KEY WEST READYING FOR FANTASY FEST

This is the week! Fantasy Fest kicks off friday evening with Goombay. Key West is getting ready.

It is estimated 60,000 persons will visit Key West during the 10 day event. It has been reported hotels are already sold out. Available bookings are 30 miles and further up US 1 in Big Pine and Marathon.

Streets and sidewalks get barricaded during certain events. The barricades are laying against buildings on Duval waiting to be erected.

Body painting is a big deal. Especially for the ladies. Store front and other places already have posters up inviting people to be body painted at their establishment. Not a cheap endeavor. Cost this year will probably be between $150 and $175. One advantage is that the body paint lasts about a week. A person can shower, etc. and the body paint remains.

As an inducement, one person who provides the body painting service is offering a free touch up.

There is a charitable purpose involved in Fantasy Fest. Raising money for AIDS Help. Candidates run for King and Queen. He/she who raise the most money become King and Queen for a year. Candidates will raise six figure money. This is the closing week for the fundraising. Candidates are pushing for last minute donations. Most seeking significant check donations.

Goombay kicks off Fantasy Fest. It is held the first two nights of the event. This friday and saturday. Goombay is a family event as opposed to the next eight days which unequivocally are an adult party. Leave the kids home!

Goombay is a street festival. Food, trinkets, and clothes being sold. An area set aside for gospel and reggae music. The music outstanding!

My grandchildren Robert and Ally will visit Goombay with their parents. Poppa does Goombay late in the evening. Too late for the grandkids.

Larry Smith appears again tomorrow evening at La Te Da. His show begins at 9. It was a blast last week. Will undoubtedly be as good, if not better, this week. If you are in Key West, I suggest you go. I plan on being there.

I have decided to add a musical introduction and closing to my blog talk radio show. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou. Larry has been helping me put something together. Five to six seconds. Never thought it would be that hard to come up with something that short. We have not finalized on anything yet.

Yesterday was Don’s Place for pro football. I got there a bit late. No place to sit. I stood a while and then thought this is not for me. I went to Salute’s and sat outside by the door. A shady area. I enjoyed some refreshment and read the sunday papers. I also watched the ladies in their bikinis on the beach. It is thrilling to be a dirty old man!

I was home early in the afternoon. My ankles coming along. Still large. I put my feet up for four hours. It helped.

I cannot explain why. My book The World Upside Down is having a resurgence in sales this past month. Happy I am! If you would like to obtain a copy, the book is available on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

I almost forgot. For shame. Today is Columbus Day. For persons of my heritage to take special pride in. I am of Italian extraction and proud to be so. My mother was born in Italy. My father here, of parents who were born in Italy.

Enjoy your day!

 

 

 

 

A TYPICAL KEY WEST DAY

A typical Key West day should be one where you do nothing. Not the case. There is always something that happens, that you do.

Yesterday was one of limited activity. However, it consumed my whole day.

A doctor visit was first. I have said it before. You move on in years and it seems most of your time is spent in doctors’ offices. No big deal yesterday. A back check up and a flu shot. If you have  not had a flu shot, get it. Do not be foolish. I used to get the flu 2-3 times a year. Fifteen years ago, I started receiving an annual flu shot. I have not had the flu since. Amazing!

Lunch was at Salute’s with new found friends Karen and Dan from the Pittsburgh area. They visit Key West several months each year. Enjoyable people. It was a two hour lunch. We were having a good time.

Bocce last night. We won all three games. The first time this season we won all three. David was happy!

In between lunch and bocce, I wrote next week’s KONK Life column. Our Legal System Is Disintegrating. It took forever. Longer than usual to do. The reason was the length. It was three times the usual number of words. As a result, the column will be featured over two weeks. A Part I and a Part II.

Two happy events occurred yesterday.

It was announced Malala Yousafzai would be one of the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. Malala is the Pakistani teenager who was shot in the head by a Taliban because she supported education for women. Vocally and in her blog. She survived and has been promoting the cause worldwide. She was 15 when shot. She is 17 today. An unusual young lady.

