October 2, 2014

Transcription

October 2, 2014

C O M M U N I T Y
Fantasy Fest Pet Masquerade stars ‘party animals,’ Oct. 22
SPECIAL TO KONK LIFE
More than 40 masquerade contests,
parties and other spectacles challenge
the creativity of mask and costume
designers during Key West’s Oct. 17-26
Fantasy Fest — but none more than
the Pet Masquerade and Parade for
furred and feathered revelers.
Scheduled Wednesday, Oct. 22, the
costume competition is designed for
domestic “party animals” and their
human companions. e offbeat event
draws several dozen entries ranging
from costumed pet-and-person duos
to animal-and-human ensembles
staging choreographed performances.
Many entries are likely to reflect the
2014 Fantasy Fest theme of “Animeted
Dreams & Adventures” inspired by
traditional Japanese anime and other
creative animation from blockbuster
films to comic-book classics. Animal
entrants might be costumed as Kung
Fu Pandas, black-masked Batmen or
big-eyed heroes from stylized anime.
Open to all domestic animals, the
“animeted” antics are set to begin at
5:30 p.m. on an oceanfront stage at the
Casa Marina, a Waldorf Astoria Resort,
at 1500 Reynolds St.
Judges traditionally award prizes for
the top junior contestants, most exotic
attire, best theme adaptation, best petowner look-alikes and overall winner.
Recent years’ standouts include a
“vampire cat” with a replica coffin,
a Great Dane costumed as a Florida
lobster, a Chihuahua “burro” with tiny
tequila-filled saddlebags and an eerie
ensemble that crept through the
crowd and danced onstage to Michael
Jackson’s “riller.”
General admission for spectators
is free. VIP seating and cocktail
packages can be purchased,
www.keystix.com
Proceeds benefit the Lower Keys
Friends of Animals. n
2
www.konklife.com • OCTOBER 2 - 8, 2014
Masquerade March
stepping out, Oct. 24
SPECIAL TO KONK LIFE
Revelers dressed as comic-book
heroes, characters from Japanese manga
and other colorful creatures parade
through historic Old Town Friday,
| Continued on page 12
KEY NEWS
n MIAMI VICE
LOOKING BACK . . . 11
CVS plans giant drugstore on Duval
BY PRU SOWERS
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
CVS Caremark, the parent company
of thousands of CVS drugstores across
the country, has its eye on Key West.
On the heels of opening a new,
24-hour CVS in the Kress Building at
500 Duval St., which housed Fast Buck
Freddie’s for 37 years, the company has
now targeted 101 Duval St. as the latest
location for a new retail outlet.
If CVS wins planning board approval
for 101 Duval, the company will operate
two giant drugstores only four blocks
apart.
ere are currently three other
CVS stores in Key West, and a new one
opening soon on Stock Island.
“We have several stores in the Key
West market, and we are always looking
for opportunities to expand service in
our markets,” said CVS Caremark
spokesperson Michael DeAngelis.
Wampler said CVS will have to do
other improvements to the building
in order for it to meet city and state
building codes.
e current electrical system does not
meet code, Wampler said. Handicapped
accessibility will also be an issue, because
the first floor of the building is up
several steps from the street. A 36-car
parking garage occupies the lower level,
which could potentially flood during
storms, he added.
“We’d like to see some more
landscaping around the exterior. I don’t
know how successful we’ll be, because
it’s an existing building. e approach
is different on a existing building,”
Wampler said, referring to the more
limited building code requires that apply
to a renovation of an existing building
as compared to new construction.
e CVS Caremark spokesperson
said if the company wins city approval
for 101 Duval St., the store would not
open until late 2015 or early 2016.
e newest store would move into a
10,631-square foot building that used to
house a giant t-shirt shop at the corner
of Duval and Front streets.
e location has been vacant for the
past three or four months, according to
Key West Chief Building Official Ron
Wampler, who has done a walk-through
of the building with CVS officials and
the city fire marshal.
CVS also appeared before the city
Development Review Committee
on ursday, Sept. 25, for a preliminary
meeting before moving on to the
planning board.
Wampler, who sits on the
Development Review Committee,
said CVS will be asking for approval
of a minor development plan to build a
roof over the existing 1,094-square foot
interior courtyard at 101 Duval St.
e company will also ask the
planning board to approve a variance
for the courtyard roof.
3
ROYAL HAPPENINGS!
King and Queen candidate events
• ursday, Oct. 2, 6-8 p.m. Annual All Candidates Bash at the Bourbon St.
Pub, 724 Duval St. Join all of the candidates at this Meet & Greet Party. $25
donation into the party and chance to vote for favorite candidate. Great boost
for moral and campaign coffers toward the end of a very grueling campaign
schedule. Free tropical drinks while socializing with your friends.
All Candidates
• Saturday, Oct. 4, 6-9 p.m. Royal Ball at the Gardens Hotel, 526 Angela St.
Mingle with royalty. Music Skipper Kriptiz and band. Food by Iron Chefs. Admission $50 per person, contact Jeremy Wilkerson, (305) 440-2300,
for reservations. All Candidates
e new Kress Building CVS is
expected to open sometime early
next year.
“We would lease the [101 Duval St.]
building as part of this store proposal.
is is in the very early planning stages
. . . so we do not have additional details
to share at this time,” DeAngelis said in
an email to Konk Life.
CVS/pharmacy is the retail division
of CVS Health, which operates more
than 7,700 stores in the United States.
It was the first national pharmacy
to end tobacco sales. n
n CITY NEWS
04
HOUSING PROJECT
05
IMPROPER CREDENTIALS
06
SCHOOL BOARD
06
SUNSET CELEBRATION
08
CRUISE SHIPS
08
ROY BLANCO
C I T Y N E W S
october 2-8
Published Weekly
Vol. 4 No. 40
PUBLISHER
Guy deBoer
MANAGING EDITOR
Ralph Morrow
NEWS WRITERS
Mark Howell, John L. Guerra,
Pru Sowers, Sean Kinney, C.S. Gilbert
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Larry E. Blackburn, Ralph De Palma
DESIGN
Dawn deBoer
Julie Scorby
CONTRIBUTORS
Guy deBoer Key News
Mark Howell Howelings
Rick Boettger The Big Story
Tim Weaver Bone Island cartoonist
Louis Petrone Key West Lou
Albert L. Kelley Business Law 101
Christina Oxenberg Local Observation
Kerry Shelby Key West Kitchen
Ian Brockway Tropic Sprockets
Jenessa Berger Get Your Wellness
C.S. Gilbert Culture Vulture
Harry Schroeder High Notes
Morgan Kidwell Kids’ Korner
JT Thompson Hot Dish
Diane Johnson In Review
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KONK Life is published weekly by KONK
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Editorial materials may not be reproduced without
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www.konklife.com
Commissioners pull
out of affordable
housing project
BY PRU SOWERS
affordable housing.
“We are being asked to spend $925,000
of Land Authority money designated to Key West
for no new net affordable housing. We have four
affordable housing apartments there now,”
Johnston said. “On three of these units, they don’t
even qualify for our workforce housing minimum
square footage level. We have a 400-square foot
minimum level to consider something affordable
housing.”
Mark Moss, executive director of Key West and
Lower Keys Habitat for Humanity, acknowledged
there were inconsistencies in the information his
staff presented to city and county officials. e
difficulty was that Habitat was rushing to meet
a deadline to use money awarded to it as part of
Florida’s share of the court settlement between
mortgage lenders and the federal government, he
said, and the design plan for 1012 Fleming St.
wasn’t complete when Habitat first met with city
commissioners.
Florida received $300 million in the mortgage
settlement, which was the result of irregular and
irresponsible loans approved by multiple banks
that resulted in default. Florida Habitat for Humanity received $20 million as part of that settlement. In turn, it gave $300,000 to the Key West
and Lower Keys Habitat affiliate. at money
must be spent by June 2015.
“Habitat has tried very hard to make this state
funding work. What we presented to you was the
best option we could come up with. If you see fit
not to move forward, we understand,” Moss told
city commissioners.
Bryan Green, an architect and member of the
Monroe County Land Authority Advisory Committee, also appeared before the commission on
Sept. 16. Emphasizing that he was speaking as an
individual and not representing the advisory
committee, Green urged commissioners not to
move ahead with the project because of the high
One day before selling a five-unit house on
Fleming Street to Monroe County for use as
affordable housing, the Key West City
Commission pulled out of the deal.
Commissioners voted unanimously Sept. 16
to rescind their earlier vote to send the plan to the
Monroe County Land Authority for its approval.
Commissioners had voted Aug. 5 to nominate
1012 Fleming St. for inclusion on the Land
Authority’s affordable housing acquisition list at
a sales price of $925,000. Land Authority board
members were scheduled to consider the acquisition at their Sept. 17 meeting and were expected
to approve the property transfer if city commissioners OKed the deal on Sept. 16.
But commissioners decided to reverse themselves because of new information about the project that came to light after their Aug. 5 meeting,
according to Commissioner Teri Johnston. Originally, Key West and Lower Keys Habitat for Humanity, the Christian non-profit that renovates
and manages 24 affordable rental units in Key
West and Stock Island, was slated to partner with
the city and county as the contractor to renovate
the building. e plan was to turn the existing five
rental apartments into five home ownership units
offered to buyers meeting the county area median
income criteria. When Habitat planners appeared
before city commissioners on Aug. 5, the design
was to create five, 599-square foot units. But when
Habitat later went before the Land Authority Advisory Committee, the apartment sizes had shrunk
considerably, ranging from 480 to 320 square feet.
In addition, because the project was going to
create five home ownership units, instead of five
rental units as is the norm when Habitat takes over
a project, the five tenants currently living at 1012
Fleming St. were likely to be displaced. Four of
those tenants currently pay rents that qualify as
4
C I T Y N E W S
Teacher on firing
line for improper
credentials
threw the Scrabble piece at a student in
violation of local School Board policies
and the state Principles of Professional
Conduct for the Education Profession
in Florida.
Detention center staff member
Charnette Butler-Valdez watched the
incident and documented it in an
incident report.
According to that document, Lynne
was playing Scrabble with two students,
one of whom “was taking too long and
holding up the game according to
Ms. Lynn[e],” whom Butler-Valdez
interviewed.
e 16-year-old boy, identified by
the initials C.H., “choose [sic] a
wooden letter from Ms. Lynn[e]’s
letters, then changed his mind and gave
it back. Youth C.H. then [took] too
much time to decide which letter
to choose which mad[e] Ms. Lynn[e]
frustrated.”
e teacher then “took a wood game
piece with a letter on it and threw it at
youth C.H. saying, ‘Here, take this
one.’”
Butler-Valdez reported that she
called Lynne out for what she did and
Lynne “looked at me amazed and then
I reiterated to her that she could not do
that. She apologized to me saying, ‘I am
sorry, but I just get so frustrated.’”
“In a private conversation, I told
[Lynne] she cannot get frustrated
because if the youth had retaliated it
could be deemed self-defense. She again
apologized for her actions,” according
to Butler-Valdez’s report.
In a Sept. 18 letter to Lynne, Porter
wrote that her alleged actions “reduces
the teacher’s ability to effectively
Scrabble letter
thrown at student
BY SEAN KINNEY
e Monroe County School Board
on Sept. 23 put off taking a vote on
Superintendent Mark Porter’s recommendation to fire a teacher accused
of having improper credentials and
throwing a Scrabble piece at a student.
Board member Andy Griffiths said
action will be delayed until the next
meeting on Oct. 28 beginning at 5 p.m.
at Marathon Middle/High School because of an issue with the notification of
the board session this week.
