If bars were high school kids, South Shores Tavern would be that unkempt and quiet redneck who went virtually ignored until he suddenly cleaned up, cultivated his Southern charm, and became the new “it” guy. Ever since the Lake Worth bar and grill redecorated and started booking original music, the…
It’s Mongo’s Planet The alien who cooked yummy ribs: As a kid growing up in Memphis, there was only one place for a teenager to go, and that was Prince Mongo’s Planet (“The Alien Has Landed,” Bob Norman, January 19). I played bass for several bands there (hell, I met…
Wednesday night at Ray’s Downtown. A 50-something guitarist alone on the bandstand idly strokes the strings between numbers as a handful of barflies down cheap drinks. Slow night. In fact, the club exhibits a barely detectable pulse, despite the dozen or so patrons who have dragged themselves away from the…
On January 28, four people dropped off a 3-week-old baby boy at Broward Sheriff’s Office Fire Station 17 in West Park. Baby Kaleem’s story was soon front-page news: His mother, Alecia Reid, had asked her roommate, Stacy Counes, to watch the child, but Counes left Kaleem with strangers on a…
It’s starting to hurt all over for Parkland Mayor Bob Marks. First, he’s the subject of a criminal investigation of his financial ties with WCI Communities, the biggest developer in town. Then his wife, Carolyn, files to run against him. But don’t worry — their marriage is as strong as…
A new reef appeared off Fort Lauderdale’s coast last month. Not a coral reef but an eternal reef. It was constructed by an Atlanta firm that specializes in memorializing the cremated remains of loved ones in cement casts that fit together in underwater “reef balls.” After a dedication ceremony February…
Bad Boys Kids will be kids, then and now: Bob Norman’s “Stupid (Young) White Men” (February 2) is nothing short of a psychiatrist’s “Dream Project.” In Huxley’s novel Brave New World, the drug of choice was “Soma.” Today, the drug Xanax, along with hundreds of other drugs streaming across our…
A quarter century after the advent of AIDS in America, Professor William Darrow’s sense of urgency about one thing remains undiminished: This state, this country, isn’t doing enough to stop the disease. Although new treatments have made AIDS less deadly, a vaccine remains chimerical, and prevention efforts are flagging. We…
Already an Internet legend of sorts, at least in the minds of unredeemed boozehounds and womanizers, Tucker Max added to his infamy last month with the debut of his New York Times bestselling collection of dubious drunken tales, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. Max’s stories have been passed…
In my Plantation neighborhood, the kids all seemed to have met Tom Daugherty, one of the boys accused of beating a homeless man to death in Fort Lauderdale. “He was on pills,” said one. “Zany bars,” said another. It’s one of those things that everybody knows but nobody knows —…
So the Boca Raton cops bust David and Michelle Bachmann for running a prostitution ring out of their house. This was one heckuva painstaking investigation. Detectives spent almost three years allegedly establishing that the Bachmanns’ various escort services, carrying such colorful names as The Butt Man, Centerfolds, and Florida’s Finest,…
Breed Free Don’t confuse pet stores and breeders: I have issue with the fact that you are referring to Wizard of Claws as “breeders” (“Puppy Love?” Julia Reischel, January 26), both within the article and on the cover of New Times. They do not breed dogs… they purchase dogs from…
When the Plantation Acres Improvement District had an emergency government meeting on January 5, no agenda was posted. But everyone in attendance knew exactly what was going to happen. They were going to fire Lee Hillier, manager of the $1 million, tax-subsidized district that oversees water drainage in the Acres…
We take you now to Parkland, where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, all the children are above-average, and the politicians are clueless. Mayor Bob Marks and his wife, Carolyn, sit at their kitchen table, planning their day. There’s an atmosphere of crisis in the Marks household, as…
Keep on Versifyin’ A little acclaim for our own long fellow: Thank you, thank you, thank you from all the volunteers, workshop participants, and audience members for your great article (“They’re Poets, and They Know It,” January 19, Dave Amber). Your review is imaginative, funny, and, best of all, a…
Just a few hours into the new year, someone turned Broward County’s puppy war into an actual firefight. Pembroke Police say that sometime between 3 and 8 in the morning on January 1, 12 rounds of ammunition were fired into the windows of Wizard of Claws, a strip-mall pet boutique…
The Villas of Positano will offer the height of luxury living in Hollywood when the development project is completed in December. Located on Hollywood Beach, just south of Sheridan Street and North Beach Park, the project will rest in front of 200 feet of pristine sand kept pearly white by…
The extraterrestrial sits on a couch in his bare feet, as always. He looks up at a blank artist’s canvas hanging crookedly on the wall. Only it’s not blank. There are vague grayish shapes and blotches in the white background. “That picture is transforming right now,” Prince Mongo proclaims. “It’s…
When Piety Stinks Something fishy about Gil Fernandez’s repentance: Congratulations on a well-researched and well-written article (“Muscles, Murder, & a Messiah, Part 2,” Trevor Aaronson, January 12). Judge Imperato’s question is important and still needs to be answered for the families of the victims: Why won’t this defendant provide closure…
The old man swings his dead right leg out of the car at the end of the cul-de-sac, grabs the cane with the carved tiger handle, and steadies himself under the shadow of a condominium at his back. The Symphony House reaches skyward 22 stories, handsomely terraced, tastefully bland in…
How quickly the Diesel disappoints. Just last September, Tailpipe admired Miami Heat center Shaquille O’Neal for the way he used his new police powers to nab the alleged perpetrator of hate crime in South Beach. Not only is Shaq unstoppable in the paint but he is also carrying a badge,…
Let’s face it. Get busted on a DUI in the Sunshine State and you’re screwed. Even if you somehow get past the criminal charges — and a date with Bubba in cellblock 19 — you still have to contend with some onerous civil penalties. These are fines and restrictions that…
