WENT OUT LAST NIGHT

 

I cannot diet and visit my usual haunts. The near occasions of sin are food and drink. So, I remain home evenings. My recollection is that last night was the second time in the 35 days I have been dieting that I went out.

I was excited. It was exciting.

The Chart Room was the venue selected. It had not changed. JJ bartending. Dave, Sheila, and Captain Peter in attendance.

I was good. Did not drink nor eat pop corn. Two diet Pepsi’s instead.

Captain Peter never ceases to amaze me. I learned last night he was a bird watcher.

The Captain spoke specifically of two birds. I did not know them. I know nothing about birds. He had sighted one species here in Key West. Another flying in mass over Miami recently. Both totally foreign to Florida.

The birds’ habitat is Labrador. They were far from home. Captain Peter attributes their Florida presence to Hurricane Sandy. Interesting.

Duval Street was packed. Jam packed. Traditionally, the week between Christmas and New Year’s is the busiest for Key West. Come Wednesday morning, there will be no one. You can throw a bowling ball down Duval from one end to the other without hitting any one.

Tomorrow my blog talk radio show! Seven in the morning my time. You can listen and/or call in. The show is quick moving.

This will be show #3. Help me! Not only listen, telephone me from anywhere with a comment or thought. I am going to lead with the fiscal cliff, France trying a 75 per cent tax on its millionaires, and Silvio Burlosconi having to pay his wife $3 million a month. We are not limited. Can talk about any topic you wish.

Those living outside the United States can listen in/participate via Skype.

It may be radio, but a computer is required to join me. It is a radio internet show. Found easily at www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou. Click on the second box that appears. The one with the date of the show. Voila, you will be in business!

I plan on going out again tonight. I will cheat, however. Plan on drinking. The game plan is to walk Duval a bit and at midnight watch Sushi come down on the red shoe at the Bourbon Street Pub. If I change my mind and stay in, I will still watch Sushi. CNN carries the drop live each year.

Hillary Clinton. How sad! How terrible! Hope her condition clears up swiftly.

Many were critical of Hillary when she announced she could not testify before the Congressional committee looking into Benghazi because  she had fallen and suffered a concussion. Many thought it was a convenient made up excuse. One of this blog’s loyal readers wrote and referred her malady as an “immaculate concussion.” I must concede, I thought ill of the situation as well. A lesson to be learned. Never jump the gun…..give a person the benefit of the doubt. Not all political figures are the same. Some tell the truth.

Enjoy your New Year’s Eve day! Better yet, enjoy this evening!

 

NEW YEAR MIDNIGHT DROPS

 

Midnight New Year’s Eve, the world watches the ball drop on Time Square. In person and on television.

Key West has its own drops. Three traditionally. Perhaps a fourth this year.

The original drop is Sloppy Joe’s. A ball drops onto the roof. There is a huge clock marking the seconds.

The Sushi drop is at the Bourbon Street Pub. The drop is about 15 years old. Sushi is one of Key West’s most infamous and beautiful female impersonators. Sushi sits in a huge red slipper which is dropped at midnight.

The third is the drop near the Schooner Wharf at the Historical Seaport. A pirate girl descends from a high ship mast as cannons boom.

There may be a new drop this year. Cow Boy Bill’s. A honky talk saloon. A huge property. Famous for its mechanical bull. More famous for its Wednesday nights when it is competitive bull riding time for the ladies. Topless.

Word is that Cow Boy Bill’s will have a lady or ball descending from a tall scaffold.

The Bourbon Street Pub/Sushi drop is world famous. CNN carries it world wide at midnight.

A few observations this day.

We keep hearing about the four Americans killed at Benghazi. Including the American Ambassador. Ten or more injured persons were airlifted out. Why have we not heard their stories? I cannot believe they were not interviewed. They seem to have been lost in the shuffle. No one talks about them.

Syracuse won a double header yesterday!

The football team beat West Virginia 38-14 in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl. The team ends the season with a 9-5 record. Good for Syracuse! We have been a poor football team the past 15 years. The last few have seen Syracuse win a game here and there. Last year was better. This year the best. We should be even better next year.