Robin Lynne has been a district
employee since August 2002, according
to Porter’s petition for firing, and most
recently taught at the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice’s Monroe
Regional Juvenile Detention Center
next door to the Monroe County
Detention Center on Stock Island.
Instead of getting the appropriate
certification to work as a “special assignment” teacher at the juvenile detention
center, Lynne obtained an “elementary
education” certificate, according to
Porter.
Ramon Dawkins, the district’s
executive director of human resources,
notified Lynne of the certification issue
with a July 25 letter mailed to her
Ramrod Key home.
Dawkins warned Lynne, “Your
employment with the district is in
jeopardy.”
en, Porter wrote, on June 2 Lynne
5
C I T Y N E W S
Sunset Celebration
management close
to a deal
School Board adding
4 to 59-bus fleet
BY SEAN KINNEY
e Monroe County School Board
on Sept. 23 unanimously approved
the $441,580 purchase of four new
77-passenger schools buses as part
of a 10-year plan to replace the
School District’s bus fleet.
On Dec. 10, the board also voted
to spend $1,198,969 for 10 new
omas C2 buses.
Patrick LeFere, the district’s
executive director of operations and
planning, in November advised board
members that the district’s 59 buses
were quickly deteriorating.
Specifically, 40 of the buses were
five years or older; 15 buses were
10 years or older; and four buses
were less than five years old.
LeFere, laying out his case, said
between 2000 and 2008 the district
bought new buses every year totaling
55 buses. But between 2009 and
2013, the district only purchased four
buses.
“e district should have been on a
regular purchasing schedule buying an
average of four buses per year…” e
increasing age of the bus fleet results
in decreased reliability and increased
costs for maintenance and fuel.
ose recommendations led to the
December purchase of the 10 buses,
including three equipped with
wheelchair lifts and two with
seating for very young children.
With the four-bus purchase
approved this month, the district is
following LeFere’s recommended
purchasing schedule.
BY PRU SOWERS
After months of discussion, arguments and ultimatums, the city of Key
West is close to hammering out a new
use agreement with the Cultural
Preservation Society allowing the organization to continue managing the
popular Sunset Celebration at Mallory
Square.
A proposed final draft of a use
agreement has been tentatively OK’d
by the negotiating parties and has
been submitted to Interim City Manager Jim Scholl for his review. Once he
signs off, the CPS subcommittee
working on the contract will present
the draft agreement to the CPS board
of directors for approval. e final step
will be a vote by the Key West City
Commission.
“e city and the CPS are working
diligently to craft an agreement. ey
feel confident they will be able to
reach an agreement shortly,” said Marilyn Wilbarger, the city’s senior property manager who has been helming
the negotiations with the CPS.
e CPS has been formally in
charge of managing the nightly Sunset
Celebration at Mallory Square, arguably one of the most popular tourist
attractions in Key West, for the past
10 years. at lease expired in March
and the CPS has been on a month-tomonth lease extension since then.
Former City Manager Bob Vitas
had laid down several ultimatums to
the CPS in order for their management of the popular event to continue.
Vitas told Konk Life in May that he
was worried about in-fighting among
Carlyle Group adds
Postcard Inn, La Siesta
BY SEAN KINNEY
e Washington D.C.-based
Carlyle Group on Sept. 15 expanded
its Upper Keys lodging holdings with
the announced purchase of the
Postcard Inn Beach Resort at Holiday
Isle and La Siesta Resort.
Carlyle, an international, publicly
traded “alternative asset manager,”
earlier in the year bought Islamorada
Resort, formerly a Hampton Inn,
and Pelican Cove Resort and Marina.
All four properties, known collectively as the Islamorada Hotel
Company, are managed by
Miami-based Trust Hospitality.
e sale prices have not been
disclosed.
“ese Islamorada properties are in
high quality locations and have significant upside potential following renovation and management enhancements,”
ad Paul, managing director of the
Carlyle Group, said in a press release.
As for renovations, an overhaul of
the bathrooms at the 151-room Postcard will start by the end of the year;
it’s part of an $18 million rehab plan
for both properties that will ultimately
include marina, common area and
food/beverage outlet upgrades.
“With the planned changes,” Paul
said, “we’re confident that guests and
the residents of Islamorada will continue to embrace the properties and
support tourism efforts in Islamorada.”
6
the CPS membership and between
CPS board members themselves, as
well as the growing financial insolvency of the organization. In addition,
Vitas said, CPS’s obligations to the
city to provide an annual audit and
quarterly financial statements had not
been met.
e possibility of losing control of
Sunset Celebration has already pushed
the CPS board of directors to make
changes to the organization’s bylaws.
Some of the most contentious issues
are how the performers, artisans and
food vendors are selected to win coveted space on the pier, how much each
group will pay for that privilege and
which CPS members get to vote on
the operational guidelines. In the past,
according to Vitas and two CPS members who asked not to be identified,
factions within the membership would
encourage friends to join the nonprofit organization right before an important guidelines vote was taken.
Wendell Winko, chair of a CPS
subcommittee working on lease negotiations, said the group has changed its
bylaws to limit voting privileges to active, dues paying CPS members working regularly at Sunset Celebration.
“at was one major change we
did. e buying of votes was eliminated,” Winko said.
Under the current lease structure,
the CPS pays the city $5,216 a month
for rental of the pier. Food vendors
and artisans selling artwork are required to pay $600 a month to the
CPS if they work every day. e fee
lowers to $300 for working 15 days a
month and $200 for 10 days a month.
MARK HOWELL‘S
HOWELINGS
Remembering Morning Glory
BY MARK HOWELL
named the Scarlet Succubus. eir marriage
was open from the start and they
soon began to share lovers and friends,
forming an ever-changing family netlthough it’s invariably the work whose members from 1997, took
celebrity deaths, whether
the “family” name of Ravenheart.
self-inflicted or otherwise, that capture
Morning Glory was born Diane
the public’s attention, the lesser-known
Moore, an only child, in Long Beach,
departed can turn out to be no less
Calif., to parents of Irish and Choctaw
intriguing.
descent. She was raised as a Methodist,
How about Morning
then
Glory Zell-Ravenheart, who
as Pentecostal, but rejected
was born in 1948 and died
Christianity in her teens. At
of multiple myeloma in this
the age of 17, she began
year? Here’s her story: She
practicing witchcraft and
was the High Priestess of the
three years later changed her
Church of All Worlds and,
name to Morning Glory.
with her husband Oberon,
While traveling to join a
the joint head of the Gray
commune in Oregon, she
School of Alchemy.
met a young man who
MARK
She is credited with coinfathered a daughter she
HOWELL
ing the term “polyamory,”
raised as
which is now in the Oxford English
Rainbow, who later would return to live
Dictionary. It means having a romantic
with her father and changed her name
relationship with more than one person. to Gail.
Morning Glory was a witch who
In conjunction with her husband
dedicated her life to studying the “dark
over many years, with whom she
arts” and helped run her husband’s Gray continued to share a polyamorous life,
School of Wizardry in Sonoma County,
Morning Glory published poetry and
Calif., the world’s only registered wizard short-story collections and also co-auacademy where novices split into four
thored “Creating Circles and Cerehouses: Winds, Undines, Gnomes and
monies” (2006) and “e Witch and
Salamander. ey each learn alchemy,
the Wizard” (2010).
horse whispering, wand making, spell
By 1999, the Zell-Ravenhearts had
casting and advanced “mathemagics.”
moved to Sonoma to found the School
e Ravenhearts met in 1973 at a
of Wizardry, but according to a latter
Gnostic Aquarian Festival in Minneapo- post on Oberon’s online blog, a member
lis, where Oberon (then plain Tim Zell) of the school became “engaged to a man
was a keynote speaker on “eagenesis.” who’s hostile to the Ravenhearts, she is
ey were married the following year in evicting us all to sell the houses and we
a pagan “handfasting” ceremony perhave to find new homes.” One year
formed by Archdruid Isaac Bonewits
later, Morning Glory was diagnosed
and High Priestess Carolyn Clark.
with multiple myeloma.
ey lived first in St. Louis, where
*****
Morning Glory studied wicca, eclectic
It seems the entire country tuned
shamanism and goddess history. She
into Ken Burns’ magnificent new,
was ordained a priestess in the Church
multi-part documentary on PBS,
of all Worlds in 1962.
“e Roosevelts, an Intimate History.”
e Ravenheart couple spent much
Here are some facts we culled that
of their early life together on the move,
have stuck with us ever since: • It was
traveling in a converted school bus they
A
7
President Grover Cleveland who told
the baby Franklin Delano Roosevelt and
his mom on a visit to the White House:
“I have one wish for you, little man,
that you will never be President of the
United States.” • FDR’s entire Cabinet
was sworn in at once, including the first
female Cabinet member, Secretary of
Labor Frances Perkins.• eodore Roosevelt is the only President born in New
York City. • FDR’s stamp collection
consisted of 1.2 million stamps. •
eodore’s wife and mother both died
on the same day, Valentine’s Day, 1884.
• In her later years, Eleanor Roosevelt
counseled President Jack Kennedy on
women’s issues.
• FDR, whose face now adorns the
dime, founded what became the March
of Dimes. • eodore Roosevelt ate a
dozen eggs at breakfast. • Both of
Eleanor Roosevelt’s parents died before
she was 10 years old. • eodore Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize for his diplomacy during the
Russo-Japanese war. • In FDR’s first
100 days in office, 15 major bills were
passed. • Teddy Roosevelt wrote
150,000 letters in his lifetime.• Eleanor
Roosevelt was niece to one President
and wife to another. n
Quote for the Week:
“We have to have stories. It takes a story
to make a story, one in which all are able
to recognize the hand of God and imagine
its descent upon ourselves.”
— Flannery O’Connor
CITY N E W S
C O M M U N I T Y
Cruise ships overwhelming
Mallory Square pier
Plymouth Savoy
n The Naked Girl in the Tree House
A Serial Novel by
MARK HOWELL
PART II
ere are still American women out
there who believe they were romanced
by two of the Rolling Stones back in
1964, when in fact those English fellows were om One and David Carpenter.
How can that be?
Here’s how.
Two English boys, not yet 20 years
old, arrived in New York City aboard
the SS United States for a year of adventure before college.
Within the arcane social strata of
Britain in 1964, David Carpenter,
from the Midlands, was working class.
om One, the narrator of this serial
true story, was from the Welsh border
and of the upper middle class.
Aboard one of the sleekest ocean
liners of its time, these two lads spent
the Atlantic crossing discovering the
pure pleasure of hanging out with girls
from Painesville, a group of 20 returning to their school at Lake Erie College
in Ohio.
eir arrival in New York Harbor
was in full throat, all of them assem-
BY PRU SOWERS
bled at the bow and serenading the
Statue of Liberty with the best of the
latest Beatles hits, accompanied by two
young guitarists from Cambridge, England, who were heading for fame in Las
Vegas.
om One and David Carpenter
are peering at the dock on the Hudson
and along the streets into the heart of
Manhattan. We laugh at the length of
the cars. is was the America we’d
come to see.
We said goodbye to the girls, each
one of them by name, swearing we’d
see them again just as soon as we got
ourselves one of those bloated cars and
could set off on the open road.
But New York City was another
matter. It was a city of jackhammers
and cranes, whole streets under reconstruction, all glass and steel and thick
with exhaust fumes. is was not the
sleek American city like Los Angeles
we’d seen in the movies and TV land.
is was a city no longer mired in
mourning for a murdered young president but dedicated to the realization of
his wildest dreams.
