Dionysus

 Danny is a young Starbucks barista.  His parents emigrated to the USA from Albania while his mother was pregnant with him.  He was born here and given the Albanian name Dionysus.  

The name Dionysus is derived from Dionysius, the Greek god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre.  (A very busy god.)  Danny has a wonderful tattoo of Dionysus on his forearm.  He got it when he was visiting Albania.

And on the other side of Danny's arm, a wonderful tattoo of Atlas with the weight of the world on his shoulders. 

Blogger is still not letting me post photos.  Today's post and a couple more were prepared before this photo uploading problem arose.  I am still trying to figure it out.  If unsuccessful, the blog will go dark again.

RedBone's

 

I came across a gritty and colorful neighborhood bar and grill in Fort Myers.

Mural

This striking mural is in Saint Petersburg's Central Arts District.  It was painted by Isac Gres, a surrealist artist who has produced a lot of fine art in Saint Petersburg.

Linked to Monday Murals.

Time Out

Blogger isn't letting me upload photographs to my posts so, after 15 years, I guess I will be taking an unplanned vacation until I can figure out what is wrong.  Happy holidays, everyone.

Christmas Mailboxes

 

He was a professor of art.

 She is rather stylish.

These two have good senses of humor.

These three are very proud of their sports teams.

Two are kind of religious.  The last one is proud of being curmudgeonly.

They are Jewish.

I don't know.  I just think they are pretty.

Elves

 

It takes a high level of self-confidence to arrive at a holiday party dressed as elves.  

Friends Celeste and Bill have self-confidence in abundance.

Gingerbread House

The executive pastry chef of The Ritz Carlton leads a team every year to build a life-sized gingerbread house to delight hotel guests and visitors.  

In past years, the hotel has explained how many pounds of gingerbread were used and how many pieces of candy were used in the making of the house.  I am a bad reporter.  I couldn't find out this year's details.

The house can be viewed for five more days.  Plans for next year's house have already begun.