Alligators in B-Flat
Improbable Tales from the Files of Real Florida
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
With a keen eye for detail and a lyrical style, Jeff Klinkenberg sets his sights on the contradictions that make up the Sunshine State. No one else would think to engage a professional symphony orchestra tuba player to find out whether bull gators will thunderously bellow back at a low B-flat during mating season (they do, but only to that pitch). From fishing camps and country stores to museums and libraries, Klinkenberg is forever unearthing the magic that makes Florida a place worth celebrating.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Klinkenberg's Florida is concurrently an unapologetically kitschy tourist trap where tacky' is considered a gift shop virtue," a sunny retreat luring retirees and transplants, and a mysterious wilderness that make residents realize their Florida, "deep down, is Jurassic Park." Represented by an array of eccentric and memorable characters, Klinkenberg, journalist for the Tampa Bay Times, depicts Florida culture and profiles its colorful personalities. To investigate an obscure study claiming that captive alligators respond to "auditory stimulation," particularly to the "key of B flat", Klinkenberg enlists Florida Orchestra tuba-player Mickelsen to test the patience of the beasts. Other interviewees include a famed photographer who claims that his idyllic promotions convinced many hopeful transplants: a flip-flop man, a female alligator trapper, a barefooted man living outside modernity in his "Huckleberry Raft", and a talented fish artist battling cancer. Klinkenberg illustrates traditions like cane grinding and worm grunting, the life-threatening hazards of a golf ball diver, and shares the strange anecdotes of many a store-owner, all with a good dose of iguanas and rattlesnakes. Floridians are a charming, talented breed, and this humorous, honest, and often touching collection of tales exhibits the melting pot of traditions and lifestyles from a journalist's eye.
