Live and Learn. Michelangelo painted everyone with their dicks exhibited in the Sistine Chapel. For real! I researched it to be sure.

The Sistine Chapel ceiling contains 343 figures. Penis’s exposed.

The Last Judgment was painted behind the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel years later by Michelangelo. No less than 400 nude saints, sinners and saved souls are spread across the masterpiece.

Three possible reasons why Michelangelo painted with the male penis’s exposed. One, he was a homosexual and perhaps admired the male genital. Another, he neither liked nor got along with Pope Julius II who hired him. The Pope’s disposition left much to be desired. He was known back then as “Il Papa Terrible.” Finally, Michelangelo believed the human body had been designed by God and should be exhibited in all its naked glory.

The altar wall’s some 400 pieces agitated one of Julius II’s closest supporters Biagio da Cesena. He pleaded with Julian II to compel Michelangelo to paint the genitals out of the frescoes. Michelangelo refused. Instead he painted Biagio into the fresco, complete with donkey ears (symbolizing him as a fool or jackass) and with a serpent eating his penis.

I have visited the Sistine Chapel on two occasions. Thrilled each time to view the artistic masterpiece. Never noted the bare dicks. Why? How many others were as I and missed this aspect of the Sistine Chapel?

Today in 1945 a significant day in American history and World War II. The B-29 Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, resulting in an estimated 140,000 Japanese deaths. 

I recall the day and the news flashes. I was only 10 years old. Yet that day remains clear in my mind. Adults and children alike discussing it. Me and my friends sensed it was a big deal. I recall vividly sitting on Basil McHarris’ porch and talking about it.

The Paris Olympics are experiencing many shortcomings. Insufficient foods, improper foods for athletes, the Seine River sick – a hot bed of disease.

Re the Seine, multiple athletes have been hospitalized following the Triathlon because of water quality. Prior to the Olympics, swimming in the river has been banned since 1923 due to poor water quality and health hazards.

Before the Olympics, the French government invested $1.5 billion in an attempt to clean it up. To no avail. Even super-advanced bio-tech didn’t eliminate the simple e-coli bacterium.

Eric Garcia wrote in Inside Washington yesterday: “No, JD Vance is not as bad of a running mate as Sarah Palin was.”

You picked him, Donald! He may not be as bad, but he certainly is awful!

Tombstones keep popping up.  Dean Martin’s: “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime.”

Frank Sinatra was buried his way: With a bottle of Jack Daniels, a pack of Camel cigarettes, a Zippo lighter, and a dollar’s worth of dimes. The dimes were in case he needed to use a pay phone.

Key West time.

We were fortunate this past weekend in Key West and the Florida Keys. Debby brought rain and wind, but no significant impacts.

Debby finally did hit northern Florida as a Tropical Storm. Huge flooding. Threat of record rain when it moves into Georgia.

A male deviate cornered a woman saturday night in a Margaritaville bathroom and exposed himself. Demanded a blow job. The woman was able to get out. Police notified. The man was found at the Bull and arrested. He is 43 year old Robert Jake Farnsworth of Arlington, Virginia.

Lobsterfest arrives in two days on August 8. Runs through August 11. Walk Duval and buy a buttered lobster from a street stand to enjoy. Tasty!

The new Key West City Hall on Greene Street was dedicated this day in 1876. Former Mayor Walter C. Maloney was giving a history of Key West. The first ever such compilation. As he was talking, a fire alarm sounded and the crowd deserted Maloney to follow the fire alarm. Typical conduct then and today.

Maloney’ speech was later expanded and published as “A Sketch of the History of Key West, Florida.” It was the first written history of Key West. It is still available for purchase in book form.

Enjoy your day!

One of the most difficult, if not the most difficult examinations, is the bar examination a law graduate has to take in order to be licensed to practice law. In many states, less than half pass the examination each time given.

I question whether Donald would pass the first time. I question whether Donald would even make it though law school. Seriously.

Law school is a first class pain in the ass. Hard! I know. I went through it. Let me say at the outset, I passed the first time! Could have failed though. You study roughly 20 areas of law in law school. The exam to be licensed covers ALL areas. I do not know how many. A hell of a lot more than 20.

In order to prepare for the bar exam, the graduate goes from graduation to a big city to take a prep course for the bar exam. I went to Brooklyn. My mind fails to recall the person’s name who taught the course. Sparachio, I think. The course was 6 weeks long. Two days off during the whole time. The course was given in the Brooklyn Opera House. I stayed in a dilapidated hotel across the street. The two buildings in a Brooklyn slum area.

