100,000 CHICKENS

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Key West is known for its chickens. Chickens everywhere. Tourists love them. Few locals do. The chickens are dirty and germ ridden. Not eating chickens.

Chickens properly bred and raised are ok, however. Clean healthy birds.

Bill Gates recently announced a 100,000 chicken program. One his wife Melinda is joining with him to put together. One supported also by Hefner International.

Gates wants to send 100,000 chickens world wide to poor countries. They are cheap and easy to raise. Healthy food for children.

A good idea. My anti-chicken bias is limited to Key West chickens.

We are running out of food. World population on the rise. Fish in oceans not endless.

Squid and octopus not diminishing in number, however. On the rise. Climate change, pollution and over fishing does not seem to affect them.

Most already love squid. Calamari!

As to octopus, I fear not many have had the opportunity to enjoy octopus. I did many times in Greece.

The first time I was on a small boat going nowhere. Just drifting around. We ended up on a small island. Probably had a name. I do not recall. Where we landed was only a small house and a smaller building behind it. The smaller building the outhouse. .

We were hungry. The man and woman living in the house were happy to feed us. Octopus!

The cooking was done on an outside grill. The kind used in the U.S. to cook outside.

The octopus was about two feet in diameter. He chopped a tentacle off. Threw it on the grill. Spent time cooking, turning it over.

When done, placed on my plate. About five inches long and three inches in diameter. Hollow inside. The skin a quarter inch thick.

While cooking, brush basted with oil.

I cut into my piece. Cut easy. Like a knife through soft butter. The taste. Delicious. Tender. Brought a smile to my face. A chunk of bread and octopus on a basically deserted island. What more could I ask for?

The moral of the story. Do not fear octopus. Youu will love it! Guaranteed!

Spent yesterday preparing for last night’s blog talk radio show.

Did the show at 9. Two topics excited me more than normal. I led off with them. A cashless society and carless dealerships.

A cashless society is on its way. No more paper bills or coins. A card. Sort of like a debit card. All spending, transactions done via the card.

I predict the U.S. will be a cashless society within 5 years. Banks and corporations love the idea. The Federal Reserve favors it. What can the 99 percent say?

I am against a cashless society.

Imagine going to buy a new car. No cars in the lot. No cars inside the dealership. You will be greeted and sold digitally. Earphones with a viewing screen built in. General Motors is preparing to test the process in some Cadillac dealerships next year.

A quick dinner before the show at Hogfish. Fish and chips. Hogfish fish and chips.

Debra and Patrick return to Key West! Tonight. at La Te Da. The best of the best. Do yourself a favor and go listen to Debra sing.

An observation. We are moving closer to George Orwell’s 1984 every day.

This week’s KONK Life hits the stands at 5 this afternoon. I have a special column this week. Corn Flakes…..Cure Masturbation. Humor and discomfort. Nuts involved. And I do not mean the edible ones.

Enjoy your day!

 

 

 

IOWA SURPRISES

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Late night!

Iowa surprised. No question about it.

Trump came in second. Cruz won. Rubio one point behind Trump.

Rubio has the momentum. New Hampshire going to be interesting..

Sanders deserves all kinds of accolades. Ran a dead heat race against Clinton. I think Clinton won by two tenths of one percentage point..

The polls were off. Lets see how they do in New Hampshire.

My friend Tom in Iowa was correct. He always is. He told me yesterday Rubio would make an excellent showing.

Last night a run around. No question. Season is here. In full force.

I went to Hogfish for dinner. A line waiting to be seated. Went into the bar. I generally can find a seat there. It has always been catch as catch can. The bar has some tall round tables. Sure enough, got one.

Sat down. Hostess came over and said all tables in bar now seated by list. I talked to her a bit and thought I had sweet charmed her. She walked away.

Two minutes later this big waitress with a distinctive harsh voice told me to sign up and wait. She made it clear I would not be waited on.

Not wanting to wait, I took a chance on Roostica a few minutes down the road. Anticipated the same problem. I was lucky. Walked in and a table available in the bar room.

I will be making reservations from this point forward till the season ends.

