BEARD or NO BEARD

Without question, I am well! God bless!

Felt ok yesterday. Thought about going out. Decided to remain in and try eating normally first. Toast with preserves for lunch. Dinner, a Thanksgiving meal. Several had sent Thanksgiving dinners.

Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and pumpkin pie. Easy. Did not over indulge.

Handled it all without a problem.

Watched Syracuse/Boston College in the afternoon. Syracuse won 42-21. Season over. Syracuse’s record 9-3. The best in 18 years. The best team we have had in 18 years. Finally! We are thankful Lord. Next week bowl bids will be announced.

The issue to be decided today is beard or no beard. I have gone a week without shaving. The start of a beard obvious. Messy, however. I look like a bum. Another week and it will look ok.

What to do? Not sure yet.

Wore a beard for 2 years several years ago. Enjoyed it. No shaving. A light trim once a week. Thought it went well with a bald head.

Problem is I am not sure my vanity will permit me to go the next week to get to the ok zone.

I plan on a normal Sunday out and about. The Chart Room, Blue Macaw, Rum Bar, and Sandy’s Cafe. Publix, too. Little food I had had to be dumped.

No Name Pub. A dining establishment of renown in the lower Keys. Pizza, chili, burgers, fries, etc.

I have not been there in a year. It’s a once or twice a year place. Sits in the deep woods outside Big Pine. On No Name Key. That is how it got its name.

People go for 2 reasons. The adventure in finding the place and the food. You can get lost. Proof of the pudding is a sign outside: You Found It!

The place is funky as is the food. An old beat up 2 story home. Tradition is to nail dollar bills to the walls and ceilings with your name and the date signed on them. Then try to locate the next time you are there. Impossible. There’s another $10-20 stapled over your bill!

Irma did minimal damage.

No Name Pub was a whore house back in the late 1930’s into the early 1940’s. Most famous old houses in the Keys were at some time in days long gone by.

Quotes turn me on. Words of wisdom generally from one smarter than I. Came across a Ernest Hemingway one yesterday: “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.”

Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn were required reading in my third year American literature college class. Tom Sawyer written first. Huck a character in it. Then Huckleberry Finn with Huck in the starring role.

The quote brought to mind Huck, Tom, Jim, and Pap Finn.

Wow! One of the great writers of all time acknowledging  a predecessor as perhaps even a greater writer.

Came across a Biblical quote yesterday also. Referring to women who cheat. Violate their marital vows. Before you get all discombobulated, I appreciate men do also.

The quote hit a sensitive cord. Reminded me of divorces involving persons close to me or who I randomly knew where the lady strayed. Proverbs 14:1 “The wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down.”

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson played a match against each other a couple of days ago. The prize $9 million. Winner takes all!

Mickelson won on the 22nd hole.

A big prize! Turner Broadcasting the sponsor. The match on TV. Pay for view. $19.95. The reason why so much can be paid to the winner of such a sporting event.

A glitch occurred.A Bleacher Report Line ran it free. Everyone is being reimbursed their $19.95.

Lineage difficult and costly to trace. Someone did. The result amazing.

It was 1620. John Howland was on the Mayflower traveling to the new world. He was to serve a period of time as an indentured servant upon arrival.

The Mayflower carried 132, including crew.

A furious storm arose. Caused the Mayflower to lay heave. A rogue wave rode over the vessel. Howland was caught by it. He grabbed a line as he was thrown overboard. He was carried beneath the waves. Fortunately, the crew was able to pull him back in.

Extremely fortunate they did. American history would not have been the same if Howland went down and stayed down.

Howland worked off his indenture servant obligation. Married Elizabeth Tilley. They had 10 children who produced 88 grandchildren.

The 88 grandchildren over the next 200 years produced 200 million American descendants.

Including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Joseph Smith, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Humphrey Bogart, Chevy Chase, Alec Baldwin, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush.

Appreciate further from whence they all came. The reason they sought the new world. Howland and the others on the Mayflower were religious outcasts from Europe. A “migrant caravan” of sorts. These “migrants” changed the world for the better.

Enjoy your Sunday! I plan on enjoying mine!

 

 

BOOKS & BOOKS…..BIPOLAR DISORDER TONIGHT

Judy Blume has arranged a big one for Books & Books tonight. Kay Redford Jamison discussing her newest book: Robert Lowell, Setting The River On Fire.

A rather unique presentation. The famed poet Robert Lowell was bipolar. Jamison is bipolar. As well as being Professor of Psychiatry at John Hopkins.

Six tonight for a most interesting discussion.

After Jameson, I will be off to Donna and Terri’s. Donna cooking. Her famous pot roast. Juicy and tender.

Yesterday another lazy one. A bug must have recently bitten me.

I did get out of the house. Drove up to No Name Pub for lunch. Love the place!

Later in the afternoon, watched North Carolina/Kentucky. A game! North Carolina won by 3. Great basketball. Kentucky on its way to the Final Four.

Oregon a part this year of the Final Four, also.

