The Newsmeister

A Different Kind of War: The Day Dalal Mughrabi and Gail Rubin Died

The first hours of March 11, 1978 were unusually stormy off the South Lebanon coast. Into the teeth of the foul weather, 13 Palestinians launched a small vessel in the dark waters near Sidon.  Several miles from shore, they transferred to a pair of rubber dinghies and headed south toward the Israel coast.  Along the way, one of the crafts sunk, drowning two of its occupants.

Undeterred, the survivors squeezed into the remaining dinghy and continued, finally landing in a mid-afternoon drizzle at a nature preserve near Kibbutz Ma'agan Michael, about 35 miles north of Tel Aviv.

The Palestinians moved inland from the beach.  They had planned on landing closer to Tel Aviv and had not a clue where they were.  But good fortune lay just ahead. For also at Ma'agan Michael that afternoon was Gail Rubin, a New York City-born nature photographer.  She was stalking rare birds at one of her favorite haunts.

The Palestinians approached her.  The lone woman among them, Beirut social worker Dalal Mughrabi, asked the way to the capital.

A reporter later wrote of Rubin: "It was probably the New Yorker in her that provided them with thorough directions."

Route in hand, the Palestinians were prepared to hike up to the Haifa-Tel Aviv road. First, Dalal Mughrabi had some unfinished business.  She raised an AK-47 assault rifle and pointed it at Gail Rubin.

Dead Man Walking

 

Ron and Beth Skulas have a lot to smile about after Ron's improbable journey back from a horrific injury.

SYLVANIA, Ohio - As Myron "Ron" Skulas prepared to scale the old TV antenna adjacent to his Sylvania Township home, he gave little thought to any potential danger. After all, he'd climbed the tower a hundred times or more, he figured, without incident.

This day, Nov. 17, 2007, a Thursday, was different. As he worked his way toward the roof, where leaf-clogged gutters awaited, the tower, rusted at its base, snapped, sending the 285-pound Skulas crashing to the ground, beneath the fallen antenna.   

Skulas, retired Army with a wry wit, remembers his first words: "I'm not dead. That's good. Where's my glasses?"

The glasses were within an arm's reach. Skulas fetched them, wriggled out from under the antenna and crawled into the house, where he dialed 911. At Toledo Hospital, doctors diagnosed a lumbar fracture - painful and problematic, but not life-threatening.  Skulas was admitted but expected to be released shortly.

Two days later, while his family watched the Ohio State-Michigan football game in his hospital room, Skulas - without warning - stopped breathing. He was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit and intubated. Tests revealed that a large clot, known as a saddle embolism, had lodged in the area above his lungs, and that other, smaller clots had formed nearby. His condition quickly turned grave.

As Skulas later recalled: "That's when things went from bad to really bad."

Edward E. Tanber, Jr. 1930-2009

TOLEDO, Ohio - Edward E. Tanber, Jr. died July 7 at Heartland of Holly Glen where he lived two weeks.  He was 78.

Ed’s heart had been failing for several years, but somehow he managed to overcome one setback after another to continue his mission at the Step One Club on West Sylvania Avenue, where for more than three decades he helped thousands of club members and others control their addictions – along with his own - one day at a time.