Found in 1972, Making News Today

Joan Reed Carter of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, found this spindly shell back in 1972, while shelling with friends. According to this South Florida Sun-Sentinel article, Carter’s shell has been associated with Jesus since she first picked it up. In fact, one of the friends she was with that day declared: “Well I can't take it home with me because my husband's an atheist.”

Discussing her own relationship with religion Carter said: “Every night my mother would give us a crucifix to kiss. But I like all religions. If I'm near a synagogue I'll go there. If there's a Catholic cathedral, then I'll go there. We all came from the same place and we're all going to end up in the same place."

Over the years anyone that’s seen the shell thinks Carter should do something with it and I guess the approach of Easter inspired her to contact the media. She claims that some people get nervous around the object, not even wanting to touch it. And once, Carter snapped a photo of it but it came out blank. Luckily, the image made itself visible for the newspaper’s photographer.

Worth noting that while the incidence of seeing Jesus and the Virgin Mary in unexpected places has skyrocketed since 1972, Carter claims that no one goes shelling anymore because there are no shells on the beaches.

Recession Proof

About 10 years ago, during a remodeling, the wooden door seen above was installed at Jarrett Ford Lincoln Mercury in Dade City, Florida. Recently, because of the recession, people working at the car dealership have some extra time on their hands, and one of them saw Jesus on this door, according to this St. Petersburg Times article. Or is it Sasquatch or a “Persian prince” (whatever that means)? There are some different opinions about the image, but the form has clearly given some people in need of something to do, something to do.

Chips Davis, who runs a dent removal service, was the first to liken the 3-foot tall shape to Jesus: "Anybody who's seen pictures of the burial cloth and image of Christ that's on that cloth — that same image is on that door.” (Davis attends church; I would think he’d be able to name the Shroud of Turin.) Anyway, he took a photo, sent a copy to the St. Petersburg Times and posted the image on his Facebook page.

Receptionist Ruth Johnson is credited for the Sasquatch quip and customer James Bauman Jr. suggested, “Christ in a Jedi outfit . . . [or a] Persian king." Then, as the article explains it, Bauman touched on a number of topical cultural markers, citing “significance in the stain, just as there is in Barack Obama being president and Israel's conflict with Hamas.” He said: "I believe the Rapture is just around the corner.” It’s beyond the scope of this post to figure out how all of this bundles up into a sure sign of the end, but if you’re reading, John, feel free to leave a comment.

General manager Cliff Martin hadn’t noticed anything until it was pointed out to him: "I like to say we're blessed but we're not breaking any sales records, so maybe we're just blessed to be in business." Judging by how quickly the US is shedding jobs, I’d say he’s right.

The News in the News

From the inception of this project, my spins on these stories have always been linked to how the media treats them, and how those treatments get others to react. Here then is the story of Pamela Latrimore, as told by her on eBay, where she is in the process of selling this brain scan, where in the cerebral folds of her brain she has discovered the Virgin Mary.



Nothing shocking about that, right? Jesus and Mary have popped up in ultrasounds and MRIs plenty of times. It’s not even particularly surprising that it looks like this item will sell for more than $700. What’s interesting is how this event, for Latrimore, has spurred her campaign for awareness about Agent Orange dioxins that have long been polluting her hometown of Jacksonville, Arkansas. In her words from eBay: “Some do not see the image some do. I'm not here to dispute that. I see it and I think it is a blessing and a miracle. The miracle to me is people are now aware of this town.”

Yes, her explanation of all this is erratic in terms of spelling, grammar and capitalization, but this abstract from a November 4, 1991 issue of The Nation proves that Latrimore is not exaggerating the severity of illnesses and environmental issues that have plagued this town since the end of the Vietnam War. Apparently, the Vertac Chemical Corporation stored various toxins all over the town: “It is opined that no one knows for certain if a house or backyard isn't directly on top of a yet-to-be-identified toxic dump.” Yikes!

Latrimore says she is very ill and while she and others have long fought to save themselves, their town and other towns that suffer the same plight, dead ends are all they seem to hit. But now, this image of the Virgin Mary has garnered national media attention, including a potential appearance on CNN (according to Latrimore).

