RAVEN

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Raven has been one of Key West’s leading vocalists for many years. I have heard her sing on occasion. She appeared at the Wine Galley as Larry Smith’s guest often. I was never impressed with her.

Last night, I was. Why the change of heart, I do not know. I heard Raven last night and was very much taken with her. It was  pleasure to listen to her. Why last night and not before, I do not know.

I used to tell Larry Smith I did not enjoy her singing. He used to ask why, telling me she was one of the best on the island. Larry was right.

Early yesterday afternoon was at my heart doctor’s office. Dr. Mc Ivor. It was time for another echo heart test.

The balance of the afternoon was spent continuing research for next week’s KONK Life column. It has to do with the Muslim impact on Sweden in recent years. Interesting material.

Spent time chatting with Shawn at the Chart Room. Always good company.

Tom and Fran Dixon from the Buffalo area showed up. They arrived yesterday. Good friends. We talked away over a couple of drinks at the Chart Room. Syracuse basketball was one of the topics. Tom is a diehard fan, also.

We agreed to have dinner together saturday evening at Square One.

Today is what I would describe as a reflective day in history. Reflective for you and me. On this date in 1938, Germany officially annexed Austria. Shades of Russia and Crimea today.

Hitler’s next step after Austria was marching into Czechoslovakia. Will Putin follow suit and forcefully take eastern Ukraine?

Bocce tonight. I have not played in 4-5 weeks. I will get there if I have to crawl. I hope I remember how to throw the ball.

Enjoy your day!

 

ONE HUMAN FAMILY

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Today’s Key West Citizen editorial is out of line. Its author appears uniformed.

The subject is One human Family. The term being representative of Key West for many years. The words painting an accurate picture of Key West’s people.

I have been a part of Key West for more than a quarter century. The term has always meant to me a binding together of the heterosexual and gay communities. One loving community.

The editorial lumps every today malady into the term in an effort to portray Key West as no longer that one loving family. It applies One Human Family to bicyclists screwing up traffic, Duval bars making too much noise, and so forth. None of which in my opinion fall under the umbrella of One Human Family.

A unique morning. The wind is strong off the ocean. A bit cold, also. It carries with it a clean smell. The only way the experience can be described.

One of the wonders of Key West is that on any given day we can watch the sun rise and set over water. Very few in this world are blessed with the experience.

Yesterday was a wild one! From 10 to 2, I was running around. Six separate stops in my travels. Dealing with necessary things that somehow all got lumped into yesterday. The traffic problems caused by the boulevard construction did not help. I was exhausted when I returned home.

I enjoyed a light dinner at Roostica. Ten chicken wings covered in a lemon oil and broiled.

Last night was my blog talk radio show. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou. I reviewed the weekly sins of the world. Post show comments indicate two the most popular.

One had to do with the dramatic rise in the cost of gasoline the past three weeks. Thirty seven cents a gallon! Yesterday alone, twelve cents. The  station near my home was $3.95 in the morning and $4.07 in the evening.

The other with Afghanistan’s opium trade. It was next to nothing when the U.S. went to war there 13 years ago. Today, it is a thriving $68 billion a year business. Thank you, Uncle Sam.

Watched the women’s NCAA final game last night. Another Connecticut  team the winner. The ladies are the Final Four Champions. Amazing! Connecticut! Both in men’s and women’s basketball!

Chamonix is in France. I have mentioned it in recent years. Chamonix is just over the border from northern Italy. A tiny village. An international ski resort. It sits in  a small valley half way up Mont Blanc. Mont Blanc is Europe’s highest peak.

I have visited several times. Only in the summer. Each time I enjoyed sitting at an outside cafe, drink in hand, enjoying the view. The gigantic mountain surrounding me. Awesome!

The earth moved yesterday in Chamonix. An earthquake. A 4.8. No damage or injuries fortunately.

I did a little home work regarding Chamonix and earthquakes. Turns out there have been tons going back to before Christ. Many in the last five years. All I can think of is that there is going to be big time devastation if a larger earthquake hits. Portions of Mont Blanc could come tumbling down on little Chamonix.

