Clergy Corner: 1 CHRONICLES 28:9

9 “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever.

NKJV

Loyalty of heart and willingness of mind is essential for faithful, effective service.

God should have first place in your lives and consume all your thoughts. With the mind of Christ, we should have control over our thoughts and those thoughts should match what the Bible says. We serve God, and we give Him everything we have and then the holidays come. Thanksgiving and Christmas come around, and we do things that we do not normally do:

• We eat in large groups and/or with family.

• We give cards.

• We give gifts.

• We act more hospitable with others.

• We go to church more.

• We give time and money to people in need.

• We focus more on our military and those serving overseas.

These things we do need to be part of our lifestyle and not just part of a holiday tradition. Do not allow traditions to affect the things you do and say – be yourself. God blesses us with many different things throughout our lives.

• God gives us power, love and a sound mind.

• God gives us control over our flesh and soul.

• God gives us the ability to have good judgment.

• God gives us the ability to have a disciplined life.

• God gives us the ability to make the right decisions.

• God gives us _____. (Fill in your own answer)

However, we choose what we are going to do with those gifts and blessings and we choose what kind of life we will live. Society and traditions try to tell us how to live our lives around the holidays and even how to celebrate our holidays. We need to be ourselves and serve the God that we love by living this Christmas lifestyle all year round.

Don’t allow people or circumstances in your life to break your holiday spirit and steal your joy. The words that come out of our mouths show what is in our hearts, and our actions will speak even louder than our words. The things we do and say show the kind of lifestyle that we have. Don’t become what the pressures of life want to mold you into, but rather become a person full of joy and peace all year round. Then, it is not just a holiday thing; it is a lifestyle thing. When we do things the way God wants and not by our own way, then those changes become more permanent. Why change the way you act and behave like the seasons change? Just be the same happy, joyful, peaceful, giving person all year long. Then, you will not have to change around the holidays to fit in.

Tony Guadagnino is the pastor at Christian Love Fellowship Church.

By Gary Curreri

Former NFL football player Tyrus McCloud wasn’t sure what to expect last spring when he took over the reins of the Zion Lutheran School football program.

McCloud, who played at Nova High School and went on to play two seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, started spring practices with just five athletes. As time passed, he convinced more players to come out and had a 17-player roster this fall, of which nearly half (seven) were middle schoolers. Only six players on the team had played tackle football previously.

McCloud said his first-ever head coaching stint was one of the toughest jobs he’s had, and also opened up to the team stressing his “failures” rather than his successes. Among the transgressions was a drinking problem. He recounted a story where he sat with former Ravens Pro Bowler and future NFL Hall of Famer Ray Lewis one day and Lewis told him he’d stopped drinking because he wanted to become a star player.

Zion Lutheran began the year with two straight losses to Berean Christian, 21-0, and Canterbury (St. Petersburg), 14- 6, before finishing the year on a five-game win streak.

The Lions defeated City of Life Christian Academy (20- 6), Northwest Christian (60-0), Scheck Hillel Community School (38-19), Faith Christian (70-28) and Palmer Trinity (48- 0) as it outscored the opposition, 242-88. It marked the first winning season since 2007 when it went 7-3.

McCloud, 39, of Coral Springs, played linebacker for the University of Louisville Cardinals, was drafted in the fourth round of the 1997 draft with the 22nd pick (118 overall) by Baltimore Ravens. He played in both the 1997-98 seasons with the Ravens and was briefly with the Miami Dolphins in 2001.

Among the other challenges McCloud faced was having two younger inexperienced coaches on staff. McCloud came on board last April for spring practice and called coaching this season was “very intriguing.”

“The biggest transition we had was trying to engage the athletes to get them to maximize the talent,” McCloud said. “We had to give the coaches a vision and then we had the support of the administration.”

McCloud has been the South Florida Field Director for Prison Fellowship Ministries for the past 12 years. The nonprofit organization aims to restore broken bonds between prisoners and their families while protecting their children from following in their footsteps. He had a conversation with Zion Lutheran Athletic Director Mitch Evron, who spoke of challenges with the athletes.

“He said there are some issues socially, economically, spiritually and mentally,” McCloud said. “He said he might have to scrap the program, and I saw it as an opportunity to give these kids a little bit of life and move it forward.”

