DINNER WITH FRIENDS

Posted on by

Dinner last night with friends. Karen and Dan Visnic. Karen a Pittsburg Shaklee distributor.

We met through this blog. Karen and Dan are loyal readers. Have been for years. Also frequent visitors to Key West. Three to four times a year. Renting a home on Olivia for the month of June.

We met about a year ago. Lunched at Salute’s where we dined last night. They were in Key West during Fantasy Fest. Their daughter and son in law joined them.

I am ashamed to admit, I had never read anything by John D. MacDonald. Their daughter when she returned home shipped me MacDonald’s The Deep Blue Good-By.

Karen and Dan return for another visit in July. I look forward to seeing them again.

Yesterday began with a late morning session on the anti-gravity treadmill. I swear by this machine. Whereas I recently lost 35 pounds, my gut remained. The treadmill is removing or redistributing my belly. Thrilling!

Then to Lee Nails and Tammy for a manicure. Tammy the best! Her keen sense of humor frequently peeked out yesterday.

It was lunch time. The Cuban Coffee Queen. It is becoming a habit. Parking is easy. I love Cuban pressed bread and coffee. The setting perfect.

This morning’s Key West Citizen carried an interesting front page article. Key West hotels are doing terrific. Occupancy up. Hotel rates have increased 55 percent over the past six years.

Key West is an expensive place. Whether a resident or tourist. The major hotels have been taken over by the big corporations in the last five years. My fear is the ever increasing cost of a hotel stay is going to hurt the chicken that lays the golden egg. Gluttony a terrible thing.

I write frequently about turtles. We are crazy for anything having to do with the water.  The keys fortunate to have a turtle hospital in Marathon.

Two Marathon Turtle Hospital staff recently visited Cuba and met with a primary gamekeeper of turtles there.

The Marathon team brought simple medical tools with them. Medical equipment such as microscopes and a box of slides. Simple is not available in Cuba. Basics of any kind not available.

The trip impresses me. Another step in reuniting the bond between the U.S. and Cuba. These little things move ahead more swiftly than government interaction. It appears it is going to take a long time for the U.S. to become friends with Cuba again. People to people appears more effective.

I am unhappy with the Trans Pacific Pact vote yesterday. A victory for Obama and the Republican Congress. History repeats itself. Rarely do nations learn. Ten years from now the bad will be obvious, the damage already done to the U.S.

Clinton had his NAFTA. Cost the U.S. millions of jobs. Jobs alone are not at stake this time. Foreign control of American businesses is. Obama way off base on this one.

I woke this morning to a gray Key West. Even gray, the vista beautiful to behold. The gray is now lifting and the sun coming out.

I always have had a problem re the spelling of gray. Gray or grey? I looked it up this morning. Both spellings correct. Merely different spellings of the same word. Gray commonly used in the U.S. Grey in England. Take your pick!

Enjoy your day!

KENT STATE

Posted on by

Forty five years ago today, four Kent State students were shot dead by Ohio State National Guardsmen. The students had been protesting the Vietnam War.

I was 35 years old at the time. The TV film of the shootings chilled me. TV showed a large number of screaming college students running across a large grass field and the guardsmen shooting at them. This was the United States. What I was viewing did not happen in the United States.

I had lived through the time of the 1960s New York and Rochester black riots. I was in the middle of the New York one the first night.

The anti-Vietnam demonstrations concerned me. Citizens against a war our country was involved in. Parents sending their children off to Canada to avoid the draft.

To a 35 year old attorney, husband and parent, none of these happenings were consistent with the United States I knew or thought I knew.

The Kent State shootings were the worst. There was no valid reason for the students to be shot at. Apparently some guardsman got nervous and others followed.

This past week we experienced the Baltimore protests. There have been others in recent months. All over the same issue. Police shooting of blacks.

What am I saying? Merely that all these events bother and bothered me. Kent State especially. And now the police/black shootings. Not the country I grew up in. Not the lessons I was taught about the United States in my formative years.

I spent several hours yesterday writing this week’s KONK Life column. A strange title. 99 44/100 % Pure. The story of Ivory soap. Interesting, as well as a bit checkered.

After finishing the column, I hustled over to Salute’s for a little Louis time. I sat outside in the shade, had a drink and enjoyed a fish sandwich. Read the Sunday papers. Sometimes looking up to view the bikini clad ladies.

Then to Publix. The cupboard almost bare. A comment re prices. Grocery prices continue to rise. Like gasoline did. A little bit at a time. You do not notice until you are at the check out counter and are paying more than normal for the usual amount of groceries.

Wind is blowing strong this morning.  From the northwest. Sunny and cloudy. Maybe rain at some point.

Some local group involved with the homeless did a recent study. One of its findings was that there were 339 homeless children in Monroe County (Florida keys) as of January 27. Three hundred thirty nine is 339 too many!

Physiotherapy this morning. Have to hustle.

Enjoy your day!