You sat in the audience. Sparachio on a stool on the stage. He spoke from 3 pm to 10 pm. An hour off for dinner in the middle of that time frame. I was broke. My dinner was a hot dog in the subway. Ten or fifteen cents. It was 1960. I had an alternative. I would buy a chunk of liverwurst, loaf of bread and butter. Kept it in  small refrigerator. Ate it off and on. Cheap.

I doubt Trump would have eaten in a similar fashion. He could afford to eat healthy meals.

We would study from 10 to around 2 in the morning and from whenever we got up to just before 3 in the afternoon. No fun.

At the time, less than 50 percent passed the New York bar exam the first time. 

So Harris failed the California bar the first time. Big deal! Trump has knocked her for failing it. Let me tell you who else flunked their bar exam the first time. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Hillary Clinton, Michele Obama, Jerry Brown and Ed Koch. Two prominent individuals who flunked twice were John F. Kennedy Jr. and Richard M. Bailey. Kim Kardashian flunked 3 times.

I knew several New York judges who were excellent judges and had failed once or twice. One who failed twice was an Appellate Judge.

No shame in failing the exam. A stupid ridiculous test of one’s legal knowledge.

Kamala Harris has had a distinguished career so far in spite of having failed the exam the first time. She may be President, is Vice President, has been a U.S. Senator, California Attorney General and San Francisco District Attorney. Her qualifications to be President exceed Trump’s. His first term as President nothing to brag about.

I was in Publix shopping yesterday morning. I was stopped in one of the aisles trying to figure out what to buy. Two Publix employees were nearby. Fiftyish. One White, one Black. The Black man apparently had decided to vote for Trump. No way could he be dissuaded. The White man was telling him he was crazy, Trump disliked Blacks and what had Trump ever done for the Blacks. His was a voice in the wilderness. It was obvious the Black employee was not going to budge off Trump.

I was tempted to join in. Stupid, I know. Also would have been wrong. I knew neither of the men.

At a rally saturday, Trump congratulated Putin, yes Putin and not Biden, for the great job Putin did in getting the result he did in the prisoner of war swap. He intimated that Putin got the best of Biden: Putin made another great deal…..Did you see the deal we made?

It galls me the way Trump sucks up to Putin. Makes me wonder some time if there is any merit to the story of Trump and a prostitute in a Moscow hotel room and a peeing incident alleged to have occurred.

Later today or tomorrow, Harris will select her running mate. I wanted Cheney. Never considered apparently. I think her choice will be Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, a popular governor in a swing state. It would just about guarantee her carrying Pennsylvania against Trump. Means 19 Electoral College votes for her. Experts say the winner of the Presidential race needs to carry Pennsylvania.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a whack job. Something I have said many times before. Even before he decided to run for President.

He advises he left a dead bear cub in Central Park 10 years ago and made it look like a bike had hit the animal. The incident occurred in 2014. He considered it “amusing.”

Kennedy says he was driving through the Hudson Valley and saw a woman hit and kill a young bear. He pulled over, put the bear in the back of his van. His intent to skin the bear and put the meat in his refrigerator.

Time was against him. He had to attend a dinner at the Peter Luger Steak House and then catch a plane. He had to get rid of the bear. He decided on Central Park and the bicycle story. Which he did.

Kennedy said he did it because it was “a little bit of redneck in him.”

Presidential timber? No way!

Enjoy your day!

The Bible teaches me the way. Old and New Testaments alike. Basically, do good and avoid evil.

There are a few things in the Bible that have given me concern over the years. One is Lot’s two youngest daughters getting him drunk and having sex with him. Their purpose to bear children. They feared men were no longer available and it was their responsibility to assure children would be born to carry life on.

Incest clearly. Adultery, too. Yet the Old Testament makes no mention of negativity or punishment.

The whole story is found in Genesis 19: 1-38.

Lot was living in Sodom. Sodom and Gomorrah were nearby communities.. Both sinful. Homosexuality, adultery, pridefulness, lack of charity. The male deviance the most significant. Sodomite today is a pejorative term for male homosexuals.

God decided to destroy both places as punishment. He told Abraham. Abraham told God he had a relative Lot who lived in Sodom and was a good person who sinned not. Abraham asked the Lord to please save him. The Lord agreed. Turned out to be a package deal. God would save Lot, his wife and two unmarried daughters. He would not save Lot’s two married daughters nor their husbands.

Two angels were sent to Lot to warn him of the destruction and he and his were to leave Sodom. They were to ascend a mountain. Warned not to look back.

God rained fire, sulfur and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot’s wife failed to heed God’s warning. She looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt.

Lot and his two daughters ended up in a cave on a mountain called Zoar. They took up life in the cave.

Lot’s two daughters were virgins. They had a concern. It is assumed they were under the impression everyone other than the two of them and their father were dead. How was the human race to go on?