David and I spent our first nights
in this gaudy Gotham at the YMCA,
Although Key West residents voted
down a plan last year to consider allowing super-sized cruise ships to dock
here, even the regular size ships are
overwhelming the docking resources
currently available in the harbor.
e Mallory Square T-Pier, e
T-shaped, concrete dock located in
front of the Square where the nightly
Sunset Celebration takes place, is
currently used by cruise ships as a
“mooring dolphin” to tie its anchoring
lines to. e pier is also used by cruise
ship passengers and crew for access
to the ships. But the T-Pier, which was
last upgraded in the 1980s, can’t adequately stand up to the stress put on it
by 150,000-ton vessels, particularly in
stormy weather.
“When the wind blows, you have
to have a lot of pilings in place. We
don’t have the strength to hold them
[cruise ships] in place during certain
weather,” according to Interim City
Manager Jim Scholl.
“e T-Pier was never really
designed to take the size ships that are
coming into Mallory now. It’s taken a
beating,” said Doug Bradshaw, Port
and Marine Services Director. “It’s safe
now but we’re in the upper limits
[of structural safety].”
As a result, city commissioners have
given the go-ahead to a $1.237 million
renovation of the T-Pier that will
involve demolishing about 25 percent
of the structure on its north end and
installing a new mooring dolphin. e
Questions remain on
death of Roy Blanco
BY SEAN KINNEY
It remains unclear if Roy Blanco,
wanted in connection with the death
of his ex-girlfriend Tanya Gonzalez,
stabbed himself to death Sept. 16 as
police closed in on his Big Coppitt
Key location or if he accidentally
stabbed himself while being taken
into custody.
On Sept. 9, Gonzalez, of Miami,
went missing and her body was
located Sept. 16 in the trunk of her
BMW.
Overnight on Sept. 10, Blanco, 33,
was spotted stranded on a boat with
his mother and dog by a good
Samaritan who towed the trio into
the Shark Key boat ramp.
A 1964 Plymouth Savoy with press-button automatic gears,
tail wings big enough to stuff our luggage in . . .
8
At that point Blanco was
questioned by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents and released.
en, on Sept. 16, Miami police
found Gonzalez’s body and issued a
be-on-the-lookout for Blanco.
From there, Monroe County Sheriff’s Deputy David Chavka returned
to the Shark Key boat ramp and heard
from a rental boat vendor that Blanco
had been camping in the area.
Chavka, another deputy and two
CBP agents quickly found the Blancos
on Porpoise Point. As they approached
the mother and son, “ey were each
swallowing a handful of pills,” according to Chavka’s report.
“Once both persons were
restrained, we stood them both up
and noticed that Roy Blanco appeared
THE BIG STORY
e People d. Sharrows!
BY RICK BOETTGER
be damned. I bike about 30 miles a
week, mostly on the boulevards. In the
last month I have seen exactly two slow
bikers in the traffic lane. ey were
hugging the curb, and as I watched,
they got out of the traffic and onto
the sidewalk near Radio Shack.
So we have all defeated the sharrows
by basically ignoring them! What a
brilliant strategy — take that, FDOT!
At the same time, the five guys who
applaud the sharrows have won too,
because the law is on their side — and
it is a law that is usually a good law,
encouraging more biking and less
driving in the state of Florida.
Yes, our sharrows are silly and
dangerous, encouraging people on bikes
like mine — remember, all the asphalt
and sign icons are of fat-tired, high-handlebar bikes, not racers — to invade the
traffic lane right next to a broad promenade well know as a bike path. But the
sharrows are generally used in areas
where such promenades are not there,
and bikes like mine really need that
traffic lane.
Surprisingly, Florida has written
some laws very encouraging to bikers.
e sharrows may be the most biketrumps-car law we have. Pedestrians
and cars can be stopped and cited for
impeding traffic. But bikes enjoy an
odd exception. Generally, bikes are
supposed to stay to the right, so cars
can pass them. But a complicated clause
in the law says the lane must be wide
enough to let them pass safely.
e statute does NOT say how wide
the lanes have to be, but a calculation
resulting in a lane width of 14 feet now
has the force of law where sharrows are
concerned. Hardly any lanes are that
wide. So, by law, sharrows can be created
on almost any street in our cities.
When is this a good thing? In dense
urban areas where more people should
indeed be using bikes instead of cars,
and the sharrows not only encourage
more bikers but make it safer for the
ast month, I described my
harrowing adventure,
bicycling over the cheerful “sharrow”
arrows and bike icons encouraging
people like me to bike in the boulevard.
I felt both scared and ridiculous, making
the point that FDOT should NOT be
encouraging fattired, 8 mph
conch cruisers
like me to be endangering their
own lives while
impeding car
traffic, especially
with a wonderful
12-foot promenade to bike
RICK
safely on.
BOETTGER
e amazing
COLUMNIST
good news is that
common sense
has prevailed, and everyone wins! ere
are maybe five devoted bikers in town
who love the sharrows, and whom we
cannot get to write their side of the story,
but they have won, too. e sharrows are
probably going to stay, unless I can get
Secretary of Transportation Ananth
Prasad to correct another FDOT error,
as he did with the one-way changing
to two last year. But I am not hopeful.
But we don’t need him, actually. A
remarkable combination of our civic
leaders, law enforcement, and we the
people ourselves have neutered the
deadly sharrows. e city manager and
numerous commissioners have publicly
advised against biking in the boulevard,
sharrows be damned. e sheriff’s
deputies will continue to pull over bikers
impeding the flow of traffic, as they have
in the past and with me personally,
sharrows be damned.
And we the people are using our
common sense to bike on the
promenade, as we did before, sharrows
L
9
bikers already there. Also, an intended
effect of having bikes use the road is in
fact to slow down traffic, motivated by
wanting to make the streets safer and,
I think making driving less pleasant
compared to biking. If the drivers cannot beat you, maybe they’ll join you.
So hooray for anything encouraging
more biking. e sharrows encourage a
good attitude statewide towards biking.
e five touch bikers rule in Key West —
sharrows forever!
Actually, FDOT has discretion in
using the sharrows. e statute allows
them, but does not require them. Note
they could also be on South Roosevelt,
but they are not. e worst would be
for these sharrows to bring disrepute
to their cause elsewhere. It is bad enough
they are ignored objects of scorn here,
by civic leaders, the law, and the people
ourselves. I dread a slow biker who
believes the sharrows make him safe,
and then some night is killed by a driver
who for whatever reason is not ready for
an eight MPH speed bump in his lane.
Our sharrows would be ultimately
bad for that biker. And harmful to the
cause of bikers in the entire state. Let us
pray it doesn’t happen. Yes, you may,
but of course you shouldn’t, bike the
boulevard. n
GOOMBAY FEST
Oct. 17-18
In the historic Bahama Village
neighborhood, the lively Goombay
is known for its island-style food,
arts and crafts, nonstop live
entertainment and dancing in the
streets.
INFO
bahamavillagegoombay.com
K E Y W E S T L OU
COMMENTARY
Bank robbers
BY LOUIS PETRONE
esterday, people robbed banks. To
name a few . . .
Jesse James, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance
Kid, Ma Barker, John Dillinger, Willie Sutton.
Today, banks rob people. To name a few . . .
Countrywide, Bank of America, Goldman
Sachs, Merrill Lynch.
Yesterday’s bank robbers went to jail or were
killed. Today’s bank robbers buy their way out.
Today’s bank robbers engaged in sleazy mortgage schemes that broke the economy. ey were
and are white collar criminals who don’t carry a
gun. ey use money and influence instead. eir
actions have resulted in thievery on the highest
scale to the detriment of millions of Americans.
Today’s bank robbers do not go to jail. Again,
they buy their way out. An example being Bank
of America’s recent civil settlement with the U.S.
government to the tune of $16.6 billion. A new
form of crime and punishment.
Iceland had a similar problem. e government wanted to bail the banks out. e people
said no. Bank leaders were arrested, tried and sent
to jail. Iceland survived.
Jail is not in the mix as far as our government
is concerned. Attorney General Holder said early
on that banks were “…too big to fail.” He later
added that the banks were “…too big to prosecute.”
American justice today for a sizable portion
of the affluent 1 percent. ose who became
extremely wealthy because of wrongdoing. Which
means if you are rich enough, crime pays. n
Y
LOU
PETRONE
COLUMNIST
e Lost Soul
Former Key West baseball star Khalil
Greene finds solitude in South Carolina
e following story on Khalil Greene,
one of Key West’s greatest, if not the
greatest baseball player, appeared
on StL Sports Page.
PART I
By Rob Rains
GREER, S.C. — e wording
might be a little different, but the
essence of the question is the same,
whether it comes from somebody
who knew Khalil Greene in high
school, college, the minor leagues
or the majors — a group that includes teammates, coaches and
scouts.
“Do you know where he is?”
Five years after he played his
last game for the Cardinals, and his
last game in the majors, at the age
of 29, walking away from the game
he loved because of his problems
with social anxiety disorder,
Greene has seemingly fulfilled a
goal of making himself as invisible
as possible when he was done
playing baseball.
“He told me, ‘When I get done
with baseball, you will probably
never see me or hear of me again,’”
said Cardinals pitcher and former
teammate Adam Wainwright.
A desire to talk with Greene,
and attempt to find out what his
life has been like after baseball, was
unsuccessful. Interview requests,
submitted through a variety of in-
dividuals, were either ignored or
dismissed. Sources did confirm
that he lives in Greer, S.C., just
outside of Greenville, about 40
minutes away from where he became one of the best college baseball players ever at Clemson but
there are no property records listed
in his name on file. He has been
married since 2006 and he and
wife Candice have two young sons.
Despite the proximity to Clemson, his coach there, Jack Leggett,
has not talked with or seen Greene
for some time. “at’s sad for me,”
Leggett said. “I’ve tried to reach
out and leave messages but I don’t
know if they are being heard or
not. At one point I talked to his
parents (who also live in Greer) a
while back. I always had a soft spot
in my heart for him. I love Khalil
and love what he has done for our
program. All the memories and
thoughts I have of him are positive.” And Leggett is not the only
one who feels that way about
Greene. Interviews with those former teammates, from high school
through the major leagues, coaches
and scouts painted the picture of a
player — who despite possessing
premier talent — just could not escape the reality that he could not
be perfect, eventually reaching the
point in the majors that he would
often try to inflict pain on himself
as a form of punishment when he
failed to get a hit or made an error.
10
“I honestly think the game rattled him,” said one of his Cardinal
teammates in 2009, Skip Schumaker, now with the Reds. “at
happens all the time. It’s rattled
me. I’m not immune to this social
anxiety thing. It’s tough … I think
he is probably happy wherever he
is, not having to worry about fielding a ground ball or getting a hit. I
think he had enough of the game.”
“More talent than Ripken”
From a young age, the game
was the focus of Greene’s life. Born
in Pennsylvania, his family moved
to Key West, Fla., when he was
five. By then Greene already had
been playing Whiffle ball for three
years, but he played soccer first
when the family arrived in Key
West before a friend’s dad got him
involved in the local baseball program. Greene’s father reportedly
kept a ball which Greene literally
had hit the cover off. When he had
to answer a question in grade
school about what he wanted to do
when he grew up, Greene answered, “play baseball.” When the
teacher said he needed a backup
plan, Greene didn’t have one.
Brooks Carey also grew up in
Key West playing baseball. A lefthanded pitcher, he reached Triple
A with the Orioles and Reds before
his career stalled. He moved back
C O M M U N I T Y
Crockett and Tubbs bring style to the Keys.
