gritty musings...Bright Shiny Pennies

since the great fingerectomy...is that a term...countless friends have sent their prayers...i can only suppose prayers for healing and strength...maybe even a couple dr. who time machine prayers that i awaken on that warm November morning and not feel the urge to finish the shelf for the cd rack...some surely pray for my good humor or a positive attitude towards my nuevo affliction...a few artist friends even prayed that this could never and would never happen to them...it brought me to thinking about my uplink to the almighty...never a person resolute in my faith...it is amazing to me that grown people take a moment out of every day to offer a thought to...who? to someone that silently watches over us...that cares for us...i just lost that connection somewhere along the way...that sense of peace...for that trust in something unseen...i lament...there is something very consoling in a basis of faith...that someone out there gives a shit about me, my loved ones...all of us...definably ...

so here goes...been a month...the saw and i changed my life forever...you know my hands(plural being the operative word)have really taken care of me...my art...construction and carpentry...and my life in the kitchen...i am a big guy...i can move alot of stuff..lift really big things...i was the guy you'd call to move...to make...to toss out a belligerent asshole...so we learned that a lot of really small...almost weightless things, make up a day...write a check...takes about 5 minutes now...jot something down???...not before i forget about it...use a mouse...type...easier but still...open a can ...impossible...the first thing i learned ...you guessed it...something to do with the butt...today...blowing my nose...tomorrow buttoning my jeans with one hand...frustrated to near insanity...dependent on someone for far too many things...thank Buddha for drawstring pants and crocs...at least i am not pants-less and unshodden during this florida winter...the hand is healing...and three out...

obama caved...the republicans...saviors of our nation...refused to let the unemployed..sic..poor receive an extension of benefits unless the rich get to keep their bush tax cuts...never mind all the fussing and gnashing of hands over the every increasing deficit...the rich 5% of americans deserve those breaks...forget the increase of billions to the deficit...its obama's fault...the democrats are fuming...how could he do this...fuck them too...a worthless party of spineless politicians...didn't back their president when they had a super majority...now...what the hell does it matter...we got exactly what the stupid and willing wanted...even if they didn't know thats what they wanted...happy rich fucks...the deficit will continue to grow...even if they take away everything that benefits the poor and middle class...the rich...the corporates...don't give a minute shit about the deficit...line their pockets...merry christmas everyone...lets see what else they can do to get r...

like a kick in the chest...the wood shot out...kicked out of my tablesaw...i checked to see if i ripped my shirt...and then...was my hand attached to the wood???shit...blood...peeking at the remnants off my hand...okay be cool...grab that rag ...okay ...hospital...but the door to the house is closed...reaching for the knob...with..well not that hand...okay ...tuck the warm, red rag under my arm...squeeze tight...in the house...the beautiful girl asleep...closed last night...try not to scare the shit out of her...honey...honey...HONEY!!!...okay...the whole not freaking out thing impossible...hospital...where???okay down the road...ten blocks...on 5th or ninth...cindy screeching around corners...crying and glancing over at the warm, wet, dripping rag...my ashen face...in the one way entrance to the hospital...passing people who seem to have seen this film many times before...pointing to emergency...their are cop cars everywhere??..hope the girl doesn't get a ticket...warm red drippin...

the "palinism" of America... no one is safe from the vast, hypnotizing effect that the idiot witch of the north commands over the legion of "stupid and willing"...and lets get this straight ...i hate "dancing with the stars"...it is the train wreck reality tv has created in america...the whole concept is contrary to my opinion of talent and entertainment...that being said...i have been sucked in this year...how you might ask??? ...well i read in a blog that the "palinites" had joined hands in a huge "short bus" electoral storm to see that sarah's porcine progeny go all the way and win this testament to american foppery...it is comical if not tearful to watch this poor "piglet" clop around the floor dragging her professional partner around like a tiny pull toy...no marveling throws here...that would require herculean strength...nope just clopping...but regardless of her ability or lack thereof...she continues to win...and m...