I’m just tuning in to this issue today. I can’t verify Latrimore’s claims, but searching around, they don’t strike me as outlandish. What does it say about the culture of media when real human suffering does not receive proper reporting until a purported image of the Virgin Mary in a brain scan becomes a part of the story? I’d say that the media, at least the mainstream media (CNN, I’m talking to you, too), has conditioned us to consider tabloid stories as hard news. That’s why banner headlines on AOL and Yahoo inform us about reality television dramas. If that’s your thing, fine, but that ain’t news.

More on this as it develops . . .

Update (12/18/08): The MRI sold for $730, going to an anonymous California bidder. With more than $100,000 in medical bills, this was clearly not about the money for Latrimore. According to this WFTS report, she is actually disappointed that the auction only received 21,977 views over the course of 10 days because she was hoping to raise even more awareness about the pollution that plagues her hometown of Jacksonville, Arkansas. It doesn’t seem like that CNN appearance ever happened – maybe it was too much news?

French Toast for Muscles, and Jesus

It’s not the first piece of toast emblazoned with an iconic face to come out of Florida, but it is the first piece of French toast with the face of Jesus, and two swans, at least that's what Troy Eckonen sees. I dare you to tell him he's wrong.

It was during breakfast at Mack’s Café in Pompano Beach when he noticed the visage. According to this First Coast News report, Eckonen “and friends also see Christ's left arm raised and holding a cross, as well as two birds over the left shoulder.” Eckonen says he will not sell his Jesus French toast on eBay – probably because it will be worth much more to him in the business it brings into his gym.

Turns out Eckonen is a body builder and owner of Tropical Gym, which seems like a pretty serious gym, judging by its website with lots of photographs of Eckonen and various Mr. Olympia’s. This is Eckonen:



This photo gallery has been set up on Tropical Gym's website with more images of the French toast, replete with the important question, “What do you see?”

Sound familiar? It’s the Madonna of the Toast catchphrase, and it’s finally taking off! Of course, if I ran into Eckonen and he wanted to claim it as his, I’d probably give him credit if I thought it would keep me from being mauled and splattered into something that people have to squint at and wonder what it is.

Jesus & Me and My Phone Make Three

Pensacola, Florida, resident Linda Square volunteers at Englewood Coin Laundry. According to this Pensacola News Journal article, in an effort to kill time during a recent shift, she pulled out her phone and “began scrolling through the substantial library of family photos stored on the device.” Amid all of the recognizable scenes and faces, a “dark and blurry” image caught her attention. She had no idea what it was. She looked closely at the image, created on July 25, and still didn’t recognize it. Then she turned the screen so it was horizontal. That’s when things got interesting.

In the right part of the image she saw herself, and looking over her on the left side of the screen: Jesus, his face bearded, a white light over His head. Square has no recollection of taking the picture. She visited her local cell phone purveyor and asked if the company had sent her the image (which strikes me as a question you ask when you already know the answer). My guess is that the phone was in a pocket or bag and somehow got triggered to become a camera.

Do you think she was wearing this shirt when she went to the store?



Obviously, Square is proud of her discovery, finding it inspirational. She has been waiting to interview as a foster parent: "He is telling me to prepare for this . . . He's telling me to get myself together."

Of course, the best parts of this story are the t-shirt and cell phone. I understand why people like looking at photographs, whether as art or a way to remember, but I am shocked by the frequency at which I see an individual, mostly on trains and buses, but sometimes at bars, doing exactly what Square had been doing: killing time staring into a hand-held screen. The image is of such appeal to us that the easier it is to focus on it, the more we do. We have always turned to the image for meaning, as a way to understand experience, and now, too many people seem to favor the moment as memory, rather than experiencing it enough to let the moment pass before it has been memorialized.

In Square’s case, how the image came to be is another story, but her discovery of it was because she opted to look at old photos rather than stare at the tumbling colors in a dryer.

I wonder if she would stare at spinning clothes if her shirt, which says “Jesus & Me,” were in the load?

Do you think many people wear cell phone photographs on shirts?



(image from an instructables.com article about encoding data on clothing, business cards, etc.)

Paging Dr. Phillips

Just outside of Orlando, Florida, according to this Local 6 story, Jesus has been appearing every night on a tree, thanks to a streetlight’s shadow. Dr. Phillips resident Joe Lewis noticed the form one night and has seen it since. Lewis says that he is “not really hardcore religious” but the shape is something he couldn’t ignore.

