"... Murphy had said. 'All you have to do is look at the fucking Villages. Leave it at the front gate, you douchebag.' During the 2020 election, this standard was tested. The residents eventually passed an ordinance against lawn signage. Still, I encountered a range of opinions about the current President and his predecessor. There was at least one golf cart flying the blue-line American flag, in support of the police. Some rolled their eyes when it passed; others waved."
From "Retirement the Margaritaville Way/At the active-living community for Jimmy Buffett enthusiasts, it’s five o’clock everywhere" by Nick Paumgarten (The New Yorker).
“Who knew people wanted to live in Margaritaville?” Buffett told me. “I thought for a while it was a myth.”
ADDED: We were just talking about The Villages 11 days ago, here.
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My brother, a retired insurance agent and sometimes politician (he's actually running for office again this fall) lives in Margaritaville. It doesn't seem like a particularly political or apolitical place...
From a busker in Nashville to a stoned billionaire. ‘It’s my job to be better than the rest, and that makes the day for me.’
(Yes, it was written by Mac McAnally, but close enough - he’s in the band.)
Wooo! Sounds like the "Mystery Road Trip" Meade would come up with if Althouse did something that really, really pissed him off!
I did my share of drinking to Mr. Buffett's music down at Wrightsville Beach back in the day, but living that shit 24/7? No way!
Can It really be Margaritaville if its not in Mexico?
I blew out my flip-flop
Stepped on a pop top
Cut my heel had to cruise on back home
You got fins to the left, fins to the right...
I remember believing that Jimmy Buffett was an ass due to some publicized political comments he made during the Baby Bush years. 10+ years later I was at Irish Kevin's in Key West hanging around with a couple ex-Navy guys who were there for a birthday vacation. Navy Dave just turned 40 and was thrilled when Buffett turned up. (Me, not so much.) Buffett was there to listen to the band and he treated Navy Dave, and anyone else who approached him, with kindness and good cheer. He reminded me that people you disagree with are just people you disagree with, not dragons to be slain. A bit later I thanked Buffett for making Dave's night and then went back to my beer. I headed back to my hotel shortly after the band finished and Buffett left about 30 seconds later. I had already crossed the street so we were parallel to each other, going in the same direction, when I noticed him stumbling. He grabbed a parking meter to support himself, bent over, and appeared to throw up. I grabbed my phone to take a picture. Then I thought no, he's an okay guy and there's no need to document an unfortunate occurrence and potentially embarrass him. (Even if he his an ass when it comes to politics.)
My lovely wife emailed me the story. I sent back that I thought it would be a poor choice She told me I passed the test. I had a discussion at dinner about dishonesty.
It probably made for a more interesting article than asking people in the New Yorker offices and the surrounding neighborhood what they thought of the current president and the previous one would have, but that's not really saying much. Whatever you think of our civic duties, right now politics is such a farcical shitshow that if people want to escape it, leave them be.
Read it. Jealous. Ann and Meade are buying a winter place there.
Who knew blogging paid so well? Somebody must have bought an awful lot of books.
It turned out that I needed a definition of retirement, something pithy, for my younger friends. "Summer camp with money" is what came to mind. Great article, even with the occasional whiff of New Yorker condescension. It helps to remember that there are many different kinds of summer camps, even camps for lefties, and in a land of liberty and capitalism, you just might find . . . you get what you need.
Pretty even-handed article overall, although the leftie attitude seeped through in places.
"Our ramshackle system of interstate tax arbitrage".
Continues to strike me what they don't understand about our federal political system. I mean, it's in the name "United States".
federation
Definition of federated
: of, relating to, forming, or joined in a federation a union of federated republics
There is another Margaritaville development being built about 6 miles north of Panama City Beach, on the intracoastal waterway. Many homes are built or under construction with many more to come, they say 3,500 possibly.
https://www.latitudemargaritaville.com/news/latitude-margaritaville-watersound-welcomes-first-residents
It appears a lot of retirees are looking for their lost shaker of salt. Or dream of wasting away.
Listen to the song closely and you'll find it's depressing. Why would you want to live there?
Whenever Hurricane Margarita arrives, she will have three available Latitude Margaritaville targets - Daytona Beach, Panama City and Hilton Head. Wastin' away again and again in Margaritaville. Some people say that somebody must pay and I know that the spending never stops.
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