"Some People are Takers, and Some People are Givers."

I hope you all know who Giuliano is.  As long as I've known him, I actually don't know his last name.  He and his wife own Ricky Thai Bistro on 123rd St, less than a block west of Biscayne Boulevard.  Ricky is their son.  Their daughter is Ya-ya (sp?).  I occasionally remember Giuliano's wife's name, but I'm not sure I ever met her for real, and I usually forget what it is.  Giuliano is Italian, and his wife is Thai.  She's the head chef.  The food at Ricky Thai is magnificent Thai food.  I've had lots of Thai food in lots of (American) Thai restaurants, and this is the best.

It also used to be disturbingly inexpensive.  Chuck Ross and I used to lean on Giuliano to raise his prices, and he eventually did, a little.  It's still inexpensive, but the pricing is better than it was.  And I very recently learned, very much to my surprise, that the beef and pork in the meat dishes come from what I would classify as humanely and properly raised and fed animals.  They're pasture-raised, and that kind of thing.  But it doesn't say that anywhere on the menu.  I leaned on Giuliano again to advertise the fact.  For some people, like me, it's important to know that.  I eat food from Ricky Thai anyway, because it's terrific, and because I like Giuliano and want to be supportive, but I feel a lot better about it now.  Other people might preferentially eat from Ricky Thai, because the animals were humanely raised.  And the meat from humanely raised animals costs more than factory-farmed meat.  Giuliano should think about that when he decides about the prices of dishes he sells.

As an aside, and to add what for us is a personal touch, Giuliano and his family used to live in Broward.  But a few years ago, they moved, and they now live in BP.  Giuliano told me several of the herbs his wife uses are grown in their own home garden.  Today, they have papaya trees in the front yard, and it's my guess that it's from those papaya trees that they get the green papayas for the green papaya salad.  (Which is spectacular.  If you can handle heat, ask for it medium or hotter.  It will make you very happy.)

Anyway, Ricky Thai had trouble last year the same way everyone had trouble last year.  But they've re-opened for take-out only.  Unfortunately, Giuliano was just on the verge of expanding into the space next door, so he could have more seating, when the coronavirus hit.  And DERM got on him about some unclear nonsense that appears likely to cost him three parking spaces.  And a certain amount of money.  It's a mess.

But once I realized Ricky Thai was open, I decided to get dinner from them once a week, to contribute to their welfare.  And of course, the fact that I love the food cannot be overlooked.  But I never used to go there, or anywhere, once a week.  This was for Ricky Thai: for Giuliano and his family.

Giuliano has been running an ongoing promotion.  He has four bottles of wine, and one bottle of Thai beer, in the window, and patrons can buy two for the price of one.  This is a little nuts, because the price of one of the bottles of wine is already a good deal, and getting two for the same price feels like theft.  But I do like wine, and if this works for Giuliano, then it's OK with me.  I just leave a bigger tip in the tip jar when I get wine.

I was at Ricky Thai last night.  I had had the Pinot Grigio (excellent), and I was curious about the Sauvignon Blanc.  For example, was it dry?  I prefer dry wine.  Well, Giuliano said it's fruity and not terribly dry, but...  Giuliano told me to take a bottle to try out.  It was a gift.  Giuliano does this.  He's done the same thing to Chuck.  He just gives away things like bottles of wine.  And when I protested (I'll pay for it!), he also threw in a bottle of Pinot Grigio, even though I told him I already have two in my refrigerator.  So I went in for food, asked a question about a bottle of wine, and wound up with two bottles of wine, too.  On the house.  And Giuliano tried (unsuccessfully) to block me from leaving $20 in the tip jar.  You know, like it wasn't necessary.  (By the way, my choice last night at dinner was the Sauvignon Blanc, since I was curious about it.  I agree it's not as wonderful as the Pinot Grigio, but it's definitely very good.  And if two of those for $25 total doesn't make you feel self-conscious, nothing will.  I have the same problem with my car.  I found out they have superchargers at Aventura mall, and I don't have to pay.  Ever.  That was the deal when I bought my car.  So in 30 minutes, I get a full charge for "free."  Well...it was an inducement to buy the car when I did, in 2016.  And this is what I do about twice a week.  I go "shopping," which I call shoplifting, at the mall.  And I still feel weird about it.)

