The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 712

2D The Miami Herald Monday Dec 24 1981 F-2 C7i3i A weekly follow-up on the news Compiled by Herald Staff Writer Craig Gemoules Newsman Fariss recuperating Chandler still in hospital Community Hospital Dec suffered a heart attack doing very well Soviet brew is making comeback The Big Liquor Store Lounge 2721 Bird Ave reported brisk holiday sales of the Russian brew Store manager Juan' Suarez said three cases had been sold Saturday afternoon Each liter bottle goes for $1399 Suarez says the vodka is good but he drink it "I like he explained Trial set in robberies of apartment managers A Miami man who police say posed as an apartment renter and then robbed the building managers has been charged with five counts of kidnapping five counts of robbery one count of burglary and one count of sexual battery Jeffrey Fink who is prosecuting the case for the Dade state office said the trial on those charges againSt Richard Lesser 34 is set for Feb 4 The charges stem from three attacks on Southwest Dade apartment managers that started Sept 29 Fink said Police have said the robber posed as a would-be renter but then tied up the managers and robbed them of their jewelry The robber struck at about noon each time Victims included Joan Bell 63 the manager of Colony Apartments 9365 SW 77th Ave and Kay Dyslin 50 manager of the Jade Gardens Apartments 8200 SW 65th Ave Police have not identified a third victim because she was raped Lesser is also being charged with robbery and kidnapping in the Oct 24 robbery of Second Showing II a used clothing store at 8505 SW 136th St He was arrested after that robbery and is in Dade County Jail 17 Fariss in his 50s Dec 6 been getting some sun on said Ray Karpowicz general manager of WEVU-Channel 26 where Fariss is now vice president for news know anxious to get back to Karpowicz said seems to be having a miraculous Karpowicz said though that doctors haven't determined when and if Fariss will be able to return to work Russian vodka sales rebound from protests Stolichnaya vodka which people here and there quit drinking and selling after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan four years ago and downed a civilian jetliner 15 months ago is the toast of the town now the company that distributes the liquor in South Florida says In fact said Don Kmetz sales manager for Hartley and Parker South Florida is "the number one in the United States based on per capita consumption Wayne Fariss got out of the hospital last Monday and Immediately headed for an island to relax and catch some sun Across the state Wayne Chandler another veteran Miami broadcaster lay in his hospital bed opening his eyes but not speaking- Chandler WSVN-Channel 7 mellow-voiced weekend weather announcer and host of Sunday Funnies was in serious but stable condition in North Miami General Hospital On the afternoon of Dec 7 Chandler was driving his 1971 Volkswagen Beetle on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami Shores when another driver slammed on his brakes and swerved into lane They collided head-on While Chandler is hospitalized the popular Sunday Funnies show on which Chandler used to read comics from the newspapers is being done by Charlie Folds who used to be the Toby the Robot character and who now works with community relations On the Gulf Coast former Channel 7 anchorman Fariss was released from Fort Myers But Kmetz declined to reveal just how many cases of the Soviet-made liquor that is "Our sales are booming" he said After the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1980 South Florida sales of Stoly as called by faithful drinkers dropped by about half Now Kmetz says his distribution is back to where it was two years ago before Korean Air Line flight 007 was shot down by the Soviets The only importer of Stoly Monsieur Henri Wines Ltd of White Plains NY is expecting its best year of sales ever a company official said Friday The company sold 35000 cases in 1973 520000 cases in 1983 and expects to sell 535000 cases this year said Larry Soli vice president of government and industry relations for the company He said sales are up everywhere including South Florida have realized they can't solve an international problem by boycotting one product" Soil said Metrozoo aviary poised to spread its wings Friday 1 111 I I I A Clockwise from upper left: Zoo keeper Randy Brockmeyer prepares lunch for birds a greater green leafbird perches on a fruit tray a Papuan lory sits in a tree and an Asian comb duck wades through water Photos by Todd Essick AVIARY from ID blend in with chirps and trills Sacred ibis and other birds glide overhead not far from the vinyl-coated netting that forms the black transparent roof Robert Kelley president of the Tropical Audubon Society escorted 100 Audubon members on a preopening field trip to the aviary a week ago Ever since he said really been talking the thing up there and hit with one wonderful bird after another over and over And living naturally or as natural as anything can live in a zoo stayed for two whole hours' that day I would have stayed another hour except I had somewhere else to His favorite sighting: a Luzon bleeding heart dove have to see it to believe it pure white breast and a large blood-red spot in the center" he said Second favorite was the fairy bluebird graced with "a blue so beautiful you really describe it with He was charmed that a few avian interlopers have wriggled inside through the no-glint hexagonal mesh and into the aviary tent that soars 65 feet at its highest point He noticed hummingbirds blue gray gnatcatchers and palm warblers freeloading on the cricket chow orchid blooms and synthetic nectar Preopening fetes for billed as one of the largest free-flight aviaries include a private picnic hosted by the pun-happy we Zoological Society of Florida The newsletter Toucan Talk preens unabashedly about the that accompanies hatching" of the exhibit it sponsors for $100000 a year feather in our cap" of course And for the private Asian picnic the right foodstuff Metro-zoo marketing director Rick Hen-sler made sure of that were supposed to have crunchy drumsticks" said Ross the zoo spokeswoman Rick thought it would be in poor taste to be eating bird parts at something like A second aviary sponsor Is Miami Jai-Alai pledged to $15000 a year for five years To encourage leisurely stays wood plank benches have been set down in the aviary lushly landscaped with such oddities as a chocolate pudding tree and an ice cream cone tree 'thanks to the Rare Fruit Council The South Florida branch of the Palm Society supplied exotic palms Yet even with donations landscaping cost $300000 Construction atop the barren porous rock cost another $500000 and the birds themselves about $200000 Will the aviary be popular? Do birds lack teeth? Metrozoo debuted three years ago and since then there has been one highly touted mammal center-piece after another It began with Ramar the Reluctant the impotent ape and progressed to white tigers to Buddha-bellied orangutans and most recently to' Urban Man I 3 like just another waxy growth on a deep green stalk Friday Saturday and Sunday will be marked by Asian music and avian impostors Tim and Vicki Richards will play East Indian music on violins and pablas Nestor Torres and Luis Sandobal will answer bird calls with improvised classical and jazz flute music and 11 actors dressed in bird outfits will mingle with the crowds For the past 15 months design staff has been working on watercolor paintings of the birds Renderings have been embedded in weather-resistant fiberglass and hung on red cedar posts sandblasted in a pattern of tangled vines some birds you paint the way they really are" said William Tuttle graphic designer colors are iridescent Electric You just have to see them in A second set of pet-food bowls 150 in all are set out in the afternoon at 30 strategic camouflaged spots allowing zoo-goers to watch the birds fly from food station to food station It will be said Johnson a No one else may feed the birds whose menus are drawn from weekly grocery stockpiles that include 40000 mealworms 4500 brown crickets 1000 waxworms sardines smelt mullet1 and fruit flies On Friday the 1 12 acre expanse will be home to 270 birds in 70 species At capacity 400 birds of 100 species will live in the predator-free tent Volunteers in khaki pants and white shirts will point out the secretive more timid birds such as the silver-eared mesia and greater green leafbirds Aptly named those So well do leafbirds blend in that they look ey bare-eyed honeyeaters Limbs of some trees including a 40-foot slick-skinned gumbo limbo and a 35-foot mango have been trimmed to maximize perch space and visibility Bare branches are splayed over limpid pools softwood logs have been strewn about for nesting cavities Some of the birds already are flirting with nesting and breeding displays Johnson said but he expect any serious courting until next spring Such species as the black-naped oriole the gaudy red-throated barbet and the Jambu fruit dove never have reproduced in captivity Each morning Kevin Drees Kim Livingstone or three other full-time bird keepers trundle out the cricket concoction along with a gallon of synthetic nectar wedges of pomegranate and