16 minute read
The Shot Heard Round the World
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By Michael Capuzzo
In May, Mountain Home magazine, “Free as the Wind,” blew around the globe and made history. My wife Teresa, the editor and publisher, published the first full account of how five worldrenowned American doctors, led by professor and doctor Paul Marik of the Eastern Virginia Medical School and professor and doctor Pierre Kory, formerly of the University of Wisconsin-Madison medical school, discovered the steroid treatments that became the global standard for hospitalized COVID-19 care, then went on to discover the remarkable COVID-killing powers of the FDA-approved generic drug Ivermectin. They saved hundreds of thousands of people around the world, including a Buffalo grandmother whose miraculous recovery from COVID-19 was the subject of our May cover story, and risked their lives at the bedside saving thousands of “the sickest of the sick” COVID-19 patients in teaching hospitals around the U.S. I wrote the story “The Drug That Cracked Covid” after spending the pandemic following the heroic exploits of Dr. Marik, et al. for my next book.
But instead of the Nobel Prize that should adorn the finest clinician-researchers of the pandemic—a group of the most published academic critical care doctor-researchers in the world—I’ve watched astonished as big pharma, big governments, big tech, and major media in every country have sought to destroy their reputations and destroy the sterling reputation of the extraordinarily safe, cheap, generic NobelPrize winning drug Ivermectin. Dr. Robert Malone, inventor of the m-RNA vaccine technology, says Ivermectin is safe and if universally distributed could achieve herd immunity and drive the SARS-Cov-2 virus extinct with or without vaccines. Dr. Kory says doctors around the world last week reported to him that Ivermectin is crushing the Delta variant everywhere.
Let’s see a show of hands: Who thinks these should be news stories?
Global reaction to the Mountain Home cover story has been remarkable. A Taipei doctor who directed one of the largest hospitals in Taiwan spent a week translating all 10,000 words—forty pages in a book—into Mandarin for Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China “to give our people and families the ability to fight for their lives.” The director of a Fortune 500 company in Poland translated it into Polish to give frightened doctors in his country the courage to use the safe, legal drug they have used without controversy for decades—until it outperformed vaccines at preventing and curing COVID-19 (see flccc.net) and threatened the myth that COVID-19 is an untreatable disease only vaccines can address. Dr. Satoshi Ōmura, one of the most renowned microbiologists in history and winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize for discovering Ivermectin, sent word from Japan that he loved our story, and urged us to keep going. So we are. “We are not stopping,” Teresa says. “We’re starting a new publication to save lives and break the back of censorship worldwide.” And we need your help. My wife and I invite all Mountain Home readers to join us (while continuing to enjoy Mountain Home every month) in a new online publication called RESCUE that will be emailed free to your inbox several times a week from substack.com. RESCUE will do nothing but publish independent reporting, stories, and art on the world’s most brilliant COVID-19 doctorscientists and their most effective, scientifically proven life-saving treatments for prevention as well treatment of all stages of COVID-19. These include the common anti-depressant fluvoxamine, vitamin D, melatonin, and other therapies suppressed by major media.
RESCUE is also a global community of doctors who can help you find Ivermectin or save the life of a loved one with COVID-19, as well as nurses, Nobel Prize winning scientists, and thousands of people in every country leading a global health revolution to put patients first. Go to substack.com and search for RESCUE to sign up. And tell your friends and family and neighbors to sign up, too. For more information you can email us at substackrescue@gmail.com.