Knowing their father would refuse to have sex with them, they got him drunk on wine. One daughter each night. Each had sex with Lot while he was in a drunken stupor.

The girls got pregnant. Each bore a son. Their sons went on to become the first in a long line of descendants. Of course, the the young ladies were wrong about everyone else being dead. If they had waited, in due course they most likely would have learned the whole world was not destroyed. Only Sodom and Gomorrah were. So a human race existed without their assistance.

My question is why neither the Old nor New testament mentions any punishment for Lot’s two daughters. They committed incest and adultery at the very least. How does Christianity and Catholicism specifically accept their wrongdoing?

Leaves me in a quandary.

From the Old Testament to man on the moon. The man in question being Buzz Aldrin. 

Buzz Aldrin was the second man to walk on the moon. 

His mother Marion’s maiden name was Moon. She married Edwin Eugene Aldrin, a Colonel in the U.S. Air Force. Together they created an American hero.

Buzz faced a major problem concerning his mother. She killed herself just before his lunar flight. Her reason being she did not think she could handle her son’s imminent fame. Strange, but that is what occurred and why.

After Buzz returned from the moon, he fell into deep depression and became an alcoholic. His mother’s demise of course bothered him. His life problems as an American hero were significant causes from his perspective. He was an engineer, fighter pilot and astronaut. Following his moon experience, he was required to do much public speaking which he was uncomfortable with and did not enjoy. He did not like being the person he was expected to be. Being a fighter pilot, astronaut, flying to the moon, walking on the moon, and flying back were basically no sweat for him. His new function as a hero was.

He was finally able to conquer his depression and drinking problem. However, it took till 1978. He has been sober since and interestingly easily talks about why he became so depressed and a drinker.

His teammates on that first moon flight were Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins.  Both now dead. Buzz is 94 and still going strong. Physically in good shape. Looks terrific. And can talk without a problem re those dark days following his moon walk.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Early American cleanliness. Best described as non-existent.

Early American colonists did not believe in bathing. Forget daily or weekly bathing. At best 3-4 times a year. Generally, only once. Sometimes never.

People smelled terrible!

Some believed that stripping the skin of its natural oils left a person venerable to disease. Consider also the lack of indoor plumbing. A laborious task to carry many buckets of water inside the home to bathe.

They did believe in cleanliness, however. A perverted sort according to our standards. Underwear kept the body clean. Especially linen. Or, so they thought. They believed the underwear absorbed the “filth” or “problems related to filth.”

Bed sheets were also considered to be cleansing. Ergo, bed sheets were changed often to keep them and the body lying within them clean.

Sex had to be disgusting back then!

Guess who were a clean group? Surprising. Native Americans. Indians. They bathe, brushed their teeth, etc. The colonists on the other hand were disgusting for not keeping themselves clean.

The best some colonists did was to wash their face and hands daily or weekly.

Typical Trump. He said he thinks Biden made a bad deal in the prisoner swap. He continues insinuating Biden paid money. Biden said no way. Trump keeps repeating the allegation knowing if you repeat a lie enough times some people will believe it.

Trump was interviewed recently and came up with another one: “I’m worried about World War III before I get there.”

The lie game again. Trump may have been referring to Iran moving on Israel at the moment and Biden sending U.S. military forces to the area as a warning to Iran to back off. Since Trump was once President, he must be aware although Iran has the largest army land force in the Middle East, it is otherwise ill equipped compared to the military prowess of the U.S. and even Israel. I assume it is a bluff game Iran and the U.S. are playing. Let’s hope so. 

Iran is very missile capable. I assume Iran will drop a few well placed missiles on Israel and move back. Such would balance out Israel’s killing of two major anti-Israeli figures. Iran is playing “big shot” with regard to the killings. The two dead were Hamas and not Iranians.

Trump’s “disciplined” campaign is unraveling. At the end of the Republican Convention, it looked like Trump was on his way to a victory in the election. Then his world fell apart. The world as he thought it would be. Biden withdrew from the race and people immediately loved Harris. His Vance V-P choice turned out badly.

All of which has caused Trump to do what he was confident and comfortable with. He reverted to being himself. He is listening only to himself.

The undisciplined and out of control Trump is back! On full display! Good for Harris and the Democrats. Bad for Trump and the Republicans.

Let’s see if the trend lasts or Trump bounces back. Do not underestimate him. He has done it several times in the business world when everyone thought he was buried. If he does, the only person it will prove good for is Donald Trump Not the United States. It would mean our Nation’s ultimate destruction. We were not meant to be ruled by a Putin, Stalin or Hitler.

Proof that the tide is turning is evidenced by the dollars raised by Harris and Trump in July. Harris raised $310 million, more than double that of Trump.

Fireflies. How many remember fireflies. You have to be a bit on the elderly side to recall them.