McCloud also said the players had to overcome fear since they had never played before. McCloud said at one point in the spring, they had 23 players but seven quit because the game was too physical for them.

“That was the identity that was there and we had to put them in position to like the game, have fun and maximize talent,” McCloud said. “That was the hard part of putting the pieces together.”

McCloud said the biggest point he needed to make with his team was drawing on his own weakness. He said it was more than being a finalist for the Butkus Award in college or reaching the NFL.

“I didn’t talk about my strengths, I talked about my weaknesses,” McCloud said. “I spoke of the things I failed at, the things I could have done better at, as it relates to football. Ray Lewis and I were drinking one day as rookies, and Ray was saying how we need to stop. He said he wanted to be a legend and he decided to separate to be better and not keep drinking, and I didn’t do it. I spoke to them about the pain of my past in order for them to really draw into the passion of why we need to play and the focus to move on.”

“It was very humbling to open up like that to the kids, probably beyond humbling,” McCloud added. “A lot of the things I shared with those guys, I never shared with anybody in my life. The only person that knew about that story was me and Ray. I had to do some soul searching. I couldn’t watch them get beat up and defeated. It was therapy for me too because I had to open those scars up. I never even told my wife about it and we’ve been married for 16 years.”

McCloud was the defensive coordinator at Calvary Christian in the spring of 2012 and has been involved as a youth football coach in programs around Broward County. He said the core five kids (Don Andrew Hanson, Chris Judge, Rashad Witty, Ruben Monroe and Josh Forde) who came out last spring were “hoping and believing” that there would be a team and they stayed the course. The players recruited fellow classmates and they were able to field a team and defeated Palmer Trinity, 40-6, in the spring game.

“I think it says a lot.” McCloud said. “We wanted to make it exciting for the school and bring some life to the program,” McCloud said. “They have sent a message to everyone this year. I believe that with the talent in Northern Broward County that Zion can be an elite program in the future.”

“This is going to rank up there with the things I do,” McCloud said. “When I deal with the home school kids, inmates and doing camps … You see the smiles on the faces of the kids. You see the kids at Zion where coaches walked out on the kids in the middle of the season. This will rank in my Top 2.”

By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

After a drought of almost two decades, the Thanksgiving Box Office broke records last weekend. The one-two combination of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Frozen proved to be indomitable family entertainment.

A film that continues Suzanne Collins’ Young Adult novel series, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was buoyed by additional screenings at Ft. Lauderdale Museum of Discovery’s IMAX.

After their unique victory in their first movie, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) fulfill their obligatory celebrity roles. Through their victory, Katniss and Peeta have sparked a quiet political evolution against the president (Donald Sutherland) and his oppressive policies. Thepresident recruits Plutarch Heavensbee (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) as his trusted advisor to quell the rebellion.

Although the first half drags a bit, these expository scenes set up the arch of the trilogy. When the games begin, character and story intensity pick up with personal violence and hidden character motives. Like The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, this is an entertaining middle film that promises a fine conclusion.

On the smaller screen at the Florida Atlantic University Living Room Theater, one can have an intimate experience with Italy’s Le Grande Belleza (The Great Beauty). Director Paolo Sorrentino tells the tale of Jep (Toni Servillo), a 65- year-old man who is tired of living in “La Dolce Vita” culture since the 1960s. Having written an influential novelette decades ago, Jep lives a shallow life in which he has lived off the reputation of his book. He undergoes a spiritual revelation when he meets a nun his age who has lived a life of chastity and poverty.

For local interest, don’t miss Bettie Page Reveals All, a documentary featuring the iconic Pin-Up girl and a bit of Boca Raton history. We learn that Bettie attended “Bibletown” (now Boca Raton Community Church) and she shot her famous jungle photos a few blocks south in the old Africa- U.S.A. park (now a housing development). Narrated by Bettie, Bettie Page Reveals All is a documentary of contrasts.

Throughout the movie, we see her glamour in various stages of dress and undress. Yet through the dead pan narration, we learn about Bettie’s battles with abuse, censorship and her own mental illness. Not seen since her spicy photographs from the 1950s, Bettie narration is hauntingly off-camera. While the woman embraces her sexual legacy, her deep-voiced southern drawl presents a warning to naïve young people everywhere.