The basketball team won, also. Beat Alcorn State 57-36. Nothing to write home about. Alcorn State plays a different game altogether. The game was merely a warm up for Syracuse. What happens next week when the Big East begins is what is important. Syracuse will do well this year. The question is how well. Much is expected from the basketball team each year. That is the price of success.

Income taxes continue to be a big issue. How much should the very rich pay? Obama wants 39.6 per cent. He will probably agree to less.

France has a taxing problem, also. The President wanted a rate for France’s millionaires of 75 per cent. It got shot down by a Constitutional Council on technical grounds. It is expected to return shortly and may pass.

It has been reported that some French millionaires are considering moving to the United States to avoid a high income tax.

Our millionaires should not complain!

Tuesday, I will be doing my blog talk radio show. My third one. Seven in the morning. www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou. A one half hour talk show. Listeners may call in to discuss topics with me.

I appreciate it is New Year’s morning. However, that is the day and time the show airs. If any of you are up, listen in. Enjoy a cup of coffee with me. You will enjoy.

We talk about anything and everything involving current events.

Enjoy your Sunday!

 

 

BURNED PANCAKES

 

As you are aware, I have been on a diet. In 4.5 weeks, I have lost 20 pounds. The diet is Nutrisystem. It obviously works. It should. I am taking in less than 1,000 calories a day.

The food comes prepackaged. One of the items is a mix for pancakes. Total calories 140. I made the pancakes this morning. The mix resulted in four pancakes, each two inches in diameter.

Not much.

I left them in the frying pan on the stove cooking. Returned to my computer which is about five feet from the stove. I work with the doors to the ocean open behind me.

After a while, I started to smell something burning. Who is cooking out at this hour of the morning, I thought. I kept working. The smell became more pronounced. Finally, it dawned on me! The pancakes! Burned to a crisp. Stuck hard to the pan.

A bad start to the day. Food is the most important thing when a person is dieting.

The Key West Lou Legal Hour was yesterday morning. Just me and Krystal. No Jenna. Jenna went back home to Indiana for Christmas. She was supposed to leave Wednesday. The snow storm hit. The storm continued through thursday. Today is the first day she could fly out.

Krystal and I made do. Though the inconvenience was more on her shoulders than mine.

The show went well. I was surprised what interested viewers the most. I thought it would have been the fiscal cliff. Instead, it was Germany from various perspectives.

I discussed four  German related items. The Neo-Nazi party in Greece which is now Greece’s third largest political party, a statue of Hitler recently placed in front of the Warsaw Ghetto, Germany in effect now deporting its elderly to Eastern Europe and Asian nursing and assisted care homes, and a German cabinet minister who insists God is a woman.

After the show, I walked. Since it was warm, I walked inside Home Depot. Comfortably air conditioned.

I would term myself a floor walker at Home Depot. Many think I work there. I am constantly asked questions like where is this or that, what do I need to do a particuar job, etc. Me, who never even owned a screwdriver his whole life!

Home Depot takes care of its property. Sometime in the last 48 hours, the floors were polished. They sparkled.

I wrote next week’s column for KONK Life. Titled Term Limits. The thrust was that it  is not that easy to invoke term limits on our Senators and Congressman. People should be aware. Term limits might not be the solution.

KONK Life hits the streets wednesday. Read the article. It is an eye opener.

Key West weather continues to be excellent. We are blessed!

Enjoy your day!

 

 

 

LES MISERABLES

 

Les Miserables.

Magnifique!

I saw the movie last night. One of the finest I have ever seen. Reward yourself. Go see it.

Anne Hathaway plays a tubercular ridden prostitute. She lost thirty pounds to do the role. An Academy Award performance!

Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman outstanding, also.

The lines are sung, not spoken.

The film was uniquely made. The actors sang live. The singing was not prerecorded and then lip synched. The first time this approach has been utilized since the musicals of the 19390s and early 1940s.

