Category: Media Watch

* “What I truly wish is for moderation to return to the country.”–Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

* “If they had their way, they’d simply cut and paste the Constitution and just get rid of the Second Amendment entirely.”–Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, referring to Vice President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the NRA’s annual convention.

* “I’ve seen up close how Washington is rigged to work for the big guys, but not for those trying to get an education, or families trying to build economic security. It makes me furious. And yet, I believe in the power of fighting back, so I’m glad to be there.”–U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, (D-Mass.)

* “I want to tell you something. I love this country. I want you to put that in bold and big letters: I love the United States of America.”–Jazz legend Arturo Sandoval.

* “Whether the topic is autism or presidential politics, celebrity trumps authority and obviates erudition.”–Frank Bruni, New York Times.

* “When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don’t really have to do anything. You just let them talk.”–President Barack Obama.

* “Contrary to the pledge we learned in school, it turns out we are actually one nation divided, with liberty and justice for some. … It is good to see the attorney general dismantle the War on Drugs. But while he’s at it, let him dismantle the War on Fairness too.”–Leonard Pitts, Miami Herald.

* “Clean energy is moving from boutique to mainstream, and that opens up a wealth of opportunities.”–Hal Harvey, CEO of Energy Innovation.

* “(This) trend is not just in politics. We have become a consultant society. Whether you are running a business or packaging yourself for a job or college admissions, people rely on the expertise of professional advice-givers.”–David Brooks, New York Times.

* “Routinized excessive drinking, sexual misconduct and blatant disregard of social norms have no place at Dartmouth. Enough is enough.”–Dartmouth president Philip Hanlon.

* “This failure is inexcusable.”–Education Commissioner Pam Stewart on problems with online FCAT.

* “We’re a tourist state. We want people to slow down, not speed up.”–Sen. Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville, on a Senate vote to allow increases on certain roads from 70 to 75 mph.

* “It opens doors for us as a community. It tells the world we are here.”–Hillsborough County Commissioner Al Higginbotham on the impact of the Tampa-hosted Bollywood Oscars.

* “There are people out there who fought the tobacco industry for so long that the last thing they want is to see new people coming in.”–USF marketing department chair Anand Kumar, part of a team researching the branding of e-cigarettes.

* “You have a great ownership in the Glazer family, a great stadium and a great community, and that’s what we’re looking for. For me, we will clearly be back here for the Super Bowl.”–NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on prospects for another Super Bowl in Tampa.

* “One of the things I learned today is that you have a lot of doctors and health professionals that come up here from Latin America because this is such a state-of-the-art facility.”–U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., after a tour of USF’s Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation.

* “One thing we are dismayed about is how we have made teachers feel over the last 15 years. We shamed and blamed them. It was unconscionable. We do not want them to feel that way.”–Vicki Phillips, visiting Gates Foundation education leader.

* “We will succeed together or fail alone.”–Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, referring to cooperative efforts with St. Petersburg in building this region’s technology and innovation economy.

* “The bottom line is, if they get state incentives, they will come.”–Hillsborough Film Commissioner Dale Gordon.

* “First and foremost, Tampa Bay is beautiful and the people are nice.”–Indian actor-producer Anil Kapoor.

* The Washington Post and the UK’s Guardian recently shared a Pulitzer Prize related to Eddie Snowden’s NSA revelations. The category was public service–since there wasn’t one for serving as a classified-document conduit.

* Ever notice the subtle difference in how the Tampa Bay Times and the Tampa Tribune cover events such as Lightning home hockey games? They’re played at the “Tampa Bay Times Forum” and at “the Forum,” respectively. Naming rights have their limits.

* “If you just stand there, be confident and raise the cost gradually and increasingly to Russia, that doesn’t solve your Crimea problem and it probably doesn’t solve your eastern Ukraine problem. But it may solve your Russia problem.”–Ivo Daalder, former U.S. ambassador to NATO and now president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

* “Public policies concerning gun control should be decided by the voters’ elected representatives, not by federal judges.”–Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.

* “Every alleged hate crime, no matter who the intended target, is an affront to who we are … both as a country and as people.”–Attorney General Eric Holder, speaking at an interfaith service mourning those killed at Jewish community sites in suburban Kansas City.

* “A great man has died, one whose works gave the literature of our language great reach and prestige.”–Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa on the death of Gabriel García Márquez.

* “He never said he would take a vow of  political abstinence. … He is a man at peace, but I don’t think that he has politics totally out of his blood.”–Former Mit Romney adviser Tom Rath, on Romney’s return to the political stage, notably the fund-raising circuit.

* “Let me say this, hypothetically speaking, I really do hope we have a woman president in my lifetime.”–Hillary Clinton.

* “This constant effort to get around the rule limiting banks’ investment in hedge funds, on behalf of a few institutions who apparently want room to resume the financing practices that got us into trouble in the past, really should end.”–Paul A. Volcker, former Federal Reserve chairman.

*The angry opponents are more mobilized than the beneficiaries.”–David Axelrod, longtime adviser to President Obama, on the political dynamics of the Affordable Care Act.

* “The difference between the stand-up and the sitcom is you’re going from the least collaborative medium there is to the most collaborative. The reason you become a comedian is you’re not a good collaborator, you’re not good with people, you’re not good in social situations or professional situations.”–Jerry Seinfeld.

* “The pope’s charisma is not one of dazzle. It’s one of truth.”–David Wolpe, head rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles.

* “It usually does boil down to who people like. Most people don’t know issues in depth. … It’s who do they identify with, does he come across as genuine.”–Screven Watson, former executive director of the state Democratic Party, assessing the Rick Scott-Charlie Crist match-up.

* “Utilizing local dollars to fund the state portion of an expansion of traditional Medicaid does not address President Gaetz’s concern with the federal government’s ability to finance Medicaid expansion in the long-term or his belief that traditional Medicaid is a broken program that providers, patients and taxpayers are unhappy with.”–Katie Betta, spokeswoman for Florida Senate President Don Gaetz.

* “Limited education dollars should be used first and foremost in our public school classrooms.”–Former Florida legislator Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland.

* “You can make a pretty strong argument that cities need to be attuned to what millennials want. That is their future generation.”–Micheline Maynard, author of Curbing Cars: America’s Independence From the Auto Industry.

* “I am happy with where we began and where we are today. The next generation belongs to a new CEO with new ideas and new passions for the future of MOSI and our community.”–Wit Ostrenko, in announcing his retirement as president and CEO of the Museum of Science and Industry at the end of next year.

* “I love that piece of dirt. I see nothing but opportunity there.”–Mayor Bob Buckhorn, referring to the five empty acres next to Channelside Bay Plaza.

* “We don’t need additional ordinances. I’m asking that you guys enforce the laws you’ve got, not give us new laws.”–Ybor Ritz owner Joe Capitano Sr.

* “They need to be managed. They are going to eat all of our native species.”–Todd Campbell, University of Tampa associate biology professor, on Argentine tegu lizards now thriving in certain parts of southern Hillsborough County.

Most John F. Kennedy quotes (think: “Ask not … “) that we’re familiar with are from formal speeches–and come courtesy of speech writer nonpareil Ted Sorensen. Here’s one that didn’t. It’s a Kennedy quote from “JFK’s Last Hundred Days” by Thurston Clarke. “The three most overrated things in the world,” said Kennedy in an unguarded moment, “are the state of Texas, the FBI and mounted deer’s heads.”

I know it’s more than Lynn Marvin Dingfelder and I who are compulsively intrigued by the life and loss of President John F. Kennedy. Here’s another interesting read I’d recommend: Thurston Clarke’s JFK’s Last Hundred Days.

It’s intimate, haunting, ironic, tragic and confounding. Did he have to be THAT fallible? Could he have not lived just long enough to act on his instincts and final memos on Vietnam?

A few JFK outtakes:

* “The three most overrated things in the world are the state of Texas, the FBI and mounted deer’s heads.”

* “These (Joint Chiefs) brass hats have one great advantage in their favor. If we listen to them (about invading Cuba over the missile crisis) and do what they want us to do, none of us will be alive later to tell them that they were wrong.”

* “Only God knows just what segment of democracy they (military) would be defending if they overthrew the elected establishment.”