Fireflies are a dying breed!

Depending on your age again, there was a time when children chased them at night, caught them and placed them in a capped jar. Created light for you on such an evening.

It was common practice 100 years ago. Even when I was a kid some 80 years ago. Not so now. Few young children play the catch game today because fireflies have dramatically diminished in number. Two reasons therefore. Climate change and rising housing developments.

Things have gotten so bad there is serious consideration to placing fireflies on endangered species lists.

How did Key West come to be called Key West?

The name Key West is actually a misnomer. Spanish settlers originally called Key West Cayo Hueso. Cayo Hueso translates to bone island, referring to the bones of the Calusa Indians  who had once lived in the Florida Keys. English speakers mistook Cayo Hueso, thinking it sounded like Key West and the name stuck.

On this day in 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail on his first voyage seeking the “Indies.” Three ships under his command: The Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Nina.

World War I began this day in 1914 when Germany invaded Belgium and declared war on France. The action caused British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey to say: “The lamps are going out all over Europe.” Famous words etched in history.

The massive storm which has been tracked for days with the “I’m not sure it will become Tropical Storm Debby,” is within our area. Close but not touching. At 5 am as I am writing not yet officially Debby. It is 75 miles south of Cuba and 260 miles south-southeast of Key West.

Cone diagram shows it missing Key West and the Keys. It appears at the moment the storm will run into the Gulf and west of Key West.

Looks like a heavy rain and wind situation for us at worst.

One tough President Ronald Reagan. On this day in 1981, 13,000 Air Traffic Controllers began their strike. Reagan offered them an alternative. Actually an ultimatum: “If they do not return for work in 48 hours, they have forfeited their jobs and will be terminated.”

Most did not return to work. Reagan fired all that did not. The Nation survived.

Enjoy your day!

The prisoner swap announced yesterday a landmark and historic one. So many released at one time.

Biden is going out in a blaze of glory. The multi prisoner exchange an example. I have seen nothing like it in my long life.

Biden continues to be Presidential during his last months in office. I read with pride the news story of the prisoner exchange.

The Washington Post reported Putin’s narrative on the prisoner exchange: “Don’t believe a word of it.”

Putin is as much a liar and deceptive person as is his friend Donald Trump.

Basketball star Brittney Griner knows well the emotions involved in a prisoner swap. She was thrilled Americans were returning as part of the swap. Her words: “Great day. It’s a great day. It’s a great day…..Head over heels happy for the families right now. Any day that Americans come home, that’s a win. That’s a win. I’m just happy. Like this is a big win. A huge win.”

In addition to basketball, redundancy appears to be one of her talents also.

Democratic vibes have lifted in the Presidential race. Kamala Harris is being well received. She’s for real, not a bullshit artist.

Two reasons for the changing political mood. Harris represents a prosecutor against a felon.  Can’t argue with the facts. The other, she is a woman of color against a man who wants to be Hitler. Trump has made her color an issue. He made himself a Hitler type by his pursuit of authoritarian ideals.

It’s an election year and charges appear. Big ones! Some real, some bogus.

This morning’s news raises the question whether Trump received $10 million in cash from Egypt in 2017. An FBI and Justice Department investigation was quashed by Attorney General Barr at a point based on ‘insufficient evidence.”

I do not recall hearing about it back then.

The issue has revealed itself now. Again, I am not sure whether for the first time or second time. Whatever, it is deserving of a proper investigation. Quickly. Especially in view of Senator Menendez being convicted of taking bribes from Egypt.

Bootleggers were not the only ones to make money during Prohibition. Doctors did also. Legally.

During the years 1920 to 1933, the manufacture and sale of alcohol was strictly forbidden in the U.S. Except in the world of medicine!

The U.S. Treasury authorized doctors to write prescriptions for alcohol which in turn led to liquor being prescribed as a “care” for ailments ranging from indigestion to cancer. These booze prescriptions cost around $7 (roughly over $100 today), half of which was paid to the doctor to write the prescription and the rest going toward actually acquiring the medicinal pint.

Even Winston Churchill took advantage of the loophole. He was visiting the U.S. in 1932 and acquired a doctor’s note for alcohol during the visit: “Churchill necessitates the use of alcohol spirits especially at meal times.” Such allowed Churchill to shoot past U.S. prohibition laws and imbibe as he pleased.

The prescription proved to be a massive moneymaker for the medical industry during Prohibition. Not surprising. One thing I have noticed in my professional lifetime was the outstanding lobby arm the medical profession possessed. Even to today. The medical lobbyists well take care of their client.

There is a trend that pops up with some blogs I have written. A blog will cause further information to be forwarded me from readers or I will trip on some more information a few days later. The Key West Cemetery blog is a perfect example. Tombstone inscriptions. Perhaps the most popular: “I told you I was sick.”