Monday afternoon Stephanie Kaple telephoned. To invite me to join her for dinner. How nice! She even gave me my choice of three evenings. We will be dining together friday night.

Enjoy your day!

CINDY

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I woke to bad news this morning.

Tom and Cindy are dear friends. Key west friends. They are from Iowa. Used to spend three months a year in Key West during the season.

They both read the blog. We arranged to meet on one of their trips. I remember our meeting distinctly. It was this time of the year. I was watching basketball at the Sports Page Bar when they showed up.

We became instantaneous friends. And have been so for many years.

I noticed Cindy only had one leg. I soon discovered she had had something like eight surgeries for five different cancers. Her leg was gone right up to her body. A couple of operations involved brain tumors.

The woman never complained. Always a smile on her face.

Tom is not only the husband of husbands, he is totally in love with Cindy. His care and concern are obvious.

Tom and Cindy stopped spending three months a year in Key West several years ago. Instead, they are spending their time in Largo. Fortunately for me and many others, they take one month out to travel to Key West from Largo each season.

We are at opposite ends of the spectrum politically. Being from Iowa, they are true 100 per cent conservative Republicans. We never the less get along.

I love them both.

I woke to an e mail from Tom this morning. Cindy fell on a wet floor at a restaurant in Largo. She broke her one and only leg and shattered her hip. Tom says he has never seen her in such pain. It has to be bad!

Recover swiftly, Cindy! Your many friends in Key West miss you. We will be cheated this year. I doubt you will be able to spend a month this with us.

Interesting revelation yesterday. I was getting a manicure with Tammy at Lee Nails. It dawned on me that many Vietnamese who have come to the United States are nail people. I asked Tammy where and how they learned in Vietnam. I was surprised to learn that the talent is not native Vietnamese. They do not learn it in Vietnam. It is when they come to the United States and are looking for work, that they join with the many who have come before them. They go to school here and learn how to do nails.

Great game last night! I watched it from my bed. Stayed up too late. Enjoyed the talk shows afterwards.

Connecticut was the best team! The best team won. Plain and simple.

The Connecticut players are lucky. How many have the opportunity to be #1 and a champion in something. Anything. These young men will remember the rest of their lives the victory. The high point in their lives.

My blog talk radio show tonight. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou. Nine my time. Join me. www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou.

Topics tonight include interesting Ukraine updates, China in trouble economically, an Atlanta bishop giving up his $2.2 million retirement home, Iceland arresting more big bankers, Venezuela really in the toilet, and more.

Enjoy your day!

30 for 30

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Two weeks ago, I mentioned I had seen a brief show on TV concerning the Big East. I  only caught five minutes of the show. It was called 30 something. Last night, I saw the entire show.

The title: 30 for 30. I still am no sure how the title fits. However, it is not material. It was the show itself that counted. For me, a two hour emotional trip down memory lane. The story of the Big East.

The Big East started as a college basketball league in 1979. In 1980, Syracuse opened the Carrier Dome. Seating for 35,000 plus for basketball! I described the Dome at the time as the eighth wonder of the world!

I was 45 years old. My law practice was flourishing. I was making money. I made enough around that time to do something foolish…..big. I spoke with my accountant. There were three things I wanted. An airplane, a home in Florida, or a box at the new Carrier dome. He decided for me. It was the box. From his perspective, a wise investment tax wise. It was also the least expensive of my three desires.

The cost was $50,000. Good for 10 years.

Two things stand out in my mind regarding the box acquisition.

The first game was a football game. I could also watch football from the box.

Carrier is a big name in upstate New York as well as internationally. Carrier made air conditioners. Its home was Syracuse. Carrier made a sizeable donation to the University. The Dome was named after Carrier.

There were a number of boxes. The boxholders all dressed for the game. I was in a sport jacket, slacks, shirt and tie. Classy, sporty.

I died that day! So did everyone else in the Carrier Dome. We quickly learned the Carrier Dome, named after the world’s most famous air conditioning manufacturer, was not air conditioned. It was to be cooled with blown air. The blowers were not working the day of the first game. The entire Dome was a sweat box. I was soon down to my shirtsleeves and loosened tie.

I sat there thinking…..I paid $50,000 for this?

By the way, the boxes were opulent. Private, sat 16, had a bar and server.

The cooling problem was resolved by the second game.

The other thing  that sticks in my mind is the number of big East coaches I got to meet and know on a personal basis. Several of then traveled to Utica to speak at charity fundraisers for me. Not one wanted a penny. Just cover my expenses, they said.

If you have the opportunity to watch 30 for 30, do so.

Staying with basketball, tonight is the night! The Championship Game of the Final Four. The king of the hill gets crowned tonight.

It is Kentucky and Connecticut. Either team can win. It will be exciting.

Connecticut was one of the original Big East members. As with Syracuse, no more. Connecticut is now a member of the new American Athletic Conference.

Since my back kept me indoors for most of the past 10 days, my pallor was drained of color. I was pale! Decided I needed some sun. I headed for Higgs Beach.

I enjoy Higgs Beach. I can watch the female tourists in their bikinis and get a bite to eat at Salute’s.

Yesterday, Higgs Beach was special for another reason. It was all about children. Autistic  children. A heart warming scene.

An organization called Surfers for Autism sponsored the event. Autistic kids 5, 6, 7 and 8 in the water with volunteers watching over them. Whether kneeling or standing on the boards, smiling and expressing themselves with shout of joy. Some parents on the beach crying as they watched their child become motivated to express themselves perhaps for the first time.

This morning’s Key West Citizen has an excellent article on the event. I recommend it to you.

Enjoy your day!

COW KEY BRIDGE RUN A SUCCESS

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The first time was yesterday. The Cow Key Bridge Run. More than 1,000 participants. A hundred plus dogs. Most humans and dogs costumed. The racers started in groups because of the large number number. The last participant crossed the finish line one hour fifteen minutes after the run started. Everyone completed the 360 foot route.

Jean and Sheila were dressed in some sort of short dress costume with hats and shoes. Saw them on FB. Looked Dutch to me. I don’t know. Twenty five Golden Cows were given as awards. Jean received one. The Golden Girl added to her gold collection.

US 1 was never closed. The runners/walkers used the concrete path on the left side of the bridge going north.

A new Key West tradition has been born.

I never made it. The thought of the race alone tired me. I stayed home in bed and watched TV.

Great basketball last night! The big guns went down. Such has been this basketball season. Unique!

I was at the Chart Room last night. Sean and I discussed the games. They were yet to be played. He was confident Florida was going to win it all. I told him I thought so, but this has been a topsy-turvy season and anything could happen. It did.

#1 Florida went down to defeat by #7 seed Connecticut. Florida had won 30 games prior to last night. Kentucky eked out a win over Wisconsin with a three pointer in the last seconds to win by one point. Kentucky was a #8 seed. My condolences to John Lukas.

It should be a terrific game Monday night!

I did not see the Connecticut/Florida game. I was having dinner with Jean Thornton at Hot Tin Roof. I did see the second game, however. What excitement!

Shane and Jessica came by while Jean and I were having dinner. Bocce friends. They had stopped for desert. A terrific couple.

Stopped at Don’s Place on the way home. Chatted a bit with Don. The topic was the basketball games. Bocce came into the conversation. One of the best bocce teams is Hell’s Rangers. A fearsome group! They beat everyone! We beat them thursday night. Two games out of three. A major win!

Enjoy your Sunday!

HOW DID MAGELLAN DO IT?

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Magellan sailed around the world hundreds of years ago in a boat constructed of wood.

A 75 foot replica of the ship Magellan sailed broke its rudder near Cudjoe Key. The Coast Guard came to the rescue. Minimal repairs were made. The ship is now docked at the Outer Mile Pole for further repairs.