* “Crowds don’t threaten me. It’s that fellow standing on the roof with a gun that I worry about.”

* “Ronald Reagan never wanted to be a war president, and there were no wars on Reagan’s watch. None. The Gipper was no neocon.”–Patrick J. Buchanan, Creators Syndicate.

* “Despite rampant rumors that the C.I.A. is getting out of the counterterrorism business, nothing could be further from the truth.”–C.I.A. Director John O. Brennan.

* “There’s a level of care in designing systems and sweating the details of their operations that’s missing in the culture of software development. We don’t have the kind of safety culture that is common in fields such as aviation.”–Edward Felten, computer security expert at Princeton University.

* “The stark, simple truth is this: The right to vote is threatened today in a way that it has not been since the Voting Rights Act became law nearly five decades ago.”–President Barack Obama.

* “Jeb Bush is not angry; he just wants to change things. … Maybe that is not going to cut it in today’s GOP. But consider whether a demeanor devoid of anger and victimization is more likely to attract an electoral majority. … Maybe in 2016 it will be the candidate without rancor, not the candidate carrying around the grievances of the preceding eight years, who will find favor with voters.”–Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post.

* “If Senate Republicans are ideologically opposed to ensuring equal pay for equal work, they are free to vote against passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act.”–Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

* “The Senate is up for grabs. Women account for a majority of voters. They tend to favor Democrats. To the extent that women–and in particular, single women–can be motivated to turn out in a midterm election, waving the bloody shirt of unequal pay is smart politics.”–Ruth Marcus, Washington Post.

* “The fear of being soft on drugs, soft on marijuana, soft on crime is woven into the DNA of American politicians, especially Democrats.”–Ethan Nadelman, the founder of the Drug Policy Alliance, an organization that favors decriminalization of marijuana.

* “The public appears to accept what its elected officials do not: Marijuana is medicine, even the kind that gets you high. The science is indisputable. … Propaganda-based marijuana laws need to be held to the measure of 21st-century evidence-based cannabis science.”–Gregory L. Gerdeman, assistant professor of biology at Eckerd College.

* “Information is what you need to make money short term. Knowledge is the deeper understanding of how things work.”–David Brooks, New York Times.

* “The recovery still feels like a recession to many Americans and it also looks that way in some economic statistics.”–Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet L. Yellen.

* “If we offer the needy nothing but slogans and reprimands–‘Strengthen your family! Get a job! Get an education!’–then our antipoverty programs are a cruel joke, as bankrupt as Marie Antoinette’s ‘Let them eat cake.'”–Nicholas Kristof, New York Times.

* “In Europe, Turkey is going to be an important player in the long run. (Turkey) is geographically located in a key area for international commerce between Europe and the Middle East.”–Frank Sanchez, Tampa native and former undersecretary of commerce in the Obama Administration.

* “We do see a draining of resources of traditional public schools in what seems to be a move to privatize education. We can’t keep robbing our children in public schools in the quest to provide other options.”–Linda Kearschner, Florida PTA legislative commission.

* “To allow people to go into a riot while concealing a gun without a permit is the definition of insanity.”–Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.

* “How is it I can recruit a nonstop flight between Tampa and Zurich, Switzerland, and I can’t get a nonstop bus between downtown Tampa and the airport?”–TIA CEO Joe Lopano.

* “In the ranking of disinformation, there are lies, there are darned lies, and there are statistics, and I would add to that statistics in the hand of No Tax for Tracks.”–Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch.

* “Russia’s aggression against Ukraine challenges our vision of a Europe whole, free and at peace.”–NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

* “The key here is balance–recognizing that Russia is weak and dangerous at once, that the West has been both too naive about Putin’s intentions and too incautious in its own commitments, and that a new containment need not require a new Cold War.”–Ross Douthat, New York Times.

* “Sheldon Adelson personifies everything that is poisoning our democracy and Israel’s today–swaggering oligarchs, using huge sums of money to try to bend each system to their will.”–Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times.

* “Climate change is a food security issue. It’s not just an environmental issue.”–Craig Hanson, director of food, forests and water programs at the World Resources Institute.

* “The Affordable Care Act hasn’t completely fixed our long-broken health care system. But this law has made our health care system a lot better. A lot better.”–President Barack Obama.