My yesterday began with a haircut with Lori. I fell asleep while she was cutting my hair. Strange! My pills?

It was a bit cool. I walked Smathers Beach afterwards. I am up to 20 pounds lost on the diet. However, I have plateaued again.

Spent some time in the afternoon finalizing today’s TV/Internet show. The Key West Lou Legal Hour. Ten in the morning my time. Available via TV on Comcast Channel 87 and U-Verse Channel 19. Available world wide also. www.tvchannel19.com.

Four interesting items involving Germany have been added. Extremely revealing.

Join me at 10.

Enjoy your day!

 

 

 

DOWN FOR THE DAY

 

A minor cold spell is upon us this morning. It is 68 degrees. The high will only be 73. Tomorrow a return to the low 80s, however.

The previous paragraph was written with tongue in cheek. The snow storm up north is horrendous. My home town of Utica is buried in a foot of snow.

I remember the snow and storms. It was never fun. I always hated it. Tthought there had to be a better way. Found it. Key West.

Yesterday was a real quiet one for me. I spent most of the day down.

Since Christmas eve, every time I got up I felt light headed. Like I was going to pass out. My stomach not feeling right, also. Continued through yesterday. So I stayed in bed.

I seem ok this morning. I suspect with my weight change that I may need an adjustment in the blood pressure medicine.

Since I was in bed, I missed Les Miserables again. Perhaps this evening.

Tomorrow, the Key West Lou Legal Hour. Ten in the morning my time. Comcast Channel 87 and U-Verse Channel 19. Worldwide on the internet at www.tvchannel.19.

Join me. Another good show.

Besides the subjects already reported, I shall be discussing the fiscal cliff, the need for term limits, Bone Island, God’s gender in dispute, the Pledge of Allegiance, Ben Franklin and Poor Richard’s Almanac, the 38th parallel, and Tennessee Williams’ Night of the Iguana.

Quite a mixed bag.

Enjoy your day!

 

BACK TO DIETING

 

Back to dieting.

Last night was my one cheat. Whether a guilty feeling or what, I did not enjoy my Christmas eve meal that much. Ergo, I opted not to eat Lisa’s big Christmas morning breakfast.

Glad I made the decision. I felt better almost immediately. Lisa understood.

Spent my afternoon resting. Watched some TV, researched a bit. One of Christ’s movies was on the Turner Channel. The one Jeffrey Hunter starred in. Robert Ryan made a terrific John the Baptist.

I decided to go to the movies last night. Les Miserables. I felt like Joseph. There was no room at the movie. Sold out.

I went home. Will try another evening this week.

My friday TV/Internet show is coming together. Some great material to discuss. Obviously more  about the Second Amendment and the NRA. Included thus far also is how Chicago Airport’s O’Hare got its name, the Indian bus gang rape, Romney’s transition bill presented to the United States for payment in the amount of $8.9 million, Christmas in the colonies, and Greece and the rebirth of a neo-Nazi party.

The Key West Lou Legal Hour is 10 in the morning my time on fridays. Airs on television throughout the length of the Keys and all of Miami-Dade County via Comcast Channel 87 and U-Verse Channel 19. Available on the internet worldwide at www.tvchannel19.com.

Join me on friday. Always a good show.

Key West had a cold spell for about three days. It is gone. The day time temperature yesterday was 80 degrees. The night time 74.

Enjoy your day!

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Eve and Morning

 

Merry Christmas!

A happy time.

I did Christmas eve at Lisa’s. The evening is a big deal in the Italian tradition. In addition to everything else, the meal is special.

Italians eat seven fishes at the Christmas eve dinner. Lisa only does three. However, one is stone crabs. The stone crabs more than make up for the missing four.

Christmas eve dinner with Lisa was a warm event. As always. Robert and Ally were dressed in their new finery. Ally a new dress. Robert a shirt and tie. Robert is in to ties. He was proud of his.

While we were enjoying cocktails and pickies, who should appear but Santa Claus! Big and boisterous, he came through the door. Robert and Ally ran to greet him.

