Joseph Boyle

Back in about 1989 I noticed a new business getting ready to open in what we then called The Lakewood Mall. The new business was named Starbucks.

When I was growing up it seemed my parents were chained to their personal coffee pot. It was big, shiny and called a percolator or something like that. They dumped the water in and then filled the MJB coffee up to the line marked on the side of the coffee maker. My parents never ventured too far away from the coffee pot.

It is an old story and it is happening again right now. It is 15 degrees above zero. In law enforcement when the temperature drops, you can predict what the 6:00 a.m. shift will look like. 911 dispatch will start the officer’s day with car thefts called “warm-ups”. There is always a spike in car thefts when it is cold outside. People start their cars; and while their car is warming, they go back inside their home. When they return to their car to go to work, it is gone. “Warm-up” thefts are as predictable as coats, hats and gloves on a frosty day.

My brother-in-law, George D. Lazarus died. That kind of news can be sad or happy, depending on one’s relationship with a brother-in-law. It is official though. George was declared dead April 7, 2013, by the Veterans Administration. It can’t be more official than that. His death set administrative procedures in motion canceling his VA disability benefit and military retirement pay. Next, George’s bank account was frozen. The government then withdrew thousands of dollars to recoup money paid to George before it learned he was dead. His medical benefits stopped. A military hospital cannot be expected to provide health benefits to a dead man.