Meanwhile, here’s a small sample of what readers around the world had to say about the story:
“Remarkable. Earth-shattering. I read your story twice. I always wanted to believe that the CDC, all of us, were invested in the Hippocratic Oath. But your story of five amazing doctors who care about nothing but saving human beings on planet Earth…has changed the way I look at my profession.” ~University of Pittsburgh Medical Center physician
“EVERYONE MUST READ THIS!” ~Sign in the library in Ulysses, PA. (pop. 610)
“Thank you for your beautifully written piece, “The Drug That Cracked COVID.” I found it very moving, and I thank God that you are spreading the word about Ivermectin…I remain astonished at how much of an uphill battle it has been…Early treatment saved my father’s life, who is 72 and has at least one co-morbidity. May many more follow in your footsteps.” ~Assistant professor of early Christian studies, Princeton Theological Seminary
“I am sending you a donation. I want to reprint this and I plan to send the article to my local and Washington State Board of Health members, and anyone else I can think of…doctors, family members, friends, and community. I believe Michael’s work is the most important piece of journalism of our time.” ~Sonia Story, Chimacum, WA, occupational therapist
“Fantastic piece. Thank you for writing this. Have shared on Twitter (very far from my normal posting lane); will be interesting to see if it is censored.” ~Misty MacDuffee, conservation biologist, British Columbia
“This is sooooo well written and edited! Congrats on a great job. An underlying theme of your piece, and highlighted in a Kory Wednesday video, is the complete corruption of Big Pharma, Big Health Agency, Big Academic Medical Center and Big Media.” ~Former policy aid to Democratic Philadelphia Mayor and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell
“I read ten thousand words without stopping…The wonderful story of Judy Smentkiewicz brings all the issues “to life.” I applaud you for the time and effort, and above all, your courage in writing her story.” ~University of Pittsburgh Medical Center surgeon
“A most informative, beautifully told story, terrific and masterful science writing. A big tip of the cap to Michael Capuzzo.” ~Member of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing
“This is a phenomenal job of reporting...I’m vaccinated and comfortable about my health, but thanks for sharing this. I will remember Ivermectin if things go south again. It definitely should have received a better treatment from the national media.” ~Former writer and editor, The Tampa Tribun.
“Congratulations, from Australia. I never write to journalists about their work, or comment on social media, but your epic story about Ivermectin had a huge impact on me. It provides me with yet more evidence of the devolution of our profession from the primacy of facts and reporting to the primacy of agendas and ideology.” ~Bestselling author in Australia, former editor and senior writer at the Sydney Morning Herald
“I just finished reading your brilliant article! I write for a weekly newspaper in Texas, and in my 30-plus years of writing and marketing have never seen such excellent reporting. If not suppressed, your work is worthy of a Pulitzer. ~Kari Short, owner, Short Communications, Houston, Texas
Thank you so much for your essay, “The Drug that Cracked Covid,” and profound thanks to your wife, Teresa (Banik Capuzzo), for publishing this breakthrough reportage in Mountain Home magazine. I am sharing the link with everyone I know…Thank you, again. Here’s to overcoming the barriers to truth. ~Adrian du Plessis, editor, J’Accuse News, Canada
“The multi-layered piece that you all have put out is, I think, inestimably valuable as well as a very good read. It reminds me particularly of Rolling Stone’s investigative pieces from the early till late 1970s.” ~Don Paul, San Francisco and New Orleans poet, musician, author, and progressive activist
“Thanks to you, your wife and daughter for the wonderful article “The Drug that Cracked Covid.” Hopefully, more will hear and we can all break free from the dream/nightmare that only pharma drug vaccines can keep us healthy. ~Sat Ganesha Khalsa, quality specialist, Yogi Tea, Eugene, Oregon
“I was camping up in Pettecoat Junction along the Pine Creek Bike Trail. I picked up your magazine, Mountain Home, and my partner and I were riveted by your article…This is the information that is not being told. Journalists are not asking the questions and are not demanding answers. Thank you, thank you, thank you!” ~Interior designer, New Jersey
“I live in a town near Venice, Italy, where I teach English (at Middle School). I came across your article when I watched a video on an Australian TV channel, speaking about “The drug that cracked Covid.” I’m here to ask your permission to translate it into Italian… ~Claudia Colladon
“It brings me to tears; the human suffering brought on by the cruel obstinance, malfeasance, and cowardice of those in power… We know of doctors who prescribed ivermectin who then have been made examples of, their licenses revoked, their reputations smeared, and their professional and social status obliterated…But I take heart in the ethical, brave doctors, research scientists, and journalists who do care and who will turn the tide. You are one of them. We are not alone. Your writing has already saved people; I’m sure of it.” ~Lori Tooker, San Francisco
“I just watched Sky News Australia recommend your article. Thank you for sharing your insight. Great decision to publish. World-wide attention. Stay safe and God bless you both!” ~Peter Robinson, Switzerland
“I received a link today from my daughter to your superb article from earlier this month on ivermectin. It was just infuriating to read of the self-serving alphabet agencies, their puppet masters (aka Big Pharma), the cowardly politicians and the obstinate medical “professionals” ignoring the most elite collection of researchers in the world. The research team members deserve the Nobel Prize. And you deserve a Pulitzer Prize. Thank you very much.” ~Fed Ex courier, Renton, WA
“What a wonderful, thorough article you published. I live in Canada and am experiencing the many obstacles you illustrate.” ~Lynn Walton, Picton, Ontario
“Finally ONE brave journalist who stands up against the mainstream dictatorship.” ~Gaston Maqueda, commercial and art photographer, Alberta Canadian Rockies
“Thank you for voicing this so freely and openly! We appreciate this honesty! Hi from South Africa.”