Looking back on
‘Miami Vice’
BY MARK HOWELL
It starred Don Johnson as Florida
kiddo “Sonny” Crockett and Philip
Michael omas as Bronx boy Ricardo
“Rico” Tubbs, two detectives who hap“Miami Vice” first hit the small
pened to find themselves working unscreen 30 years ago with a two-hour
dercover for the Metro-Dade Police
episode titled “Brother’s Keeper” on
Department. e series ran on NBC
Sept. 16, 1984.
from 1984 to 1989. e
e show ran for five
USA Network then began
seasons and ultimately had
airing reruns annually and
a lasting impact on the life
indeed broadcast an origiand culture of South
nal, unaired episode in JanFlorida and the Keys, espeuary 1990.
cially on how those places
It was not the first TV
were viewed by the rest of
show to pair a white cop
the nation, indeed the
with a black cop (that disworld.
tinction goes to the 1965It is said that the 1980s
1968 series “I Spy”
began when Crockett and
featuring Robert Culp and
Tubbs cruised through a
Inveterate Keys’
Bill Cosby, but “Miami
glittering Miami night in
candidate
Danny
Coll
Vice” is considered the first
Crockett’s black Ferrari
helped provide classic
program that truly revealed
Daytona Spyder toward a
cars to “Miami Vice.”
why color TV was inshowdown with a cocaine
vented.
kingpin while Phil Collins’
e tag line to the show became
“In e Air Tonight” simmered on the
“MTV Cops” due to its use of contemsoundtrack.
porary songs at least twice per episode,
“Vice” was created for NBC by
each of them memorable. Musicians
Anthony Yerkovich and directed by
whose music was used on the show
Michael Mann, who launched his
ranged from Willie Nelson, Ted Nugent,
formidable Hollywood reputation
through the series.
11
PET MASQUERADE, OCT. 22
| Continued from page 2
Oct. 24, during the Masquerade March
that begins at Key West Cemetery.
e march is a highlight of the an-
nual Fantasy Fest celebration, an uninhibited masking and costuming festival
scheduled Oct. 17-26 in the island city.
Featuring more than 40 lively events,
Fantasy Fest 2014 is themed “Animeted
Dreams & Adventures” in salute to traditional Japanese anime and other forms of
creative animation.
e Masquerade March typically
draws thousands of merrymakers wearing everything from elaborate feathered
masks to offbeat ensembles inspired by
the festival theme.
Free to enter and watch, the promenade is to start at 5 p.m. at the Key West
Cemetery’s Frances Street entrance. Participants proceed along two routes, stopping for libations at bed-and-breakfast
inns along the way.
Spectators line the streets of Key
West’s historic district, applauding and
sometimes joining in, before the march
reaches its end at the Fantasy Fest Street
Fair on mile-long Duval Street.
Recent years’ participants have included a “101 Dalmations” troupe featuring dancers costumed as puppies, a
trio of archangels with huge white-feathered wings, a flock of “flamingo men”
dressed in fluffy pink tutus and a scaly
green “dragon” that towered above the
crowd.
e march is a prelude to the annual
festival highlight, Saturday night’s
3Wishes.com Fantasy Fest Parade
through Key West’s downtown district.
Each year the glittering procession
includes dozens of decorated floats,
costumed marching groups and
high-energy island-style bands. n
COMMISSIONERS
cost of renovating the five units, the
likely eviction of the current tenants, and
the fact that 100 percent of the project
cost would come from public funds.
“e public sector has no place in
thinking it can 100 percent fund affordable housing,” he said. “It just can’t.
What it can do is to use what money it
has to leverage out the private sector and
tax credit money.”
“Sometimes there’s just not a good
project out there,” Johnston said about
trying to find a suitable housing project
that qualifies for state and federal grants.
“We didn’t have enough information to
make a good long-term decision for this
$925,000.” n
TEACHER ON FIRING LINE
perform duties. is occurred when a
projectile was launched at a student by
you.”
He also notes that Lynne, a member
of the United Teachers of Monroe union,
has requested a formal hearing with the
Florida Department of Administrative
Hearing.
at process is invoked after the
School Board takes a vote on
termination. n
SCHOOL BOARD
Although the item passed unanimously and with little discussion, board
member Ed Davidson asked LeFere to
look at alternatives moving forward.
Davidson referenced presentations on
natural gas powered buses he had seen at
meetings of the Florida School Board Association.
“It would seem to me that at least the
Key West part of the fleet would be a
candidate,” he said.
“ere are some pretty compelling
figures that over the life of the bus it will
pay for itself.”
omas also manufactures several
models of buses that run off compressed
natural gas.
“A number of districts have started
buying into these programs,” Davidson
said. “We’re talking about big money
here if the practicalities can work. I hope
that we look into that over time.”
In an email to board members, district watchdog Larry Murray echoed
Davidson’s sentiments.
“Compressed natural gas and propane
are the fuels of the future; diesel is the
fuel of the past. As the School District
makes long-term investments, I strongly
suggest that you look at alternative fuels
for your bus fleet,” he wrote (which was
published in the Konk Life Blast on
Sept. 25). n
CARLYLE GROUP
Patrick Goddard, president and chief
operating officer of Trust Hospitality,
said his company is “thrilled to further
expand our portfolio in the Florida
Keys.”
“We’re eager to bring a new level of
service and style to the Postcard Inn and
La Siesta Resort while providing guests
and locals a new and vibrant way to experience Islamorada.”
He said no significant changes to
staffing levels are anticipated.
e Postcard Inn is located at Mile
12
COMMUNITY
He never saw it coming, but writer did
BY JONATHAN WOODS
KONK LIFE SPECIAL WRITER
Mahadeo Jerrybandham was a
regular fixture over the years on Duval
Street in Key West where he gave palm
readings. He was the inspiration for my
story, “A Lucky Man,” written several
years ago, about a ruthless businessman
who comes to Key West for sport fishing and has his palm read by an unnamed psychic. Later in the story, the
businessman shoots and kills the palm
reader for reasons I won’t disclose;
you’ll have
to read the story.
“A Lucky Man” was first published
in the anthology “Murder in Key
West,” edited by Shirrel Rhoades of Absolutely Amazing eBooks in 2013. Subsequently it appeared in my new noir
story collection, “Phone Call from Hell
Marker 84. e six-acre, all suites La
Siesta is at MM 80.2.
Renovations are already under way
at the Pelican Cove and Islamorada Resort. at property will re-open as an
“upscale boutique hotel” called the
Amara Cay Resort. Carlyle Group employs more than 1,600 people in 40 offices on six continents, according to the
company website. n
Mahadeo Jerrybandham
and Other Tales of the Damned” from
New Pulp Press (now a part of Amazing
eBooks).
How weird is it that in real life,
Jerrybandham returned to his home
in Trinidad for a vacation and was
shot dead by an unknown assailant?
Too weird, but true.
be released until it has been presented
to the CPS after Scholl signs off,
Wilbarger said. But the two sides appear close to an agreement.
“It looks like we’re going to get a
lease and if we do, it will be for five
years,” Winko said. “It’s looking
positive.” n
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
Race challenge,
Key West sights
But performers are only required to pay
a use fee if they sell merchandise such as
T-shirts as part of their act. e CPS is
considering charging a flat fee to all
three groups going forward.
However, member payments have
not been keeping up with CPS’s
monthly financial obligations to the
city. e new use agreement is expected
to address this issue, as well as allow the
CPS to extend Sunset Celebration into
daytime hours, as well as the regular
event in the evening.
Details of the use contract will not
Saturday, Oct. 11, in Southernmost
Marathon: run 26.2 or 13.1 miles during “SoMo.” 10k for shorter challenge.
ursday-Monday, Oct. 9-13, in Key
West. Full marathon begins 5:30 a.m.
Saturday; half-marathon and 10k at
6:15 a.m. Start/finish lines at Pat
Croce’s Rum Barrel, 528 Front St.,
event’s presenting sponsor. Race expo
noon-6 p.m. Friday. Race day,
finish-line party, 8:30 a.m.-noon.
Awards ceremony and party 5 p.m. Saturday at Rum Barrel. n
INFO www.somomarathon.com
SUNSET CELEBRATION
13
Headlined the Trinidad newspaper
recently: “Famed Hindu Palm Reader
Mahadeo Jerrybandhan Shot and Killed
in Apparent Robbery.” e report continues: “Jerrybandhan, 74, a resident
of Key West, Fla., was shot once in the
head in a bedroom of his son’s home,
where he was on vacation.
“His daughter-in-law Sharlene
Mootoo said she last saw Jerrybandhan
around 10 p.m. in the yard with his
two nephews preparing for Pitri Paksh
[an auspicious period in the Hindu
religious calendar].
“She said both Jerrybandhan’s
nephews went on errands and he
returned to the house. Mootoo said
she heard a loud noise but it was not
unusual for gunshots to ring out in the
area.
“When we looked we saw someone
running out of the front gate. We went
to the front bedroom and saw him
[Jerrybandhan] lying in the bathroom
of the front bedroom. He had one
gunshot wound to his head. Just out
of the blue this happened. We are still
in shock. He was a man who exercised,
did yoga and ate healthy all the time.
I believe he knew his attackers and in a
panic they shot and killed him because
he would have been able to identify
them. But justice will come from God.”
“Police suspect Jerrybandhan was
the victim of a botched robbery. Family
members said it is believed that the
killer hid in an overgrown lot across
the road from Jerrybandhan, whose
wife died several years ago.
“He was well known in Key West
for his palm reading.
“e murder toll for 2014 to date
now stands at 292. For the same period
last year, there were 270 murders.” n
CULTURE
VULTURE
Nuturing a
culture of
forgiveness
By C.S. GILBERT
udaism is an interesting
faith. Having been
born into it, and having taken a
self-selected list of mitzvot, which
means simultaneously blessings and
obligations, into my adulthood, I
claim no credit for this particular
part of my identity — any more than
I would expect to be singled out for
my Midwestern birthplace, my
scholastic diversity as a child
of snowbirds in California and
Florida or even my excellent college
education (also California, my
choice).
All are parts of an acculturization
process; all human beings experience
it, albeit differently in different
cultures.
Judaism is also most often a
cultural identity, and ethnic
identification, which is why we have
all stripes of Jews (including atheists
and agnostics, humanists and
secularists).
e various stripes of orthodoxy
(in all faiths) and of Protestantism
in Christianity tend to be more
theological and dogmatic. us we
Jews have a smorgasbord of choices
in daily life: daily observance?
Rosh Hashanah and Yom
Kippur Jews just like Christmas and
Easter Christians?
Lox and bagels from Goldman’s?
J
e Jewish Comedy Channel?
ere is one High Holy Days
tradition, however, I cherish.
Between Rosh Hashanah, the New
Year (presently 5775, always my age,
having been born just before 5700),
and Yom Kippur, the Day of
Atonement, are the Days of Awe.
Jews are expected to make
amends, to ask forgiveness from
anyone we might have wronged,
so that with a clean slate we may be
given another year of life.
People in this town have received
such notes from me and have
forgiven me. (If they do not choose
to forgive, it becomes their problem.
Judaism is practical that way.)
From whom do I ask forgiveness?
Almost exclusively the recipients
of my sudden, unbridled anger. I
have always had a hair-trigger
temper, in adulthood almost always
under control — but I can be quick
to lash out and am almost as quick to
regret my words.
(Apologizing on the spot, or soon
after, negates the obligation of a
written note.)
But there is a note or two to write
this holiday season. Psychologically,
it is a great balm; I suggest non-Jews
consider it as a New Year’s resolution.
But even more than friends or
relatives, colleagues or associates,
there is another, more important
forgiveness to muster.
at is the ever more difficult task
of forgiving ourselves.
