Key West Lou / 2024 PARIS OLYMPICS BEGIN TODAY

The day has arrived! The world is excited! The Paris Olympics begin today. The events will run from today through August 17.

The major event today is the Opening Parade. Always exciting. This year 10,500 athletes from 206 countries will participate. The Parade and Olympics themselves can be viewed on NBC. Normally from 3 pm ET. Today 1:30 pm because of the Parade.

The site of course Paris.

Biden’s withdrawal has screwed up Trump’s game plan. Trump is crazily and falsely attacking Harris. In one rally speech, he made 10 false claims about her.

Can it be because she’s a woman?

Lobster mini season always a danger. Boaters similar to those in the many boats that went out to capture the shark in the movie Jaws. Incompetent, inept, many boozed up, etc.

The inevitable happened. A 20 year old Floridian male was critcally injured after being struck by a boat operated by a Key West man. Sean Steven Bender was injured when a 19 foot boat struck him while he was in the water. The boat driven by a 36 year old man.

Bender suffered life threatening injuries and was airlifted to Miami Trauma Center.

New cars and trucks are not selling well. Extremely poorly. Why?

Dealers are panicking. Used cars and trucks are a better bargain. Many still under warranty. Insurance premiums a factor. They have soared by double digits this past year.

Though dealers are getting desperate, they would rather have vehicles rot rather than give discounts to customers. As to new trucks, one consumer said: “Dealers are about to learn a hard lesson…..people can’t afford $80,000 fucking work trucks.”

Boeing continues to have difficulties. Plane problems first. Now Boeing’s participation in a space program.

Two astronauts were sent aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule for work. One week. Boeing can’t get them back. Now more than a month. Mid June was their original return time. Boeing says it will now be sometime in August. No specific date as yet, however.

I close with some observations relating to Moby Dick.

“Call me Ishmael.”

Herman Melville published Moby Dick in 1851. Since that time, the novel’s opening line “Call me Ishmael” has become one of literature’s most great sentences.

The book involves the sailor Ishmael’s narrative of the maniacal quest of Ahab, Captain of the whaling ship Pequod. Ahab seeks vengeance against Moby Dick, the giant white sperm whale that bit off his leg on the ship’s previous voyage.

Moby Dick was a commercial failure and was out of print when Melville died in 1891. Its reputation as a “Great American Novel” was not established till 1919, the centurial of Melville’s birth.

The book thereafter became all powerful. I recall having read it in class during my third year in high school. Then again, it was required reading and expansive discussion in one of my English college classes.

Sad that Melville did not benefit economically from the greatness of his book.

I am off for an hour of physiotherapy.

Enjoy your day!

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