I was really sorry to find out this week that Mark Howell had passed on a couple of years ago, after searching  his name online to see if he was still a writer in Key West. 

He was a friend briefly in KW 1990. When I initially revealed to a guy in Capt'n Tony's  that I was from Toronto, Canada, he pointed to Mark, saying, "You should talk to that guy over there.  He's also from Toronto".   We chatted for a  bit about old T.O. and discovered that we both had lived in the same area before he left the city to move to Florida. We shared an interest in  dolphins as well, discussing a book by Jacques Cousteau that I had read .  When Mark found out later in the week  that I was a freelance writer, he asked me to pen a piece for The Key West Citizen about an entertainer in a KW bar.  I thanked him for offering me a bit of work,  but declined as I was on vacation.  I thought he was a nice person. My belated condolences to his family.