Naples, Florida

I spent a week working in Naples, Florida and finished earlier than the flight I was booked on.  I headed out to the airport, in the hopes that I would be able to get moved to an earlier flight but I was out of luck.  Plane trouble had led to cancelled flights but, as I had already returned my rental car, I was stuck at the airport for most of the day.  I sat about and wrote in my notebook a little:

- Spotted several men in muscle shirts; skintight technical gear that one is really only supposed to wear while exercising and, even then, one should probably just say no or at least "not so tight."  Thought - maybe the muscle shirt is the male equivalent of the sexy top, miniskirt & high heels worn by the ladies.

- Folk may be wondering about me too, as I sit with coffee and water, barefoot, with knees drawn to my chest, feet on seat as I read my magazine.  I just finished reading a story about John Lurie and then discovered that, apparently, Edgar Allan Poe invented the detective story.

There are so many things that I learn while on these trips, catching up on my magazine reading

- Picked up the Wall Street Journal that I decided, years ago, to stop reading.  I never liked the articles.  I read one that was flat, but then I found out that Rothstein, who allegedly fixed the 1919 World Series, was murdered.  This struck me because I have been watching the TV show, "Boardwalk Empire" and he is a character in it.  So... I read this and I think "Darn! Now I know how he leaves the show!  They shouldn't have printed that spoiler."  Then I stopped myself.  Silly me, the guy really existed!  I should have known how he ended. The blur of reality and TV.  Does this mean that there is a tendency now to view stuff on TV as not real? And can that really be all bad?  Look at all the things people believe because they have seen it on TV - like how a spray-on tan or spray-on hair, for that matter, will be seen as real and believable by people.

- Wow I also just learnt that Shelock Holmes used to be felled by boredom and cocaine!  I read those books in my youth; did that come up in the books or were my books censored?

- Again with the tiny bathroom stalls.  I couldn't change my flight and they tell me that it's too early to check my luggage.  Now, I have to try to fit myself AND my bags into the minuscule bathroom stall with doors that open inwards.  Great thinking, airport bathroom designers.  What are you trying to do - tick us off before we even get squashed into a seat with no legroom?

And with that I schlumped to a restaurant for a meal and a cocktail. At least it was warm and sunny