Coral Gables RotaryGram: Vol. 65 No. 27 Notes from the Podium

President's Time
It was a good week for carnivores after researchers at McGill University found that images of cooked meat made men calmer and less aggressive apparently because you would have already used your aggression to acquire the meat!

It was also a good week for being the "other woman" after a survey by Ashley-Madison.com (a dating website for married people) found that men spend twice as much on their mistresses during the holidays as they do their wives ...

It was a bad week for Rudolph after a cafe in Arizona started offering special all-reindeer menus for the holidays including such dishes as caribou tongue bruschetta and pappardelle with caribou Bolognese.

THANKS TO CHRIS & CHRIS for hosting our 40th annual Moose Milk Party. They opened their home and their gorgeous pool deck and let us all gorge ourselves on Rotary specialities on New Year's morning. Everyone behaved nicely. Check out the photos on our Blog.

BRUCE'S WINGS go on sale on Saturday and Sunday at the 60th International Beaux Arts Festival at Lowe Museum, University of Miami. We need lots of hard working Rotarians to sell 5,000 of Bruce's Secret Recipe Wings. It's a terrific fellowship event. You get to take in the Art Show, enjoy the gorgeous weather, have some fun and make some money for our Foundation. It helps us continue our good works both here and abroad in the name of Rotary. Be sure to wear your Coral Gables Rotarian at Work shirt so that everyone knows who we are and where to find us. Sign up now to work a shift or two over the weekend.

VETERAN'S BINGO is Saturday, January 15th at the VA Hospital. Join us for a couple of hours and help entertain the Vets. It's a lot of FUN for all concerned.

CHANCE & DANCE is coming ... sooner than you think. Save the Date and celebrate our Club's 65th Birthday with a Prohibition-Style Casino and Dinner Dance at Coral Gables Country Club. Proceeds from the evening go to fund a program we're establishing with CoralGables@HOME for the city's low income seniors. It's shaping up to be a terrific party!

Ahhh Capricorn ... Interesting people born under the sign of the Goat. Ambitious, careful and reserved they can be pretty pessimistic. Say Happy Birthday this week to David Sanchez tomorrow, Axel Ulrich on January 11 and Catarina Jimenez on the 12th.

We have a couple of really important Rotary Anniversaries this week too. Bonnie Blaire has been in Rotary 23 years this week and Chris Tyson, 22 years. Thanks for all your years of Service!

And Now, with Perfect Attendance

Pastor Perry 24 Years

Rolf Frankfurter 43 Years

Abe Horowitz 9 Years

Happy $$$$

We got the Dream Team today! Both Diva and Randy were on hand to Groh scholarships today ... and Groh they did!! There was no shortage of happy Rotarians to make them happy. Richard DeWitt was happy because her daughter, Sasha's boyfriend proposed to her from the center ring of the New York Circus. Then Digger Martinez showed up, late and in a light suit which indicates business is bad...Kelly Sastre was happy because our PE Debbie Swain was just elected President of Citizen's for a Better South Florida, Deena Bell was elected Secretary and Ramon Ferrer is on their Board. Felix Pardo was happy to report that Lynn's interview with Jose Noreiga, a 70 year old Pedro Pan refugee, is now part of the National Archives thanks to the NPR Story Core program. Dick Golden's back and with him comes another "joke" ... this week's story was about a farm girl, her bull and a telegram ... com-for-t-bull. We all did. Steven Spann was happy for two reasons; because North Carolina State won their Bowl game but he couldn't watch the game because his new daughter, Violet May Spann was being born at the same time. German Spicker from the Rotary Club of Cartagena is visiting and has proposed another joint International Project be undertaken between our clubs. This time it's to purchase a respirator for the Children's Hospital. He's invoking the "Rotary Magic" and getting partners and grants to raise the $40,000 to purchase this much needed piece of equipment for their hospital. Jim Roen was happy to wish us all a prosperous 2011 and he's happy that his son't emergency appendectomy was so simple that he had the surgery on Friday, December 17 and went to a party on Saturday night. He turns 17 today! Chris Morrison came lugging a bowl of oranges to brag about Stanford's championship game. It's been a great ride but it will probably be another 40 years before they win another. Bill Quesenberry has always been interested in people with letters after their names and now he is one too ... after participating in the Junior Orange Bowl Sailing event he has become an Anchor Puller 3rd Class. The acronym is BIMBO! Rosendo Castillo - in between flirting with the Diva - was extremely happy to welcome his newest granddaughter, Zoe Smith born at 7:30 a.m. on Monday. Bruce Kerestes invited everyone to our Wing Ding at Beaux Arts Festival this weekend. Come early. Stay late. Help cook, sell or just stay and play with your fellow Rotarians Saturday and Sunday from 9 to 5. Trish Hoffman was happy that both of her teams won on the same day. Chris Tyson said he wasn't happy because lotsa people came to his house on Saturday and he had to speak to those who behaved badly. But all in all he would like to invite us all back again to ring in 2012 with the Milk of the Moose. Dan Scipione was happy that for the first time in the 11 years he and his wife have been together they got to spend New Years together. She's an Emergency Room Physician and usually has to work New Years Eve. Finally, Luis Boue was happy to report that FIU is HIS TEAM! Happiness pays so keep on smiling. We need the money for scholarships to Groh.

Yoli Woodbridge gets Rubies from Foundation Chair Rick Tonkinson

Working Rotarians - January 6, 2011

Greeter - Rodney Langer

Registration - Aaron Glasser

Collections - Abe Horowitz

Head Table - Deena Bell

Special Needs - Frank Sexton & Hadley Williams

Invocation - Greg Martini

Pledge - Aaron Glasser

Singers - Bill Quesenberry, Dan Scipione

DeWitt Law Silver Dollars - Greg Martini

Given to - Rodney Langer & Deena Bell

Pin Drawing Gift - Dan Scipione

Pin Drawing Winner - Yolanda Woodbridge

50/50 Collections - Gloria Burns

50/50 Winner - (I forgot!)

Today's Program

Captain Christopher P. Scraba

U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)

Sector Miami covers a 250 mile area stretching from Elliott Key to Ft. Pierce and includes sections of the Bahamas (including Bimini, which is only 47 nautical miles away). Responsibilities include search and rescue, commercial vessels, and smuggling of illegal products and people via vessel. Within the jurisdictional area in South Florida there are five sea ports, including the Port of Miami – the number 1 cruise passenger port, and Port Everglades which brings in petroleum materials and provides all of the gasoline in south Florida.

USCG’s investigations in 2010 resulted in a fines charged for environmental infractions to the Island Express 1 for its failure to maintain and oil record, and the Titan Express for discharging oil.

There were 738 search and rescue operations in 2010, resulting in lives and property being saved. Human smuggling resulted in 98 landings so far this year, with 75 being interdicted. Most were Haitian and Cuban, but several were Chinese cruise passengers using fake passports. Many boats stolen in South Florida are used for smuggling.

New fast response cutters are scheduled to be delivered this year – 6 will be here in Miami, and another 6 will be sent to Key West.

NEXT WEEK'S PROGRAM: Actors' Playhouse presents 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee