MEASURING DICKS

We live in dangerous times. You do not need me to tell you.

A recent crisis that has the capacity to bring matters to the boiling point is Turkish planes shooting down a Russian jet. Russia’s Putin and Turkey’s Erdogan are issuing inflammatory statements. Each threatening the other.

Turns out Putin and Erdogan do not like each other. There is personal animosity between them for other reasons. These guys will go nose to nose.

Pavel Felgenhauer is a defense analyst. He bluntly described the situation as follows: “Right now they’re measuring dicks, and that’s very dangerous.”

My yesterday began with a doctor visit. I decided to have breakfast out following the visit. Tried Sq. 1 sitting outside. Years since I have done it. I was pleased. Good food. A great place for people watching.

The Key West Aloe store is on Duval just around the corner from Duval Square. I stopped in. Wanted to try their shaving gel. No shaving gel.

I thought how sad the old Key West Aloe store on Front street is gone. The new owners moved the store and everything else several years ago to another spot in Florida. The new Key West store tiny. Well done in brown and white colors, as are the tubes of aloe products. No aroma.

A lovely place. However, nowhere as large and as nice as the one I remember.

Yesterday was Syracuse basketball again. The final game of the Atlantis tournament being played in the Bahamas. Syracuse beat Texas A & M 74-67. An excellent victory.

The other three teams in the tournament were all ranked. Syracuse, not. Syracuse will be when the new rankings come out monday.

Good wins for Syracuse. The two games tested Syracuse. We still lack that one extra tall muscle bound big guy unfortunately.

An interesting season ahead.

The Keys Coral Reef is bleaching. Not good. Could be bad, though not necessarily. Depends on things I am not familiar with. Extreme warm water doing it. Second consecutive year the bleaching has occurred.

The hurricane season ends in a couple of days. November 30 to be exact. Vultures have returned. Large congregations of them.

We do not need the date to tell us the hurricane season has ended. The return of the vultures signifies the end of the hurricane season. Nature telling us.

I continue to be repitious. Truman loved Key West, Key West loves Truman.

On today’s date 1949, Truman, wife Beth and daughter Margaret arrived for a three week vacation.

Two China items of interest.

China has a large growing middle class. They want all the things the middle class of any nation expects. One is good food. Beef to be precise.

China does not have enough beef to satisfy its middle class. No problem. A 14,000 square meter factory is being built at a cost of $313 million. Its purpose, to clone cows. The plant is expected to produce 100,000 embryos a year.

Reports indicate cloned beef ok to eat. Tastes like the real stuff. A question arises. Is this another GMO situation?

China continues to expand militarily. China is establishing its first military base in Africa. In a little country called Djibouti. The base is the first expansion of China’s military power beyond the Asian Pacific.

Bocce playoffs today. A big deal, as I continue to tell you. Exciting. We play at 3. If we win, at 6. If we win again, tomorrow.

Enjoy your day!