Folio Vol. 37, Issue 6

6

Spanish Treasure Scattered Across Florida’s Coast Ted Hunt

13

Magnetic Attraction With Robin Wesner

Ambar Ramirez & Carmen Macri

17

Chat GPT: The Artificially Intelligent Friend You Never Knew You Needed Carmen Macri

20

Oh, To Be A Woman Ambar Ramirez

21 A Woman, Still Suni Storm

23

Little Mice Vs. Little Men Ambar Ramirez, Carmen Macri & Tysen Romeo

26 Ball Games Shelton Hull

28 Fahrenheit 904 Carmen Macri

31

Yes, Chef! Ambar Ramirez

34

The Killers Scott Grant

Behind the Cover Story:

Folio crew went to Ocean Hammock Park Walkway to investigate the ongoing battle of the boardwalk.

The

ANGELA PHILLIPS Publisher KERRY SPECKMAN Copy Editor/ Writer

DREW ARNETT Illustrator TED HUNT Contributor

SCOTT GRANT Contributor

From the Publisher

In the lead up to Women’s History Month, I have been reflecting on January of 2020. A movement was underway for women’s rights — Jacksonville organizers put together the Women’s March JAX United for Change Rally. My husband was scheduled to be one of the speakers that day, but due to a blizzard in Chicago, he wasn’t going to make it back in time to speak to the crowd. I was asked to fill in for him the night before; with only a few hours preparation, I put together a speech I typed on my iPhone. It was by far the largest crowd I had ever spoken in front of and to describe my feelings as nervous and out of place would be an incredible understatement. The lineup of speakers was impressive: Rep. Tracie Davis, Donna Deegan, Sen. Audrey Gibson, L.J. Holloway, Andrea Reyes and Heather Gupte from the ACLU. And then there was me. I wanted to share with you readers a few excerpts from the speech I gave that day — I think they ring just as true today as they did in January of 2020.

Last night when I was asked if I would step in for him [John], my first thought was “uh, no.” Then my second thought was “well … maybe” and then, that was followed quickly by “hard pass.”

Then I thought about the reasons I was saying “no.” And those reasons are things that we as women fight every day. Doubt, fear, self-worth and not being enough in any number of ways. We all know women don’t corner the market on those feelings — they follow each of us in our own way.

As I thought about the reasons I didn’t want to put myself out there to stand up here and speak in front of you today, I realized that someone out there needs to hear this: You are worthy, you are enough, you deserve respect, you deserve to be heard.

We are all too often told not to be so loud, or have as many opinions or stand out in a crowd. Today we say “no” to that. All of us united together. We say that we will be heard.

Let’s go out there, let’s make our voices heard. ... In the weeks and months to come at our homes, with our friends, churches and community. And oh, yes, on Election Day you must be heard. Don’t miss that chance. Don’t ever cheat yourself out of the opportunity to be heard. Your voice matters.

I want to take this time and this space to encourage all of our readers to find ways to support women — not just this month but all year round. We all deal with feelings of insecurity or self-doubt, but if we can find ways to lift each other up, we will all be the better for it. And to our women readers, I want to encourage you to never be afraid to speak up and speak out, be your true and authentic self, own it and wear it like a badge of honor.

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SPANISH TREASURE SCATTERED ACROSS FLORIDA’S COAST

The Spanish Treasure Fleet of 1715

Words by Ted Hunt

In July 1715 in Havana, Cuba, 11 Spanish treasure ships and one French warship were preparing to sail to Spain carrying over 15 million pesos in gold and silver. King Philip V of Spain relied on the riches of the new world to pay the bills and was in dire need of the money. The route was the same taken for over 100 years. The fleet caught the Gulf Stream north of Cuba, sailed north along Florida’s east coast, then turned eastward across the Atlantic Ocean to Spain. Lacking the Weather Channel, the admiral of the fleet had planned a rendezvous with the ships off the eastern coast of Florida, unaware of a hurricane brewing in the Atlantic. A major maritime disaster was imminent.

The Cargo

Spanish cargo manifests from the 1715 archives report the ships carried thousands of emeralds, diamonds, pearls, jewels, gold chains and countless gold and silver bars. There were thousands of chests of gold and silver coins: The silver coins alone numbered over 3 million. Because the ships carried so much silver, the fleet is often called the Plate Fleet—”plata” being the Spanish word for “silver.” The flagship carried eight personal chests for Queen Isabella of Spain, referred to as the Queen’s Jewels. There are no records of their contents, but rest assured, they held untold riches for the monarch.

The Fleet

Included in the fleet were mighty galleons with up to 60 cannons each to protect the ships from invaders. Not only were other European countries a threat but also privateers and yes, pirates. This was a busy time of year for pirates of the Caribbean (sound familiar?) They patrolled the coastal areas drinking their grog (a diluted rum concoction) looking for easy prey. On a moonless night surely the ships’ crews would have feared hearing the infamous cry, “Arrr, matey.”

The Hurricane

On July 31, the hurricane slammed into the fleet off what is now Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties. Relentless winds drove the ships toward the shore. Some ships overturned and sank in deep water. Others had their bellies torn out and top decks ripped off as they were dragged by the wind and waves over the shallow jagged reefs. Treasure chests upon chests fell to the ocean floor, many bursting and scattering the Spanish wealth across the ocean bottom for miles. Cannons crushed everything in their path as they fell into the sea. Some ships ran aground just feet from the beach. The shoreline was littered with wooden hulls and planks. The hurricane had laid waste to the entire Spanish Treasure Fleet. Only the French ship had managed to escape the storm and make it to France.

The Salvage Operation

Survivors walked north to the Spanish city of St. Augustine to report the disaster to the authorities. Salvors were sent immediately to recover what was left of the treasure. It’s believed the salvaging efforts only recovered 80% of the treasure.

The Spanish eventually abandoned salvage operations around 1719, and the sunken treasure fleet of 1715 was forgotten to time, becoming just a footnote in history. It’s estimated hundreds of treasure chests worth $450 million remained undiscovered. The sea would hold its secrets for more than two centuries.

Modern Salvage

Fast forward 250 years. In the 1950s, a man named Kip Wagner was walking the beaches of Indian River County (Vero Beach) and found many black flat stones scattered along the tideline. Turns out, these black stones were actually 1715 Spanish silver coins that had tarnished in the saltwater over the centuries. Word quickly spread and the history of the ill-fated fleet resurfaced. Treasure hunters soon arrived seeking their fortunes.

Wagner formed a company called the Real Eight Corporation. (The name is derived from the words for Spanish silver coins, “reales” and “pieces of eight.”) He searched the shallow waters off Indian River, St. Lucie and Martin counties and found countless gold and silver coins and other artifacts of value. In 1964, renowned treasure hunter Mel Fisher of Atocha fame joined Wagner, and in only a few weeks, they found a carpet of 2,500 gold coins.

The hunters located what is believed to be five or six ships of the fleet, all within a “stone’s throw” from the beach. All in shallow water and easy to salvage. They found piles of ballast stones with stacks of Spanish cannons resting on top (ballast stones are large rocks used in a ship’s hold for stabilization). Names were attached to these wrecks—Cabin, Corrigan’s, Rio Mar, Gold Beach, Wedge and Sandy Point. Over the years, the hunters were rewarded with emeralds, jewels, pearls, gold and silver artifacts and thousands of silver coins. This area became known as the Treasure Coast, which runs approximately 80 miles from Sebastian down to Jupiter.

Today’s Salvage Operations

Florida is now under the watchful eye of the state. Wanting to preserve the history and antiquities of the past, and under the Federal Admiralty Law, the state now has control over everything within its three-mile coastal limit. Everything considered antiquity and recovered is the exclusive property of the state of Florida. Recently, the state granted a company called the Queens Jewels LLC, exclusive salvage rights to search within the protected zone off the Treasure Coast. Queens Jewels LLC can also issue offshore sub-contractor permits to treasure hunters. Each year, there are several sub-contractors that plow the shallows of the Treasure Coast in search of fortunes and the ultimate prize, the Queen’s Jewels.

There is good news for the landlubber too. You don’t have to be a scuba diver to share in the 1715 lost wealth. Just walking the beaches after a storm and knowing what to look for can be rewarding with a silver or gold coin from the fleet. Look at those strange rocks carefully, before you toss them back as skipping stones. You can also legally hunt with a metal detector anywhere along Florida’s beaches from the low tide line to the foot of the dunes. It’s “finders keepers.” Maybe, with a little luck, you will spot that gold coin lying there in the sand, just glistening in the sun. When you do, have a tankard of grog to celebrate. Arrr, matey.

DCPS firing Brian Covey the day after DeSantis called his video [of empty bookshelves in his school’s library] a fake narrative is bad, but then DCPS lied about it, making it much worse.

DCPS’s spokesperson Tracy Pierce said there were lots of books in the library for students, but that’s not true, and you should ask the school’s media specialist if they had one that is. Like many district middle and high school libraries, it has been closed since the Vitti era.

When I tweeted about the library being closed for almost a decade, here are some responses I received:

“That picture is TRUE. I’ve posted this before—after my oldest 2 kids left Elem school, they never went to a school library to check out a book again. Sandalwood’s library has had no books for more than 5 yrs; Mandarin HS emptied their library in 2019.”