there are no leaves to turn...and daylight savings time just means less beach time...but i can always tell when fall arrives by a couple of "Florida only" seasonal sightings...the first is the gradual extension in time that it takes to get anywhere or do anything...because the near dead and Canadians have arrived for their first taste of Florida weather... the second...license plates change and the average speed on the by ways goes down by twenty mph...are they re-experiencing palm trees or what...i can't help but resent these white haired explorers...coupons in hand...alert for the sighting of the unadvertised early bird...there is a group that inhabits a condo hotel behind my restaurant...they set up lawn chairs on the parking lot...they blast dean martin from a boom box and get blasted sitting in the sun...sounds great doesn't it.. except they are 300 yards from the beach...do they go to the beach ...nope...come here from the great frozen north to sit in a parking ...

it has been pointed out...and rightfully so...that i take this whole political thing far too seriously...chill, Ive been told...the sun will come up tomorrow...the beaches will still be beautiful...sunsets will still marvel the imagination...so i will take time away from John Boehner's tears of joy...his out-reached hand of co-operation...i will quell my need to projectile vomit across the room...and i will...lighten up...after all it's just a few short weeks till the beautiful girl and i will be drinking mohitos at Casa Cayo Hueso... watching the sunset show on Mallory...breakfast cubans and coffee con leche at the laundromat on white street...catching up with old friends at the parrot and the schooner...i miss key west...the early morning strolls with my camera...the late night stumbles down duval...watching the tourists...eyes wide to be in this legendary last stop before cuba...i like being a tourist here...but i also love... that after all our trips we have deep roots...gr...

you confuse and befuddle me america...i feel less and less a part of your fabric everyday...i am not the sharpest pencil in the pack...but i try to read...stay current...i watch and read both sides of every issue...so i know where our collective problems started...who was responsible...who is/was trying to solve our problems...so i watched in numb horror as the returns came in last night...that so many of us voted for the party and policies that we/they are so angry about...this party has done nothing in the last eighteen months but obstruct any and all progress towards helping any of us move forward...they seem fine with the fact that they represent the specials interests of big business and not the american people...here in florida we elected a old school florida politico...wrapped in the flag of exclusion from the very party that he begged to be part of...it didn't seem to matter if you he was under federal... investigation...the twist is now that if the government is investiga...

I feel like i am on a cliff...my back to the abyss...and there are thousands...millions of little rats pushing me to leap...as i talk to people i find that short of the couple of you that read "my diarie"...way too many idiots and lost souls...women and poor people feel the republicans have a better path than this administration...really...the poor...when if ever were the poor a consideration of the republican party ...well except in the cutting of services...here in the sunshine state the cuban nazi speaks to the poor huddled masses,,,,spits out the words "stimulus" like it was a bad thing...wants health care repealed...do they hear that...i wonder...NO HEALTH CARE FOR YOU...forget death panels...die a slow and withering death ignorant to whats is wrong with you...unable to find a physician that will treat you if you are not insured...let the banks fail...obvious that no one listened to their grandparents stories of the "great depression"...well i did...a...

bombasted...is that a word...i think we should all take a moment and thank the supreme court for opening the flood gates to the self serving groups that have bought every single second of airtime...there is no truth and i fear that most of us get lost in all the lies...here in florida we have "marco the scum"...preaching and whining about the deficit...now i agree that the deficit is huge and growing...but i have a fucking brain...i know when and where this current deficit originated...but no seems to care about that...so this brain surgeon and i say that with all respect to actual brain surgeons...wants to continue the bush tax breaks... that add more than 700 billion to the pile...look i know i appreciated the extra bucks come tax time...but i also know we can't afford to cut anyones taxes in this economy...so i am willing to forgo mine and believe me...i need mine more than the top 2 percent of the rich fucks need theirs...but thats the problem...even the president...h...

