From the time I was a little Rabbi … I mean, a little boy … I was taught that everything that G-d put on this Earth can have a very holy purpose. Of course, it often appears the reverse is just as true. Using the free will with which we have been endowed by our Creator, we also have the ability to take something and use it for evil.

I guess one of the easiest examples would be the creation of Atomic Energy, which also brought about the Bomb. The same creation, the same use of man’s ingenuity, and we come up with a good thing and a bad thing. Then again, perhaps the day will come when we will find a holy and creative purpose for the bomb rather than using it as a weapon of mass destruction.

Then there is nuclear energy, which also seems to have been used for two very different purposes and, yet, we find that if the good purpose is used and a plant has a leak, well, then it doesn’t appear to be so good … does it?

Still, I am a big believer in what I learned early on in life … that everything, even the things we consider to be the foulest of the foul, can have a good and holy purpose. We just have to be wise enough to figure out what that purpose might be.

I found a great example of that just a couple of weeks ago in a fascinating news story. So let me ask you something, when you were at the height of your fitness level, did you ever put on a pair of those white athletic socks and a pair of sneakers and head off for a long walk or a jog? And, if you did, did you ever have a time when it started to rain but you just kept walking anyway? When you finally got back home, you took off your sneakers and if anyone was near you, they took one whiff of those socks you were wearing and yelled out, “PHEW” or “P.U.”

Now, I have to tell you, as much as I believe that everything on this Earth can be of benefit, I never had the ingenuity to come up with a benefit to dirty, stinky white socks. But I guess I wasn’t using all the creative power that G-d blessed me with and, that’s okay, because someone else was using theirs and they found a very holy use for … that’s right … dirty, stinky socks.

I don’t know if you are aware of it or not, but malaria still takes the lives of close to 100,000 people each year from across the globe and most of the lives it takes are children’s. Malaria is carried by mosquitoes infected with the disease and when one of them bites you, look out.

Well, researchers in Tanzania found that mosquitoes are attracted to the wonderful aroma of dirty, stinky socks. That’s right, just as we can’t resist walking by a bakery without getting that whiff that draws us in, those socks, those dirty, stinky socks draw the mosquitoes in like … well, like flies.

So if you put up mosquito traps and have a batch of smelly socks on them, it lures them much the same way a piece of cheese may lure a mouse into a trap. So don’t be surprised if one day you see a headline that reads “Dirty, Smelly Socks Save the Lives of 100,000 Children.” May it come to pass and may each of us use our ingenuity to find holiness in the most unlikely of places. Let us say, Amen.

Shalom My Friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is a Hospice Chaplain and Member of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains. He also provides Professional Pastoral Care Services to a number of health centers in Broward County. 

By Gary Curreri 

Rebekah Escuage asks where the finish is for the standup paddleboard event at recent Chick-fil-A Ocean Series on Pompano Beach. Photo by Gary Curreri

Pompano Beach Piranhas head swim coach Jesse Vassallo is hoping to build a strong swim program in the city.

If a recent fundraising event at the beach is any indication, he could be well on his way. A total of 135 competitors recently participated in a Chick-fil-A Ocean Series on Pompano Beach.

The Chick-fil-A Ocean Series was presented by the Pompano Piranhas and featured a one-mile ocean swim, a 500-meter kids swim and a half-mile stand-up paddleboard race. The top three finishers in each event won Cow trophies and medals. There were also goodie bags and door prizes provided, as well as a Chick-fil-A breakfast.

“I am really excited about being here,” said Vassallo, who took over head coaching duties a month ago after spending the previous two years at Ft. Lauderdale Aquatics. He called the Chick-fil-A event “a tremendous success.”

Vassallo, who turns 50 next month, hopes to continue to grow the swim team in Pompano Beach, which is in just its second year as a United States Swim program. It had previously enjoyed success in the South Florida Recreational Swim League.

“We started a month ago with 45 swimmers and we now have 66,” Vassallo said. “We are trying to run the most professional swim team in the area …We have recreational levels for kids who just want to lose weight or have fun. We also want to be very competitive. You can’t have one without the other.”