We’re few of us perfect, and we
sometimes fail in areas and with
individuals with whom we most
want and need to succeed. Banish
that grief. Send it beyond memory.
Look ahead with love and hope and
faith in our own capacity for growth
and wisdom.
And l’shanah tovah — may you
be inscribed in the Book of Life for
a sweet and healthy and happy
new year. n
14
Simple seafood goodness
A stove-top low country boil
BY KERRY SHELBY
eafood boils, accompanied
by tubs of ice-cold beer, are
great options for making a large crowd
of hungry, thirsty guests very happy
without spending a fortune. ey are
quick, flavorful and not overly demanding on the host. Clean up is a breeze
when you just dump the whole steaming
pile of seafood onto a newspaper-lined
picnic table and invite everyone to dig
in. e whole event is about casual
eating and socializing without pretense
or distraction.
Whether it’s a clambake by the Pacific
or a fish fry by the Gulf of Mexico, it’s
hard to beat a summer seafood feast. A
few years ago while vacationing on Cape
Cod, a group of us all chipped in on a
kitchen clam and lobster bake that was
delicious and a ton of fun. is past
summer in South Carolina, though, I
encountered what may be the simplest
and purest form of the seafood one-pot:
An authentic Low Country Boil.
S
hosts opted for an informal buffet,
dumping everything into the middle
of tables and guests loading their paper
plates with their hands. It was a perfect,
hot summer afternoon and guests
lingered until well after sundown.
By most accounts, natives of Frogmore, a small town on St. Helena Island
off the South Carolina coast, seem to
have no recollection of this specific dish
as children, so don’t let tradition bog you
down here. My version gives a nod to
New Orleans, using Zatarain’s spices
instead of Old Bay and Andouille
sausage instead of kielbasa.
Use whatever you like or what you’ve
got and enjoy!
Sometimes called Frogmore Stew,
even though it is not a stew at all, this
seafood boil is little more than fresh
succulent shrimp, smoky sausage,
potatoes and corn, but their flavors meld
together perfectly. e scene was classic:
Outdoors with a big crowd digging into
coolers for cold beers or sipping white
wine while the boil came together. Our
15
Low Country Boil
Make a simple cocktail sauce using
1 cup ketchup mixed with 1/3 cup
prepared horseradish, 1 tablespoon
Sriracha chili sauce and juice from
1 lemon. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour
or overnight.
In a large pot, combine 5 quarts of
water with 1 3-oz. packet of Zatarain’s
Kerry Shelby is a food enthusiast, cook,
forager, adventurer and a hungry
consumer of life. He is creative director
and host of Kerry Shelby’s Key West
Kitchen, a food and lifestyle brand
appearing at kwkitchen.com and on the
Key West Kitchen channel on Youtube.
Mallory Square
CRUISE SHIPS
posts that a ship’s lines are tied to —
were replaced with stronger anchoring
structures.
new dolphin will actually not be attached to the existing T-Pier but will
stand by itself to help take stress off of
the older structure. Once contractors
finish driving new piles into the ocean
floor, laying down a concrete structure
and attaching fenders, the top of the
new dolphin and the existing pier will
be bricked over so that the two structures look like one.
“It will look just the same,” Bradshaw said. “It’s within the same footprint.”
e state Department of Transportation has approved a $762,000 grant to
help pay 61.5 percent construction
costs, with the city kicking in the remaining $475,500. However, there may
be additional DOT grants available to
bring the state’s contribution up to 75
percent.
Bradshaw said he expects construction bids to go out by the end of the
year. e T-Pier dolphin project will be
combined for bidding purposes with another municipal project, replacing the
seawall at the Gulf end of Duval Street.
Construction could begin in March or
April 2015.
Structural upgrades were done to the
other end of the city pier about four or
five years ago, Bradshaw said. At that
time, the bollards — the short, vertical
KEY WEST KITCHEN
KERRY SHELBY
Crab Boil seasonings and 1 lemon, cut
in half. Cover and bring to a boil (allow
15 or 20 minutes for this step). Add 4
pounds of small halved red potatoes and
cook uncovered for 10 minutes. Add 2
pounds of Andouille sausage, cut into
1½ inch pieces and 6 ears of fresh corn,
cut in half crosswise. Cook 5 minutes
more or until the potatoes are tender.
Add 4 pounds of unpeeled Key West
Pink or Royal Red shrimp and cook 2
minutes, until shrimp start to float.
Drain immediately and spread out on a
table covered with newspaper. Sprinkle
with salt and pepper and serve with
cocktail sauce. n Serves 12
Beverage choice:
Ice cold beer or a Chardonnay spritzer
Kerry Shelby is a food enthusiast, cook,
forager, adventurer and a hungry
consumer of life. He is creative director
and host of Kerry Shelby’s Key West
Kitchen, a food and lifestyle brand
appearing at kwkitchen.com and on the
Key West Kitchen channel on Youtube.
16
e movement of the film swerves
into seriousness however, when it is revealed that Milo is still emotionally dependent on his male teacher, the
lecherous and closeted Rich (Ty Burrell),
whom he had sex with in high school.
Maggie has her emotional addictions as
well, committing adultery several times
with various continuing education instructors.
“e Skeleton Twins” is a diverse
odyssey in friendship and family love
that is nothing short of a roller coaster.
Wiig and Hader who worked together
on “SNL” know each other well with
such looseness and easy verve that they
might as well be siblings, if not by blood,
then by profession. eir exchanges are
simply authentic.
Not a single one of the characters is
cheaply done or played for quick laughs.
ese people (especially Maggie and
Milo) are genuine and made of flesh.
Although quick and brief as with a
pastel drawing, we see this sister and
brother as colorful grinning goblins that
use Halloween as a holiday shield against
dysfunction, insecurity and sadness and
we grow with them.
e ghost of their father is felt
throughout as a “Day of e Dead”
laughing skull, although he is masked
and only sketchily visible. Indeed, the father’s philosophical antidote of joking
through pain makes able medicine
against a controlling mother’s New Age
nonsense (singularly delivered by actress
Joanna Gleason) in one of the film’s best
scenes. It is a point of view that these
two have taken to heart and despite the
upheavals, at once tense and tittering, it
serves them well.
is film succeeds where so many
other indie comedies fail; it maintains a
perfect tone throughout. No one segment is superfluous or thrown away
upon the eye and even the incidental
scenes offer a dry and soft-biting wink.
e beginning flashes of Milo and
Maggie as children in particular, have a
fine delicate hand that recall a Charles
Addams cartoon, and a sweet yearning
for some unapologetically black humor.
ough one might well think of immediate laughs, the film is neither a
drama nor a comedy. More than anything, it is a portrait of a sister and a
brother in the midst of their similarities
TROPIC
SPROCKETS
n I N R E V I E W W IT H
Ian Brockway
e Skeleton
Twins
ilmmaker Craig Johnson
(True Adolescents) takes us
on a novelistic journey that is as rich as
a work by Salinger. e film, “e
Skeleton Twins” produced by Mark and
Jay Duplass, is thrilling, meaningful and
provocative in tone.
Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids, SNL) as
Maggie is gripped in depression. Just as
she is about to take a heap of sleeping
pills, she gets a call from the hospital.
Her brother Milo (Bill Hader) has
attempted suicide.
Maggie steps up although she hasn’t
seen Milo in 10 years.
In a parallel of sorts to “Love Is
Strange,” Milo moves in with Maggie
and her husband: e macho, athletic
but likable Lance (Luke Wilson).
Much of the comedy in the beginning
centers on the glib sharpness of Milo up
against Lance’s slow wit. e dialogue
makes for some laugh out loud funny
bits with exchanges destined to be
classic, reminiscent of “A Fish Called
Wanda.”
F
17
TROPIC CINEMA
416 Eaton St. • 877-671-3456
and differences.
“e Skeleton Twins” far outshines
most indie films by betraying no confining heaviness or fluffy lightness. As close
as possible, (especially given that these
two famed comedians, Kristen Wiig and
Bill Hader have such a previously
recognizable shtick) this is life.
Week of Friday, October 3, 2014
through
Thursday, October 9, 2014
My Old Lady (PG-13)
Fri - Thu: (2:00), 4:20, 6:35, 8:45
Love is Strange
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them
(R) Digital Presentation
Fri - Thu: (1:30), 6:10
ra Sachs (Keep the Lights On) hits
upon familiar territory once more in
“Love Is Strange,” a character study of
two older men who are just married,
struggling and in love.
George (Alfred Molina) is a music
teacher in a New York City Roman
Catholic school while Ben (John Lithgow) is a painter with brief touches of
fame. As a couple for 40 years they decide to marry.
But all is not smooth.
rough Facebook, word gets out
among the school administration in
regard to George’s wedding and he is
promptly fired.
I
The Drop (R) Digital Presentation
Fri - Thu: (4:00), 8:25
The Skeleton Twins (R) Digital Presentation
Fri - Thu: (4:15), 8:55
Guardians of the Galaxy 3D (PG-13) Digital
Presentation
Fri - Thu: (1:45), 6:30
Yves Saint Laurent (R) Digital Presentation
Fri - Thu: (3:50), 8:35
Love Is Strange (R) Digital Presentation
Fri - Thu: (2:15), 6:25
a
KEY BUSINESS
KEY WEST
tween Crockett, driving a Camaro, and Tubbs,
with Crockett’s stolen Scarab, is roaring with it
along the Intracoastal. Crockett finally recaptures
his boat only by leaping onto it from a bridge
over the Waterway at full speed. “Ah, ‘Miami
Vice,’” exults Gratz, “who can forget such style?”
Don Johnson, 64, who was just 30 years old
when the show premiered, set a new trend at the
time with his pastel T-shirts and linen suits. He
recently looked back on all of that with the Irish
Independent newspaper — the Irish have always
adored him — about how he has put it all behind him now. Readily admitting that he lived a
life of unbridled hedonism, bingeing on booze,
cocaine and beautiful women, there came a point
when he was sitting on the porch of his Colorado
ranch in the late 1990s, that he took an inventory of his wealth, the 20 cars, the boats, the
houses. “I had what everyone assumes are the elements that make you happy and I was intensely
unhappy.”
He’d begun acting as in the first place as a way
to escape his brutal home life. “I came from a
very poor family in Missouri that believed in corporal punishment.” He eventually came to realize
that debauchery in escaping his demons had left
him looking like “a fat Elvis.”
So he quit drink and drugs and, after marrying his third wife, schoolteacher Kelley Phleger
in 1999, sold his fleet of fast cars. “I didn’t need
them to get laid,” he said.”
Philip Michael omas, meanwhile, went on
to star in “Coonskin” (1975) and opposite Irene
Cara in the 1976 film “Sparkle.” Following his
success in “Miami Vice,” he first appeared in numerous made-for-TV movies and ads for telephone psychic services. He served as a
spokesperson for cell phone entertainment company Nextones and supplied the voice for the
character Lance Vance on the video games
“Grand eft Auto: Vice City and Grand eft
Auto: Vice City Stories.” n
MIAMI VICE
Frank Zappa, Little Richard, James Brown and
the Eagles, whose Glen Frey both wrote and sang
the song “You Belong to the City” for the
episode in which he played a leading part. Frey
also wrote and performed the song “Smuggler’s
Blues” for a second-series show in which he appeared as a shady pilot who flies Crockett and
Tubbs to Columbia to they can arrange a drug
buy. And singer Sheena Easton appeared in several episodes as Crockett’s wife.
By far the most significant cultural impact of
“Miami Vice” was the role it played in culturally
rejuvenating Miami Beach and the city of Miami
itself. In the course of the production, the show’s
production team actually restored several dilapidated buildings on South Beach. No other TV
show could be credited with revitalizing a city to
quite this degree.
e Keys’ connections to the show begin with
the very first episode, in which Crockett warns
Tubbs that his chained alligator named Elvis is
freaked out because it once consumed a flight
bag full of the drug LSD rom a lab in Key West.