By Emily Rosen

ERosen424@aol.com

www.emilyrosen424.com

I am an avid reader – with tired eyes. These searchlights have served me well over many years – and they still work for me. Dimly, it’s true, but certainly adequately for everyday activities. I do not have an eye disease. And my sight is close to 20-20. What I have is end-of-thed a y – w h e n – I – l o v e – t o – cuddle-with-a-book blurs. This is even after two cataract surgeries and no real diagnosis from my Ophthalmologist … just an admonition about too much time at the computer, plus a simple treatment plan: Live with it. His unspoken language translated into: “You’re lucky after all these years that it’s no worse. Be grateful.” And gratitude is what I’m all about.

But my list of “Books I Want To Read” reaches to China and, although I do not have an eye disease, my frustration level was registering “dangerous” until I discovered Books On Tape.

And so, reluctantly, I have bartered my NPR radio station in favor of listening to a good book. I do my reading-listening in the car and, although I probably don’t average more than 2 hours a day in the car, if that much, it’s start and stop doing various household chores, volunteering, some business meetings and keeping up with social engagements; so, it’s not unusual for me to spend a couple of weeks with a 17-disk book. (Most of them have far fewer disks.) And I come right back to my place without missing a beat each time I turn on the ignition. And, no, I don’t lose interest. In fact, I love red lights. They increase my listening time.

I find myself engaged with more non-fiction than I had been before: biographies, memoirs and lots of political and trendy stuff, all from my local library. I recently went on a jag to find out as much as I could about our president and took out six books on Obama – three from the right and three from the left, and came away from that experience with a well balanced synthesis – but – you’ll get no politics in this column.

My taste in fiction is for good literature and, sometimes, I feel the need to buy a book I’ve heard, just to underline some of the powerful or poetic language, and to make notes. All of which has not prevented me from engaging in the actual cuddle with a real book. Thus far, I have resisted eBooks. I know. I know. Some of you love ‘em. But when I travel, I only take skinny books, and I hate reading on a screen. It’s bad enough that I have to read on a computer screen.

So this is a recommendation for your Christmas list for book lovers with sore eyes, book lovers who spend lots of car time or book lovers who simply can’t get enough reading time and might listen in the car (or doing laundry or cooking), or for someone who is fed up with the fare on TV and would like to knit or sew or do a craft project while listening to a good book.

And have a Merry Christmas!

Chanukah, Christmas — the world brightens up with the lights of these holidays and people tell stories of their faith and of miracles. This year was a first in my life; I was asked if I would play Santa Claus. Sadly, I was already committed to other work on that day.

But, for years, this Rabbi has thought of what fun it would be to play Santa. All I would need is the suit, as I already have the white beard and the tummy. Now, in the past when I thought of playing Santa, I always thought about how wonderful it would be to watch little ones as their eyes bulged in delight at getting to see and talk to me (Santa), and telling me what they wanted most in the world. But I wasn’t asked to play Santa for children. I was asked to put on a Santa suit for a Nursing Home. And I think that the wishes of an elderly person are very different than that of a child, then again, maybe not.

Most of you are familiar with the game of dreidel. The word dreidel comes from a Yiddish derivation of the German word, drehen, meaning “to turn” and, today, I would like to put a new spin on it. If you think about it, when we hold the Torah, we hold it on the bottom. Perhaps, we do this as a way of saying that the words of the Torah lift us up toward the heavens. On Purim, we spin a grogger, a noisemaker, and, again, we hold the grogger from the bottom. Even the fringes of our Tallit are at the bottom of our prayer shawls, again reminding us that observing the Commandments that they represent will lift us up toward the heavens.

But to spin the dreidel, you have to hold it from the top. So instead of lifting us up toward the heavens, this simple game metaphorically spins our focus to bringing a bit of heaven down to earth.

That really came home to me as I read the latest novel by Mitch Albom titled, “The First Phone Call From Heaven.” And, as I thought about not being available to play Santa for a group of elderly residents, I wondered what kind of things they might tell me that they wished for most of all.

Reading Mitch’s book, I wondered how many of them would say that they would love to be able to talk to or to see a loved one who has passed from this earth. I wondered how many of them would cherish a phone call from heaven. Wow, what a miracle that would be. This is a season of miracles. But as a Rabbi and a Chaplain, let me tell you something, don’t wait until you are in heaven to make a call. There are those who you might not have talked to for a very long time for whatever reason, and they are literally dying to hear from you. Your reaching out to them might just bring a little bit of heaven into their lives.

This is The Season of Miracles, but it’s up to each of us to make sure that love is in the air. So, pick up the phone, make that call and make it a heavenly one on both ends of the line.

Shalom my friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Israel of Deerfield Beach. We welcome you to join our warm and caring family for Shabbat and festival services. We’ll make your heart glow…who knows, you might even fall in love with Shul all over again.

By Gary Curreri

Pompano Beach Swim Team coach Jesse Vassallo hoped for a Top 10 finish in the 23rd annual Speedo Winter Championships at Plantation Aquatic Complex this past weekend.

His team had an outstanding meet and came up just a little short of its goal, and it finished 11th overall with 484 combined points. Pompano Beach took seventh in the boys’ division with 321 points, while the Piranhas placed 17th in the girls’ rankings with 163 points.

“My goal was to be Top 10 this year,” said Vassallo, who took over the program 2-1/2 years ago with 44 beginner swimmers. They brought 41 competitive swimmers to the four-day meet, which ran from Thursday to Sunday. “We came in the first time with nine swimmers and we didn’t even score. The second time, we came in 19th and then 13th last year. From there, we will go down until we win.”

Vassallo, who was also a swim coach at Ft. Lauderdale Aquatics and the former president of the Puerto Rican Swimming Association, has 178 swimmers in the program.

“That is extremely cool,” said Vassallo, who is the lone full-time coach and has a total of six coaches in the program. “I am really, really excited every time I step on deck because I see the growth. I have the coaches in place. I have a great coach dealing with the little ones. I have a great coach dealing with the developmental kids, and great coaches with the age group coaches. It is really coming along. To see them succeed, it fills my heart.”

Vassallo said when he first began in Pompano they were still transitioning from a recreational swim program to U.S. Swimming.

“I believe the mentality is still recreational,” Vassallo said. “It is a process. It doesn’t change overnight. The motivation is there. The recreational swimmer trains maybe for an hour three times a week. The 12-unders train two hours a day every day. The rec kids do it for a couple of months, and we do it all year round.”

Vassallo was also pleased with the performance of the high school athletes in the program as nine made it the state finals for their respective high schools.

“I would like to see the program grow to 250 swimmers,” Vassallo said. “I think that is the limit because it is a public pool.”

Pompano’s Victoria Miyamoto, 13, turned in the strongest performance for the Piranhas as she took third in the high point for her age division. She won the 100-breaststroke, the 100-IM event; second in the 50 and 200-breaststroke events, and was third in the 400-IM.

Other Top 3 performers for the program included Mattheus Santos, Fatimah Westbrook, Jake Schulte and Austin Saunders. The boys 11-12 age group 200-Free relay (Santos, Shane Schulte, Raphael Santos and Christian Henderson) also took home top honors.

Bucks, Tigers fall in football

Deerfield Beach’s quest for a perfect season came to a crashing halt as it lost its Class 8A regional semifinal football game to host Miramar, 43-6.

The much-anticipated matchup between nationally-ranked and undefeated 11-0 teams — Miramar (16th) and Deerfield (19th in this week’s USA Today poll) — was well over by halftime.

Miramar’s Nick Jeanty threw two touchdowns and ran for another to put the Patriots in the driver’s seat as Miramar scored on four of its first five possessions and ran away with the win. The Bucks’ lone score of the game came on Aeron McNeal’s two-yard touchdown run 11 seconds into the fourth quarter.

Blanche Ely also suffered the same fate, as it was also blown out with a 49-7 defeat at the hands of Dwyer in the Class 7A regional semifinals on Friday night.

Blanche Ely, which finished the season on a fivegame win streak, was unable to contain the Panthers’ Alonzo Smith, who carried 25 times for 245 yards and two TDs. The Tigers’ lone score of the game came on a 41-yard scoring toss from Nelson Ervin to Edward Walker in the third quarter, which cut the lead at the time to 28-7.

By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

In the midst of covering the 28th Annual Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival and the 30th Miami Book Fair International, one of the most asked questions I heard was, “Have you seen Captain Phillips?

Captain Phillips has Oscar nomination written all over it. It is a big story about an international incident circa 2009. It features Oscar winner Tom Hanks acting his heart out as the title character, with lesser-known actors adding believable menace to our everyday hero. So is Captain Phillips another manufactured Oscar contender like The Butler? Hardly. Captain Phillips captures the claustrophobic despair of being a hostage.

The Captain skippers a cargo ship of charitable supplies off the African coast. When the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama is hijacked by Somali pirates, Captain Phillips must utilize his wits to save his crew. What was supposed to be a routine kidnapping for these thugs, becomes a global television affair involving the U.S. Navy. Perhaps if these pirates read Davy Jones & the Heart of Darkness, they would not have gotten involved in such a disastrous venture.

Best known for his work on the overrated Bourne amnesia spy movies, the director Paul Greengrass, who was Oscar-nominated for United 93, a movie about the 9/11 plane crash. Thanks to Greengrass, the intensity of Captain Phillips never lets up as a human story. When violence occurs, it is sudden, explosive and quick. One movie that no one mentioned to me was Escape Plan, the Sylvester Stallone – Arnold Schwarzenegger buddy movie. This team-up has been three decades in the making, though diffused by the Sylvester- Arnold Expendables of recent years. Escape Plan is pure Saturday matinee afternoon escapism.

Ray Breslin (Stallone) makes a living breaking out inescapable prisons and has written a book about the subject. After a successful payday, Breslin is kidnapped and sent to the Tomb, a prison of his own design. The villainous prison warren (Jim Cavielzel) is a student of Breslin and has an odious henchman (Vinnie Jones) do his evil bidding for him. Fortunately, Breslin befriends Emil Rottmayer (Arnold), a convict who rules the prison yard. The two team up to plan an audacious escape.

Despite a too-pat ending, Escape Plan works as an action thriller. To the credit of Summit Entertainment Marketing executives, the trailer did not reveal important plot twists and surprises. The two 60-year-old action icons provide some edge-of-your-seat moments with humor. While Captain Phillips is an Oscar contender, Escape Plan is a lot of fun.

Italy’s Oscar selection for Best Foreign movie, Great Beauty, opens tomorrow. The Observer will have a full review in next week’s edition.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving has been a favorite holiday of mine since I was young.

I remember waking up as a young child on Thanksgiving Day morning to the aroma of turkey cooking in the oven. Ah, the day’s high hopes and expectations preceded my feet hitting the floor.

An early morning tradition at our home included scrumptious warm cinnamon rolls with lemon icing melted over the top. “Um- mm good!” I usually ate a handful of these because they were small and so was I, at the time.

First things in the morning included finding out who was coming and when they were expected to arrive, watching a little of the Thanksgiving Day parade on television and finding out when the football games were to begin.

Thanksgiving Day meal happened in the middle of the day, but a little later than normal to give the family extra time to arrive. Thanksgiving Day travel back then was more a matter of traveling across town than dealing with airports and homeland security.

An early afternoon meal meant I would have time to recover from all those cinnamon rolls. It also gave us time to adjust and turn the old antenna on the roof. HD television back then stood for “Hard-to-Determine” rather than “High-Definition,” so a clear picture of the game required the antenna to be pointed in just the right direction.

I never understood how the Bears and Cowboys were always among the teams duped into playing on Thanksgiving Day, but it explains how I became a Bears and Cowboys fan.

Once everyone arrived, we had a great meal topped off with pumpkin pie. After filling our stomachs, the sports enthusiasts of a certain gender and age would then fall asleep in a comfortable chair before the end of the game they had been so excited to watch.

There were afternoon board games and discussions about family, sports, church and state and maybe a look ahead to Christmas. Early evening was time for the best tasting leftovers in the history of the world and, before the sun went down, everyone was gone.

Traditions can change with time when children become parents and parents become grandparents. Skype, Face- Time and Facebook are not same as being there; but, even when families find themselves scattered across the globe, Thanksgiving has not lost its luster.

This is so because Thanksgiving is more than turkey and cinnamon, or parades and football. Somewhere in the love of family, one for the other, in familiar scents and sounds, in memories, in emotions is found the Spirit greater than our own.

We discover the Source of the food in the oven is the One who creates and sustains our high hopes and expectations. This is the Spirit of Thanksgiving and this is the Spirit of the Lord.

The Psalmist says “Know that the LORD is God. It is he that made us and we are his. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name. For the LORD is good. His steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations.” (Psalm 100:3-5 NRSV)

Thank God, it’s Thanksgiving again in this great land blessed with abundance, hard fought freedom and opportunity. I just hope it is my turn to sleep in the comfortable chair.

Join us for Thanksgiving worship this Saturday @ Six or Sunday morning at 8:30 or 11 a.m.

Reverend Andrews is a minister at the Community Presbyterian Church of Deerfield Beach (Steeple on the Beach), located five blocks south of Hillsboro on A1A. See more at www.comm unitych.org or on Facebook.

By Gary Curreri

Pompano Beach High School’s Brandon Sucher rolled three strikes in a row in the 10th frame en route to a final game, 245 to complete a 693 series in the first-ever district bowling championship held in Broward County.

Sucher, a senior, topped Coral Springs Charter School’s Pablo Cerda for the District 15 boys individual bowling title.

Sucher bowled a 235 and 213 in his previous two games, but trailed Cerda by 40 pins entering the final game at the Brunswick Margate Lanes. Cerda, a junior, who won a District title last year and advanced to state where he went 1-2 in match play, rolled a 255- 233-187 to finish with a threegame series of 675.

“I bowled well,” said Sucher, who began bowling twohanded prior to the start of the high school season. “I was in a slump, bowling one-handed for like three months and needed a change. I had to make it there. It’s my last year.”

A total of 12 teams and 67 bowlers competed in the District tournament. It marked the first time in the history of the state series, which began in 2003. Coral Springs Charter School swept the boys and girls team titles. The boys defeated Pompano Beach, while the girls downed Coral Glades. Both Baker Games went three games.

Sucher, 18, who lives in Margate, has been bowling for just three years and missed qualifying for state last year by 20 pins.

“It wasn’t that disappointing last year because I had a rough start,” Sucher said. “I was looking forward to this year because I had a whole team and that was nice to have. It feels good to be the first district champion. I’ll be able to say I was one of the first ones to make it.”

Sucher went on to finish 59th in the state as he bowled a fourgame series of 794. He had games of 226, 180, 200 and 188. The Tornadoes boys’ team finished 29th with an 885 pin count.

By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

With the 150th anniversary of “The Gettysburg Address” and the 50th anniversary of the last presidential assassination this week, both Abraham Lincoln & John F. Kennedy (see more pg. 6) will be forever linked by the ironies of history.

Both men held a love for the written word. The celebration of the written word continues with the 30th Anniversary of the Miami Book Fair International, held Nov. 17-24.

Dan Brown, author of books like The DaVinci Code and Inferno, opened the festival Sunday evening with a lecture about how family life inspired him to becomeaninternationalbest-selling author. His dad was a math teacher, his mother a church organist. Filled with self deprecating humor, he also talked about working with Tom Hanks and Ron Howard on the set of the movie The DaVinci Code at the Louvre Museum, home of Leonardo DaVinci’s “Mona Lisa.” (See more, pg14)

With the production of cinematic classics like The Maltese Falcon, and Treasure of the Sierra Madre, director John Huston also carried a love for the written word. Beginning his career as a screenwriter, Huston’s coterie of houseguests included authors like Carson McCullers, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck, who influenced his daughter, Oscar-winning actress Anjelica Huston.

Anjelica Huston’s body of work stands on its own with Prizzi’s Honor (directed by her father) earning her an academy award, and with movie roles as diverse as The Big Year, The Royal Tenenbaums andTheGrifters. For young people, she is best known as Morticia Addams in The Addams Family films. Recently, she added credibility to the TV show Smash with her role as Eileen Rand.

Huston will be discussing her memoir, “A Story Lately Told, Coming of Age in Ireland, London and New York,” on Friday evening. Besides acting and growing up with an eccentric father, Anjelica will discuss being a teenager and living in London during the swinging ‘60s, her forays into modeling and her earlier attempts at acting.

The beauty of the Miami Book Fair International is the opportunity for unknown authors to be discovered. It is covered by major news networks, and C-Span spends the weekend in their book mobile. This is why Cinema Dave will be setting up his first booth tomorrow in Section D – Writer’sRowwithmytwobooks, “The Adventures of Cinema Dave in the Florida Motion Picture World” and “Davy Jones & the Heart of Darkness.” With each book sale, customers will receive an artifact from “the Cave of Cinema Dave.”