The thaw in relations between the United States and Cuba should have at least one predictable result: an increase in American tourists, the first 10,000 of whom will be CIA agents. Now the Cubans may be many things, but they are not stupid. We can be assured they will be anxious to welcome our spies with good expense accounts.
We can soon expect this scene at Cuban ports of entry.
Cuban official: “Buenas. Welcome to Cuba. Here for a holiday?”
Visitor: “Nada, CIA.”
Official: “Wonderful. Welcome Comrade Spook. Please register at the line over there – the one marked CIA.”
The visitor proceeds to the appropriate line, which moves along smartly until he is greeted by Cuba’s CIA host official.
Official: “Welcome to Cuba, CIA host reception. My name is Jose Gimenez. That’s pronounced Ho-say. As in Ho Say can you see by the dawn’s early light. Now what are you interested in seeing – historic missile sites, the KBG Bath and Tennis Club, political prisoner detention facilities, the Fidel classic car museum?”
Visitor: A little bit of everything, thank you. This is my first visit.”
Official: “Si. And what is your name?”
Visitor: “Maurice Bishop.”
Official: “The Maurice Bishop? – The guy who covered up the Kennedy Assassination?”
Visitor: “No, he’s dead. We all use the name Maurice Bishop. It goes back to the game of chess, you know. Just a little play on words to break up the monotony.”
Official: “Si. But I see no Maurice Bishop name on our stolen confidential list of CIA operatives.”
Visitor: “You never will. You won’t find Lee Harvey Oswald on any records, either.”
Official: “Si. See, the past is behind us. Let us concentrate on improving relations between our two great countries. To further that end, we have a special CIA visitor goody bag. It contains a signed photograph of Meyer Lansky – a reminder of the good old days – a medallion of appreciation from the Cuban Siete Commandment Society for letting our thieves rip off Medicare and anything else they can in your country, and a few tokens to use in your travels.
Visitor: “Gracias. What are these tokens for?”
Official: “This one is for Happy Hour at the Castro Brothers Brothel. You get two for one. This one gets you a free photograph with a 1952 Studebaker at the Fidel Classic Car Museum. And this one gets you a discount on a mule ride up San Juan Hill.”
Visitor: "And what about this one with the little bulls eye on it?”
Official: “That's for admission to a firing squad.”
Visitor: “But who’s?”
Official: “That’s up to you, senor.”
Visitor: “Si, I see.”
Imagine if nobody watched – just one game, one time. It would probably cause the failure of the National Football League, and fulfill the frequent prophecies of the end of the world.
We refer, of course, to the controversy surrounding the Super Bowl. A recent study of 6,000 bars and grills between Jupiter and Miami revealed that not a single person above the age of reason believes God was responsible for deflating footballs in a recent Boston Patriots game. All believe it was cheating. Nobody believes that prominent members of the Patriots organization did not know about it. Most fans are concerned; some are outraged.
So what do we, as a nation, do about it? Nothing. We tune in to watch the Super Bowl and before that we audit countless television and radio reports, and read everything written about the subject. But suppose, however, people just said no. They skipped the game, didn’t read anything about the controversy and did not even know who won.
Imagine if just one world leader, say President Obama, or Madonna, or Dave Barry, stood up and screamed, “We’re not taking it anymore!” and called for a total boycott of this event. We would do it, except nobody reads this blog. You need a world leader to engineer something like this.
Imagine if it happened. All of those expensive TV commercials would be seen by no one. All of those lizards and ducks that are featured in those stupid spots would quack into a vacuum. The thousands of people who pay hundreds of dollars for tickets would not show up; all of those hotel rooms would be canceled. The airlines would be asked for refunds. Rental cars would sit mournfully on their lots. Millions of dollars would be lost. Six thousand bars and grills between Jupiter and Miami would be empty for a day. The economy would collapse.
