After 9/11

Before 9/11, the Florida Gulf Coast town of Venice was known as the “shark tooth capital” of the world, the winter home of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and having the second highest per capita number of retirees in America. After 9/11, Venice acquired a new notoriety: three of the Al Qaeda hijackers had learned to fly there. So when my cousin Steve volunteered to take me in a spin up the coast in his single-engine plane, I jumped at the chance.