* “Rube Goldberg has survived; health reform has won.”–Paul Krugman, New York Times.

* “In my view, we must amend the Constitution to establish once and for all that (1) money is not speech under the First Amendment, (2) corporations are not people, and (3) we the people have the right to set limits on how much money individuals and corporations can spend on elections.”–Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich.

* “Hopefully, Florida law and the state constitution will soon recognize marriage equality. Last year’s court ruling on DOMA was an important step, but a patchwork of laws exists on the state level.”–U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa.

* “This is a big win for Florida voters and a significant victory for good election administration practices.”–Deirdre Macnab, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling that Florida violated federal law by trying to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls too close to the 2012 presidential election.

* “Ideology is the only thing stopping House Republicans from moving forward on this issue. Not expanding health care is the wrong thing for Florida.”–House Democratic Leader Perry Thurston, on House Republicans’ reluctance to reconsider Medicaid expansion.

* “States such as North Carolina, Texas and Tennessee have ramped up recruitment of relocating boomers. No Florida state agency is assigned to attract relocating retirees.”–Jeff  Johnson, AARP Florida state director.

* “Research has revealed that at least 164 voucher-accepting private schools in Florida teach creationism.”–Brandon Haught, author and communications director for Florida Citizens for Science.

* “A Pandora’s box is being opened again.”–Sen. Arthenia Joyner’s response to the state Senate’s passage of the “warning shot” bill.

* “Medical tourism has existed in Florida since Ponce de Leon set out in search of the Fountain of Youth.”–Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach.

* “Instead of me spending another $50 million to build another parking garage, why don’t we come up with a new way to get people to the airport?”–Tampa International Airport CEO Joe Lopano, on the merits of a shuttle from downtown to TIA.

* “We have been talking about modernizing transit for 30 years, and we are still not getting it done. … We are losing pace to every other metro area.”–Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch.

* “If we don’t trust each other, I promise you nothing works.”–Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon.

* “Talk is cheap. You’ve got to show.”–New USF basketball coach Orlando Antigua.

* “He may be the best recruiting tool that anybody has in the NFL.”–Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ general manager Jason Licht, referring to Bucs’ head coach Lovie Smith.

* “Our nation’s reliance on cyberspace outpaces our cybersecurity.”–Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel.

* “I don’t think there’s any doubt now that the NSA or other agencies monitor or record almost every telephone call made in the United States, including cellphones, and I presume email as  well. We’ve  gone a long way down the road of violating Americans’ basic civil rights, as far as privacy is concerned.”–Former President Jimmy Carter.

* “We are looking for progressively faster growth as the year goes on.”–Doug Handler, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight.

* “The gun lobby in America, led by the NRA, has bullied this nation’s politicians into cowardly silence. Even when 20 young children are blown away in their classroom.”–Piers Morgan, in concluding his final CNN show.

* “There is no greater freedom than to survive and protect our families with all the rifles, shotguns and handguns we want.”–NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre.

* “If we require people to serve on juries, we can require them to vote–yes, compulsory voting, just like in Australia and Belgium.”–Thomas Geoghegan, author of Were You Born on the Wrong Continent?

* “There is no question this shakes your confidence. If it doesn’t, you’re arrogant.”–New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, on the toll taken by the bridge-closure scrutiny.

* “He cares about Ukraine. But he’s not caring about Venezuela.”–Gov. Rick Scott, characterizing President Obama’s foreign policy priorities.

* “The only way Rick Scott wins is if he convinces people that Charlie Crist is actually worse than him. And that’s going to be a tough sell, because people like Charlie Crist and they don’t like Rick Scott.”–Former Republican state legislator Paula Dockery.

* “Ideology is the only thing stopping House Republicans from moving forward on this issue. Not expanding health care is the wrong thing for Florida.”–House Democratic Leader Perry Thurston, on House Republicans reluctance to reconsider Medicaid expansion.

* “States such as North Carolina, Texas and Tennessee have ramped up recruitment of relocating boomers. No Florida state agency is assigned to attract relocating retirees.”–Jeff Johnson, AARP Florida state director.