Anyway, Giuliano and I were sort of saying goodbye for the evening, and talking about this little extra "transaction," when Giuliano explained that "some people are takers, and some people are givers," and he's a giver.  I suppose it's a good arrangement.  So am I.  And it makes both of us feel good about ourselves and about our place in the world.

The Scarlett O'Hara Approach

You know what I mean, right?  "I'll think about it tomorrow?"  (If then.)

We live in a place that's nicer than some places, but not as nice as it could and should be.  And it appears we wouldn't have it any other way.

We can't practicably have sidewalks or wide streets, but there are things we could do.  We could insist upon adherence to the Codes, like the ones controlling outward appearance of properties, and we could strengthen those Codes.  We could.  But we don't.

We could resolve to make something that's not embarrassing out of our medians.  We could.  But we don't.  No Parks and Parkways Board and no Commission ever wanted to address our embarrassing and dysfunctional median problem.

We could address our considerable, and worsening, drainage problem.  We even hired a consultant to tell us how bad it is, and what we should do about it.  And that consultation was the end of that project.  The consultation wasn't free, either.  But we treated it as if it was valueless.

We finally passed an Ordinance doing something simple, that everyone else does: we require all dogs outside to be on leashes.  Yay for us.

Several years ago, we outsourced sanitation, to save ourselves money, and keep trucks off the roads more of the time.  That was a good thing, especially considering how narrow are our roads.  And within a very short space of time then, we also managed a major renovation of the log cabin (double yay), and we constructed for ourselves a proper work environment, which is the administration building.  Yeah, we did that.  Amidst lots of complaint.

When I drive through the Village, it's nerve-wrackingly common that there are pedestrians, sometimes with young children in strollers, walking with their backs to me in the same side of the street where I'm driving.  They do drive, right?  They know the rules of the road?  They know that walking against traffic, so you can see cars coming, is both safe and legal, and doing what they're doing is neither?  They know that, right?  Don't they care, either about themselves or about the drivers?

And never mind the people who apparently simply refuse to lock their car doors, then complain when someone opens the door and takes something.

And then, there are the past five years.  The Foundation had a plan.  They were going to have the walkway to the newly and very expensively renovated log cabin classed up.  They were going to "sell" bricks, which would be inscribed, and make a nice walkway.  Not the dead-leaves-and-dirt walkway that's there now.  A nice one.  But Tracy Truppman put an abrupt end to that project for as long as she hung desperately onto her office.  (I'm setting aside all the other damage she and her stooges did to the Village over about three years.)  And once she was gone, no one else -- no other Commission -- moved forward, either.  We (the Foundation) had sold a few bricks by then.  $1700 worth of them.  You pave that walkway with bricks, and display some of them with inscriptions for which people paid, and you'll see many more people who want their names in brick, too.  But no.  Nothing.  And there was a series of excuses why not.  Now that I'm back on the Foundation -- I'm the alternate -- I was tasked with working this out with our new manager, Mario Diaz.  I don't think he's slow as molasses, so maybe he's busy.  But I kept getting put off.  The fact of the matter is that one purchaser of a brick was the Camaras.  They moved away a few years ago.  I was the big purchaser, and I bought $900 worth (four large ones) of them.  Each one was inscribed differently.  One was inscribed in gratitude to the Rosses.  They, too, have moved away.  So I told Mario that I wanted this project substantially under way that particular week, which was about two weeks ago, or I was taking back my $900.  (Well, $800 of it.  I'd leave $100 on the table for a small paver.) I offered to help.  I said I'd work with the PW guys, and I'd even show up with a pick axe and shovel.  He started in with some song and dance about "ADA concerns," and that was the end of it for me.  Who knows when or if this improvement will take place.  If it depends on who cares enough, then the most likely answer seems to be never.

It's a sad thing to be so resolute about squandering our assets and possibilities.  Like it's all going to be made better if we sing Kumbaya on Earth Day, and remind ourselves that we're a "tree city," "bird sanctuary," and "oasis in the heart of Miami."  More like a mirage than an oasis.