CHINA OWNS EVERYTHING

Joyous news! The giant panda Mei Xiang gave birth to a baby panda that survived! Weighed just under 5 ounces. Amazing that such a huge mother delivered such a small baby.

It is reported mother and child are doing well.

The delivery was at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

This is one of those did you know items. Were you aware…..China owns all pandas in United States zoos? China does. As well as us. The United States owes China so much money. We will never be able to pay it back.

Stopped at the Bank of America ATM yesterday. Out of order. I tried the drive in one and fortunately it worked. I was down to $2. I can recall an occasion when all of Bank of America’s ATMs in Key west were down. A tragedy.

Interestingly, Bank of America does not own and operate its ATMs. Nor do most banks. Brinks owns and operates them. I found out once when the ATM would not return my card. Bank of America was no help.

Stopped at Salute around 5 for a drink. A change moment.

Good crowd! Busy! Especially out doors.

I was impressed at the cost of my drink. $6 for a Beefeater on the rocks. Good sized. A bargain in Key West. Most places are in the $8.50-$10.00 range. Except for Don’s Place. $4.50.

Stopped next at Don’s. Only 5:30. Nate bartending. Only 4 people at the bar. I did not know any of them. Chatted with Nate a bit and left. Did not have a drink.

The Chart Room was next. Mary bartending. Me and tourists.

I enjoyed the parting conversation between two couples. They had made plans to meet tonight at Garden of Eden. They were all giggly and excited.

I have only been to the Garden of Eden twice in the many years it has been open. It is a clothing optional bar for adults on a roof top on Duval. I am a voyeur. I was disappointed. Never saw anyone without clothes! Not even a topless woman!

Since Larry Smith has stopped playing, I have not been to the Wine Galley. I walked to the back side of the Pier House to visit last night. The outdoor hostess asked if she could help. I asked if the Wine Galley was open. She said, yes. It is our formal dining room. She insisted on entering with me.

What a joke! A sad one.

The room is the same. Except for three tables and the piano. Gone. The room was deserted. It smelled strongly of disinfectant.

She was gracious. Asked if I wanted a drink. A bartender had suddenly appeared. I said thank you, but no. It would not have been the same.

The front page of this morning’s Key West Citizen had a photo of the drone the Mosquito Control Board is trying out. Small. Weighs only 2 1/2 pounds. I was impressed. Our Mosquito Control Board does a hell of a job. Were it not for them, people would find it difficult to reside in the lower Keys.

Another lapus lingua. I referred to Bradley Manning recently as Bruce Manning. Second time in a week I have made a mistake. The prior one was referring to George Clooney as Robert Clooney.

Dementia must be setting in.

Tonight Tuesday Talk With Key West Lou. My blog talk radio show. At 9. One half hour. Fast moving and interesting. Revealing on occasion, also. www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou.

I intend to speak about Bradley Manning and transgendedrism, China owning all pandas in the United States, and a proposal to urine test all high school athletes in Florida.

Join me.

Enjoy your day!

JET LAG

It finally hit me big time. Jet lag! It is 2:30 in the afternoon and I am just getting to today’s blog. My head is not functioning, my body tired.

Interestingly, today is the first day I have knowingly experienced it.

I tried working on this week’s KONK Life column this morning. Good luck! No way, Jose!

I have been pacing myself since my Wednesday night return.

Yesterday, I worked a while with Sloan. A pleasure to have her!

Then visited the grandkids. I had not seen Robert and Alley in two months. They just returned from a two week vacation at their grandparent’s home in north Florida.

Both grew. Especially Ally.

They make me feel good.

Laid in bed and watched some golf. Hope Jim Furyk wins. I met him several years ago at the Indian Casino outside Utica. Turning Stone. He was staying there a few days with his family. Soft spoken. A regular guy. He has won 16 times on the tour. One of the wins a major. He has not won in a few years. A win here would be big. It would guarantee him a place in the Golf Hall of Fame.

