Insinuating the detail of a place requires both time and deliberation, neither of which will succeed without the other. Detail is the reward of narrowness, the elevating quality of both understanding and experience. In the minds of some people detail comes at the cost of obsession, a feature most often dismissively characterized as a trifling fixation or mania. Detail for me is imperative as it explains not only why chronographs work but affords the refinement of examination which reveals an often hidden advantage. Getting the so-called full picture is not merely about standing back.

Continue reading →

When idly chatting with neighbours (usually around the pool) the topic inevitably arises about what restaurants or concerts one has recently frequented or attended. It is usually a leading question. The enquiry is as invariably punctuated immediately by the name of a restaurant or a recent performance in nearby Sarasota. When the question is directed to me my stock reply is, “We don’t go off the island!” Though I don’t feel it necessary to excuse my offhand reply I may add something about disliking driving at night or a complaint about traffic during “the season“. If I am pressed about the impossibility of resisting the concerts I simply add that I have Bose 700 headphones which afford me an “unrivalled microphone system” with which to enjoy Apple Music’s virtually limitless library of every description (plus curated lists from the Apple editors) – all without the necessity of leaving home, dressing appropriately or having to disguise a social outing for a musical escapade. A similar retort besmirches the quiz about restaurants; namely, I unhesitatingly advance – quite honestly – that I prefer my own culinary preparations or that there are perfectly agreeable venues on the island (or maybe just off the bridge on Cortez Road W in Bradenton Beach). In either case, casual dining is the key. And Arthur Rubinstein when listened to in the comfort of my drawing room chair is even more gratifying than when having to squeeze into a concert folding chair with limited elbow room and enduring the annoyance of someone crackling the wrapper of a mint.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with inherent and [certain] inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, & the pursuit of happiness: that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it’s foundation on such principles, & organizing it’s powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness. Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light & transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses & usurpations begun at a distinguished period and pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such government, & to provide new guards[…]”

Excerpt From: Thomas Jefferson. “Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson.”

You are my companion for life;
I can’t  imagine going anywhere or doing anything without you. 

You are my keel
When all other mechanics fail.

It isn’t the most inspiring undertaking to consider moving to a retirement residence – a project which at the present time enthrals a couple whom we know. On the other hand it represents a prolonged evolution. Though addressing this and similar progressions is less animated than Darwinian theory of organic transformation, the view of it as utter declension catastrophizes the scheme. Not unexpectedly the inevitability of such change promotes an element of gusto in matters of currency until the irreversible necessity arises. I begin by employing the opportunity as one of reflection – perhaps an indulgence designed to ignore the ultimate doom of my future. I make no apology for the wantonness. This and Key Lime pie are excusable by my measure!

My sister and her husband recently returned from what by all accounts was a rewarding visit with their second daughter and her husband in California. It pleased me to receive this news. There was by coincidence a revival of other family memorabilia and photos.

Propaganda is a modern Latin word, ablative singular feminine of the gerundive form of propagare, meaning to spread or to propagate, thus propaganda means for that which is to be propagated. Originally this word derived from a new administrative body of the Catholic Church (congregation) created in 1622 as part of the Counter-Reformation, called the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (Congregation for Propagating the Faith), or informally simply Propaganda. Its activity was aimed at “propagating” the Catholic faith in non-Catholic countries.

From the 1790s, the term began being used also to refer to propaganda in secular activities. The term began taking a pejorative or negative connotation in the mid-19th century, when it was used in the political sphere.

Continue reading →

Serendipity was at work again today in all her unforeseeable grandeur! As I lay remotely distant from the other beach gatherers this afternoon assiduously tapping upon my iPhone to record the various thoughts I was developing concerning the essential divisions of life, I chanced to meet a gentleman whom I initially characterized a fellow-photographic enthusiast. He walked past me carrying not one but two cameras, one an extravagant looking device with a telescopic lens, the other what I learned from him was an iPhone XI connected to a very professional extension wand. These instruments alone should have alerted me that I was about to make the acquaintance of an extraordinary man. I was however dissuaded in this instinctive perception by his age. Not that he looked decrepit by any means – in fact au contraire he was extremely well preserved for his 82 years – but I confess I wasn’t prepared for the gusto and strength of ambition which followed!

The season is upon us. Time and again today while reclining on the powdery white sand of the beach at Lido Key I heard interlopers comment upon the congested traffic (presumably to and from Longboat Key and the islands beyond such as Bradenton Beach and Anna Maria Island) and the necessity to get to the beach early enough to secure an umbrella for rental. The chap renting chaises longues and umbrellas ran out of umbrellas by early afternoon and could easily have amortized the cost of many new ones for rental. It made me reflect upon the unspoken elements of his standard rental agreement; namely, not containing an assignment entitlement nor the right to sublet. Seemingly these esoteric legal issues do not regularly arise. I further wondered how the rental chap might have handled the dilemma should it have arisen – especially considering that he displayed an exceedingly active business acumen. He did for example apologize more than once to the woman who hadn’t cash or PayPal by which to pay for a rental – though he did suggest a nearby ATM machine. To his credit the chap refused to do business on the strength of the woman’s proposal that she would be back tomorrow with the money. Even were he to have believed the woman, there were so many others like myself overhearing the conversation that his deviance from routine may have offended others.

I wonder how far one must go to discover the world? At the risk of sounding horribly complacent I’m not certain I really care. I do however admire the adventurers of the world, those who are inveterate travellers. There is unquestionably something exotic about flying in a balloon and going where the wind blows. My personal focus is perhaps shamefully far more domestic. The conviction is not entirely one only of restriction (though that certainly is a predominant feature) but also excusably philosophic. The competing rationale is that “there ain’t no ship to take you away from yourself“. Or as has been more lyrically interpreted, “Is that all there is?“