Syracuse No, Manhattan Yes

Posted on by

Yesterday was Sunday. I spent the first four hours finishing this week’s KONK Life column. Making of a Star. Re Tom Cotton. The young U.S. Senator who wrote the letter to Iran signed by 46 Republican Senators. The public should be aware of the nature of the man. A protegé of the conservative far right, he is being groomed for the Presidency. I consider him dangerous.

I was surprised at a comment by Mika Brezinski this morning. She referred to the Senators who signed the letter as “toddlers at play.” Not really. I doubt she is aware of Cotton’s background..

A guest on Good Morning Joe referred to the Congressman chairing the subcommittee looking into Hillary’s e-mails as “Gomer Pyle.”

Respect is fading in today’s society. We see it in our elected representatives. We are entitled to better from media news pundits.

After completing the column, I did yesterday’s blog.

A full morning of writing!

I took the afternoon off. I was tired from all the writing. Decided on Salute’s. Took the book I have been reading. Operation Sea Lion by Leo McKinstry. The story of England 1941 anticipating a German invasion. I finished the book while at Salute’s.

I found a table outside by the main door. Sat looking out onto the beach. Between pages, enjoyed the young ladies I felt guilty looking at the other day.

Operation Sea Lion is one of the best books I have read on World War II. I recommend it to you. The summer and fall of 1941 were very dangerous for the English. The bravery and confidence of the English people and Churchill are highly commendable. It made me wonder if we would handle a threatened invasion in the same fashion.

Last night was watching the NCAA seeds. I have no Syracuse to pull for. However, my undergraduate school made it. Manhattan College. A small Catholic college at the north end of New York near the Yonkers border.

Manhattan has a tough roll. They must play their way in. They first must beat Hampton. Their reward for winning is Kentucky. Number 1 and number 16 facing each other.

Manhattan’s coach is Steve Masiello. Played college ball for Louisville as a walk on. Got to two Final Fours, one won. Thereafter, he was an assistant coach to Rick Pitino at Louisville for six years.

Go ‘Cuse now becomes Go Jaspers!

Tonight is the Friends of the Key West Library Lecture Series. The speaker Les Staniford. He recently wrote a book about certain Revolutionary participants. Like John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Patrick Henry. I am a history freak. His talk should be interesting.

Sissy Spacek and Sam Shepard have spent the past year in the Florida keys filming a new TV show. Bloodline. Thirteen episodes start this friday evening via Netflix. The show’s action takes place primarily in Islamorada and Key Largo.

Harry Truman. Key West loves Harry Truman! Truman loved Key West! On this date in 1950, he arrived for a three week vacation. One of the eleven trips he made to Key West, all of which totaled 175 days.

Enjoy your day!

 

FROM A SIX YEAR OLD TO DAVID IGNATIUS

Posted on by

 

 

Yesterday was a pleasant uneventful Sunday.

The day started with Sloan in the morning. We worked long and hard on You Tube. I had thought we would be ready to go live by the end of the week. Now it looks like some time next week. There is a lot more to it than I had thought. Lighting, where I sit, introduction, etc. I was under the impression I would download or whatever You Tube and speak.  It is that simple. But not if you want the product to have a quality to it.

Walked. The Casa Marina area. Parked my car and started with a walk through the Casa Marina grounds. The Casa Marina is one of Key West’s finest hotels. Then around the neighborhood. I ended up at Salute’s, a beach side restaurant near the Casa. Sat outside at a little round table and watched the ladies in their swim wear. A pleasurable activity for a senior citizen!

Sunday dinner once again at Lisa’s. Ally is six years old. In the first grade. She was doing homework. She had to write a sentence using the word “grip.” She did not know what the word meant. She did not ask anyone. She walked over and picked up this big blue book. I asked what the book was and what she was doing. She said I have to write a sentence using the word grip and I do not know what it means. The book was  a dictionary.

Some TV commentary.

I love Mad Men. It is a 1960s story. I started practicing law during that decade. The show has been a hit for several years. Last night I got the feeling it might have run its course. The show is becoming unreal.

I watch at least the first hour of Morning Joe every morning. A guest this morning was The Washington Post’s David Ignatius. He was being interviewed about a column he recently wrote. It had to do with where the United states would be/could be by 2020. Only eight years away.

A couple of his opinions I found interesting and informative.

Ignatius says that our national gas production will be so significant by 2020 that the United States will be exporting natural gas to the same extent that Saudi Arabia is oil now.

Another was that international companies are beginning to change their minds about opening plants in China. Labor in China is 60 per cent of what it would cost in the United States. There has been a slowly  increasing cost to Chinese labor.

So why the United States over China for a new plant? Productivity. United States workers turn out more and better. The difference in labor costs is overcome by the productivity factor.

Both of these opinions is dependent on a separate and distinct factor. Washington must get its act together. It will only happen if the politicians work together.

My day is starting rapidly. Lisa telephoned that Robert is upchucking. Buy popsicles. Yesterday one of my implants broke and the teeth don’t stay in. I just called the dentist. I have to be in his office at nine.

Enjoy your day!