TRUMP NOT MAN ENOUGH FOR LISTENING SESSION WITH DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

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The kids from Parkland’s Douglas High School are tough. The buck stops with them! They appear committed to bringing the gun issue to a head.

Trump hears their cries. He has to do something. His nature.

It was announced yesterday that the President plans listening sessions this week with students and teachers. The announcement did not say what students and teachers.

Those from Douglas High School where 17 were killed? I doubt it. The students would make him look foolish. For two reasons. First, from the mouth of children comes truth. Second, the students know bullshit when they hear it.

The confrontation would be interesting.

I do not believe it will occur, however. A losing proposition for Trump. He would come out of it looking bad.

I believe that where ever and with whom ever the listening sessions will be held will be from another area. Trump will be working at rigging the meeting.

Remember rigged from the election?

Staying with the Douglas High School shooting a moment longer, there is a need for blood. O negative.

Enough blood was available to care for the injured victims. The supply is now tapped out. A request has gone forth to anyone who should wish to donate to help replenish O negative. Instructions direct traveling to their usual donation sites to give.

The AR-15 rifle in the news other than in Parkland.

Levi Patterson coaches a 9 and under baseball team in Nesoho, Missouri. Third graders. The team needs to raise money. The father of one of the players sells guns. He donated an AR-15 rifle for a raffle prize.

The team players, age 7-9, are selling the raffle tickets.

Coach Patterson sees no problem with the AR-15 being used. He believes people think differently about guns in his area. In effect, the AR-15 is ok.

Tyler Tannahill is a Kansas Congressional candidate. A month ago, he decided to have a giveaway contest. Someone to win an AR-15 rifle.

Douglas occurred last week. Tannahill refuses to withdraw the AR-15 as the prize. He is a passionate defender of gun rights.

Sometimes we see the same person over a period of several years and yet  never get to know their names, etc. Always a smile and cheerful hello in passing.

My situation with one of the concierges at the Marriott Beachside.

We discovered each other on a more personal basis yesterday.

My photo and announcement of Irma and I covered the front page of KONK Life last week. The concierge called out to me yesterday morning by name. She said she had not known it before, but had seen my pic and read the article. Told me she has begun reading my blog.

Her name, Toni Tarracino. Last name sound familiar? She is one of the daughters of now deceased Captain Tony. Key West Mayor, saloon keeper, icon, etc. Toni proudly told me she is known as Little Toni.

My day began with the stop at the Marriott Beachside. Followed by a business lunch at the Geiger Key Marina. At noon, hardly a seat. No question the season has arrived.

Back to my home. I had no hot water. A two day wait for a plumber. Called a friend who stopped over. Problem resolved in 15 minutes. After two days and three cold showers, it was a pleasure later in the afternoon to enjoy a hot one.

Last night, the Gardens. A comfortable way to finish sunday.

Many people.

Ran into Jenna Stauffer. A love of my life for 10 years. Jenna was the producer for the TV show I did for three years. She was all bubbly and excited. Just returned from Paris.

Also ran into June Hudson. A couple of years since we have seen each other. Unchanged. Charming and lovely.

Stopped at Tavern ‘n Town for a late dinner. A rack of lamb. Nothing else. Diet still holding at 19 pounds.

Iguanas are an exotic species. Look like small dragons. To Key West residents, disgusting.

The iguanas are not native. They started their invasion about 15 years ago. Now, all over the island.

They deficate all over, including in the pools. They eat your expensive planted flowers.

They fear not. You can walk up to one and it will not move.

All of a sudden, the State has become aware there is an iguana problem. Don’t know where the State has been. However the State does not wish them killed. The State has scheduled clinics to advise how to capture and arrange for their removal to another part of the State.

Capture and remove? How stupid. Authorize their killing.

A State representative said, “We do not know the extent of the threat.” Live here and you will know. They are all over the place.

The State should recall how it handled the python invasion. Too little, too late. Now number in excess of 1 million. They can only be controlled, not eradicated.

Can you imagine 1 million plus iguanas? They will be living in our homes. Laugh not.

Dueling Bartenders tonight at Aqua.

Enjoy your day!

 

 

 

SHRIMP BOATS IS A-COMIN’

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Blog writing is interesting. Takes me to all kinds of places. Yesterday, world events. Today, primarily Key West. Some days, a mixture.

Whatever moves me at the moment.

Lunched at Hogfish yesterday with Guy de Boer. Guy publishes KONK Life. He has graciously agreed to run a photo of me and my Irma book in KONK Life. The whole front page!

Guy picked Hogfish for lunch. He wanted to get a photo of me and the shrimp boats together. Why shrimp boats, I do not know. My connection with shrimp boats next to nil.