Several more have come to my attention or have been provided me. Here are a few: “Make Love Not War…..Next Time / Merv Griffin…..I Will Not Be Back After This Message / Jack Lemon In (He left the rest of his stone blank) / Damn It’s Dark Down Here / Expired / A Dentist…..I’m Filling My Last Cavity.”

I determined mine years ago. You will have to wait till the appropriate time to learn it. Fits me to a T!

On this day in 1923, Key West was deluged by 1.05 inches of rain that fell in 22 minutes. Streets and sidewalks were flooded.

This weekend may prove to be the same. The yet to officially become Tropical Storm Debby is projected to dump flooding rain on Southern Florida.

A sad day of Western historical significance. On this day in 1876, “Wild Bill” Hickok was shot and killed while playing poker in a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory. The shooter, Jack McCall. He was later hung.

Enjoy your day!

Trump disgusts me. He does not know when to stop.

I sit here confused. How do I describe Trump? Disrespectful, scum, liar, horse’s ass. One of the preceding, all of the preceding? All, of course.

He is playing the color issue with Harris. As he did with Obama. Not the American way. No way. Trump does not know when to stop. Does not recognize limits. Foulness comes out of his mouth each time he opens it.

The color attack. Trump says Harris is not Black. She’s an Indian. He rarely attacks the part of her that is Asian. He is so desperate for the Black vote he tells Blacks she lies to you. While he lies to them.

Wednesday, he was interviewed by and before Black journalists in Chicago. They did not buy the claims he made. Did not seem to bother Trump. He seemed to enjoy playing in the gutter.

The facts. Harris’ mother was Indian American and her father Black. Harris attended the historically Black Howard University. She was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the nation’s oldest Black sorority. She has spoken extensively about growing up in a Black community in Berkeley, California.

Trump’s MAGA followers will believe him. They are bound to him as if with glue. Anything he says they accept. Other Americans however recognize the sickness that permeates the man. Do they want Trump to be President again? I doubt it. His claim to fame will be he was one of the world’s greatest whoremasters and a liar to boot.

Democrats are coming alive in Florida’s The Villages. Heretofore silent. They came out in golf carts saturday. Roughly 500 people in 250 carts. A surprising show!

The Villages is an acknowledged MAGA area. Many thought there were no Democrats. Surprising! There are! In big numbers

It’s a new world!

Senator Elizabeth Warren says it well: “The Supreme Court is actively undermining Democracy.”

Olympics at the moment in Paris. The 1936 Olympics opened this day in 1936 in Berlin. The ceremonies were presided over by Adolph Hitler.

A few “money” observations.

An inequity. Nothing wrong with it from my perspective. Just the way things are: A study revealed kids earn an average of $4.13 per lost tooth in the U.S. That is four times the minimum wage per hour in Mexico.

A recent study by Italian economists shows that the wealthiest Florence families in 1427 remain the wealthiest even today, six centuries later. The trend is not exclusive to Italy. Similar data was gathered in England and China.

Too much wealth. Abusive in its use. King Salman of Saudi Arabia has a golden escalator he uses to descend from his private plane.

Some Keys occurrences.

On this day in 1988, the James Bond movie License to Kill began filming in Key West and other parts of the Keys. The movie premiered one year later in 1989.

Her ass is going to fry!

Jennifer Ketcham, age 40, is a Monroe County Office Deputy. She faces 19 felony counts for using police computer systems to aid her drug dealing boy friend Ryan Hernandez about impending drug raids and narcotics officers patrolling certain areas of the Keys, including Stock Island and Big Coppitt Key.

Citizens’ Voice this morning: “Case again the TDC board has shown contempt for people who live here. Everyone I know feels we need to slow down advertising and promotion. Meanwhile, they have the candidate whose entire focus was the importance of advertising  and said visitors are more important than locals. What a surprise.”

Another Citizens’ Voice this morning: “Restaurants in the Keys are nuts. Prices keep rising though inflation is down. Calling a $49 prime rib a “Locals Special?” Calling a $30 pork chop “Happy Hour?” We are losing longer visitors because not only are lodging prices nuts, but so are restaurants. Give me a break.”

Enjoy your day!

Authoritarian figures are amazing! They operate in similar fashions.

Putin announced this past week he wanted Russian women to have more babies. Dictators require a larger population. There is strength in numbers.

Hitler asked for the same thing from German women. He went further than Putin. Offered “rewards/acknowledgements” for more babies. In the late 1930’s, Hitler began providing women producing children with the Mother’s Cross. Provided each year on August 12, his mother’s birthday. The awards similar to those provided in the Olympics. A gold cross for 7 children, silver for 6, and bronze for 5.