The other worthy event were the two court decisions handed down throwing out voter ID laws in Texas and Wisconsin. The Texas decision was by a Federal District Court Judge. She wrote a 150 page decision. She held that an ID request was comparable to a poll tax. She further stated that the purpose of the ID law was to suppress minority voter turn out.

The Wisconsin decision was by the Supreme Court. Supreme Court Justices Scalia, Alito and Thomas dissented. No surprise. These three Justices have done much injury to the American way of life. It will take years to turn around most of their decisions.

I am on my soap box a bit this morning. I apologize.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyaku appeared on Face The Nation sunday. He was generally supportive and had kind comments regarding his recent meeting with Obama. He did have a negative, however. He was openly critical of Obama with regard to one matter.

The criticism is immaterial. What happened to it is.

CBS edited out the criticism. It bugs me! I have been complaining increasingly that the media is censoring the news. We are only provided with what they want us to know. Direction in this regard generally comes from the corporations that own TV and radio. Perhaps this time it was from the White House itself.

The people’s right to know is and has been under silent attack. Transparency is out the window.

Enjoy your day!

 

JAMES FENIMORE COOPER

Today is the birthday of James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851). A famous American author. Penned Leatherstocking Tales. His most well known work, The Last of the Mohicans.

Cooper spent most of his life in Cooperstown. The same community in upstate New York that today is the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame. His father founded Cooperstown. A community which sits on beautiful Otsego Lake.

Cooperstown is a 45 minute drive from my hometown of Utica.

Father and son Cooper were men of wealth. The elder having come by it the old fashioned way. He worked for it. His son inherited substantial monies at age 21. Nevertheless, the younger Cooper worked hard. First as a seaman and then as an author.

Father Cooper built the family home on Otsego Lake. He called it Otsego Hall. His son James lived there after his father’s death. The home at some point burned down.

It was replaced in later years with what today is known as The Fenimore Art Museum. I have  visited the building many times. As an attendee at cocktail parties and as a tourist. The home sits on a small hill overlooking the lake.

A rural village and farm were constructed nearby. It is called Farmers’ Museum. America, 1845. A whole village. Small buildings for a doctor’s office, a lawyer’s office, a grocery store, a blacksmith shop, a home, a farm, farm animals and more. Very real.

The buildings and furnishings are the same as they were in 1845. People back then were smaller than today. The beds and furniture reflect the difference in size from today. Even the smallest of us would be too big for the beds.

The Farmers’ Museum is the home of the Cardiff giant. All 10.45 feet of him. The Cardiff giant was a hoax. Someone had this giant constructed from wood and other materials. The body was planted on a farm. “Accidentally” dug up a few years later. Touted as the discovery of a prehistoric man. It was several years before the statue was deemed not for real. It has no place at the Farmers’ Museum, but there it lies. I found the Cardiff giant interesting.

My father took me to visit the Farmers’ Museum. I took my children and most of my grandchildren.

On one of the visits, it was me and twin grandsons Mathew and Michael. They were 4. We passed a horse who at the moment had an 18 foot erection. Their eyes bulged. I said nothing. Just hurried them along.

A little later, we were in the Museum’s drug store. This was the time of the Clinton/Lewinsky matter. A radio news show was discussing the matter. Matthew looked up at me and said…..Poppa, he did something wrong. Didn’t he? I responded…..Yes, he did.

An observation. Cooperstown is small town America. Yesterday preserved. The Baseball Hall of Fame and the Fenimore sites have made the community neither touristy nor tarnished. Much of its condition is due to the care and attention provided by the Singer Sewing Machine family. They have resided in Cooperstown for years. It is their community. They are proud of it. They have controlled building on the lake, kept the area pristine clean and sparkling. Nothing happens with out their blessing. They are to be complimented for what they have preserved and achieved.

