So I’m in Sarasota. This because I am a member of the Florida Bar’s Citizen Advisory Committee (go figure). The Florida Bar likes to have its meetings in exotic places. And who am I to dissent?
Naturally I took my bike. I ride because I am.
You would say “Dude! There’s a lot of traffic in Sarasota!” And of course you would be right.
But the city has actually done a pretty good job of providing bike lanes, green lanes and lots of quiet side street routes that allow you to escape the worst of Sarasota’s autoAmerican imperative.
Spoiler alert! I feel that I should report that they have a beach. Who knew?
And they care about wildlife and stuff.
I cycled to St. Armands Key, where they charge everybody for everything.
Plus they have some very stringent rules. DO NOT WAIT FOR THE TROLLY IN FRONT OF THIS WINDOW! (Don’t ask why.)
There are a lot of Grecian statues on St. Armands. Which I think is good. But for the life of me I don’t understand why they decapitated the Virtue of Music.
I of course knew about The Day The Music Died. But I didn’t know it had been guillotined.
But I digress.
The point is that this is a very artistic town.
I mean, it’s everywhere! In driveways. On front lawns. In parking lots.
I’m not sayin’ they’re trying to hard. But you can’t throw a cat without hitting a deco fish or something.
Which brings me to the Ringling, which is holdover opulence from a bygone era when a circus tycoon could throw around money like he was a Rockerfeller or something.
Naturally I swung by New College. Which is where higher education now goes to die.
You may recall The Great DeSantis Inquisition to turn this once free thinking liberal arts college into a State Indoctrination Camp.
Left: The Great DeSanitizer’s head exploding when he found out that they were committing Liberal Arts at New College.
Right: A New College student trying to come to terms with the concept that ignorance is better than intelligence.
This is a sculpture of the New College Board Of Trustees dressed in their klan robes.
Left: The lake that New College’s grossly overpaid politico/president told the faculty to go jump into.
Right: The Goddess Of The New Party Line that it’s better to have a head full of lettuce than a brain trained to think critically.
But again I digress.
Feeling low I got back onto my bike and rode, boldly rode downtown. Which is a happening place.
This was happening, for instance.
Downtown is lousy with art and stuff. But then the whole damned city is like that.
And really, what’s wrong with that?
Long story short. I came, I saw, I rode away.
In a cloud of dust as it were.
FreeGNV 