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.

everything else is crap

During the last couple of months I've been visited by quite a few ghosts from Artman's past. Old acquaintances who've found me through FaceBook and distant relatives phone calling out of the blue. I've bumped into a few past lovers
(in one case literally) and was visited by an old friend and former band mate who I hadn't seen in 40 years.

Now, I accept, as an axiom, the proposition that all we create our own realities. But sometimes it boggles my mind how
that works.
Like now, with all these recent "blasts from the past".
As far as I knew, I was happily living my low-key island life when all these chance encounters came along. What the hell did I do to manifest this stuff? I'm not saying any of this is bad stuff, just very curious.

Understandably, revisiting one's past can run the mind through a gauntlet of memories and emotions, re-open old wounds or re-live past joys, reawaken former pains and prejudices, issues unresolved and unfinished business.
Then there's the boatload of "what ifs" and "whys".
"How could this or that situation been better or worse?" "What difference might it have made to have turned right instead of left?"

Selfish questions all steeped in ego; a sort of feeble attempt to over-master memories of the past and surely not the best of all places for the mind to dwell too long.

Anyway, I put myself through that gauntlet and, in the end, happily came to the place where mind is right, heart is healed and soul is satisfied.
Detached from ego, it's an easy thing to be grateful for those children of God whose lives I've touched and who's lives have touched mine.

Our courses had crossed, drifted their separate ways and now, for some God only knows reason, have briefly crossed again. In the end, all that really matters is the happy knowledge that we're all still weathering the waves and making way
under sail.

Everything else is crap.

a workday on duval

So why, I had to ask myself, was this seemingly disguised guy with the Keys Energy truck spray painting the shell of a traffic light on the corner of Eaton and Duval. . .
Key West does, after all, have a Public Works Department whose "mission" is to maintain the health, safety, and beautification of our community and has a "vision" of the efficient operation and maintenance of the city's cemetery, facilities, streets and sidewalks. (it's on the city's website, you can look it up)

hmmm, i thought. . .
Maybe Public Works ran out of trucks with cherry pickers and borrowed a couple from the electric company. Maybe there's a notorious notable coming to town this weekend and in a effort to spiff up the town in time, Keys Energy and Public Works are working together to get it done. Or maybe there's something more nefarious going on; like a deceptive deal between the city and the utility company, grandfathered in to tax the already overburdened ho-moaners out of just a few more bucks, enough to pay off the city's debt to the Ducks.

Or maybe, just maybe, I've been spending too much time reading the "Blue Paper". . .