A home cooked meal a rarity for a bachelor in Key West. Ergo, I eat out most evenings. Not last night, however. God looked down on me with favor. Cindy cooked!

Cindy and her husband Larry are from Ontario, Canada. They have a second home in Key West. We came together because of this blog. Cindy a loyal reader.

I met Cindy and Larry for the firs time last year at the Chart Room. Then again this year. Cindy asked if I would come to dinner some evening. Definitely! I was pleased with the invitation.

Last night, the occasion.

Cindy prepared lamb chops. Like I have never eaten. Great tasting lamb chops are difficult to get in recent years.

I watched Cindy cook them as I enjoyed a drink with Larry. She did not just broil them. I am not sure what she did. However, they were moved from one pan to another, a sauce or two poured over them.

We dined on their outside rear porch. Cindy served each person’s dish prepared. All 3 overflowing with lamb chops. I said, I can’t eat all this. Little did I know. I ate all of them. Finger licking good. The bones left free of meat.

Delicious!

Cindy set a spectacular table also. An exceptional hostess. A combination of Perle Mesta and Julia Child.

An admonition to Cindy: Invite me again!

I am not leaving Larry out. However, he was no competition for Cindy’s lamb chops.

Larry is a mechanical contractor. Still works. However is able to do so from Key West. His 2 sons back home doing the hands on.

I am a lucky man. I now have 3 great cooks occasionally feeding me. Donna, Andrea, and Cindy.

Forget me not ladies!

Busy afternoon yesterday. Three hours on the go. A haircut, lunch at Fernandy’s, the Farmers Market, Publix, and K-Mart. I was tired when I got home.

Tonight, Berlin’s for dinner. Mary my date, Bria Ansara the entertainment. Looking forward to the evening.

A bit of Key West history.

It was the roaring 20’s. Everyone making money, dancing the Charleston, generally enjoying life.

On this day in 1925, Herbert Hoover, wife Lou Henry, and friends arrived in Key West on the yacht Kilkenny. Hoover a wealthy man. A respected person when it came to economics. At the time of his visit, he was Secretary of Commerce.

The group stayed at the Casa Marina.

Four years later, Hoover was President. Soon after taking office, the dancing stopped. The roaring ’20’s disappeared. Replaced by the Great Depression.

Sadness has befallen Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim and the family of Jorge Jimenez.

Wednesday night Boeheim was driving home following Syracuse’s victory over Louisville. Icy road. I-690.

Jimenez had been a passenger in another car. The car skidded because of the icy road. It stopped against a guard rail. Perpendicular to the highway. The car sticking out onto the highway.

The passengers, including Jimenez, left the car and were walking across the highway to the median. No lights on the highway.

Boeheim came along. Saw the car sticking out in the highway. In trying to avoid the car, struck Jimenez who was still crossing the highway. Jimenez died.

Policed report Boeheim and the driver of the other car were tested for alcohol and drugs. None involved. Speed not an issue. Police conclude the event a pure accident.

The Jimenez family a wreck, Boeheim a wreck. He attended but did not himself conduct practice yesterday. Duke scheduled for saturday night at the Carrier Dome. Questionable at this time whether Boeheim will coach. Consideration also being given to transferring the game from the Carrier Dome to Duke’s home court.

Prayers in order for both Jimenez and Boeheim.

Pardons in the air. Who, if anyone, will Trump pardon?

Lincoln was confronted with a pardon decision during the Civil War.

It was early 1862. Nathaniel Gordon was scheduled to be hung February 2. Gordon had been an American captain of a slave vessel. He was a slave trader.

Gordon was carrying 800-900 Africans to Cuba or Brazil to be sold. An American vessel captured Gordon and his ship. The U.S. had made international slave trading a crime 40 years earlier.

Many slave traders had been caught, tried, and convicted prior to Gordon. None had received the ultimate penalty: death. Gordon was to be the first.

Application was made to Lincoln for a pardon. He agonized over the decision. He finally said that “…..any man who, for paltry gain and stimulated only by avarice, can rob Africa of her children to sell into interminable bondage, I never will pardon.”

He did however extend Gordon’s date of death by 17 days. Lincoln did so in order for Gordon to have sufficient time to make peace with his God.

On February 21, Gordon became the only man in American history to  be executed for the crime of slave trading.

I close with a thought re the U.S. Coast Guard Lieutenant who was arrested with guns and other equipment. A white supremacist, his intent was to lead a terrorist attack on members of Congress and the media.

Interestingly, only Democratic Congressional persons were scheduled for death. The media included Joe Scarborough.

Trump has a comment about everything. The Lieutenant was arrested last friday. A week has gone by and Trump has uttered not one word re the situation.

Strange? Not really so. Consistent with his white supremacist/nationalistic feelings, dislike of those who oppose him, and his attitude re the media.

Enjoy your day!