Rusty is not as fond of walking South and Fleming Streets as am I, but sometimes I do manage to impose my will a little bit.
Not enough to get him to walk down Carsten Lane with me unfortunately so I will never know whether the house under permanent reconstruction is still unfinished. 2016:
I think Mangia Mangia belongs in the Pantheon of Key West restaurants that have changed the least over the decades.
It attracts rave reviews and a totally loyal following. I like the wrap around balcony so I have far too many pictures of the building and not all in lovely light. So I take away now another postcard in my files.
Rusty led me across the street to a For Sale sign which included -rara avis- an old fashioned paper information sheet. I got all I needed. $1,550,000 for 600 square feet. And a swimming pool so you can swim two strokes in each direction while waiting for your house warming guests to find parking on the surrounding streets.
Ask me if I miss Key West and all I can say is not this version of the city.
I have learned to enjoy meteorological variety while I have been away but the slant of the winter sun in Key West still pleases me.
And all the empty porches waiting for this week’s Air B and B guests to arrive.
Below I found a omebody cheering on the winning side from afar afield. When I recently finished Travels With Charley I did notice one huge difference between Steinbeck’s America in 1960 and today. In his journey people never talked politics or took public sides or expressed any of the vulgar hurtful cruelty of the modern era in which we see the fear of political change. However his decision to view integration up close in a New Orleans school drew back a little of that curtain and exposed the rational anger and fear of change in those days as black America struggled for civil rights. We see today the entrenched structures of my generation slowly being forced to yield to the youngsters of today and their political aspirations. So nowadays a Senate race in Georgia resonates outside that singular state. May we live in interesting times really is a curse. I prefer the politics of balance and give and take and a fundamental belief that America is great already. It’s been pretty great to me but perhaps that view is too selfish.
I think this cat is homeless last seen on Williams near Southard. It was rangy and appeared to have dandruff and loved to be petted. A woman older than me wearing earbuds and bright expensive exercise clothes stopped by and I tried to palm the cat off on her more as a joke, a test perhaps of her wit. She took me seriously and started to explain why she couldn’t. I listened politely and hoped the friendly little thing found some other millionaire to cosset her. Rusty was looking at me a bit old fashioned throughout.
Chickens as Christmas decorations. Comments below please. I shall moderate them as fast as possible. Moderating comments makes me feel like a kindergarten teacher. Not my favorite Halloween costume. I thought the Christmas chicken was pretty cool.
A glimpse of the old Harris School still doing yeoman service as a parking lot. Only Key West can waste land like this. All these disengaged petit bourgeois millionaires and not one with an idea for a public spirited use for this vast spacious over priced lot and magnificent building. Before Bernie Madoff killed the Rodel Foundation that worthy organization wanted to create an artist’s comply in the building. Which in those days was for sale for 17 million dollars. I think. An historic Key West school rotting away.
