Hurricanes and Impeachment Are Both Specialties of Blowhards and Tempests

Dale King

Boca Raton, FL – It’s October of 2019 in sunny/rainy Florida, and the news seems inundated with reports about potential hurricanes and potential impeachments.

Really, that’s all the media seem interested in. Just a day or two ago, a major local daily paper was postulating on the likelihood that a hurricane of undetermined strength will take an undetermined course and blow Florida into the Gulf of Mexico.

Yes, they reminded us. Hurricane Wilma waited until Oct. 24, 2005 to blast the mainland.

I remember it well. I remember driving to my office to find it locked and dark, with a tree or two blocking the door. I remember finding no restaurants open and having to eat lunch at a Red Cross Disaster Truck.

Yes, I am wary that a hurricane could strike in October. But I am more wary that an impeachment could strike at any time. The latest reports I’ve seen and heard say the “progressives” – whoever they are – want to impeach Donald Trump, Mike Pence, yes, even Brett Cavanaugh – to clear the way for Nancy Pelosi to take the presidency.

Of course, we really know that these “progressives” (or “depressives,” as I call them) really want to put Hillary Clinton into the presidential chair – her “rightful place” in the 2016 election until all of us who voted for Donald Trump “stole” the election from her. Shame on us nasty deplorables.

I have to tell you. I still have a few dozen cans of Borscht that was paid to me by the Russian government to give up my vote. And I can’t wait for the gas from Ukraine to get here.

By the way, I hear the names of the next two hurricanes scheduled to hit Florida are Hunter and Joe.

Come see Dave Barry….ooops, too late!

It was with tremendous glee that I noticed famed journalist Dave Barry is coming to the Boca Raton Public Library Oct. 20 at 3 p.m. to spread his humor among all Boca Ratanians and those who live nearby.

Then I noticed two very bad words – Sold Out. So I guess it really does no good to tell you that Barry, one of the funniest news writers ever to inhabit the Miami Herald newsroom, is coming to the library for a free talk that includes free parking. (This just confirms that Boca folk love free things.)

Barry has been a professional humorist since he discovered that professional humor writing is a lot easier than working.

For many years, he tapped out a column that appeared in more than 500 newspapers and generated thousands of letters from readers who thought he should be fired. Despite this, Barry won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary, although he misplaced it for several years, which is why his wife now keeps it in a secure location that he does not know about.

One of Barry’s columns was largely responsible for the movement to observe International Talk like a Pirate Day every year on September 19. This is probably his most enduring achievement.

Barry has written more than 30 books, including the novels Big Trouble, Lunatics, Tricky Business and Insane City. Two of Barry’s times were the basis for the CBS sitcom Dave’s World, which can probably still be seen in reruns on cable TV in certain underdeveloped nations.

As Dave Barry himself might say to the crowd outside the library on Oct. 20 waiting for last-minute tickets: “I’m here, but you can’t see me.”

Boca’s top theatre producers to take the stage

Dave Lawrence, president & CEO of the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County has announced that the 15th season of the popular series, Culture and Cocktails, kicks off soon with a series of five fascinating conversations at The Colony Hotel’s Coral Ballroom, 155 Hammon Ave., Palm Beach.

Four women from Boca Raton and South Palm Beach County will make up the panel that will assemble in the venerable Palm Beach venue on Jan.13. All are involved in theater productions and will lead a conversation called “Hey, Madam Producer,” about theatrical impresarios.

On the bill are:

Marcie Gorman, executive producer & artistic director of MNM Theatre Company, which presents musicals at the Kravis Center’s Rinker Playhouse. The troupe just completed Man of La Mancha and will present A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
Vicki Halmos, founder/producer of Entr’Acte Theatrix, which stages musicals at Old School Square’s Crest Theatre in Delray Beach, including the recent productions of The Addams Family and Monty Python’s Spamalot.
Jan McArt, producer & director of Theatre Arts Program Development at Lynn University, where she oversees three popular theatrical series: Libby Dodson’s Live at Lynn Theatre Series, Jan McArt’s New Play Readings and the Mabel Mercer Foundation’s Cabaret at Lincoln Center Comes to Live at Lynn.
Marilynn Wick, executive managing producer of The Wick Theatre & Costume Museum, which this season will be presenting major productions of The Music Man, Evita and A Chorus Line, among others.

They will be interviewed by Suzanne L. Niedland, award-winning filmmaker, actor and Broadway producer

Admission to each Culture & Cocktails event is $75 per person in advance; $85 at the door, $125 for VIP Seating, and free for supporters, contributor, patron and business arts partner level members of the Cultural Council.

All proceeds go to support the nonprofit Cultural Council of Palm Beach County. For membership information, contact Debbie Calabria at 561-472-3330.

Each event will run from 5 to 7 pm, with registration and cocktails from 5 to 5:45 pm, and the “Conversation” from 5:45 to 7 pm, including audience Q&A. The Colony will serve complimentary beverages and an array of specially prepared hors d’oeuvres before each conversation.

A rare find: The Very Best of Manhattan Transfer

I was doing some house cleaning the other day and came up with what I feel is a rare musical gem.

I found a copy of the CD, “The Very Best of Manhattan Transfer” in a pile of otherwise unremarkable discs.

I ruminated for a moment, recalling how I had attended one of their concerts in Massachusetts some years ago and then reviewed it for the newspaper I worked for at the time.

I had just become an MT fan after they released their cover of the Ad-Libs’ bouncy rock tune, “Boy from New York City,” with lead singer Janis Siegel in command.

That song is on the CD along with the jazzy spiritual, “Operator,” the moving ditty, “A Nightingale Sang in Washington Square” and, perhaps my new favorite, “Baby Come Back to Me (The Morse Code of Love.)”

Great music by Siegel, Alan Paul, Cheryl Bentine and Tim Hauser, who took his music to heaven in 2014.

But the group continues to sing all that jazz.

By Dale King