“I have my goals,” Vassallo added. “The Pompano Piranhas is a small team that came from the rec league maybe three years ago so it is actually a new team in the U.S. Swimming environment. First, I want this to be a solid team so we have to grow in numbers.”

Julia Schulte, 14, the first female finisher in the standup paddleboard event at the competition who finished fourth overall, likes the direction the Piranhas are taking. She has been a member of the swim program for the past six years.

“It is such a black-and-white difference (with the competition),” said Schulte, who is also a junior lifeguard with Pompano. “With (the recreation swim league), I would win the heats like they were nothing and, here, I get my butt kicked and come in dead last. It is just a whole other world. It is like you go into the Twilight Zone and you feel like you are in a whole different world.”

Piranhas’ teammate Rebekah Escuage, 17, also from Pompano Beach, agreed that the competition is now stiffer.

“Rec (swimming) was a lot of fun, but this is a higher level of competition,” Escuage said. “It is nice to see how it is going to be by competing at such a high level, even with people who are going to the Olympics. It is really different.”

“That was a beginner type thing, but when we switched here it was like a whole different world of competition and people who can beat you,” Escuage added. “Training got a lot harder, but it was more worth it and it was something to strive for.”

By Dave Montalbano

After a decade, the cinematic Harry Potter series comes to a close.

AdventuresOfCinemaDave.com

My introduction to Harry Potter began 12 years ago when Deerfield Beach Percy White Youth Services librarian David Serchay called me when I was working at Sunrise Dan Pearl Library to check the shelf status of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. (Five years later, David went on a “set-up” date to go see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban with Bethany, who is now mother to David’s twin girls).

If the Beatles were the social myth of my childhood
and Star Wars the transitional myth of Generation X’s adolescence, then Harry Potter
and the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry has become the cultural hero of the new millennium.

With a record-breaking box office revenue of $168 million, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 delivers upon its original promise. The production team was wise to divide this final movie into two parts, sustaining both narrative flow and the attention to detail.

Part 2 picks up directly from Part 1. The evil Lord Volde-mort (Ralph Fiennes) has obtained the invincible Elder Wand, while Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his consorts, Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) bury a loyal ally. As the evil magician grows more powerful, Harry and his allies seek Voldemort’s Achilles heel. As war wages between wizards, beasts and dementors, the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry becomes ground zero.

With the exposition out of the way, director David Yates is freed to direct three extremely well-done action sequences involving a heist, a dragon and a fire in a vault. These scenes are the ones that fans have been waiting for since the disappointing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The visual clarification is worthy of the action sequences from a John Ford/John Wayne classic.

Since the opening of the first film a decade ago to the current release, the Harry Potter franchise has enjoyed a quality ensemble of British actors. As the monstrous Professor Snape, Alan Rickman deserves kudos for balancing the contradictory motives of the menacing character. Of course, the series would have folded years ago if it were not for the sincere, consistent and empathetic performances from Radcliffe, Grint and Watson.

The closure from this final film is equal to the closure I felt concluding J.K. Rowling’s book. Let’s enjoy the waning days of Harry Potter mania and look toward our next social mythology.

In order to understand courage, you have to first experience fear. Without fear, you will never know if you have courage. Fear is very powerful and can paralyze you if you allow it to take control of your life. If we say that we never fear, then how is it possible to know what courage is? Fear will come, but we must face our fears and conquer them. Never allow fear to defeat you and control your life.

2 KINGS 23:3

3 The king took his place of authority beside the pillar and renewed the covenant in the LORD’s presence. He pledged to obey the LORD by keeping all his commands, laws and decrees with all his heart and soul. In this way, he confirmed all the terms of the covenant that were written in the scroll and all the people pledged themselves to the covenant.

NLT

In 2 Kings 22 and 23, we read that King Josiah was a man who sought after God. However, his life changed when God’s Word was rediscovered. He called the people to a renewed covenant before God (see verse above). God moved through Josiah to crush the wickedness of his country like a hurricane crumbles houses as if they were made out of toothpicks.

Many of us need courage. We try to go through life with a John Wayne swagger, but we’re like milk toast (lacking backbone, not standing up for oneself), desperately in need of some courage. We need to stop whimpering and making excuses and start trusting God and His word. King Josiah died in battle, not running in fear. He was full of courage because of God’s word. How can we be full of courage? By knowing God’s word and following God’s word.

