Conch Fritters, Paper Towels And Other Stories

Stagg and Rick on dock patio over the Everglades.

Look at this lovely solution. How to keep paper towels from unraveling in the wind? A fishing line weight. The restaurant also leaves the bill with a clothespin clipped on to it so it doesn't blow away.






I know. Weird. But I just had to take a pic of this tampon machine.


Rick and his wife have certainly joined the Florida conspiracy to corrupt us with food, comfort and friendship. They have spoiled us and taken us in and we've had a marvelous visit. Rick and I have known each other 16 years and we met on a bookclub and web forum focused on discussing Cormac McCarthy. How do I tell you about Rick. First, he and his wife have been to the Galapagos Islands three times. 3!!! times!!! That almost in itself tells you what kind of a person he is. (They are) It is no small exageration to say that on a particular level Rick changed my life. He and Marty at the Cormac McCarthy Society more or less taught me how to argue, fight er ah discuss any number of subjects with a kind of intense bantering one-up-sportsship-attitude. In many ways Rick taught me how to play The Dozens online. At the web boards of the McCarthy Society for the last 16 or so years we've had any number of discussions, arguments, locking horns and bantering over things from language, music, sports, Cormac McCarthy, the colour blue, homoeroticism, death, life, religion, feminism, Stanley Kubrick, Terrence Mallick, Sam Peckenpah, erections, fruit sex, snake names, movie reviews, male bonding, fishing, pop stars, miscreants, losers, celebrities, art history, The Grateful Dead versus any other band, menstration, thantos, logos, slack philosophy, telos, nihilism, hope, hate, love, marriage, divorce, Robin Williams, John Goodman, Jim Harrison, football, soccer, (never hockey, Rick hates hockey and he tortures me mercilessly if I mention the game) sociopaths, terrorists, Presidents, thieves, sots, wimps, heroes, and well you get the drift. Sometimes these discussions have come close to the bone for participants and tears have flowed and egos bruised but Rick has almost always brought back sanity and showed me by his own attitude , for better or worse, how to have a discussion online. How to ease up. How to not hold grudges or to jab or not jab an "opponent" with sarcasm, or outright skill and make em laugh . It is no small order that both Marty the webmaster and Rick the King as Suzerians have influenced the way I write and the way I communicate. Especially online. I wasn't a completely dalt when it came to expressing myself when I first met Rick, but the books and movies and demand for articulating an argument he has placed on me over the years...truly upped my game. It's been not only a wonderful treat to spend time with him and his better half (who really puts that cliche to shame) and see Miami and the surrounding flora fauna and food from their view. Not only is Rick a sort of bio-encyclopedic monster of information and experience in literature, history and naturalism...he is also a warm generous person and has always been a wise cyber-brother to me. Its been great to hang out in person.

(This has been a mindblowing visit with all our friends from the past weeks photos and posts and we have no idea how we will ever make it up to them. We feel so lucky to have spent time with such wonderful people we know in florida.)