Subsequent episodes were rife with asides such
as, “I know a terrific bar in the Keys...”
In 2005, Mann made a film version of
“Miami Vice” updated to the 21st century. Starring Colin Farrell and Jamie Fox, several of its
scenes were shot on Old State Road 4A in Upper
Sugarloaf.
Another Keys connection occurred during the
heyday of the series in the form of Danny Coll,
who recently narrowly lost, for a second time,
the race for Monroe County commissioner.
“Miami Vice” producers several times approached Coll to ask him if he’d ask customers at
his exotic-car repair shop in Miami whether
they’d be willing to lend an exotic car for use in
an episode. Most said yes.
In addition to the cars in “Miami Vice,” there
were the boats, for example Crockett’s Wellcraft
Scarab 38-foot KV (whose manufacturer once
produced a model with the same color scheme as
in the series).
A typical fan from the very first episode, Key
West resident Tim Gratz, recalls the race be-
Athletes race, Oct. 20
Heroes and Villains 5k Run/Walk 6 p.m. on
Oct. 20. Dress as favorite superhero or villain
and run, walk or fly to the finish line. Prizes
for most creative, best group, scariest and
funniest competitors.Race starts and ends
at e Reach, a Waldorf Astoria Resort,
1435 Simonton St. Costumes not required.
Race is an official event of the island city’s
Oct. 17-26 Fantasy Fest festival.
Register online through Oct. 19. n
INFO www.heroesandvillains5k.com
18
SHORTANSWERS
BY J E F F J O H N S O N n P A U L A F O R M A N
CITY NEWS
ROY BLANCO
cide how to handle it, then stick to
your guns. What you decide is less
important than deciding together
once and for all.
Take your chances
Dear Short Answers: I’m at that
stage of life when my friends are
dying. I’m not ready to die, but I
don’t want to be the last man standing, if you know what I mean. How
do I make younger friends without
appearing like a lecherous or desperate old man? Getting On
Dear On: Making friends based
on age or latest health reports seems
desperate and a titch
vulgar. Try screening
for like sensibilities —
it is the only answer.
Formerly sartorial
Dear Short Answers: My husband decided, since he retired last
year, he doesn’t need to shave or
shower every day. He’s not lazy. He
plays golf, works in the yard, visits
the grandkids, etc. He just doesn’t
like what he calls “maintenance functions.”
Should I make a big
deal about this or hope
it’s just a phase he will
get tired of? Kinda Like
Good Grooming
Dear Kinda Like:
Dear Short AnWe couldn’t agree with
swers: A man and I
you more! However, we
PAULA FORMAN &
have feelings for each
JEFF JOHNSON
have known many
other but we live about
(mostly men, but not exclusively)
five hours apart. We have agreed we
who have equated retirement from
won’t be doing anything with other
work with the end of basic hygienic
people until he decides if he can
standards. Some if it is confusion,
handle long distance. Am I the only
but the answer is surely and abone who finds it bizarre we like each
solutely not the abdication from reaother, pretty much off the market,
sonable standards — they just need
but not dating yet? What’s the point?
to be re-interpreted. You can help!
Why don’t we just date? Waiting
Tell him he needs a new wardrobe
Dear Waiting: Why is it that he is
for his new life and it’s important to
doing the deciding and you are doing
you because you still think he’s
the waiting? is is not an auspicious
VERY HANDSOME!
beginning.
If it smells
bad, it’s bad
Wasting her time
Familiar pains
Dear Short Answers: I have been
going out with a girl for about two
years and get the feeling she wants to
start talking about marriage. I’m not
ready for marriage and wouldn’t really consider it with her anyway.
Should I just keep ignoring her hints
and change the subject? Or do I need
to just tell her no way! John
Dear John: Yes, you really need to
tell her, “No way.” n
Dear Short Answers: My daughter from a first marriage is disabled.
My wife and I partly support her and
my grandson. Once in a while, her ex
doesn’t pay support and we can never
decide how much more help to give.
e judicial system isn’t quick
enough to help. It causes tension at
home. Any ideas? Standing In
Dear S.I.: Since this is re-occurring, you and your wife need to de-
SHORTANSWERS SHORTANSWERS
Life is complicated. “Short Answersisnt. Send a question about whatever is bothering you to
KonkLife@shortanswers.net or go to www.shortanswers.net and a psychologist and
sociologist will answer. A selection of the best questions appear in Konk Life.
19
to have a large object in his waistband
hidden under his shirt. We saw a knife
sticking in his abdomen.
Blanco became too unstable for
transport by helicopter, so he was taken
to Lower Keys Medical Center where he
died. An autopsy report from the
Monroe County Medical Examiner’s
Office is pending.
After the initial reports, on Sept. 19,
Monroe County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Becky Herrin issued a “clarification.”
“None of the officers who were on
the scene when Blanco and his mother
were apprehended actually saw him stab
himself with the knife. Customs and
Border Protection officers who first
confronted him said he was sitting or
crouching on the ground, attempting
to ingest pills; they knocked the pills
from his hand and made a successful
effort to keep him from swallowing the
pills that were in his mouth.”
“Blanco struggled, during which
time he was taken the rest of the way to
the ground and was handcuffed for his
own and the officers’ safety.”
Herrin said, “e knife wound could,
therefore, have been either self-inflicted
or an accident.”
ere was a viewing for Tanya
Gonzalez planned for Sept. 26 at the
Vior Funeral Home in Miami. n
october 2-8
inside!
(CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT)
Smokin’ Tuna
Caffeine Carl
Schooner Wharf
Paul Cotton Band
Hog’s Breath
Terrence Riecker
20
FUNTIMES
Schooner Wharf Bar
202 Williams St., 292-3302
n
Thursday 1002
TBD 7-11pm
Friday-Saturday 1003-04
Paul Cotton Band 7pm-Midnight
Country rock performances, highly
entertaining shows include music
from Paul Cotton’s 40 years as
POCO’s lead guitarist, singer and
composer. The recipient of multiple
Gold and Platinum records, his hits
include “Heart of the Night,” “Crazy
Love,” “Barbados,” “Indian Summer,”
“Bad Weather.” Tributes to Paul’s
roots in Buffalo Springfield and Illinois
Speed Press, along with some great
new originals! The Paul Cotton Band
is composed of local musical legends
Joel Nelson, Russ Scavelli, Din Allen,
and Greg Shanle on percussion.
Sunday 1005-06
George Victory/Marty Stonley
7-11pm
Tuesday 1007
Raven Cooper 7-11pm
Wednesday 1008
Tim Hollohan 7-11pm
Hog’s Breath
Jonell Mosser
John Nemeth 10pm-2am
Nemeth’s “Love Me Tonight” debuted
at No. 10 on
the Billboard
Blues Chart.
This marks an
auspicious start
for the singer/
harmonica
player’s followup to his 2007
debut.
Smokin’ Tuna
4 Charles St., off 200 block Duval,
(305) 517-6350
n
Thursday 1002
Nick Norman 5pm
Caffeine Carl/Ericson Holt 9pm
Friday 1003
Nick Norman 5pm
Caffeine Carl & Friends 9pm
Saturday 1004
Nick Norman 5pm
Caffeine Carl 7pm
Country on the Beach 11pm
Monday-Sunday 1006-12
Cliff Cody 5:30-9:30pm
Jonell Mosser Band 10pm-2am
La Te Da
1125 Duval St., (305) 296-6706
n
Friday 1003
Cabaret: Christopher Peterson’s
EYECONS, 9pm
Saturday 1004
Cabaret: Randy Roberts Live!, 9pm
Piano Bar: The Fabulous Spectrelles,
9:30pm
Sunday 1005
OTOBERFEST Tea Dance, 4pm
Monday 1006
Piano Bar: Larry Smith
Tuesday 1007
Cabaret: Christopher Peterson’s
EYECONS, 9pm
Hog’s Breath Saloon
400 Front St., (305) 296-4222
n
Thursday-Sunday 1002-05
Terrence Riecker 5:30-9:30pm
Native New Yorker resides on Long
Island where he is a magical draw
at the local club scene. This singer/
songwriter performs throughout
many New England’s popular
venues.
21
FUNTIMES
McConnell’s Irish Pub
900 Duval St., (949) 777-6616
n
Mondays
8-11pm — Eric from Philly
Tuesdays
8-11pm — Fiona Malloy
Wednesdays
8-11pm — Tom Taylor
Thursdays
7-9pm — Trivia Mania;
9pm-1am — Chris Rehm/Open Mic
Fridays
8pm-Midnight — Love Lane Gang
Saturdays
9pm-1am — Eric from Philly
Sundays (Brunch)
11am-2pm Rick Fusco/Oscar Deko/
Kerri Dailey
9pm-2am — Industry Appreciation
ROYAL
HAPPENINGS
CANDIDATE EVENTS
• ursday, Oct. 16, 5:30–7:30 p.m.
Key West Innkeepers Association’s
Annual All-Candidates Party at
TBD
Entry fee suggest donation $10.
All proceeds split evenly between
candidates. All Candidates
• Friday, Oct. 18, 6–10 p.m.
Coronation Ball at the Southernmost Beach Café, 1405 Duval St.
$5 admission gets one free vote.
$50 priority seating includes one
vote and buffet. VIP seating reservations, visit www.aidshelp.cc
All Candidates n
Pinchers
712 Duval St., (305) 440-2179
n
Carl Hatley 1-5pm
6/30am,7/2am,7/4am,7/5am
Bobby Enloe 1-5pm
7/1am,7/3am,7/6am
Carter Moore 7-11pm 7/4pm, 7/5pm
Sunset Pier
Zero Duval St., (305) 296-7701
n
Thursday
1002
C.W. Colt
1-4pm
Rolando
Rojas 6-8pm
Friday
1003
Rolando
Rojas 1-4pm
Rolando Rojas 6-8pm
Saturday 1004
The Doerfels 1-4pm
Sunday 1005
The Nina Newton Band 1pm
Robert Albury 6-8pm
Monday 1006
C.W. Colt 1-4pm
Robert Albury 6-8pm
Tuesday 1007
Tony Baltimore 1-4pm
Wednesday 1008
Robert Albury 6-8pm
Ongoing Events
• Drag Queen Bingo, 801 Caberet
Sundays until Oct. 12, 5 p.m.
Bingo at 801 Bourbon will divide
all proceeds equally among the
candidates. All Candidates
• Aqua Idol, Tuesdays until Oct. 14,
6–8 p.m. Candidates sing at Aqua
Nightclub, 711 Duval St. 75 percent
of the monies collected will be split
among the candidates and 25
percent would go to the campaign
for which the winner is representing.
All monies will be donated to AIDS
Help. Free to attend.
All Candidates n
22
THE NAKED GIRL
where we came across a dispiriting number
of fellow Brits and Europeans whom we’d really not come all this way to meet.
At the Y we spent most of our time scouring the employment ads in the newspapers,
realizing that our combined pocket money
would run out sooner than anticipated.
David was braver at this hunt than I was,
prepared to use up fistfuls of coins telephoning in response to ads for the unlikeliest of
jobs. “Swabber” at a Times Square peepshow theater, for example.
I simply considered myself unemployable.
On the second day David strode into the
storefront office of British Overseas Airways
on Fifth Avenue and came out hired as a ticketing clerk. But I would do the more daring
thing. I telephoned my father in England, reversing the charge.
“Dad, New York is wonderful, it’s alive,
the place to be!”