* “It’s shaping up to be a feel-good movie. The lead actor is solid payroll job growth across sectors… .”–UCF economist Sean Snaith, on Florida’s recent jobs growth spurt.

* “Research has revealed that at least 164 voucher-accepting private schools in Florida teach creationism.”–Brandon Haught, author and communications director for Florida Citizens for Science.

* “I would note, as a practical matter, that if the Legislature is really concerned about school safety, it should reinstate capital improvements for schools in its budgets. Our Legislature has cut the dollars for things like better fences, more secure entrances and other measures than can help us keep schools safer.”–Stephanie Baxter-Jenkins, executive director of the Hillsborough County Teachers Association, in response to Legislative proposals that would allow limited exceptions to the concealed weapons ban in public schools.

* “Instead of me spending another $50 million to build another parking garage, why don’t we come up with a new way to get people to the airport?”–Tampa International Airport CEO Joe Lopano, on the merits of a shuttle from downtown to TIA.

* “We have been talking about modernizing transit for 30 years, and we are still not getting it done. … We are losing pace to every other metro area.”–Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch.

*”There is a tremendous skills gap. Kids have been pointed toward college, and everybody thinks manufacturing doesn’t exist in the U.S. anymore.”–Roy Sweatman, president of Tampa-based Southern Manufacturing Technologies.

* “He may be the best recruiting tool that anybody has in the NFL.”–Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ general manager Jason Licht, referring to Bucs’ head coach Lovie Smith.

* “MH 370, please contact Ho Chi Minh City 120.9. Good night.”–Last message from Kuala Lumpur air traffic control to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

* “All right, good night.”–Final words heard by air traffic controllers from the cockpit of MH 370 before the plane’s transponder stopped working.

* “There has been surprisingly little outcry against the proposed defense cuts, which would reduce the size of the U.S. Army to its lowest levels since 1940. That’s because people are no longer sure military might gets you very much.”–David Brooks, New York Times.

* “Was the CIA too busy spying on the Senate to spy on Russia?”–Maureen Dowd, New York Times.

* “Mark Zuckerberg is angry that the National Security Agency is violating Facebook users’ privacy, which is a bit like the Silicon Valley equivalent of ‘Get your government hands off my Medicare.'”–Catherine Rampell, Washington Post.

* “Our policy is clear. We hurt those who hurt us.”–Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

* “Remember, the right thing to do is also the politically right thing to do.”–The late Florida Gov. Reubin Askew.

* “The devolution of the two-party system has begun. Money is leaving the parties and going to independent expenditure groups. These now are fracturing the ‘big tents’ of our old two-party system into independent, narrow and well-funded wings.”–Rob Stein, a founder of the Democracy Alliance, one of the largest clubs of donors on the left.

* “Slot revenues–which account for the overwhelming majority of money casinos take in–are one-third to one-half funded by individuals with gambling disorders.”–Earl L. Grinols, Distinguished Professor of Economics at Baylor University and author of Gambling In America: Costs And Benefits.

* “We’re not going to approach her until she has time to kind of assess her options. But I believe that if Alex Sink decides to run, she will win in November and we will do everything, and I mean everything, to support her.”–Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel.

* “I love it down here. I love owning the team, and it seems like I’m buying more real estate than I’m selling, so I guess I’m committed.”–Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik.

* “We want to keep the program because it works. Crashes are down, and so are citations. We are changing driving habits and ultimately making our roadways safer.”–Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor on Tampa retaining its red-light camera program.    

* “So what? That’s life.”–Benjamin Mallah Sr., the latest bidder on Channelside Bay Complex, on the legal issues clouding Channelside’s future.

* “The ad valorem property tax rebound usually lags a year to two behind. Most of the projects that are coming out of the ground now have not (received certificates of occupancy), so we’re not collecting taxes yet.”–Mayor Bob Buckhorn, on why the 2015 budget will probably include a shortfall between $10 million and $15 million.

* “The fact that we need bigger libraries and that we need expanded services shows that we’re still as relevant today as 100 years ago.”–Margaret Rials, a chief librarian with the Hillsborough County Library Cooperative.