We happened to see one Super Bowl live. It was in 1971 between the Baltimore Colts and somebody else. The Colts won on a late field goal. It showed what an impact one game can have on a career. Don Shula had built the Colts into a power, but he did not coach that day. He had moved to Miami and nobody has heard from him since.
Over the years, however, we have decided the game is not all that important. Who really cares about the Patriots against the Seahawks, except that Ken Behring, Tamarac’s founder, once owned the latter? This is not a real rivalry, not like, say, the Patriots playing Boston College, or Tufts or Wellesley College, which would be natural local rivals. It cannot compare with La Salle vs. St. Joe tonight at Tom Gola Arena; La Salle favored by six; or, the big soccer game tonight at Brian Piccolo Stadium between St. Thomas and Cypress Bay. No line available at press time.
Now these are events the world should watch, and we can only make one because of the big snowstorm up north. But come Sunday, we plan a one-person boycott of the Super Bowl. On principle, we will not watch that game. Of course, we lie a lot.
Fort Lauderdale's seven miles of shoreline and 165 miles of inland waterways, coupled with its flat topography and dense development make it susceptible to erosion, coastal flooding, storm surge, and high tides. A recent neighbor survey and communitywide visioning initiative revealed that residents are experiencing more frequent flooding in their neighborhoods, and have a greater sense of urgency to address the growing hazard. The neighbor directive prompted the City to revolutionize its operations by adopting a strategic approach that proactively considers changing climate conditions when planning for the future.
The above is from a City of Fort Lauderdale news release, hot off the presses, touting a new program to reduce flooding. Note that it mentions “dense development” as one of the causes of the problem. Isn’t it rich that the city is addressing this serious problem at the very time that it is making it worse by permitting an explosion of development in the same neighborhoods it is trying to protect?
When a priest from the pulpit congratulates visitors for braving Fort Lauderdale’s traffic jams to get to church, you know we have a problem. We are hearing it on all sides.
“Name anybody who isn’t upset about all this new construction going on downtown,” we said to a friend who is involved in the building industry.
“Restaurants across the street from the new buildings,” he replied. “And the people renting or buying those new units.”
Touché. Except those restaurant owners won’t be so happy when they leave their parking lots and traffic is so heavy that they have to turn right to go left. This is already a problem with downtown offices – when you have to go around the block, or several blocks just to head in the desired direction. Or they are late heading to the airport, and a trip that should take 10 minutes turns out to be 25. It is obvious that Fort Lauderdale is controlled by development forces, and in their desire to make money, they are threatening the quality of life that attracts people to the city in the first place.
Our consciousness of this overdevelopment is not heightened just by people everywhere bitching about it; researching the past in preparation for our magazine’s 50th anniversary in April reminds us of a time when Fort Lauderdale and nearby cities’ downtowns were stagnant – when Las Olas Boulevard had darkened, empty storefronts, and when an effort to revitalize the downtown stalled to the point that the Downtown Development Authority resorted to building tennis courts on property slated for new buildings, just to make it appear something was happening.
Well, those new buildings came, and came again, and now the trend is spreading to what were once small businesses along Federal Highway. Some of those streets were seedy, and the revival is welcome. But do we need 32 stories where half that size is already too dense for comfort?
Unlike many places, Fort Lauderdale’s charm is that the neighborhoods immediately surrounding downtown – Victoria Park, Rio Vista, Colee Hammock – are among the best places to live in South Florida. But those are the residents being affected as cranes poke into the sky like giant birds. Their quiet streets become less so as people cut through, just trying to move around. Not to mention flooding and beach erosion.
Some, whose wallets are fattened by the sounds of pile drivers, will argue that you can’t stop progress. No? Have they heard of Stuart and Vero Beach? Both are filled with people who once lived here in a gentler, less crowded time. And they don’t live in 32-story buildings. Which is why they moved there.
Among the great qualities of the Cuban people who are so abundant in South Florida, one trait that is widely suspected, but rarely noted in the media is this: Many people think they rank among the greatest thieves who ever lived.
