Fidel Castro

To the Brink: JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis exhibit

To the Brink: JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis exhibit

Mary McCleary

On Dec. 17, 2014, President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. would normalize diplomatic relations with Cuba. A timely exhibit at the JFK Library, "To the Brink," highlights the Cuban Missile Crisis and the 13 terrifying days when the world faced nuclear holocaust.  In the unsettling words of the introduction, "it was a close call — maybe the closest call in human history … and the end of civilization as we know it."

In 1959, Communist revolutionary Fidel Castro overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista, and relations between the U.S. and Cuba deteriorated rapidly as Castro seized American oil and business holdings, and formed close ties with the Soviet Union. The U.S. responded by severing diplomatic relations and instituting a trade embargo.

Some necessary tick talk
boston

Some necessary tick talk

Diane Kilgore

There's a man from Boston who treks Brazil's Amazon River, hangs out in Nepal with the Himalayan Rescue Association, and climbs Mt. McKinley with the Ranger Patrol in Alaska's Denali National Park.  His name is Dr. N. Stewart Harris, M.D.

When he's not out adventuring, Dr. Harris wears the ubiquitous uniform of a white coat over blue scrubs at Massachusetts General Hospital as an attending physician in the Emergency Department. Harris is also Chief of Wilderness Medicine at MGH. But, as you might have guessed, he's not the typical uniform-wearing type. He is, however, a strong advocate for dressing properly as you trek outside to enjoy these last sparkling days of summer.

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