Councilman Marcellus' Goons At The Polls, 2009

City Council candidate Marcellus did more to destroy the multicultural feel of North Miami than the KKK could have ever done. He had his thugs out by the polls intimidating whomever looked like they weren't going to vote for him. I'm sure that a lot of white people didn't walk the gauntlet and go into the polls at all.

Myself, I don't like being told that I don't like black people or that I hate Haitians, but Marcellus had these people whipped into a frenzy. I didn't appreciate being punched and pummeled and then paying to get checked out by my doctor and dentist, going to the dental lab to get my upper plate repaired...all in all several hundred dollars out of my pocket, a lot of pain and discomfort, and six weeks later I'm still in a bit of pain. Thanks a lot Marcellus! Might not an apology be in order?

If you and your thugs had checked out my racist history you would have discovered that I worked for a black newspaper for several years back in the early seventies. You would have discovered that I'd done a lot of work for the Jamaican Tourist Development Board. Maybe even that I'd shot a few hundred black weddings for some large wedding studios back when there were few black photographers and even fewer white photographers who'd venture into a black neighborhod at night.

You might have found out that I still get my hair cut by the same black Jamaican woman that I fell in love with and spent a dozen years of my life helping to raise her two sons. Maybe learn that her younger son went fishing with me and a professional fishing guide, Capt. Dave Kostyo on his boat Knot Nancy, two nights a week for months, and he won several trophies in the Metropolitan South Florida Fishing Tournament and had his name in the Miami Herald week after week. How photos of him fighting tarpon bigger than he was appeared in several fishing tackle manufacturing company's catalogs. How he was probably the first black fisherman to go to the Miami Beach Rod And Reel Club to attend their annual banquet and be awarded his trophies.

Marcellus, you racist pig, do your damned homework. As the lady who still cuts my hair used to say to her boys "Stop acting like a damned nigger!" Now I'm saying it to you. If you don't want me saying it then apologise for your campaign workers who acted niggrish (a Jamaican expression) and slugged me. Offer to reimburse me for my dental and medical expenses. Be a man!

Capt. Al's Jig Factory ~ And Some Odds And Ends

I'm going to do the odds and ends first. I rarely get comments on my posts except as emails, and then mostly from people that I already know. This morning I had four comments. One was from Bill Clark wanting to know why I wasn't posting anymore on the photo.net Leica forum. Bill, I got kicked off. It seems that some of the friends of the forum's "owners" though that I was becoming too popular. A guy named Brad Evans was my biggest detractor and I think a lot of the forum regulars figured that out. He's a friend of the management over there.

Another comment saying that he enjoyed my photos and reading my unpredictable little essays came from Rob Hall in Munich, Germany. The other two were signed "anonymous". One gentleman said how much he enjoyed the blog while the second related how he used to go to that YMCA on N.W. 17th Ave. back in the 1970's, and it brought back some pleasant memories. That's the post with the map of North Miami. Thanks, guys, for your comments!

I love fishing with bucktail jigs and a few months ago I wrote about it here: http://thepriceofsilver.blogspot.com/2006/10/bounty-of-fish-in-north-biscayne-bay.html If you do a google search for "bucktail jig" "al kaplan" you'll get some other links. In this photo I'm actually tying some pink and white hair on a 1/4 ounce lead jig head. I made the lap desk a bunch of years ago so I could sit outside while I'm doing it. That way all the little bits of hair can just be swept off the porch into the grass where it'll decompose. It's supposedly rich in nitrogen and makes good fertilizer. I usually just do this first thing in the morning when it's still cool out, but a few folks I know from my fishing club all called within days of one another desperate for jigs "yesterday". This included well known fishing guide Dave Kostyo who runs charters for tarpon, sailfish, and a bunch of other species aboard his boat Knot Nancy, and a couple who are avid amateurs and the wife decided that I should make up a dozen of a special color combination that she wanted to try, a chartreuse back with a white belly. I need to give her a call and find out how well they worked. Then my old friend Parks Masterson from Hopkins-Carter Marine down by the Miami River wanted a dozen in all black. For a week I was out there every morning making jigs, drinking my morning coffee, and smoking cigarettes until the sun got too hot. Now they all have their jigs and I made up a bunch of extras while I was doing it.