Yesterday was a normal Key West sunday. A visit to Walgreens and Office Max. Lunch outside at Salute’s. A mahi mahi sandwich and the sunday papers. A couple of hours at Don’s Place watching professional football. Don was in all his glory as Buffalo won. Spent a bit of time working on tuesday’s blog talk radio show. Dinner in the evening with Lisa and the family.

Enjoy your day!

 

PIER HOUSE TO BE SOLD?

 

I walked out on the deck first thing this morning. I could smell rain. It is coming. The sky is gray. The sun has difficulty breaking through. A rainy day will not hurt.

There has been a rumor floating about in Key West the past several months that the Pier House was for sale. The grand dame of Key West.

The rumor appears to have legitimacy. This week’s Keynoter reports a sale is imminent. A Dallas corporation is interested. The corporation presently owns Key West’s La Concha. The price is not known. It is thought that it will be in the $60 million area.

Dick Jacobs and his group have owned the Pier House since the 1980s. Jacobs is best known as the owner of the Cleveland Indians baseball tea. I recall several years ago that Jacobs was celebrating some event. He brought the whole Cleveland baseball team to Key West to party with him. The party was held in the Wine Galley.

Jacobs unfortunately died in 2009. His family has been operating the Pier House since.

New owners sometime mean changes. I hope the Chart Room and Wine Galley are left alone. You cannot make better what is already perfect. This includes much of the staff also.

Decided to go to the beach yesterday afternoon. Higgs Beach. Me, my sand chair, and towel. I was able to get into the chair with no difficulty. Getting out was another story. Oh, my back!

My back is actually much better. It generally only hurts when I sit in a straight backed chair or try to sit up in bed.

Stayed at the beach a while. Packed. Lovelies running in and out of the water. Good for my old eyes!

Grabbed a fish sandwich at Salute’s afterwards.

Dinner last night was with Lisa and the family. A good meal!

Jake is loved by the entire family and he loves them. What a lucky dog!

Jake and I are having bonding problems. I tend to move towards him too fast when I come in. He jumps and barks in defense. And he does not stop! I am going to have to crawl in on my hands and knees. My deep voice is a problem also. Lisa keeps telling me to talk soft.

My blog talk radio show tomorrow night. Tuesday Talk With Key West Lou. Nine in the evening. www.blog talkradio.com/key-west-lou.

I am never sure what I am going to talk about till the last minute. News changes by the minute and my thoughts with those changes. Tomorrow’s topics may include the aftermath of the Boston bombings, the dirty Tulsa dentist who gave over 60 people HIV, the news that food poisoning is on the rise, and/or  kilt wearers having a higher sperm count. One of them, all of them. Whatever. Join me.

My friday morning Key West Lou Legal Hour is available on You Tube. The Tuesday evening blog talk radio show is archived. If you miss either show at the scheduled time, you can still catch it through either of these sources.

Enjoy your day!

 

 

 

SUNDAY A MIXED BAG

Good morning!

A lovely Key West morning! Sun is bright. Sky pure blue. No clouds. Water blue. A bit of wind.

The weather lately has been amazing. We seem to have left the rainy season. It is cooler, however. No 80s. Mid 70s by day. Mid 60s by night. No need for air conditioning. Sleep with the windows open and a light blanket for cover.

My morning yesterday was quiet. As I have suggested before, the way a Sunday should begin. I laid in bed watching the morning TV talk shows. Meet the Press, The Chris Matthews Show, etc. Shows that feed the political junkie me.

Later, grabbed a beach chair and towel and drove over to Higgs Beach. Stopped on the way to buy the Sunday New York Times. $5.50! Outrageous!

Read the paper and watched the ladies a while. Got hungry. Stopped in Salute’s. Enjoyed a fish sandwich at the bar.

My intent later in the afternoon was to be at the Big Ten Sports Bar to watch Syracuse’s first basketball game of the season. Never made it.

When I returned from Salute’s, I took a quick shower before heading over to the Sports Bar. Laid on the bed for a few minutes. Turned on TV. One of my all time favorite movies was playing. Love Is A Many Splendored Thing. Starred William Holden and Jennifer Jones. 1955 vintage. I decided to watch the movie. Never made it to the Sports Bar. Missed the Syracuse game. I must be getting old!