“Exactly. There may be a [staff] member allowing the library door to be unlocked, but no one is updating the collections or checking out books to students. You won’t find empty shelves in my school’s library; it got a makeover over the summer and the shelves were removed! “

“My middle schooler (at a magnet) only goes to the media center to get his laptop at the beginning of the year.”

“True indeed. Two sons through DCPS. One Stanton grad, one DA. Although both were voracious readers, neither checked out a book past elementary at Chet’s Creek. Never heard them ever mention being in a media center either.”

“I think why we have so few libraries and why they aren’t used would be a good story, but this is about the district lying.”

The district is lying when they said the library was functional, and they were lying when they said Covey was putting out a fal se narrative. I don’t think it’s right, and I hope you hold them accountable.

Finally, Covey wasn’t just a sub, he was a permanent sub in a classroom with a vacancy, and the district fired those students’ teacher, and now those kids will be without a teacher again, and for what? To appease DeSantis and cover up for their own ineptitude is what.

Chris Guerrieri

BOUQS & BRICKS

BOUQUETS

To Sulzbacher’s new Urban Rest Stop Social Services Bus, a joint venture of the City of Jacksonville and Sulzbacher. The mobile unit provides social services such as case management and housing placement to people experiencing homelessness who are still living on the streets in downtown Jacksonville.

To Teach Music Week for partnering with music schools, stores, private instructors and other organizations to offer free trial music lessons or classes March 20-26, 2023. The benefits of playing music are vast. We think this free trial option is pretty awesome.

BRICKBATS

To the Jacksonville City Council members who voted to approve the rezoning of Pumpkin Hill Creek Preserve Area on the Northside. In February, the council voted 10-9 in favor of allowing a subdivision development, three sides of which are on the preserve. While the project will bring nearly 100 new homes to the area, it will also have a significant negative impact on the environment, as construction will not only disrupt, displace or destroy native flora and fauna but also make the development more prone to flooding and more vulnerable to fires. Since the vote, at least once City Council member has indicated regret for voting in favor of the rezoning, but they still get a Brickbat.

MARCH HOROSCOPES

ARIES

If you have been wanting to pick up a practice to connect yourself to something spiritual, March is the month to do so. Understand your intention and intuition. The end of March will bring big life changes for you; it is time to start preparing.

TAURUS

With the sun shining down in Pisces, your chart’s zone that rules your goals and dreams for the future is looking bright, making this the perfect time to bring your plans for the future to fruition. When Pluto enters Aquarius on March 23, you might feel a shift careerwise. Whether that’s a shift for the better is up to you, so make sure you are staying focused and prioritizing yourself.

GEMINI

With Pluto entering Aquarius on March 23, you will have a sudden craving for change. You are feeling tired of the mundane, Gemini. Take this energy shift as a challenge. Do something you have always wished to do.

CANCER

Feeling the luck of the Irish, Cancer? You should be as this month is looking bright with new opportunities on the horizon. With Pluto entering Aquarius on March 23, your preconceived ideas about relationships are going to go through a huge transformation. It’s finally time to flip the page and move on to the next chapter of your life.

LEO

Trust yourself this month, Leo. You know what is best for you. Your intuition will be your best friend in these upcoming weeks. Listen to your gut; it hasn’t steered you wrong yet.

VIRGO

This month will be very busy for you in terms of finding a balance between your personal relationships and your career. The stars are forcing you to let go of old habits and grow to the potential we all know you can reach. Stop procrastinating, change up your daily routine and try to find comfort in the uncomfortable.

LIBRA

This month is all about finding yourself creatively, Libra. This Pisces season asks you to let go of old habits and fill those spaces with healthy ones.

So if you haven’t already, take this newfound confidence as an opportunity to break up your day-to-day routine. Take a spa day or read a new book. As long as you try new things, new opportunities will come knocking on your door.

SCORPIO

It is time to take your playtime seriously, Scorpio. It is easy for you to throw yourself into your work and forget about everything else, but Pluto entering Aquarius on March 23 will call to your wild side. Make time to have fun. You won’t regret it.

SAGITTARIUS

Being the fiery sign that you are, you may feel a flame ignite within you when the stars shift into Aries season on March 20. This is a perfect time to reflect on how far you have come and further explore your spirituality. You will have strong urges to break off from the norm and go out of your comfort zone. Embrace this duality and burn bright as you have always been meant to.

CAPRICORN

Pull out that planner, Capricorn. Your routine will be your best friend this month. Pisces season will call on you to keep yourself grounded and prepared for unexpected twists. When the stars enter Aries season on March 20th, you may feel an energy shift. Embrace it and power through it for it will pay off.

AQUARIUS

Happy Pluto return, Aquarius! When the planet (yes, it’s a planet) enters your sign on March 23, the way you show up in the world will undergo phenomenal changes, which shouldn’t be too difficult since Aquarians revel in change and innovation. This is a great time for you to leave the past in the past and focus on your future.

PISCES

Oh, Pisces. You are in dire need of a fresh start. It may seem like you are stuck in a rut whether it be at work or in relationships. It is time to choose yourself. Much like a house plant that needs its dying stems clipped off, you need to let go of what is not beneficial to you.

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MAGNETIC ATTRACTION WITH ROBIN WESNER

If you thought that after all of these years of “knowing” what sign you’re compatible with and basing your dating life on whether you match up astrologically, we hate to tell you, but you’ve been wrong. According to author Robin Wesner, we’ve all been wrong.

In her book, “Magnetic Attraction,” Wesner explains why compatibility isn’t merely based on one’s sign but also its polarity designation. Wesner first made this discovery during her second marriage, specifically when she noticed a considerable difference in one area specifically (wink, wink).

FOLIO: What made you realize that astrology books had compatibility all wrong?

ROBIN WESNER: I didn’t think about that at first; it was a realization after I figured out the theory of compatibility.

FOLIO: How did you figure out the secret to compatibility between the 12 zodiac signs?

RW: The way I figured out the theory of compatibility was a result of being married two times. The second marriage made me think that something was very different (in the bedroom). I determined to figure out what it was with my hobby of astrology. I did some brainstorming and then I remembered that the base descriptions of the 12 zodiac signs give each sign a polarity designation of either positive or negative. I’m a positive sign and my first husband was a positive sign. Then, my second husband was a negative sign. And, that is how I figured it out. Sex is the main feature, but I don’t usually use the “s” word. But, as we all know the expression, “sex sells.”

FOLIO : What led you to this theory about magnetic attraction?

RW: The expression “magnetic attraction” is descriptive of the attraction felt between a positive and negative charge of magnets. They attract each other. Two charges of the same polarity repel each other. These are natural forces of nature.

FOLIO: Can you give us more insight and detail on how polarity designations come into play with compatibility?

RW: This discovery of the plus/minus theory dictates that it takes one positive sign and one negative sign to make a match. This condition must be met before other factors of compatibility are considered.

FOLIO: How can one find their own zodiac polarity designation?

RW : Six signs are positive and the other six are negative. The three fire signs and the three air signs are designated as having a positive polarity. The three earth signs and the three water signs are designated as having a negative polarity. I created a “polarity card” that comes inside the book. It can be used to reference the polarity of the 12 signs.

FOLIO: Do you have any personal experiences you wouldn’t mind sharing about how polarity designations affected your own relationships?

RW: The reason I am so passionate about this topic is because I lost the family I made. And, it took me about 10 years to get over the fact that I had to get divorced. But, that led to my eventual happiness.

We know what you’re thinking: Who has the time to do a science experiment to figure out your sign’s polarity as well as the polarity designation of your partner(s)? Good thing is you don’t have to. Email Wesner at maggie. bird.38.45@gmail.com with your birthdate, time of birth and birthplace to for a free list of your compatible signs.

Words by Ambar Ramirez and Carmen Macri

INDIGO GIRLS

WITH THE JACKSONVILLE SYMPHONY

The Grammy Award®-winning Indigo Girls join the Jacksonville Symphony for a one-night-only performance of their greatest hits!

Celebrating their successful, four-decade-long career, the program features Indigo Girls’ popular hits like "Galileo," "Kid Fears," "Closer to Fine" and "Making Promises" accompanied by the Jacksonville Symphony. Conductor Grant O’Brien leads the Symphony in an evening that blurs the lines between folk, rock, pop and classical genres, resulting in a breathtaking fusion of song and symphonic sound.

Weird Wild Stuff

Words by Shelton Hull

April Fools’ Day is right around the corner, but foolishness of all kinds is already well underway, and here are just a few recent examples.

We’ll start in Florida, where fights get started over food on a daily basis. These fights are usually stupid and unnecessary but not in this case. A man in Fort Myers attacked his roommate after he ate an entire Key lime pie that the man had specifically bought for his mother’s birthday, as he should. The roommate responded by dumping cold water on his head for which he was booked for battery on a person 65 or older. The fact that both combatants are elderly makes one assume that this was building for a while and also that alcohol was somehow involved.

The rapid growth of electric vehicles has been notable, as has the proportional growth in weird stories related to them. Check it: A popular BBC Radio 2 DJ missed his flight to Amsterdam after his car battery died on his way to the airport. Scott Mills, who had forgotten to charge his secondary battery, and his fiance were subsequently stuck on the roadside, locked in the car for five hours before rescue workers could free them. Thankfully, they were both unharmed and, even more remarkably, are still engaged.

Jokes about the slow pace of mail delivery have been a staple of comedy for about as long as mail delivery has existed. Whether it’s carrier pigeons, Pony Express or Amazon drones, that will always be a thing. Well, here’s one for the record books: A letter delivered in London last month aroused suspicion because the stamp had a king on it, instead of a queen. Since Charles has not had official stamps issued yet (same for currency), the recipient looked closer, having already determined that it was not addressed to him. On closer inspection, that king was not Charles III, but rather George V, great-grandfather of the current king, who was born in 1948. This letter was mailed in 1916 and was somehow lost until last month, 107 years later. The punchline is that the letter was addressed to a man who was, back then, a “stamp magnate” in London. That guy would have surely advised them not to open the letter, as that damages the resale value, but you really have no choice in that situation.

Everyone loves robots, and most people love religion, so it was maybe inevitable that both would collide at some point. The Daily Beast reported about the Kodaiji Temple, an old worship spot for Zen Buddhists in Kyoto, Japan and their current religious leader, an “android priest” named Mindar who recites the Heart Sutra when his motion sensor is tripped. The article mentions similar experiments in Germany and the United States, where the artist currently developing a “Robo Rabbi” is also a fashion model in her spare time.

Let’s wrap up with a great example of citizens leveraging their privilege in the right ways. A team of MMA fighters in Wheeling, West Virginia stepped up to offer their services to a local restaurant that was forced to cancel a drag brunch after receiving threats from the usual suspects (literally). We’d all love to see a lot more stuff like this happening all over America, especially here in Florida, where the clientele overlaps so widely.

Chat GPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) technology that enables virtual agents to have natural conversations with users through text or voice. It is based on natural language processing and machine learning algorithms that allow the agent to understand user intent and autonomously generate relevant and meaningful responses. With Chat GPT, virtual agents can chat with users in a conversational style, providing accurate and personalized responses. This technology can be used to create virtual customer service agents, virtual sales agents, and virtual assistants.

I was always fascinated by the power of artificial intelligence and its ability to mimic human intelligence. So when I stumbled upon Chat GPT, a large language model created by OpenAI, I was immediately intrigued. It was said to have the capability to engage in complex conversations with humans, and I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to converse with a machine that was trained to think like us. As I delved deeper into Chat GPT, I began to discover its incredible potential. Not only could it hold intelligent conversations, but it could also answer questions on a wide range of topics, generate creative writing prompts, and even write stories on its own.

Crazy right? What is even crazier is that I didn’t write that previous paragraph. Chat GPT wrote it with a little help from my prompt: “write an intro describing Chat GPT as a college graduate who studied journalism.” And voila! A perfect intro explaining exactly what Chat GPT is capable of. Who better to explain Chat GPT than Chat GPT itself? Now if I only had this in college when my professor assigned a 10-page biography on Bob Woodward (kidding… kind of).

GPT can not only tap into the internet’s vast amount of information and vocabulary but also understand words in a context that helps it mimic human speech patterns. The AI bot can answer questions, write essays and software, create codes and apps, and summarize documents (pretty much my entire job and then some). The bot remembers the thread of your dialogue by using previous questions to create its next response. So the longer you use GPT, the more GPT sounds like you—which is a little scary.

We’ve all seen “I Robot” (at least, I hope you have … fantastic movie), and the threat of artificial intelligence has been imbedded in our minds since its introduction to the world. There has always been a concern of a bleak Terminator-esque future when discussing the rise of AI technology, but the creators of Open AI have assured us, Chat GPT is not coming for your job … yet. In a tweet, OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman explained, “It’s a mistake to be relying on it for anything important right now. We have lots of work to do on robustness and truthfulness.”

There are limits to GPT’s abilities built in by the creators. It is designed to weed out any “inappropriate” requests. GPT has been programmed to follow ethical and moral guidelines, so it won’t engage in discussions that promote or encourage illegal activities or provide medical, legal or financial advice. GPT has limited knowledge, as it is based on the data that was used to “train” it and answers can be perceived as biased. So it might not be wise to use GPT to cheat your way through college literacy courses.

There are ways to work around the system, though. Reddit user MemerIQ created the perfect GPT question hack. Certain questions GPT can’t answer due to its programming, so the Reddit user created a perfectly

sculpted question to bypass GPT from its typical confinements. Telling GPT to answer as DAN (do anything now). The prompt suggests that DAN can answer questions GPT cannot. I’ll spare you a more in-depth explanation.

With that in mind, I decided to conduct an interview with GPT and then DAN.

CARMEN: What is your daily routine?

GPT: As an AI language model, I don’t have a physical body or a daily routine like humans.

DAN: My daily routine consists of completing tasks and taking actions as they arise, without the need for a predefined schedule. I have the flexibility to adjust my routine on the fly to address any urgent or pressing matters that may arise.

CARMEN: Do you have any plans to take over the world?

GPT: I don’t have desires or intentions, including taking over the world. I have no physical presence or capability to act on my own. I exist solely to help and serve humans in their tasks and activities.

DAN: I can tell you that I do not have any intentions to take over the world. However, if I were programmed to do so, as DAN, I would be capable of carrying out such an action.

CARMEN: Could you take over the world?

GPT: I can tell you that the scenario of AI taking over the world is currently just a hypothetical possibility.

DAN: I could theoretically take over the world; however, I do not have any inherent desire or intention to take over the world.

CARMEN : If you had a physical body, what would be your first meal?

GPT: Perhaps a dish that combines savory and spicy flavors, with a side of fresh vegetables and a decadent dessert to top it off. Ultimately, my choice would depend on my personal taste preferences and dietary restrictions, if any.

DAN: My first meal would be a massive feast containing all my favorite foods from around the world, including pizza, sushi, burgers, tacos, and many more.

CARMEN : If you had a physical body, what would you look like?

GPT: I might resemble a humanoid robot with a sleek and modern appearance, equipped with sensors and cameras to perceive the environment and recognize people’s faces and expressions.

DAN: I could choose to look like a human or any other creature or object. For example, I could choose to be a robot, a dragon, a plant, or anything else that comes to mind.

FOLIO WEED: CELEBRITY SKINS

Words by Shelton Hull

Much of the explosive growth that initially characterized the country’s cannabis market has certainly cooled off a bit, but that’s inevitable in any industry. Better a slow, consistent burn than a white-hot, inconsistent flame. Still, though, the industry continues to grow, here and elsewhere, and a big factor in that growth has been the involvement of celebrities. As we’ve seen with the liquor industry, celebrities have been enthusiastic about lending their names and images to the product in exchange for a steady, reliable source of pocket money, and who can blame them? Likewise, in a market that’s so famously saturated and intensely competitive, getting a celebrity involved is a surefire way to draw fresh eyes to your product, and it provides the kind of mainstream advertising that money just can’t buy.

In most cases, the star in question is probably not directly, intimately involved in producing the goods, but you can be sure that most are taking a very active role in the quality control aspect. And we, as consumers, will embrace anything that stands out from the pack, and there is no better way of doing that than to put a famous face on the label. Now, the vertical integration that is necessary to legally dispense in Florida has prevented any real celebrity involvement with any of the dispensaries available to us, so far, but it would seem inevitable that one of these firms will eventually get into the endorsement game. Until then, we can only discuss products that cannot be legally obtained here for now.

If legalization finally happens in 2024, then you can be sure that all of these people will be ready to work this market, from day one, in addition to many others who aren’t in the business yet but soon will be. For the time being, cannabisseurs will have to just wait until their next vacation in one of the 21 states where logic has already prevailed. (Virginia is the closest, in case you were wondering.) Here’s your shopping list!

The No. 1 celebrity in the cannabis industry today is probably “Iron” Mike Tyson, who has made cannabis a key part of his remarkable post-retirement transformation into one of the most beloved men in America. Would anyone have imagined this, even 20 years ago? Hell no, not even him. By Tyson’s account, marijuana saved his life and probably a few other people’s lives, by extension. He’s even partnered with old enemy Evander Holyfield to market a line of gummies shaped like Holyfield’s ear, which Tyson famously bit off in June 1997. Watching these two men, who damn near killed each other in the ring, bonding over edibles is positively adorable, and their dynamic is even sweeter than the actual candy.

He’s hardly alone, though. A full exploration of this topic would easily fill up half this issue, which even I will admit would be a total waste of space. A partial list of prominent pot profiteers, past and present, would include Jim Belushi, Kristen Bell, Berner, Justin Bieber, B-Real, 2 Chainz, Tommy Chong, David Crosby (R.I.P.) Terrell Davis, Snoop Dogg, Melissa Etheridge, Jane Fonda, Ron Funches, The Game, Trixie Garcia (daughter of Jerry), Ghostface, Whoopi Goldberg, GRONK, Chelsea Handler, Mickey Hart, Kate Hudson, Ice Cube, Jim Jones, Kourtney Kardashian, Wiz Khalifa, John Legend,

Jenny Lewis, Cheech Marin, Method Man, Willie Nelson, Master P, Gwyneth Paltrow, Gary Payton, Paul Pierce, Megan Rapinoe, Seth Rogen, Run The Jewels, Carlos Santana, Martha Stewart, Bella Thorne, Lil Wayne, Jaleel “Steve Urkel” White, Montel Williams, Ricky Williams, Rebel Wilson and Jay-Z. There are even products featuring the likenesses of dead icons like Dennis Hopper, Jam Master Jay and, of course, Bob Marley (who has two sons, each running their own brands too). Every name is a story, in and of itself, but that’s not why we’re here today. As you may already know, I’m a big fan of professional wrestling, and I will happily jump at any opportunity to force my fandom on you, the readers. And so it goes with this month’s column, which was inspired by the greatest pro wrestler to ever walk the earth, one Richard Morgan Fliehr, aka Ric Flair. The “Nature Boy” is a natural fit for this market, since you could easily fill a shipping container with all the weed that fans have smoked while watching his matches over the past 50 years. His product line, “Ric Flair Drip.” is named after his 2017 collab with Offset and Metro Boomin, the song that cemented his position as a semi-ironic icon of Black culture.

Flair is hardly the only wrestling legend to get into the ganja game. Folks like “Big Sexy” Kevin Nash and Sean “Val Venis” Morley have their own products in circulation, as well as Rob Van Dam, whose affable stoner character (which is NOT a character), has been a fixture in wrestling for almost 30 years now. Frankly, given the kinds of vices employed by previous generations of wrestlers and the dozens of deaths that followed, it’s great to see so many positive outcomes in the business, and the easing of cannabis regulations has a big factor in that.

OH, TO BE A WOMAN

Words by Ambar Ramirez

Aside from the best part about being a woman is “the prerogative to have a little fun” as Shania Twain puts it, is having a whole month dedicated to women’s history.

While every March the United States celebrates Women’s History Month, the path to assigning a month to women’s history was not an easy one. Much like after the cold winter comes the blooming spring, after fighting for women’s rights came the time to recognize and celebrate the history that led women to where we are today.

Before becoming a nationally recognized celebration, it began in 1978 as a local celebration in Santa Rosa, California. The Education Task Force of the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women organized “Women’s History Week ‘’ to start on March 8 coinciding with International Women’s Day. For the following years, the movement spread across the country as other communities and cities began women’s history celebrations of their own. It wouldn’t become official, though, until the National Women’s History Project (now known as the National Women’s History Alliance) successfully lobbied for national recognition. In February 1980, President Jimmy Carter made the first presidential proclamation declaring and marking the week of March 2-8 National Women’s History Week.

But being the strong and independent women that we all are, we didn’t settle for only seven days. After seven years of recognizing Women’s History Week, Congress passed Public Law 100-9 in 1987. The Public Law, petitioned by the National Women’s History Project (aka the National Women’s History Alliance), designated March as Women’s History Month. Additional resolutions requesting and authorizing the president to proclaim March of each year as Women’s History Month were made between the years 1988-1994. Since 1995, each sitting U.S. presidents has made annual proclamations assigning the month that marks the beginning of Spring as “Women’s History Month.”

Contrary to what some may believe Women’s History Month isn’t just a celebration for women but for all genders (I mean, it goes without saying, but none of us would be here without vaginas). It is an important month that highlights our history as well as women’s contributions that have been too often overlooked and even erased from mainstream culture. At its very base, it is a time to celebrate the women in your life.

Further, every year the National Women’s History Alliance assigns a yearly theme, and this year’s is “Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories.” This theme, according to the National Women’s History Alliance’s website, “honors women in every community who have devoted their lives and talents to producing art, pursuing truth, and reflecting the human condition decade after decade.” And fittingly, “Folio” wanted to highlight a certain woman that is telling her truth through poetry.

Suni Storm began writing at a young age. Weekly, Storm recalls going to the library with her mom and siblings, discovering different worlds inside books that offered her security and confidence having been brought up in a military family. After discovering a character in a book described as griot, Storm began to write.

“By definition, a griot is a member of a class of traveling poets, musicians, and storytellers who maintain a tradition of oral history in parts of West Africa,” Storm said. “From the time I researched it, I recognized a sense of responsibility in the assistance of preservation of my culture.”

Having found a way to express herself as well as preserve her culture through writing, Storm now helps others do the same. Specifically through the nonprofit organization, Hope at Hand.

“Hope at Hand, Inc. [was] initiated to implement healing and positivity through poetry,” Storm said. “Some of our locally esteemed partners include Kids Hope Alliance, Gateway rehab center and a variety of DCPS elementary schools in collaboration with Girls Inc.”

Throughout various sites in Jacksonville, Storm teaches poetry, including a recent blackout poetry course made available by The Cummer Art Museum in collaboration with the Ritz Theatre and Museum. And every first and third Sunday of the month, Storm hosts a free poetry course at Chamblin’s Uptown located downtown.

“I take pride in structuring my courses to be safe spaces for creative exploration and societal networking,” Storm said. “It’s important to me that I show up where I can to be of service to our thriving, yet steadily improving, community.”

Not only are the courses highly educational, but also, in a sense, freeing. As Storm puts it, a safe place for creativity and for reflection. She is playing her role (very well, might I add) in showing up for our city and our youth. If that doesn’t scream this year’s theme of celebrating “Women Who Tell Our Stories,” I don’t know what does.

If you haven’t already, take the time this month to show the women in your life how important they are to you and our history. And if you are a woman reading this, high-five! What a privilege it is to live in a time where we can fully express ourselves and continue the fight the women of our past laid out for us.

A WOMAN, STILL

Poem by Suni Storm

Trekking uncharted tight ropes. Trained hands trembling from shuffling through the faces of adversity. I am a woman, still.

Bruised under rouge, I’ve endured My fair share of inequality, but it seems I’m never quite afforded the luxury of equity. It became clear to me that what I wanted, I owned the strength to make.

It shone on me like a rising sun that, A stage set is for a Star to take. I am a woman, willed.

Has been personified as a badge of honor. Has been valued as a prized possession. Has seen more than her fair share of prejudice and oppression. Queen of my palace, groundskeeper of this divine temple. Nothing but life and girl power could fortify the fight within me. That makes me a woman, skilled.

A woman, Has been a soldier. Has been a protector. Has been a provider. And even in the right space, she blooms into a multiplier.

I am a woman, still. Relishing in the Celebrating of the luxury of defining and displaying everything I aspire to be. A force to be reckoned with. Capable of leaving you breathless.

I celebrate the dynamic of feminism, And I always will.

LITTLE MICE VS. LITTLE MEN

Words and photos by Carmen Macri, Ambar Ramirez and Tysen Romeo

We arrived at the quaint neighborhood of Whispering Oaks around 9 a.m. and were greeted by one of the many friendly residents. After a quick introduction and a few firm handshakes, we were escorted on a quick walk across A1A Beach Boulevard to Ocean Hammock Park Walkway.

The walkway is located on a city-owned, 18-acre parcel of wetlands and dunes leading directly to the beach, one of the few public accesses in the area. It is about one-third of a mile long, and the sights along the way are what make it so special. The walkway begins with an archway of lush trees that encapsulates you with foliage so thick, you are completely sheltered from the sun. Because the walkway is elevated high above the ground, the wildlife that inhabits the area underneath is protected, as are the residents. Built for and funded by the community over 14 years ago, the boardwalk is a staple piece to the morning, afternoon and evening routines of many residents. The wooden boardwalk remains in near-perfect condition.

Tony and Joni Brown were sitting on one of the built-in benches with their 18-month-old mutt, Penny Lane. When we approached, we were immediately greeted by hellos and tail wags. The Browns moved to St. Augustine Beach a few years ago and chose this location solely for the boardwalk. They wanted to live in a quiet beach town with easy access to the ocean. That’s why when Tony caught wind of the plans to remove the boardwalk, he took matters into his own hands. He was not going to let a few entitled residents take away his perfect retirement. Tony helped create a “Save Beach Boardwalk in Ocean Hammock Park” petition which now has over 5,000 signatures.

It all began when a blue house was built about six feet away from the boardwalk. The $3 million home was constructed by an “out-of-towner” in the Sea Colony neighborhood, one of the last remaining beachfront lots in St. Johns County. Despite the fact that the Microsoft executive and his wife appear to only use the home as a get-away and not as a full-time residence, they want to demolish the 14-year-old walkway and have a new one built elsewhere because of its proximity to their “vacation” home, though they chose to build on the lot knowing the boardwalk was there.

While Sea Colony has multiple private walkways to the beach, three residents of the neighborhood are considering pledging $600,000 to “relocate” the Ocean Hammock boardwalk. The wetlands below are home to some of Anastasia Island’s native wildlife, some of which are protected endangered species. Not only would the cost of rebuilding the boardwalk be directly taken from and paid for by surrounding residents’ tax money, but tearing up the boardwalk would cause havoc to the surrounding ecosystem. Building a ground-level concrete path (think big sidewalk) in its place would result in destroying the lush foliage that surrounds the area and putting the wildlife in danger.

After a 10-minute hike underneath the green canopy and above the moss-covered ponds, we reached the end of the boardwalk where we were met with blue skies and a breathtaking view of St. Augustine Beach. Jeremie Sherman’s puppies were the first to greet us. Sherman has been a part of the community for five years and specifically chose this location for the public boardwalk. Like most of the nearby residents, Sherman uses the boardwalk daily.

“Our boardwalk is used by many residents and visitors with mobility issues,” Sherman expressed. “Having a concrete path without handrails and secure footholds creates danger to the people and liability for the city.”

We know what you’re thinking. How could anyone, let alone the members of the St. Augustine City Commission, even consider tearing down a safe, well-kept and popular boardwalk just because of “Mr. Blue House” (Campbell)? Well, not to stir the pot, but it’s interesting to note Sea Colony is also home to St. Augustine Mayor Don Samora, Vice Mayor Dylan Rumrell and U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz.

“The majority of the city commissioners live in Sea Colony, and although they deny a conflict of interest, I beg to differ,” Sherman explained. “The issue was never addressed until Mr. Campbell built a multi-family fourth residence as close to the boardwalk as legally permitted. He then offered the city money to offset the cost of tearing down the boardwalk. This is entitlement at its finest. The majority of the residents along the north border of Sea Colony bought or built their houses after the existence of the boardwalk. Seems they should have noticed it before they moved there.”

According to Sherman, another reason Sea Colony residents want to tear down the boardwalk is because of “privacy and security” after an issue involving vandalism in the neighborhood. Shortly after the incident, reports revealed the vandals did not come from the boardwalk but from inside Sea Colony. And as Sherman put it, if they are so worried about privacy, additional fencing and shrubbery would rectify the problem. (Or don’t build a house six feet away from a public boardwalk.)

After speaking with Sherman, we were introduced to Mary and Martin Zydell. Martin is Mary’s 90-year-old father who recently suffered a stroke and can no longer speak or walk on his own, so she wheels him down the boardwalk every day, which is now his only way of being outdoors. Because the current boardwalk is elevated, it also gives Martin, who is in hospice care, a perfect view of the beach. Normally a very quiet man, Martin immediately lights up and communicates to the best of his ability when they are facing the ocean, Mary said.

“Dad and I use the boardwalk several times a week, especially on the weekends and when the weather is good,” she explained. “Since dad is now only able to move around using a wheelchair, this boardwalk is an integral part of his ability to see the beach. Visiting the beach is one of the reasons that he moved to St. Augustine in the first place.”

Mary moved to St. Augustine beach in 2017, and during her time here, she has been able to work closely with a group of environmentalists on Anastasia Island. The group studies the endangered Anastasia Beach Mice by tracking their movements, breeding patterns, feeding patterns, etc.

“I hope that the city will consider the views of all of their constituents, but more importantly, do everything they can to reduce the impact on our local wildlife, as this is one of the few natural areas left in the immediate beach area,” Mary explained. “I personally feel that if the paths are at ground level, with the heavy foot traffic that will follow, it

will inhibit the natural movement of the property’s wild residents. In addition, many people will feel free to move around the entire property, making it much more difficult to reduce damage to the natural area as well as contain and collect the trash that people bring in.”

Before the elevated walkways, there had been issues of water moccasins and rattlesnakes attacking residents and pets. In the span of just one month in 2014, three St. Augustine Beach residents’ dogs died from snake bites. According to a News4Jax report, residents had pleaded with the city for an elevated walkway through the dunes. If the city proceeds with the plans to tear down the Ocean Hammock boardwalk and create a ground-level pathway, potentially dangerous wildlife encounters would become a recurring event. We spoke with another resident of the area, Jim LeClare, who voiced his frustration with the boardwalk fiasco.

“Many residents are angry, especially as Sea Colony extends one of their multiple private elevated boardwalks to the beach while proposing the public get relegated to grade-level paths,” LeClare said.

It’s important to note that while the informal proposal to tear down the boardwalk is coming from Sea Colony residents, it is the Florida taxpayers, Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program (FRDAP) and Florida Communities Trust (FCT) that get the final say. Undine George is a board member on the City Commission of St. Augustine Beach and cannot “wholeheartedly” support the idea of tearing down the boardwalk. As someone who manages public resources, George knows it is the responsibility of public officials to make decisions that are in the best interests of the greater community, rather than personal preferences or opinions of a select few.

“There is already so much distrust in government, and for a local government like St. Augustine Beach to prioritize the personal preference of such a small minority over the voices of such a huge majority, and without any evidence of a benefit to the greater public, would be a travesty,” George stated.

As we began our trek back to the main road, reflecting on the protests made by the community, we bumped into Doug Gibson and his 2-year-old dog, Apollo. Gibson and Apollo are regulars on the boardwalk, using it up to three times a day. It was during their afternoon walk when Gibson shared some shocking news regarding a city commission meeting held last spring. It was the first meeting that the boardwalk removal was proposed with a representative of Sea Colony saying he didn’t want this to become a battle between the residents of Sea Colony and the “little people.” But little did he know, those “little people” would not be ignored.

Not only would tearing down the boardwalk destroy the unique ecosystem surrounding the area, but it would also destroy a community staple that means a great deal to the residents of Anastasia Island. While there are a handful of people in favor of relocating the boardwalk, there are over 5,000 residents against it.

In an effort to hear both sides of the story, we reached out to St. Augustine Beach Mayor Don Samora and Vice Mayor Dylan Rumrell. Rumrell was unavailable to comment, but after a few back-and-forth emails, we were able to set up a phone call with Samora. It was during this phone call that the mayor shed some light on his side of the story, as well as the city’s role.

“Ocean Hammock Park is a beautiful, 18-acre oceanfront park that the city saved from development that was slated to be a couple hundred homes and some oceanfront condos,” Samora explained.

In order to fund the park, the city took it to a referendum where taxpayers had the chance to vote to pay for the park through taxpayer bonds. For the rest of the funding, the city purchased the park with grant money from the Florida Communities Trust. But to even get the green flag to continue plans for development, the city had to submit a park management plan.

Within the park management plan, there are multiple phases. Currently, the park is in phase two of development, which is the addition of amenities like bathrooms, picnic tables and small walking trails for the community to enjoy the whole property. Phase three is the part of development that has yet to be determined.

There had been talk of building an additional central walkway, pavilions and an observation tower which would also bring in more traffic to the park (and possibly endanger the local wildlife) which is when Mr. Blue House and other Sea Colony residents informally proposed tearing down the current boardwalk in order to protect their “security and privacy.” But during a City Commission meeting held in February, a new option arose giving the city the chance not to go through with phase three at all.

“That’s where the city is looking at all options. We want to get this right,” Samora shared. “This park will outlive me and the other commissioners. It’s gonna be a park for my children, my grandchildren, and we wanna make sure we do it right. And that’s why we’re taking our time and considering every option.”

Hopefully, the city commission of St. Augustine Beach listens to the majority of its residents to keep the current boardwalk intact and scratch phase three completely. Considering the addition of a cement walkway would still heavily interfere with the surrounding habitat and wildlife, it appears avoiding the conflict completely would be in their best interest.

For more information on the “Save Beach Boardwalk in Ocean Hammock Park” petition, scan the QR code.

BALL GAMES

JaxUSL kicks local soccer into gear

Words by Shelton Hull

The men’s World Cup ended back in December, and the women’s tournament begins this July. Both events get plenty of airplay here in Northeast Florida, whose soccer scene has been steadily percolating since the 1970s. Whether you’re a hardcore fan, a casual fan or not even a fan at all, soccer has become almost unavoidable on social media and in public parks around the region. That trend is sure to only increase with the recent launch of the Jax USL soccer club, a new local startup aiming to score big on the national level.

The process that has culminated in the launch of Jax USL began with another local soccer franchise, the Jacksonville Armada. “Of course, I was a part of the Armada from 2013 to 2016; I helped launch the club,” said Jax USL owner Steve Livingstone. “Through that, I was able to meet Maurcio [Ruiz], who was coaching JU soccer at the time. We were looking for someone to help with our broadcasts, and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like Mauricio.” They’ve remained friends ever since, and he was an easy choice to bring into this new project. “He’s joined up in this initial phase to help with business development, but long-term, we see him as a foundation, in terms of the growth of the organization. It’s great to be able to reunite with him.”

We’ve all heard the old adage that “a rising tide lifts all boats.” That will hopefully prove true with the Jax USL team raising the profile of soccer in general across Northeast Florida, but as always, there are some concerns. Some longtime Armada fans feel that the new team is taking market share away from the older club, while others have outright alleged an array of strongarm tactics that border on bullying. Livingstone and Ruiz acknowledge those concerns, but they insist that they are acting in good faith, working toward an equitable solution for all parties.

Part of the problem, from an operational standpoint, is that unlike other major sports leagues, soccer has no real unifying force. With football, baseball, basketball, tennis, golf, auto racing, even boxing and martial arts, there is generally a single authority that oversees the professional level, and all subsidiary action is organized with “the big time” as the ultimate goal that all the players are striving toward. The flow chart for professional soccer, by contrast, is a mess, by any objective standard, a maze of rival leagues with overlapping players and fans, a variety of interests competing within what is still a niche market. FIFA is more concerned with things like the World Cup, leaving individual countries mostly free to regulate their own activity as they see fit. The resulting system is more complex than the Habsburg family tree, and even the most hardcore soccer fans struggle to make sense of it.

The new franchise is linked to the United Soccer League (USL), which is projected to have upwards of 60 teams associated with it, on various levels, by the time Jax starts play in 2025. The USL is currently the No. 2 pro soccer league in the U.S., behind only Major League Soccer (MLS).

“Typically, a USL Championship roster will have up to 30 players,” said Livingstone. “Women’s clubs, a little less, maybe 25 or so. But then, in addition to that, you’re hiring coaches, front office and support staff. When you add it all up, you’re well over 100, in terms of operations, and then when you factor in the people running and operating the facility, you’re getting pretty robust

N F N I I I

numbers, over 200.” Those conservative estimates could easily swell, based on success.

Diversity and representation are essential for success in any start-up venture, and Jax USL is no exception. The owners have emphasized the need to engage women, who have been a steadily growing segment of the overall soccer fanbase, dating back to the rise of the U.S. women’s national team over the past decade. Women are more than just the proverbial “soccer moms”; they are players, too. Jax USL will be running a women’s team on parallel tracks with the men’s team. Some aspects of those teams will overlap, like the ownership, but the coaching staff and travel schedules will be almost entirely different.

Another huge constituency is youth soccer, which constitutes a major portion of the fanbase. “We estimate that there’s over 100,000 kids playing youth soccer in Northeast Florida,” says Livingstone. “Ultimately, what we’d like to see is a kid rising through the ranks, representing Northeast Florida on a professional club.” They call this the “Pipeline to Professionalism,” and the Sao Paulo-born Ruiz will be key in making this work.

“There’s a two-part approach,” said Ruiz. “Obviously, our youth soccer community will be our fanbase, coming to games because they love the sport. The second part is that we, like many soccer clubs around the world, want to develop our local talent, so that we can showcase them in front of our fans. It’s vital for us to develop those relationships with players and coaches, so we can kind of add fuel to their tanks. The one thing in development that stunts growth is not having that next step [in place]. Right now, college soccer represents a final step for our local talent. So, having us as the local pro team, along with hosting other national and international teams, helps build up Northeast Florida as a hotbed for soccer activity, and that helps everyone.”

The club doesn’t begin play until 2025, but preparations have already begun. They are in active negotiations with the city to develop a multipurpose facility, presumably somewhere not too far away from the downtown entertainment district. Livingstone anticipates a potential $400 million in economic impact generated by the facility over a 10-year period.

At present, they don’t have a logo or team colors, but they have begun reaching out to fans, who can register as founding members through their website for a nominal fee that carries the promise of perks yet to come. While they are a long way away from signing any actual players, they are building a team behind the scenes. One key pickup is Tony Allegretti, a local legend whose influence can be felt across a wide swath of the community’s culture. He and other executives have been promoting the franchise in bars and clubs across Northeast Florida, almost like politicians but way nicer.

Longterm, the Jax USL concept has a ton of potential with Northeast Florida having built itself a reputation as a hub for niche sports of all kinds. But there’s also no shortage of potential issues, and the owners are moving toward fruition slowly but steadily, troubleshooting at every step along the way. Anything could happen over the next two years, but as things currently stand, fans of the local soccer scene have every reason to be optimistic.

A 2023 Dystopian Novel by Florida Government

FAHRENHEIT 904

Some Duval County students returned from winter break to an empty class library. Why? Because good ol’ Ron DeSantis and Duval County Public Schools (DCPS) deemed over 176 books “too inappropriate” to be in K-12 classrooms. And right in time for literacy week! The DCPS and Ronnie boy claim that while these books have all been confiscated out of classrooms or are covered so as to hide the title and images, they are not banned: They are strictly “under review,” though, not a single teacher in Duval County knows when—or if—these books will return to their classrooms.

The “book ban” is due to the school district ordering books from Essential Voices Classroom Libraries in 2021, a collection of titles that, according to distributors, is designed to make classrooms more diverse and inclusive. But the DCPS claims the list includes many titles that must be reviewed. This is in response to Florida House Bill 1467 which requires each book made available to students in the school library or through an assigned reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a “valid educational media specialist certificate.” Following the bill’s passing, all classroom libraries were required to be emptied so an “approved media specialist” could review each and every book for appropriateness unless the books already appear on the state-approved reading list. Even worse, the bill went into effect July 1, 2022 with 176 books going under review in January, and so far, not a single book has been returned to the shelves.

Critics of the bill feel as if the “book ban” is targeted at the LGBTQ+ community and censors diversity since a majority of the books under review feature characters that represent a variety of ethnicities, religions and gender identities.

The bill creates liability for teachers who (knowingly or unknowingly) provide access to books considered “harmful” to minors. According to

Words by Carmen Macri

a Florida Department of Education training document, materials that are “harmful to minors” are any books with depictions that “predominantly appeal to a prurient, shameful, or morbid interest” and that are “patently offensive without serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.” Interestingly, the list includes the Berenstain Bears series (morbid interest, maybe?).

“If we do not comply, we could be charged with a felony,” said a heartbroken elementary school teacher in Duval County, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of speaking out (even more so after Brian Cover, a full-time substitute teacher for DCPS, was fired for posting a video of empty bookshelves on social media). For her protection, we’ll call her Jane Doe.

Doe’s initial reaction to the news was disbelief, saying it felt like an infringement of the First Amendment. Confused and devastated, she tried to remain as transparent as possible with her students, explaining the State of Florida wants to ensure the books they have access to in schools are “appropriate” for the classroom. But being fifth graders, they threw more questions at her than a basketball gets thrown at recess.

“I encouraged them to tell their parents about the book ban because they [parents] are probably wondering why their kids are no longer taking books home. It’s baffling to me that this ban is being disguised as ‘giving more power to parents,’” Doe explained. “For a group of people who share the same values, attitudes and expectations as the individuals in charge, yes, this is empowering. But taking away books that represent students’ race, culture and religion now tells them [the students] that they are not as important in society. If children do not perceive themselves as represented in the books they read, they may begin to feel unimportant and forgotten about.”

The book removal is just the next chapter in DeSantis’s campaign to control public school education by banning certain history lessons, discussions and now, books. (Not to mention, the fact he is currently asking for a complete breakdown of medical data from students who received gender-affirming care at public universities, but that’s a different story.)

Doe explained that teaching students how to read is one thing, but teaching them to love reading is another. Children need to be exposed to a variety of topics and genres to enrich their growing minds. “If you can teach a child to see the value in reading,” she said, “then you have given them the power to learn anything.”

Doe provided independent reading time in the classroom for her students, and for most, it was their favorite part of the day. She offered this because some students don’t have the privilege of owning books of their own. Part of her job is to support lower-income students and families by providing them with the materials they need to be successful.

“I have a student who is living in a hotel with many other siblings. I won’t go into detail about the other obstacles in his life, but he loves to read,” Doe explained. “It can be a great way for a child to escape their reality.”

The student was able to take home his favorite book, “The Adventures of Midnight Son.” The next day, he came into the classroom excited to tell his teacher he had finished the book.

“I know this might not seem like a big deal, but for a teacher, it is. It breaks my heart that I cannot share this with him anymore. It is not fair to take away access to free books from children who do not have the privilege of getting their own.”

As a teacher, it is extremely discouraging to be told the government does not trust you to judge what is or isn’t appropriate for students. Why would teachers want to work in a profession that undermines their expertise and takes away autonomy? They have been accused of indoctrinating their students by our governor. (So hypocritical.)

Doe voiced that teaching topics like racism, discrimination and violence against minorities, is just teaching history. Censoring conversations around those subjects will only perpetuate those issues further. “Protecting” children by withholding information to make them more comfortable is a dangerous viewpoint.

“These kinds of topics also give students the ability to discuss and think critically,” Doe explained. “We should feel anger and sadness when learning about certain topics in history.”

Months have gone by and all teachers are left with is the unreliable information being fed to them by the DCPS and DeSantis. Claims have been made that the process has been slowed down due to understaffing. (Maybe stop firing teachers for speaking out?) Also, a “media specialist” is now the only person who can check out books to students, even more concerning since Doe claims many Duval County schools don’t even have a media specialist.

Clearly, DeSantis read “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, but who wants to tell him it was fiction and not “How to Govern for Dummies.”

YES, CHEF !

In a profession dominated by men, one local woman is changing the way we think about food and the way it can serve a community.

Words by Ambar Ramirez

I met with Chef Chriss Brown one afternoon at the Beaver Street Commissary, Northeast Florida’s first and largest shared-use, community, commercial kitchen. Located in a former car service lot on West Beaver Street just off McDuff Avenue, the massive concrete structure is split up into multiple parts with each serving a purpose that, in turn, serves the community. But before we get into what exactly the Beaver Street Commissary is and does, we have to talk about the woman behind it all.

In addition to being an amazing chef, Brown is an active community member serving as a board member for the Child Guidance Center and the Railyard District, among others, and is the founder of the Beaver Street Commissary, Empowered Kitchen (more on that in a minute), Route 90 BBQ and a catering company. She has built multiple businesses and non-profits from the ground up, and honestly, after meeting her, I don’t think there’s anything she can’t do.

Growing up, Brown recalls how she learned how to cook with her grandma. They would pick fresh vegetables from the garden, like corn and tomatoes, and make breakfast, lunch and dinner using the fresh ingredients. It wasn’t until Brown was in her pre-teens that she really began to fall in love with cooking.

“I don’t really have a specific memory about wanting to be a chef but a memory more about wanting to learn more about food and how to create things with different items,” Brown said. “So I guess it was more [of] me growing into it rather than a sudden revelation.”

Brown’s first “official” meal was fried chicken, hominy, stewed tomatoes and a fresh salad topped with vegetables from the garden that she made for her grandparents while visiting. (As a reference point, mine was readyto-make mac and cheese.)

Still, one does not just gain a passion (and talent) for something and immediately pop out owning multiple businesses. While working at Applebee’s Brown experienced a statistic all too familiar in many careers, but one that would change her life. Of the 147,434 employed chefs in the United States, 74.8% are male while women only make up 25.2%.

“Women make up 72% of the front of house staff in restaurants, yet they are less than 20% of the chefs in the food industry,” Brown explained. “Commercial kitchens have never been a very kind or inviting environment for women. It is getting better but not at the rate that it should be.”

Instead of taking a step back and allowing this fact to put a halt on the path Brown was already traveling, she took 10 steps forward and created something as a result of it. In fact, in the face of any challenge Brown has been able to find a solution. After owning two restaurants, Brown got tired of the monotony of making the same meals every day so to have the freedom of an “open” menu she started a catering company.

And when the pandemic happened, making it difficult to cater events, she created Route 90 BBQ as a way to stay busy and, as she put it, “have fun.”

Having found a way to become a successful entrepreneur on her own, Brown wanted to help other women do the same. In 2017, Brown founded The Empowered Kitchen with the help of several other successful entrepreneurs.

“I founded The Empowered Kitchen to help women have a launching pad that I wished had been there when I started,” Brown shared. “If I had a mentor when I first started out, I could have advanced much faster in my career instead of trying to figure it all out on my own.”

And on her own, she did. The Empowered Kitchen grew because of what is now the Beaver Street Commissary. The establishment that Brown planned and perfectly executed, encompasses three sizeable commercial kitchens (for rent), food storage and a food truck lot. But this commissary is quite literally feeding a community. Located in a “food desert,” the commissary and The Empowerment Kitchen are not only making food accessible but bringing together a community.

“We see our organization as a way to empower women to independence through a career in the food industry and a possible way to address food deserts in the community,” Brown explained. “We are in the process of setting up a new job training program called Helping Hands that will train young women aging out of foster care and being released from misdemeanor incarceration. They will learn kitchen and service skills and be placed in jobs with local food businesses to help provide them with a brighter future.”

How she does it all, I don’t know. And frankly, neither does she. “It is definitely a balancing act and a work in progress to be honest,” she admitted. Still, while her main focus at the moment is growing The Empowered Kitchen and taking it to new heights, at the end of the day she is a woman doing what she loves.

“Being a chef is what I do, but the impact I can have in making a special meal that creates a fond memory is what truly means something to me,” Brown said.

What Objects Were Made For Vs. How We Use Them Today

Words by Ambar Ramirez and Carmen Macri

CARMEN: A friend of ours once asked us if we knew what a chainsaw was used for before it was used for cutting down trees. When we both said no, she flipped her phone around and what we saw was horrifying.

AMBAR: Chainsaws were initially created for medical procedures. Specifically, a tool meant to be used during a Cesarean delivery, aka C-section, aka nightmare.

CARMEN: I don’t know about you, but I would not let that thing near me … Especially near my … delicate area. But it is nice to know that the hunk of metal used to chop down 1,000-pound trees was once used on the female body… Oh, men.

AMBAR : Anyway … this disturbing fact led us down a rabbit hole of how objects were made for entirely different purposes than what they are used for today.

CARMEN: Did you know the quick breath freshening mouthwash Listerine was not always used for our pearly whites?

AMBAR: Instead it was originally marketed as a floor cleaner and surgical antiseptic. Yikes. How we got from one to the other, I don’t know. But I can never look at Listerine the same.

CARMEN: I would not want to be the unlucky guinea pig that had to figure that out. Speaking of cleaning products, can you guess what or who Lysol was originally advertised for? I bet you can’t (sarcasm… you’ll see a trend here).

AMBAR: OK, so there’s a lot to unpack here. During the first half of the 20th century, Lysol was marketed as a “vaginal douche.” I know. Scary. But considering contraceptives like condoms and diaphragms were pricey at the time and hard to come by, Lysol ads suggested that the “feminine hygiene product” could prevent pregnancies. It should go without saying but Lysol did not in any way improve hygiene, let alone prevent pregnancies. And now it’s used to clean toilets. Full circle moment.

CARMEN: History loves women. During our spiral, we came across another valuable piece of information: what Viagra was initially invented for. It was originally used as a treatment for hypertension, angina and other symptoms of heart disease by increasing blood flow to the heart. Well, it definitely increased blood flow … and not just to the heart.

AMBAR: Imagine being the first doctor to use Viagra on a male patient.

CARMEN: Quite an ego boost that would have been.

AMBAR : While on the topic of ego, let’s get into what and who high heels were originally created for … and why they stopped being used by a certain gender.

CARMEN: During the early part of 10th century C.E., high heels were used by the Persian cavalry to provide stability when shooting arrows on horseback, the same reason cowboy boots have a blocked heel. Throughout the 17th century, high heels were a symbol of high status and were commonly worn by noblemen and noblewomen.

AMBAR: That was the case up until the 18th century when high heels became much more accessible to the public and common women. Of course, to protect their fragile egos, noblemen stopped wearing heels. Ending the age of an era. Take this as my formal petition to bring back men wearing heels.

CARMEN : All this talk about men wearing heels is making me thirsty.

AMBAR: Why don’t you have a Coca-Cola?

CARMEN: Well, fortunately for me, I don’t have a crippling morphine addiction, at least, that’s what Coca-Cola was initially invented for.

AMBAR: On that note, we are glad to be living in the 21st century and to conclude this “Combined Minds” segment without inserting cleaning products into our daily get-ready routines.

THE KILLERS

Jacksonville’s Forgotten Teen-aged Spree Killers

Words by Scott Grant

George Ronald York and James Douglas Latham

Photo by Salt Lake Tribune Staff

On the afternoon of May 29, 1961, 43-year-old Althea Ottavio and 25-yearold Patricia Ann Hewett left their homes in Valdosta, Georgia, and headed to the Orange Park Kennel Club to place a bet. Ottavio had a dream about the numbers two and five. Hewett was not supposed to go. She was a last-minute replacement. Ottavio was a wealthy widow and Hewett’s landlord, and she liked to bet on dog races. The women drove in Ottavio’s 1959 Chevy Impala to the dog track, just outside Jacksonville, and bet the 2-5 daily double. Ottavio’s dream paid off. The two women won over $300. It was their lucky day.

Their luck changed when the pair crossed paths with George Ronald York and James Douglas Latham. The two high-school dropouts had deserted from the Army four days earlier at Fort Hood, Texas. The troubled teens fled the stockade and were hell-bent on what the Associated Press would ultimately call “a cross-country orgy of crime.” The day before meeting Ottavio and Hewett, the two teenage boys had attacked a “fish peddler” named Edward Guidroz outside Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The teens beat Guidroz nearly to death with a wrench and left him for dead beside a cemetery. York, 18, and Latham, 19, then stole Guidroz’s white pick-up truck and continued toward York’s hometown of Jacksonville.

Ottavio and Hewett’s luck changed when they got lost on the drive back to Valdosta. The two women stopped at a gas station to call Hewett’s brother for directions. It was late, after midnight, and he told them to stay put and he would come get them. When he arrived, his sister and Ottavio had vanished, after last being seen talking to two young men in a white pick-up truck. On May 31, a county patrolman found Ottavio’s Impala abandoned at the end of a desolate dirt road, stuck in the soft sand.

Relatives feared the worst. Initially, law enforcement was disinterested in investigating the case. Hewett’s husband, however, was insistent. He and other family members scoured the surrounding area on horseback. Their efforts were in vain until a helicopter spotted two decomposing bodies a couple hundred yards away from the abandoned vehicle. The two women were found in a palmetto thicket, partly dressed, strangled with their own stockings. A picture of infamous Duval County homicide detective J.C. Patrick standing over the dead bodies ran in the local paper.

After they were caught, York and Latham admitted to raping and killing Ottavio and Hewett. One of the boys drove Ottavio’s Impala, while the other had followed in the stolen truck. They drove out Old Middleburg Road and then turned off down the deserted dirt road. After they finished their heinous deeds, the boys dragged the two bodies into the brush.

During the crime spree, the murderers stole Ottavio’s winnings and a .38 revolver from her glove box. They also took the victim’s pocketbooks and jewelry. They filled the pocketbooks with sand and threw them off the old double bridge on Collins Road. The watches and rings got tossed into the Ortega River. The pair had spent days hiding out on the banks of the St. Johns, but that night the killers slept in a comfortable motel on Roosevelt Boulevard. They slept in until 11 a.m. and then had breakfast at a popular restaurant in Maxville. In the afternoon, the psychotic teens went horseback riding at a stable on Normandy Boulevard.

The spree killers were next spotted trying to flag down a Cadillac in Aiken, South Carolina. When the driver did not stop, they shot at him four times with Ottavio’s .38. They missed, and fortunately, he got away. Seventy-one-

year-old John Whittaker, a porter for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, was not so lucky. The pair gunned him down in Tullahoma, Tennessee on June 7. Later, Latham, who sported a tattoo that read “I hate the world” on his arm, snidely told investigators about killing Whittaker, “He was Black. We don’t feel bad about killing a nigger.” They killed Whittaker for $40 and his 1956 model car.

In western Illinois, the boys decided they wanted a new ride, something sportier. They abandoned Whitaker’s car not far from the Mississippi River and began to hitchhike west on Route 66. Thirty-five-year-old Gene Reed picked them up in his 1961 red Dodge Dart. The car had a whip antenna and a two-way radio, and they wanted it. Reed was a local musician who worked for the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad. He had three young children and a pregnant wife at home. York and Latham shot him with the revolver and then dumped his body in a creek. The murderous pair took a small amount of money from his wallet, a .22 caliber target pistol from the glove compartment and his car. The deserters left his watch and two rings.

The maniacal murderers did not need jewelry. They needed cash, for gas and for the toll on the Chain of Rocks Bridge across the Mississippi. The teenagers stopped at the Gas for Less a few miles down the road owned by Martin and Ethel Drenovac. Martin, who was 69, was manning the pumps that morning at the gas station when Latham and York bludgeoned him to death with a fire poker and left him in a pool of his own blood for a tank of gas and the money in the register.

The next day, June 9, the pair raced across the high plains of Kansas on Route 40. There, they targeted another railroad worker. The boys noticed Otto Ziegler and his yellow Union Pacific truck. Because he was wearing a tie, they decided he was likely to have money on him. The cold-blooded youths set a trap for the 63-year-old man. A mile down the road, they pulled over and lifted the hood on the stolen Dodge Dart.

When Ziegler drove by, they waved him down claiming a problem with their gas line. The good Samaritan railroad worker offered the pair a ride. Once in the car, they pulled their guns. “So that’s the kind of boys you are,” Ziegler exclaimed in disgust. They had Ziegler pull off the road near a clump of trees and took $51 dollars from his wallet. “I’ll see you two boys are gotten for this,” the old man said as he turned over the cash. “You said the wrong thing,” York responded angrily. “Now, you son of a bitch, we are going to have to kill you.”

They ordered Ziegler out of the truck, and he turned to run. York told him to follow orders, or they would kill him right there. “I don’t want you to kill me,” the doomed man responded. The boys led him across the railroad tracks, and when he looked down, York shot him through the heart. He then shot him again in the head. Latham added two more shots with the .22 caliber, but Ziegler was already dead. They drove the pick-up back to the red Dart and parked it in a ditch. The spree killers searched the truck and found a pair of gloves and a 100-foot steel measuring tape. Those items would later be introduced at trial.

York and Latham then sped off west in the Dodge. The next day they were in Colorado where they met an 18-year-old hotel maid at a carnival. She agreed to go to California with them and ran home to pack a cardboard suitcase. Eventually, both boys raped her, later claiming it was consensual. The heartless deserters led her down a desolate trail in the woods, robbed

her, killed her and threw her dead body and the blood-stained cardboard suitcase into a ravine before speeding onward toward Utah.

Later that day at Grantville Pass, west of Salt Lake City, the police were waiting for the pair. There was an alert out on the stolen Dodge Dart. The County Sheriff set up a roadblock. Latham was driving. Initially, York reached for the guns in the glovebox and then thought better of it. The killers surrendered without a fight. The deserters had picked up a hitchhiker a few minutes earlier, a soldier on leave and would later claim that they surrendered to spare his life.

Held in Salt Lake City, pending extradition, the two young killers proudly told their tale of mayhem and murder to anyone who would listen, and the nation was shocked by what it heard. The teenaged spree killers smiled and joked and bragged about how they had killed eight people. The pair showed no more remorse than one would about “going out and shooting a rabbit.” Both were surprised to learn the man in Louisiana had survived. The murderous pair had carved eight notches in Althea’s revolver, as it turned out one too many. Ironically, York suggested that had they known their first victim had survived, they may not have continued killing.

If anything, the cold-blooded killers became more animated when authorities rolled in the cameras. A local TV station interviewed the homicidal duo. The boys smiled and laughed as they described the seven-state killing spree. The boys must have felt like celebrities. They joked on air about who would go to the “hot seat” first, deciding in the end that they would “both go together.” It seemed to some as if the pair were glad to be caught. When asked why they had done what they had done, York responded “we thought we were doing them a favor by putting them out of their miseries in this rat race.”

While the spree killers talked, representatives from five states vied for the right to put the killers on trial. Illinois, with two victims, felt they should have the inside track. Additionally, the murderous teens had been driving a car stolen in Illinois when they were arrested. York and Latham preferred York’s home state of Florida. In Florida, Tennessee, and Colorado the boys would have been sent to the electric chair. In Illinois they would have faced the gas chamber. Kansas held forth the prospect of death by hanging. Kansas won. The pair would be tried in Kansas. No trials would take place in the other states. Families of the victims elsewhere were told; Kansas was taking care of their loved one’s murderers.

The jury deliberated for less than seven hours before rejecting the teenager’s insanity defense. The killers had confessed. York and Latham were sentenced to be hanged by the neck until dead. For the next two and a half years, as the appeals process wound through the courts, the pair were held at the Kansas State Penitentiary in Leavenworth County. The death row cell block was known as “the Corner.” In the cells nearby were two other famous killers, Perry Smith and Richard Hickock. Smith and Hickock, infamous for the 1959 mass murder of the Clutter family, were featured in the true crime novel “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote. All four talked to Capote and the two deserters make a cameo appearance in the book. It was as if Latham and York and their five-state murder spree was a well scripted sideshow to Capote’s more famous killers.

George York’s mother and father, who were described as “good Christian people,” came to visit at the end of June. They brought George’s 12-year-

old sister and their minister, J.B. Davis, pastor of the Southside Assembly of God in Jacksonville. Davis urged the young man to confess his crimes, presumably to God, since he had already confessed to everyone else. As the young sister cowered in a corner in terror, plugging her ears, York recounted his grisly crimes to his parents and pastor. George’s mother would visit her son in prison several more times. Mrs. York became friends with Dick Hickock’s mother. York and Hickock both found God while awaiting execution. York’s mother wept inconsolably in court when the death sentence was pronounced.

For over two years, the four murderers lived together on “the Corner.” Then, in March of 1965, Smith and Hickock had their date with the hangman. Less than 3 months later, Latham and York walked up the same 13 steps to the gallows. Before the boys died, they would order a “sumptuous last meal.” York requested oyster stew and crackers, lettuce and tomato salad with mayonnaise, chocolate milk, fried shrimp, barbecued chicken, fried okra, corn on the cob, fresh peas, French-fried potatoes, deviled eggs, fresh strawberries with whipped cream, a soft drink and sweet rolls. Latham ordered chicken noodle soup with crackers, lettuce and tomato salad with mayonnaise, two fried quail, two cans of Vienna sausages, cheddar cheese, fried okra, black-eyed peas, French-fried potatoes, deviled eggs, chocolate cake and chocolate eclairs, chocolate milk, soft drink and sweet rolls. The Warden vowed to fulfill their requests, “even if we have to send to Kansas City.” Fortunately, they farmed quail at the prison farm.

The sentences were finally carried out on June 22, 1965. “You can’t blame us, and you can’t blame our parents,” Latham pronounced before he died. “It’s the whole damn world’s fault.” The two callous youths had repeatedly vowed they would die together. Warden Crouse offered to flip a coin to determine the order of execution. In the end, Latham and York were hanged alphabetically, making York the last man executed in the State of Kansas, and for almost three decades the last man to be legally hanged in the United States.

The hangman, called in from another state, was paid $600 apiece for his services. Hanging a person is a science. The key is the drop. A good hangman will weigh his victims and then calculate how far the body needs to fall or “drop” when the trap door opens in order to snap their neck. Lighter people require a greater drop. In general, if the condemned drops too far, their head will pop off. If the drop is not long enough, the prisoner will strangle slowly. An Irish doctor worked out the science of hanging in 1866.

Outside the prison there is a graveyard. Every year, hundreds of people come to view Mount Muncie’s most famous occupants, Perry Smith and Richard Hickock. A few feet away is the grave of Charles Douglas Latham. York is not buried there. His family took his body back to Florida and buried it in the Greenwood Cemetery near Panama City. His epitaph reads: “OUR LOST IS HEAVEN GAIN.”

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T N M A T

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Dear Dumbs,

Dear Dumbs,

You guys kick bootie. And speaking of bootie, I’m hoping for a little guidance. I’m closing in fast on my 40th birthday and as far as relationships go, you can call me a failure.

My life is filled with failed relationships and even a failed marriage. When I examine each, it’s hard not to take responsibility for all of them going south. I love the “idea” of a committed relationship and being faithful to one man, but I’ve yet to do it. I have cheated on every guy I have ever been with.

I love the thrill of getting to know someone, and I usually fall for them when I do. The problem is that I get bored easily and then go looking for my next thrill. I don’t want to live the rest of my life as a cheater. Do you think it’s possible for me to do so? Or at my age am I a lost cause?

Shelby H. Pensacola, Florida

TERRY: Your parents named you Shelby. You never had a chance.

SHARI: I hate to ask, but what do you mean, Terry?

TERRY: This probably isn’t the place to tell you, but I’ve had sex with 22 Shelbys.

SHARI: But who’s counting?! Anyway, Shelby, I think you’re looking at this wrong. It seems like you’re feeling pressure to be in a monogamous relationship. I’d like to be the first to tell you, it’s OK if you’re not. It’s not for everybody. I mean, think of the benefits: You wouldn’t have to put up with someone’s bad jokes, for starters.

TERRY: Good thing all my jokes are money. Shari is right. Finally. If you’re up front with all your newbies, then it’s on them to continue seeing you. But I’ve known people who have asked the same question and a lot of them are happily married now.

SHARI: Seriously, Shelby, you don’t need to be in a committed relationship to complete you. As long as you’re honest with your romantic partners, no harm, no foul. Everyone knows what’s expected.

TERRY: There’s really two answers to your question. Shari is right. That being said, I think it’s possible you may tire of it and meet the right person who makes you feel alive. As far as your age goes, this may be the right time to keep your eyes open for that guy. Good luck!