

Enjoy your day!

 

 

 

HELEN MIRREN FILMING MOVIE IN KEY WEST

The great English actress and Academy Award winner Helen Mirren filming parts of a movie in Key West. Yesterday, today and tomorrow.

The movie involves a retired couple taking a trip on their RV. Donald Sunderland plays Mirren’s husband.

The Key West Citizen ran a photo of Mirren being driven in an electric cart in this morning’s paper..

Mirren filmed in front of Salute’s yesterday. Today, she will be shooting at the Hemingway House. Tomorrow, I do not know.

My podcast last night. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou. I enjoy doing the show. I assume people enjoy listening. I base the last sentence on the numbers and fact that I now have a few national advertisers. Like Geico and Walgreens.

I decided not to discuss politics. We are getting bombarded. I a political junkie am getting tired of listening. The worse Presidential campaign I have experienced. A lot of gutter snipping. Little policy discussion.

Ergo, I did not get into politics at all. Explained to the audience at the beginning I would not be and why.

Wells Fargo was the biggest item in my judgment. Especially with the news that the high echelon person responsible for the unit doing the bad deeds had retired in July. Her walk away payout $124.6 million. My point, crime pays.

A 4th case of Zika has been discovered in Monroe County. In Big Pine. Travel related.

Babe is now 3 months old. Daddy Hackley says she is “quite well.” Weighs 14 pounds.

Last year I fell many times. In one series, five times in seven days. All while going up or down stairs. I was sent to physiotherapy. Spent three months learning not only how to climb stairs, but also walk.

The key is to pay attention. Look where you are walking. Remember to lift your feet. Take your time.

It works. As simple as the instructions sound, I have only fallen once since. The reason I did fall was that I was not looking, not picking up my feet, and moving fast.

Falls Prevention Awareness Day is September 22. A notice re  the Day set forth facts with which I was not aware. The numbers apply to persons over 65. In 2014, 2,400 persons were fatally injured from falls. Fifty thousand hospitalized for non-fatal injuries.

Syracuse/South Florida saturday. South Florida a two touchdown favorite. After the beating Syracuse took from Louisville friday, I fear what might happen.

Enjoy your day!

A PEEK AT THE TRUTH

Sometimes my weekly KONK Life column takes longer than anticipated. Yesterday, I thought it would  be a breeze to get out. I was wrong. It took a couple of hours in the morning and four more in the afternoon.

The research had been done the day before.

It is not the basic writing that takes tine. It is the rewriting and editing. Especially, the rewriting. A word here, a line there, reorganization of paragraphs, etc.

Screwed up my day. I missed Don’s Place and watching pro football with Don and friends.

This blog reaches persons world wide. My podcast has a smaller audience. I suspect it is made up of  some blog readers but most are those that only listen to the show.

The KONK Life column is a different story. It reaches several thousand persons who I suspect neither read the blog or listen to the podcast.

There is sometimes an overlapping of material. I want to share what I consider the good stuff with everyone.

This week’s KONK Life column is A Peek At the Truth. Seven topics of misdeeds, wrongdoing, disagreeable activity, whatever. Some already commented on in this blog or my podcast. Some new. Each eye opening to some degree.

The William Hackley saga continues. Baby apparently well. No comment re Baby in two days. However, William’s leg a problem. Continues to be swollen from ankle to knee. He’s walking. It hurts. Used a liniment on it during the evening.

I had the problem once. Horrendous! Same area of the leg. Thought my leg was going to explode. A blood pressure problem for me. No mention of blood pressure in Hackley’s writing .

Medical care obviously and understandably not great in 1855.

Hillary is sick. She was diagnosed friday with pneumonia. Told few. Continued with her campaigning.

I watched her in an interview friday. Mentioned in saturday’s blog she did not come over well. Seemed to have slowed down. Thought it might be to contrast Trump. I mentioned at the end she could be sick.

She is sick. May she recover quickly.

Hopalong Cassidy died this day in 1972 at age 77. Hopalong’s true name was William Boyd. Boyd was a leading cowboy actor in movies of the 1930s.

TV superceded the movies in the years following World War II. Boyd played Hopalong Cassidy in a half hour TV show. His following primarily children. In 1950, Hopalong Cassidy was the seventh most popular TV show in America.

I did not contribute to Boyd’s success. I was a Gene Autry/Roy Rogers fan.

Tonight, Dueling Bartenders.

Enjoy your day!