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Only in Florida: glory to the garish (Sun Sentinel)
I’m a sucker for old pop song lyrics. That old Simon & Garfunkle lyric is rattling around in my brain as my family returned from a week-long “vacation” (for the kids, not the grown-ups) in Sarasota, where their grandma lives. They whiled away the hours in the hotel pool proudly displaying their swimming skills to mom and dad over, and over, and over, etc.
Sarasota (and all of Florida as far as I’m concerned) is a strange place. Quite charming in some respects especially for its old antique historic charm as the winter home of the Ringling Bros. circus and the Ringling family. There are musty old gems like the Children’s Garden (where I discovered that the founder’s daughter is daughter in law of Seattle Times columnist, Danny Westneat). There are gorgeous beauties like the Marie Selby orchid garden. But the new Sarasota can be garish and lurid. Witness this horrid piece of Soviet-sized public sculpture that graces the most well-traveled intersection in town. The sculpture is a rip off of a famous historic image of a sailor kissing a girl in Manhattan on V-E Day.
Google search for Coteret blog
Food in Sarasota can range from the perfunctory or just plain awful to the sublime. We had a lovely meal at Derek’s Culinary Casual in the historic Rosemary District. The restaurant combines two storefronts with 20 foot high ceilings and elegant decor. We loved the fact that it was away from the hip, happnin’ Main Street restaurant/bar scene. This being a town in which the average age hovered around 70 (pharmacies graced every street corner), portions were double what we’re used to in Seattle.
We loved the creamed spaetzle and I had a lucious desert humorously called Smores: chocolate pudding cunningly described as “chocolate pate” on the menu, topped with homemade marshmallow, with a honey graham crust below.
But home is really where I wanna be, as the song goes.
While I was away my Israeli blogging friend, Didi Remez, reported that one of his visitors used the following Google search terms to reach his blog, “Kill Richard Silverstein.”
Maybe it’s time to draw up a last will and testament. I document weirdness like this because I haven’t been able to get either the Seattle Police Department or FBI to take the threats seriously. If God forbid something did happen, I want this to be on the public record.
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Tags: big kiss sculpture, blog cyberbullying, death threats, dereks culinary casual restaurant, sarasota, unconditional surrender
![Image of West-East Divan [DVD Video]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MAqFcHK-L._SL110_.jpg "West-East Divan [DVD Video]")
RE: “horrid piece of Soviet-sized public sculpture…a sailor kissing a girl in Manhattan on V-E Day” – R.S.
MY COMMENT: I thought the sailor and girl in the original black & white photo were “whites”. The sailor and girl in this delightful example of South Florida “art”* appear to be dark-skinned. Oh, I see, they have been updated with ’savage’ Florida tans (sans the badly wrinkled skin).
*This atrocity makes the ubiquitous plastic ‘pink flamingos’ of yore seem über exquisitely tasteful!
“über exquisitely tasteful” should have been ‘über-exquisitely tasteful’ or perhaps just ‘über tasteful’ (methinks, given my limited knowledge of grammar)
Suddenly last night, it came to me. I’m not certain whether in a dream or Divinely* inspired. The two characters in what Mr Silverstein described with with such eloquent understatement as “glory to the garish” are ‘kissing cousins’ of the notoriously gay icon, (formerly Shoney’s, still Bob’s) Big Boy®. Now, that is truly a ‘mind altering’ ménage à trois! Who should I sue for all the mental distress this has caused me? I want some big buck ‘punies’ (punitive damages)! “Have punies; will forum shop.”
*hint: John Waters – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_(actor)
Big Boy (restaurant) – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Boy_(restaurant)
P.S. The Big Boy™ chain also offers other sandwich combinations, such as the Brawny Lad (a hamburger patty topped with a slice of onion on a rye bun)…
Garish is about right. To take from one of the greatest iconic photographs of that era and despoil the image with that cheesy statue, no wonder I’ve avoided going to Florida… (no, I’m sure there are some nice things there).
As for the other thing, well, all I can say is I salute your courage. Speaking truth to power and saying ‘unpopular’ things re the established American discourse in the public format that you do, has to be a daunting endeavor.