ONLY THE NAME HAS BEEN CHANGED, TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT

GILL NET TUG BAR AND AIRPORT...

...NEW NAME, SAME BAR

Thursday,  8:30 AM.  37 degrees F, wind SW, calm to light with a few moderate gusts.  The sky is again overcast, with a lot of haze over the Islands and the Bay.  The humidity is up to 86% and the barometer is also up, at 30.15".  The Farmer's Almanac predicts rain and wet snow for the 20th to the 23rd, and it looks like it is working up to that.
   Not wishing to delve into anything particularly serious today, I chose to let everyone know that the local off-reseration watering hole, The Gill Net Tug Bar and Airport, located on Old Highway K just west of Red Cliff in the Town of Russell, has changed its name to Cheers.
   Under its old name the establishment garnered something of a reputation for naughtiness, since    it hosted a few evenings of striptease by some imported ladies a couple of years ago. That didn't go over very well for several reasons, but I suspect primarily because the girls expected more than loose change in return for their artistic endeavors.  Friend Myron, who lives nearby, said it wasn't worth a whole dollar to watch.
   But I also suspect that the name change came about because fewer and fewer potential customers, especially tourists who might wander in out of curiosity, knew what the name meant.  For those readers who are not familiar with commercial fishing, a "gill net"is a huge fish net, and the "tug" is the boat that pulls the net.  I suppose the establishment was once a hangout for fishermen, but if so, it has long since served a more terra-firma oriented clientele.
   I never did see any airplanes land at the "airport" part of the business. Maybe they did so in the dark, although without at least some moonlight I would think the surrounding oaks and pines would be a hazard.   I could easily spin some yarn about  flying in illegal booze from Canada during prohibition or something but that would be pure speculation.   Joan and I stopped in once a few years ago with visiting friends for an afternoon beer as part of showing them the local sights.  We didn't stay long.
   I hope the new name doesn't run into any corporate trademark trouble, but if it does run afoul of such legal issues I would suspect it difficult for prosecutors or  attorneys to even find the place.  Although there might be more than one Town of Russell wife who, still peeved at the pole dancing episode, might point the way.  At any rate, as they used to announce on the old time radio shows, "only the name has been changed, to protect the innocent."