so i find that i am not so funny anymore...i think i might be a more angry human than i was with gdub, big dick and the whole crowd...i was angry when they stole the election in 2000...really pissy when they stared a war against a country that had nothing to do with September 11...absolutely beside myself when they sold the country to their buddies for the lowest bid...but these last two years...the actions of the republicans and now the new far right of sanity republican/conservative/haters of everyone that isn't white and illiterate...is testing me... Scott and rubio...two very different versions of slithering snakes...born under the sign of do whatever to regain control...are hinged to take over a state already precipitously close to demise...big business needs to wrench the last drops out of the people and natural resources of Florida... Scott is a thief...plain and simple...a white collar criminal with great lawyering...contrary to a very nice lawyer who tried with absolutely ...

mid term...wow what a difference two years make...the dems have done a okay job...but as usual don't know how to translate that to the legion of "stupid and willing"...lets see avoid full depression...stimulate the economy...credit card bill of rights...insurance companies can no longer drop you for being sick and actually needing your insurance...stabilize drug prices for the elderly...get two women on the supreme court...and get most of our troops out of Iraq...there's other stuff...stupid stuff like a Russian nuclear agreement...and the fact that the rest of the world only laughs at the citizens ...not the president...i say all in all an okay job...considering the shape good old George and boys left us in...am i 100 percent happy with our president and his administrations performance...no ...personally i would take most of the democrats out back and shoot em...but hey whats the alternative...the party that still...after two years hasn't put a thing on the table...

so "the beautiful girl's" dad forwards us an email...basically says that the wicked and deceptive Obama administration wants to levy a tax on every transaction you make at your bank...1% of the transaction...wow.. now this strikes me as kinda counter what the prez stands for...but never really trusting our government...whether dem or rep...i do some reading...and i learn two things...one is that the tax is on banks that transfer huge amounts of money... largely overseas...the reason seems to be one awareness of what these large financial institutions are up to...terrorism is used in the description...but i think that paints the problem with a large brush...and uses the buzz word...terrorism...for acceptance...but i have no problem with the government watchin these fucks...they have proved to be as trustworthy as crack whores at the rock candy playhouse.. .but ...and heres the really telling part...i find that the lobbyists for these banks have sent the "stupid and wi...

So is it to the point where we all really don't give a shit about anybody but ourselves...really...am i getting so old that the values of our generation are completely gone...and worse that we have not passed on anything...of value to those who follow us...if you sit and talk to people...i love doing that...when you listen...you find that your fellow citizens say the darndest things...they hate this president...and i know most of them are not racists...look i do get how awful it is out there...but we are all confederate in our own destruction...we allowed a president...an administration...to bankrupt us...to line their pockets and back away...allowing another administration to absorb the cost...and pay the public relations bill... but the convenience of blaming everything on president Obama is so far from the truth that... i just don't get it... but here's what is so baffling...the people who are bitching...the disenfranchised...conservative...white people ...are for the ...

so ...looking at healthcare...i gotta tell ya i feel like i am buying a used car...the reps are slimey...and you can't help but feel they are hiding something...major medical...you know the insurance my dad had ...provided by his company....reeeeciculous and a unbelievable deductible...i really would rather drive a jag...than have a health care...but i never thought it would be a cheaper option...ppo...these guys talk so fast...i wonder if the car actually has tires...they throw things at you like..."hey...if ya get sick and go to the hospital...we stroke you a check for 5K ...for bills or for a vacation...whatever"... seriously...if i am in the hospital...vacations are not on my mind...no deductible = very little protection... pharmaceuticals...cheap as long as it isn't a " premium drug"...which of course i take... you can go to the doctor 4 times a year...and they pay up to 70% ...so i feel like...the kid ...nose pressed up to the glass of the showroom......

holiday...you normal folk have the day off...we restaurant folk work...we labor...but on the flip side we have incredible Tuesdays..i haven't had a job with weekends off in so long the concept is foriegn to me...if you head to our beach on a regular monday or tuesday ...you will see all your favorite bartenders and servers...chefs and dishwashers...all listening to music and drinking way too much...wild mondays that last well into tuesday...but these guy and girls work so damn hard...and they work hardest on weekends...so they have it coming...the debacle known as tuesday...last night is like hell in the restaurant biZ..every single joint on the beach is packed...we run out of everything...mostly patience...as you probably noticed if you were tryin to get a drink ...that you're normally smiling barkeep had a sneer instead of their normal smile...cause last night we labored...ohh and another thing ...an inside look at the hospitality biz...the holiday itself ...today..great ...

i just had a couple days off...i never take them for granted...well i do but i try not to...anyway...reconstructing the garden after the great arborist intervention...has been...well trying...the orchids ...the beautiful girl's pride and joy...the army of delicate, stubborn, individual....colorful organic lifeforms are unhappy...they thrive in the shadows...damp but not wet...peeking at the sun...but never basking in it...the canopy of the great oak that provided the perfect environment...has changed ...and they are pissed...wilted...burned in some places...really unhappy...so we are are rushing to put up canvas sails...changing locations...moving our colorful family...almost thirty individual lives to find their peaceful spot...a very unpeaceful preoccupation...we are vested in their happiness...last winter...the coldest on Florida records required their movement...inside every night and then out side every morning ....a daunting and space limiting job that had to be done every ev...

we had primaries here in fla...after months of the now "accepted form of negative campaigning" the two parties have found their men and women...i was pleasantly surprised with my own party for tossing aside the billionaire profligate banker...in favor of the embedded and corrupt politico from south florida...now you might ask how that was a better choice...and i figure it this way...the entrenched politician...taking a grand here for a vacation...using his amex card for car repairs and weekends in south beach or... or the man who made billions betting against under capitalized home loans...the same guy whose 110 foot mega yacht destroyed a Belize reef ...no brainer..why he is a democrat anyway... i have no fuckin idea...sounds like there just wasn't enough room on the republican ticket...now the republicans on the other hand...never cease to amaze me with their zeal to succeed...they elected the ex ceo of the largest healthcare company in the southeast...the same company ...

okay so the not so new kid on the block... is bringin your own wine to a restaurant...I suppose its a way to reign in the cost of a night out...you know... run out to the grocery store...pick up whatever is on special...an viola...a cheap alternative...what the fuck...okay so lets leave out...the ridiculous..." i'll pay you $10, 15, even 20 bucks to open my cheap buy from "the wine store"...that practice seems so predatory to me to be outright...inhospitable...but let me try to explain it to y'all...i have wines on my list that are 15 years old... most of you probably don't know that a supplier doesn't carry 15 year old wine...i bought that wine sometimes 17 years ago( if i bought vintage futures)...and then i have coddled that wine, air conditioned that wine... dusted and denied that wine any sunlight for 15 years...i can't turn my air off when i am on vacation or at night or on days off...the restaurant is kept at 59 degrees year round for that wi...

time to beat feet...blow this popcorn stand...6 day work shifts approaching like the black clouds of the oncoming storm...5 weeks till no life...so where do we run to...the beautiful girl and i...is it "nawlins...for some abita and beignets...back to philly for a huge dose of family and friends...mexico again...nah probably not...or the old stand by...the keys...i just hate that drive...three hours of nothing from naples to homestead....beautiful girl keeps trying to convince me to stay in islamorada more than overnight...says its fun and that i am missing the small town appeal...maybe so...always on my way to key west...to the parrot and the schooner...cuban breakfast...mojitos...lunch at pepi's...or maybe something new...tried southbeach...missed the point...too urban...too tryin to be cool...maybe its just that the fakeness swallows up the scene...love the hotels...drinks at the delano...or lauderdale...beautiful water and great beaches...downtown has a cool ass food scene...

