The Cooler

The Miami Herald lost a wonderful writer when Liz Balmaseda moved north the the Palm Beach Post. Make sure you read her column I highlighted (F) today. Here are your mainstream links...

A- Herald: In Miami if you're a public official and you get convicted of a crime you get a bonus.

B- Herald: Knee-jerks in North Miami Beach.

D- Herald: Miami-Dade Schools paid over $26 million in overtime last year.

E- WPLG: Not-so-breaking-news...Lionel Tate is still in jail.

F- Palm Beach Post: While Cuban-American hardliners are busy shouting, stomping their feet, and deriding anyone and everyone who don't agree with them, cubanita Liz Balmaseda takes the time to reflect on Castro's resignation and what it all means to her.

For me, Cuba is there when I think of my grandfather, the poor carpenter from Puerto Padre who died in exile. It's there when I cook my grandmother's recipes. It's there when I hear the lullabies of my childhood. Absent of the streets and the palm-fringed landscapes of the island, it's what I have, the only thing I have.

Cuba is the memory of my mother's voice, that melodious bell of a voice, open, disarming, warm. It is everything she taught me about life in Puerto Padre, a seaside place so beautiful she could never describe it fully in just one sitting. I remember the day about two years ago when we sat in her Miami living room, watching images of Cuba on a local cable channel.

"Look, how beautiful it is," she said, her voice a hoarse whisper.

She was frail from a long battle with cancer, and she was tired. But her eyes lit up at the sight of Cuba that day. It was the last time she would see it. Just a couple of months later, she passed away in my arms, in exile. She had not been to Cuba in 46 years.

That, folks, is some real writing.

G- Herald: Morin gets it right on Cuba.

H- Palm Beach Post: Gov. Crist is cutting taxes while trying to make health insurance available to everyone. Wake up, Charlie!

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