Santa had to leave his sleigh and reindeer several blocks away because of the Boulevard construction.

Santa stayed a while. Chatted with the grandkids. Chatted with the adults. Then he was on his way. Said he had a busy night ahead of him.

Ally loves to sing Christmas caroles. She led us during various parts of the evening.

I had my blog talk radio show this morning at 7. Only my second week. I finally had a call in. My first! I was thrilled! It was Larry Smith  calling to wish me a Merry Christmas.

After the show, I received a telephone call from another person who tried to call in. I missed seeing it on the screen. I felt bad. Hopefully next week she will try again.

The radio station provides me with immediate numbers following the show. I was very impressed by the increase from last week in the number of people listening. Thank you.

This morning’s show was recorded and can be heard on Facebook, Twitter, and Word Press during the week. It will pop up on your screen at least twice a day. Just click the box and you will be able to listen to the show.

Lisa did a big breakfast this morning. At 8. That is why the blog is late. I had to hustle over to Lisa’s for the holiday breakfast. Whereas I cheated on my diet last night, I did not this morning. One time was enough. Strangely, the thing I ate the most last night was bread. I could not get enough.

Santa was good to Robert and Ally. Their major gifts were tablets. Just like yours and mine. Only a bit smaller.

Robert and Ally looked beat. They both stayed up late last night. Then up at 5:30 this morning to see what Santa had brought. They will be napping part of the afternoon away.

Enjoy Christmas day!

 

CHRISTMAS CONCERT

 

Key West is unique in many respects. One is the abundance of musical talent residing on the island.

Last night was the 29th Annual Christmas Concert. It is always held at St. Paul’s Church on Duval. A large Episcopalian church. The Concert is held on the altar. The pews the seating area.

All kinds of music are played. The connecting thread  being the Christmas season. The best of Key West’s best perform. Most are professional entertainers.

Included in the array were Larry Smith, Christine Cordone, Kathleen Peace, Peter Diamond, Carmen Rodriguez, JodyRae Campbell, Melody Coope, Michael Thomas, and Maj Johnson. They are all friends.

The Key West community turns out for the event. St. Paul’s normally holds 500 people. Extra chairs were provided last night. In addition, a huge number stood in the back of the Church.

It was Christmas! The feeling was there from the time one arrived till long after the Concert had concluded.

After the Concert, I headed over to the Pier House’s Wine Galley. It was Sunday night. The Larry Smith Sunday Showcase was being presented.

The Wine Galley was packed as St. Paul’s had been. Many of the performers from the Concert joined Larry. It was a gala evening! More Christmas singing plus.

It was joy to the world time!

Two songs played particularly affected me. By the manner in which they were sung. Jingle Bells was one. Performed by Christine Cordone and Kathleen Peace. The other was Oh Holy Night sung by Nancy K. Hoffman. Nancy sang the tune in Yiddish.

Steven the bartender sings also. He got involved.

My good friends and annual Christmas time visitors John and Allison Blenkinsoop were at the Wine Galley. They are from Leeds, England.

Tonight Santa Claus!

Santa is my personal friend. We talk via telephone with each other off and on during the year. As a special favor, he is coming to Lisa’s home at dinner time to sit a bit with my grandchildren Robert and Ally.

I have been doing this for years. Not only with Robert and Ally, but also with my children and other grandchildren. You can’t beat having Santa Claus for a friend in the eyes of the young ones!

Tomorrow at 7 in the morning my time, the Key West Lou Blog Talk Radio Show. One half hour. Via the internet. Need your computer and telephone. If you like, you can even call in and wish me a Merry Christmas, discuss current events, etc. www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou.

Join me with your egg nog and coffee.

Enjoy Christmas Eve!

 

 

 

THE SATURDAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS

 

The Saturday before Christmas was quiet and mundane.

I watched the Syracuse/Temple basketball game at noon from the comfort of my bed. Syracuse lost. By four points. Syracuse deserved to lose. The team did nothing right, except to show up. Made less than half their foul shots, did not control the offensive backboards, did not set up for plays, permitted the zone defense to be penetrated at will, etc.