How did Magellan make it without a Coast Guard? What did he do if and when a rudder broke? Did any repair facilities exist in the parts of the new world he explored?

You must admit. Quite a feat Magellan accomplished!

I finally got out yesterday!

Lunched at Geiger Key. Sat at the bar. Enjoyed looking at the people and view. In between sightings, read the newspaper.

Dinner was at Roostica. The last time there, I noticed the ladies at an adjoining table consuming an antipasto. The ladies and the antipasto both looked good! I ordered the antipasto last night. I suggest you order it the next time you are at Roostica. Beautiful to look at. Tasty to eat. Much too large for one person.  I took more than half of it home.

The Keys History section in this morning’s Key West Citizen contained an interesting note. Fifty years ago this March, total house sales for the month were $1,638,250. Today, many of the larger homes sell for that amount and more.

I am on my soap box again. Two short comments.

History does repeat itself. Many fail to recall. George Santayana said it best: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

The Supreme Court decision this week triggered much discussion re the financing of political campaigns. There is a simple solution. Have the government finance campaigns and limit the time for campaigns. It bothers me that the wealthy are able to exert so much influence in a campaign. Additionally, limit campaigning in a Presidential race to two months. We now are into a two year cycle for Presidential campaigns. Too much!

My book! My book! My book! Available for purchase on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. The World Upside Down.

The Cow Bridge Race at noon today. My enthusiasm is waning. It is not the distance. It is the parking. I will probably have to walk a mile each way from where I park and return. Too much!

Enjoy your day!

COW KEY CHANNEL BRIDGE RUN

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The 1st annual Cow Key Channel Bridge Run is scheduled for Saturday. The race begins at noon. Registration is at 10. The post race party is at the Hurricane. Alcohol will be served. There are a number of friday night spaghetti parties all over the island.

The race is unique. Whereas most races/marathons are the full 26.4 miles, some are less. Five and 15 K races are popular all over the United States. The Cow Key Bridge race is of a lesser distance. Zero K. Zip.

Cow Key Bridge is 360 feet long. That is the length of the race. It is assumed most will walk. It depends on each participants’ athleticism. A water station will be located mid way on the bridge.

The Cow Key bridge is the last bridge into Key West and the first one going out.

I hope to participate. Depends on my back. I was getting in shape by walking Publix and Home Depot.

Perhaps Robert and Ally will be with me. If I falter, they can carry me across the finish line.

Lunched at Schooner Wharf today with KONK Life’s publisher Guy de Boer. At Guy’s suggestion, we ate upstairs in the open. A great view of the harbor! First time up there for me. I was under the impression the new part was the restaurant upstairs. I went up. Special stairs. It was enclosed. I thought how nice. Air conditioning! No food and drink. It was Schooner’s offices.

Took care of the food problem. Did some grocery shopping at Publix. In anticipation of the Cow Key Bridge race, I walked the aisles pushing a cart two times!

I intended to play bocce tonight. My back is/was better. Around 5, I fell in the garage while taking out the garbage. I missed the one step in the garage. A step I have traversed several times a day for 16 years. My back is twitching. I am not gambling. Telephoned Captain Dave and told him the team would have to win without me.

I seem to have a sense of humor this morning. Good!

Love my Italian friends. They have seen my TV show, read the blog and KONK Life column, and listened to the archived portion of my blog talk radio show. They think I am big time! I explain not, but they do not listen. I am their American celebrity.

They email or Skype me when something newsworthy occurs in Italy. A couple of days ago, it was Venice. Home of the gondolas.

Economically, Italy is in the toilet. Unemployment is sky high. Real property taxes have been increased several times a year for several years. People are getting desperate. Desperate people do desperate things.

There is a group in Venice who wish to secede from Italy. They are serious. This is not a Conch Republic thing. The group has been preparing. They created/made a tank. A bulldozer covered with metal plates with a phony cannon on the front.

