But now it can be known:

Bernadette Casey Smith, daughter of the late former CIA director William Casey, has sold Estrella del Mar, her family’s North End oceanfront house at 1240 N. Ocean Blvd. for $6.8 million, according to a warranty deed filed Thursday afternoon.

Most recently listed for $8.5 million, the 10,000-square-foot Spanish-style main house is situated on nearly one acre across from the ocean. A beach cabana is included on an additional direct oceanfront parcel. The eight-bedroom compound included a guest house and a two-bedroom staff suite.

Elizabeth Cleckner and John Pangborn, associates with Corcoran Palm Beach, represented the seller; Crissy Poorman, an agent with Sotheby’s International Realty, and Mary Ann Cleckner, a broker with Real Property Palm Beach, represented the buyer.

The house is about halfway between where I grew up and the Inlet.  I went to Palm Beach Day School with John Pangborn.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

While New Yorkers fight over the mosque near Ground Zero, some palm trees that graced Worth Avenue are replanted in a 9/11 memorial in Palm Beach Gardens:

The Christmas palms that once lined the three-block commercial stretch of Worth Avenue had been offered to any takers willing to pay for their removal by the contractors on the Avenue’s renovation, which began in early April.

After many calls to Burkhardt Construction from a number of parties, but no serious followups, Boynton Landscape Co. of West Palm Beach stepped in to rescue some of the trees and plant them at Palm Beach Gardens’ soon-to-be-completed 09-11-01 Memorial at the city’s Fire Station No. 3 on Northlake Boulevard.

About 15 trees were taken off the street and to the site in June, said Noel DelValle, business development manager at Boynton Landscape Co.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

It may cause controversy in Arizona, but Palm Beach’s finest keep rolling on:

Palm Beach police captured seven illegal immigrants early Sunday morning near the intersection of South Ocean Boulevard and County Road.

Police were alerted shortly after 2 a.m., according to Capt. Fred Hess. “They just landed from Haiti. No boat was found,” Hess said.

The four men and three women were turned over to U.S. Border Patrol officers around 4:30 a.m. Police canvassed the area but did not find others. A sheriff’s helicopter assisted the effort, Hess said.

The biggest problem, however, is a proper definition of an illegal immigrant.  Palm Beachers believe that just about anyone who come from across the lake is potentially suspect unless they’re coming over as the help.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

And he’ll sue to stop it, too:

Donald Trump is going after the county over its operation of Palm Beach International Airport and any expansion of the airport, which is located less than 3 miles west of the Mar-a-Lago Club.

The suit also names airport director Bruce Pelly.

The 68-page document, filed Monday, claims jets flying directly over Trump’s private club create undue and unnecessary noise at the historic mansion. It also maintains jet emissions damage the exterior of the former home of Marjorie Merriweather Post.

Trump, through his attorney James Beasley Jr., is asking the court for a permanent injunction against what he describes as a “public nuisance.”

He is seeking several remedies, including a ban on flights over or near Mar-a-Lago now and in the future.

Now how many of you who live near an airport could sue single-handedly and get anywhere?

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

The death of Palm Beach luggage dealer Edwin R. Meyers brings back some interesting memories of travel gone by.  Meyers Luggage played a crucial role in my family’s foreign travel, but my last encounter made me do something I never thought I would do.

In the 1960′s my parents did a great deal of travel in Europe in conjunction with my family business, especially relating to our Belgian business associate.  It was a grand time to be on the road, especially from Palm Beach, and one stop my parents made to prepare for that was Meyers Luggage on Worth Avenue.  My parents did well by Meyers; most of the suitcases and briefcases (I still have one of the latter) my father and mother sported in the 1960′s and 1970′s came from there.  They were emblazoned with a little brass plate to remind us where they came from.

My mother invested in a set of French’s luggage, the velour kind with the stripes.  More durable luggage one could not hope for, but the technology of the time required that it be heavy.  As my brother pithily put it, it was great luggage as long as someone else carried it, and that’s the way my mother travelled.  I ended up with it and used it for a while, but my budget for porters was not in the same league as hers.

In the meanwhile technology advanced.  Using newer materials, luggage became lighter and sported wheels, both of which were welcome innovations.  I disposed of the French’s luggage.

In 2001, the summer just before 9/11 made commercial air travel a complete fiasco, my wife and I went to Palm Beach, only to discover that Meyers on Worth Avenue was going out of business (the West Palm Beach store is still open.)  The brass plates were still on the merchandise, and Mr. Meyers was a very persistent salesman with me as he was with my parents.  By that time I finally had broken down and realised that I needed a wheeled roll on, so he had a nice Hartman model he was trying to sell me.