Now, a three-part feature – the last running today – in the Sun-Sentinel has given numbers to support that view. And even for the most cynical, those numbers are inspiring. Four writers –Sally Kestin, Megan O’Matz, William E. Gibson and John Maines – researched “Plundering America,” with aid from Tracey Eaton in Cuba. They revealed that the Cuban population in Miami-Dade County is 24 percent, but it represents 46 percent of arrests for credit card fraud, 53 percent for insurance fraud, 59 percent for marijuana production, 72 percent for cargo theft, 73 percent for federal health care fraud and 77 percent for fuel theft.
Although Miami is the leader, similar statistics were reported around the country as the scams perfected locally have spread to other jurisdictions. The audacity of some criminals rivals the enormous profits they make. In some cases, fraud specialists have set up new shops even as their previous companies are being shut down.
The insurance fraud is often fake accidents. If we take this personally, there's a reason. Our daughter, driving a car registered to us, was involved in one way back in the mid-1990s. Our car was not damaged; the other was a messed-up junker. The car was filled with people who said not a word, probably didn't even speak English. None was hurt. And yet the claims for phony injuries led to the insurance company threatening to cancel us for failing to report an accident. We said there was no accident, and eventually we sent the insurance people a report on a fake-accident ring that had been busted. They were thrilled, but since then that scam has only gotten bigger. We have wondered for years why insurance companies pay those claims without researching their validity, and why the Medicare bureaucrats can be so stupid, or indifferent, when multiple claims come from suspicious South Florida sources.
Part two: After Hurricane Wilma resulted in a house behind us being razed, eliminating a fence and heavy shrubbery, which had concealed our storage place for expensive aluminum storm shutters, those shutters disappeared when Latin workmen arrived. We filed a police report and notified the owner of the demolition group. "My boys don't steal," he replied indignantly. As for credit card fraud, we have had cards reissued after the companies challenged (and fortunately did not pay) large charges in distant areas.
The Sun-Sentinel was quick to note that most Cuban Americans are solid citizens, and they pointed out that most of the thieves are not really Americans. And not even immigrants. They are Cubans who take advantage of the special advantages that immigrants from that country enjoy. They move freely back and forth, do their crimes and either escape to Cuba before they are arrested, or jump bail. Even when convicted, penalties are light. Some time in jail is worth the enormous profits they make. Unlike criminals from other countries, they are rarely deported. Cuba won't take them back.
Cuban American leaders, as today's story reported, suspect the Cuban government is a party to all this crime. There is some evidence that the Cuban government takes its cut when crooks return home under U.S. pressure. The ultimate sin tax. Efforts to modify or eliminate the special status for Cuban immigrants have been met with resistance by the strong Cuban lobby (mostly South Floridians) in Congress. Yet judging by comments by Cuban American legislators in today's paper, reform seems to be on the way. Cuba's special immigration status, a questionable idea when established in 1966, needs to end.
The Sun-Sentinel's work – they are after a prize on this one – is likely to be picked up elsewhere, and should speed up legislation.
Nolen approached the car on the passenger’s side. Gibbons went to the driver’s side. They moved cautiously, shining their flashlights on the occupants. They directed the lights in the car, checking the back seats and the floors for weapons. They saw nothing.
“O.K.,” Nolen said. “Get out.”
As soon as the man on the passenger’s side reached for the door handle, Nolen knew it was coming. He did not reach with his right hand, the hand next to the door, but reached across with his left, and as he did Nolen saw his right go down between the seat and the door and the light of the flashlight caught the .38 revolver as it came up.
Nolen jumped back. He knew that if the man was going to shoot, he would get off the first shot before Nolen could reach his own pistol. But he was surprised at how quickly the shot came. He had just time to turn his head toward Tommy Gibbons and shout, “Look out Tom!” when he heard the explosion and felt the bullet tear into his face.”