The Venice police became concerned. Especially with the arms they were gathering. The arms were for real as opposed to the tank. The police concluded they had become terrorists. Twenty four were arrested.

After Greece, Italy is in the worse financial shape in Europe. The police fear real protests, fights, physical confrontations, etc. as have occurred in Greece.

Parliament is seriously considering a new child abuse law in England. Parents who drink alcoholic beverages in front of their children will be guilty of child abuse. The thrust is the children would be learning a bad habit. A similar law in Key West would find most parents in jail charged with child abuse.

Benghazi seems susceptible to fights and war. We know what occurred a couple of years ago. On this date in 1941, the Germans conquered Benghazi.

Enjoy your day!

 

SOAP BOX DAY

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My apologies up front. I am on a soap box today. Two issues. Yesterday’s Supreme Court decision and the cost of food.

We need a new Supreme Court! Plain and simple. The Court has gone so far to the right that it appears to be a tool of the 1 per cent. In a 5-4 decision yesterday, the Court rendered a decision that basically allows more personal private money to political candidates. The millionaires and billionaires can donate effectively with no limits.

Government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich.

Breyer in his dissent said the decision creates “…huge loopholes in the law…that undermine, perhaps devastate” a free and unbridled election system.

At issue was the right of the super rich to donate as much to a political campaign as desired. The majority said it was the rich guy’s right, that the rich should not in effect be limited in their giving because they are rich.

I am concerned. You should be also. I include my Republican friends. Never forget that he who pays the fiddler, calls the tune.

Food. I have become close to the issue in recent days. My back kept me down for almost a week. Ergo, no grocery shopping. The refrigerator, freezer and cupboard are bare. Easy to fix. Go to the supermarket!

The situation has brought to the forefront an issue I have addressed many times in this blog, on my TV show, on the radio, and in my newspaper column, the past few years. The ever increasing cost of food!

It has been reported that the cost of food went up a staggering 19 per cent last year. Wow! Lets examine the cost of meat as an example. The food  industry claims two reasons.

The first is the cost of whatever cows eat to make them plump and fat. Foodstuffs like corn and soy beans. The cost of items such has these has risen.

The second is the growing middle class world wide. Most of the developing countries now have a middle class. They want all the goodies our middle class enjoy/enjoyed. Especially beef and protein. The demand is up, the supply low. Simple economics. The price of meat must go up.

The preceding may be a contributing factor. I believe there is something else. Four large corporations control 85 per cent of the meat packing business. Cargill, Tyson Foods, JBS, and National Beef Packing. A monopoly, in effect. They control so they can charge whatever they like. Even if it amounts to gouging the public a bit.

I remained in last night. Wanted to be sure my back was really ok. Today, I plan to be out and about. Besides grocery shopping, a business lunch on the new roof at Schooner Wharf, and bocce this evening. It has been 4 weeks since I last played. I look forward to the evening.

Even more, I look forward to tomorrow evening. A few drinks and dinner! I need to get out!

Enjoy your day!

SOMEONE READS MY BLOG

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I was critical of the Key West Citizen yesterday for failing to continue its April Fool edition of crazy/impossible stories. A bit of a furor erupted.

I read the Citizen electronically. I subscribe and pay for it in that fashion. The electronic edition did not carry any April Fool pages. It did print yesterday’s news normally. Why the Citizen put out two different copies of the edition, I do not know.

In any event, I received an e mail from a Citizen officer yesterday afternoon telling me of the difference. That the electronic edition did not carry the April Fool pages. I also received a comment from Anonymous this morning suggesting I had not read yesterdays Citizen. Anonymous apparently read the street/delivered edition.

This morning, the internet is carrying two editions of the Citizen. Yesterday’s April Fool edition boldly labeled as such and today’s normal edition. Today, I had the opportunity to read what I should have yesterday.

As usual, I enjoyed the April Fool edition. Two items particularly. The one about the bones being discovered on the Boulevard which would extend construction another year. The other that Schooner Wharf was no longer going to sell alcoholic beverages. It was to become a juice bar specializing in wheat grass, carrot juice and tofu.

