Fidel Speaks, and Raúl Stays on, in Cuba

More than a decade ago, Fidel Castro’s personal physician founded “The Hundred-and-Twenty-Year Club,” propounding the idea that, with proper diet and exercise, Cubans could live to that august age—and he often boasted that the man who would prove his theory was none other than Fidel Castro. In the months before their longtime jefe máximo fell ill, in 2006, Cubans told jokes about Fidel’s notional immortality. In one, Fidel was given a Galápagos tortoise for his birthday, asked how long it would live, and was told that they could survive for a century. He declined the gift, saying, “The problem with pets is you grow attached to them, and then they die on you.”