— from The New York Times Magazine, Oct. 18, 1970
Sometimes this might be called plagiarism, but not when you are quoting yourself. In the summer of 1970 we were already planning to leave Philadelphia magazine for Florida when The New York Times called our editor and wanted a writer to report on the low crime rate in Philadelphia. The editor asked us if we were interested. Sure. There’s only one New York Times. We were barely into the story, however, when the assignment changed. There had been two incidents on the same weekend of police getting shot in West Philadelphia. One man died and over the weekend six were wounded. The above excerpt describes the shooting of two police officers, John Nolen and Tommy Gibbons. The other event — an attack on a guardhouse of the Fairmount Park Guard — looked, at first, like a terrorist plot. A story on Philadelphia’s low crime rate would look silly under the circumstances. This was the time of the Black Panthers and TheTimes wanted to know if this was a war on the cops breaking out. The police commissioner was the notoriously tough Frank Rizzo, widely thought to be a racist, and Philadelphia’s response to the violence against police promised high drama.
As it turned out, the police shootings were just a coincidence. The guardhouse attack was a low-level conspiracy, but there was no organized plot out there. But it took weeks for that to become apparent, and by then we had spent time with Philadelphia’s elite highway patrol, riding with one of the toughest men in that tough unit — a white man, of course. These were men who thrived on danger. The man I rode with had been in a 15-minute fight with a guy who got his gun away from him, stabbed him in the face, and only gave up when the patrolman managed to shoot him during the wrestling contest. He had a police brutality complaint on that one. The cop, 24 years old, had ulcers and was particularly sensitive to being hit in the stomach. His district was almost all black, and this man had unusual sensitivity to its problems. He said most of the people were great, and wished more white people got to know the good black people. He felt sorry for the way so many lived, their houses practically fortresses for protection against some of their neighbors.
We saw in a few days things that have made us sympathetic to police these last 45 years. Calls of “man with a gun” sent our guy racing through dark city streets hoping to be the first cop on the scene. The drive turned out to be the wildest part of the event. We learned that such calls were sometimes false, designed to attract all available police to a location while the bad guys did their work in the vacated zones. And we got the feeling when they encountered drug pushers — our man could smell dope a mile away — that any moment a shooting might start. The bad guys would think us a plain-clothes cop. We actually began feeling like one, except more nervous that any real cop would be. Once, our guy frisked a suspect and handed us plastic packets for safekeeping. He was thinking we might be useful in court. In the light of the shootings of New York police recently, and the general hostility in the black community toward law enforcement, our story from decades back seems poignant. Little has changed.
Nobody got shot at during our brief tour as a fake cop, and our New York Timesstory wound up being much about the shooting of John Nolen and Tommy Gibbons. Gibbons was natural copy. His father had been Philadelphia’s police commissioner. Both men survived, and were vivid in their recollections of the night. Nolen’s bullet to the face would have killed him except in turning to warn Gibbons, he presented a miraculous angle, for the bullet went through his mouth and out an ear. Despite being shot, Nolen managed to wound his fleeing assailant, which soon led to his arrest. Gibbons was wounded twice and a hit on his arm led to complications that caused him to retire on disability. He then became an admired police reporter. And the story that never ran on Philadelphia’s low crime rate would have been bogus. The statistics, it was revealed much later, were phony. The city was as dangerous as any place else.
Twenty, maybe twenty-five years later we got a call from Tommy Gibbons. He had been down at police headquarters and showed some of his old buddies the New York Times piece. “I could have sworn you were there,” he said.
We weren’t there, but Tommy Gibbons sure was, and that was good enough for The New York Times.
The recent stuff about opening up Cuba, including some of the stupid thoughts by people who aspire to lead the United States, suggests a further look at the history of the Caribbean Cold War. By that we mean the fact that trying to work with Cuba's leadership is nothing new. As we recently wrote, President Kennedy initiated a secret dialogue with Fidel Castro back in 1963, and it was one of the decisions that got him murdered.