The Key West Commission did its duty last night. They voted 6-1 to support two bills pending before the State legislature to permit recreational marijuana. They did so without argument. Unusual. They fight over everything else.

This morning’s Key West Citizen had an interesting Google/Harry Nicholls article regarding zebras. The eternal question was asked. Why do zebra’s have stripes? The answer: To deter parasitic flies. Flies do not like stripes. They avoid them. The conclusion of a new study.

Australian pines are back in the news. The sixth annual Save Our Pines picnic is April 6 from 1-5 under the pines at Fort Zach Beach. The picnic is sponsored by the volunteer group who fought 11 hard years to save the pines when the State decided to cut them down. The group was finally successful in 2008.

Some idiot in Tallahassee back when decided Australian pines were dangerous to other vegetation and dangerous to crocodiles and turtle egg planting. The pines had to go.

The irony of this whole fiasco is that the pines were transported to Florida and planted in various parts of the Florida by the State itself back in the 1890s. They were intended to be windbreakers. They must be sturdy beings. With all the hurricanes Key West has suffered, they still stand tall and proud at Fort Zach beach.

I enjoyed doing my blog talk radio show last night. I am beginning to think a half hour is not enough time to discuss all the craziness of the previous week. I am considering expanding the show to one hour.

The topic receiving the most post show comment involved a new company called Bite Labs. They make meat out of human tissue. A few scrapes of skin, a special whirling machine, the meat grows, is then spiced and oiled, and voila….salami. Salami is the first meat they will be producing.

They advertise that consumers can partake of celebrity meat. Can you imagine? Gulping down your favorite movie star!

I do not see Bite Labs as a winner. However, it might be 150 years from now when the earth is overridden population wise and there is not enough food to feed everyone. Cannibalism anew!

My back continued to be a pain yesterday morning. Then suddenly in the afternoon, no pain. Ok through the evening, also. This morning, no problem. I hope it is behind me.

Enjoy your day!

APRIL FOOL!!!

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There was a time the Key West Citizen had more of a sense of humor.

Approximately 20 years ago on April 1, I was sitting at the kitchen table in 1800 where I was renting for the season. I browsed through the newspaper while having breakfast. The front page was interesting. Jam full of topics rarely reported.

The major article proclaimed that the Key West City Commission had the night before passed a local law prohibiting smoking on public beaches and streets. I immediately exclaimed to my then wife, “They can’t do this. It’s illegal!”

I still didn’t get it. I ranted on for a couple of minutes. Then it dawned on me. It was April Fool’s Day! The Citizen got me!

Strange how life turns. What was a joke yesterday, is fact today. Some public beaches do prohibit smoking. It would not surprise me if the day comes when smoking is not permitted on public streets.

I suggest the Citizen has lost its sense of humor because it no longer prints its traditional April Fool’s Day page.

Key West never fails to surprise. Nor do some of its leading citizens. Perhaps that is why Key West is at the cutting edge of many things.

This morning’s paper reported Commissioner Jimmy Weekly intends to introduce at this evening’s Commission meeting a resolution that Key West support two State bills seeking to legalize recreational marijuana. It is the next step in  the process. Florida citizens will vote in November whether to legalize medical marijuana.

What Jimmy Weekly will be doing this evening is not an April Fool’s joke.

My blog talk radio show tonight. Nine o’clock. A fast moving and revealing half hour. Listen and hear me share some goodies with you that you may not be aware of. Including some things our government and/or media fail to tell us. www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou.

Topics tonight include my take on why the banks will destroy Ukraine faster than the Russians, a new form of cannibalism (eating meat developed from celebrity tissue), why U.S. food prices were up 19 per cent last year, an expose of existing welfare for the rich and corporations, college athletes having the right to unionize, and more.

I thank everyone who has purchased my book The World Upside Down. People are reading it! The book is available on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

My back still hurts. Yesterday the worst. To the doctor later.

Enjoy your day!