As Ella sings🎷: I didn't know what time it was Then I met you
Oh, what a lovely time it was How sublime it was too.
I didn't know what day it was You held my hand
Warm like the month of May it was
And I'll say it was grand
Grand to be alive, to be young...

He's already dead inside.

My much-older cousin worked for large American oil companies scouting for oil in the Mideast in the 1950s. Why don't we go get "our" oil wells back again from Trump's buddies?

So next we're going to demand all our sugar and banana plantations back from Cuba?

Yes, anyone living in coastal FL has known for years the Coast Guard is fully equipped to and capable of intercepting drug boats without killing people. And the gov't usually end up with a nice asset-forfeited boat.

The Nat'l Book Award winner for fiction, The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) but I took a break today to read The Archive of Alternate Endings -- loved it, very moving.

I see 3 of my favorite books there. Anything by Sybelle is great.

Chocolate pecan pie is divine!

Do you know if I'll ever be able to add the 5th Robert Caro book in the LBJ series to my library? Caro is old and his long-time editor died. I'm worried.

The new National Book Award-winning nonfiction book, One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, by Omar El-Akkad.

The Director was one of my favorite books this year. I've read several Kehlmann books and this seems the one that delved most deeply into character.

Byronic

The Novel of the Century: The Extraordinary Adventure of Les Miserables by David Bellos. I'm a big fan of 19th C. French novelists, and Les Miz has been a favorite since first reading it 40 years ago. It's truly wonderful if you like to read about the art of writing.

Much activity at MacDill AFB in Tampa for the past 2 weeks. Supply planes and fighter jets fly over my home in south Pinellas peninsula every day. A couple days for training 2 times a year is normal; every day for weeks is something else. Seems like sabre-rattling -- or buildup.

I live across the bay from MacDill AFB in Tampa FL directly under the flight path and for the past 10 days the air traffic into the base is something I haven't seen for decades. Several fighter jets and the big grey supply aircraft every day. None today...yet. No reporters covering this?

I suspected as much when I saw and heard all the huge supply planes and many fighter jets flying in to MacDill AFB across Tampa Bay from my home over the last two weeks. I live under the flight path. Scary noisy.

I'm a library lover and volunteer. I support my county library system by checking out old classic lit books (even if I've already read them) that may be in danger of being withdrawn from the system. Books that are not used can disappear.