The Cooler

South Florida's mainstream media is still on vacation this morning so there's not a lot here for the Cooler. Enjoy.

A- Herald: This about sums up Urban Beach Weekend.

“We were not expecting this,” said Madine Wiegand, visiting from Frankfurt, Germany. “It has been loud and people have been really rude. There have been way too many people. But the weather is warm so we will definitely be coming back.”

B-Herald: Fear the Cheesecake Factory!

Restaurants in the Shops at Pembroke Gardens want to block an incoming Cheesecake Factory for fear it will take a bite out of their business.

The mall’s current tenants include big chains like Brio Tuscan Grille and Fuddruckers, with just a few smaller operations.

Still, out of the shopping center’s nine full-service restaurants, six — the Village Tavern, Brio, Fuddruckers, Ra Sushi Bar Restaurant, Stir Crazy and The Pub — are worried, said realtor Jeffery R. Anderson.

“This is bad news!” wrote Marcelo Montalván, president of Fuddruckers for Broward and Miami-Dade counties, in a letter to Duke. “A restaurant with this type of volume will negatively impact all of us who operate as restaurants. We have nothing against the Cheesecake Factory, but we do have a lot to say against our business being reduced and our guests’ parking being taken away.”

C- Herald: Morin.

D- Palm Beach Post: But certain media outlets will continue to say it.

With hurricane season starting Wednesday, and following a 5-year stretch in which no hurricanes struck Florida, the pundits have spun the wheel of fortune and determined that the state — South Florida — Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast — your house — definitely will get a hurricane this year.

Predicting we’re “due” is as irresponsible as predicting we’re not.

Whether a storm struck last year, or not for a long time, has absolutely no effect on whether it will strike, or not strike, this year. None. The weather gods don’t work that way.

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