“at’s good, good,” he said. “So what do
you need?”
“I just can’t find a job.”
“Oh, for God’s sake,” he said. Dad was an
attorney (a “solicitor” in Britain) and had to
wear a wig in court. He’d once visited the
White House on an international conference
junket to Washington.
“Call this number,” he told me.
I took a note of it and called it right a
way.
“Conrad Hilton here,” said a voice. “Ah,”
I said, then steeled myself to explain the purpose of my call. “Oh for God’s sake,” he said.
“But I like your accent. Report tomorrow
morning at the Hilton at Central Park South.
ey’re looking for an elevator operator. Tell
them I sent you.”
e next morning, they dressed me up in
a uniform like I was the King of the Belgians,
complete with epaulets and white gloves. My
elevator became home for six nights a week, a
place where I met the Duchess of Windsor
and any number of celebrities I did not recognize. ey all loved my accent except for
an Irish employee who pressed the express
button for the top-floor penthouse and pum-
meled me with his fists all the way up until I
fell from the car onto the carpet at the final
stop. I never did get my own back, to the
fury of David who threatened to come to the
hotel lobby seeking righteous revenge. I told
him I’d prefer to turn the other cheek.
After a mere few weeks of regular paychecks and semi-starvation, David and I had
amazingly accumulated enough cash to afford a one-bedroom apartment at number
30, 30th Street.
Back at the Y, David and I had fallen in
with two fellows who’d ultimately be the
ones to steer us toward the acquisition of a
car and complete the picture of our fortune
and independence.
Billy was a tall, bulky fellow from Brooklyn and Andy a much shorter, bespectacled
character from the Bronx. ey loved the
mix of our accents and wanted to spend as
much of their spare time, which was plentiful, in our company, introducing us to Times
Square and Greenwich Village, which basically meant nightlife all day. Plus Tad’s Steak
House (steak and a potato for less than a
buck); Horn and Hardart, the automats for
all-day hanging out; plus the women’s prison
at the heart of the Village with its anguished
yells from above.
It was Billy and Andy who shared with us
our first puff of marijuana, right there on a
neon-lit midtown side street. “Do these two
remind you of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg?” I asked David, “the way they look?”
“No idea,” he said.
But it was they who finally put us on the
road.
“Have we got a deal for you,” announced
Billy one blinking, blazing Saturday on
Broadway and Forty Second. “We need to
unload something on you.” Andy added the
clincher. “You two fine gentlemen have been
chosen. No questions asked.”
We could not refuse the offer. A Plymouth
Savoy with press-button automatic gears, tail
wings big enough to stuff our luggage in,
metallic color job and semi-bald (not bald)
tires.
“Call it $600 cash. Now,” said Kerouac
and Ginsberg. e deal was sealed on Henry
Street in Brooklyn Heights, rumored to be
Norman Mailer’s neighborhood.
Done.
We were on our way. n
Next week: “A Hard Day’s Night” premieres in
Times Square and we seek out the Rolling Stones
at the Peppermint Lounge on 45th Street
TROPIC
SPROCKETS
n I N R E V I E W W IT H
Ian Brockway
Since the couple has lived
just a bit beyond their means,
they can’t afford the nice apartment in the city and the two call
a family conference.
While they have the support
of their relatives, not one of
them is all that thrilled to have
them as roommates.
Ben and George decide to split
locations in order to keep the
city life. e bohemian Ben
takes up with his nephew Elliot
(Darren Burrows) and his wife
Kate (Marisa Tomei) while the
more conservatively appearing
but perhaps inwardly daring,
George moves in with two gay
cops (played by Manny Perez
and Cheyenne Jackson).
Kate can’t work on her novel
because of Ben’s vocal self
doubts together with his large
and somewhat slovenly appearance. Elliot is invariably preoccupied on the phone, taking on
the form of something halfway
between a skeleton and a ghost.
Kate is at her wit’s end.
Across town, George doesn’t
fare much better, forever assaulted by disco music and a
motley assortment of strangers.
e core of this film is the
believable qualities and emotional chemistry between Lithgow and Molina. Lithgow’s Ben
is aloof, a tad passive and elitist,
23
while Molina as George is a
nervous teddy bear who frets
over nuances and expenses.
ese two have indeed lived and
loved each other, both apart and
together.
With just a few bare touches
of the hand, we can feel their
seasons and grasp the texture of
intimacies shared — be it by fire
or along the rocks of an ocean.
While all of the actors have
fine outings (Darren Burrows is
both a non-entity and a threat,
while Marisa Tomei is a chattering wreck) it is Charlie Tahan
that shines as the shy but
seething son Joey who is anarchistic and homophobic. Actor
Eric Tabach is a highlight too,
as the aloof and arrogant Vlad,
Joey’s friend.
Lithgow’s performance embodies a nostalgic and melancholy New York that still retains
a hope to recapture times long
gone by.
Ben’s art, reminiscent of the
Ashcan school and Andrew
Wyeth, speak of a 1970s metropolis of diners and gay bars,
which are now little more than a
comet’s reflection or the trace of
Warhol’s silver star.
When Ben falls down the
stairs, overrun by the heaviness
of metal and his own body, the
city is seen in a void as the
blankness of skyscrapers rush by.
e message of “Love Is
Strange” suggests that the intimacy of caring holds through
any emotional famine as the
heart and memory fuses to make
a living memento: one part creating a cameo and the other, a
steady compass. n
Write Ian at
redtv_2005@yahoo.com
SPORTS | KHALIL GREENE
home after his father underwent a heart
transplant, and some friends asked if he
could fill in as an umpire for a youth
league. at was the first time Carey saw
Greene.
“I was standing behind the pitcher’s
mound calling balls and strikes,” Carey
recalls, the memory as fresh as if happened last month instead of 23 years
ago. “A ball was hit in the hole at shortstop, and this kid made a major-league
play. en the kid got to the plate.
“I thought he might be the best
player in America. You couldn’t
really be any better than he was. He
looked out of place because he was so
much better than everybody else.”
Greene was 11 at the time.
By the time Greene became a senior
at Key West High School, Carey was the
school’s coach. Greene already had
helped the school win a state championship as a sophomore and the team
won again two years later in 1998.
“I played with Cal Ripken when he
was 17 and 18 years old and I thought
Khalil had more talent than Cal,” Carey
said. “Cal used to get upset when I said
that. So during spring training, the Orioles had a day off and I asked Cal to
come down and throw out the first pitch
at one of our games and told him, ‘watch
the kid play. I don’t know what to tell
you. He’s better than you.’
“Khalil hit leadoff, and about the second or third pitch of the game he hit the
ball about 420 feet onto the soccer field.
I think he hit .500 that year and his onbase percentage had to be .600 or .650.
He was unreal.”
At least one scout noticed. Doug Carpenter, now with the Indians, was the
area scout for the Cardinals in south
Florida at the time. He wasn’t certain
Greene’s skills projected as a majorleague shortstop but told Carey the Car-
dinals would draft him in the second or
third round and give him a $250,000
signing bonus if Greene would agree to
sign and become a catcher.
e three — Carpenter, Carey and
Greene — met for breakfast one morning when the team was playing in Boca
Raton, Fla.
“I told him, ‘Doug, I can tell you
right now you are going to ask him and
he is going to look at you and say ‘no’,”
Carey said. “He doesn’t talk in sentences.
I never heard his voice until the middle
of the season when I went out to shortstop one day at practice and asked him a
question. I just thought he was an introverted type of guy.
“Doug asked him that question and
Khalil just said, ‘No thanks’ and kept
eating. Doug started laughing because
that was what I had told him Khalil was
going to say.”
Whether that word got around the
scouting community or not, Carey didn’t
know, but the draft came and went in
1998, through all 50 rounds, with no
team selecting Greene. Carey, who had
played for Mike Martin at Florida State,
tried to interest his former coach in
Greene but was told the team had other
plans.
A rival coach agreed to come see
Greene play during a tournament in Atlanta. Tim Corbin was an assistant at
Clemson at the time, and is now the
head coach at Vanderbilt, where he led
the Commodores to this year’s NCAA
Division I championship.
Corbin remembered having seen
Greene the year before at a high school
showcase but this time he was more focused on watching him.
“He was a player you had to see a
couple of times to understand what his
true value was to a team,” Corbin said.
“e more I saw him over the course of
that week the more I knew he was a really good player who could do a lot of
different things. When he was at bat or
had a ball hit to him, you would walk
away thinking, ‘that’s the best player on
the field.’”
Corbin signed Greene to a scholarship and over the course of the next four
years, Greene blossomed into a firstround draft pick and a player who as a
senior won five national player of the
year awards as he led Clemson to the
College World Series. As a senior he hit
.470 with 27 homers and 91 RBI in 71
games.
“He will always be the greatest college
baseball player that I’ve ever been exposed to in terms of having an opportunity to coach him,” Corbin said. “ere
is no one who can do some of the things
he could do on the field.”
His head coach, Leggett, agreed.
Every time he looks out to left field at
Clemson’s home field, Doug Kingsmore
Stadium, he sees the banner on the wall
saluting Greene for that season.
“e year he had was the best I have
ever seen,” Leggett said. “He was always
very private and quiet, but when it came
time to play he was always ready, he always had the right frame of mind. He
was just one of those kids who went
about his business in his own way.
“He was very disciplined off the field
and very regimented in what he ate. He
ate tuna fish out of the can and oatmeal
for breakfast every morning. He marched
to his own drum. But all of his teammates would probably tell you he was
the best player they ever played with.”
Greene also was smart. He had a lot
of interest in art and wanted to major in
that subject at Clemson but the class
times conflicted with the baseball practice schedule, so he became a sociology
major and earned all-conference academic honors for three consecutive years.
He also was a very strict follower of
the Bahai faith, having been raised in
that religion by his parents. His first
name, Khalil, means “friend of God.”
His middle name, abit, means “steadfast.” It was partly because of the religion
he took such good care of himself, always
working out in the weight room and
staying away from the college student’s
normal diet of pizza’s and fast food.
Mike Rikard had watched Greene as
an assistant coach at Wake Forest and as
an opposing manager in the summer
Cape Cod League before becoming an
area scout for the Padres during Greene’s
junior year at Clemson.
“He was always a real interesting kid
to me,” Rikard said. “Looking back, he
was just so incredibly amazingly disciplined in everything that he did. He was
eating a low-fat, high-protein diet before
24
that was the cool thing to do. He was so
focused and driven. Everything he did
was just so precise – how he took batting
practice, how he fielded ground balls. It
was like he was a 10-year major-leaguer
in his routine and he was still in college.
“Off the field he was different. I don’t
think he engaged a lot socially. He was
really into rap music. He was a really
cool guy but he was definitely different,
with different interests.
“As a scout a big part of our responsibility is to try to assess makeup and how
driven a certain player may be, with the
ultimate goal to be a good major-league
player. I couldn’t have had more confidence that he was that type of guy. He
was so driven, so focused. Kind of looking back the one question maybe I ask
myself was how much fun he was having
on the field.”
One of the times when Greene allowed himself to have fun was going to
Corbin’s house to watch professional
wresting events on television.
“I enjoyed the theater of it, and got to
know him better through that,” Corbin
said. “I was struck by his intelligence and
his inner soul. He’s not one of those personalities who is going to hit you in the
face but the more you are with him, the
funnier you find him, the smarter you
find him. He is somebody who does not
want any attention whatsoever.”
Rikard, now a national cross-checker
for the Red Sox, convinced the Padres to
use the 13th overall selection in the 2002
draft on Greene, an unusually high spot
to draft a college senior but that was how
much Rikard believed in Greene’s ability.