Here’s his take on it: "The face forms where the knot is . . . Then, when you come down, there is texture. There are waves in the tree and that forms the knees and the feet. Then when the sun goes down, the street light that is right above the tree casts shadows across it and forms something that looks like Jesus."

Curious about the suburb’s name? Apparently, Philip Phillips revolutionized the production of orange juice, which resulted in him becoming a citrus barren. According to this, he was also a medical doctor, with a degree from Columbia University. He bought his first citrus farm in 1894, but a brutal 1895 freeze decimated what trees had existed. He left Florida, returning in 1897, when he began his empire. Seems like he was quite a philanthropist. His tombstone reads: "Under His Hand the Wilderness Bore Fruit."

What would Dr. Philip Phillips would have to say about this Jesus tree?

Get Your Rocks Out

Dena Patterson, a resident of Brooksville, Florida, came across this rock in 1996 while walking through the woods in West Virginia, according to this Hernando Today report. Found near a stream, the rock caught her eye because of the shape worn into its surface. Recently, Patterson took the rock to Peter Harries, an associate professor of geology at the University of South Florida, Tampa. She had thought it was granite, but Harries thinks it is shale or silt stone – some sort of fine-grained sedimentary rock. He attributes the pattern to the “preferential cementation of grains, or water percolating through sediment after it has been deposited.”

Harries goes on to share that the geology department does get periodic visits from folks with objects “that they feel are particularly unique or symbolic.” His perspective, however, is more scientific than spiritual. The fact is, mimicry is a very salient aspect of nature, which of course leads to the phenomenon of pareidolia.

For years, the rock has been a doorstop in Patterson’s home, but now she wants to sell it on eBay: "I expect to get a lot of money . . . This is a rock. It's not like it's a piece of cheese.""

Of course, she is referencing fellow Floridian Diana Duyser’s epic Virgin Mary grilled cheese windfall, though I doubt Patterson will receive $28,000 for this object, especially in light of all the other Virgin Mary rocks currently up for grabs on eBay.

Like this one from Oregon:


Or this one from Canada:


Patterson is 79-years-old and says her health is declining. Her desire to make money off this rock is directly linked, as she tells it, to wanting to be able to make a trip to West Virginia to visit family before her health becomes any worse. Regardless of how much the rock sells for, if it even sells, I hope she gets the chance to make one more trip to West Virginia.

Lastly, in more news of the Virgin Mary showing up in unexpected places, the Los Angeles Times ran this slideshow recently. I can’t figure out why, but it’s just another indicator of how Madonna of the Toast is culturally relevant, in far-flung suburbs as well as in big cities.

Don't Let the Cat Lick That Spot

Florida residents Laquan Joyner and her husband Theo Grimes have been praying for a sign from God, according to this KARE 11 report. They believe their prayers were answered in the form of this stain, located next to bottles of shampoo in their shower. They both believe this to be an image of Jesus and for that reason, “they will never clean the spot and they now treat the shower like a shrine.” Looks to me like the stain might be a result of having never cleaned that spot in the first place.



I doubt we’ll ever see a better visual manifestation of a religious or secular icon in a shower than the V.I. Lenin shower curtain included in Madonna of the Toast.



And in case a dirty shower is not an image that you want to carry around with you this weekend, how about some kitten cuteness? According to this CBS 4 report, and supported by those trendsetters over at BoingBoing.net, a litter of 6 cats born in Sacramento, California, included this little guy with the message “I Love Dot” (I [heart] [dot]) in its hair. The family that owns the cat claims that mom’s name is Dottie, so “the message of love is clearly for her.”

All together now: Aaaawwwwwww . . .

A Potato and James Joyce: Surprised?

Not even a month into 2008, and I think I have found a story that is sure to count among my year’s favorites, all because of my respect and admiration for, you guessed it . . . potato salad. From WOFL Fox 35 in Orlando, Florida: Pastor Renee Brewster “says she had been looking for an excuse to get out of making potato salad. ‘I was hesitant about making the potato salad because Sister Frankie makes the potato salad at church and I said lord if it’s not for me to make potato salad then send me a sign.’” Sister Frankie must make damn fine potato salad for Brewster to be so intimidated that she asked for a sign from on high. I guess no one really likes peeling potatoes; must be why it’s what prisoners always have to do in the movies. Brewster got the sign she was looking for on the first tater that she halved, but tossed it aside because it looked rotten. Her granddaughter pointed out, however, that it wasn’t rotten. It was an image of Jesus on the Cross.

