MORNING STEW #8

Morning Stew time again!

Yesterday was National Vietnam Veterans Day. Opted to write about my neighbor Homero “John” Lopez. Now 83, came to the U.S. early in life as an immigrant. Joined the Marines. Fought in Vietnam. Rose to the rank of Major.

Seemed appropriate to skip my usual blog format and talk about John on Vietnam Veterans Day.

Which means I have a jumble of notes for today’s blog. I am going to go through them in the order they appear in my notes. Information generally not related.

The Regal theater reopened this past week. Finally! It took a beating during Irma. Roof off, insides floating around, etc. Took a long time to repair.

Can’t wait to go!

The Key West Citizen daily carries page excerpts from William Hackley’s diary in its History Section. Thursday took readers back to 1831. Hackley played piquet with the Judge.

Piquet? Never heard of it.

Did a little digging. Piquet was a 16th century trick taking card game. Very popular. Two players, 32 cards. A piquet deck was 7 to Ace.

Piquet’s popularity dropped off with World War I. Replaced by gin rummy, a game most of us do know.

I wrote about Batman a couple of the days ago. It was his 80th birthday. He first appeared in a comic book in 1939.

Comic books cost a dime back then. I remember. I purchased a lot of them. My generation was first educated by comic books.

An auction of one of the first Batman comic books was sold in 2010. In pristine condition. Sold for $1,075,500.

Friday night found me at the Chart Room.

As I walked in, a lovely lady came up to me. Holding Irma and Me in hand. Her name, Debbie. With husband, Eric. From Rochester, N.Y.

We had met last year at the Chart Room. Debbie purchased Irma and Me and carried it to Key West to have me sign it.

Chatted a while with them. They have 2 grown children and 2 grandchildren.

They are here for a week. Hope to run into them again. Good people.

Met Sandi. Visiting Key West for a week. From Nova Scotia. First time in Key West.

Sandi is here with a girl friend. The girl friend likes Key West’s live theater and was at a show. Sandi prefers the bars and so we met in the Chart Room.

Sandi has an interesting background. A career in the military. Followed by working for the Halifax Police Department afterwards in an administrative position.

I was scheduled to have dinner with Ted. Turns out he knew Sandi. They had met the evening before at Smilin’ Tuna.

Ted is a retired Court Clerk from Madison County, New York. Spent his entire legal career as a Court Clerk. An important job. As I have written before, clerks are the brains behind the judges.

Ted now lives in Cazenovia. A beautiful hamlet on Lake Cazenovia, Also in Madison County.

Ted and I had dinner at Hot Tin Roof. Enjoyable conversation. An enjoyable evening.

Ted left this morning to return to Cazenovia. God willing, he will be back next year. He spends one month a year in Key West. Stays at Banyan Court.

I came across a quote by Erasmus friday. Desiderius Erasmus. “Man’s mind is so formed that it is far more susceptible to falsehood than to truth.”

Made me think of Trump’s solid 35 percent followers. Those who hang on his every word. Believe everything he says. Their Pied Pipper. He leads, they follow.

Erasmus was also known as Erasmus of Rotterdam. His field of expertise religious and Renaissance philosophy. A great scholar.

The Middle Ages died off in the mid to late 1400’s. The Renaissance replaced it. Erasmus one of it leaders.

Erasmus found much wanting with the Catholic Church. Not much different today from those times. He called for reformation of its abuses.

The following an act of sheer stupidity.

The Key West Police reported some one or more persons vandalized 12 cars. By spray painting on them. The vehicles were parked in the New Town and Mid Town areas.

Saturday a strange one for me. Normally, I enjoy being out and about saturday evenings. Was not that way yesterday.

Mid afternoon got a call from Guy de Boer. Come over and have cocktails with me.

I was on my way. Guy’s home palatial. Sits on the Riviera Canal. Its best, the trees and shrubbery between the house and canal.

We enjoyed a couple of drinks together.

Guy is in the process of acquiring a radio station. Wanted to know if I would do a show for him.

Of course. My plate is getting full again. However, I absolutely love doing the shows.

Guy was the first person to give me a shot at doing radio. Ten years ago. It as instantaneous love between me and radio.

Guy taught me a few things. Jenna Stauffer even more. Jenna was working with the station. Though young, she was educated and had previous experience in radio and TV. She became my teacher.

Left Guy’s trying to decide whether to go home or out. I opted to go home. Barbara left me with a refrigerator of all kind of good food she had prepared.

I enjoyed a meal of satisfying foods. Beans and greens followed by a delicious meat loaf.

While consuming this food from the gods, I watched the Texas Tech/Gonzaga game. The winner would go to the Final Four. Gonzaga the #1 seed, Texas Tech #3.

What a game! Texas Tech won 75-69. It will be Texas Tech’s first Final Four in the 94 years of its basketball program.

Texas Tech was decidedly the better team in the second half. Though with a minute to go, only 2 points separated the teams.

Texas Tech’s defense primarily responsible for the win. Caused 16 Gonzaga turnovers. In addition, Texas Tech scored when it had to. Especially with 3’s.

I was fed and happy. Had enjoyed one of the best basketball games ever. Decided to remain home the rest of the evening and watch old movies. Which is what I did.

The Beach Boys are coming to Key West. Thursday, April 4. They will be performing at Sunset Green.

The Beach Boys big time stars back when. An iconic American rock group.

There will be some gray hair watching. Musical fans of yesterday. Listening and watching a group from their time. The Beach Boys will return them to yesteryear.

The diseases of my youth have returned. Measles first. Now, the mumps.

There were no vaccines when I was a kid. You got immunized by getting the disease and living. Some died. Even for my children, all vaccines were not yet available. I recall my children and I getting the chicken pox. A pox on the pox! Not at the same time, of course.

Temple University is experiencing a sudden mumps epidemic. One hundred eight cases so far. Thousands of students voluntarily being vaccinated. Wednesday alone, 2,285. Even if previously vaccinated, getting booster shots.

Today a combination vaccine given on 2 separate occasions over a period of time has been known to take care of measles, mumps, and rubella. Some of the Temple infected never received the super dooper shot.

The shot is 3 in 1. Excellent in protecting against measles and rubella. Only “really good” against mumps.

A long blog. Sorry. Catch up time.

Enjoy your Sunday!

 

 

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