The December Mutts Of The Month

I took the photograph above of the December Mutts of the Month at the Port St. Lucie International Fest that took place a few weeks ago. The dogs were participating in a dachshund dog race, but when the race started, the dogs started running toward me instead of the finish line. Were they thinking I had treats to give them? I was standing by the gate into the field where the event was taking place, and so perhaps they were simply not into the race and were heading for the exit. Of course, it was readily apparent that the owners did not do nearly enough - or perhaps any - training with those dogs, which also explains a lot. And I couldn't help but notice that there were a lot of non-dachshunds in the various races. Is that even legal in a dachshund race? No matter - as long as they posed for a photograph, I was happy.

An Inside Job

I just finished reading An Inside Job, Daniel Silva's latest Gabriel Allon international thriller, and I must say, I really enjoyed it. This series began with Allon working as a spy for the Mossad, Israel's spy agency, eventually becoming that agency's director. The stories featured nerve-wracking operations against the Russians, ISIS, Iran, and other dangerous governments, all very exciting reads. Then Silva has Allon retire from the Mossad and move to Venice, his wife Chiara's hometown, where he returns to his original occupation, which is one the greatest art restorers in the world. I wondered at the time if Silva could continue the same level of excitement in his novels as before, but he does, often involving the dark side of the art world. In this adventure, Allon spots a body floating in the Grand Canal, which turns out to be a murdered Vatican art restorer. This leads to the quest to find a lost Leonardo DaVinci painting stolen from the Vatican by the Camorra, a dangerous Mafia-style criminal organization. Allon works with his old acquaintances from the art world, the Italian and Swiss police, shady characters he knows through his various missions, the Vatican police, and his friend, the Pope, to solve the murder of the Vatican restorer and several others, as well as recover the painting for the Vatican. This is a really good story that keeps you hooked from beginning to end. I highly recommend picking up a copy from your local library today.

Stuart, Florida - Still Sailfish Capital Of The World?

Wherever you go in Stuart, Florida, there are references to Stuart being the "Sailfish Capital of the World." It got this title back in 1938 when Stuart News editor Ernie Lyons hosted half a dozen sports writers from major newspapers across the country and took them deep sea fishing. That week, fishing boats caught over 1,000 sailfish off Stuart, and one of those writers went back home and wrote an article giving the city that nickname, which the City of Stuart later adopted. And according to Ed Killer, a former outdoors columnist for the Stuart News, sailfish are still plentiful off Stuart. But not being a fisherman (or is it fishing person now?), all I want to know is what the difference is between a sailfish and a blue marlin, which Ernest Hemingway used to go after in the Gulf Stream off Key West and Havana.  The answer: sailfish range in size from 6 to 11 feet and can weigh from 120 to 200 pounds, while blue marlins range from 10 to 14 feet in length and weigh from 200 to 1,500 pounds. Talk about a whole different kind of animal. The big question - are there blue marlins off the coast of Stuart? Yes, but they are deep-water fish that hang out in the Gulf Stream, 25 to 50 miles offshore. And if you want to come down to Stuart to go sailfish or blue marlin fishing, expect to pay a small fortune to charter a boat, especially if you are going after those blue marlin. I myself prefer to just hang out around the pier. And by the way, the sailfish statue in the photograph above is located at the entrance to downtown Stuart, created by artist Geoffry C. Smith and donated to the City of Stuart by Edward M. Sellian, Jr. 

Worth Avenue: Still Pretty, But A Bit On The Pretentious Side

My sister Susan and I walked down Worth Avenue in Palm Beach this past Sunday afternoon. It is a very pretty street, perfectly landscaped, but a bit on the pretentious side. I counted 2 Ferraris, a Bentley convertible, and a Rolls Royce while walking past shops such as Chanel, Gucci, Lilly Pulitzer, Tiffany & Co. and Versace. This may surprise you, but I have never shopped at any of those stores, and the only thing I know about the Pulitzers is from Hunter S. Thompson's article titled "A Dog Took My Place," about the divorce trial of Herbert Pulitzer Jr. and his wife Roxanne, which certainly opened my eyes concerning what happens behind the front doors of some of the wealthy and super wealthy. That was over 40 years ago, of course, but being the cynic that I am, I firmly believe that some things never change.

The thing I like best about Worth Avenue are the interior courtyards that run behind the shops fronting the street, with many more pricey stores and restaurants flanking them. I took the photograph on the right of one of those courtyards, which, surprisingly, did not have all that many people walking through it. There was only one couple dining outside at one of the restaurants we passed, but perhaps it was just too warm and humid for patios, and the restaurant itself was filled with diners, running up bills that no doubt would force the average person to dip into their children's college fund. 

I read in the paper recently that Palm Beach is a great place to see Christmas lights. Since it was mid-afternoon, we did not get a chance to view them, but we did see the official Palm Beach Christmas tree on the corner of Worth and Hibiscus Avenues, as seen in the photograph on the left. And so, after an hour, we left Worth Avenue and on the way home drove through downtown West Palm Beach and the CityPlace neighborhood, which were much livelier - and more real - than Palm Beach. The restaurant patios were crowded, as was the open-air plaza at CityPlace, where people were listening to a free concert while their children played in the fountain. A very nice afternoon for all. 

Visiting The West Palm Beach Fine Art Show

This past Saturday afternoon I walked around the West Palm Beach Fine Art Show, which took place at Meyer Amphitheater in downtown West Palm Beach and seen in the photograph on the left. This was a modest little festival with 44 artists in attendance, featuring paintings, sculpture, glass, jewelry, photographs, wood, clay and other mediums. I noticed that a number of the participating artists were also at the Downtown Palm Beach Gardens Arts Festival, held a few weeks ago. That art festival, sponsored by Howard Allan Events, took place in Palm Beach Gardens due to West Palm Beach's CityPlace, its usual location, being unavailable due to construction. The art festival held this weekend at Meyer Amphitheater was sponsored by a non-profit called Hot Works - Institute for Arts and Education, no doubt filling the gap left by the Howard Allan Events show. And it was a very pleasant event to time at.

I have noticed that, at least in Denver, non-profits are usually more reliable sponsors of festivals than for-profit companies and municipalities. CherryArts has sponsored the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, one of the top art festivals in the country, for many years, and a few years ago took over the Denver Chalk Art Festival, making it into another major event. On the other hand, a non-profit in Denver called CHUN (Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods) sponsored the People's Fair in Denver's Civic Center Park each June for many years, but then decided to sell the rights to it to a for-profit company to get the money to buy a Victorian mansion for their headquarters. Seriously. They really did that. The for-profit company ran the festival for a year or two, and when it didn't turn a profit, ended it for good. And the City of Denver used to sponsor the Festival of Mountains and Plains over Labor Day Weekend for many decades. And then decided to split it into four separate, much smaller street festivals to be held over the summer, which of course was a big flop. That festival is now gone forever, too. And what is the lesson to be learned from all this? Festivals and art fairs are not supposed to make a profit or even break even, and when you try to make money from them, it usually never works out.