I knew William Holden. Back in the 1970s, I used to go to La Costa a couple of times a year. A spa outside San Diego. Holden was generally there. We became La costa friends.

I used to go to lose weight. He went to dry out.

The thing that sticks in my mind about him was that he was always the gentleman.

We used to spend our evenings smoking cigars and chatting. I rarely smoked a cigar back then. Do not now. However, there was nothing else to do in the evening at the spa.

Oops. Almost forgot. Syracuse won. Beat San Diego State 62-49.

Billy Kristol was on one of the talk shows yesterday morning. He is a very much respected conservative. He spoke of the Republican Party debacle.

He expressed the need for the Republican Party to accept new ideas.

Regarding taxing the wealthy more, he said go for it! Let me quote him. Taxing the wealthy “…won’t kill the country if we raise taxes a little bit on millionaires…half of whom voted Democratic and half of whom live in Hollywood and are hostile.”

Think about Obama’s proposed tax hike. Only four percentage points more. From 35 per cent to 39 per cent.

When Clinton was President, the federal tax rate was 39 per cent. Where Obama wants to take us now. The country prospered. Everyone made money big time. Even me. If you add the New York State income tax onto the 39 per cent, I was paying close to 50 per cent of my income in taxes. I did not mind. Nor did anyone else. The economy was booming! Money was flowing in!

The 4 per cent is nothing more than pocket change to today’s rich.

We have been paying 35 per cent for years. Is the economy booming? Has it boomed in recent years? The argument against raising the tax on the rich is a bogus one.

Grandkids day! They are off from school. Today is Veterans Day.

Enjoy your day!

A DISAPPOINTING EDITORIAL

A political Sunday of sorts.

My morning started with the TV talk shows. Meet the Press and Chris Matthews, amongst others. Only one item discussed. The Presidential election.

Afterwards, I continued work on Friday’s TV/Internet show. The Key West Lou Legal Hour. Additional topics include differences between the Catholic Church and a Polish coffin maker, an expensive Anaconda, recent U.S. Supreme Court activity involving police drug sniffing dogs, Jack the Ripper, the 1965 blackout, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and John Kennedy.

Remember, I have changed broadcasting studios. As of Friday, I will be broadcasting via TV and the Internet. The show will be available on Comcast Channel 87 through out the Keys. It will be available world wide on the internet. www.tvchannel19.com.

Ten o’clock in the morning my time.

Decided to get some beach time. Grabbed my sand chair and headed over to Higgs Beach. A lot of people. More than I had expected. It is getting a bit cooler. The coolness did not disuade any one from swimming. Except for me. I put my foot in and decided the water was too cold.

I brought Sunday’s Key West Citizen and a book with me.

The Key West Citizen is a good and interesting local newspaper. Never many pages. However whatever its weight, it compensates with thought provoking material. Yesterday’s editorial was no exception. I was provoked.

The editorial came out in support of Romney for President. That did not bother me. Although I am an Obama supporter, every one has a right to their own opinion.

What disturbed me was the manner in which Romney was supported. Both candidates have warts. The editorial found Romney free of warts. The editorial was a boiler plated recitation of his alleged virtues. Romney was made to appear as the seconnd coming of a Messianic figure.

The editorial disappointed me not as to its conclusion, but the manner in which it was arrived at.

Sunday dinner was the best! With Lisa and the family. Politics was a part of our evening. Political discussions amongst Lisa, Corey and I are interesting. We are not always in accord. As to Obama however, we are.

Turned out Robert and Ally had been involved in the Presidential election this past week. Both attend Montessori. First and second grades. The school conducted a mock Presidential election. They both voted for Obama. The results will not be announced till Wednesday.

I have always considered such school elections as representative of the thinking of the community. The youthful votes cast generally reflect parental poitions. Such elections are a good barometer of the real result locally.

Enjoy your day!

SUNDAY

 

I sometimes think I have too much on my plate.

Yesterday, I worked on the Epilogue to my trip. The photos. Still organizing and selecting. A real task when there are 600 pictures.

Work done, I decided to go to the beach. Read the Sunday papers and look at the lovely ladies.

I went to Higgs Beach. My intent was to sit in my sand chair a couple of hours. Then walk over to Salute’s for a fish sandwich.

It was not to be.

Higgs Beach stunk! In fact, most of the Atlantic side beaches smelled. Including Smathers.

Like dead fish.

It was Isaac getting the last laugh. Isaac had thrown seaweed and fish life onto the beach area and beyond. You could see where the water had come over the sea walls. The sidewalk and grass still had sun bleached brown sea weed splattered about. The water at Higgs Beach was also a disaster. Brown. Isaac had churned the bottom. The water not yet settled.

No Higgs Beach for me!

I drove to Fort Zachery Taylor Beach. Also on the Atlantic. But around the corner of the island. Fort Zach’s Beach was clean. I could see my toes in the water. There was no smell.

The beach was packed. Everyone out enjoying a lovely Sunday. Many probably transfixed from Higgs to Fort Zach.

Dinner last night with Lisa and the family. Robert and Ally a joy. As always.

Part of the meal consisted of corn on the cob. Robert had no trouble devouring his the normal way. He has teeth in front. Ally does not. Lisa had to scrape the corn off the husk for Ally. Ally put away two cobs of corn in that fashion.

Stopped at the Chart Room for a few drinks. Knew no one. All tourists.

Duval was also packed with tourists. In Key West enjoying a fun filled weekend. Merchants had to be happy. The visitors were.

Enjoy this last day of the Labor Day Weekend!

 

FROM A SIX YEAR OLD TO DAVID IGNATIUS

 

 

Yesterday was a pleasant uneventful Sunday.

The day started with Sloan in the morning. We worked long and hard on You Tube. I had thought we would be ready to go live by the end of the week. Now it looks like some time next week. There is a lot more to it than I had thought. Lighting, where I sit, introduction, etc. I was under the impression I would download or whatever You Tube and speak.  It is that simple. But not if you want the product to have a quality to it.

Walked. The Casa Marina area. Parked my car and started with a walk through the Casa Marina grounds. The Casa Marina is one of Key West’s finest hotels. Then around the neighborhood. I ended up at Salute’s, a beach side restaurant near the Casa. Sat outside at a little round table and watched the ladies in their swim wear. A pleasurable activity for a senior citizen!

Sunday dinner once again at Lisa’s. Ally is six years old. In the first grade. She was doing homework. She had to write a sentence using the word “grip.” She did not know what the word meant. She did not ask anyone. She walked over and picked up this big blue book. I asked what the book was and what she was doing. She said I have to write a sentence using the word grip and I do not know what it means. The book was  a dictionary.

Some TV commentary.

I love Mad Men. It is a 1960s story. I started practicing law during that decade. The show has been a hit for several years. Last night I got the feeling it might have run its course. The show is becoming unreal.

I watch at least the first hour of Morning Joe every morning. A guest this morning was The Washington Post’s David Ignatius. He was being interviewed about a column he recently wrote. It had to do with where the United states would be/could be by 2020. Only eight years away.

A couple of his opinions I found interesting and informative.

Ignatius says that our national gas production will be so significant by 2020 that the United States will be exporting natural gas to the same extent that Saudi Arabia is oil now.

Another was that international companies are beginning to change their minds about opening plants in China. Labor in China is 60 per cent of what it would cost in the United States. There has been a slowly  increasing cost to Chinese labor.

So why the United States over China for a new plant? Productivity. United States workers turn out more and better. The difference in labor costs is overcome by the productivity factor.

Both of these opinions is dependent on a separate and distinct factor. Washington must get its act together. It will only happen if the politicians work together.

My day is starting rapidly. Lisa telephoned that Robert is upchucking. Buy popsicles. Yesterday one of my implants broke and the teeth don’t stay in. I just called the dentist. I have to be in his office at nine.

Enjoy your day!