Between the Bridges in Broad Channel

Between the Bridges in Broad Channel

Peter J. Mahon

The summer of 2015 is now but a fond memory as the crisp, cool air of autumn envelops our community on the bay. Inevitably, as thetemperatures cool down, people turn to food and drink to provide a little warmth and comfort.  Fortunately, for all of us here in Broad Channel we don’t have far to travel to find that warmth and comfort because on Saturday, October 10^th, 2015, the Broad Channel VFW will be hosting a Chili Cook-Off and music festival with 10 bands on behalf of New York Families for Autistic Children (NYFAC) between the hours of noon and 10 p.m. 

I have to admit that I am not a “chili-head” but several people I have spoken with are adamant in their belief that chili cook-offs have become major events in our area over the past several years and in their own words, “the hotter the better!”.  My limited experience with “hot” chili came when our neighbor, Gloria Tubridy (a self-admitted chili head) from West 11^th Road, once served me a bowl of her chili that left me thinking I had placed a hot coal in mouth and pepper sprayed my eyes while snorting Drano!  These days when I see a bowl of chili (hot or otherwise) a little voice goes off in my head saying “Danger Will Robinson, Danger!”

There’s no obvious biological reason why humans should tolerate painfully hot food, let alone seek it out and enjoy it.  After all, healthy, sane humans do not stick their tongues in a candle flame and bathe their eyes in lemon juice so I find it difficult to understand why some people love to assault one of the most sensitive organs in the human body, the tongue, with what amounts to chemical warfare? 

In any event, whether you are an avid “chili head” or simply someone who enjoys an enjoyable day out, mark your calendar for October 10^thand stop by the VFW’s Chili Cook-Off and Music festival.  You are guaranteed to have a great time.

Something to think about…. In 476 A.D. Romulus, the last of the Roman emperors in the west, was overthrown by the Germanic leader Odoacer, who became the first Barbarian to rule in Rome. The order that the Roman Empire had brought to Western Europe for 1000 years was no more.  The fall of Rome was a culmination of several external and internal factors one of which was unchecked immigration.  Illegal immigrants poured unchecked across the Roman borders, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Franks, Anglos, Saxons, Alemanni, Thuringians, Rugians, Jutes, Burgundians, Lombards, Alans, Vandals as well as African Berbers and Arab raiders.  Will and Ariel Durant wrote in Volume 3 of their Story of Civilization …”If Rome had not engulfed so many men of alien blood in so brief a time, if she had passed all these newcomers through her schools instead of her slums, if she had treated them as men with a hundred potential excellences, if she had occasionally closed her gates to let assimilation catch up with infiltration, she might have gained new vitality from the infusion, and might have remained a Roman Rome, the voice and citadel of the West.”

Broad Channel – why would anyone want to live anywhere else?