The nil has a bit of substance.

First, the song. Shrimp Boats. A 1951 hit sung by the popular vocalist Jo Stafford. It was co-written by her husband Paul Weston.

The words come back every time I see a shrimp boat: Shrimp boats is a-comin’ / Their sails are in sight / Shrimp boats is a-comin’ / There’s dancin’ tonight…..

I was 15 years old the first time I heard Shrimp Boats. We were visiting family in the Bronx. I was outside standing in front of a then typical New York City candy store with a bunch of other teenagers. The location, 141st Street.

The song came out of a radio in the candy store. The others began humming and quietly singing the tune. I had never heard it before. The tune was catchy. Later in high school, I danced to ShrimpBoats.

Rarely thought of the tune after that till the mid 1990’s when I started visiting Key West. There were shrimp boats in Key West!

I learned that when you saw tons of them on the horizon off South Roosevelt Boulevard, they were hurrying in to avoid a coming storm. That was the moment. That was the picture. Such gave meaning to Shrimp boats is a-comin’ / Their sails are in sight.

Me, Irma and the shrimp boats will appear in KONK Life in the next week or two.

Last night the Chart Room. A good time. John bartending. David came in. Good conversation.

A while later, Jean Thornton’s two visiting sisters arrived with their men.

The Chart Room was off and running!

Stopped at Tavern ‘n Town on the way home. Another prime rib. I lost 5 pounds in the past 10 days. Why, I do not know. I have been on this diet since November 27. Lost 10 pounds the first two weeks. Not another pound till 10 days ago. Were it not that I was losing inches, I would have given up long ago.

Not the blind leading the blind. But, sort of. My lesbian wives Donna and Terri left yesterday by car for Tampa. Terri to undergo two days of serious testing at the cancer facility that replaced all her bone marrow and blood.

The tests important.

Donna broke her left shoulder a few days ago. Her left arm is wrapped tight to her chest. She is driving. Terri cannot drive more than a 100 miles at a time. They have broken the trip down so it will take 3 days to reach Tampa.

I mentioned in my tuesday night podcast Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou that the election of a person such as Trump served as encouragement for other crazies to run for public office.

It is happening in Missouri.

Senator Claire McCaskill is running for reelection. The word is she has a tough race ahead.

Several seek the Republican nomination to run against her. One is Courtland Sykes.

What I am about to relate was printed in a St. Louis newspaper in September. An interview. Sykes ran the interview on Facebook a few days ago where I found it.

If he is the Republican candidate, it will be a battle of the sexes.

Sykes is not married. He is engaged.

Following is what he expects from his fiance when she is his wife and his thoughts regarding women.

  1. When he arrives home in the evening, he expects his dinner on the table at 6. Prepared by his wife.
  2. Their daughters must learn to cook. He wants them raised to be traditional homemakers and family wives.
  3. His home is to be a Norman Rockwell world.
  4. Feminism is radical. Its definition crazy.
  5. Women have “snake filled heads.”
  6. He does not want his daughters growing up to be “career obsessed banshees” who forego home life and children to become “manophobic hell-beat feminist she devils.”
  7. Hillary Clinton’s loss a clear indication that radical feminists have been defeated.
  8. He claims he is fully supportive of women and he did not believe his statements demeaning to them.
  9. He conceded some women have amazing careers. He complimented them. The examples he gave of two such women were Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Said they should be celebrated.
  10. Big media. Big media has become “too many dumb blondes and too many leg dangles.”
  11. Feminism represents the “radical drug and communal happy-visioned 1960’s.”
  12. He supported and defended Roy Moore.

Enjoy your day!

 

 

TOLSTOY’S WAR AND PEACE

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A quiet soft-peddling day yesterday. Only time out of the house was for a walk in the morning.

Spent time working on tonight’s podcast. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou. Intended to go to Aqua for Dueling Bartenders. Changed my mind. Instead remained home and watched a movie I last saw 61 years ago in 1956.

The move to a new home brought with it new Comcast equipment. One item, the remote control. Appears to have access to everything.

One thing that excites me is I now speak to change channels. No clicking anything. Only problem is you have to know what you want to see. Either channel name or whatever name.

One of the whatevers is a movie selected by name.

I was playing around with the remote around 5. A learning process.

In 1956, I was a junior in college. I took several Russian history courses. One required a reading of Tolstoy’s War and Peace and thereafter a paper analyzing the novel. The paper 25 percent of the final grade.

War and Peace an opus. The paperback version 1,440 pages.

I was working two jobs at the time. Six to 10 hours a day, depending on the day. Taking 18 hours. Something had to give.

I cheated. Not the usual type cheating. Cheating never the less.

