ROSE TATTOO / TENNESSEE WILLIAMS / DUNCAN ST.

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The time is this week 1954. The place Duncan Street in Key West. The filming of the movie The Rose Tattoo began.

A great movie. Loved it! Starred Burt Lancaster and Anna Mangani. Mangani won the Academy Award for her performance.

The movie was an adaptation of a Tennessee Williams play. Tennessee Williams lived on Duncan St. He wrote the play while living on Duncan St. The house where the movie was filmed was on Duncan Street. Two doors up from Tennessee Williams’ home. Both Williams and the Rose Tattoo houses still stand on Duncan.

Lisa lives on Duncan. Her home is 1 1/2 blocks from the Williams home.

Key West loves Harry Truman. Harry Truman loved Key West.

On November 2, 1948, Truman was elected President. He defeated New York Governor Tom Dewey. Truman was not favored to win. A big underdog. No one gave him a chance. Except Truman himself.

Congress at the time was Republican. They blocked him at every move. Some what like today’s Congress and Obama. Only worse. Truman campaigned against the worst Congress ever, as he put it.

Corporate America disliked Truman. Vehemently.

An example is what occurred while Truman was campaigning. Campaigning was done from the back platform of the last car on a train in those days. The train traveled all over the country.

Truman was short on funds. Again, he was not expected to win. Few were contributing to him. The train and crew were leased. The bill was overdue.

The train was stopped by the railroad somewhere in the middle of nowhere between two towns. Truman was told the bill had to be paid in full. If not, Truman and his entourage had to get off.

Truman threw in what he had in his pocket. His supporters did likewise. They had just enough to pay the bill. Truman proceeded on his way.

The distaste the railroad owners had for Truman obvious. Doing this to a President of the United States! Disrespectful!

Politics played the same all the time. Hard ball.

Did my blog talk radio show last night. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou. Love dong the show!

One of the topics clearly reflects government waste.

The Department of Defense built a gas station in Afghanistan. Nothing special. A run of the mill gas station. The contracted cost for construction $3 million. A lot for a gas station. Especially since a similar one had been built the previous year in Pakistan for $500,000.

The final cost of construction was $43 million. Wow! $3 million for the construction. $40 million for overhead.

The gas station built was a compressed natural gas automobile station. So built because of the great supply of natural gas in Afghanistan.

The only problem was the people had cars that were petroleum operated. They had no use for the new station. Making the necessary adjustments to change over to a natural gas operated vehicle was not financially feasible. The cost was more than the average Afghanistani made in a year.

The Defense Department had a task force in charge of spending with regard to the closed gas station. When the Department was asked why the increase, they said they did not know/ could not tell because the task force had closed down in March.

And they want to cut Social Security! Cut waste!

I would like to know who made out on this Afghanistan gas station.

Last week, I reported on my radio show that the Muslim immigrants in Germany were overloading the hospitals. One problem was they refused to be treated by female personnel. Doctor, nurse, or otherwise.

Yesterday, it was announced that Muslims presently in camps in Germany would not accept food from women.

Beggars can’t be choosers. They should be grateful they are receiving free medical and food.

European banks are beginning to hurt. Good! May their American counterparts do likewise.

European banks are cutting costs. A large Spanish bank with 2,300 branches     now cleans windows only six times a year instead of twelve. Another Spanish bank with many branches kills the electricity at 7 pm. Another bank requires staff to clean their desks every wednesday. Called Wet Wipe Wednesday. Office space is being reduced.

One hundred thousand banking jobs in the Eurounion have been cut since 2012.

My left chest which I injured in a fall last week started hurting big time again last night. I don’t know why. Kept me up all night. Not one moments sleep. A pain pill did not help. Feels better at the moment.

I am going to skip the treadmill this morning. Will keep a noon manicure appointment with Tammy, however.

Enjoy your day!

 

BUSY BUSY SATURDAY

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My yesterday was too busy. All screwed up. Never got to do what I wanted my way.

My plan was to watch the Syracuse/LSU game and research this week’s KONK Life column. I got to watch half the game. Had to move my ass to get the research done.

Let me explain.

I have a new TV. Comcast said I needed a new box. An updated one. Mine was ancient. I had to return my old box and modem and get a new box. Modem part of box now. I went to Comcast with both items in tow at 10 am. Comcast opens at 10.

