KEY WEST LOU / LIGHTED BOATS CHRISTMAS PARADES COMING
Thanksgiving behind us. Christmas next.
Key West does it up big. The Christmas boat parade and the regular Christmas parade. My concern today with the boat parades. The Key West area now has two. The Schooner Wharf one and most recently Stock Island’s.
I have done the Schooner Wharf one several times. Both on water and on land. On water, better. More exciting. Good drink, food, music, dancing, greeting old friends, making new friends.
I write early about the boat parades because the boats fill up early. Make reservations now. Don’t wait. Spend the few bucks involved. Well worth it.
Schooner Wharf’s is December 9, Stock Island’s the day before December 8.
I have spent the past 3 weeks with a new place to start my day. The organic food store on Fleming Street. Date & Thyme. Same thing every morning for me. A Monkey smoothie. Don’t know what is in it. All I know is that I feel a hell of a lot better since starting it. Staff nice, also. Always a smile. Remember your name.
Frank Romano and Joseph Liszka opened Key West Fragrance and Cosmetics in 1971. Their business became a Key West mainstay for years. Popularly known as “Key West Aloe.” Walking into their retail outlet could only be compared to what it must be like to walk into Heaven. The beauty and fragrance unparalleled.
Frank and I became friends in his later years. I enjoyed knowing him. His personality was special.
I have a portrait that Jack Baron painted of Frank. Jack’s partner Bob Burton gave it to me when Jack died.
Maya Angelou. Read slowly savoring the words: “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”
Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson’s wife Kelly has her own religious beliefs/ideas which are as far out as some of her husband’s.
She founded a counseling company that equated gay with bestiality. Not very surprising as the Speaker himself once claimed legalizing gay marriage would lead to people marrying their pets.
The new House Speaker’s wife may have abhorrent out of touch views. Her friends however are quick to report “but she’s a nice lady.”
More Shakespearian lines which are part of our everyday jargon today: “Too much of a good thing” – As You Like It, “It’s Greek to me”- Julius Caesar, “Such stuff as dreams are made on” – The Tempest, “Made of sterner stuff” – Julius Caesar, “Foregone conclusion” – Othello, “The world’s mine oyster” – The Merry Wives of Windsor.
More to come.
A Julian Assange podcast from yesteryear.
A magnificent meal last night at Antonia’s. Sat at the bar enjoying TK’s company and the seafood fettucine entre.
Met a delightful couple also. Diane and Michael. Enjoy a home on Elizabeth Street. Hail from the Key West of the north Lake Placid. Diane is a Lake Placid realtor, Michael heads a private high school. Parents of five.
Lake Placid is a tough 4 hour drive north of Utica. Many the summer I visited for a few days each time. As unique as Key West is, Lake Placid is also. Except different. The trees are huge and green. Forests thick. The air crisp. I played golf there several times, swam in its cool waters, enjoyed a different breed of people. Nice, of course.
Yankee Jack has been gone for several years. He used to work the Lake Placid/Saranac Lake region every summer. Had steady gigs there.
An opinion piece in this morning’s Washington Post motivated this observation: At 38, I knew everything. At 88, I realize how little “everything” is and realize also that most younger think as I did at 38.
Rape has always been a weapon of war. It has become increasingly so in recent years. An example is the sexual violence Hamas perpetrated upon Israeli women and children on October 7.
Cochav Elkayam Levy, head of a non-governmental commission investigating crimes against women and children on October 7, said, “The torture of women was weaponized to destroy communities, to destroy a people, to destroy a nation.”
Pot calling the kettle black. Trump’ comment labeling the U.S. as a “third world country of perverts.”
Syracuse won its final football game of the season. Beat Wake Forest in a close one 35-31. Syracuse finished the season 6-6. Six wins qualifies the team for a bowl bid in late December. Not much to be proud of. However a win and small bowl better than nothing.
The game involved a wild finish. Syracuse staved off a Wake Forest push in the last 2 minutes of the game. Wake Forest got to Syracuse’s 2 yard line. Garrett Schrader got to play quite a while after several weeks on the bench due to injuries. He was Syracuse’s hero passing and running. Responsible for 4 touchdowns.
Enjoy your Monday!
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