Half Staff

Old Glory is a common nickname for the flag of the United States, bestowed by William Driver, an early nineteenth century American sea captain. In case you do not know what the American flag looks like, here it is flying outside a post office in South Miami. Yesterday marked an important historical day of the US when there was a terrorist attack that destroyed the two World Trade Centers in New York. That was the infamous September 11th of the year 2001. Yesterday, on its anniversary, there was another deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya that killed the US ambassador and other US Department of State personnel.

For such an important event, there was an usual Presidential proclamation issued to fly the United States flag at half staff honoring the victims of the attack in Benghazi. This is the Old Glory in the mourning half staff state. It will be in this position until sunset on September 16, 2012.

Little Havana

The weather was fine almost all day today, then a big rainstorm came to make afternoon rush hour traffic interesting... but I know all the little streets in Miami so I can still navigate with some ease... that brought me to the heart of Miami's Little Havana. Here we are at the intersection of SW 76th Avenue and Eight street (Calle Ocho.) It's rainy, the streets are wet and people don't like it so you got to pay attention doubly because, trust me, drivers are bad here, and the rain always makes them more dangerous. At this little window, you can order some very sweet pastries and the famous café Cubano, originated in Cuba after espresso machines were first imported there from Italy, an espresso shot which is sweetened with demerara sugar as it is being brewed. Drinking café Cubano is the thing to do around here.

Nerves Of Steel

I was crazy! In a flash of insanity, I got all my nerves together and took this photo... and lived to tell about it! If caught, I think I may end up in the slammer right now. This is inside a BANK. OMG, this guy took a photo... call the cops...

The subject of interest to me really is that with this photo, I can say this is a great country. If you are disabled, you have the highest chance to be able to function at many places here that you may not if you were in another country. Citizens of another country on earth might say that is true for their country as well.... and I would like to know about it. Only in America!

Life Is So Tough!

You want a long story, or a short story today? A long story? I would start by quoting Albert Camus about why it is that the only serious philosophical problem is suicide. That would lead to "the meaning of life" blah blah blah... The short story is better: I decided to get fish for dinner. This is the Publix super market. This young man is preparing a snapper for me to fry. I burned the fish because I do not know how to fry it properly. I will need to look up on Youtube the manner experts fry fish to obtain a golden, crunchy and oh so yummy fish in some kind of heavenly sauce. I'll get it right the next time.

Life is so darn complicated... and where are my things?

George

Here is George. George works as a security guard at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. I wish I had his job. I'd love to be the gate keeper at this beautiful place.

Wishing Grove

A while back, there was a wishing tree in Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (FTBG.) It has since been replaced by a Wishing Grove also by Yoko Ono. It is located on the north end of the vine pergola, and I think this is just a most beautiful place for you to come and utter your secret wish in isolation under the shading vines. I wish I had a secret wish today, but I do not, so you will not find my wish on any of the strings here.

Vine and Creeper

Vines grow very well in Miami, provided they are given adequate support, like a pergola seen here. In the foreground is a huge Rangoon creeper, which technically is a vine, but designated as a ligneous vine, which is a woody plant that uses wood as its structural tissue and it does not really need a pergola to grow well.

Rangoon creepers (Quisqualis indica,) also known as the Chinese honeysuckle, can be used to treat diarrhea. It's always fascinating to know that seemingly every plant known to the human species can be used to cure some ailments. It's only necessary to know enough to avoid those that are toxic that can kill you.

Sorry, it's "caffè"

I had a light breakfast here at the Liberty Caffé which is part of the country club of the city of Coral Gables. They say it has the appeal of an European-style café, thus its strange way of spelling the word coffee. OK.. so I said to myself "What's going on here? What's in this name: caffé? It's supposed to be European, but it's not French, which then it should be "café," nor is it Italian where it should have been "caffè."

A quick look into the etymology of this world famous brew from the coffee bean taught me that:

The English words coffee and café both descend from the continental European translingual word root /kafe/, which appears in many European languages with various naturalized spellings, including Italian (caffè); Portuguese, Spanish, and French (café); German (Kaffee); Polish (kawa); Ukrainian (кава, 'kava') and many others. I couldn't find a country that says "Caffé." Only in the City Beautiful here!

Well, it has an eatable croissan'Wich, a bit on the dry side, but definitely eatable. Please do not ask me to look into the strange way that a French croissant somehow turned into a sandwich! That happened in 1983.

Coral Gables

I rarely come to this side of Coral Gables, but here is a view from the Sears department store's parking looking West to the heart of Coral Gables, in the direction of the famed Miracle Mile. Miracle Mile is the premier "downtown" street of Coral Gables, the City Beautiful, where merchants for several generations operate small but upscale shops of all sorts. Sears is an old institutional department store and it has always been here at the corner of Coral Way (aka Miracle Mile and SW 24th Street) and SW 37th Avenue.

