Good Morning Florida Keys

Received an email the other day from an amigo I met in early 2001, when I lived on the street. He said he had attended last week’s open mic at Sippin’ Internet Cafe in Key West and it was really good. I frequently attended Sippin’s Open mic when I lived in Key West before moving back up here to the boondocks, so I tooled down to Key West yesterday evening, after a hard day hoeing weeds and chopping snakes.
 
I arrived a bit early, so I went over to Jack Flats to have dinner and deal with the startled looks from familiar faces who had never seen me without a beard. I’ve been telling people I’m on an undercover assignment and for them to please not tell anyone who I am, but it doesn’t seem to do any good. My cover keeps getting blown, I keep getting told I look thirty or twenty years younger without the beard, and I keep saying I don’t feel younger. I keep getting told women are going to like me better without the beard, and I keep saying where are these women?
 
After dinner and fun conversation with one of the bartenders I got to know pretty well over the years, I waddled back over the Sippin” and into the open mic now well underway. My old amigo from the living on the street days was there and we shook hands and hugged. I grabbed a chair beside him and listened to one performer after another sing or tell stories or recite poetry. My ears perked up some when one fellow got up and said he was into the New Age and was going to do a couple of songs about New Age healing. That led to my going over and writing my name on the sign-up sheet, to get in line to hold forth.
 
When my time came, I waddled over to the little band stand and took the mic off its metal holder and said the fellow who sang the New Age songs had inspired me to get up there.
 
I said back in 1999, I had hitchhiked from Birmingham, Alabama to Seattle, carrying only a small backpack and my writing notebook. Wherever I went, I told people I was taking notes for my next book: “Diary of a Redneck Mystic.” I was amazed to discover how many mystics there were in places like Montana, North Dakota and Indiana. They all wanted their stories to be in my book. But the publisher said it was too mystical to be a redneck book, and too redneck to be a mystical book. Some laughter from the audience at this point. Actually, I never wrote the book. Some more laughter.
 
I paused, looked over at the New Age fellow, said, I once passed through the New Age and went to many New Age healers and paid them lots of money to help me, but they all said whatever was going on with me was beyond their range. I said this was before some poetry I was going to share came to me, and I started with this poem, which came to me at the breakfast table in mid-April 1995:

Shaman . . .

You now are . . .

Angels walk beside you

and call you their brother . . .

Even as you curse the heavens

for making you one who wields the lightning . . .

Be kind to your brothers and sisters . . . 

but take no prisoners . . .

Kill them all in my name . . .

as I have killed you . . .

So you, and they,

might live . . .

I said it was a few years before I understood who the voice was in that poem, and it was really embarassing to finally realize it was the Christ. I said I was put through all sorts of horrible shit, learning all about the Devil. The Devil in me. The Devil outside of me. And yet it all turned out to be easy, compared with what was done to me later. I said I wrote lots of poetry about the Devil in me back then, but I would not share any of that poetry just then.

I looked at the New Age fellow, said, back then I ran with some young Rainbows, because they were the only people I could talk with about what I was experiencing. I met up with them on Pearl Street Mall, in Boulder, Colorado, where I lived then. They talked about experiences they had on LSD, peyote, mushrooms. Some laughter from the audience. I talked about experiences I had on nothing. At first they insisted I was taking something to have those experiences, but I kept saying I was taking nothing, and finally they believed me and said, “Wow, far out, man.” Some laughter from the audience.

I said the next poem was sort of New Age:

Earth

The sacred prism

through which souls are refracted

into their elemental parts,

purified in hole fire,

then one-forged

and sent on their way

to not even God knows where,

simply because they are all

unique emanations of God,

evolving

God

Then, I said,

Who invented the rule that poetry must rhyme, have pentameter, be cast into verse, be politically correct, remain on the safe side of the fence? Yes, please tell me who invented that stupid, fucking rule? Shorley it warn’t de maka ob de furst ston – udderwiz der’d be no stons to brake all dem slavin’ ruls!

Some of the performers in the audience nodded agreement.

I paused, said when the next poem came to me, I knew I was fucked:

I happened upon a mockingbird

singing its fool head off.

I asked it why and how it sang,

but all it did was look ahead,

all it did was sing.

I paused, said there were lots of mockingbirds in Birmingham, and there are lots of mocking birds in Key West. Then, I finished the poem.

It never turned to see if I was watching,

or listended for money jingling in my pockets,

or asked if I liked its music,

or expected a recording contract.

It was too busy singing

to pay any attention to me.

Some of the performers in the audience nodded agreement.

Then came,

There is no somewhere over the rainbow,

Nor is there a pot of gold at the end -

There is only the rainbow.

Then this,

Black is white,

White is black,

When they fuse,

Rainbows bloom.

I said, I had to learn about the Devil in me, to learn about God. I had to learn about the darkness in me, to learn about the light. I had to learn about the female in me, to learn about the male.

I said it was horrible, but it got a lot worse. I looked around the audience, said, when they sit in their medicine wheels, when they go to church and pray, when they do sweat lodges, all of those things I had done, to be very careful what they ask for, because they sure didn’t want to experience what I had experienced.

I put the mic back in its holder and started to step down from the band stand and got my right foot caught in the mic cord. I laughed, said it must be a synchronistic event. I must be supposed to keep talking. Some laughter. I said, no, I was through. But if they wanted to see what the angels put me through, they could check out goodmorningkeywest.com each day.

I dreamt last night of telling you about all of that today, so that’s how come I told you about it.

One other thing that maybe I should share today, because it seems on topic and I dreamt about it also last night, is something I found on the Coconut Telegraph of bigpinekey.com yesterday and answered yesterday afternoon between its paragraphs.

~[Sloan was wondering what God thinks about the corruption in KW] God to Sloan: Enjoying the KW criminal drama but only watch and investigate for now. I’m waiting and hoping to see what human solutions will arise to solve all the political corruption and crime problems through out the Keys. Meanwhile my top guy, Michael, is on the ground investigating everything as we speak.
 
Don’t hold your breath. No human solutions will arise to solve all the political corruption and crime problems throughout the Keys – or any of those problems. Surely by now, you have woken up to being able to see it is human nature, like breathing, eating, drinking water, and peeing and crapping, to engage in political corruption and commit crimes. Michael indeed is on the ground, we palaver daily, or nightly, making a list of who’s been naughty or nice, which will be presented when the roll is called up yonder. Some of the folks with the longest lists are going to be really surprised when that day comes.  I sure was surprised when my roll was called by Michael.
 
In the old days I could solve my children’s problems quick and easy with a couple of lighting bolts, a big flood, even a nasty plague or such, but given that you elected a president with new targeted tolerance policies my hands are tied for now. I was hoping by now all my children would be able to solve any problems they created, but I guess my expectations were just a tad to high. Also could you please show a little respect and turn the light off at night when you grab … I was sure you’d out grow that nasty habit, but I was wrong again.
 
Read the previous paragraph about human nature. The present President is one of the offenders, so how could he possibly bring about change and hope? None of this is news to you, but we play this little game, don’t we? Used to be, when I turned out the light, I grabbed parts of Eve that interested me, and vice versa. Since she left, there’s only one thing left to grab after I turn out the light. Miss Kitty doesnt’ like it, and when she complains too much, I grab the other only thing left to grab.
 
Good luck, live long and prosper my son, later!
 
Later always seems to be God’s plan for me. Meanwhile, I hope each day will be my last.

PS. I hope any skeletons that may have been hiding in your closet have been dismantled. Those silly sword carrying Archangels, especially Michael, get real touchy when they think they’ve been conned.
 
As far as I know, all the skeletons in my closet have been dragged into the light of day and shaken hard, but whether or not they have been dismantled, I cannot say. Michael led the charge in that enterprise. Perhaps after seeing how it all went for me, God decided it wasn’t worth the effort to try that with anyone else and called Michael off the skeleton patrol. By the way, there is no way a human being can con an Archangel, because Archangels have X-ray vision and hearing and nothing escapes them that people do or even think.

Sloan Bashinsky

keysmyhome@hotmail.com

goodmorningkeywest.com, goodmorningfloridakeys.com

Received this foward from a Marathon amigo:

The Time Has Indeed Come! 

Governors of 35 states have already filed suit against the Federal Government for imposing unlawful burdens upon them.  It only takes 38 (of the 50) States to convene a Constitutional Convention.

This will take less than thirty seconds to read. If you agree, please pass it on.  

An idea whose time has come!