Is it not possible that Raul Castro’s (above) comments about continuing a socialist program, delivered in military uniform, were also meant for his local audience? And we wonder just how committed that audience might be. Certainly some of the recent candid comments from ordinary Cubans suggest they may be fed up with the Castro government. And they obviously don’t hate the U.S.
Is it not possible that Raul Castro’s (above) comments about continuing a socialist program, delivered in military uniform, were also meant for his local audience? And we wonder just how committed that audience might be. Certainly some of the recent candid comments from ordinary Cubans suggest they may be fed up with the Castro government. And they obviously don’t hate the U.S.
JFK was not sympathetic to the Castro regime. His concern was preventing a nuclear war, which, as he knew better than anyone, was close during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Most of the leadership of our military, and certainly the intelligence community, were in favor of attacking Cuba, which might have been the spark to set off an exchange that could have killed millions. That includes most of you who were living in South Florida at the time.
Last week's report elicited a reply that may put current events in perspective. We are told that in his private negotiations, JFK required certain stipulations before serious talks could begin. Castro had to pledge to break off relations with the Soviet Union and had to cease all efforts to spread communism in Latin America. The source for this info is Marie Fonzi. We don’t know how she knew this, but we know why should would know. Her late husband, Gaeton Fonzi, spent much of his last 40 years investigating the Kennedy assassination. It resulted in his book “The Last Investigation,” now considered a must-read for anyone interested in the subject.
It also resulted in Gaeton Fonzi acquiring a vast amount of information about U.S. intelligence relating to Cuba. Marie Fonzi was looking over his shoulder all the way, and since his death two years ago she has continued his work (although not on the government payroll as Gaeton Fonzi was for five years).
Her information suggests we not jump to conclusions about President Obama’s present overtures toward Cuba. The guess here — based on the announcement that talks have been underway for 18 months — is that there is more to the situation than anyone will announce. Who knows what private understandings might be behind recent events. We know that Fidel Castro back in 1963 got word to Washington not to take his belligerent speeches seriously. They were political, meant for home consumption.
As in much of our affairs — public and private — we don't know what we don't know. We don't know that maybe five years from now, the whole rotten Castro bunch will be gone, and replaced by another bunch that will steal — as in the good old days.
When President Obama announced his intention to improve relations with Cuba, Republican politicians received the news with great shock— particularly those who benefit from the status quo. Sen. Marco Rubio called it a "precedent" that encourages oppressive regimes everywhere. He described the president as naive and ignorant. But, Rubio is the one who shows ignorance if he really believes reaching out to countries with whom we disagree has no precedent. Has he heard of China, Vietnam? Did he ever read Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural, spoken as the Civil War was ending and some northerners would have hung southern leaders for starting a war that killed 600,000 young men? Lincoln said, "With malice toward none, with charity for all..." If that isn't reaching out to an enemy, what is? Gen. Douglas MacArthur made similar conciliatory remarks in accepting the Japanese surrender in World War II.
If Rubio read James W. Douglass' remarkable book, JFK and the Unspeakable, he would learn that more than 50 years ago, when Fidel Castro's rule was young, another American president sought better relations with Cuba. And, it helped in the result of his murder. As Douglass points out, declassified documents confirm what some American and Cuban diplomats suspected, but very few knew for certain at the time. Douglass’ book, 12 years in the making, benefitted from decades of work by other researchers, including Gaeton Fonzi’s “The Last Investigation,” which first appeared as a magazine article in a 1980 issue of Gold
Coast magazine.
Coast magazine.President John F. Kennedy, as a senator, had been a strong critic of the corrupt and brutal Batista regime, and when Castro’s revolution overthrew it, he and many others were hopeful for a better Cuba. But after the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, JFK realized that Cuba's ties to the Soviets could start a nuclear war. He was determined to defuse that bomb. He simultaneously, and in extreme secrecy, opened channels to both Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev, and Fidel Castro.