JOSHUA 1:5-7

5 No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you.

6 “Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them.

7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do.

NLT

We can be strong and courageous by knowing and following the word of God. We get strength and courage from having faith in God and His word. God promised to never leave us and He will always be with us. Stop making excuses and start reading your Bible every day. You know what? You may not battle a thousand, but begin your day by reading God’s word and praying over your life and your family. Decide right now not to allow fear to control you any longer. Many people just focus on their failures and never decide how they are going to start walking in the courage that God has offered to us.  Ask God to fill you with His strength and courage. Do not forget to read the Bible a little every day. God will answer your prayer.

Tony Guadagnino is a pastor at Christian Love Fellowship Church.

July 19–This pup is on borrowed time, he is at Coral Springs Humane Unit, they are giving him a short period of time before he goes to animal control. Dogs Rule is full, but we will do anything we can to help. He is not even two years, well behaved and very sweet.  Call Dogs Rule Rescue at 954-263-5934.

By Dave Montalbano

AdventuresOfCinemaDave.com

As Transformers departs the Museum of Discovery to make room for the final installment of Harry Potter, two more independent movies will be opening locally, The Trip, a funny flick, and Into Eternity, a serious documentary.

Into Eternity asks a simple question – how do you remove nuclear waste? Of course, the answers are not easy when one has to factor in that the contamination is poison to humans and that waste must NOT be touched for 100,000 years. Thus is the dilemma that is debated in this documentary from Denmark.

Writer/director Michael Madsen’s 75-minute documentary has visual echoes of 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Andromeda Strain. We witness long, static shots of entering storage caves and machines lowering nuclear container into pools of H2O. Presented in subtitles and dubbed English, we listen to the pessimistic “experts” debate the disposal problem.

Dead pan arguments over the philosophical question “How do we explain this problem to future generations?” No answer is truly obtained, but Madsen provides a pointed commentary. As the debate becomes as absurd as the arguments in the war room reminiscent of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb,  the camera cuts to a reindeer pooping in the forest.

The Trip is a quasi documentary that involves a road trip and fine dining in the
English countryside. Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon (British Television’s equivalent to Bing Crosby & Bob Hope) portray fictional versions of themselves. Coogan is given an assignment to be a food critic. Unable to take his girlfriend, Coogan takes his married friend and arch rival, Brydon.

As Coogan and Brydon enter each pub, there are multiple montages of gourmet food being prepared. While dining, the two men amuse themselves by doing impressions of celebrities like Michael Caine, Sean Connery and Richard Burton. When the two start getting on each other’s nerves, Brydon breaks into another impression.

This film is a repetitive six- day journey that contains very British references and pithy comments, as one character states, “Behind every joke is a cry for help.”

By Scott Morganroth

It’s hard to believe that, in 91 days, the FAU Owls football team will begin a new era with their new on-campus stadium.

By the time FAU plays in the new stadium, the Owls will have played five road games. Their first three games will be against the Florida Gators, Michigan State Spartans and defending National Champion the Auburn Tigers. It seems destined that FAU could start 0-3. They’ll definitely get three big pay days to put in the athletic department’s checkbook.

FAU’s first two Sun Belt Conference games are at the University of Louisiana Lafayette and North Texas.

By the time Oct. 15 rolls around, will the Owls be out of the post-season picture and be looking for a miracle to become bowl eligible? Time will tell.

In the 30,000-seat expandable stadium, this season will occupy five dates. In the future, it could be as many as seven home games.

The question remains, what events could we see down the road? I anticipate there could be a bowl game.

Here are some ideas for Athletic Director Craig Angelos.

Angelos should have no problem attracting events because, being in South Palm Beach County, this stadium is centrally located to Palm Beach, Broward, Dade and Martin County.

There is no doubt that Angelos will get his fair share of concerts. Years ago, the Orange Bowl (OB) was a venue that  attracted concerts. The Marlins new baseball stadium, on the OB site, will be ready by next season. Although there will be competition for the outdoor market, I do believe there is enough room for two outdoor concert facilities.

Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers played their home games at Lockhart Stadium in Ft. Lauderdale. Even though Lockhart was horrible for the Owls because of the poor locker rooms, it was good for a North American Soccer League team.

Major League Soccer has a solid fan base in the U.S.A., so it’s time to see if Angelos can get a team on campus and call it the South Florida Strikers.

In 1983, FAU Coach Howard Schnellenberger left his National Champion Miami Hurricanes for the USFL to coach a team in Miami at the Orange Bowl. This move backfired because the league never played a game in this market and subsequently folded.

The spring of 2012 marks the return of the New USFL. While I doubt we’ll see the 77-year-old Schnellenberger coach this team, it would be neat to see a team in the area in a league where he wanted to coach in the pros again.

Back in the old USFL, there used to be a territorial draft where teams could draft players that played at local schools. I could see a territorial draft with Miami, FIU and FAU, and there will be old faces chasing their dreams in Boca Raton.

Scott Morganroth can be reached at www.scotts ports33.com.

I was escorted to the woman’s bedroom where she and her private duty aide spent much of the day. The TV was on and it was on loud. It also happened to be tuned to the Christian Broadcasting Network. The patient being cared for was Jewish. She could not get up from bed nor from a chair without the help of her aide. I talked with the aide about how inappropriate it was for her to have an evangelical program on in the woman’s house, but she saw nothing wrong with her actions and, in fact, felt she was doing a holy thing.­ She also let me know that the woman she was caring for never voiced any complaint about her choice of TV, and that if such things bothered her, she could say something. I tried to explain that many people fear voicing such things, as they are afraid of how they will be treated afterwards – much like a patient in a health center is afraid to voice complaints about how this or that nurse or aide treats them. The aide told me that she was not forcing the woman to participate in any other religion but her own. Yet, the elderly woman was, indeed, being forced to listen to a minister preach ad nauseum about a faith that was not her own, and she was stuck doing so in her own home.­I talked with a rep from the company the aide came from and voiced my complaint, and, again, I was told if the patient was uncomfortable, all she had to do was voice her complaint. I again attempted to explain that the woman may well be afraid of repercussions, but was told that there is no rule against what the aide was doing. I then tried to explain that just because you are permitted to do something does not necessarily make it the right thing to do. And I had to wonder to myself how things would have been if the shoe was on the other foot.­ I then asked what they tell clients about the aides they send out and was told that they send out trained staff who do everything they can to comfort and care for their clients. And that is when I said, “If that is the case, then your staff should be trained to avoid doing things that would make it necessary for a complaint to be raised in the first place.”­

You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself … not my words, but words with a great message. So let me ask you … if you were the one stuck in the bed, dependent on someone else to tend to your needs, how would you feel?­

Don’t get me wrong, the aide is more than welcome to read her Bible silently or listen to a program with a set of headphones on, but a healthcare provider should not be subjecting the patient to something so foreign to the client’s own belief system.­

I know there are those of you reading this who feel that political correctness has gone way  overboard, but when your job is to comfort someone who is in a position of weakness via an illness or an injury… Well, may you always have enough control of your body and your mind to decide for yourself what to read and listen to in the comfort of your home and may those of us blessed to visit you be wise enough to avoid causing any added discomfort.­ As I remember, the rule of thumb is, if you can’t heal somebody, at least avoid causing any harm.­

Shalom My Friends,­ Rabbi Ezring­

(And please know that most of the health care workers I come across truly are angels. At least, they are in my eyes. G-d Bless them one and all.)­ ­

Rabbi Ezring is a Hospice Chaplain and Member of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains. He also provides Professional Pastoral Care Services to a number of health centers in Broward County.

By Emily Rosen

ERosen424@aol.com

www.emilyrosen424.com

Jim Kurtz flew from Boston to George Britton’s house in Boca Raton this week,  to talk to George about Jim’s long-dead father. He arrived at 6 p.m., left at 10:30 p.m. and flew back to Boston early the following morning. So what’s the story, and what’s it to me?