For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress.  Many citizens had no idea that members of Congress could retire with the same pay after only one term, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed (such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment) while ordinary citizens must live under those laws. The latest was to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform … in all of its forms. Somehow, that doesn’t seem logical. We do not have an elite that is above the law. 

I truly don’t care if they are Democrat, Republican, Independent or whatever. The self-serving must stop. 

A Constitutional Convention – this is a good way to do that. It is an idea whose time has come.  And, with the advent of modern communication, the process can be moved along with incredible speed.  There is talk out there that the “government” doesn’t care what the people think.  That is irrelevant.  It is incumbent on the population to address elected officials to the wrongs afflicted against the populace…you and me.  Think about this…

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified!  Why?  Simple!  The people demanded it.  That was in 1971…before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc.

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land…all because of public pressure.

I’m asking each addressee to forward this Email to a minimum of twenty people on their Address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise.

In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one proposal that  really should be passed around.

Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution: 

“Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States .”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That our elected US representatives and senators have such special privileges strikes me as so ludicrous that I don’t know how they can look themselves in the mirror and not rush straight to their government offices and start demanding an end to this invidious discrimination. Elected officials are supposed to serve, not be served. Not that I think enacting and passing Amendment 28 will make much difference in America’s falling star, but at least all Americans will be created equal, if amendment 28 passes, and they can all fall together.

Sloan Bashinsky

keysmyhome@hotmail.com

goodmorningfloridakeys.com, goodmorningkeywest.com

Today’s Key West Citizen – keysnews.com – contains three letters to the editor about the firing of Key West High School English teacher Nick Wright. One is from a former Key West resident who has been on my email list quite a while, very disturbed over the firing. Another is from a former educator, quite happy with the firing. The third is from a former teacher who is the father of one of Nick Wright’s students, beyond distressed over the firing. It is that letter I reproduce here:
 
Remember Nick Wright on next Election Day
 
What a sad day in paradise when we lose two excellent teachers, Nick Wright and his wife, for a minor transgression. In spite of overwhelming support from students, former students, staff, former staff, fellow teachers, former teachers and the parents of the students in his classes, the School Board decided to fire him. It almost seems like they just went through the motions and had already decided his fate before the meeting.
 
As a former teacher and parent of a student in his class, I can only say that we are extremely disappointed and sad about this decision. 
 
My son has lost his inspiration, no longer talks about the English classics at home, and his grades have suffered. There are many students who have just given up on English as a result of the unnecessary persecution of Mr. Wright. I hope that all of his supporters will remember the naysayers on this board come election time.

Peter Wassylenko

Key West

Next on this sad subject is this email back and forth with a south Florida school teacher, who summers in the Keys and has been on my email list since 2006.

Hi, Mickey.
 
The vote was 3-2 in support of the Sup’s recommendation to fire the teacher. The public meeting was packed with students, parents, teachers, all clamoring for the teacher to be reinstated. The KW police dispatched extra patrol cars to the high school the next day, just in case there was a reaction/upheaval.
 
The two school board members who voted in favor of hiring the teacher back were Ron Martin and Robin Smith-Martin. The three voting to fire the teacher were Duncan Mathewson, Andy Griffiths and John Dick.
 
There was something in the Citizen today about the teacher perhaps getting a chance to teach at another Keys school than Key West High School next fall, starting all over as a new hire, under supervision, his tenure gained last year lost.
 
Robin Smith-Martin was interviewed on US 1 Radio this evening. He said he hopes the rift between the students, parents and teachers on one side, and the school board and superintendent and high school principal (who led the charge to get rid of the teacher) on the other side, can be quickly healed. I think Robin needs to be prepared for something as divisive and long-term destructive as the wife of the last Sup stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the school system, with her husband turning a blind eye.
 
If this had been a so-so teacher, nobody probably would have given a shit. But this was a stellar award-winning beloved teacher, who got results other teachers were not getting. I still say they should have given him a medal and a raise, and put him in charge of teaching other teachers how to reach students who otherwise are not being reached. What an opportunity this teacher presented.
 
Maybe he needed to modify his delivery somewhat. But what was done was his delivery was crushed, instead of evolved into somethat that other teachers could observe and merge into their own classrooms.
 
I don’t know how this sad incident will affect teachers nationally, but it will have a long-lasting effect on teachers in the Keys. I doubt you will see any Keys teachers trying creative approaches, out of the box methods. I suspect you will see a school system of automatons pretending to be teachers.
 
