Dance with the Stars

Dancing With My Stars

Everyone loves to dance!

Well, it appears that most people either enjoy dancing or watching dancing. I would imagine that the television network, ABC, gambled on their show Dancing with the Stars.

It was a gamble that hit the jackpot. Don't let ABC know this, but I don't get it. Perhaps it's because I've always had two left feet. Couple that with the fact that I was almost killed in an injury when I was 19 resulting in right side paralysis, and I guess you could say I now have "1-1/2 left feet."

Regardless, I still don't get the phenomenon and I am happy for the show's millions of viewers.

Some time ago, after I was injured, I tried to dance. My father was retiring as Senior Rabbi of his synagogue and the synagogue was having a party for him at a hotel ballroom with a band and, you guessed it, there was dancing.

Everyone was there, everyone was dancing, everyone was having a good time. Though most might have questioned my attempt to dance, I never let that get to me.

So, with the band playing melodiously, I stood up from my seat at the table and calmly asked my 82-year-old grandmother sitting to my left, "Grandma, would you like to dance?

My mother's mother then replied, "MichaelŠ oh noŠ my back is killing me and my feet are aching as well. But thank you for the offer."

I then quickly went to my grandmother's left where my other grandmother, my 90 year old father's mother, was sitting and asked her the same question.

"Honey, my knees are killing me and my neck is so sore, but if you can go out to the dance floor, I can go as well."

That was my "bubbie" (Yiddish for grandmother) -- a spit fighter full of spirit, always willing to try anything.

My bubbie and I went to the dance floor and began "dancing." All of a sudden, I felt a tap on my left shoulder.

"Michael, may I cut in on bubbie?" It was my mother's mother! I smiled and said, "Of course."

Both my grandmothers were in pain -- however, both grandmothers were willing to try.

Both grandmothers have since passed away, but I will always remember that evening when I was honored to "Dance With My Stars." I believe it was their last dance.

As I looked to the heavens, I smiled and lovingly said, "Thank you. First, for the dance, but more importantly, for teaching me so much about life."

23-ft. crocodile kills 10-year-old in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - A 10-year-old girl was decapitated by a crocodile in a Philippine lake after the creature knocked over her canoe, police said Wednesday.

The girl and a classmate were on their way Saturday to their floating school on Agusan del Sur province's Mihaba Lake when the 23-foot- (7-meter-) long crocodile bumped the boat, causing it to capsize, said Bunawan town police officer Melchor Danuco.

Rescuers found the girl's headless body floating on the lake on Tuesday, he said.

The classmate was rescued by a man escorting the pair in another boat, said Roel Hipulan, head of the private group that runs the school in remote Bunawan town.

"It's a monster crocodile," Hipulan said, adding that he had seen the creature. He said salt water crocodiles, some bigger than a bus, are known to inhabit the lake, though attacks are rare.

But the lake's waters have been swollen for the past several months, causing fish to scatter to others parts. With little to feed on, the crocodiles have become aggressive, he said.

The crocodile attack has prompted the temporary closure of the school and the evacuation of about 100 residents of houses on stilts on the lake, Hipulan added.