Kitsune No Yomeiri

Today is a holiday in the US: Labor Day is what it is called. Surprisingly, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (FTBG) is quite deserted. I guess people like to go shopping better. But I was lucky to be in here and experienced a lovely meteorological phenomenon: a sunshower in which rain falls while the sun is shining. No, the dark clouds in the North to Northwest direction were not part of this. The sporadic light rains came from the right of this photo while the sun shined through them. They are called sunshowers. To avoid getting wet, I just sat on a bench under a Chinese palm tree to enjoy the breeze.

Although used in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Britain, the term "sunshower" is rarely found in dictionaries. This phenomenon has a wide range of similar folkloric names in cultures around the world. A common theme is that different forest animals, or the devil, are getting married. How romantic!

In South African English, a sunshower is referred to as a "monkey’s wedding." In Afrikaans, it is referred to as jakkalstrou: Jakkals trou met wolf se vrou as dit reën en die son skyn flou, meaning: "Jackal is marrying Wolf's wife when it rains and the sun shines faintly." If I were an Afrikaan male wolf, I would hate that! In Bengali, it is called "a devil's wedding." Many other animals are invoked in different countries: tigers, leopards, hyenas, bears, rats, crows... But my real favorite is the fox's wedding: "kitsune no yomeiri", or "the kitsune's wedding." I am sure you can tell that's in Japan.

There is a very colorful scene of this "kitsune no yomeiri" in the movie Dreams by Akira Kurosawa. This is an ideal place for foxes to get married. Foxy Ladies will easily qualify!

Outsource This!

I know, I have talked too many times about the jack fruits. This is the last such boring talks for this year, I promise. I do this to dispel some myths about this fruit, and at the same time, to give you a new myth of my own. I got a fourth jack fruit a few days ago, and was patiently waiting to cut it open myself. That was a bad idea, to try to do that! I was quite assured it is ripe. Not so! Myth #1: Jack fruits are ripe when the stem turns brown. This one's stem was brown. Myth #2: Jack fruits are ripe when they start smelling. This one did... quite strongly, I must add. But it is not quite ripe yet. This composite photo shows what I spent about 3 hours today, going through 4 pairs of rubber gloves with a sharp knife that is now dull and sticky. The 30 lbs compound fruit was cut into 8 pieces and the individual fruits were painstakingly yanked out of their sticky full of sap protective pouches. The half photo on the right shows you the aftermath of that protracted battle. Now my back, my hands and my butt all hurt!

At the end of the day, I am the proud keeper of two large bowls of jack fruits that are not ready for consumption! But I know better! My new jack fruit myth: Just leave the unripe fruits alone a few days and they will ripen just fine.

I should have outsourced this job!

Cephalopod mollusc

Would you eat this creature? It has two eyes and four pairs of arms! Eeewwww!

Key West Pink

It's always hard to decide what's for dinner. Here is what Capt. Tavern suggests: Shrimps! I never knew that they have invented a new designation - Colossal! Hhmmm... Key West pink! Looks very inviting!

Pretty In Pink

Here is a beautiful in pink look of the Miami's sky late in the afternoon today. Sorry about all the ugly wires. I can't help it!

Colorful Juveniles

After several days of much rain from tropical storm Isaac, the baby giant blue crabs (Cardisoma guanhumi) appear in droves here... Remember that they only get the boring pale blue when adults. When still in juvenile stages, they are really pretty in all rainbow hues: green, yellow, red, orange, purple, pink, black... Do rainbows have pink and black colors in them? Do you know??? If not, why not???

Because...

Isaac is gone ...



Photo taken today at 10:27AM.
Click on the player above to hear a sad song...

Misery

Isaac has come and gone, but the story does not end there. We have a lot of flooding from the rain that accompanied Isaac. Isaac's center is way over there... but its arms reach way over here on Brickell avenue, and the end result is that we are still having a wet and windy day to deal with. Tomorrow will be back to normal again, I am sure.

It's Only A Tropical Storm

Thankfully, we are spared of an encounter with a hurricane. Tropical storm Isaac is supposed to skirt the Florida Keys and emerge into the Gulf of Mexico. So we are safe... but as you can see, we are still very, very wet. This is the wet coral rock wall of the very beautiful Plymouth Congregational Church in Coconut Grove.

Prelude To A Cane

This is a miserable day to drive around in Miami. This is Brickell Avenue... and this is NOT Isaac yet. Isaac is supposed to become a Hurricane sometime late tomorrow and will cross the Florida Keys to enter the Gulf of Mexico where it has plenty of warm water to grow stronger. South Florida, including Miami is under a hurricane warning (meaning hurricane conditions may prevail) and everyone, myself included is trying to hibernate and weather this storm. I want my blue sky back... Boo hoo hoo!

Only a TS

Friday afternoon, and the traffic is crazy... This huge ad usually talks about Coconut Grove's commerce but this time, Coral Gables is paying to get the attention away from Coconut Grove. In a nutshell, if you want to be "trendy," and if you're a Who's Who, you need to be trendy... so you obviously need to shop with the "trend setter." Clear? No? But look at the black storm in the sky... here comes the fringe of Isaac. It is still only classified as a tropical storm (TS) with wind speed of about 70mph. We may be OK because the weather forecasters only issued TS warning for us and no one is uttering the word "HURRICANE." Hope they are correct this time.