Chris Curle/Special to the Eagle

Is this car for sale? There’s no sign on it. Would somebody step up and claim it?

Chris Curle/Special to the Eagle

Watch this sign because it will be changing soon, as Bayview restaurant at the Esplanade becomes, well, watch this space for the new name and some other interesting changes.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

Tell us about it

• What would you add to this story? Tell us what we missed.
• Do you have photos from this event? Documents we need to see? Share with us.
• Upload photos & videos
• More ways to get your stuff online and in the paper.

More The Marcophile

• Marcophiles: Everything you want to know about warblers
• Marcophiles: Marco says bye to some and welcome to most
• Marcophiles: A walk along Marco’s beach

Share and Enjoy [?]

Restaurant changes

When Jacquie and Curt Koon bought the Bayview Restaurant and the Esplanade bar last spring, they had a lot of ideas on changes for the place. Now those changes are becoming obvious.

Most obvious will be a new name. Hundreds of islanders entered the name change contest and now Curt and Jacquie are releasing clues to the new name. Here they are:

-- Water is in, Dock is out.

-- No View of the Sun.

-- Bypass the Backwards Snook.

-- Aborted Landing.

So what’s the new name? We’ll all find out soon.

Some of the suggestions that made the semi-finals of ten choices include CJ’s On The Bay, CJ’s Waterfront, CJ’s Bayview and Water’s Edge.

The CJ part stands for Curt and Jacquie’s initials. Duh.

The restaurant will be closed for several days in mid-September to do the physical part of the makeover and will re-open on Sept. 22 under the new name, a much-changed, innovative menu and all the rest.

Reporter’s spoof

Tropical Storm Fay seemed for a time that it might never go away. As it waned here but wandered north and northwest and then west, ad nauseum, it reminded Georgians and Floridians alike of the drought we’ve shared for several years.

There has been casual competition between the states for precious water resources.

A first-rate radio reporter, Pete Combs, who worked here at WINK-AM1270 for several years and now works in Atlanta for WSB and CBS radio, wrote a fake note, all in fun, pretending it to be a missive from Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue to officials here in Florida. The text:

“It’s extremely inconsiderate of you people (in Florida) to keep Fay all to yourselves. I’m sure, given the status of several court fights involving the distribution of water throughout the Southeast, someone, somewhere, somehow is going to sue your (Florida’s) governor.

“You are hereby advised to send Fay north forthwith. And don’t even think about sending what’s left of Fay to Alabama. Be warned. Our lawyers are watching.”

The Georgia governor may have harbored such feelings of frustration but so far has not voiced them in public. It’s just one seasoned newsman’s satirical version of what Sonny might be thinking up there in Atlanta.

And make no mistake, the water wars in the Southeast may get hotter as the region’s water woes continue.

Buy this car. Please

No, we don’t own it and don’t know anything about the guy who does, but it has been for sale in the driveway of a home on Marco for what seems like five years.

I think it’s a not-quite-vintage Mercedes station wagon, a faux “Woody” perhaps, but I am no authority on cars, so maybe it’s a really old Nash Rambler gussied up with fake wood and a Mercedes hood ornament on it.

I just hope some civic-minded islander will buy that car and get it out of the driveway that I pass by several times a day.

For a while I wondered why the owner doesn’t keep the car in his garage, but then one day I saw the garage with its door open. The garage was crammed to the ceiling with all kinds of stuff. It looked like a freeze-dried garage sale — just spray it with boiling water and all the stuff comes tumbling out onto the lawn, probably engulfing the old Mercedes and everything else in the neighborhood.

I notice that the owner sometimes moves the car around — from this side of the driveway to that side, whatever. I have no idea why. Maybe he even drives it sometimes but I’ve never seen it cruising our streets.

I don’t know whether it’s legal for residents to sell cars from their homes and I don’t care really — it’s a laissez faire thing as far as I’m concerned. I just wish someone would buy that car and park it in some other neighborhood for a while.

Ads that say the darndest things

I saw an ad in another area newspaper a week or so ago. It was a full page, four-color, nice looking ad for a local dentist.

The funny part was near the bottom, after showing the dentist’s credentials, the copy reads:

“Emergencies welcome (by appointment only.)”

How does that work exactly?

The couple of times I’ve had a dental “emergency,” my idea of making an appointment is to call up and say, “Please, please can I come in right this second?”

If that constitutes making an appointment — begging on the phone as I reach for my car keys and a handful of Advil — then I guess it makes sense.

---

E-mails: chris@chriscurle.com and don@donfarmer.com