Too many people! I fear the island will sink from the sheer weight of them.

My blog talk radio show tonight at 9. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou. Interesting topics. Iowa, of course. In addition, the danger of anti-American citizen groups, military spending, destruction of the middle class, cost of a college education, and more. www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou.

Syracuse/Virginia Tech tonight at 8. I will be able to watch most of the first half. Vegas spread has Virginia Tech winning by 10.

Short blog. Have to move my ass. An early morning visit with one of my doctors. I wish I was being paid for these doctor visits.

Enjoy your day!

WHERE IS CITIZEN’S VOICE?

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The  Key West Citizen has its pluses and minuses. As with everything. The outstanding feature of the newspaper is the Citizens’ Voice. A column on the left side of page 2. Readers write in and express their thinking re various issues. Pro and con. Simple and hard hitting.

The Citizens’ Voice is missing from this morning’s paper. Why? What happened? In its place is an Associated Press article on how to make a particular cocktail.

I cannot believe the Citizen is considering discontinuing Citizens’ Voice. It works. Needs no fixing. Not broke.

My friend Sheila Cullen is a staff member at the Citizen. Her job is to prepare Citizens’ Voice each day. She selects what should be printed from the many comments received. She takes her job seriously. As Sheila tells it, she tries to send both sides to print. Her aim is to be fair and balanced.

I tried to reach Sheila this morning to get the poop. I could not reach her. Ergo, I write this column  in the dark as to the reason why it is absent from today’s Citizen.

I researched this week’s KONK Life column yesterday afternoon. Research complete. I will be writing the column today between Meet The Press and the Syracuse basketball game and after the game.

The title: Political Sexcapades. The research off the wall. Politicians have difficulty keeping their pants and panties on.

The column zeroes in on Clinton’s impeachment. Not the impeachment itself. We all know about it. Rather the column concerns certain of those who tried to bring the President down and their secret sex lives. Sort of a people who live in glass houses should not throw stones. They all got their come uppings in due course. Proving that what goes around, comes around.

A great article! You will enjoy it.

Life returned to normal last night after the holiday. I took myself to Tavern ‘n Town. A good crowd. Locals and visitors.

Bobby Nesbitt entertaining.

Ran into Lynda and Bob Frechette. A popular and well liked Key West couple.

It is said that a successful man has a good woman behind him. The reverse true here. Bob is the man behind Lynda who helps her goals and dreams reality. We always hear about Lynda. Rarely, Bob. They are a team.

I am anti-Trump. Write accordingly. Mentioned yesterday that over the holiday I did not meet one person supporting him. Also that those supporting him are whiter, older, less educated, and more blue collar.

I received two strong comments. One from a Key West MBA who is voting for Trump. The other a strong / almost defiant comment that the writer supported Trump.

Good! I love it! This is what it is all about. Free expression, a two party system, etc. We are each other’s indispensable opposition. Think about it.

Syracuse basketball this afternoon. Playing Texas Southern. Syracuse a 17 point favorite. We shall see.

Sal Salerno is recognized as one of Key West’s artistic greats! Perhaps the greatest. A man of international acclaim. A several generation Key Wester. A true Conch.

Salerno died recently.

A Celebration of Life in his honor will take place tomorrow evening from 7-9. At the Gingerbread Square Gallery which Salerno and his husband Joe Birn owned.

I guarantee there will not be enough room in the Gallery and its Courtyard to hold the many who will be attending to pay tribute.

Enjoy your Sunday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LISA!

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Happy birthday Lisa!

It is my baby’s birthday. The last born. A joy in my life.

The crocodile off Smathers Beach bothers me. Actually, scares me. I fear someone is going to be bit or worse. State wildlife authorities apparently do not share my concern.

Crocodiles are an endangered species. State officials should capture the beast and remove it from our waters. Key West Citizen photos show the croc floating along the beach shore.

State officials refer to the crocodile as a juvenile. Only three feet long. Looks a hell of a lot bigger in the pics. State officials tell us adult crocodiles are meat eaters. Juveniles, not. However, we are warned to keep our distance.

We are also told the croc will move on after several days. It has already been here several days!