* “No one entity has overriding authority. We need to be working more collaboratively.”–Hillsborough County Commissioner Mark Sharpe, on the county’s fragmented transportation agencies.

The timing was fortuitous.

Frankly, I was not in the mood for reflecting on the Jolly-Sink scrum, the distorting ripples from Citizens United, the reality of who’s still standing their ground, the latest spin from the incipient Crist-Scott slog, the debate over red-light cameras and the scenarios surrounding mass transit.

That said, did this ever happen to you?

You’ve just exchanged sealed, special-occasion greeting cards with that certain someone. It’s a shareable, intimate moment.  Cue some mood music. You open them together.

And they are the same, as in Hallmark identical. What are the odds? (As it turns out, not all that steep when you’re scouring the St. Patrick’s section of the card aisle at CVS Pharmacy at Swann and Howard.)

But still it was a jolt. It had never happened to us before. And there have been plenty of befores.

The details: Last week my wife Laraine and I exchanged wedding anniversary greetings via St. Patrick’s Day cards. We often do that because we were married on March 17, 1979. And, yes, we planned it that way. I’m relatively hard-core, shanty Irish, and Laraine is an unabashed, Gaelic enabler. So, for us, St. Patty’s day is an anniversary two-fer.

Some years the actual card is more skewed to anniversary with customized, personal Irish touches, such as an impish reference to Erin Go Braughless. Well, we think it’s funny.

In this case, the card was unpretentious, direct and only cost 99 cents. A shamrock and the words “Ireland Forever,” (Erin Go Braugh) adorned the front. Inside, of course is where it matters.  I’ll spare the considerably-shy-of-love-sonnet language. But it might leave Elizabeth Barrett Frowning.

Heavy on a “forever” theme and adorned with sentimental doodles, it’s us. Hallmark happened to be the vehicle.

As you can imagine, by the time you get to 35 anniversaries, you’ve already prompted a familiar query: “What’s your secret?” Besides, that is, being terminally old-school or allowing for some sort of Faustian subplot. By now, we have well-honed, well-lived responses.

* Let’s starts with values. And it helps–increasingly–if couples are on the same side of the political spectrum. ( I don’t know how, for example, James Carville and Mary Matalin manage. Maybe it’s more of a sho-biz merger than a marriage.)

The point is, politics has rarely been this volatile and visceral. It’s virtually impossible to respect those that don’t share your core values. You can transition to March Madness, the pollen count, or who got robbed at the Oscars at a cocktail party. But there’s no rhetorical safe haven when you share a household. The unfriendly fire will follow you.

* Also included: a sense a humor. Some of it topical, some of it dark, and plenty of it virtually crying out for the admonition to “get thee to a punnery.” You gotta know your early George Carlin and your updated Jackie Mason. It’s the place for Bizarro, not Beetle Bailey. If you have to explain what’s funny, you have a serious partner problem.

It also helps if you like to add cartoonish touches and sardonic asides to the daily newspaper. You can imagine the opportunities presented by Rick Scott and Kim Jong-un.

* Then there are movies. No chick-flick/action-violence divides. In our case, it really helps that we both like foreign movies, period pieces and character studies. Movies made from plays–for example, David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross”–are especially appealing because they are so dialogue driven.

* Travel is a key variable. It means acting on your curiosities about what else is out there. How can a sense of your place–whether a neighborhood, city or country–be complete or valid unless it’s seen in context? Travel does that.

In our case, we’ve been to Cuba, for example, multiple times, but also love Olde Europe. We share the same short list of places we’d return to in a heartbeat: Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Dublin, Prague.

We don’t travel in groups because we like exploring in each other’s company and seeing for ourselves. It’s also a great way to break in new puns and old Borscht Belt routines. We favor local mass transit over tours. Neither of us is drawn to cruising, no matter how alluring the buffets, slot machines and straw markets.

It also helps if at least one spouse knows a foreign language. In our case, it matters mightily that Laraine speaks Spanish and French, which also means Italian and Portuguese are hardly foreign. As for me, I’ve pretty much cleaned up my Philadelphia accent.

* Then there’s the thermostat setting. Incompatibility here will chill any relationship.

To review: values, sense of humor, movies, travel, thermostat. Not necessarily in that order.