papaya and bins of dry cereal-like matter intercut with fruit cocktail specimens on a trip to the New Guinea mountains and been acclimating those birds and the others to their new home species by species since September With no glass windows or other impediments experience is totally different from traditional methods of viewing birds in a zoo" said Johnson "Visitors enter the birds' environment even becoming part of the How so? Some of the bolder more curious birds will swoop in for a close look at their zoo-goers enhancing the odds for close-up sightings Johnson said relate to birds We see them in our daily lives even in the cities" said Johnson standing on a wooden overlook as he pointed out the alert-eyed richly hued birds Some are rare like ribbon-tailed birds of paradise and most had wonderful names: Moustached laughing thrush Wigeons Swam-phens Fireback pheasants Smok- "But spotlights shift like headline topics publicity machine now touts the million-dollar aviary as its component one that "will undoubtedly stand as the exhibit for years to agrees Art Ris-ser curator of 1900 birds at the San Diego Zoo The tropical marshes and scaled-down forests Risser said blend with science" He praised the foresight of whoever included the Zoofari monorail in aviary planning that began in 1971 The train glides quietly through the big bird house affording zoo-goers of Asian aviation while passing through a wire tunnel Risser offered kudos to Metrozoo bird curator Ron Johnson 35 for a grand job In establishing a workable species in the aviary Johnson collected 15 of the Planetarium focuses on Star of Bethlehem prominently in the countless retellings of the Christmas story might have a scientific explanation They wondered instead about how the stars moved across the sky and why certain constellations were left unmentioned The Christmas show is one of a year-long series of free shows at BCC Written by Buehler director Gladwyn Comes the show goes easy on special effects and has remained basically unchanged since its first presentation about 12 years ago planetarium technician Barry Perlman said The audience continues to grow Almost 100 people about half of them children accompanied by parents attended the two shows Sunday No one seemed to worry that science would detract from ancient astronomers and by considering a bit of animal husbandry The Gospels say Jesus was born during the reign of King Herod and the historian Josephus said Herod died shortly after an eclipse of the moon Astronomers say the lunar eclipse closest in time to 1 AD and visible in the Mideast occurred in 4 BC so Jesus must have been born sometime before then And spring is the only season shepherds must watch their flocks by night because that is when Iambs are born Young children heard all this as they curled up in the planetarium seats and leaned their heads back to get a good view of the far horizon They didn't mind that the mvs-terv of the star which figures so Rather the birth of Jesus whom Christians believe to be the prophesied savior called Christ probably occurred in the spring of 6 BC or six years by our calendar And the star that led the Magi from the east to a stable in Bethlehem probably wasn't a star at all It probably was the combined light of the planets Jupiter and Saturn as they passed close to each other in the western sky astronomers say been aware for a long time the date was arbitrary" said Frank Hebert who attended with three children Sunday at the planetarium on Broward Community College Central Campus Modern astronomers have explained the Star of Bethlehem by comparing the Gospels with accounts and the reports of By JULIE CALSI Her aid Staff Writer Outside the Sunday sky was gray and cloudy Inside the sky was black and clear and sprinkled with stars as Buehler Planetarium upheld a Christmas tradition of its own On its high domed ceiling the planetarium recreated the sky in which the Star of Bethlehem appeared almost 2000 Christmas Eves ago A narrator explained the religious symbols earlier generations found in constellations as music segued from the orchestral Also Sprach Zarathustra to the unaccompanied tones of an early Christian chant That first Christmas Eve according to astronomers was not Dec 24 And the year was not Zero or One 4 MELISSA MIMMS I Miami Herald Staff Molly Bechert 5 of Coral Springs looks up at the stars at Buehler Planetarium the intangible spirit of the Christ- Davie for the holidays "I think it mas season adds something to don't think it takes away The next showing from said Ohio resident Marcia of the Star of Bethlehem program Webster visiting her sister in is 7:30 pm Jan 3 1'.