just saw it on the tube...oil has miraculously vanished...skimmers are being withdrawn... bp has already stopped paying claims in florida...not so bad...a lot of chicken littles...bp execs already trying for the prize... "there's alot of oil down there...we're gonna hafta look into getting it...in the not too distant future...a government talking head saying..."after all the gulf is a huge body of water...never underestimate natures ability to heal it self"... are you fucking kidding me...an oil spill visible from space...an oil spill the size of three eastern states...millions apon millions of gallons of crude pumpted 24/7 for three months...are we that fuckin stupid...do they really think we will buy that load of bullshit...what about the destroyed wetlands...the gooey shallow sea bottom...the infected Sargasso sea...the billions of organisms now carrying petroleum or dispersant in their cells...they...the oil industry...our legislators are hoping to get that ...

elections are upon us...here in florida...literally the stupidest place on earth...the scum are motivated...they want change...what kind of change...i don't know you tell me...i mean really ...you TELL them...cause the huddled masses here in the sunshine state...don't have a brain between them...we have two mega rich scumbags trying to buy public office here...one from each party...neither has a lick of experience in government...they have outspent the "career politicians" by millions of bucks...i love the this new disenfranchised voter group...they want the old guard out...hey so do i...but i don't want them replaced by the new foxenfrancised un informed conservatives...these are not your dads conservatives,,,these are the haters...they hate...blacks, latinos, gays, europeans, muslims, the poor, i actually heard a guy say lets drug test all the welfare recipients...cause if they are taking our money ...i wanna know if they on drugggs...they poor, they ain't ...

a lot of time these days is being spent wondering what the next challenge might be...i mean to earn a living...not how do i regain my youth...flatten my stomach...stop growing hair in or around my ears...do something with my non existent ira...i mean do i keep cooking??? don't get me wrong...its been great...but it becomes less rewarding...feeding the rich and rewarded...i don't even go out to the dining room any more... sabotaged that with the wild hair and the hippie bando...bruce is obviously slightly concerned that his chef looks like a reject from a phish weekend...but no worries...i have done all the table massage i ever plan to...kinda been there done that...got way too many fucking tshirts...my partner, bruce, wants to build one last restaurant...a bigger space...a chance to do what we do on a larger, newer, shinier stage...the beautiful girl is tiring of pouring shots of jagermeister for post pubescent idiots...longs to be in bed by eleven...by choice...the "isla ...

so you get mexico in stages...if you stay in large resort towns, you get a very milktoast version of mexican food...the farther you get from other white folks...the more mexican it gets...i love tacos...and real tacos are artistic simplicity...three to an order...unless you are buying them from a cart outside a bar...the hand made tortilla...always corn...and about three inches around...is heated slightly on a flattop or griddle...a little protein...my favorite...arrachera..marinated flank steak cut into little ribbons...or my second choice chorizo...spicy dried sausage...in mexico alot like peperonni...only mucho caliente..add a little lettuce...some onion...possibly cilantro...squeeze of lime...and salsa picante...now this sauce varies like an italian mothers red gravy...each place a little different...from brown made with maggi to red with tomatoes...and then there is por hombres...a crushed habanero...dusted with sea salt and the juice of one lime...simple lightning...we were on ...

when you travel with the beautiful girl...you tend to make some friends...as you all know or would guess i am kinda an introvert...okay so not really...but together we are ambassadors for the crazy ass american touristas... lets see there were the "too young to be actual, but dreamed of actually being" deadheads...lost in a little town west of austin... these two were a hoot...chasing down the alleys of isla ...tryin to score some weed...and she didn't even smoke...or the angry school teacher and his retail manager wife...they helped cindy guard over the sea turtle nest until the preservationists arrived...there was fletus, the only real name i'll use...just because his name was fletus..."you can't get away with anything when your name is fletus...its not like ohh it wasn't that fletus it was the tall one"... he was a trombone player from a memphis funk band ...the newlyweds...from sanfran...he was a sysco rep...there is just no escaping that damn c...

