Letters for April 10-16, 2008

Straight From The Pig As a recent college graduate, I was incredibly disturbed by Michael J. Mooney’s “Spring Break is Still Decadent and Depraved” (April 3). In fact, it’s taken me writing a few drafts of this to really settle on what I find so harmful about this article, I…

New Dogs, Old Tricks

It may not have mint juleps and gaudy hats, but this year’s $150,000 Greyhound World Classic — billed as “The Kentucky Derby of Dog Racing” — featured two dogs that had owners, trainers, and industry players buzzing like touts at Churchill Downs. At the Mardi Gras Casino in Hallandale Beach,…

Swimming with the Stars

Tailpipe missed those palmy scotch-on-the-rocks days when Fort Lauderdale was a civilized little haven for celebrities like Johnny Carson, Ed McMahon, Bob Hope, and Jackie Gleason. Celebrity golf tournaments at the Coral Ridge Country Club, big-name television broadcasts, tennis tournaments of the stars at the now-defunct Le Club International, impromptu…

Bust Me if You Can

Besides his stellar career as South Florida’s premier cardiologist, Dr. Zachariah P. Zachariah moonlights as a bigtime Republican fundraiser. He sits on a slew of corporate and government boards. He has campaigned for three different Bushes. He has eaten dinner at the White House and loaned his private jet to…

Wait, Let Me Change Hats

When the City of Hallandale Beach bailed out a developer by wasting millions on a bad land deal, state Senator Steve Geller was there. Geller, the Senate minority leader who represents Hallandale and Hollywood in Tallahassee, wasn’t there to fight for taxpayers. He was trying to pry more of their…

Miami Herald Cutting Staff Via Buyouts

It was only a matter of time. The Miami Herald, in an attempt to eliminate two percent of its staff, is offering buyouts to veteran employees, including at least a “handful” of photographers, “veteran writers” and other staff in the newsroom. Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal sent out an email (full…

Which Way The Wind Is Blowing

I’m gonna start this week with two predictions, neither of them in my favor. First, I’ve heard a lot of forecasters calling for bad hurricane seasons. Every damn year. I had to read an idiotic Sun-Sentinel story a couple years ago about goddamn psychics predicting ultimate death and destruction. I…

Anybody Notice What Happened To Randi Rhodes?

Air America suspended the former queen of South Florida radio yesterday for this: So she called Hillary Clinton a “fucking whore.” Who cares? Air America must be getting a lot of hate mail from the Clintonites. Liberal weenies…

Blast From The Past

Speaking of George McEvoy, click here to see a vintage shot of the Sun-Sentinel/Fort Lauderdale News newsroom back in 1979. The shot, which for technical reasons I couldn’t reproduce here, includes McEvoy, Fred Schulte, Dan Lovely, Dan Christensen, and Cal Deal. (It was Deal who illustrated the shot and whose…

Toast To George McEvoy

The Pulp was properly called out by a commenter yesterday for failing to mention the death of Palm Beach Post columnist George McEvoy, who has been a staple in South Florida journalism for decades. Here’s what the commenter wrote: I’m surprised a blog that covers South Florida journalism has not…

Letters for April 3-9, 2008

Rage Against the Dispenser I read with interest your story on the new wine bar, Vino, on Harrison Street in Hollywood (“Wine Bar Wine Bar,” Tailpipe, March 20). I was intrigued by the variety of wines offered there by the glass in many nitrogen-stabilized machines. The access to the machines is…

Take Your Rubber Ducks And Vamoose

The life-sized cow figurine is coming home for the evening. Watching it roll indoors from the sidewalk on East Broward Boulevard reminds proprietor Jerry Miles of all the other outrageous objects he has employed over the decades — oversized Adirondack chairs, enormous mirrored sunglasses — to draw attention to his…

Mama’s Boy

Antoine, You’re Grounded Blondy McColister Williams, age 48, is a familiar figure around Deerfield Beach High School, where she’s done everything from work as an on-site security officer to drive a school bus to coach the girls’ softball team. A hearty, bluff, good-natured woman, she’s most notable nowadays for being…

What’s Going On

From the morning papers: — Kevin Deutsch writes about the DUI arrest of Boca Raton developer Greg Talbott after he was caught napping in his Bentley after 1 a.m. Talbott sounds like a walking disaster at this point, as he’s been accused of being in default on about $50 million…

Triumph Of The Nerds

Sorry haven’t posted as much as you might be used to, but been real busy. I feel a little guilty, so here’s something just for laughs that I picked up on another blog…

It’s Raining Women At The Sentinel

The Pulp mailbox was recently hit with this list of Sun-Sentinel editors, including their gender/ethnicity: Deputy Managing Editor: Pat Thompson (female) Editorial Page Editor: Antonio Fins (Hispanic male) News Editor: Willie Fernandez (Hispanic male) Broward Metro Editor: Dana Banker (female) Director of Photography: Taimy Alvarez (female) Business Editor: Anne Vasquez…

Ratings Or The Road

WINZ 940-AM has dropped syndicated “progressive” talker Ed Schultz from its lineup — and Fort Lauderdale graphics artist and gadfly extraordinaire Cal Deal doesn’t like it. So he sent the Clear Channel station’s general manager, Ken Charles an email: From: Cal Deal Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 10:52 AM To:…

Morning Kibble

— Ralph de la Cruz does his obligatory “Life As A Movie Extra” column this morning, which contained one interesting piece of news: The film crew kicked Sun-Sentinel Managing Editor Sharon Rosenhause out of her office by the film crew, pissing her off. — Shaq threw down criticism on former…

Cane Collapse

On Sunday, you, dear University of Miami fan, watched the Hurricanes nearly claw their way past the favored Texas Longhorns into the Sweet 16. And as you did, you probably thought the same thing as everyone else in South Florida: Since when do butchers dress in black-and-white vertical stripes? You’ll…

Trailer Trashed

Serge Leon sits on a step in his recently renovated mobile home. He has clear plastic tubes running into his nose and a rather dazed, faraway look in his eyes. Then it changes to something like defiance. “I love my house,” says the 64-year-old Haitian immigrant before slapping his hand…

Revenge of the Nerd

It happened in 1996. Mario Lavandeira Jr. can’t recall the exact date, but it was late in his senior year at Belen Jesuit Preparatory School, the all-boys Catholic institution that relocated to Miami from Cuba in 1961 after alumnus Fidel Castro overthrew Fulgencio Batista. Educators, parents, and students filled Belen’s…