He went on at length about the virtues of the Hartman, which I knew, as my superior at Laity Ministries (who travels 40+ weekends a year for the ministry) is a Hartman fan.  The price was good and he just about had me buying it when, at the end of a long sales pitch, he said that this is the luggage I would be using twenty years from now.

Something clicked in me.  I had just disposed of the luggage that my family had kept for thirty years.  Why would I want to look at another piece of expensive luggage for twenty more?  We thanked him and left, but then went to the outlet in Ft. Lauderdale and bought a much cheaper roll-on.

With luggage, the truth is that, unless you live out of your suitcase and it takes a continuous beating, you’re better off buying something cheaper, using it a while, letting it fall apart, chucking it and buying something with newer technology.  This is especially true if you know how to buy and are willing to be flexible with the brand name.  It’s a throwaway mentality, and it’s sad, but it’s a fact of life.  Even the buildings we put up, impressive and permanent as some of them look, are designed for lives whose brevity would shock most people.

But the passing of Edwin Meyers reminds us of one thing: the time will come when we too will reach the end of our life.  And eternity with God will prevent us from ending up like the luggage, i.e., disposed of.  That’s true whether we are Meyers Luggage with a name brand or other kinds with not so well known name brand.

My condolences go out to the Meyers family in their loss.  Meyers Luggage was and is a great Palm Beach institution and memories of same are part of the fun of being an old Palm Beacher.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Back when I was growing up, we’d descend from Palm Beach and venture to the Florida Keys for vacation, navigating waters such as shown at the right.  One of the more memorable side trips we took was a visit to a museum where artefacts from sunken Spanish galleons were on display.  The Spanish were most interested in precious metals in the New World; they systematically enslaved the Aztecs, Toltecs, Mayas, Incas and other people whom they conquered to dig gold and silver out of the mines for shipment back to Spain, in conditions one shudders to even think about.  The Straits of Florida were the main route from Mexico to the Old World, and since the reefs that parallel the Keys were there, some of those galleons never finished the voyage, depositing ship, crew and cargo on the bottom.  Some of these had been salvaged and I found the gold and silver coinage on display to be especially fascinating.

A little later in life I was introduced to another story of subaqueous gold: Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, his epic opera in four parts.  In this case it was a less inviting body of water (the Rhine River) where gold was guarded by Rhine maidens and available only to the one who would forsake love.  Sure enough, there’s always someone who will do anything for money, in this case dwarf Alberich, who got the gold and forged a ring of power.

In the meanwhile the Teutonic gods decided they needed a new home, so they contracted with the giants Fasolt and Fafner to build their new magnificent Valhalla.  Through a long ruse they managed to beat the payment for this out of Alberich, ring included.  Alberich curses his lost ring (as if that were necessary,) Wotan and the gods got clear title, and Froh, the god of spring, created a rainbow bridge for the gods to cross into their new home.  But the effort was doomed from the start by the way they were forced to pay for it.

Fast forward to the year where the left made its last attempt to defeat George W. Bush electorally.  (There’s a political angle to the “rainbow bridge” but I’ll skip it.)  My own church, which was my employer, had been engaged in a massive expansion of its central offices (with expense following,) and the process was complete.   Amidst one of the sappiest responsorial readings I had ever been a part of, the buildings, which surround an expansive prayer garden, were dedicated, and we crossed our own rainbow bridge.

There were prophets amongst us.  One of my colleagues proclaimed that Jesus had turned his back on us.  We peered out of the lobby of the building where our new office was (and is, for the moment) and saw truth in his words.  And there was the matter of payment.

The expanse of Wagner’s musical productions were only matched by the controversy they generated.  Their creator had a high view of his operas, but in his time he had detractors.  Instead of applause, there were many times when the audience was simply clasping its hands above their heads.  Such was also the case with our new Valhalla.

With life faithfully imitating art, it was time for the hero to appear.  Somewhere in my preppy education the idea that heroes didn’t come from warm climates bubbled to the top, that only cold, harsh climates could produce such.  As a South Floridian, this doesn’t sit well, and my response is here.  For once I was right.  Not so far from the sunken Spanish gold, where the animals are tame and the people run wild, a hero appeared that would doom Valhalla and many of its inhabitants.  It’s taken some time and the process has generated more heat than light, but earlier this year our reorganisation began, I announced that I was taking my leave, and we began the painful process of downsizing that has continued unabated to the present day.

Unfortunately, as was the case in the Ring, the hero’s appearance wasn’t an automatic solution to every problem.  The bottom line to our hero’s crusade was that less of the denomination’s cash flow would flow to the centre and more would remain in the field.  But, unlike mythology, there are many Valhallas out there, products of a generation whose penchant for grandiosity combined with availability of credit produced a proliferation of economically unsustainable physical plants.  (That’s what happens when the church follows the culture rather than the other way around!)