Temple on the other hand played a perfect game. While Syracuse played its worst.

Better the loss came now rather than next month when the team is into Big East play.

Had a manicure appointment after the game. Cold outside! Wore long pants and a winter type jacket. It never got over 66 degrees yesterday.

Talked with Santa claus on the telephone. Had to update him on Robert and Ally. Santa will be with both of them at dinner time Christmas eve.

Love it!

Planned on going out in the evening. I enjoyed my previous evening. However, I did not feel quite right. Stomach a bit queasy. Stayed home.

Diet going well. Tomorrow makes one month. Eighteen pounds so far. I will be cheating Christmas eve and day.

My blog talk radio show Tuesday morning at 7 my time. The Key West Lou Blog Talk Radio Show.  One half hour of current events to chat about. Join me. Listen in, talk, do whatever you like. You will enjoy.

The show is easy to find. Only on the internet. Listen. Nothing to see.  A radio talk show. Enter www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou. Or you can click the blog talk radio button on Facebook and Twitter. On Word Press, click blogroll.

In each instance, my blog talk radio home page comes up.

Two boxes on the home page. Click the second one containing the date of the show.

Voila! You will be there! Then follow the listen/call in instructions.

Enjoy your Sunday before Christmas eve!

 

 

 

COLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I have been writing recently how terrific the Key West weather has been for this time of the year. 80 by day, low 70s in the evening. This is normally Key West’s cold time.

The cold finally hit yesterday. Just like that! High around 70. Night temperature in the high 50s.

As I write this blog, it is 59 degrees. The high today projected at 66.

As cold as it is (and it is cold to us who live here), the sun is shining brightly and not one cloud in the sky.

The cold wave will be with us through monday.

I started Christmas shopping yesterday. Immediately knew why I have always disliked it. Hordes of people! A zoo!

After shopping, I wrote this week’s article for KONK Life. I liked it. Decided to publish it on Amazon Kindle, also.

The title: The Conscience of a Nation. Concerns itself with the NRA’s reaction to the Newtown shootings. Wayne La Pierre spoke on national television yesterday on behalf of the NRA. I did not like his looks. I disliked his comments even more.

The presentation was from left field. Lacking in common sense. Connecticut’s Senator Blumenthal described it as “tone deaf.” I had a further thought. La Pierre spoke as the Romneyites did in the campaign. They did not get it. He does not get it. All from another era.

Let me share a few numbers with you.

In 1957, 54 per cent of households had guns. In 2010, only 32 percent. Which means we are dealing with a minority. A vocal one, however. Typical of our country, those that shout the loudest seem to get the most attention.

The mix of this minority is further interesting. Most are white middle aged men from Southern states. Fifty per cent are Republicans, 22 percent Democrats.

The numbers make sense.

I got out last night! Mingled with the rest of the world!

I went to the movies. Saw Lincoln. Excellent!

The movie left me with two thoughts. First, politicians are politicians regardless of the era. Second, Lincoln was an adept politician who did what he had to do to get things done. Including lying.

I did not stop at the Chart Room, Don’s Place, or anywhere else. I know my temptations.

Syracuse basketball today! Syracuse plays Temple at noon at Madison Square Garden.

Syracuse presently ranked #3 nationally. The team has a 10-0 record. Temple has a decent record, also. 8-2. One of Temple’s loses was against Duke.

Should be a good game. Showing on ESPN2. I can watch it from my home which is what I plan doing.

Last night was the first night in almost a month that I was out. I liked it! Plan on going out again this evening.

Remember to listen to my blog talk radio show Tuesday morning, if you can. Seven my time. Christmas morning so you may already be up. A call in show also. So call in! We can chat about anything and everything. www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou. The telephone numbers to listen and/call in are set forth.

The show is also listed on Facebook and Twitter. By the end of today on Word Press. Just click on the notice and you are immediately at the blog talk radio site for my show.

The show is also available worldwide via Skype.

Enjoy your day!