A few days after the draft, Rikard was
at Clemson as the Tigers played
Arkansas in the Super Regional, with a
spot in the College World Series at stake.
Rikard was watching as Greene came
to bat in the ninth inning of his final
home game.
“I kind of get goose bumps telling the
story,” Rikard said. “It was kind of like
something out of a movie. He got a
standing ovation from the entire stadium, and then he hit a ball off the top
of the batting eye in center field. It was
one of those moments where you just
went, ‘wow’.” n
Follow Rob Rains on Twitter @RobRains
• Continued next week!
Jack Bridges Campaign Party at New York Pasta
25
www.konklife.com • October 2-8, 2014
OMG Joe Weed!!!!! at Aqua Idol
GUY DEBOER | PHOTOGRAPHER
26
Howard Livingston at the Galleon
Sunset Tiki Bar. ML for Queen
KAREN WALKER | PHOTOGRAPHER
27
Red Shirt Theme Run in Support of Aids Help
GUY DEBOER | PHOTOGRAPHER
28
Singularly unique!
by C. S. GILBERT
KONK LIFE REAL ESTATE WRITER
ingularly unique.
That may seem like
a redundancy but it’s an apt
description of the home at
846 Olivia St., in the quiet
neighborhood facing the Key West
Cemetary. Originally a tobacco
barn and reportedly built in
1908 – but for some reason noted
on a “1817 Property Data Card,”
according to its Monroe County
MLS listing – this remarkable
home combines the lofty and the
cozy, the sturdy historic and the
quirky Key West of today.
Someone who loves history
and antiques is going to adore this
three bedroom, three bath home.
It is perfectly located less than a
mile from Duval Street entertainment, perhaps a mile from Rest
and Higgs beaches and a quick zip
to New Town shopping and the rest
of the Keys.
Between incarnations as the
tobacco barn and a comfortable
single-family home, the property
was reportedly a paint store, a
beauty shop and a residential
duplex. What remains, inside the
hand-carved, Brazilian mahogany
front door, are stunning flooring
and beams of Dade County pine,
with exposed rafters, nine-foot
ceilings on the first floor, two cozy
gabled bedrooms and bath upstairs
with totally unique, wrap-around
closets and storage.
One enters this home from
Olivia into a 20-foot by 30-foot
great room that was, when the
S
A massive, hand-carved Brazilian mahogany door fronts Olivia St. Note the secure bike/scooter parking to the right.
present owner purchased it a few
years ago, a studio with bath and
kitchen downstairs and, from a
side door previously designated its
own Packer Street address, the
three bedroom, two bath main
residence. In this incarnation the
wall between studio and main
living room was removed, creating
the spacious current living-dining
room. Extensive renovations and
upgrades were also done
throughout, from roof to patio.
The studio’s full bath remains,
but the kitchen has been converted
into a handy pantry/storage area,
an accessory to the primary
kitchen, a sleek, updated space
continued on next page
The 20-foot by 30-foot great room was once both a separate studio apartment and the
living room of the main residence, which had its own address on Packer Street.
29
Singularly unique!
Continued
The handsome staircase at the rear has been lovingly restored.
The kitchen is bright and attractive, with handy built-ins and an unusually deep
porcelain double sink with an amazing, flexible water faucet.
Both upstairs bedrooms have the exposed wood beams shown in this guest
room view.
Tropical ocean-tinted tile is featured in the upstairs bathroom.
with glass tile splashboard, original
pine flooring, a Bosch dishwasher and a
deep, porcelain double sink with an
accessory, flexible spray spigot. There is
high-impact glass (with screw-on
hurricane shutters for the whole house,
the owner noted) plus, in the kitchen,
gate accessing the off-street parking
space from Packer Street. It’s worth
noting that the home is in the X flood
zone, with no flood insurance required.
In case of loss of power, not unknown
in these parts, there is an 8,500 kw
generator to keep the fridge and partial
lovely wood shelving, including both
a built-in pantry cupboard and a
four-bottle wine rack. There is also a
wood plank ceiling.
Just out the back door is an
enclosed washer-dryer cubby and a
shed housing the water heater, with a
30
lighting and AC functioning.
The first-floor bedroom overlooking
Packer, now currently used as an office,
is adjacent to a full bath with tub and
handsome Mexican tile which could
easily be configured into an ensuite
Continued on next page
Singularly unique!
bath, the owner suggested, for a
separate mother-in-law unit.
Upstairs, the two good-sized
bedrooms under the eaves are quirky
and charming. The flooring in one is
made of bird’s eye maple cabinet doors
and at the entrance is a sturdy,
handsome, exposed beam from the
original tobacco warehouse. A corner
cubby wraps around to overlook the
stairway. Both bedrooms boast
handsome exposed beams.
A hallway/dressing room separates
the two, with one side a wall-long
closet that wraps around and connects
to the closet in the front bedroom.
There is an upstairs washer/dryer
hookup, should a new owner choose
to bring the laundry indoors. A
hallway door opens at the rear onto a
sweet sitting porch, shrouded by
greenery and very private.
Continued
This corner lot is handsomely
landscaped with mature plantings
augnmented more recently with mango,
travelers palm, bougainvillea and white
birds of paradise.
A special bonus is a secure, enclosed
scooter or bicycle parking area adjacent
to the main entrance on Olivia.
This unique and delightful property
is offered by Doug Mayberry Real
Estate. Contact the mother-daughter
realtor team of Bobby Ciulla at (561)
306-2397 or Jennifer Newman at (323)
600-5678.
The upper hall
offers access to a
private, treetop
sitting deck.
This downstairs
room, presently an
office, could be a
third bedroom, den
or even a motherin-law suite.
Come to the OPEN HOUSE on
October 5th from noon to 3 pm.
Konk Life welcomes subjects for
other articles about Keys homes
currently for sale. Contact Guy deBoer
at (305) 296-1630 or (305) 766-5832
or email guydeboer@konknet.com.
31
1
3
2
Featured Home Locations
1
3
2
5
Key Haven
4
Stock Island
Featured Homes – Viewed by Appointment
Map # Address
#BR/BA
Listing Agent
Phone Number
Ad Page
1
416 Margaret St., Key West
3BR/3BA
Brenda Donnelly, Prudential Knight & Gardner Realty
305-304-1116
32
2
2007 Seidenberg Ave., Key West
4BR/4BA
Roberta Mira, Florida Keys Real Estate Co.
305-797-5263
32
3
1101 & 1103 Petronia St., Key West
4 Units
+ Cottage
Ronald McGregor, Beach Club Brokers, Inc.
305-294-8433
800-545-9655
32
4
1232 South St., Key West
2BR/2BA
Doug Mayberry, Doug Mayberry Real Estate
305-292-6155
35
#BR/BA
Listing Agent
Phone Number
Ad Page
Doug Mayberry, Doug Mayberry Real Estate
305-292-6155
35
Open House
Map # Address
5
1217 Packer St., Key West
5BR/5BA
Open House - Sunday 10/5/14, 12-3pm
JUST LISTED
JUST LISTED
JUST SOLD!!!
Two office locations
to serve you:
MLS #120379 – 3/2, 1,426 S.F.
$525,000
ROBERTA MIRA 305-797-5263
S EE
MORE ON OUR
MLS #120369 – 4/2, 4,804 S.F.
Waterfront – $449,900
MARK MOLBACK 305-923-8924
1824 Flagler Ave., Key West, FL 33040
Office: (305) 296-4422
507B South St., Key West, FL 33040
Office: (305) 292-1922
Toll Free: (866) 715-4422
E-Mail: info@flkeyshome.com
Congratulations to
Mark Molback
on this recent sale!
WEBSITE: FLORIDAKEYSREALESTATECO .COM
Key West Association of REALTORS®
keywestrealtors.org
Phone (305) 296-8259
Listing Agency
Lower Keys
Coldwell Banker Schmitt
RE/MAX All Keys Real Estate
Bascom Grooms Real Estate
Royal Palms Realty
Robinson Real Estate Company
SBX Real Estate
Engel & Voelkers Florida Keys
Key West
Allison James Estates & Homes
Royal Palms Realty
Island Group Realty
Century 21 Schwartz Realty
Realty World
Tropical Properties Real Estat
Doug Mayberry Real Estate
Key West Properties
Selling Agency
Sold Date
List Price
349,000.00
490,000.00
642,000.00
324,900.00
399,000.00
269,900.00
299,000.00
799,000.00
135,000.00
135,000.00
140,000.00
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
324,000.00
490,000.00
560,000.00
290,000.00
402,000.00
269,900.00
287,500.00
755,000.00
135,000.00
130,000.00
130,000.00
Street # Street Address
American Caribbean Real Estate
Dolberry Realty
Sellstate Island Properties
Keller Williams Realty
Royal Palms Realty
Robinson Real Estate Company
Singh Real Estate
Singh Real Estate
9/23/14
9/23/14
9/25/14
9/19/14
9/19/14
9/18/14
9/17/14
9/25/14
9/18/14
9/22/14
9/22/14
Prudential Knight & Gardner Realty
Datashare Office
Auction.com
Preferred Properties
Compass Realty
Banyan Resort Realty
Seaport Realtors
Seaport Realtors
9/22/14
$ 150,000.00
$ 145,000.00
3312 Northside Dr #309
9/19/14
$ 541,200.00
$ 662,500.00
915 Eisenhower Dr #401
9/19/14
$ 390,000.00
$ 390,000.00
2120 Seidenberg Ave
9/22/14
$1,425,000.00
$1,390,000.00
1420 South St
9/19/14
$ 499,000.00
$ 475,000.00
1621 Rose St #2
9/19/14
$ 649,900.00
$ 614,150.00
700 700 Pearl St
9/22/14
$ 224,900.00
$ 224,900.00
623 623 Thomas St #A
9/23/14
$ 469,000.00
$ 448,000.00
1423 1423 Catherine St
9/23/14
$ 895,000.00
$ 800,000.00
1112 1112 Elgin Ln
9/18/14
$1,195,000.00
$1,150,000.00
1500 1500 Atlantic Blvd #303
Based on information provided by the KWAR MLS from 09/18/2014 to 09/25/2014
4
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
Sold Price
Fax (305) 296-2701
3939
431
24236
23068
22969
22774
19516
77
6000
5950
5950
Gordon Rd
Coral Ave
W Caribbean Dr
Sailfish
Sharp Ln
Cudjoe Dr
Seminole St
Bay Dr
Peninsular Ave
Peninsular Ave #610
Peninsular Ave #601
Island
Built
Description
Bdrms
Wtrfrnt
MM
Big Pine Key
Ramrod Key
Summerland Key
Cudjoe Key
Cudjoe Key
Cudjoe Key
Sugarloaf Key
Saddlebunch
Stock Island
Stock Island
Stock Island
1989
2013
1986
1976
1997
1987
1997
1994
N/A
N/A
N/A
Single Family
Single Family
Single Family
Single Family
Single Family
Single Family
Single Family
Single Family
Boat Slip
Boat Slip
Boat Slip
2
3
2
2
3
2
3
4
0
0
0
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
29
27
25
23
23
22
19
15
5
5
5
Key West
Key West
Key West
Key West
Key West
Key West
Key West
Key West
Key West
Key West
1980
1983
1953
2004
2008
1958
1928
1938
1899
1986
Condo
Condo
Single Family
Single Family
Condo
Single Family
Condo
Single Family
Single Family
Condo
2
4
5
3
3
2
1
2
2
2
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
3
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
0
Good Deeds sponsored by
OPEN HOUSE
Oct. 5, 12-3pm
1217 Packer St.
5

October 2, 2014

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