"leftovers" - VIDEO

"Key West the Blog" was born on May 11, 2008 and writing it has been a great experience for me. I figure to keep at it for as long as the muse moves me to. I want to thank all my followers and subscribers for hanging with me all these years.

The liberating feature is that "Key West the Blog" is a sort of cyber 501C-3 not for profit endeavor. So beholden to no one for advertising or sponsorship, I can do pretty much anything I want within my self imposed moral parameters.
I can get sappy or serious, topical or not, informative, inventive or, I can just shut the hell up.

Writing in a photo-journalistic format gives me opportunity to take a closer look. But I'm guessing that for every picture I post, there are 5 or 6 others that don't fit the theme or make the cut. So they get filed away for another day.
Recently, I looked through my backlog of unused photographs and decided that I wanted to set some of them free.
(it's an artist thing, go figure)

Finally, for this post, many thanks to a new friend and great
local musician, Din Allen, for letting me use one of his songs as an accompaniment to this montage of "leftovers".

Enjoy. . .


Click arrow to start video. Run time, 3:54

sunset cruise

I doesn't matter; the size of your boat.

What sanctifies the sail, is your view of the horizon.

rapture rant

Hmmm. . .
Two Hands, two feet, ten fingers, ten toes and I still have my nose. No shaking, no quaking, no end of the world.
I'm guessing we didn't get raptured on Saturday night.
(well actually I did, but not in the biblical sense)
As well as I can guess, neither have my neighbors. I mean if they'd been raptured, would they be dragging out the garbage cans and watering their lawns?
Being a student of comparative religion
(I know, I know; I didn't chose it, it chose me), I know that Jesus never said there'd be an end of the world.
It's a mistranslation! What the scripture actually says is, ". . . and surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
(Matthew 28:20)


It's an astrological reference. . . the end of the age of Pisces.

Biblically speaking, Moses ushered in the age of the Ram (Aires) and it's why in the Hebrew tradition they still blow the Shofar (ram's horn). Jesus ushered in the age of Pisces, the fish (which is probably why we have Chicken of the Sea tuna in a can) and in about 2150, some new mythological deity will kick off the next age, of the water carrier, Aquarius.
“As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters." (Luke 22:10) (Evian sales will explode!)

But what actually happens when the world ends? Does it melt, implode or crack like an egg. (a bit of omage for the graphic I heisted from google). And what happens to the moon if there's no more earth? Is it left out there just swingin in the wind with nothin' to orbit or does it go down with us? After 4 billion years of moon dance, that just doesn't seem right. And what about the sun? (By the way, if the sun is shining and there's nobody there to see it, does it still make light?) The sun's not going anywhere for the next 5 billion years! (at which point none of us will give a sh*t) And when it does, it'll take our world, the moon and most of the solar system with it.

Then there's that business of the rapture itself. . .
All those dead folks being raised from their graves and lifted into holy heaven. I would think that all that rotted flesh being raised above ground would stink to holy heaven.
(I live a block away from the cemetery)

This Harold Camping knucklehead decided that based on Jeremiah 25:32, “Look! Disaster is spreading from nation to nation; a mighty storm is rising from the ends of the earth.”, he could start shouting "the end is near, the end is near" and extort somewhere around $7 million dollars in donations.

What's got me cheesed about that is, I didn't think of it first. What a Scheme!

key west coin toss

The building at 428 Greene St. in Key West is an historical landmark with a storied past.

These days it's the home of Capt. Tony's Saloon but starting sometime in the 1800's it has been an ice house that doubled as a morgue, a telegraph office and the original site of the first and original Sloppy Joe's.

But all that, for the right price, is a tale for another time.

Today's interest is the giant Jewfish hanging above the sign over the front door of the place.

After it was caught by Capt. Tony himself, the Goliath grouper made a visit to the taxidemist and was suspended, as you see it here, about 15 feet above the pavement.

Now, the tradition with the fish is, after you've got yourself appropriately enlightened at the bar, you stand on the side walk below the sign facing the street with your back to the Jewfish's gaping mouth.
Then with a quarter in hand, toss the coin back up over your head in an attempt to land it in the fish's mouth.

Personally I've never tried it (but of course, I don't get enlightened anymore) but I've watched dozens of others try their luck without success. But a few years ago, a few of my cousins from Long Island came down with some friends to throw a bachelor party for cousin Dan. We spent some time at Capt. Tony's, (Dans favorite Key West bar) then headed up Duval to the Red Garter for a while and then it was back to Capt. Tony's for a nightcap.

All said and done, as we left the saloon for the night, cousin Eric came out, quarter in hand, assumed the position and made his toss.
That, my friends, has been the one and only time I've seen anyone get it done.
Into the belly of the beast, nothin' but net!

Since then I've wondered if and how often a Capt. Tony's bartender gets sent up a ladder to collect
what that Jewfish has swallowed.

proclivities 20:11 - verse IX

Normally I think of myself as a pretty educated, well informed, smarter than the average bear kind of guy.

Still, every once in a while I catch myself doing
some pretty knucklehead stuff.

artwork by Judy Mackey

Today's case in point. . .
As the weather's gotten warmer, I've taken to cranking up the A/C in the bedroom an hour or two before I head for the bed. Then, by the time I'm ready to give it all a rest for the day, the room is de-humidified and comfortably chilly.
So what do I do?
I curl up under the covers to keep toasty warm as if it were February in Vermont.

What's up with that?

a stretch of beach-front, a palm tree and a handful of colorful kayaks

Life in paradise, at least for me and most of my friends, is the greatest thing since sliced bread. But it is in no way an inoculation against "real world" horsesh*t.

I guess I've got the "real world" up my ass as much as
anyone else. . .
Death and taxes, angry ex-wives, workplace issues and maybe the occasional run-in with the sheriff's department.

When that stuff happens, I deal with it as best I can and try not to take any of it all that seriously. Then I'll retreat to a quiet corner of Cayo Hueso, catch my breath and remember that in spite of it all, life is good.

All it takes is a stretch of beach-front, a palm tree and a handful of colorful kayaks.