~Wolf and Bhakta Peyerl
“God bless a real journalist. I have been writing every major paper and TV station in Denmark since December. NOOOO response. It starts with ONE.”
~Guri Nordenskjold
“This is a Watergate waiting to happen, doesn’t anyone care about human life anymore? Thank you brave journalist.”
~Barb Lacy
“Thank you for speaking out. I pray journalists will listen to you to save our world by reporting truth instead of the lies they have reported for over a year. Please continue to speak out.” ~Dolores Walton
“100s of thousands of lives could have been saved! My heart aches...Thank you for speaking out with honor and a conscience...a hero!”
~T. Shields
Kooky clan: (from left) Tony Vickio, Roc Menio, Lorraine Menio, Matthew Menio, and chef Steve Allen bring fresh seafood to Wakins Glen. Mike Cutillo
Hey, How’d They Get Fresh Seafood?
Kookalaroc’s Brings The Ocean to Watkins Glen
By Mike Cutillo
When the opportunity arose for Lorraine and Roc Menio to open a new restaurant in their beloved Watkins Glen, they looked at themselves not as competitors in an already vibrant food scene but as collaborators.
“The village had many authentic and longtime restaurants. They have great food, and they own that. We didn’t want to step in where somebody else has already been,” Lorraine says. “But Watkins Glen did not have a true seafood restaurant and that’s why we set out to develop one. If you’re going to be a restaurant, it should be something that nobody else has, so that we can add to the menu of the village. We wanted to give the community something that people have been asking for for a long time.”
And so—since the May 29, 2020, opening of Kookalaroc’s Bar & Grill—this historic Steuben County village on the southern end of Seneca Lake has something else besides its bucolic state park and its history of fast cars at Watkins Glen International. It has a place that serves fresh seafood.
That is no easy feat, either, considering that the village is about 300 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. To provide the eatery’s seafood and to make sure, as cousin Tony Vickio says, it’s “the freshest of the fresh,” it’s not flown in or trucked in; Roc and son Matthew make the 7 ½-hour, 445-mile trip to Wellfleet, Massachusetts, every week or two.
No, seriously.
Nestled halfway between the tip and elbow of Cape Cod, Wellfleet was settled in 1650 and almost immediately became known for its seafood, especially its Wellfleet Oysters.
“Roc and Matthew, they’re literally out on the boats in the ocean getting seafood,” Lorraine says. “They select the clams, the oysters, lobsters, scallops. They are all handselected.”
Then they haul them back to upstate New York where Kookalaroc’s chef Steve Allen turns them into dishes such as broiled oysters, raw clams on the half shell, peel-andeat shrimp in a shrimp boil, and his signature seafood platter.
Now, what about that name? Is it some kind of exotic seafood dish? Steve, from Ithaca, has experience cooking in California and Hawaii. Is it Hawaiian, maybe, for oysters on the half-shell? Nope and nope.
It is Roc’s nickname.