The Chart Room was packed last night. Like sardines in a can.

Saw JJ, Peter, Jean, and Sheila. Met Dori, a friend of Sheila’s.

Though I was not able to observe, Dori has some sort of disability. Ergo, she has a specially trained dog to assist her. I met the dog.

Big!!!Bigger than that!!!

A great dane. Great being the operative word. He had to be the biggest dog I have ever seen.

White with black spots. Like a Dalmatian. It would take at least four Dalmatians to make one of him.

Very quiet and reserved. Sat by Dori. Never moved in spite of the people mulling around. Then laid down behind Dori’s bar stool.

When I went to leave after kissing Sheila good bye and meeting Dori, I stepped on the dog’s paw. He never moved. Lucky me!

A bug and fish are in the news.

The lower Keys has a Mosquito Control Board. It does an excellent job. Without the Board, living in Key West would be primitive.

This year the Board started introducing something into the mosquito population that made the males sterile thereby preventing the females from getting pregnant. Pretty smart, I thought. The results of the endeavor are not known yet.

Starting late in August, the Board is going to experiment with drones. Planes without pilots.

Water pooling is a natural habitat within which mosquitos breed. The drones will fly around and identify the locations so personnel can go out and get the pools cleaned up.

The Keys mosquito guys do not screw around!

Now comes a crocodile. The croc has been named Crocodolly. Keynoter recently reported the following.

Crocodolly is eight feet long. A female. She has been showing up in an area off Plantation Key since 2010. She has been captured three times. Tagged the first time so there is no question it is the same crocodile. The tag on her tail is #5 in case you run into her.

Crocodiles are endangered species. Each time Crocodolly was captured, the authorities took her far out into Florida Bay. Crocodolly returned each time. Like the dog that can find its way home from many miles away.

The people of Plantation Key do not fear her. They look forward to seeing her in their canals.

Crocodolly has over 400 friends on Facebook.

What a world!

I am back on the air Tuesday night. Blog talk radio. Nine in the evening. A quick interesting half hour. Greece and the growing power of the Greek Nazi Party will be the topic. Join me. I guarantee you will find the talk revealing. www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou.

Enjoy your Sunday!

BLOG RADIO TALK SHOW/ TV-INTERNET SHOW…..BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

 

Blog talk radio not the easiest thing to put together. Wow!

Making progress, however.

For anyone to call in / find the web page – two different ways to gain access.

The first is www.blogtalkradio.com. On the bottom of the page is a SEARCH box. Runs the length of the page. Enter: Key West Lou or Key West Lou Blog Talk Radio. That will bring you to my page. There you can hit the appropriate button to listen and, if you so desire, to call in.

The other method is more simple. Facebook carries a Blog Talk Radio Show link. Click on it and follow the instructions.

If you have problems, let me know. It will not be the site’s fault. It will be mine. It make take a week or two to get the mechanical kinks out of the way.

If you wish to call in…..I went over this a couple of days ago. I do it again.

Two ways.

www.blogtalkradio.com  to the web site. SEARCH Key West Lou or Key West Lou Blog Talk Radio. Then telephone 646-478-56731. Your call will be placed in order as received. I will respond to the calls in the same order.

The other is to use Skype. Those outside the U.S. will probably go this route. It is free. There will be on my page a “Skype to Talk” button. Click on it. Of course, you need Skype installed on your computer in order to use it. Skype is free. Download and register a Skype account at www.skype.com.

Sorry to bore you with all the detail. Necessary, however.

Friday, I do old hat! The Key West Lou Legal Hour. Ten in the morning my time. On television from  Key West through Miami-Dade County via Comcast Channel 87 and U-Verse Channel 19. For internet viewing world wide, www.channel19.com.

In addition to the topics set forth during the week, I am also going to talk about Putin and Russian  people who put money in off shore accounts so as not to pay taxes. Putin is after the off shore people. Putin claims $1 trillion is involved. I am confident that Putin and the Russian way of getting things done will remedy the situation a lot faster than we ever will in the United States.

