The Herald's Jennifer Lebovich scores again this morning with an incredible story about a seemingly kindly 76-year-old man who went door-to-door offering free breast exams to women. But Philip Winikoff wasn't a doctor -- he was just a dirty old man with a black medical bag that actually belonged to his nurse wife. At least two women in the Lauderdale Lakes neighborhood he canvassed took the bait and let the old man cop a feel. One of them brilliantly deduced it was a hoax after unclothing completely. The tip-off: Winikoff didn't put on rubber gloves before touching her "elsewwhere," as Levovich tactfully put it. Channel 4 has the overwrought video, which they titled, "A Betrayal of Trust." What trust? It's an old man knocking on your door. The Sentinel, slow on the take, had little more than a brief on the thing, but it included this monumental quote from BSO spokesman Hugh Graf: "If someone shows up at your door that ... you don't know, then you shouldn't let them in."
Or fondle your breasts. Don't forget that, either.
Chizner the Chizler
Buddy Nevins gives us a newslet in this morning's Sentinel about the North Broward Hospital District's decision regarding its top heart doctor, Michael Chizner. In attendance were the top honchos of Broward County, including billionaire Wayne "Nosferatu" Huizenga, Terry Stiles, and hotel owner George Gill. They were there to support Chizner, who has presided over the district's Heart Center of Excellence debacle.
When Chizner got an outrageous $1 million a year contract from the district in 1998, Chizner promised to make Broward General one of the top heart centers in the country. Instead, it's only faded into obscurity, with the number of surgeries plummeting by as much as 50 percent. Why? Because Chizner alienated other heart surgeons, who took their business elsewhere. While overseeing the giant public boondoggle, the doctor was smart enough to curry favor with the wealthy. Which explains the big shots in the audience yesterday. The district, however, did the right thing and fired the non-performing bastard, right? Naw. While Huizenga and his cohorts jumped around and yelled like the spoiled brats they are, the board gave Chizner a heart-stopping $100,000 raise -- to $1.1 million -- and extended his contract 10 years. Just proves that at NBHD, the more things change the more they stay the same.