In his State of the Union address, President Obama explained how other countries, China, South Korea, for example, view teachers of children as “nation builders.” Very high esteem teachers enjoy in those countries. He urged American educators to be nation builders. I doubt we will see any nation builders in the Keys school system.
 
Sloan
 
I am sure that Monroe County does not have the monopoly on having teachers become robots. Tallahassee is pushing for state-wide end -of -term exams. While the concept seems to have some merit, it forces teachers to be super-specific as to what is being taught; along with that it tends to force a loss of autonomy in the classroom- hence the teacher-robot. One thing we all have in common is that we all went to school, right? We all can remember teachers that we enjoyed and teachers that we didn’t enjoy – I am beginning to ramble…what I am trying to convey is that if teachers are indeed forced to become automatons then learning will decline…Mick Jagger and the Stones did a tune way back, “The Singer not the Song”. My observation, based on 39 years in the business, is that it is the “teacher not the subject”. Example: 2 + 2 =4 : there are teachers who can talk about this concept and turn it into an almost orgasmic experience, while others find students drifting off into the great unknown or creating havoc in the classroom. The main concept here is that we must never allow our school boards to take away the zeal and excitement that some teachers use, ESPECIALLY, when it has been awarded previously. I certainly hope that this young man has the opportunity to continue his career!!!! MickAmen. I wrote this below before receiving Mick’s P.S. 

P.S. Bottom line – the kids listened and learned.. wonder if the Monroe Sup wants to take on the television amd music industries at the bequests of a handful of Puritans and Quakers? Are we really all that differentfrom the Taliban?????

I still say what took over three of our school board members and the superintendent of schools and the Key West High School principal was their religious programming. Their reaction was knee-jerk, robot. I applaud the two dissenting school board members, one of whom was a career educator, having taught high school and been a principal for over thirty years in the Keys. In my worst nightmares, I cannot imagine how the three board members, who had never spent a day teaching school, decided they knew better than a career teacher what was best in this situation. Well, I need to take that back, don’t I? I already said how those three board members decided what was best. They need to resign from the school board and open churches and preach to their choirs.
 
Sloan Bashinsky
 
keysmyhome@hotmail.com
 
goodmorningfloridakeys.com
 
There is another peachy super tourist tanker post today at goodmorningkeywest.com

Last night, by a 3-2 vote, the school board confirmed the Superintendent of School’s decision to fire Key West High School English teacher Nick Wright. I did not attend, so cannot report beyond what I read of it in today’s Key West Citizen - keysnews.com.
 
Apparently, the vote was irrelevant, because authority to hire and fire school teachers is vested in the superintendent, who already had decided to fire Wright. Of the five school board members, only one had ever taught school – over three decades in the county school system, before retiring and getting elected to the school board last year. He was one of the two board members who voted to retain Wright. The vote came after many pleas from students, teachers and the public to retain Wright. No one from the public spoke in favor of firing Wright.
 
I received two comments about my treatment of this situation in yesterday’s “Conchaberry Tales” post.
 
~Great job posting in the Coconut Telegraph today re: the English teacher at the H.S. I admired your use of literature to make a point that sorely needs to me made. I hope the school board gives the man his job back. Thanks for staying involved.

It was reported early on that his methods were VERY successful.  Students in his special classes who had learned little or no standard English for years suddenly not only listened and learned, but did surprisingly better on tests.  That is a big if not main reason he earned so many awards.  For Nick, it was indeed, all about student success, even at the obvious risk to him of going to or over the edge of upper-class sensitivities.  The hypocrisy of the District and the parents who now say, “Oh, we really don’t care what the students learn, it is OUR moral sensitivities that are paramount, of course.  Off with his head.”
 
They offered him no counseling or advice, just awards, for years while he was forthrightly utilizing his methods with his special classes.  His attorney misspoke when he described these classes in ethnic terms, which caused many to label condescending.  In fact, Nick’s special classes were the economically disadvantaged, who for standard sociological reasons employ a lingo and style of discourse different from the economically advantaged.  Nick broke through those cultural barriers, bringing his students into standard English by utilizing as a transition their own culture’s communicative style.  It’s the same way second languages are always taught, even in so-called “immersion” classes.
 
Nick has said he will of course follow orders on his teaching methods.  For the system to go from praise to destruction in one Draconian step sends a terrible message to our kids.
 
Rick Boettger
 
Rick writes a column for Key West the Newspaper, and sometimes he writes investigative reports for that press.
 
The last paragraph in Rick’s letter caused me to wonder, even if the school board disagreed with the superintendent, even if Nick Wright was reinstated, maybe he should decline. Maybe he should take to heart the ending of Dead Poets Society and leave a school system where he clearly was not appreciated by the powers that be.
 
Then, this morning, I received a cartoon from an ever bawdy No Name Key amiga (not Alicia Putney), which seemed to fit the drama Nick Wright’s teaching methods created in the school system. The cartoon also seemed to fit my last dream this morning, which pointed me toward some people I used to run with, who had adopted Tibetan Buddhism as their spiritual path. Those people spoke frequently of karma, which caused me to be thankful I did not fire Nick Wright. 
 
Also from Rick Boettger yesterday:

 
Here below, for a change of pace, is a joke a ribald No Name Key amiga sent yesterday.
 
THE MORMON AND THE IRISHMAN…
 
A Mormon was seated next to an Irishman on a flight from London.
 
After the plane was airborne, drink orders were taken.
 
The Irishman asked for a whiskey, which was promptly brought and placed before him.
 
The flight attendant then asked the Mormon if he would like a drink. He replied in disgust, “I’d rather be savagely raped by a dozen whores than let liquor touch my lips.”
 
The Irishman then handed his drink back to the attendant and said, “Me, too, I didn’t know we had a choice.”
 
Along similar lines, the day after I put up the January 18 “redneck humor” post, an abbreviated photo shoot down memory lane in Key West, I got bounce-backs on all copies of that post sent to the county commissioners and county staff through the county server. I thought that might have to do with one of the photos in the day before post, which was a shapely lassie holding a homemade cardboard sign covering only her lower quarters, saying, “BLOW JOBS 50 CENTS.” The “economic stimulus” photo was in keeping with the generally-held, often unspoken view of the prostitution that accompanies politics. The next day’s post also bounced backed from all of the county server recipients.
 
So I called County Commissioner Kim Wigington to let her know what had happened to the day before post and what I thought might have caused it. I said I wanted her to see the part of the next post, which was a long letter from a former Stand Up For Animals employee about his experiences with Linda Gottwald. I asked Kim to pull just the SUFA part of the post and forward it to the other commissioners, as I figured they needed to see it. She said she would do that. I said maybe the bouncing back was a “sign from above” I was through with county politics, which brought a chuckle from her. Yesterday, Kim called and left a message that she had looked into it and my emails had been blocked out of the county server at the request of one employee over inappropriate content. I again took that as a sign that I was done with county politics.
 
Rest assured, I was acutely aware of the possibility that this particular photo might really upset someone on my email hit list. I knew for a fact, if the company providing my websites with access to the Web happened to check my websites that day, they would immediately shut down my websites, perhaps permanently, as they had shut down the websites twice before over my having published Fantasy Fest photos from Duval Street. I told the angels the night before I put up the photo shoot, if they did not want me using the blow job joke, to let me know, for if I used it and my websites were shut down, I would take that as a sign from God that I was done using the websites. I heard nothing in my sleep that night. The next morning, I went through the usual ritual I use to double check that a post is substantively okay with the angels. When no Editorial objection showed up, I published what I had put together the day before.
 
What this boils down to for me, besides what I already wrote above, is a feeling that the county employee, who made the request to have me blocked out of the county server, had to be pretty important, perhaps even a county commissioner. And a feeling Puritanism runs very, very deep in the Keys, despite their reputation for being the last outpost in America where people can be who they really are. And a feeling the photo perhaps hit too close to home for the person who was offended by it. And lastly, a feeling the photo was not the real reason the person had me blocked out of the county server, but it was the first good excuse that person was able to find that other people might agree with.
 
The irony is, Kim Wigington gets copies of my posts through her private email address, and she did not protest, even though she once told me she must be a prude because she could never go along with Higgs Beach being turned into a clothing optional beach. Although I thought Kim should not let her personal code interfere with what might be best for Key West, I respected her for honestly telling me where she was coming from. Of all the five county commissioners, Kim is by far the commissioner with whom I have had the best rapport on issues facing the county government. Would that all of our county commissioners were like her. If they were, the county government would have a code of ethics that would make the angels sing. Right now, though, the angels view the county government as still shitting its diapers and doing a lot of whoring. I bet if you were to ask him, I didn’t speak with him about this, State Attorney Dennis Ward would agree. Keep that in mind in future county elections.
 
