Day Of The Dead/Dia De Los Muertos Florida Style!

Today is the Day of the Dead (aka Dia de los Muertos), and so my sister Susan and I drove from Stuart, Florida down to Fort Lauderdale to celebrate this event at Esplanade Park, located along that city's Riverwalk. The festival started at 3:00 in the afternoon, with the main event, The Day of the Dead Stroll, set to begin at 6:00. I must say, I was pretty disappointed with the festivities. There were a lot of booths, but none of them seemed to have anything to do with the Day of the Dead, and while there were a lot of people, the only ones wearing traditional costumes were the couple in photograph above. We had to leave an hour before the Day of the Dead Stroll along the Riverwalk, and so it was possible that all the participants in the stroll were just hanging out in a nearby bar until the 6:00 o'clock hour arrived, but I guess we will never know. I suppose I am just spoiled by the Dia de los Muertos celebration that takes place on First Friday at the Museo De Las Americas in Denver's Santa Fe Art District, which is an actual Latino neighborhood. That festival has a community procession with a large number of costumed participants, and a Catrina costume contest later in the evening, among other events, and is truly a lot of fun. The celebration here in South Florida was so - how shall I put it - South Florida. On the bright side for all of you in Denver, the Museo De Las Americas First Friday: Dia De Muertos celebration takes place this coming Friday in Denver's Santa Fe Arts District. And the community procession starts at 6:00 P.M. Don't miss it! 

All Hallows' Day (aka All Saints' Day)

Yesterday was Halloween - also known as All Hallows' Eve - which is the precursor to All Hallows' Day (aka All Saints Day), which is a Christian feast day celebrated in honor of the saints of the Church and that takes place today. What I don't understand about this is why the night before this holiday, children go trick or treating, people wear costumes, and everyone carves pumpkins. I checked on the internet, which is always accurate, and found that the trick or treating custom began when poor people, often children, would go door to door asking for soul cakes in exchange for praying for the dead. Some of these cakes would also be laid on the graves. While "souling," they would carry lanterns made out of hollowed out turnips and later jack-o'-lanterns to ward off evil spirits. Thus, we carve pumpkins. As for wearing costumes, it was believed that the dead souls wandered the earth until All Saints' Day, and All Hallows' Eve was their last chance to take vengeance on their enemies. To avoid being recognized by one of these dead souls, people would wear masks or costumes to hide their identity. Which explains the costumes. And of course, the day after All Saint's Day is All Souls' Day, which is a day of prayer and remembrance for all the departed. And in Mexico and parts of Latin America, this day is known as the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) and is actually a joyous celebration of the departed. And what did I learn from all this? Mainly, that if I had gone to Catholic school, I would have gotten two additional days off in November. One more regret in life to deal with. Bummer.

Halloween In The Tropics

There are two beautiful tunnels of Banyon trees that my sister Susan and I often drive through down here in South Florida. One is in Stuart on a road leading to nearby Port Salerno, and the other marks the northern gateway to Jupiter Island, 16 miles to the south. Each time we drive through either one, Susan remarks that it would be a good place to visit on Halloween. I myself have never seen anything sinister or Halloweeny in those canopies of trees, although Susan evidently has. But just a few days ago, as we were driving under the canopy of Banyons on the way to Port Salerno, I held my camera out the window and took a photograph. And when I looked at it in my digital camera later in the day, I saw the above image. Which I imagine is just a play of light. Nothing to worry about there. Happy Halloween Everyone!

Great News! Dave Barry Is Once Again Writing A Weekly Humor Column!

I recently discovered that humorist Dave Barry, seen in the photograph above that I took at a book signing event at Denver's Tattered Cover Bookstore back in 2017, is once again writing a weekly column. Barry wrote a syndicated weekly humor column for the Miami Herald from 1983 to 2005, when he decided to take an indefinite leave of absence to spend more time with his family. And then decided not to come back at all. He still writes his annual Christmas gift guide and year-in-review columns, and occasional articles on special events such as the Republican and Democratic National Conventions and the Winter and Summer Olympics but otherwise has spent his time writing humor books and comic novels. But now he is writing a once-a-week column on Substack, an online platform for journalists and writers, among other things which are too complex for me to think about right now. But the main thing is that you can now read his laugh-out-loud humor columns every week - and for free - which during these difficult times is a truly wonderful thing. Be sure to check them out at https://davebarry.substack.com/archive?sort=new.

Bay Tree Lodge on Sewall's Point - What A Company Benefit!

