The day was too nice to get sucked back into the turmoil that came tumbling out of the long weekend. It is ugly, and the conclusion of “Child 44,” the thriller about times in the Uncle Joe’s Soviet Union made me realize that it might be time to be extremely cautious in dealing with any […]

It is hard getting it together this morning. I want to go swim and hang out at the pool back up north and I am at the farm with chores to do. The motivation was to be here was to check the mail, ensure the mice had not moved back into the postbox, look at […]

(Stoic Russian peasants get the daily news from Pravda. Everyone was happy, without exception, except for malingerers and social misfits who needed long-term professional care. Photo Wikipedia). Yesterday was a day when belief was suspended. There was so much to process this week- so much of it sad and depressing after the excitement of a […]

(Italian-born American anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. They were arrested, convicted and executed in 1920). Jeeze, you take a simple vacation to see family and old friends, and by the time you get home, the Republic has been lost. That will teach me to go have a good time. I should have known the […]

(No less an authority than the National Geographic pronounced Torch the second most beautiful lake in the world). My eyes blinked open around 0600 this morning, and I briefly considered what bed I might be in. It seemed familiar enough, and then I realized I was actually in my own bed, and safe and sound […]

Gentle Readers, I commend today’s installment of “Life and Island Times” to your attention as our faithful correspondent Marlow ticks off a couple hundred reasons he will be missing Key West from the vantage of a new home on the Mainland. I share a little of his passion for the lovely Key at the southernmost […]

Life and Island Times June 30 2016 – Duval Street Key West’s Duval Street at night in the rain Winding our way down on Duval Street Light in our heads and dead on our feet Another crazy day in the world, we’ll drink the night away And forget about everything The world events make you […]

There is some pretty crazy stuff going on in the world this morning, and I was tempted to break my self-imposed embargo on commenting on some of the most egregious examples of the lunacy. I stayed in last night after a comforting hour-long swim and soaked in what details were available on the bombings at […]

(The Inn at Little Washington, site of two out of two of the most amazing meals of my now unsettlingly long life, courtesy of the Webb Family). I had a minor adventure over the weekend- well, three, if you count the farm and the chores that made me justify a trip to town for a […]

Well, if you have to fail, do so spectacularly. Teddy Roosevelt said something like that, I forget when, but screw it. He was right. And we did. Fail. Epically. I have to acknowledge my partners in the failure, who contributed with élan and espirit, and a certain indomitable panache that made me proud to be […]