Big numbers. He really wanted them to produce!

The question enters my mind that if Trump were to win in November, would he ask for more babies from American women? I believe the authoritarian Trump would.

What I ask now has nothing to do with increased motherhood. Query: Do you get the feeling that Trump and Vance want to offend as many women voters as possible? They seem to, inadvertently or not.

The first ever Oscar winner for Best Actor was a dog. Rin Tin Tin. Yup! So it is said.

His winning made the Oscar organization unhappy. A dog Best Actor. No way! The Oscar group believed it would place the “new” Oscar on the brink of historical embarrassment.

So Rin Tin Tin never received the glory he deserved. A new vote was taken with Rin Tin Tin being left off the list of designees.

The “known winner” was Swiss born Emil Jennings who became famous in Berlin. He won for two films in 1927 and 1928. In those days, a person could win for more than one film at a time.

Jennings was also a recognized Nazi in later years.

Rin Tin Tin’s “Oscar victory” is a Hollywood legend. An uncertainty exist, however. As the story again goes, Rin Tin Tin was voted Best Actor. However the Academy of Motion Pictures and Science, wishing to appear more seriously determined to have a human actor win the award, removed Rin Tin Tin as a choice and reran the vote.

Fact? No one is sure. The story goes both ways. Responsible people attesting to the truth on both sides.

The hot weather continues to be an abomination. I had two stops to make yesterday. A doctor visit and the bank. I was wiped out when I got home!

Physiotherapy at 9 this morning.

Enjoy your day!

Two cemeteries. Each located at opposite ends of the United States. One in Key West. The other Waterbury, Vermont.

In the southernmost community in the United States, the Key West Cemetery. Historians best describe it.  In the heart of Old Town. Unique and filled, though always room for one more. It is estimated that between 70,000 and 100,000 people are buried there.

The Cemetery was established at its current location after an 1846 hurricane washed dead bodies from an earlier cemetery located beneath coastal sand dunes on Whitehead Point near the West Martello Towers.

Headstones are history. One reflects one of the earliest birthdates as 1792. Another records a death in 1843.

The new 1847 cemetery was established on “high ground, 16 feet above sea level.” The location motivated by the hurricane washed out bodies referred to earlier.

The grounds are typical Key West. Chickens and iguanas roam freely as they do on the rest of the island. It is weedy and overgrown with a forlorn air of a forgotten place. Which it is not! Visited daily by locals and tourists. Probably frequented by more people than cemeteries in other communities. 

There are few trees. Many graves are in above ground vaults for the same reason as in New Orleans – a high water table.

A cemetery speaks of an area’s history. The Key West Cemetery is no different.

There is a monument to the U.S.S. Maine which was blown up in Havana Harbor in 1896 killing 260 American military. Two dozen are buried in the space together with other veterans of the Spanish-American War. An iron fence and gate brought from Washington, D.C. A neat grassy yard.

Key West was anti-Black in the first part of the 20th century. In 1921, Manuel Cabeza was a white bar owner and World War I veteran who was having a relationship with a mixed-race woman. He was tarred and feathered by the Ku Klux Klan for it. In retaliation, he shot and killed one of his persecutors on Duval Street Christmas Eve 1921. The next day, a posse removed Cabeza from jail, lynched and then shot his body as it swung from a tree limb.

Key West’s Cuban heritage is strongly evident. A section of the Cemetery is devoted to those who fought and died in the 1868 Cuban revolution.

The remains of “Sloppy Joe” Russell, close friend of Ernest Hemingway, lie in the Cemetery.

One of the most humorous headstones is that of B. P. Roberts. Roberts had inscribed on his headstone “I told you I was sick.”

Then there is Gloria Russell. Her headstone reads “I’m just resting my eyes.”

Are there ghosts in the Cemetery? Of course. This is Key West. Ghosts are everywhere. The most frequently sighted ghost is a Bahamian woman who it is claimed approaches visitors who sit on graves or behave disrespectfully.

The far north grave yard worthy of mention is located in Waterbury, Vermont. A Ben & Jerry created cemetery. The ice cream concern created a cemetery for its “fallen flavors.” The site can be physically visited. Funerals are held to honor some of the “fallen flavors.”

The “dearly departed” are buried on the grounds of the company’s plant in Waterbury. Each has a granite headstone and epitaph. Currently, 34 flavors lie in the “Flavor Graveyard.”

A unique feature exists. Resurrections. If a sufficient number of fans request a flavor be brought back from the dead, it will be returned. An outline form on Ben & Jerry’s website is available for the purpose.