" vacations are like orgasms...once you have one, you just can't wait to have another!!!! and once you have been to isla you are a orgasm addict... estoy enamorado de esta isla mujeres!!! it was smaller than i thought...it had way fewer non mayans than i ever could have expected...it was bigger...taller ...rockier...longer and sweeter than i ever could have imagined...we needed our limited spanish...and it got a lot better cause we had to speak it...our hotels were exceptional...the food was simple to a degree that delighted the chef in me...the fisherman came in at three pm...pick your dinner out of the cooler...fried, served with frioles negro...tortillas, ensalada and a shrimp soup...the soup had one giant prawn surrendering to a fish fume spiked with cilantro, carrots and habanero...the sauce picante...mucho caliente, just doesn't cover it...basically a hab...smashed seeds and all, sea salt, lime and water...por hombres...the waiter laughed...checking to see if i had ...

i love livin in the south...wearing shorts and flip flops roughly 350 days a year...being able to ride my bike to the beach...yeah like i do that...but when the forth comes around...we southerners get into blowin shit up...you get to sign a paper down here saying ...yep i'm a farmer..an i am buyin all these pyrotechnic deeeevices to scare off critters...then we buy 1/4 sticks of dynamite or laws rockets and head to the backyard...the sky colored by every neighbors saved collection of explosives...i was reminded of those pictures of bagdad during the war...and hey if you didn't have time to run up to the fireworks tent on the corner...or you are just old-fashioned...then grab your automatic weapon and THE KIDS AND GO SHOOT SOME HOLES IN THE SKY...it seems every year some poor bastard gets a bullet in the head from returning fire...i swear i felt like i was in the war zone last night...and its funny...well that kinda...hair on the back of your neck funny...when you can different...

i saw a political ad today for some putz here in florida that basically said with little elaboration "vote for me cause I am a conservative".. don't vote for him he's liberal.... suddenly everyone wants to be a small minded self centered pin head??? i mean we aren't talking w.f. buckley conservatives...we are talking people who are afraid that the white american status quo needs to be brought back to order with the white guys in charge... seriously what is a conservative these days?...i know what a liberal is...or at least what i am...i stand for personal liberty...that differs greatly from corporate liberty...i believe we all have a stake in our government...even though we may disagree...i believe that you don't have to be a white male to get all the benefits of our constitution...i believe if rich people can pay paper taxes...then every single american gets health care...i believe just because you are Hispanic you are not a second class american...no one has...

the blue water calls...the sand beckons...desayuno under a palapa...skin crackling with salt and sun...we head back to mexico...the dangerous, scary, drug adalpated..no-one speaks the english ...at least not until its time to pay...little tacaritas...pescado de isla...tequilla mas fina...this year a chance to swim with whale sharks...sleeping in a hammock on a cliff overlooking the Caribbean...i can't tell you why i can't get this place outta my mind...i loved cancun...too touristy??? yeah okay... my resorts were phenomenal...massive pools...beautiful restaurants...all the booze you could swallow...i don't tend to drink that much there...i get up early...me, the beautiful girl and a grreat book...playa del carmen... gorgeous...cut out of the jungle...our hotel was like stepping back in time...walking the deserted beaches north of town...jungle to the left of me...ohh so blue sea to the right...and now isla...a little island...we have been told it is the heaven on earth...so...

It has been brought to my limited attention that I...rarely if ever talk about cooking on this blog...I guess the title is a little misleading...but i am a chef...or at least work at that capacity...and i don't know why i would rather bitch politic than share whimsical stories about the biz...or share recipes...maybe cause i do it every day...cook that is...don't get me wrong it is quite a pleasurable pre-occupation...if you like heat...my line runs between 110 and 140 these days...and cramped quarters...i work in a galley kitchen...basically a cooking and plating area of about 8x8...i basically spin from the stove to the line and back...rarely moving more than a foot at a time...the management of this particular posting is about waste and profit...i have no labor to speak of...so i watch numbers...right now we are sitting on pins waiting for the food purveyors to figure out how to drive prices of fish and seafood up due to the gulf disaster...the problem is less than 5 % of...