The War and Peace movie had just come out. About 3.5 hours. The movie long as was the book. I went to see the movie.

Then to the library. Read a very brief synopsis and several lengthy comments.

Made notes along the way.

The time finally arrived. The paper had to be written. Sat down at my portable Smith-Corona and went to work. My recollection is the paper was about 12 pages single spaced. Redid it twice to get everything right.

I received a B+ on the paper.

I was proud and did not feel guilty.

I enjoyed the movie War and Peace last night. I had only seen it that one time in 1956. The new remote and Comcast programming permitted it.

The reason I was never able to watch it on TV over the years was it never ran. Available today as a pay film. Only $3.99.

War and Peace involves a Russian family and Napoleon’s ill fated attack of Russia in 1812. The theme song especially enchanting.

I consider War and Peace the second best Russian film I have seen. The other, Dr. Zhivago. Never read Zhivago. However, it never required reading in any course I took.

Donald Trump and Donald Trump, Jr. have a propensity to lie. Must be an asset in the construction business. Not otherwise in life.

Lying always leads to trouble. The lies have to be expanded. Each to explain the previous.

Re lying, Abraham Lincoln and Mark twain said it well.

Lincoln said, “No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.”

Twain, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”

As I used to tell juries in summation in cases where I had caught a witness in a significant lie: Woe the web we weave when first we seek to deceive.

I am a bit of a hypocrite this morning. I criticize the Trumps for lying when I cheated on a paper. Not comparable. However, both immoral.

Podcast time tonight. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou.

Topics include the cost of housing and the dying middle class, Venezuela currency collapse, proposed U.S. Space Corps, Bernie Sanders’ wife getting unfairly beaten up.

Also, my thoughts re FBI nominee Christopher Wray, millions in the process of fleeing Somalia and Sudan for Europe, the capture of the golf course crocodile, and Hemingway Days.

Interesting material. A fast moving half hour. Join me. www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou.

Enjoy your day!

BOCCE PLAYOFFS

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It was festival time yesterday at the bocce courts. Playoffs! Tents covering players from the blazing sun. Food and drink. Lots of spectators. Even babies.

We played the #1 team from monday night. We were #3 from the thursday night league. Got our asses whipped in the first game. 16-4. We were competitive in the second. Lost 16-15.

We are done.

The team that beat us will probably go on to win the whole thing. Three times. They were good. No question about it. Precision shooting. Missed only one blast.

Joe Quartarone e mailed me. He is an officer in the national bocce organization. He made inquiry of the Key West league via my blog. He wanted to know among other things numbers. How many players, teams, etc. I told him 56 teams, over 500 players.

He wrote back excitedly. Key West has one of the biggest leagues in the country. He is going to visit, etc.

Watched the Preakness at Don’s Place. For some reason, it did not excite me this year.

Probably because I was anxious to get over to the Firehouse Museum. A birthday party. 102 years old. A mamey tree. Purportedly the grandfather of all mamey trees in the United States. DNA proven.

The tree is on the side of the Museum. Majestic. 54 feet tall.

About 200 at the party when I arrived.

The tree’s fruit is used to make ice cream. There was free ice cream. Tried it. Delicious!

During the course of the afternoon before going to the Museum, I asked many if they had ever heard of a mamey tree. No one knew what I was talking about. Guess I asked the wrong people. The 200 at the Museum knew.

While at Don’s Place, Clare and Stan introduced me to Clare’s new boss. John Cary. He is the new President of Dion Oil LLC. Dion’s is now owned by Uphoff Ventures. Uphoff purchased the business from the Dion family several months ago.

Don’t let the oil in the name of the business fool you. Dion’s is best known for its chicken. The absolute best!

Cary a nice guy. Intelligent. He should do well in caring for and expanding Dion’s.

I was home before 8. Wanted to watch the Lyndon Johnson movie on HBO. All the Way. I was disappointed.

Johnson was portrayed in too dramatic a fashion, nutty, and intense.

Johnson was a hard driving individual. However to portray him as a man who did not want to get out of bed when things got tough was an insult to the man and his true history.

Spent yesterday morning researching this week’s KONK Life column. I will write the column this afternoon. To Bee or Not To Bee. Not Shakesperian. It is the story of bees as used in warfare. From centuries before the birth of Christ to present day.

How many movies have we seen of wagon trains? Going west. Did you ever give thought to how long a trip took. I never did.

Read something this morning that evidences the time factor. On this day in 1843, what has been described as the Great Emigration began. A covered wagon trip from Independence, Missouri to Oregon. One thousand settlers and 1,000 cattle.

Five months.

A quiet Sunday ahead. I have nothing planned.

Enjoy your Sunday!