I expected a miserable Comcast staff. Comcast is not customer friendly. I was shocked. Comcast rep Liana could not have been nicer. She explained everything to me in detail 2-3 times. I do not absorb mechanical info easily.

Thank you, Liana.

Rushed over to Tammy for a 10:30 manicure. Tammy always good company. Lovely in appearance. If I were 50 years younger and she unmarried, I would be chasing after her.

Then home to watch Syracuse/LSU at noon. Leave me alone! I wanted to enjoy the game!

It was not to me.

The exterminator showed up. Fifteen hours late. He spent two hours doing what he had to do and constantly interrupting me with questions, see this, etc.

While this was going on, Tim Reynolds showed up. He was going to hook up the new TV. He wanted to talk.

I was ready to yell screw everybody, screw everything! I want to watch the game!

I only got to watch the first half. Syracuse has a team. Proved it yesterday in spite of losing 34-24. A couple of missed touchdowns at the end of the first half might have resulted in a Syracuse win.

After many years, I was proud of a Syracuse football team. A once again moment.

The flies are gone. Maggot flies from the dead rat. Ugh! The exterminator knew exactly what to do.

I had a couple of hours to kill after everything settled down. Time to research this week’s column. I decided to write something about Pope Francis. Something off the beaten track.

The column yet to be written will be titled Man To Pope. The history of Francis’ transition from man to Pope. The odd ball human things in his younger life that molded the man we saw this past week. Like his three love affairs. The third and last while he was in the seminary. Also, his bouncer job in a night club while working on his graduate chemistry degree.

It is starting to thunder and lightening. Going to storm!

Dinner last night at Latitudes. I had one drink too many. Required after my day.

What can I say about Latitudes. Fine food, fine presentation and perfect service. Manager Susan visited a while. Met Olga the reservations person in person. Our previous relationship had been via phone. Olga is a tiny lovely young lady of French extraction. Met another staffer named Andrea.

Everyone attentive to make sure the evening was no less than perfect.

I like Rick Boettger. Unfortunately, we only became friends this past year. Rick used to write for KONK Life also.

Rick wrote his last KONK Life column three weeks ago. Wrote he was going to die. Cancer had gotten the best of him. No one knew.

This morning at 11 at United Spiritual Center, Rick is going to speak to his friends for the last time. I will be there. In church, to listen to a friend.

Rick is deserving of credit. He is going out his way. Not just writing his obituary as some do, he is planning his good byes step by step.

God love you, Rick!

Enjoy your Sunday!

 

MAN ON THE MOON…..WOW!

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Today marks a remarkable event in history. The event being the most memorable of my life. Impacted me. Man on the Moon!

On this day in 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon. I was 34 at the time. It was late night. Around midnight. I was excited. A human walking on the moon. The thing science fiction movies were made of. Not reality. Yet, it was about to happen! Live on TV in front of my eyes.

My four children were all under 10 at the time. I woke and got them all out of bed to watch. I wanted to view this moment in history. It meant nothing to them. They were merely amusing their crazy Dad. To this day, when I ask if they recall watching the event on TV, none do.

I am now 80 and nothing has matched or exceeded Neil Armstrong walking on the moon.

Today has a special significance for Key West. Mel Fisher found the mother lode of the Atocha in 1985. Changed his life! His family’s life! Jean Thornton’s life!

I mentioned in yesterday’s blog that I had been researching Margaret Sanger for this week’s KONK Life column. As I dug further, it became obvious that the recent story re Planned Parenthood selling aborted fetus baby parts superseded it. Ergo, I wrote Planned Parenthood Sells Aborted Fetus Baby Parts. Margaret Sanger gets a paragraph near the end of the column. The article publishes wednesday in KONK Life.

I was half asleep watching the British Open when the phone rang. It was Dee. Hello, how are you, etc. It was close to dinner time. I asked if she wanted to meet me at Roostica. She said ok. Meet you there in an hour. Dee lives on Cudjoe Key.

A nice dinner. Dee good company most of the time. An intelligent woman, she is interesting to talk with. She has a doctorate in Psychology and teaches at Boston University.

Olga working. My new waitress friend. She gave me a beaming smile and wave as I walked in.

It was work day around the house yesterday. For Keith and Jennifer. Not me. Keith attacked the jungle outside my house. Everything grows swiftly in the heat. The trees, bushes, etc. need to be trimmed 1-2 times a year. Jennifer was cleaning up inside. Anna is in Poland vacationing for two months and Jennifer has been helping out in her absence.