This form is kind of a hybrid icon. The cross is unmistakable. The Jesus looks like He is in a robe, and the beard stands out in the right-hand side half, but it is a very different look from the bleeding, head lolling figure so familiar to us through art. To me, this Jesus looks more like the teacher, not the tortured.

Renee Brewster is married to Bishop Winston Brewster, so you have to figure that they’re pretty religious folk, but I don’t know if dodging kitchen duties merits a prayer. The potato has been put in the freezer. Brewster did end up making the potato salad – so much for her sign from the Lord. According to her husband, it was “the best [she] ever made...it was almost as good as Sister Frankie's.”

Certain of these stories involve a person actively looking for a sign, but most of these visual manifestations are stumbled upon. A tree, a section of wall, the wood grain on a closet door – everyday it looks the same, but then one day it displays a difference, or the viewer possesses a different vision. I couldn’t help but think of Madonna of the Toast after reading this: “Every morning he hallowed himself anew in the presence of some holy image or mystery.” That’s James Joyce, from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I’m rereading it. It is our contemplative protagonist (and Joyce alter ego) Stephen Dedalus in the presence of “some holy image or mystery” on a daily basis. It is true to say that in this scene he is contemplating something far greater than potato salad, but it is just as true to say that these visions, no matter what sets them off, come from the same place: that place of the human need for answers, wherever they may hide.

P.S. Want to make the best potato salad? Use a couple of teaspoons of sweet gherkin pickle juice.

A Natural Image

Out of Tampa, Florida, via Brazil, comes this 400-pound hunk of granite. Purchased two years ago by a Pinellas County granite distributor, the slab will soon be auctioned on eBay. According to this news story from Fox 13, the 7-by-7 foot piece of polished granite is worth about $4,000, but John Finkbiner (the guy who will sell the granite because the owner wants to remain anonymous) believes it could fetch a much larger sum because many people see the image of Jesus on the Cross embedded in the rock. Says the news report, the granite’s source “is near the town of Espirito Santo – translated, it means ‘holy spirit.’” So it has that going for it.

Like any good vendor of subjective memorabilia trying to cash in on an eBay sale, Finkbiner cites Diana Duyser’s $28,000 windfall (documented in Madonna of the Toast), “and that was just a sandwich.” But, Finkbiner is hedging his bets, reminding people that no matter what, “It is a very interesting natural image.”

It looks more like a Texas Longhorn to me, or a bolo tie, especially when compared to past examples of Christ on the Cross. This form is too much like a knot: all torso and no hips or legs.

What do you see?

Doctor's Orders

According to this report from NBC 6 in South Florida, Reynaldo Farinas spotted the image of Jesus in this x-ray. Complaining of chest pains, Farinas went to Homestead Hospital where a doctor ordered the x-ray. The image in question can be seen on the right-hand side of Farinas’s chest, one of those elongated Jesus faces. According to the report, the doctor and x-ray technician both admit seeing the face, though neither of them can account for why the image showed up on film.

Modern medicine may not have an explanation for the face’s appearance, but modern faith is more than happy to let Farinas relish the moment: “I was surprised . . . (It’s) unbelievable.”

You can click here to check out the slideshow of Farinas and his family examining the x-ray in the parking lot.

Holy Pancake!

Just before Marilyn Smith was about to sprinkle chocolate chips on top of this pancake, she noticed “a faint image resembling Jesus and Mary.” According to this WPBF News 25 report, Smith was a bit skeptical about the image: “I saw what looked like, possibly, what people may imagine Jesus would look like, or Moses.” Dana Okane, Smith’s daughter, however, had no doubt, as she recognized the shapes immediately because she is a self-proclaimed spiritual person. When asked what it signifies, Okane said, “I think the message is extremely clear that the world bad better clean up its act.” So sure was Okane of this breakfast’s holiness, she decided to sell the pancake on eBay, starting the bidding at $35. Guess what – it sold, for $338.

What strikes me most about this little story is how matters of faith and belief are so individualized that a mother and daughter can hold two very different views about a discolored pancake. Okane read it as a message from God, and doubtless the sale bolstered her opinion. Smith on the other hand seemed to have a more “glass half empty” attitude about the object and what it may or may not mean to others: “Do I think that any nut will come along and pay a fortune for it like they did with the cheesecake or cheese sandwich? No, I hope not, because it really will eventually get really smelly and deteriorate.”



No word as of yet about the “nut” that shelled out the $338, or if the pancake has begun to rot. The folks with the Pope John Paul II pancake, from Madonna of the Toast, preserved theirs in the freezer. Diana Duyser’s grilled cheese sandwich has kept for over a decade with nothing more than some cotton swabbing to hold it in place. As they say, only time will tell.

I wonder if Okane is going to share any of the money with her mom. Seems like it would be the Christian thing to do. Either way, in Smith’s words, the two have a new exclamation to kick around: “We used to say, ‘Holy Cow,’ like everybody else, and after this happened, our new expression is, ‘Holy pancake!’”

Sunrise Seashell

Nancy Kelly McCabe of Wellington, Florida, has had a tough run of it, according to this Palm Beach Post report. In late August, she went to the beach at sunrise: “Until that day, the universe seemed to have a grudge against the 51-year-old: she's agoraphobic, and her mind is bipolar; she was on the verge of divorce and taking too many prescription pills to function with ease. The law firm she worked at had fired her.”

On the beach, however, McCabe found a seashell that while holding it up against the new morning light looked like the “Virgin Mary in her robes, head tilted and hands in prayer.” This sighting alone didn’t change McCabe’s outlook on life, as the following week she was evicted, her only option that of residing in the cabana behind her estranged husband’s house.

There’s a great line from the song “Born Under a Bad Sign” written by Booker T Jones and William Bell for Albert King's first album of the same name: “If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all.” This sentiment seems to be at the heart of this story, as a spate of bad luck resulted in a run of good luck, and a happier life for McCabe. Her and her husband reconciled and she found a holistic healer that was able to wean her off some of her pharmaceutical regiment, which improved how she felt physically and how she slept.

McCabe admits that she was depressed and looking for a sign; she also new about her fellow Floridians that had found recognizable religious icons in unexpected places, and she admits that she was skeptical about seeing Mary in this shell. But, in the final analysis, McCabe’s life has taken a turn for the better. In her words: "Be it the placebo effect, I don't know . . . It worked."

Who knows if anyone else in the world would have picked up that very shell and seen the Virgin Mary? Chances are slim; I would have walked down to the water and seen how many times I could get it to skip. Again, and as I posit in Madonna of the Toast, it comes down to what each and every one of us sees. Rarely will our vision be the same, though it is all valid, and that’s what makes it interesting.

Not Much to See, but Something to Read

Last week I passed along the story out of Miami, Florida, about the Holy Family shadow in the church. Well, it’s gone. Vanished. But the people still come, according to this Miami Herald article. The faithful seemed impressed just to be in St. Brendan Catholic Church, the fleeting manifestation some sort of holy-status booster.

The article closes with an image I can’t help but relay to you: a crowd of 12 gathered around a woman’s cell phone looking at the image of the image from a few days earlier. Apparently, Julie Verdeja saw the shadow last weekend and captured it on her phone, which she had with her last Tuesday. Didn’t they know that could see a perfectly good image of the image right here?!?

Father Fernando Heria, the church's priest, has it right, though, what matters is the "impact the image had on its believers."

Across the pond, in Bilston, in the middle of the United Kingdom, factory worker and born-again Christian Malcolm Jones discovered what he perceives at the face of Jesus on his workbench, the very workbench where he reads his bibles during breaks. I haven’t been able to grab a still-shot anywhere, but if you read this Express and Star report, you can also watch a quick video that shows the face.



In Madonna of the Toast, I included a couple of stories from the UK, including this Michelin Man carrot. Where there is faith, there is the potential for an iconographic face to show up unexpectedly, even if you can’t see it.

“M” is for Mary and the Places She Appears

Last Wednesday in Miami, Florida, a flash of light caught the attention of parishioners at the St. Brendan Catholic Church’s Adoration Chapel. What happened after the flash is what’s made the news, however. According to this Miami Herald article, a shadow cast by a candle “unmistakenly formed the silhouette of the Holy Family – Joseph and the Virgin Mary standing over the baby Jesus.”