Amazing. None of the big guys anywhere in the world want to pay taxes. From the United States to Russia to Greece to Italy and many more countries. It is difficult to run a government with out cash flow. No different than a business.

I walked yesterday. Home Depot, again. It was muggy. Muggy this morning also. Key West is enjoying unbelievably good weather for this time of year.

The diet is going well. Lost another pound. That makes 15 in 18 days.

I intended to go out last night. I needed to go out. I never made it.

Sloan came over at 5. We worked on  blog talk radio till 7. I was shot. Went to bed!

That’s it for today.

Enjoy your day!

 

MY KEY WEST FRIDAY

I stayed in bed a bit later this morning. Watching the Ryder Cup matches. Exciting!

I have been fortunate to have attended a Ryder Cup, as well as several other porofessional golf tournaments. When at the Ryder Cup, there is tension with every shot. For the players and the spectators. The tension factor is with you all day. At the end of the day, I was always exhausted. Wiped out. Think of how the players must have felt!

Even from my bed, I was experiencing that tension this morning. Every shot crucial. Each putt important.

In all likelihood, I will spend most of today watching the Ryder Cup.

Yesterday’s Key West Lou Legal Hour internet show went well. I love doing the show. I am pleased so many watch it. The topic garnering the most interest involved my comments regarding Greece. Since I recently spent five weeks there, I consider myself a half assed authority on the country.

The point I was stressing on the show was that we do not know Greece. It is not like the Unitted States. People think differently. For example, it is considered proper to avoid paying taxes, although illegal. Not the same as in the United States where some taxes are paid and the rest hidden in off shore accounts. Greeks neither file nor pay at all. No wonder Greece has no money.

Tax avoidance is an all Greek game. The government improperly respects the game. The government fails to pursue tax avoiders. Some do get caught, however. When so, they are requied to participate in a Tax Court trial. It takes 7-10 years for a case to be reached for trial.

Greek tax avoidance…..a game all sides participate in!

After the show, it was off to the Plantation Coffee House. Diane woprking. Good to see her again. She had just returned from a one week vacation with the girls in Arizona.

I broke my diet. Enjoyed a toasted bagel! Good!

Did some writing in the afternoon. Wrote next week’s KONK Life article. The article concerns a pet cat that was taken to the vet for a flea bath and ended up mistakenly getting euthanized. The thrust of the aticle has to do with how the law evaluates the loss from a monetary perspective. A dead cat ain’t worth much! No matter how much loved and missed.

When I was driving to the Chart Room last night, I could not believe the water sitting along the curbs and covering the streets. It had rained like hell in Key West during the afternoon! It never rained in Key Havden where I live. A mere 2.5 miles north of Key West. Always interesting how strangely it rains over the island. Lisa will occasionally telephone me and say what a storm we are having! And I will ask, what storm? That is how it is.

Ran into Captain Peter on my way into the Chart Room. He was on his way out.

Emily bartending. Sheila at the end of the bar. I seated myself next to Sheila. Sheila, Emily and I chatted away the next couple of hours.

I proudly broke from the diet once again. Popcorn! Emily popped some fresh. Delicious! Would love to have her make my pop corn all the time!

Met Ollie at the Chart Room. First time. He is Oliver Kopfoid, a local. Works in sewage waste management. A scientist. He is a candidate for the Mosquito Control Board. An important position. The Board is all that stands between the populace and the mosquitos. With out the Board and the work they do, dengue fever would be a big time problem. Instead, it is merely a threat. The Board keeps the nasty critters at bay.

Ollie was interesting and knowledgable. He would make a good Board member.

I was not really hungry. The pop corn seemed enough. However, I thouight I should eat a bit more.

I walked over to the Wine Galley. Enjoyed a bowl of French onion soup.

Larry Smith playing and singing. He is the best!

Overall, it was an enjoyable evening. Returned home around 10 and to bed. Had a very good sleep.

Enjoy your day!