Rick LaClaire
Article Category: Rick LaClaire
This Happened To Us! Part II It is January as I write this. Presently, Florida is suffering the longest cold snap ever. Usually, a cold snap is just that: a quick chill. Not so, this winter of 2010. I have counted six mornings now with readings in the 20s and 30s, with more on the way. We’re actually having a winter in central Florida, something most of us came here to escape. I’m not equipped for this. My old mackinaw has long ago been given to the moths. I used my winter gloves to hold... [Read more...]
By: Rick LaClaire
Article Category: Rick LaClaire
This Happened To Us! Part I By Rick LaClaire At age eleven I was given a gift which lasted ten years, a subscription to Outdoor Life magazine. Within were a wealth of stellar outdoor writers: Ray Bergman, Byron Dalrymple, Joe Brooks, Jack O’Conner, Stu Apte… I only wish I could be among their number. Their stories were more than entertainment, they were inspiration. Wintertime was a house-bound time in Northern New York, but that monthly arrival of global bloodsport transported me to lands... [Read more...]
By: Rick LaClaire
Article Category: Rick LaClaire
It’s an ugly tree. The leaves are gnawed and shriveled. The branches are bare above the roofline; casualties of Frances and Jeanne. The trunk is twisted and thorny, but sound, and we keep this plant alive anyway. It shades our back porch. I was told you can’t grow them from seed. Oh, sure, they’ll sprout, but they won’t make it. And forget about fruit. These plants are inbred, crossbred and grafted; the trees are sterile if grown from their own seed. No sex organs… No breath of life…... [Read more...]
By: Rick LaClaire
Article Category: Rick LaClaire
I’m sure very few of us are sad to see the end of 2009. The bad certainly outweighed the good this year. I usually rate my annual experience with two indicators: weddings and funerals. 2008 was a busy year, with two funerals and three weddings. 2007 was an even count: one wedding and one funeral. 2009? No weddings and no funerals — a blasé year if ever there was one. I can’t say I enjoy funerals, but I certainly love weddings. I love everything about them. Getting dressed up,... [Read more...]
By: Rick LaClaire
Article Category: Rick LaClaire
I love olives. I picked up this addiction when we lived in Buffalo, New York. There was a fine Italian market on Hertel Avenue called Passanisi’s. Man, did they have olives. I started out “chipping” with the milder ones but soon went mainline. Salty, oil-cured Italians, kalamatas both green and red, those little Lebanese ones… I even eat them for breakfast. And I have a connection right here in Melbourne Beach. I probably walk into the Melbourne Beach Supermarket once a day.... [Read more...]
By: Rick LaClaire
Article Category: Rick LaClaire
Walter By Rick LaClaire It’s been said that my generation is the first to spend their entire lives under the influence of television. Whoopie-twang… We’re also the first to spend their entire lives with the threat of nuclear devastation, the existence of jet propulsion, LSD and Kentucky Fried Chicken. My generation has experienced a lot of firsts, mostly at the hands and minds of the previous generation, not the least of which was the fatherly visage and comforting nuance of... [Read more...]
By: Rick LaClaire
Article Category: Rick LaClaire
“Does Barbra wish she was goy? Is George really a boy? Was Elvis ever the King? Let’s not be reflective.” – The Harry Pitts Band, “Cuz I’m A Boinger” “It’s good to be the king,” said Mel Brooks in “History Of The World Part 1.” His role was a coke-addicted Louis XVI; an absurd scene in a silly movie, and slightly accurate. For what is more absurd than pop stardom? And what could be more silly than to be crowned the “King”... [Read more...]
By: Rick LaClaire
Article Category: Rick LaClaire
I am not exceptionally lucky. I have never won a square in a football pool (ask anyone who has ever fished with me; my nickname used to be “Jonah”) and I don’t buy lottery tickets because I figure it’s useless. I wouldn’t win. Or worse, maybe I would. No, blind luck and I are not close companions, at least not with trivial doings. But there have been a couple things I’ve lucked out on. Now I could get sappy here and say that I have wonderful kids, a lasting marriage... [Read more...]
By: Rick LaClaire
Article Category: Rick LaClaire
Florida’s not for everyone. I like that. I once saw a statistic that said two people leave Florida for every one that stays. It’s as if our state is a kind of fad-food; once you’ve eaten your fill, you don’t ever want to see it again — and some get their fill a lot sooner than others. I guess I’ve never gotten my fill, though I did leave once. For six long years… But that’s another story. People normally visit in winter or spring. They love the weather,... [Read more...]
By: Rick LaClaire
Article Category: Rick LaClaire
Several years ago I needed a new roof. Actually, this place needed a new roof the minute we moved in. This we discovered during our first real downpour as new homeowners, a nagging inundation known as Tropical Storm Gordon in 1994. A stain spread across our living room ceiling that still exists, somewhat resembling the outline of Iceland. Or is it Afghanistan? Anyway, after five months of living here, I had never inspected the attic. This was cause for a stepladder and flashlight, the tearing of... [Read more...]
