There are many sights and sounds, I’m sure, that signify or summarize the Key West atmosphere, but I’ll go with this morning’s rooster wake-up for the time being. Dawn hadn’t broken at 6:20 am as I stood on the small mini-balcony of room #220 at Key West’s Marker Hotel and recorded the crowings. The humid air, even at this hour, verges on hothouse, and the rich earthy aromas (which were exterminated in most areas of Los Angeles decades ago) are to die for. Welcome to the Conch Republic — a haven of revelry and ghosts and abundant tropical flora…a kind of expatriate aura, a realm apart, Florida’s answer to the leftwing, architecturally storied, cool-cat vibes of Austin and Savannah…o come all ye tourists and party animals! But also flavored and punctuated with little pockets of haunted Hemingway-esque history. When you turn on a TV in a typical middle American hotel room, the default channel is usually Fox News. But in Key West it’s MSNBC…okay? Again, the roosters.