If you missed the photo shoot that got me banned from the county server, you can see it by clicking on this link: redneck humor . For all I know, some of the other photos in that post also were deemed inappropriate. You be the judge, if you wish. As for me, I’m hoping to get what the Mormon said he preferred to having liquor pass his lips. Might feel a hell of a lot better than being maimed by honky tonk angels who stole my heart. Some of them made off with plenty of wampum, too.
 
Meanwhile, I notice on the front page of today’s Key West Citizen – keysnews.com – an article announcing the fate of beleaguered Key West High School English teacher Nick Wright will be in the hands of the School Board at its meeting this evening in Key West. I might just take that Puritan inquisition in, in as much I sense some kindredness of spirit with Nick, whom I have never met as far as I know.
 
The big hooplah is Nick sometimes used sexual idiom in his classes, and for that a movement developed to burn him at the stake. His explanation all along has been he taught in that way because it enabled him to reach and hold the interest of students who otherwise could not be reached. As far as I have been able to determine from reading news reports on this case, none of Nick’s students ever complained about his teaching methods, and what brought it to a head was another teacher heard some of his remarks to his class and that teacher reported Nick to higher ups.
 
What has amazed me all along is I have yet to read any news reports probing the effectiveness of Nick’s teaching method, versus the traditional method. How do his English students’ grades and achievement tests stack up to other English students’ grades and achievement tests? I would think that would be a primary inquiry, but as far as I can tell from the news reports on this situation, that has not been an inquiry at all. This still looks to me like a religious inquiry, which, as far as I know, is still prohibited by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
 
I bet the conch farm there is not a student at Key West High School, who would not howl in laughter over the “redneck humor” post I put up last week, which got me banned from the county server. I bet the conch farm there is nothing Nick Wright said to his students in class that they did not say to each other out of class without any help from Nick. I bet the conch farm Nick’s students are appalled at this witch hunt, even though I imagine some of them subsequently were prompted (cowered) by their parents to act as if they are outraged over Nick’s teaching methods.
 
I read over and over again about the mission of the county school system being to educate all of its students and prepare every last one of them (idiotic) to attend college. So let’s burn the first English novel, Pamela, which is about a man doing his darnest to get into a woman’s panties, and her doing her damndest to keep him out of her panties. Let’s burn the first stream of consciousness novel, Tristram Shandy, and its hilarious “theory of noses” about his dick and it getting misfortunately slammed in a falling window sash. Let’s burnTom Jones and the coming of age a young gentleman experienced at the hands of voluptuous, lusty, farm wench. Let’s burn the Canterbury Tales and the Wife of Bath. Let’s burn the poetry of John Donne. Let’s burn Lady Chaterly’s Lover. Oh, did I leave out A Clockwork Orange? Did I leave out this poem?
 
To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time
 
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.
 
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.
 
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
 
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.
 
And by all means, we must exclude the Song of Solomon. Above all, we cannot let that sublime orgasm be spoken in our classrooms, because it comes from the Bible and the First Amendment says we can’t mix religion with school teaching.
 
Oh, excuse me. I can’t publish any of this today. Key West High School parents aren’t supposed to know this is the kind of English literature their immaculate, sexless children will be exposed to in college English literature classes. Oh, excuse me. I can’t publish any of this today. I might get banned from speaking at the next Key West High School commencement, as the most prolific and the most published author the Florida Keys ever had.

For God’s sake! Did anyone in the school system besides Nick Wright ever see the movie, Dead Poets Society? Did anyone besides Nick get the point of that movie?
 
Who invented the rule that poetry must rhyme, be cast into verse, have pentameter, be politically correct, or remain on the safe side of the fence. Yes, please tell me who invented that really stupid rule? Surely it wasn’t the maker of the first stone – otherwise, there’d be no stones to break all those stupid slaving rules!
 
My God! What do you think would happen if I recited that poem at the commencement? Or this one?
 
He feels deep beauty in the dark pool from which his writings flow. She clings to him like fine silk, precious oil. She feels solid, compressed, like . . . a black pearl growing from inside out, ever larger with each stroke of his pen, pushing her precious waters over her banks into his dreams and life.