If Obama's action is volatile now, it is nothing compared to 1963 when Kennedy's initiatives, if made public, would have created a thunderstorm of anger in South Florida. It was a time when many in our military/industrial establishment actually wanted a war with the Communists, on the grounds that we could still win a nuclear showdown that they saw as inevitable. Our own government was still plotting to kill Castro. Even JFK's closest confidant, his brother Robert, disagreed with the president's ideas for a more "flexible" policy toward Cuba. Bobby Kennedy was fostering assassination plans against Castro even as his brother was trying to ease tensions. While our CIA was funding guerilla operations against Castro, President Kennedy was using the Coast Guard to stop those attacks and arrest anti-Castro fighters. For that he was hated and considered a traitor by the anti-Castro crowd. Traitor is the same word Miami Cuban demonstrators have used for Obama.
According to Douglass, whose book is extensively documented with almost 100 pages of footnotes, both Khrushchev and Castro had begun to trust Kennedy. It reached a point where Castro got word to Washington not to take his belligerent speeches too seriously. They were meant for local consumption. And, more than almost all Americans, the two enemy leaders were in a position to recognize the conspiracy that led to the assassination. Khrushchev had his information from the highest level. Within weeks of his brother's death, Robert Kennedy got word to the Russians that the assassination was a domestic plot. Robert Kennedy realized that part of that plot was to blame it on the Soviets and Castro, hopefully provoking a war, or at least an invasion of Cuba.
JFK’s overtures to Castro were subtle. He largely avoided contacts by official government figures. He used journalists who had access to Castro to relay hints about his thinking. Only two days before JFK’s death, French journalist Jean Daniel met with Castro in Havana, with Kennedy’s knowledge, exploring a possible dialogue between the two countries.
These contacts were invisible to the American public, but the motive behind them was clear to anti-Castro Cubans and their CIA sponsors. They knew Kennedy was thwarting their aims to overthrow Castro. That, combined with indications the president was reaching out to the Soviet Union and planned to disengage from the war in Vietnam, convinced our shadow government that the man was a traitor and needed to be removed. Rubio should know that President Obama’s actions have a precedent. Another president, and our country, paid a terrible price for it.
Broward County had an unusual distinction this high school football season. Two of its elite programs won state championships in the larger school categories. St. Thomas Aquinas won its 8th state title in the 7A category. American Heritage School won its second straight 5A championship. Both schools had a fairly easy time of it. St. Thomas tore through most of its season, winning most games with a running clock, also known as the mercy rule, when a team gets so far ahead that they dispense with the usual stoppages for first downs, incomplete passes, out of bounds, etc. Its star players, and they were loaded with them, often sat out the second half of games. It won the championship game, 31-0. American Heritage too overwhelmed most opponents in its championship run. It won the state title 38-0.
The season was unusual for other reasons. Both St. Thomas and American Heritage had outstanding players who transferred from University School. University had won a state championship two years ago, but when its coach left for a job at Florida Atlantic the program virtually collapsed. University went 3-8 this year. It was also the year that the excesses of college football spread to a local high school. Miramar High, which had built a powerhouse program, was caught paying players.
Many thought St. Thomas had its best team ever, and yet it was not undefeated. It was handled early in the season by Don Bosco Prep of North Jersey, a traditional powerhouse. The score was an embarrassing 24-7, made more painful because the game was played at West Point on national TV. St. Thomas just did not play its game. It gave away two early touchdowns and never found its groove. Reliable players dropped passes in key situations, and its star running back, Jordan Scarlett (a University School transfer) got past the line of scrimmage only once, and turned it into a long run.