Back to mac and cheese that I wrote about yesterday. Another point of information. Mac and cheese was one of the first kinds of pasta to come to the United States. Popularized by Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson became a “macaroni freak.” He had pasta shipped from Italy. Primarily, Naples. He also had several U.S. vendors he purchased from in large quantities. They imported and sold macaroni.

Jefferson also had his own macaroni making machines which he used.

Jefferson would cook pasta dishes for his guests. Not all enjoyed the preparation. Jefferson was too heavy with the garlic.

Texts and a photo reveal authorities were aware of Crooks 90 minutes before the shooting.

A major Secret Service screw up! Cannot be tolerated. Should not have occurred.

Diseases controlled by vaccinations.

Vaccines were invented in 1796. Several diseases have gone from killing hundreds of thousands per year down to simple digits.

Diphtheria and smallpox used to kill 20,000 each year. Now, zero. Vercell  used to kill 4 million, now tops off at 500,000. Rubella used to kill 50,0000 per year, now held to about 5.

As one gets older, the propensity to bleed becomes more frequent and heavier. The reason simple. Most elderly are on blood thinners. The slightest bump causes bleeding to occur.

Learned a “newbie” on the internet yesterday. A person can use their own spit to get blood stains fully out. The enzymes from one’s own saliva will break down one’s own blood.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I spent time in the 1970’s and 1980’s at a “fat farm” near San Diego.. La Costa. Exercise from 9-5, 800 calories a day. Impossible not to lose weight. I was good for one pound a day and was able to keep it off for about 2 months.

I met a lot of interesting people I would never have met were it not for my weight problems and the need for La Costa.

One was Rodney Dangerfield. What you saw in the movies and on TV was what you got in real life. He dressed and acted like you saw him in  movies and TV. He became a success by being himself.

We became friends.

He came out frequently with wife jokes. Whether true, I do not know.

I mention the wife jokes because I came across some on the internet this morning: “I haven’t spoken to my wife in years, I didn’t want to interrupt her……I told my wife the truth, I told her I was seeing a psychiatrist. Then she told me she was seeing a psychiatrist, 2 plumbers and a bartender……My wife wants sex in the back of the car, and she wants me to drive….My wife was afraid of the dark. then she saw me naked, and now she’s afraid of the light.”

The man! The comedian!

When I was in high school and college, I noticed people had jobs they worked at for years and intended to stay with their entire lives.

During my professional career, I noticed “loyalty” disappeared in the work force. People tended to move from one job to another. I assume it is still the case today.

As a result, I was surprised to read about a woman that has worked for the same company for 53 years. She is Barbara Cramer. She is now 75 years old and still plugging away with the same employer.

There is a strange aspect to her story. Not just her job’s longevity. Her employer is the Fort Pierce McDonald’s in West Palm Beach. Barbara says she loves working there and has no plans to stop. She is proud to be a “fast food worker” at McDonald’s.

When Barbara began working at McDonald’s, the Big Mac was only 3 years old. Time for McDonald’s worldwide to honor the woman by coming out with a new burger called the Big Barb.

A winner in many respects!

Enjoy your day!

Live and learn. Mac and cheese is a dish I have come to enjoy as an adult. I cannot recall my mother ever preparing it, though she was a fantastic cook.

Even more surprising, my mother was born in Italy and raised in an Italian household.

Why a live and learn observation today? I just read the history of mac and cheese. While it feels like a quintessentially American recipe, it is not. No way. Its origin ancient Italy in the 13th century. It was called “de lesanis.”

De lesanis was prepared sort of like lasagna. Lasagna sheets were cut into 2 inch squares and assembled in many layers with cheese and seasonings. The pasta and cheese were tossed. Then baked in an oven.

Velveeta not the cheese utilized, of course.

A woman who is an excellent Italian cook is Buffalo’s Fran Dixon. Her cooking prowess is magical. She is of Sicilian extraction. I just called her. She never heard of mac and cheese’s Italian ancestry either. She recalls her mother having prepared it only one time. As a dish for a meatless friday.

Ho ho, Donald! Kamala has had a “record breaking” week fundraising. Imagine! One week! Many donors first timers.

An Irish saying: “One whiff and you’re stiff!” Impact on local men.

Men who live in Ringaskiddy, Ireland, home of the Pfizer Pharmaceuticals plant that makes Viagra, reportedly experience constant erections. Residents and medical professionals claim it has to do with fumes from the factory. Pfizer insists however that it is merely the men experiencing a mass-placebo effect.

Men, it might be worth taking a trip to Ringaskiddy. For the fun of it, of course.

The U.S. lucked out and bought the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon dirt cheap.

I was taught in grammar school that Thomas Jefferson’s bargaining abilities were responsible. Not the case as the following clearly shows.

It was 1802. France had huge land holdings in North America.