For those of you keeping score at home, that’s two holy shadows in as many weeks. There was the Minersville Mary (not to be confused with the Milford Mary) and now this Miami Mary. The article doesn’t account for what happened other than the “flash of light” that can explain why the shadow appeared. Does it really matter? Lines form daily of those eager to see the cloth and its sacred shadow; typically, people queue up around supper-time during the week. With rosary beads in hand, people pray, contemplate, cry and, of course, take pictures . . .




. . . with their cell phones.




I’d be more impressed by the image if it remained visible on the cloth if someone moved the candle. I doubt anyone is going to move the candle. This manifestation pushes it more than most in terms of the “What’s everyone getting so excited about?” factor, but the fact is, the Miami Herald ran a piece on it, as has local TV. Once the story breaks, people flock. Some find the shadow inspirational, while others are just out to take a gander.

Here is another “M”: Media.

Oh, and one more: Madonna (of the Toast)

Of Trees, Both Living and Turned into Newspaper

This is a first: a two-in-one face! Discovered in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois, this sycamore tree bears a resemblance to former Mayor Donald E. Stephens, and Jesus. Reported today by the Chicago Sun-Times, even relatives and close friends of the recently deceased man see his face in the peeling bark of this tree outside of a health club. Even the village’s new mayor, Stephens’s son Bradley, sees his father in the tree.



Why this tree of all trees? Well, apparently Stephens twice saved this tree from being chopped down, and now his acts of conservation have earned him a spot in nature (if you can call a tree by a parking lot a part of nature).

The story doesn’t end there, though. A couple weeks after the face was identified, a woman came along and prayed to the tree because to her the face looks like Jesus.

There’s no way to say who’s right, but I think it is safe to say that this tree will not be felled anytime soon, and at this rate the world can use all the trees it can get!

And from news of the midwest to news from more southern climes: You may remember that a couple of posts back I mentioned my trip down to Miami the Thursday before Memorial Day to chat with Diana Duyser about her Grilled Cheese Madonna fame and fortune. The well-appointed Coral Gables Books and Books hosted the event, and though the crowd was thin, those in attendance were engaged.



The other day, Nicholas Spangler wrote a piece about Diana, and mentioned the reading, in the Miami Herald.

I guess Spangler has spent some time with Diana and her husband over the years, and this piece focuses on their current state of affairs, which is less than ideal. In light of their circumstances, he seems to dig into them a bit, which admittedly they set themselves up for, but not everything is as it looks, just consider all of these various objects in which some people see holy figures and other people see water stains.

Yogi Bear In Argentina, Me in Florida

Yup, I'm back. Had a great time in Argentina, and I even spotted my own visual manifestation of a secular icon -- none other than Yogi Bear! Found this peeled-paint shape in the San Telmo neighborhood of Buenos Aires.



Everyone's favorite picnic basket thief is a popular figure in the world of pareidolia. He even makes a cameo in Madonna of the Toast, in potato chip form.

I'll be talking about potato chips, cows and grilled cheese sandwiches this Thursday at 6:30 at Books and Books in Miami. I'll also be joined by Diana Duyser, which should be a hoot. The Miami press has blurbed the event, so if you don't want to take my word for it, check out Flavorpill or the Miami New Times.

New News, and Some Old News Made New

This will be my last post for a couple of weeks, folks. I'm off to Argentina for vacation. If you've been visiting here regularly and are worried about not getting your fix of strange and sacred sightings, you can always check out the book, Madonna of the Toast.



Or, if you're in Miami, Florida, on Thursday May 24, I'll be reading at Books and Books in Coral Gables. All of the readings I have done over the last few months have been fun, but this one promises to be extra special because of Diana Duyser's presence. Yes, the woman who made the $28,000 Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese will be joining me for a chat. We'll talk about the impact one half of a sandwich has made on her life, from the money, the celebrity and her tattoo of the toast, which she received on the reality television show Miami Ink. The Duysers always draw a crowd in Florida, so this event may turn into spectacle. And, no promises, but there is a chance that the famed sandwich will also be on hand.

Lastly, and appropriately, in looking for a new visual manifestation to share with all of you, the only noteworthy tidbit I found had to do with none other than Diana Duyser! On May 7, Local10.com reported on Duyser's tattoo, and then the story got picked up by other news services. It's strange because she got the tattoo last summer, long enough ago for me to include it in the book! I don't get it, but I think it bodes well for an interesting time down in Florida.

Okay, that's all for now. I'll be on the look out for recognizable faces down near the bottom of the world . . .