Arrogance, laziness, and stupidity best describe the action of state officials in this matter.

This is my pick on government morning.

The Congressional subcommittee questioning Cecile Richards yesterday a disgrace. The Republican members. A kangaroo court. Richards the President of Planned Parenthood.

I was ashamed of my government for its conduct.

I am against what planned Parenthood has done re the sale of fetal tissue and body parts. For profit, I suspect. Never the less, Richards was entitled to respect. Not being bullied.

Somewhere along the line Congress has forgotten what governing was meant to be, how to govern.

I spoke concerning the subcommittee’s conduct on my blog talk radio show last night.

Yes, I am on a soap box this morning!

George Will’s turn.

His column regarding Pope Francis is carried in this morning’s Key West Citizen. Disgraceful! He wrote extremely disparagingly about Pope Francis. I have never read anything by him assaulting Putin or Assad in a similar fashion.

Why is the Republican right/conservative element so fearful of this 78 year old man of God? He speaks the truth.

Is it because he speaks for the 99 percent and not the 1 percent?

Trump’s tax plan. If it does not scuttle his candidacy, I don’t know what will.

I have an early airport run shortly. I have happily become the neighborhood taxi service.

Enjoy your day!

TWO DAYS/ONE BLOG

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I had a big morning yesterday. Out of the house at 6:30, returned at 1.00. Tired! Went to bed for a needed nap. The blog lost out.

My morning included a doctor visit, lengthy business meeting, and time on the anti-gravity treadmill.

I will try to catch up this morning.

Yesterday and today in one blog.

Re yesterday, the first thing I intended to discuss was desalination. Water is an increasing problem. Not everyone is aware that the lower keys have two desalination plants. One on Stock Island, the other in Marathon. Both have limited abilities as to volume. In an emergency, each can turn out 3 million gallons of potable water a day.

I am surprised that no one seems to be talking about desalinating sea water for drinking, etc. purposes. Rationing alone is not going to solve the problem.

Wrote this week’s KONK Life column. Banks Hurt People. Banks continue to play games. They have come up with new ideas which work to the detriment of their customers.

The Players Championship final day was golf at its best. Richie Fowler’s finish unique.

Tropical storm ANA has dissipated. Down to a tropical depression yesterday. No significant damage. A lot of rain.

Songwriters Festival ended sunday night. A rousing success! Two hundred twenty five performers.

That completes monday’s blog in an abbreviated fashion.

This morning’s blog as follows.

Decided to have a drink at Square One last night. The bar was three deep. Something was going on. I did not stay.

Decided to have a drink and dinner at La Te Da at the outside bar. No luck again! La Te Da closed to customers.

The reason was quickly apparent. The Queen Mother Pageant was kicking off. As in past years, staged on Duval in front of La Te Da. I stayed a while to watch the event. I have seen it many times in the past. Always a happy time.

The ladies participating are to be complimented. Fantasy Fest is not till late October. The ladies will be out campaigning and fund raising till then. Not easy.

Then to the Chart Room. Glad I stopped. The evening was fun.

I walked into three vacationing lawyers. I mostly listened. Guess I participated in too many lawyer conversations over the years.

Two of the participants were from Minnesota, the other from where I do not recall. They were discussing Florida licenses. All three had Florida licenses, though they did not practice in Florida.

The best was meeting Bob and Carol from Dallas. Vacationers, also. Carol is English. They married in France.

Bob worked for an oil company. He negotiated contracts all over he world. With luminaries such as Khadafi.

Almost contemporaries, Bob and I got into a lengthy conversation regarding health problems. We both had enough to share.

Great people! I hope to run into Bob and Carol again.

My blog talk radio show tonight at 9. Join me for a fast moving eye opening half hour. www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou.

Topics include why I consider banks whores, the Hattiesburg police killings, George Zimmerman, militarization on a roll in South Carolina, Columbia throwing out glyphosate, IRS employees who have not paid their taxes and yet send SWAT teams and the like to collect from delinquent taxpayers, and more.

Such is two days in one. Worked out well. The blog as a whole no longer than usual.

Enjoy your day!