Anna’s story similar to Tammy’s. She is another who has succeeded in achieving the American dream.

Anna and her husband immigrated from Poland many years ago. Today, her husband is the Chef at Cafe Sole, one of Key West’s top restaurants. Anna cleans homes. The job may not sound dignified. The money is. Anna is busy all the time.

They have their own home. They vacation two months with their children every two years in Poland.

I love Anna’s sundays. She refuses to work. She goes to St. Mary’s in the morning and spends the rest of the day at Fort Zachery Taylor Beach.

Hemingway Days begin tomorrow. Will run through sunday. I look forward to having a god time at certain events.

Anna e-mailed me. She is settled in on Amorgos. I envy her!

I have spent much time on Amorgos. Made many friends. I was the only American on Amorgos most of the time. People would stop by to meet me. I was an oddity. They had never met an American.

Anna’s e-mail made me feel good. People were asking where Louis was.

Mythos owns my favorite restaurant on Amorgos. He and his daughter were wondering what happened to me, was I ever going to return. I would spend my afternoons at Mythos’ place sitting outside in the shade writing. Antonio at the restaurant next door wondered when I would be back. He prepared the best smelts! Just like my grandmother made. Elini whose home I stayed at was wondering if I would ever return.

Flora on Amorgos again. Cleaning rooms for the summer. An Albanian school teacher otherwise. I wrote a short story about Flora three years  which I published in my book. The title…..Flora’s Story. A sensitive tale.

The Greeks are taking a beating in the media these days. They are made to look lazy and careless. The island people are neither. They are simple happy folk living life as their forefathers did 100 years ago.

Enjoy your day!

MAIL DELIVERY 3Xs A DAY

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Key West is presently battling whether to have garbage pick ups once or twice a week. There was a time when the number of times for anything was generous.

This morning’s Key West Citizen in its History Section notes that on this day in 1901, the Post Office began making deliveries three times a day. Early morning, mid day and late afternoon.

How things change!

Love Rick Boettger. He calls them as he sees ’em. In an article in E-Blast this morning titled The Big Story / Crash or Burn, he indicates how difficult it is to do business in Key West. A tough town to get a business started. Even tougher to stay in business.

Rick had a statement I would like to share…..Key West is a place to spend money you made somewhere else.

How true!

Starbuck’s on the Boulevard finally underway. Checkers building being demolished. I look forward to the new Starbuck’s. I love to sit inside, sip coffee, and read. The new Starbuck’s will provide that convenience.

The Citizen this morning also noted that Key West will receive its share of the BP settlement. $2.7 million. Allegedly for economic damages suffered during the spill. The oil never reached Key West. For business loss during that period because people were afraid to visit. They thought the oil would reach Key West beaches.

The $2.7 million even more interesting since earlier paper work by the City indicated Key West had only lost $630,00.

BP settlements of this nature are a rip off! I can’t fault the City for taking the money. However, it should never have been available. At some distant point following the spill, by law or regulation, rules came down permitting the type of losses to be compensated out of a pool of money made available for such purpose. The law/regs were broadly drawn. Did incorporate losses as the City was paid for.

Such does not make the payment right. Either to Key West or anyone else. Even saying BP has a lot of money does not make it correct.

Dinner at Roostica last night before my blog talk radio show. Met a new waitress. Olga. A nice lady.

Did my blog talk radio show later in the evening. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou. Three topics hit. How the U.S. as a society has lost its way, a Greece update suggesting watch out for the Neo-Nazi party, and my thoughts re the Iranian agreement. All interesting! Controversial in some respects.

Anna. Greece. Anna still on Santorini. Santorini continues to be packed with tourists. This week Chinese, Japanese and English. Spending money like crazy. Everything very expensive.

She wanted to spend time on my favorite island, Amorgos. Not going. Could not get a room. Amazing! Plus, all ATM machines are bare. No cash money available on Amorgos.

The show goes on! The Greece/Eurounion conflict not concluded. The next few days will reveal much. Parliament votes today whether to accept the offer. The unions are supposedly on a 24 hour strike today. No one working. Athens shut down if the called for strike successful.

Various media sources suggest Merkel may have hurt herself big time. She exercised raw “naked power.” Germany may win today. However the Greeks and other European nations will remember Greece’s treatment. What goes around, comes around. Germany some day will stand with hat in hand. Germany’s treatment at that time may be as harsh as Greece’s this time.

Enjoy your day!