I drove past the Bay Tree Lodge Estate on Sewall's Point, located between the St. Lucie and Indian Rivers just to the east of Stuart, Florida, yesterday afternoon, and took the photograph on the left of one of the cottages. There were private property signs at the entrance, and so I was hesitant to walk onto the property itself to photograph the actual lodge and risk winding up doing hard time here in Florida. I suspect that would not be good. In any case, the Bay Tree Lodge was built in 1909, sitting on land above the St. Lucie River, and was purchased by Willard Kiplinger in 1952. Kiplinger was the founder of Kiplinger Washington Letters, which most famously produces The Kiplinger Letter, a weekly known for its business forecasts and personal financial advice. Kiplinger was originally going to purchase the estate as a private winter residence, but his accountant convinced him to have his company buy it and make it a vacation retreat for the employees and retirees of the company (and also, make it a tax-deductible business expense). And this meant all the employees, not just top executives and journalists.

Those employees and retirees were able to make reservations and stay at the Bay Tree Inn for two weeks every year, divided up however they wanted. When Willard Kiplinger died, his son Austin and his siblings inherited the company and the estate and kept Bay Tree Lodge as a year-round vacation retreat for Kiplinger employees and retirees. Knight Kiplinger, the son of Austin, wrote about his first visit to Bay Tree back in 1954 when he was six years old, and it seems to have made quite the impression on him. Kiplinger still lives at Bay Tree Lodge and is involved in developing a major mixed-use development with "traditional neighborhood design" called Newfield, in nearby Palm City. Kiplinger Washington Letters, by the way, was sold to Dennis Publishing in 2019, and since then only former employees with 20 years at the company are still able to stay at Bay Tree. But what a wonderful benefit while it lasted. If only the University of Denver Bookstore had purchased a vacation retreat while I worked there and offered the same type of benefit - perhaps a villa in the South of France. I wonder if the university would have noticed if we had done that? I did the books, after all. Just another miscellaneous expense, right?

Walking The Palm Beach Atlantic Campus

I have driven past the Palm Beach Atlantic University campus several times over the past year, and I am very impressed with the buildings and the location. It is just a few blocks from CityPlace in West Palm Beach, Florida, and only a mile away from the beach. And so yesterday, I decided to park the car and walk around the campus a bit. I had it in my mind that it was a party school. After all, being so close to a hipster hangout like CityPlace and only a mile from the beach, I thought the student body must be there for 4 years of fun. And so, I was surprised to see a banner on the wall of the student center proclaiming "Over 55 Years Of Developing Christian Leaders." That was a surprise. And so I looked the place up on the internet when I got home.

I learned on Wikipedia that the school is a private nondenominational Christian university with nine colleges and a focus on liberal arts and some professional studies. The school has 4,100 students and has "experienced unprecedented growth" over the past few years. PBA is currently building a new business school (they offer an MBA, by the way) and is planning to build a new performing arts center, welcome center, and a new health sciences complex. As far as being a party school, I see that students are required to attended Chapel 24 times a year. They also must participate in Workship, PBA's community service program, which includes mission trips to places around the world during the summer and spring breaks. Sounds to me like those students are a pretty serious bunch. It is nice to know there are still young people who want to make a positive difference with their careers, although I did notice that Chapel takes place four times a week at the Desantis Family Chapel. I assumed this referred to Governor Ron Desantis, who made sure Florida students are taught the positive aspects of slavery ("learning useful skills") and is gleefully helping to deport every last undocumented immigrant in the country, but I was wrong. The chapel is actually named for Carl A. Desantis and his family. Desantis was a Florida entrepreneur and philanthropist who passed away in 2023, and no relation to Ron. My bad.

The Lady Abundance Story

The photograph on the left shows the statue of Lady Abundance, which sits in Haney Circle in downtown Stuart, Florida. I took that photo this past March during the Stuart Art and Craft Festival. This statue was sent by France to be displayed at the New York World's Fair in 1939. It was purchased by the Stuart Women's Club in 1949 for $1,800 and sold to the City of Stuart for $1 so it could be placed in Haney Circle to honor Cynthia Burnett Haney, a prohibitionist, suffragist, and advocate for social justice. But when the community saw it, they noticed that Lady Abundance was naked. That, combined with the grapes (which are associated with wine and a no-no for honoring a prohibitionist), resulted in the statue, along with a fountain, being placed on the courthouse lawn instead. Where it stayed until 1991, when it was moved to Haney Circle as part of the "revitalization" of Stuart.

And just two years later, in August of 1993, my sister Susan decided to wade into the fountain, climb up next to Lady Abundance in a show of solidarity with her, and pose for a photograph, with my mother Mary standing at its base. I am not sure if that was legal or not, but just to be sure, I remember pretending I didn't know either of them until we walked back to the sidewalk. At least one of us had to stay out of prison, right? In any case, this past Saturday when we were downtown, I suggested to Susan that she climb up next to that statue one more time so I could feature "then and now" photographs on this blog post. And got a quick no. Granted, Susan was a young girl of 51 back when that photograph was taken, and these days she is no longer as spry as she used to be, but you would think she would have at least given it a try, right? But no. What can you do?