Do I have to explain that poem? That is is about the author fucking his own Muse? God only knows what would happen to the copies of Heavy Wait: A Strange Tale in the county branch libraries, if the Puritans in our school system ever read it.
 
The Citizen article reports a lot of high school students want to speak to the School Board this evening, in Nick Wright’s behalf. I truly hope the School Board listens to the students who do speak, for they are the people who best know what kind of teacher Nick Wright is.
 
Sloan Bashinsky
 
keysmyhome@hotmail.com
  goodmorningkeywest.com, goodmorningfloridakeys.com

Sunday homily jokes to tide those who gave up being saved by going to church over until the bars open and their minds quit working again.
 
For Far Right guys and dolls:

For ever hopeful playboys:

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(compliments a No Name Key commie tree hugger, who sends me jokes to keep me having something to look forward to in the face of the ravages of gravity, decrepidism, eating too much pork and lard, getting pounded day and night by angels and demons, human and otherwise, and having gotten involved with far too many honky tonk angels)
 
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For Far Right guys and dolls:
 
Sarah Palin really isn’t going to run for President and win the Republican candidacy, and the Republican Party really isn’t going to splinter off and support the Democratic candidate, whomever it turns out to be.
 
(compliments a little birdie)
 
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For politicians, and their lawyers, lobbyists, and PR spokespersons :
 
Do you know what you call a whore with a runny nose?
 
Play along by answering No.
 
Full.
 
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In closing today, a joke that actually happened. I got this howler straight from one of my spies in the Key West city government. An impeccable source.
 
Key West Citizen published a story the other day about Sunset Marina suing Key West to get KOTS closed, because the City never went through the permitting process when it built KOTS in 2004. What Key West Citizen did not publish, perhaps because it did not know the joke, is Sunset Marina’s development agreement with the City of Key West recently came up for renewal and Sunset getting permission to build even more wet slips and more dry slips (boat rack/barn). While negotiations between Sunset and the City were underway, city staff discovered Sunset had built and were renting more than 30 wet slips without permits. This news had a slight dampering effect on Sunset’s wish to renew its development agreement and build even more slips. In the spirit of Texas hold ‘em and pure poetry, Sunset sued Key West to close KOTS across the canal, because it was not permitted. Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Translated, Sunset will dismiss its lawsuit, if Key West will give Sunset what it wants. Sunset’s lawyer is Bart Smith, whose family owns the Key West golf course and the sewerage treatment plant on Stock Island. Bart and I are somewhat friends, he receives all of my posts by email. He has told me in the past that he voted for me. We’ve always seemed to get along. Having been a practicing lawyer myself, I know Bart is just doing what lawyers do, which is everything he can to get his client what it wants, regardless of how anyone else might be affected. Bart also is a member of the Sunrise Rotary Club in Key West. Rotarians endeavor to serve the public, put the public interest first. I suppose Bart must lose a great deal of sleep at night over being a lawyer and a Rotarian. About as much sleep as the Key West officials lost over building KOTS without going through the permitting process. About as much sleep as Sunset officials lost over building more than 30 non-permitted slips. About as much sleep as Key West officials lost over taking Sunset Marina to task over its more than 30 non-permitted boat slips. About as  much sleep as Sunset officials lost over suing Key West, to close KOTS, six years after KOTS went into operation. I told my spy to pass along to the powers that be in the city government that they need to speak with the conch bubbas who have a history of doing wet work, and get them to go to the Sunset people and twist their arms hard behind their backs, so to speak, an offer they can’t refuse, so to further speak. I told the spy I was serious. I was serious. The spy thanked me for my thoughts and indication that I would write about this actually hilarious Mexican standoff, if it weren’t so darn serious. Maybe folks who go to church today should pray for God to take over this amusing classic Keys intrigue and work it out to suit God, whatever that might look like. I have no clue how God wants it to turn out. For all I know, God is enjoying the drama so much that it is supposed to find its own subterranean way, to keep God amused. Might be that Key West and Sunset cutting a deal to let both of them off the hook for violating the building codes and permitting process might be viewed by some a public corruption. Yep, a crime. Darn, do I hear that old Johnny Cash song in the backroads of the recessess of the memories of my mind? “I can hear that train a comin’, rollin’ down the tracks” ~Folsom Prison Blues
 
Sloan Bashinsky
 
keysmyhome@hotmail.com
 
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