At the time it was thought Don Bosco was as good a team as it looked that day. It had already destroyed the defending Pennsylvania state champion, Philadelphia's St. Joseph's Prep, 35-7. And yet Don Bosco went on to a mediocre season, 7-4. Whereas the Prep, as everybody in Philadelphia calls St. Joseph's, last weekend won its second straight Pennsylvania large school championship. What must former Pennsylvanians Dan Marino, John Cappelletti and Joe Namath be thinking?
Maybe they are thinking, as many are, that high school sports are out of control, with Florida teams playing teams from New Jersey and California, often on national TV, with polls deciding national champions, with Florida having eight divisions in football (and an absurd eight state champs), with players transferring left and right, with teenagers getting paid to play, with a few schools in each area attracting all the top talent.
And maybe we should all be thinking back to a gentler age, say 1960, when St. Thomas Aquinas was not a football powerhouse. Its team at the time was called Central Catholic and was not attracting players transferring for a higher profile program. In fact, the word “program” was rarely used on the high school level. The team went 4-4, but what its players did later is hard to match on any level. Brian Piccolo (pictured above) went on to lead the country in rushing at Wake Forest, and then his early death while playing for the Chicago Bears inspired the film “Brian’s Song” and made him a legend. The quarterback, Bill Zloch, went on to quarterback at Notre Dame and is a long-time and highly respected U.S. District Judge. A halfback, Dr. Dan Arnold, became a leading children’s dentist. The fullback, John Graham, had a successful career in sales and management with Nabisco, the baking company giant, and later operated a food brokerage business.
In those days, nobody got recruited, much less paid. Ah, nostalgia.
As Gold Coast magazine gears up for its 50thanniversary celebration, we have been noting all of the things that aren’t here anymore – along with a few that have been around as long, if not longer. Nearly none of the original 1965 advertisers still exists, at least not in the form they had then. Virtually every bank has changed its name through mergers. Even the Sun-Sentinel goes by a different name. The Fort Lauderdale News belongs to the archives. Even most of the older hotels go by different names. The exception is the hallowed, modernized Riverside.
Maus & Hoffman is still here. It is 75 years since William Maus and Frank Hoffman opened their high-end men’s clothing store on Las Olas Boulevard. And Carroll’s Jewelers, which started in Dade County and later opened on Las Olas, was among the handful of 1965 advertisers. Mark McCormick, our company president, likes to joke that their original ad pulled so well that Carroll’s didn’t have to buy another for 40 years.
Two now large educational centers, Florida Atlantic University and Nova Southeastern University, both started one year before the magazine, but they were just abandoned World War II runways looking for a second act. Broward County, of course, was already here. It celebrates 100 years in October of 2015. And it was just three years later that the Florida East Coast gave up passenger service, ironically just at a time when the rapid growth in cities up and down its tracks were making its rails ripe for a commuter train. That train came, but not on the FEC tracks, and now Henry Flagler’s railroad is having trouble convincing people that its renewed passenger service is a good idea.
Naturally, the magazine is pleased to tie in with companies and institutions celebrating anniversaries. Its April issue will salute many of them, and the individuals – many now gone – who altered and illuminated our times. An interesting anniversary, and this is hard to believe it has been that long, is the 30thanniversary of Covenant House. It seems like just yesterday that we wrote about the Rev. Bruce Ritter who brought the idea from New York, and made his center for runaway kids flourish with the community support of such people as Judge Estela Moriarity and Keith Koenig of Furniture City, who with his late brother took the water bed craze into a major furniture enterprise.
Covenant House is planning a big time celebration. The Night of Broadway Stars will be Feb. 21 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts (speaking of things that weren’t here in 1965). This year’s honoree is Harry Durkin, who has volunteered at Covenant House for 25 years. A retired criminal attorney in New Jersey, Durkin is also known locally as a staunch supporter of his alma mater, Notre Dame. For six years he was president of the Notre Dame Club of New Jersey, and held the same office for eight years for the large and influential ND Club of Fort Lauderdale.