Have you noticed that we must be reaching our saturation point on the whole oil thing?? A little less media attention than last week...sorta like the body counts in Iraq and Afghanistan seem to be represented by a short end of piece every night on the news...or how Haiti must have miraculously been rebuilt...cause we don't hear about it...New Orleans must be is back to normal... right...i mean it was five years ago...christ we have already forgotten about the life altering floods in and around Nashville...sometimes I think we get just what we deserve... politicians who are very good moving our consciousness to the next big thing...so nothing gets fixed...nothing is really dealt with...the oil has not reached my little beach town yet...the oil plumes are still travelling around the gulf...looking for a land mass to foul...but its old news i was at the beach yesterday...some tourists from Texas were walking the shoreline...looking for tar balls not shells to take home ...they were mi...

looking in the mirror isn't as much fun as it used to be...now don't get me wrong...if i peek from the right angle ...in the right light...after a couple of hoegardens...i can almost...see the guy in the pictures...mostly i see my dad...which is very disconcerting...and i could workout ...as many of my friends do...and to that i say... right on you freaks...hey i just bought another gym membership...i like the gym...i walk on the treadmill...peddle the bike...i really like lifting weights...but that is kinda contradictory to the desired end...bigger i mean...someone once told me the bigger the arms the smaller the cranium...seems correct...cause there is no Einstein lookin back at me from this screen... all the things i broke all those years ago being athletic...they fuckin hurt...watchin me get up in the morning would be comical if it wasn't so damned painful... feet, shoulders, neck, hands...volleyball seemed like a great idea...but it wrecked my ankles...which in turn.....

we are being deluged by tv commercials for the mid term elections...in may!!!...what the fuck...this isn't presidential for Christ's sake...each repellent... lizard like politician swearing to be the next re-incarnation of the unconnected everyman...and the everyman...give me a break...the only "everyman" talking politics these days are the conservative right...who as i have told you before are just incredulous at the fact that a black man is president.. ...we have huge issues...crude... pumping oil is about to change the earths surface...forever...cause unless you missed it...nobody...including the president has a clue on how to stop this mess...19000 barrels a day ...gushing...into the gulf...pretty soon we won't need pumps...we'll just skim all the oil we need off the fuckin surface...we can burn oil drenched pelicans for light...snapper ala crude...oysters British petroleum...a whole new culinary genre... the Arizona immigration thing...is this america???...

Alright...call me maladjusted but I really don't get the whole dancin with the stars thing...i have to admit to a certain licentious interest in watching Pam Anderson jiggle or Kate Gosslin slither around a stage...semi clad.. I know....its like driving by a car wreck...you know a good person wouldn't look for the blood under the blankets...but......get a fuckin life people.... there are books...check your kindle And another thing...the liberal media??? any time I hear that, I know I'm about to get an earful of someone who hasn't read anything in print but a flyer at a right to life rally...Its called news...it happens daily...and just because someone writes a story about global warming or gun control or calls Sarah Palin retarded...yes I said it...that doesn't make them liberal or atheist...it makes them ...a reader...pry your eyes away from fox long enough to let your iq raise 5%...and join the rest of the civilized world...we're waiting... Finally...the Yan...

Commercials for the mid term elections in fuckin may...really...the most recent one here in florida is a laughing president Obama...it is about the Arizona law...the second part of the message is...conservatives want change...to what...seriously...back to the last regime that filled the pockets of the rich while keeping the boot on the average american's throat...to the banking deregulation that caused the credit collapse...and by the way... the law... unconstitutional...you cannot target a group of people for racial scrutiny...that is racial profiling..which the high court has already ruled against...do you have any idea how many law abiding third, fourth and fifth generation Mexican Americans live in Arizona...or any of the boarder states for that matter...millions...all of which have to be looking over their shoulders for some policeman to pull them over because of the color of their skin...bullshit..."where are your papers"...sounds alot like the old soviet union, d...

