The Cooler

It's a lazy Monday morning in the SoFla mainstream media. Here's some of the good stuff I found.

A- Herald: McDonald's calorie count is somehow still shocking to people.

Bruce Gonzalez and John Morrow stopped for lunch last week at a Miami McDonald’s, each ordering a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, large fries and a large Coke.

“I’m guessing it’s about 500 to 600 calories,” Gonzalez said.

“Yeah, that’s about right,” Morrow agreed.

Wrong.

The furniture delivery men were consuming more than double that amount: a whopping 1,320 calories.

“Now I’ve got to run 40 times around the block,” said Gonzalez, 55.

Neither man noticed that the new counter listed the caloric count of each item — right next to the price — at the McDonald’s at Northeast 35th Street and Biscayne Boulevard.

B- Herald: They write letters.

Tough questions

Cuban exiles garnered countrywide accolades for their swift economic and political rise in Miami-Dade County since 1959; however, they may be turning that positive into a negative.

Cuban elders benefit from Social Security, Medicare, and other forms of social programs legislated by Democrats. By voting consistently Republican, they endanger these social safety nets because of the Republican presidential candidates’ plan to voucherize Medicare and/or do away with all of these programs.

Because I’m Cuban born, I can ask: Are Cuban Americans ready for democracy? Have they made the connection between freedom and democracy or even learned their sad history lesson?

Graciela Catasus, Miami Beach

C- South Florida Business Journal: Because there just aren't enough.

Wal-Mart Stores is making a push in South Florida with planned expansions and new stores, especially in urban areas of Miami-Dade County.

D- CBS4: Museum Park's park gets scaled back.

City officials have put aside most of the park’s distinctive features until an undetermined future date to focus on building two key if also simplified elements: a new baywalk, and a promenade from Biscayne Boulevard to Biscayne Bay that will provide pedestrian access to the art and science museums now rising on Bicentennial’s north end.

There will still be a park with trees, sod and pathways between the promenade and the deepwater boat slip that marks the project’s southern boundary, city leaders pledge.

It just won’t be anything like the elaborate plan that the city paid the New York firm of Cooper Robertson & Partners, famed planners of Battery Park City on Manhattan’s lower tip, $4.2 million to design.

E- WPLG: Truly living a dog's life.

To keep up with growing demand in the doggie day-care industry, John Glorieux, owner of Pompano Pet Lodge, is building a $4 million facility full of perks for pooches.

”We are able to build to, where instead of having 30, 40, or 50 or 100 dogs in one building, we've got 6 to 10 dogs in each building, so we're able to group those better by personality,” said Glorieux.

These days, facilities have indoor-outdoor runs, air-conditioned kennels, doggie pools and AstroTurf in the play areas.

Pet boarders also offer incentives to dog owners, including valet "barking" for quick drop offs, and pick-ups in a doggie decorated school bus.

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