Recently a senior acquaintance made a profound observation.
"These days, when I get together with friends, they don't talk about things they used to talk about," he said. "Nobody is talking about last night's hot date, or who won the FSU game, the weather, or any of the stuff we used to talk about. All they talk about is their health. Who died, who is dying, what medications they are taking, what their wives are taking, what doctors they go to. How much does Medicare cover? It's all about health. That's all they talk about."
We agreed that this is a serious national health problem. Studies have shown that people who talk about nothing but health tend to die three or four hours sooner than people who never talk about health. But, based on our own recent experience, we offered our friend a suggestion.
"There is only one subject that can stop older people from talking about health," we said.
"What's that?" he asked, quite sincerely.
"Dogs."
"Dogs?"
"Dogs. We recently attended a gathering of what we expected to be interesting people. One worked for the power company and was an expert on wind and solar energy. Another was a former cleric who ran off with a 17-year-old he met in a drug program. Another was a woman who had been married to a former mob hit man. One man had been with the Rumanian army at Stalingrad. We looked forward to an illuminating night. The only problem was that our hostess had just gotten a dog and had also invited the dog to the party. As soon as the guests saw the dog, they began playing with him, or her, or it – whatever it was. All we know is that it was one of those little hair-in-the-eye dogs that kept sniffing our feet.
"We let them go for about 20 minutes, well into our second cocktail, but every time somebody told a story about their dog, somebody else wanted to talk about their dog. We tried to change the subject. We asked the energy expert if it was true that Florida is not that great of a wind state. We said it blows here all the time. The others kept talking about dogs, and he, trying to manage two conversations, said Texas had a lot more wind, and did we see the TV show about the dog that knew 10,000 words?"
“I saw that show,” said our acquaintance. “That dog was amazing. But, you know, dogs are smart. My dog knows people by names. And he remembers everybody. If somebody comes in that he doesn’t know, he gets shy and runs away. But if he knows you, he goes crazy. If I go away for a week he jumps all over me. And if he hasn’t seen you for a few days, he gets very excited, but not quite as much. But if he just saw you a couple hours ago, no big deal. And dogs know each other. I walk my dog in the morning and there are five or six other dogs that we see, and they know each other. It is Illegal to live on my street unless you have a least two dogs. Some families have enough to pull a sled in the Arctic. Some dogs my dog like better than others. You know, walking your dog is a great way to meet neighbors. People you never see at a homeowner’s meeting are out there walking dogs. And you meet interesting people. They love to talk about their dogs. There’s one woman who has a mongrel, looks like a little deer, and believe it or not, that dog is on tranquilizers. She thinks a previous owner abused him, and it was probably a man. The dog hates men, loves women. And if he sees a dog on television he goes nuts, attacking the screen. My boss has three tiny dogs that should be on tranquilizers. You walk in and they attack, you. One actually tore my pants. And he says ‘don’t move, he thinks he’s an attack dog.' Thinks he is. I saw online there are 20 breeds of dogs that should not be around small children. They are all loving, friendly dogs and very loyal and protective. But some are just too big. They can mistake very small children for biscuits and eat them. I hate people who don’t pick up after dogs. There’s one guy who has this enormous Great Dane and he lets him do it on my swale and he doesn’t pick it up. He would need a shovel and a wheelbarrow for that. But my dog isn’t afraid of him. He doesn’t know he’s barely as big as a mouse. He wants to fight all these big dogs.“
Our acquaintance paused for air, and we moved in.
“Everything okay. You feeling good?”
“Yeah, but I volunteered for a study on who has the potential for Alzheimer’s. Sometimes I forget names. And sometimes I mix up my telephone with the TV changer. I think a lot of people do that. Boy, get people on that subject and they never stop. All they talk about is health, and all the pills they take. Did I say this before?”
“Yeah, but don’t worry. They can give you something for that. And they say dogs help. Maybe you should get one.”