I think you gotta live on the gulf coast to really get it...there is this giant mass of oil...somedays the size of Jamaica...being pushed around the bathtub that is the gulf of mexico...I live and work on the beach...and we all... from texas to the keys are sitting here waiting for the destruction to hit us...and we are used to this...when there is a hurricane in the gulf...we wait...where will it go? do I board up the house and go inland?... we are a prepared group...but this is different...the florida control center ...set up by the feds is here in st. pete...we have volunteers ready...rags and dawn in hand to help save the sea birds and dolphins and giant sea turles...the fisherman are all signing up for bp's " turn your boat into an oil skimming rig" program.. because soon there will be no fishing.. they say the el nino might push the oil down the center of the gulf towards the florida straights... through thousands of miles of sea beds with long grasses...through pri...

By now most of you have read about the once republican governor, now " non party affiliated" candidate for senator of the sunshine state...chucky christ...bizarre is the only way to describe his ascension ( possible vp select for McCain) to his toss into the trash bin here in florida...the repubs, doing their best impersonation of headless chickens have tossed their weight behind an unknown, ethically questionable, nobody from Miami...Maaarcco Rubio...now this guys slithers like a like a siding salesman with a bad product...he could never debate because, wisely, his handlers only let him speak on talking points...obama ruined this, obama ruined that...when asked what he thought about the rise in jobs...he responded...thats great but obama is responsible for everything from climate change to to the bad fashion of clam diggers...now charlie was vapid, unenvolved and wishwashy...the new guy is corrupt, purchased by the big lobbies here in floreeda...oil, insurance and healthca...

thanks to all the mothers, everywhere. .but like all restaurant people I am sooo happy that I am closed today...last night was bad enough...alot of once a year diners....that couldn't make brunch...for whatever reason...showed up with little to no notice and packed my little place...the two of you who read this must think..."why is he always bitchin about being busy"...well for one thing ...thats what we do...chefs bitch...its part of the training...you bitch at your suppliers...you bitch at your staff...you bitch at the servers....you bitch when you're empty and you bitch when you're not....you even bitch at your owners!!!...unless you are the owner and then...you guessed it...you bitch about owning it...we are a tired and surly lot...who drink too much and work more...but we love our moms...but they know to never show up on mothers day...even if its to see us...

so I am sitting home adding some music to my i phone...headphones on ...the niece is sleeping ...so are the dog and the beautiful girl for that matter...but to the point...it is music ...music that my friend gives me...we live far away..but not that far from our memories of the can...sitting on that beat up couch..him trying to force me to open my minds eye to Zappa...screaming over this riff or that line...he still gives to all of us at Bandana's with spinner...but today its a couple of cds... 1500 songs to be exact... we made on my last trip up...drinkin martinis...smokin cigars...and letting him do what he does the bestest...throwing music up...saying "heard of him sunshine?'..." ohh he's so fuckin strange you'll love it'...so todays its Llyod Spiegal, Guy Forsyth, Hamilton Loomis and lest i forget David Midgen and the dirty words..." one by one"...screaming in my headset...I always loved music...the one thing i know i can't do...i can on...

those famous words... muttered by the newest village idiot...who lives in a state still decimated by the Valdez spill...who probably never really recognized the significance of the disaster...wants to share the wealth...well I live in a very beautiful place...a place that I chose to live for it's natural beauty...i also read...which is more than i can say for those people who think that drilling any further in the gulf of mexico would increase our independence on foreign oil...like I have read that all the oil in the gulf would extend our oil for less than ten years...or that the oil pumped would be added to the pool of crude and sold to the highest bidder...china...so now... we have the ecological disaster off the coast of Louisiana...where there are something like 717 wells...each capable of the self same destruction... right now...and remember the oil company people telling us that the disaster that happened off the Australian coast could not happen here because of the advance...