But someone needs to take a lesson from this.  It is my prayer that the gold will find its way once again to the bottom, the descendants of those who mined it (and others on the wrong side of slavery and colonialism) will take their rightful place in the church, and that I will never, ever again cross the rainbow bridge.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Literally, in this case:

Security cameras alerted staff of the Sloan’s Curve Condominium at 2000 S. Ocean Blvd. to the presence of several undocumented immigrants who had entered the property early Wednesday morning.

Palm Beach police apprehended 18 people — 13 suspected Chinese nationals and five Haitians — following a call around 4:15 a.m. from the condominium’s security staff.

Sloan’s Curve is on the south end of the island, near Phipps Ocean Park (where we used to go for school outings) and the Palm Beach Par 3 Golf Course.  Had they landed further north, at the Bath and Tennis Club, they’d had an entirely different reception?

Why?  There’s a story about a dead body which washed ashore at the B&T.  The staff altered the manager.

“Was he a member?” the manager asked.

“No, sir,” the staff member replied.

“Then throw him back.”

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Helen Fealy at the Shiny Sheet observes the following:

Who knew I had so much in common with the iconic Dr. Freud, the Father of Mental Heath and the pioneer of sexuality and gender behaviors.

I share his opinion on humankind and ethics.

To prove his point, we have Tiger Woods, John Edwards, Eliot Spitzer, Mark Sanford, Bill Clinton and many more.

Religions teach the goodness of people, and there are many wonderful caring men and women. But it brings to mind the saying: “Do you believe what I tell you or what you see with your eyes?”

I’m not sure what religion she’s been checking into.  (I know what that means, or used to mean, in Palm Beach.)  But Christianity has a more complex view of the human heart than either its advocates or opponents care to admit.

One the one hand, we are taught that “I will give thanks to you because I have been so amazingly and miraculously made. Your works are miraculous, and my soul is fully aware of this.” (Psalms 139:14).  On the other hand “For all have sinned, and all fall short of God’s glorious ideal” (Romans 3:23).   We were intended for good things by our Creator, but we suffer from the blowback of the Fall.  And our lives are a fall in and of themselves.

But our lives can be–and have been–redeemed as well.  To cite a verse I heard many times during the Holy Communion at Bethesda from the 1928 BCP:

My children, I am writing to you to keep you from sinning; but if any one should sin, we have one who can plead for us with the Father–Jesus Christ, the Righteous– and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but for those of the whole world besides. (1 John 2:1-2)

I got a lot of Freud growing up in Palm Beach (it was the era more than the town.)  But I didn’t need Freud to tell me that people can be, to put it charitably, untrustworthy.  As I said in The Tree That Grows in Heaven, “…living in South Florida is a sure cure for universalism, reminding one that, if there’s a default option in eternity, it’s not heaven.”

We are sinners in need of a saviour.  That’s cause for both hope and humility.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Well, at least at Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach:

Construction is under way to replace part of the roof at the historic Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea.

The roof covers the administrative offices and the choir room overlooking the courtyard and gardens. Advanced Roofing is the contractor.

David Semadeni, a junior warden and a member of the vestry, said $326,000 has been allotted for the project.

It is part of ongoing program of church improvements. Some reroofing work was done last year and refurnishing of the bell tower took place a couple of years ago. Work began a week ago and should be completed in July.

One thing for sure: in a church drained by litigation, Bethesda marches on.

I also noticed the confirmation class behind Southeast Florida Bishop Leo Frade:

I cannot imagine being in a confirmation class defiled by the likes of Leo Frade.  I’m glad I was able to get it done by a bishop of whom the worst was said was that his nickname was “Motor Mouth.”

One more thing: I noticed that Bethesda has a Vacation Bible School.  Fancy that, I never remember such a thing at Bethesda.  Their theme this year is “High Seas Adventure.”  Where were we during summers in Palm Beach?  Frequently, on a real “high seas adventure!”

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

South Florida is riveted on the BP oil spill and the Loop Current, but in Manalapan they’ve got other things washing on the beach:

A suspicious device washed ashore on the beach this morning, prompting a call to the bomb squad, police said.

Manalapan Police and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad investigated the device, which was found about 10 a.m. in the 1300 block of South Ocean Boulevard. Part of the roadway was closed during the investigation, but has been reopened.

Indications are that the device belongs to the military and bomb squad personnel are currently coordinating with the military to remove it, Manalapan Police Lt. Carmen Mattox said.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites