Bennet Omalu, M.D.

This is the time of year we spend reflecting on the previous year’s accomplishments and looking forward to and setting goals for the new academic year that will start in October.

We accomplished a great deal at FAU Lifelong Learning Society in Jupiter during the 2015-2016 year. There is no doubt that this was a pinnacle year for us – especially the winter semester. More members took our courses than at any time in the 19-year history of the program with historic enrollments of more than 30,000 registrations by 8,000 members. We began new partnerships with FAU’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and hosted a one-time lecture by Dr. Bennet Omalu, the first doctor to discover and diagnose a new disease that he named chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.

To honor our former executive director, René Friedman, who retired this past January, we have established the René Friedman Distinguished Lecture Series Endowment.  With the establishment of this endowment, we hope to continue to bring in distinguished speakers for our program each year by the donations that are given to the endowment.  It was only with the generous support and donations of our LLS students in the past that we were able to host such nationally known speakers as Dr. Omalu, Secretary Madeleine Albright, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, and author David McCullough. A strong endowment allows LLS to pursue critical initiatives that enhance our ability to be a leader in lifelong learning education. In addition to providing stability for the future, endowment gifts help LLS attract students and distinguished faculty.

It is no secret that FAU’s Lifelong Learning Society seeks to develop a community of older learners who are an integral part of the FAU Jupiter campus experience. We share knowledge, spark ideas, inspire new thinking, and forge friendships. In developing our community, we understand the need to always bring new and innovative ways to connect our faculty to staff, our staff to our students, and our students to fellow students. Last fall, “The Lifelong Exchange,” our blog, was created to provide another outlet for this connection. Every week since the beginning of the 2015 fall semester, we have featured posts from LLS faculty, staff and volunteers. The year is not even over yet and we have had more than 1,000 clicks on our blog each week!  From June through September, we will continue to post new content on the second Tuesday of each month. Once our fall semester starts in October, we will revert back to posting on each Tuesday of the month. We look forward to new stories, articles and interviews from our faculty, staff and volunteers.

In addition, we are so excited about our upcoming summer semester and encourage our year-round residents to register for courses. This summer, we will have several long-time LLS faculty members teach for us, and they include:

“Men of Passion: Where Does Inspiration Come From?” taught by Terryl Lawrence, Ph.D. This six-week course will review famous male artists, such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Amedeo Modigliani and Balanchine and the ballet. Lawrence earned her doctoral degree in art and education from Columbia University and has taught photography and art at C.W. Post College and SUNY Empire State College.

“Belly Laughs and Heartfelt Tears: The Magic of Movies,” taught by Kurt Stone, D.D.  During this six-week course, the audience will view three movies which provoke laughter and three which tug mightily at the heartstrings. “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek,” “Four Lions” and “The Notebook” are a few of the movies that will be shown.

“A Festival of English, French and American Films: Five Comedies and One Erotic Thriller,” taught by Benito Rakower, Ed.D. This six-week film course will cover a wide array of international acting and film-making talent featuring films such as “The Closet,” “The Return of the Pink Panther” and “The Spanish Apartment”.

If you have already signed up for our summer semester, we look forward to having you back. If you have never registered for FAU’s Lifelong Learning Society summer semester, then we encourage you to join us. This is the time to get out of the heat of the summer and enjoy a class.  You will not be disappointed!

Director of the FAU Lifelong Learning Society in Jupiter

By Sandi Page, Guest Blogger, LLS Student and Volunteer, LLS Jupiter Marketing Committee member

Robert P. Watson, Ph.D.

Our spotlight this week is on Dr. Robert P. Watson, one of our most popular Professors here at FAU LLS, who is also Professor of American Studies at Lynn University, Senior Fellow at the Florida Joint Center for Citizenship and the political analyst for WPTV 5 (NBC). He has published 36 books and hundreds of scholarly articles on topics in American politics and history, and has served on the boards of many scholarly journals, academic associations and presidential foundations. Professor Watson has won numerous awards, including the Distinguished Professor of the Year awards at both FAU and Lynn (twice) and FAU’s Faculty Service award (twice). His recent book, “America’s First Crisis: The War of 1812,” received a 2015 “IPPY” award for book of the year in U.S. history.

While researching to formulate questions for an interview I hoped to do with Dr. Watson (whose lectures I never miss), I happened across his impressive résumé, all 80 pages of it…and not one line was superfluous! Knowing that his hectic schedule would most likely preclude him from participating, I nevertheless, at 1:30 a.m., emailed Dr. Watson an interview request along with my proposed questions. By 8:00 a.m., I had already received his enthusiastic reply and answers to two of the questions with a promise that more would be forthcoming.  By 5:00 p.m., our interview was complete, despite the fact that Dr. Watson had also fit in 3 classes, a radio interview, a meeting and a television show that day!

Benjamin Franklin was right when he said, “If you want something done, ask a busy person.”

Oh, did I mention that Dr. Watson also possesses a wicked sense of humor, which has his large LLS audiences laughing uncontrollably as he good-naturedly skewers the antics of political parties to the left and the right as well as the political and historical figures he lectures on?

Laughing while you learn……a lot. What a wonderful education.

Read on to appreciate even more the brilliant mind, generous spirit and fascinating life of

Dr. Robert P. Watson

Did you ever contemplate a completely different career path when you were first starting out?

Yes.  I never intended to become a professor.  The plan was to be a Foreign Service officer for the State Department, a political aide, a researcher for a policy think tank, or an activist with a progressive cause.

My problem was that I wanted to pursue all these – and several other careers.  Then, when I was finishing my Ph.D., it dawned on me that if I became a professor, I could pursue all sorts of interests.

I could write books, consult with politicians, be an analyst for television and news outlets, be an advocate for lots of issues, and, on top of all that, get paid to help preserve historic sites, travel and…….get this, talk about history and politics with impressive audiences at LLS!

You never use notes during your LLS lectures on history and the American political system and you are never without a ready answer (usually accompanied by an amusing historical anecdote) to any of the wide-ranging questions posed by our LLS students during your Q&A sessions. To what do you attribute your ability to maintain such a phenomenal store of information in your head?

I have always thought it ironic that some professors make their students memorize details, dates and quotes for exams when they themselves do not have them memorized.  One of the first lectures I ever gave was when I was in high school – I had won some athletic awards and was asked by some community leaders to speak at a function for the city where I lived.  My thought was, “Who would want to hear from a kid and what could I possibly say?”  So, I memorized several inspiring stories in detail…and it worked. When I finished my Master’s degree, I had the opportunity to lead a seminar at a local military base.  I was concerned that no one in uniform wanted to hear from a civilian in his mid-twenties.  So, I memorized countless details about the topic at hand – how the economy impacts the military…and it worked.  As a result, in 26 years of teaching and after thousands of media interviews and lectures, I have never used a note.

I think if a speaker knows quotes, dates, and details about the people in the stories of history, it helps to bring those people and, therefore, the stories to life.

I also think that if you have a genuine passion for what it is that you are doing, it makes it easy to memorize.  I am passionate about history and politics.  There is also the responsibility to know one’s topic front and back, up and down.

I attended your excellent series of lectures on the 2012 Presidential Election at LLS Jupiter. Why did you decide not to do a similar series for the 2016 Presidential election? Any regrets now that the race has gone in such surprising directions?

It was a pleasure offering that series.  However, I work seven days a week and have been doing so for many years.  I simply had to find ways of cutting back on my commitments.  It was hard to commit myself to four or eight weeks, so regrettably, I decided to cut back at LLS.  It was not an easy decision as I have so many friends that are members.

I have been lecturing on this bizarre campaign for other groups and have been offering media commentary for numerous outlets.  It is certainly one for the history books, but not in the way I would have wanted.  It has been enormously difficult to watch the media continually fail to ask legitimate questions and demand detailed answers, to watch too many candidates stir up fear and anger, and to observe people falling prey to all this nonsense.

As a nation, we are taking the low road to the highest office.  We must demand better of ourselves and our candidates.

Electoral college…..Thumbs up or Thumbs down? If the latter, what would you replace it with?

I have opposed the Electoral College my entire career – since I was in graduate school.  It has failed to work properly five times in our history (1800, 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000), it is non-democratic, and few people understand how it works.  We should replace it with a popular vote.

At the same time, it is but one of many electoral reforms this country desperately needs…including campaign finance reform, shorter campaigns, better designed ballots, new voting equipment, changes to the primary/caucus system, rethinking how we select delegates, and so on.

Those of us who religiously attend your LLS lectures already know the answer to this question, but for the others, what historical figure do you admire the most and why?

Hmmm…Let me think about that one….Harry Truman!  He demonstrated moral courage so many times in making the tough decision, was a visionary with his work on Israel, the Marshall Plan, the Berlin airlift, desegregation, NATO, and so many other issues, and he would rather do what was right and lose than do what was wrong and win.

Truman was an ordinary fellow who rose to extraordinary heights at one of the most critical moments in world history. Wow, what’s not to admire?

I have also always liked Abraham Lincoln, Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and Eleanor Roosevelt.  That would probably be my top five!

Two of your accomplishments that you have shared with us during your lectures specifically stand out in my mind:

– your efforts to educate Florida children about their civic responsibilities;

– your role in bringing the 2012 Third Presidential Debate to Lynn University.

Could you tell us a bit more about these two programs?

I have visited hundreds of schools and classrooms over the past 26 years offering free civic education and history day programs.  It is something I have always done and intend to do until either I am unable to or until they don’t want me back.

If you approach the topics of civics and history in the right way with kids, they develop a passion for it or at least some interest in it.  I try to put them in the shoes of the people from history (which develops a connection), try to make them laugh, we utilize technology and social media (which they enjoy and it is how they learn), and ask them what they would do if they were there.  I also invite them to try and stump me – which they love – and I host mock elections.  We have had many tens of thousands of kids vote in these fun elections.

Hosting the Presidential debate at Lynn University was a wonderful experience for our students and the community.  The President of Lynn as well as our faculty, staff and students worked their backsides off.

After it was over, numerous reporters, political aides, and debate commissioners told us it was, by far, the best run debate ever.

The key was that we did not simply host a debate.  Rather, we used the debate as a vehicle to promote civic awareness!  For instance, I hosted over 1,000 area students on campus, developed a comprehensive debate curriculum for schools around the country, held debate “watch parties” for our students, organized a museum-quality debate history exhibit in our library, had debate-themed raffles, trivia contests, parties…you name it, we did it!

You have written 36 books on American politics and history as well as three novels and

hundreds of scholarly articles. Which book was the most challenging to write?

By far, the most difficult project was the current one – The Nazi Titanic.  It is the bizarre story of an unknown tragedy from WWII and the Holocaust.  Not only was the research challenging, but it was also emotionally draining to write about such an important and tragic event.  I felt a sense of responsibility to get the story right and get it out there because, with each passing year, we are losing Holocaust survivors and WWII Vets, and those who perished in this shocking event deserve to have their stories told.

The idea that such a momentous event could remain largely unknown for 70 years is remarkable.  Ultimately, the story constitutes the bloodiest hour of the Holocaust, history’s worst instance of friendly fire, the world’s most tragic maritime disaster, and the final major tragedy of WWII.

As a political analyst, you are frequently interviewed on radio and television as well as the print media. What transpired during your most surprising interview?

There are two interviews that I will always remember.  One was around midnight after the first Presidential debate in 2012.  I had given a few dozen interviews that day and had not slept

in some time…and was exhausted.  I had my earpiece in and was “in the field” doing an interview.  I saw the anchor in the small screen next to the camera and could hear him through my earpiece saying that they were going live to me for analysis.  Suddenly, my earpiece went dead!  I could not hear a thing, so I watched the anchor’s lips moving to try and figure out when he stopped talking.  When he stopped, I figured it was my turn to answer – but I had no clue what he had asked me.  So, I gave the most generic answer possible.

After I finished saying essentially nothing, I saw his eyebrows go up and a look of discomfort on his face.  His lips started moving again – but I couldn’t hear anything.  So, I said something else generic.  Later, I learned that he had asked me two very specific questions, so I must have come across as a knuckle-head.   It was embarrassing.  I should have simply said that we lost audio – but I was sleep deprived and not thinking clearly.

I offered a lot of commentary the night Osama bin Laden was killed.  I was contacted at home and told that something major was happening.  Could I come to the TV studio right away and be prepared to stay all night?  I agreed.  My concern was that it was a tragedy or another terror attack, but we soon found out that President Obama was going to announce that bin Laden was dead.  My job was to be the “filler”…that is, I had to talk about bin Laden, terrorism, and related topics until Obama spoke, and then fill afterward throughout the night in between segments with experts and government officials.  I had to remember a hundred facts and dates about al-Qaeda, 9/11, the War on Terror, bin Laden, and so on.

Fortunately, I have never been shy and, as my family can tell you, I can talk for forever!  It was a very cool experience to have hundreds of people call to say that they listened all night, that people quieted down in bars and restaurants to get the news, and so on.   I think we all remember where we were when the news of bin Laden’s death came.  People were emotional, celebratory, curious…and it was neat to be able to be a part of those experiences for them.

You often speak about your beautiful wife and children with such affection during your lectures.  How do you create opportunities to spend quality time with them given your hectic schedule? How would they describe you?

Well, I don’t fish, don’t hunt, don’t play golf, and don’t go out drinking with the fellas!

I have many hobbies – I swim, play basketball, play music, and so on – but my main “free time” activity is family time.  We are lucky in that we like to go out to dinner as a family, jog and swim together…in short, we have similar interests and do them together.

Also, I travel a lot and try to take my family along on many of the trips.  If I must do research at the Truman Library, Smithsonian, or Mount Vernon, I take my family along.  Or, if I am speaking at a battlefield, museum, or on a cruise, we all go along.

I suppose they’d describe me as funny, a workaholic, history nerd, and their number one cheerleader!

Game Time! 10 Quick Answers to 10 Quick Questions!

– Your favorite Sport?                    One of my passions in life is playing basketball.

– Favorite Food?                               Indian and Thai curry.  Yum!

– Favorite Movie?                            Indiana Jones – He was a cool professor!

– Favorite book?                               Well, not counting my own (!), Stephen Jay Gould’s The Mismeasure of Man changed the way I approached science and academia.  But my favorites are my son’s book Tsunami and my daughter’s storybook for kids Fashion Rules.

– Pet Peeve?                                      Arrogance

– Favorite Music?                             I love all kinds of music.

– Favorite Fun Activity?                 Going to the pool with my family

– Favorite Travel Destination?   Anywhere in Europe…or a National Park

– Dog or Cat Person?                       Dog

– Early Bird or Night Owl?             Night Owl

Do you have a new book in the works?

Yes.  I am half-way finished with a book on the Revolutionary War.

Which group is a tougher crowd to lecture to…your undergraduate students at Lynn University or your FAU LLS students?

They are different challenges – the challenge for undergrads is getting them interested in the topic.  The challenge for LLS members is that they know everything…so I am always trying to think of new insights and info for them!

You are a former candidate for the United States House of Representatives.  Is there another political run for office in your future?

Goodness, no.  I plead temporary insanity.  I love what I do for a living.

What are your plans for the rest of 2016 and 2017? Have you chosen the subject of your future LLS lectures?

I am trying to finally carve out time for a few book tours.  It is something I have always wanted to do, but have never had the time…

Also, after years of focusing on political history, I have been developing more of an interest in military history.  I’d like to explore the causes and lessons of warfare.  There are still so many compelling and important stories out there…I’m sure a few of them would make good lectures!

Dr. Watson is currently presenting a series of lectures on “The Holocaust at 70: The Stories History Missed” at FAU LLS Jupiter (Tuesdays, 3:30 – 5:00 p.m., April 26, May 3, May 10, May 17, 2016). 

Dr. Watson will be signing copies of his new book The Nazi Titanic, which will be available for purchase, immediately following his lecture on Tuesday, May 17, 2016.

Read more ›

Which side is right under the Constitution?

The President and his supporters currently insist that the present nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court must be afforded a prompt hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and that an equally expeditious follow-on debate and majority vote by the Senate take place to determine whether that full august body will give consent or decline approval of the nomination.

Conversely, opponents of the nomination maintain, with equal vigor, that “the will of the American people must be served” and that so doing requires forbearing commencement of the “advice and consent” protocol by the Senate to await a new nomination by the next President of the United States.

The simple answer is that neither side likely enjoys a monopoly in claiming faithful adherence to the Constitution.

Article II, Section 2, Cl. 2, of the U.S. Constitution, in pertinent part says simply: “He [the President] shall have Power…by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate…to appoint…Judges of the supreme court…”

The Constitution nowhere mandates any time frame for either undertaking, nor has the Supreme Court ever interposed an imputation as to a ‘reasonable time’ for such happenings by either the Executive or the Senate to assure comportment with this Article.

With reference to somehow satisfying “the will of the American people”, both sides may unknowingly be correct, even though for the wrongly enunciated reason.  

Article I, Section 3 originally mandated that “The Senate of the United States shall be …chosen by the Legislature [of each state]”.  As such, the two Senators representing each state were not selected by the voters of that state, and as such, the composition of the Senate could hardly have reflected the “will of the people”, but rather the result of political machinations by state legislators. However, this circumstance changed in 1913, when Amendment XVII was ratified, thereafter requiring that Senators indeed reflect the will of the American people by mandating their election by direct vote of the citizenry in each state.

History reveals that both Democratic and Republican controlled Senates have sought to advantage their constituency in the last year of a presidential term by delaying or preventing hearings and Senate voting, respectively, as to a Supreme Court nominee. This nation has, indeed, “seen this movie before”, except that there is always the same ending in each instance; namely ultimate compliance with Article II.

The genius of our Founding Fathers in creating intentional legal tension as amongst the Executive, Legislative , and Judicial branches by establishing these three co-equal branches of government, is reflected by this current transient brouhaha.

Undoubtedly, the acknowledged legal discomfiture and uncertainty resulting from ongoing Supreme Court tie vote ‘deadlocks’ will remain fodder for criticism. However, one may take comfort that there is hardly a threat to the continuum of the place in our Constitution enjoyed by the Supreme Court as a separate equal branch of our Republic’s underpinnings.

“This too shall pass”.

Irving Labovitz, J.D.

Irving Labovitz, J.D., is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts and holds a Juris Doctor from Boston University School of Law. He is admitted before the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as multiple federal appellate and trial courts. His experience includes: Federal Trade Commission legal staff in Washington, D.C., military federal prosecutor, Adjunct Professor of Business Law at Western New England Law School and FAU, attorney for major banks in concentrations of bankruptcy and secured lending, and contract counsel for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in the liquidation of failed banks. He has authored many scholarly law review articles and has been a national lecturer for the American Bar Association and Commercial Law League of America. He is presently general counsel for a large corporation.

Richard René Silvin

By Richard René Silvin and Robert Versteeg of Silvin Books

Richard René Silvin has now lectured for the membership of the Lifelong Learning Society at FAU Jupiter three times. On Thursday, April 21 at 3:15 p.m., René returns for a fourth presentation and invites you on board the SS Normandie, the 1930s flagship of the French Line, which is considered the most majestic ocean liner ever built. As always, René’s lecture aims to give the audience an entertaining experience which many guests say is “just like going to the movies.”

Some background: René’s parents lived on opposite sides of the Atlantic throughout his childhood. This unusual situation created the opportunity for him to travel frequently on the great French and British liners that survived the Second World War, like the Liberté, the Ile de France, the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary. These regular crossings constitute his happiest memories and gave rise to a life-long study of ocean liners, most notably the legendary “floating museum” Normandie.

Although Normandie had met her tragic end in 1942 in New York City, several years before René was born, everyone he met as a child, crossing the Atlantic on her successors, could not stop talking about the magnificent ship. His fellow passengers raved about Normandie’s art work, the magnificently decorated rooms, and the extraordinary service they remembered from the heydays of the Normandie. René envisioned himself one of the “mousses”, the red livery-clad bellboys who served first-class passengers on the ill-fated ship. He created imaginary stories of how it would have been to sail on Normandie; wandering around in the magnificent one-of-a-kind Winter Garden, helping passengers find their way around the museum-like hallways, and serving drinks in the art-deco bar to such stars as Marlene Dietrich, Bob Hope and the Disney brothers.

This past year, René finally translated these fantasies into a book, Normandie, the tragic story of the most majestic ocean liner, and subsequently into a lecture, which uses rarely seen footage of Normandie’s launch in France, and life on board Normandie. She entered service in 1935 as the largest and fastest passenger ship afloat, and she remains the most powerful steam turbo-electric-propelled passenger ship ever built. Unfortunately, the glamorous story leads up to the tragic accident that resulted in a huge fire and Normandie’s tragic “death” in the harbor of New York City in 1942. Only two months after Americans saw images on TV of their Navy fleet lying on its side in far-off Pearl Harbor, the visual of Normandie capsized in the middle of New York brought the reality of America’s involvement in World War Two home. Images of medics rescuing workers as they were evacuating the doomed ship are eerily comparable to those of 9/11.

Much of the art, furniture and items saved from Normandie were sold at a series of auctions after her demise, and many pieces are considered valuable Art Deco treasures today. The rescued items include the ten large dining-room door medallions and fittings, and some of the individual Jean Dupas glass panels that formed the large murals mounted at the four corners of her Grand Salon. One entire corner is preserved at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The dining room door medallions are now on the exterior doors of Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Cathedral in Brooklyn, New York. René has been accumulating items and furniture for over thirty years including two large doors made of three different types of wood with brass inlays.

Normandie’s influence can be witnessed in many modern day cruise ships, where homage is paid to her with copies of her artwork and renderings of her image. René ends his book with a quote from Cicero: “The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living. The love you gave in life keeps people alive beyond their time. Anyone who was given love will always live on in another’s heart.” This certainly goes for Normandie!

By Sandi Page, Guest Blogger, LLS Student, Volunteer and Member of the LLS Jupiter Marketing Committee

Books! I love the feel of them, the smell of them. I need to be reading five or six books at the same time. My bookshelves are overflowing. A memorable day when I was 4 years old was the day I was able to write my name legibly, a requirement for being issued my own library card. The thrill of it, the pride, the freedom! It’s been a lifelong love affair ever since. The only difficulty is finding enough time to read, and reread, all the books that interest me or are dear to me.  So, I thought it would be fun to ask some LLS students, staff and faculty the following question: “If you were to be stranded on a desert island for five years, what books currently on your bookshelves would you want with you?” Judging from the enthusiastic replies, there are many, many bibliophiles in our LLS population! All agreed it would be difficult to have to limit their choices!

Here is my list (although I mourn already the ones left behind):

My Reading Life (with a fervent desire to also bring all the books referenced in this beautifully written work), by Pat Conroy; Beach Music, by Pat Conroy; A la Recherche du Temps Perdu (French and English versions), by Marcel Proust; Fables de la Fontaine; D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths, Tai Chi for Beginners, by Dr. Paul Lam; The Lyrics of Leonard Cohen;  A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway; David McCullough’s The Greater Journey – Americans in Paris; Sy Safransky’s A Bell Ringing in the Empty Sky – The Best of the Sun; Travels with Epicurus, by Daniel Klein; Archy and Mehitabel, by Don Marquis; The Piano Shop on the Left Bank, by Thad Carhart; Eleni, by Nicholas Gage; Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy; Chips off the Old Benchley, by Robert Benchley; Turner to Cezanne, Masterpieces from the Davies Collection, National Museum Wales; Quelque part dans l’inachevé, by Vladimir Jankélévitch and Béatrice Berlowitz; Le Petit Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery; Shakespeare’s Complete Works, The Dictionary of the Opera, by Charles Osborne; C. P. Cavafy Collected Poems, edited by George Savidis; Letters to a Young Poet, by Rainier Maria Rilke; The Essential Neruda – Selected Poems (bilingual); An Anthology of Modern Italian Poetry (bilingual), edited by Ned Condini; An Anthology of Twentieth Century Brazilian Poetry (bilingual), edited by Elizabeth Bishop/Emanuel Brasil; Seventy Poems by Wislawa Szymborska (bilingual), edited by Magnus Krybski/Robert Maguire; for guaranteed laughs every day, the three books of poems by Francesco Marciuliano “written” by dogs, cats and kittens; and, most importantly, my collection of language learning books (Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Modern Greek, Latin) with accompanying dictionaries plus lots of notebooks. I think the five years would pass by quickly with these wonderful literary and study companions in tow!

Now read on to see what books your LLS friends would want with them on a desert island!

René Friedman (LLS Jupiter Founder)

There are so many books I think I should take but I would sink before getting to the island!

However, if I were stranded on a desert island for five years, here are some I would want with me:

1. Books on survival, as I would not make it five years without them….how to make wood tools, how to start a fire for cooking, what I could digest, how to catch fish, etc.;
2. My mindfulness book to keep me in the moment and relieve my stress, maybe Wherever You Go, There You Are, by Jon Kabat-Zinn;
3. Perhaps The Swiss Family Robinson, Robinson Crusoe and Life of Pi, all of which I haven’t read in a very long time (plus I would be able to relate to the experiences);
4. I have always felt badly that I never read the Harry Potter books, so, on the island, I could finally settle down and read them (my grandsons would be proud of me);
5. Oh yes, The Little Prince;
6. And not sure which one, but one love story with a happy ending.

Dr. Benito Rakower (LLS Faculty)

I hope the ones I chose find merit with LLS members.

1) The Red and the Black, by Stendhal;

2} All of Shakespeare’s comedies and none of his tragedies;

3} The Psalms of David;

4) Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald;

5) Moby Dick, by Herman Melville;

6) Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens

Ginny Higgins

I read a lot so 5 years would actually require much more than the following list of books!
Let’s start with almost all of Shakespeare, War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy; Animal Farm, by George Orwell; The Lord of the Rings trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien; Maus, by Art Spiegelman; The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran; The Eight, by Katherine Neville; The Chalice and the Blade, by Riane Eisler; The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, by Reif Larsen; The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling; Room, by Emma Donoghue; The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak; The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini; How We Die, by Sherwin Nuland; To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee; all of Mark Twain’s books; The Day the Crayons Quit, by Drew Daywalt; The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology, by Arthur Cotterell/Rachel Storm; the Iliad and the Odyssey; the Magic Eye books, all of Charles Dickens; The Art of War, by Sun Tsu; The Divine Comedy, by Dante; all of Karen Armstrong’s books, Iain Pears books, and the 10 books of civilization by Will and Ariel Durant.

John Klein

The Last Lion, Vols. 1-3, by William Manchester

Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison

Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell

Sonnets, by Shakespeare

My Struggle, Vols. 1-4, Karl Ove Knausgaard

Personal History, by Katharine Graham

War & Peace, Leo Tolstoy

Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari

Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry

Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier

Catch-22, by Joseph Heller

The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck

Poems of Emily Dickinson, by Emily Dickinson

Yvonne Peters

Three From Catfish Bend, by Ben Lucien Burman;

Jonathan Livingston Seagull, by Richard Bach;

The Art of Living, by Sharon Lebell;

The Republic of Plato

Paul Brown

Entertainment – The entire Stuart Woods series with Stone Barrington and the entire Lee Child series with Jack Reacher

Health – The Merck Manual

Survival – A book of matches!

Humor – Entire works of Calvin and Hobbes

Andrea Palmer

If I were stranded on a desert island, I would want a comfortable chair and the following books from my library:

All of the Great Books Series;

All of the Great Conversations Series;

All of J. M. Coetzee novels;

The Complete Essays of Montaigne;

The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir;

Ulysses, by James Joyce;

Bleak House, by Dickens;

The Fabric of the Cosmos, by Brian Greene;

An American Tragedy, by Dreiser;

Compilations of short stories, by Alice Munro and Chekhov;

The Hidden Reality, by Brian Greene;

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, by Carlo Rovelli;

Sapiens, by Harari;

Power Wars, by Charlie Savage;

Hamilton, by Ron Chernow

and a whole bunch of funny books that I have yet to purchase!

Barbara DePalma

Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts;
Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien;
All the Light You Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr;
Sarum: The Novel of England, by Edward Rutherford;
Buffalo Afternoon, by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer

Judi Ross (LLS Staff)

The books I would take would be Shakespeare, all the novels of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Willa Cather, Louise Erdrich, David McCullough, Agatha Christie, Ruth Rendell, Maurice Mauriac, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Sigrid Unset, Sholem Aleichem, Balzac, Dickens, Hardy, O’Neill, Poe, Twain, Werfel, Zola, Mann, Kafka and Maugham. For poetry: Heine, Gibran, the Brownings, Frost, Wordsworth, Dante, Whitman.

Emily Morton, (LLS Staff)

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee; The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho; Animal Farm, by George Orwell; The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck; Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury; Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck; Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain; The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd and finally, the Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold. To Kill a Mockingbird will always be my favorite book because my father read it to me when I was very young and it felt like time travel, going back to Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s.  I just fell in love with the characters in that book and I really identified with Miss Scout Finch.

By: Kami Barrett-Batchelder

Each year, the FAU Lifelong Learning Society, Jupiter connects women through film when we host the LUNAFEST© Film Festival. If you have not had the opportunity to attend this film festival, you have missed one of the best short film festivals in the United States.

LUNAFEST is a traveling film festival of award-winning short films by, for and about women. This season, the program of six films – filled with stories of reflection, hope and humor – traveled to over 175 cities and were screened in front of 25,000 people. Various organizations bring LUNAFEST to their communities and raise funds for their local non-profits as well as the main beneficiary – Breast Cancer Fund.

The Lifelong Learning Society has hosted this film festival for more than eight years, and for the past four years, it has sold out.  On March 24, 2016, we held LUNAFEST and this season’s program of six selected films created discussion, made us laugh, pulled at our heartstrings and inspired us to make a difference in our community. From this event, we will be giving four $1,000 scholarships to female students and eight $100 scholarships to the Outstanding Academic Student Recipients of 2016 student of the year on the FAU Jupiter Campus. A donation of $2,025 will also be made to the Breast Cancer Fund. Rain or shine, our loyal supporters came out for this annual event and we appreciate it so much.

We would like to thank Berry Fresh Café, Tropical Smoothie and Chartwell’s for their tasty samplings. We appreciate your support and our attendees love your light bites. We would also like to thank all of the organizations and businesses that came out to share information with our attendees. The support from local organizations and businesses is what assisted us in the growth of this event and we could not have done it without you!  They are:

100 Women Who Care, Abacoa Community Garden, Art Affects, Extended Hands Community Outreach, FAU Pre-Medical Society, Gimme Shelter Animal Rescue, Healing Touch Buddies, Healthier Jupiter, Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies, Jupiter Medical Center, Liberty Signs, Loggerhead MarineLife Center, MorseLife, Mother’s Day Movement, Nutrition S’mart, Planned Parenthood, The Jupiter/Tequesta Women’s Club, The Palm Radio 95.9.

We would also like to thank the following businesses that donated items for our auction table:

Advanced Purification, Inc., Alex and Ani, Ballet Palm Beach, Belle Maison, Blue Man Group Orlando, Cabana Casuals, DK Salon and Spa, Doubletree by Hilton, Eastpointe Country Club, Gretchen Scott, Harbour Boutique Clothing, HEET, Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse, Loggerhead Fitness, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, Medieval Times Dinner, Spoto’s Oyster Bar, The Bungalow Boutique, The Gardens Mall, The Magical Animal, The Mixed Bag, Via Condotti, Village Bootery, Waterway Café, WonderWorks.

Hosting a LUNAFEST is a powerful and distinctive way to make an impact in our community and we hope to continue to support this film festival in the future.

Kami Barrett-Batchelder, Associate Director of the Lifelong Learning Society

By Judi Ross

René Friedman

Who of you reading this has ever been to a “Love Fest”?  Not I, until a week ago, when I was privileged to attend a gathering at FAU/LLS Jupiter to celebrate the founder of Lifelong Learning Jupiter, René Friedman, on the occasion of her retirement.  It was an event that was inspiring, heartwarming and totally unique.

René’s staff, colleagues and FAU officials came together to praise her perseverance, dynamism and graciousness plus her extraordinary fundraising skills in building her ideal – a house of learning for retirees and all who wanted to spend time in furthering their education.  This would not be just an edifice of brick and mortar.  Her vision was to build a place which would offer the opportunity to gain knowledge, make new friends, improve one’s health with meaningful activity and be an attractive destination. All became a reality and we are the lucky beneficiaries!

Dr. Taylor Hagood, Dean Heather Coltman, René Friedman and Dr. Jeffrey Morton

Most impressive was the substance of each participant’s appreciative talk – how being hired by René meant having a caring “Boss” who made them better as teachers and better as human beings.   Speakers (in order of appearance) included Joe Scott, who also served as Moderator for the evening; Dr. Eliah Watlington, Associate Provost of the FAU Northern Campuses; Ms. Josette Valenza, Director of the FAU Lifelong Learning Society, Jupiter; Dr. Robert Watson, FAU/LLS Faculty, Mr. Milton Maltz, FAU/LLS Member and Supporter; Dr. Jeffrey Morton, FAU/LLS Faculty; Dr.Taylor Hagood, FAU/ LLS Faculty; Dr. Heather Coltman, Dean of the FAU Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters; Mr. Richard Yorks, Past President of FAU/LLS, Jupiter; Dr. Robert Rabil, FAU/LLS Faculty, Ms. Myrna Goldberger, FAU/LLS Faculty; Mr. Bill Deigan, President of FAU/LLS Jupiter, and then Mrs. René Friedman herself.

René Friedman and Dr. Robert Rabil

René’s response, at the close of the evening’s program, was not only to thank everyone for making this such a memorable event, but to exclaim that now she, with all her fellow students, can awaken each morning, put her feet on the floor and say “Today I am going to school.”

And to that we can all say “Amen!” and “Thank you, René!”

Under the 19 years of René Friedman’s remarkable stewardship, the Lifelong Learning Society Jupiter went from 122 students meeting in various rented quarters around town to the present-day membership of more than 8,500 students housed in the beautiful Elinor Bernon Rosenthal Lifelong Learning Complex on the FAU John D. MacArthur Campus in Jupiter, Florida.  It is the largest Lifelong Learning Society in the United States with the most diverse subject matter offered.

Judi Ross, in her 19 years at FAU/LLS Jupiter, worked closely with René Friedman and has worn a number of hats: she served on the original Advisory Board, wrote the LLS Jupiter newsletter for a number of years and now serves on the Curriculum Committee and is Class  Coordinator for LLS Jupiter, a position she has held for 13 years.  It was a labor of love for her to write this post about her dear friend and colleague, René Friedman.