“I worked construction all my life, and people would hire me to do their job, and I’d get it done way ahead of schedule,” he explains. “They’d say, ‘You’re nuts, you’re kooky.’ And then it became, ‘Here comes Kookalaroc.’ So, it went from kooky to Kookalaroc. People said, ‘If you ever own a
Seafood continued from page 22 bar or a restaurant, call it Kookalaroc.’” Of course, as so many of these stories go, there never was any plan to own a bar or a restaurant for the two locals. Roc retired about five years ago from his job as a union carpenter, and Lorraine has been in the hairdressing business for over forty years. She still has a salon across 11th Street from the bar and grill. When they decided to take the plunge (no seafood pun intended) into the food business a couple of years ago, they purchased the land at 107 11th Street—almost directly across Route 14 from Watkins Glen National Park and behind Smalley’s Garage, famous in the auto racing world—tore down another hair salon that had been there, and proceeded to build a massive fortyby-eighty-foot post-and-beam structure that reflects the ambiance of the wooden buildings at the state park. Roc did much of the work himself with the help of Matthew (his co-fish monger who also is a skilled welder), his brother Mark Menio, his brother-inlaw Dave Cherock, who died in February from COVID-19, and Vickio, the idea man who has run the self-proclaimed “World Famous Vickio Signs” shop in Watkins Glen for forty-nine years and provides comic relief (“I was here when they dug Seneca Lake,” he quips.). If you get the feeling that this is a true family affair—and that they love being around one another—you would be correct. The building itself is part of the allure and could double Fresh fare: Kookalaroc’s offers the freshest of seafood from the oyster as a museum to Watkins’ racing lore. Roc and Matt built the circular bar, which can accommodate thirty race fans; there are numerous TVs suspended by beds of Massachusetts hangers Matt welded; and glass garage doors open (top) and fishing for to an outdoor hand-built wood-and-stone bar with seafood themselves room for another sixty patrons. Race teams, such as (bottom, Matthew Menio Ferrari, have donated jackets and other memorabilia; shows off fresh lobsters). Matt incorporated shiny gears, bicycle, and car parts into the stair railings; the ceiling is adorned with other bikes, car parts, a large canoe, even an anchor. There’s also an autographed photo of Mickey Mantle hanging on one of the walls, not far from a framed memorial collage of the late Dave Cherock. Remember, too, that this is a bar and grill, so seafood alone would not cut it, especially for the numerous race fans who flock from all over. Steve says burgers are popular, as are Philly cheesesteaks and his macaroni and cheese. And yes, as you may expect from a restaurant run by a family named Menio, there is a selection of Italian specialties, too, including Steve’s homemade gnocchi and sauces. He also makes many of the desserts himself, including what Roc calls “the best cannoli on the East Coast.” So, bar and grill, seafood restaurant, great desserts, chicken barbecues, live music on weekends, happening vibe, family affair (they cater and even do breakfast benefits for charity): those are some words to describe a joint that goes by one very distinct (2) Courtesy Kookalarock’s word—Kookalaroc’s. “We absolutely never thought that we’d be on the other side of the counter,” Lorraine says. “But we have been completely blessed.” As a journalist covering the Finger Lakes for over thirty-five years, Mike Cutillo digs seafood—or really any kind of food and drink—at the area’s various restaurants. Contact him at mcutillo1@rochester. rr.com.
Fresh-never-frozen seafood!
Inside or Outside Dining
Events • Catering • Merchandise Hours: Sunday-Wednesday 11-9 Thursday-Saturday 11-10 107 11th Street • Watkins Glen, NY (607) 210-6080 WWW.KOOKALAROCS.COM
Come experience Watkins Glen & Schuyler County, New York
Plan your trip today! Visit explorewatkinsglen.com or call 800-607-4552.
70 Years of Hospitality
BREAKFAST & DINNER SERVED 7 DAYS A WEEK World-famous Tavern Room - 6 Brews crafted on site
Cabins • Chalet Style A-Frames • Motel TV • WiFi • Air Conditioning
412 N. Franklin St. • Watkins Glen, NY 14891 412 N. Franklin St. • Watkins Glen, NY 14891 Open Mon-Sat 9am-8pm • Sun 10am-8pm
Open Year ‘round *Subject to change based on NYS regulations. www.famousbrandsoutlet.com www.famousbrandsoutlet.com 607-535-4952 607-535-4952
Famous Brands began in 1983, offering Famous Brands began in 1983, offering “famous brand” clothing and footwear at below retail prices. Since that “famous brand” clothing and footwear at humble beginning in a tiny storefront, we have grown to 30,000 sq. ft. covering 3 floors and half a city block, becoming below retail prices. Since that humble a destination store for millions of visitors and locals alike. beginning in a tiny storefront, we have grown to 30,000 sq. ft. covering 3 floors and half a city block, becoming a destination store for