The search for a father is not an entirely new story, but this one is in the tradition of Sherlock Holmes, with a Freudian passion and drive that hasn’t let up for the past 10 years. Jim was 2 years old in 1952 when his father, Bob, died, from service-related heart issues, seven years after having been discharged from the Air Force. In essence, Jim never knew  his father – “knew,” that is, in the way he had yearned for, and the gaping hole in his life remained just that, despite all of his many life successes, and, too, despite the stories of his three elder brothers and his mother, who just turned 90. Every Father’s Day in his life made the hole bigger.

Father Bob had been an Air Force co-pilot, and, on his 19th mission, was shot down over Austria, captured and imprisoned by the Germans for the remainder of the war. George Britton, a writer, student and friend of mine had been part of that B-24 crew and, now, at age 86, is one of the two remaining survivors of that experience,  and is the last connecting dot on Jim’s trail of his dad.

Driven to squeeze out every ounce of that story, Jim was determined to talk to George in person. Even with today’s multi-layered alternative methods of communication, the one-on-one eyeball connection was important to Jim. I was there, by mutual consent, to help with the story that Jim is planning to write.

These are the lengths to which Jim has gone — having extricated a trove of material, letters, pictures and various mementoes from the attic of his mother’s house (many of which he brought to share with George), he was all the more determined to relive, to the extent possible, that particular period in the life of his father.

“I wanted to feel, as much as possible, what he felt,” he said.

He took two trips to Austria, after deep research, and met and spoke to some of the witnesses to the crash, and climbed an arduous 6,500 feet into the still snow-covered mountain where the plane came down. He actually discovered some of the remains of the plane, including the co-pilot’s seat which he brought home. He even located and talked to the German pilot of the plane that had shot down his father’s plane.

But still, not enough for Jim. Through the Collings Foundation, he flew in the last operational B24 in the world, just to get a sense of being in one. And then, he hauled himself into a commercial sky-dive to feel … feel … feel the free fall of the parachute descent his father had experienced.

But for Jim, it’s the letters which define his father, a prolific writer himself, the letters and words and impressions of others … from each person, another father.

Did he get to know his father? Do any of us ever really get to know our parents? How well do we even know ourselves?  For some, the search never ends.

By Dave Montalbano

www.AdventuresofCinemaDave.com

Since Roots became a ratings-winner in the winter of 1977, miniseries dominated broadcast television until the assimilation of cable television.  Opening tomorrow in local theaters, Bride Flight has the feeling of the miniseries The Thorn Birds. This multilingual epic contains gorgeous cinematography featuring the New Zealand countryside.

The film opens with the death of Frank (Rutger Hauer), whose funeral is attended by three diverse women of Dutch heritage. Bride Flight flashes back to 1953 when these three World War II survivors take a flight that wins a transcontinental race from Europe to New Zealand.

The three women are a diverse bunch. Esther (Anna Drijver) is a Holocaust survivor who masks her Jewish ethnicity. Due to an inconvenient pregnancy, Esther gives her child to the happily married, but barren, Marjorie (Elise Schaap).  Marjorie and Esther’s stories intertwine in tragic and humorous ways. The third bride is Ada (Karina Smulders), a woman who develops a crush on young Frank (Waldemar Torenstra), who is establishing a new wine business.

Slow paced with a rambling, but interesting narrative flow, Bride Flight should appeal to the audience weary of Transformers, Cars and Pirates.  This film is like reading an engrossing book while sipping red wine under the sunset.

Reading, or the lack of reading, is the fundamental concern of the documentary, Page One: Inside the New York Times. With the rise of computer usage, the New York Times has become known as “the dinosaur media”. Having relied on bloated advertising revenue streams, the major daily newspapers lost sight of it’s circulation figures.

This film documents this monster medium as it steps into the future. It concludes on an optimistic note, but it feels false, as if this is a propaganda puff piece for this once-respected newspaper institution. To director Andrew Rossi and writer Kate Novak’s credit, they do not flinch showing the tearful layoffs of employees who were devoted to their jobs and showing two reporters who misrepresented the stories they were covering.

But while the film shows the feud with the Tribune organization, it ignores the criticism from The Drudge Report and Fox News. In the midst of this, the one journalistic hero to rise from this film is Times columnist David Carr, who. the story centers around.