March Madness had its birth this day in 1939. The first NCAA Tournament. Oregon beat Ohio State.

It was doubtful Oregon would make the Final Four this year. Congratulations to them.

Russia experienced 99 separate protests over the weekend. In its cities and towns. Unusual. Especially against Putin. Putin does not tolerate opposition. Several opposing political leaders have died under strange circumstances the past two years. Their deaths thought to be Putin ordered.

Now street protests. Will Putin call out the tanks as the Soviet Union did in Hungary in the 1950’s?

Is Russia experiencing an Arab Spring as Egypt did?

My gut tells me Trump has an involvement. I suspect the negative Trump/Russia dialogue in the U.S. is working against Trump in Russia.

Hemingway left his mark on Key West. For which we are all glad.

Many the words he wrote or spoke became memorable quotes. One I especially enjoy involves love: Stop chasing the wrong one, the right one won’t run.

Words of wisdom!

On this day in 1998, the band played and the drums roared. The FDA approved Viagra. The first oral medication to treat erectile dysfunction.

Harry Truman again. Never forget, Truman loved Key West and Key West loves Harry Truman.

Truman spent 175 days over 11 trips enjoying Key West. On this date in 1952, Truman left Key West for Washington following a three week vacation.

Enjoy your day!

PRE-K TO 12 EDUCATION FAILING

Key West was quiet this week. Very quiet. Few tourists. Kids are returning to school. Parents busy with them.

This week will be likewise slow. Then comes Labor Day weekend. It will be no room at the inn!

Spent quite a bit of yesterday researching this week’s KONK Life column. Don’t have a title yet. The article will concern the failure of standardized testing and Bush 2’s No Child Left Behind.

A major problem as you will see when the column is published.

I will write the column this afternoon.

Last night easy. Quite enjoyable, however. Visited my friend in Sugarloaf again. We decided on eating at No Name Pub.

Love No Name Pub. A whore house during World War II. One of the most popular eating places today.

I enjoyed a Philly cheese steak sandwich and cheese fries. No Name’s Philly steak sandwich one of the best.

Bocce started thursday. I did not go to watch. I may play a game or two this season. Don sill carries me as a team member.

The team won 2-1.

Because nothing is happening in town, I have nothing further to report. I recall reading somewhere that no news is good news.

Enjoy your Sunday!

A GOOD SUNDAY NIGHT

The good book says Sunday is a day of rest. I agree. I do as little as possible.

Last night was a stay at home one. Planned. The Tonys and the Cleveland/Golden State game. Both at 8. I kept flipping back and forth. Both outstanding! The Tonys a bit better.

The finest Tony show I have ever seen. Pure pleasure to watch. The basketball game a war. Last night, not a sport. Went to overtime with Cleveland winning by 2.

I went out for a couple of hour in the afternoon. No Name Pub. Put the top down, my cap on backwards, and away I went!

No Name Pub is always packed. Even off season. I sat at the bar and did some people watching.

The building the restaurant is in is a story unto itself. It was a house of ill repute in the late 1930s and through World War II. The ladies worked upstairs.

The promiscuous nature of the building is reported on the back cover of the No Name Pub menu.

This morning unique. Looks like a perfect day in the making. Blue sky, sun bright. Mangroves and buildings all lit up, birds chirping. An added feature this morning is the water. When I went outside, I could immediately smell it. That by the ocean taste which one gets on rare occasions.

I continue to live and learn. Somehow Keith and I got in to sponge fishing Saturday night. I have always been under the impression that they were dived for. Men with air tanks on their backs. Not so! Keith said the sponge fisherman stands on a small boat with a long pointed pole in hand. When he sees a sponge, he shoves the pole down and snares the sponge.

I did a little homework.

There are two methods to collect/fish sponges. Hooking and diving.

Hooking involves a long wood handled pole with three steel curved teeth on the end. Two or 3 men in a small boat. The fisherman standing. Looking into the water. When a fisherman sees a sponge, he shoots the pole down, stabs the sponge and brings it onto the boat.

The diving method involved a hard hat and suit filled with air. Like you see professional divers wearing in the movies.

Sponge diving  is prohibited by Florida law. Only the hooking method may be utilized.

There is much more to the Key West sponge industry. Much too much for a blog. Perhaps someday, a column.

Greece. My beloved Greece. At war with the Eurounion over payments. The Eurounion pressing like a hard assed banker. The Greeks not giving an inch. They are sick and tired of being pushed around by Germany and other members of the Eurounion.

There is a next payment deadline in the very near future. Unless the Eurounion suggests a much more lenient pay back, Greece is going to say…..Up yours! What is the Eurounion going to do? Sue them? To get what? Greece has no money.

I suspect that if Greece defaults, it will immediately create its own money or make the U.S. dollar its currency. The U.S. dollar approach provides a better chance for economic survival.

I cannot understand why the Eurounion is standing so tough. If Greece defaults, the Eurobank takes a big hit. A Europe wide recession could occur. One which would affect the United States.

Enjoy your day!