Napoleon sent an army to New Orleans to open the port for additional shipping and French colonization. New Orleans and Louisiana were part of France’s holdings at the time. The army was under the command of Napoleon’s brother in law, General Leclerc.

Napoleon told his brother in law to stop first in Haiti, which France also owned. A slave rebellion was proving bothersome to Napoleon. He instructed General Leclerc to put down the Haitian rebellion and then proceed onto New Orleans.

The French Army was powerful. Too powerful for the Haitians. The rebellion was put down in quick order.

However, the French lost 70,000 troops. They died. Including his brother in law, General Leclerc.

The cause yellow fever. Brought on by the mosquitoes in Haiti.

Napoleon’s orders were swift. Get out of Haiti! Forget about New Orleans! Return home immediately!

Napoleon decided he wanted nothing me to do with the new world. He entered into negotiations with the U.S. to sell to the new country the Louisiana Territory.

The price was a clear indication of how desperate Napoleon was to remove France from the new world. Three cents an acre! Eight hundred twenty eight thousand acres for $15 million!

A bargain!

All because of those pesky mosquitoes!

Enjoy your day!

Perhaps God rained on the Paris Olympic Parade intentionally.

Sometimes people carry things too far. Good taste goes out the window.

It occurred during the Opening Parade at the Paris Olympics. A parody of the Last Supper by drag queens.

As I report the event, I cannot understand why it was done. Understand what I write now: I sense it to be ANTI-LGBTQ. Could not have been the brain child of true drag queens. I view it as a ploy by the far right in an attempt to discredit a group it constantly condemns.

Donald Trump spoke before a Christian audience in West Palm Beach Friday evening. His concluding words implied if he were President a second term, he would end elections. His words: “Christians, get out and vote, just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore…..You got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.”

Friday’s comment was not Trump’s first such this election season. Before a different Christian audience last month, he made a similar suggestion about Christians not needing to vote after this year’s election.

Don’t be fooled my friends. Your basic freedoms are at stake in this election.

Socrates’ wisdom unbelievable. He knew so much, was so aware, at a time centuries ago. Too early to have developed such abilities. He did, however.

A Socrates quote I just came across. So true: “My advice to you is get married: If you find a good wife you’ll be happy; if not, you’ll become a philosopher.”

The quote compelled me to research if Socrates was happily married. After all, he was a philosopher. A great one.

My research revealed Socrates had two wives. One was an “argumentative, troublesome wife who was the source of many headaches for the philosopher.” Her name Xanthippe. She and Socrates not the best of friends. She was a “shrew.” Described as the “bad tempered wife” of Socrates.

Watching Neil Armstrong stepping on the moon on TV an historical event most people would like to have seen. It was 1969. Being 89 has its advantages. I was married, a father and a practicing lawyer at the time. I watched it. The most memorable event viewed by me in my lifetime.

Car repossessions are skyrocketing. A signal the economy may be at a tipping point.

Data indicates car repossessions have spiked by 50 percent from 2 years ago and 23 percent from just last year.

The English people were not aware of potatoes before the 16th century. Amazing! Spuds were foreign to them.

What happened was their sea faring men discovered potatoes growing in the mountains of South America. They found them tastey and brought them back to England. Men like Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Thomas Harriot, and Sir John Hawkins.

At the beginning, only the rich partook of potatoes. They were considered a delicacy. Eventually however all strata of society came to enjoy them. Many came to learn that potatoes were cheap to grow and helped sustain life.

Today is a doubleheader so to speak in nailing the French. Earlier the drag Last Supper. Now an event which occurred this day in Paris in 1794. Revolutionary figure Maximillian Robespierre and 22 leaders of “The Terror” were guillotined to the cheers of thousands.

Entertainment for the masses. Sickening.

On this day in 1917, the Silent Parade took place in New York City. Ten thousand African Americans marched on 5th Avenue to protest lynching.

Anti-black and lynchings were not uncommon back then and in later years. Even in Key West. In the 1920’s, most community leaders were members of the Ku Klux Klan. The  Florida State President of the Klan was a Key West resident and ran the Florida Klan from Key West. Key West also experienced some lynchings. 

Shipping was a major Key West activity in the 1920’s. In 1924 for example, Key West shipped more goods from its port than any other city in Florida. In May 1924 alone, Key West shipping totaled $3,319,876. Exports from the rest of Florida totaled $2,217, 949.

Those days are long gone. The Florida shipping world has changed dramatically.

I close with Key West’s beloved Tropic Cinema.

Tropic Cinema kicks off its Local Appreciation Month Thursday August 1. Locals will be admitted free thereafter on Tuesdays and Sundays through August 27. One ticket per ID holder. Children under 12 admitted free with a holder of an appropriate ID.

Enjoy your Sunday!