NATIONAL MARGARITA DAY / JIMMY BUFFETT / MARGARITAVILLE

 

Tomorrow is  National Margarita Day. Of special importance to Key West.

Many Key West tourists order margaritas. Drinking enough makes for a well lubricated holiday.

Jimmy Buffett and margaritas go hand in hand. The song Margaritaville. Followed in due course by the Key West restaurant bearing the same name.

Recall Margaritaville. Jimmy Buffett singing I “blew out my flip flop.”

The world famous song begins: “Nibblin’ on a sponge cake / Watchin’ the sun bake / All of those tourists covered with oil / Strummin’ my six strings on my front porch swing….. / Wasting away again in Margaritaville.”

Buffett wrote the song in 1977. One of Key West’s craziest times. The entire song was not written in Key West. Two places. Begun in Austin, Texas and finished in Key West.

It started with the drink. Buffett discovered the drink which was known as a “margaritas” at Lung’s Cocina del Sur Restaurant in Austin. The song followed.

Enjoy a margarita tomorrow! Thinking of Buffett and the song at the same time will not be difficult. He and his song will be heard all over town.

A slow Louis day yesterday.

Spent a couple of hours at the outdoor pool bar at the Doubletree Hotel. A couple of diet Pepsi’s, read several chapters of Her Soldier of the Queen, and watched the bikini clad ladies pass by. Some wearing thongs.

Dinner last night at Shana Key. I have come to like the place. Food hearty. Customers locals. Chatting easy.

It amazes me how many different roles Tino gets to play as an extra.

Three photos today.

One shown last week. Tino dressed as a bum. From the CHI TV series which portrayed south Chicago.

The other two of Tino sitting next to a Cardinal in a gold decorated dining room in Chicago’s Drake Hotel. If my recollection is correct, they are from an Exorcist movie. Tino sits on the left side of the table next to a Cardinal in one and two seats away in the other.

 

I fear confrontation is breeding.

Trump does not give up. He keeps pushing and pushing. Relentlessly. Especially since his impeachment acquittal. He is emboldened. It is his country. He is God. He can do anything.

The most recent episode occurred yesterday in California.

California is a sanctuary state and many of it cities have so identified themselves.

California passed a law last year that courthouse arrests of immigrants were prohibited unless a judicial warrant had first been obtained. ICE and other immigration officials were going into courthouses arresting illegal immigrants who were in court facing non-immigrant charges.

Two years ago, the Trump administration announced a “policy” allowing federal arrests of illegal immigrants in local courthouses.

The confrontation between state law and federal policy finally occurred yesterday. Two illegal immigrants were in local courts facing local minor criminal charges. ICE officers arrived in civilian clothes (sneaks) and made the arrests.

ICE claims it has the right to do so because federal law supersedes state law. Not always, however.

California’s prohibition is based on a “law.” ICE’s actions on “federal policy.” Birds of a different feather. A “policy” is not a “law.”

Also, it is basic to the law in all fifty states that public health, safety and morals are the responsibility of the state. Generally interpreted to mean criminal matters. There are federal exceptions.

Another high appellate court case in the making!

People are becoming frustrated with court cases involving Trump’s missteps. They take too  long. If the frustration builds, resolution may come in the streets.

Now for Afghanistan.

What follows reminds me of Chamberlain’s return from a conference with Hitler in Munich. Getting off the plane returning him to London, Chamberlain waived a document and shouted: Peace in our time!

It did not happen. Chamberlain had been bullshitted by Hitler.

Now the team of Trump and Pompeo are telling us they are about to achieve peace in Afghanistan. Thus ending a 20 year war.

Good fodder for the election. Trump will love to go before the American people and say he ended the war.

Just as he got the North Koreans to agree to give up nuclear weapons.

The American people are about to be deceived. Or at the very least, an attempt to deceive them is in the works.

There is a first step. A 7 day “reduction” in violence. Not a 7 day “cease fire.” Such would be impossible to achieve. So merely a 7 day “reduction.”

If the “reduction” is successful, no later than February 29 a Peace Agreement will be signed by the Taliban and the U.S.

In the 24 hours following the announcement, the Taliban are talking “withdrawal of all foreign forces.” The U.S. a “reduction” of troops from 12,000-13,000 to 8,600.

The two sides are not even in accord on the first step leading to a Peace Agreement.

Also, I do not understand how the Taliban alone can make a peace agreement binding on Afghanistan. Though in power at the moment, there are many factions/tribes who are anti-Taliban and will not be part of any Peace Agreement.

I am not sure where al-Qaeda stands, but it still is a viable though significantly weakened force.

I close with a question. Will our government survive till election day with Trump leading in the fashion he has been?

Trump is moving fast making all kinds of changes he wants. Most radical. Neither U.S. nor democratic in nature.

The election is less than 8 months away. A lifetime!

Trump’s most recent error is his appointment of his loyal friend Richard Grenell as Acting Director of National Intelligence. Grenell has neither the intelligence nor experience to have such a sensitive and important position.

He is merely a “shill” for the President. One of many.

Enjoy your day!

 

15 comments on “NATIONAL MARGARITA DAY / JIMMY BUFFETT / MARGARITAVILLE

  1. I know that Key West is tightly as*ociated with the drink Margarita, and often itself referred to as Margaritaville, all because of Jimmy Buffett. But really, Margaritaville???? Key West isn’t in Mexico, right, and Key West or any part of Florida has nothing to do with Tequila, right?

    Key west, and really most of the Caribbean is ALL about Rum isn’t it, and Key West more about Cuba then it is even, say Miami. Key West should really be all about Mojitoville and a place where tourist would join the locals and mostly order Mojitos, don’t you think, rather than somehow be tied in with Mexico and that whole thing. But then again, we live in a place with narrow and congested streets where everybody drives trucks and then spend so much of our time complaining about the traffic problems.

    • Maybe we should declare a Rum day and all have Painkillers at the Rum Bar. The area one block in any direction would be renamed Painkillerville. The area would have signs prohibiting Margaritas. You know… one of those red circles with a margarita in the middle with a red slash across it.

      There would be a bilboard sized sign on Duval, “Margarita Free Zone.” Also… there would be an ordinance prohibiting any Buffett music within 100 yards of the zone.

      Yeah… that’s the ticket!

      Kokomo Man

    • Key west waitresses and bartenders find parrot heads annoying! They are old, demanding and a bunch of curmudgeons who DONT TIP! TIP your sever! You can’t take it with you! It’s the worst right after fantasy fest during “parrot heads in paradise” TIP your servers ! quack

      • I tip when I go to restaurants which have free parking like
        Shana Key -no stinking $4.00/hr city parking meters- extra tip money comes from not having just an other government tax.
        And the staff and food are great like Shana key.

        • I generally tip well when there is good service. I find that there is no relationship whatsoever between good service and parking arrangements. Waitstaff really don’t have anything to do with that part of the business and shouldn’t be rewarded or penalized based on that kind of thing.

        • Somehow I just can’t see how you would be allowed into any decent restaurant in Key West, Sandy Brains, after how often you trash anything to do with Key West. Why don’t you stop by our place, I’d love to talk with you about this?

      • you must work down town where the City parking meters have to get paid first. The City gets your tips and give you “low income housing”.

  2. Richard Grenell is the first openly gay man to ever achieve a cabinet level position in the history of America! His domestic partner, Matt Lashey is incredibly proud of him… as all supporters of gay rights should be.

  3. Lou, all of your photos of Tino are killing me! I think that it is great that you have mastered the skill of adding pics to the blog, but come on. You are in Key West with many bikini clad ladies. Let’s go with some photos of them please.

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