With winter here, these are the glory days in Everglades National Park. Cold fronts chase the mosquitoes, alligators congregate where visitors can easily see them, and, as if on cue, anhingas and herons preen and pose to accommodate anyone toting a camera. “It is very peaceful and so different from…
She’s a minority of one this week: Most people write to complain about something. I am writing to compliment Wyatt Olson. We were truly amazed by his December 26 article, “Barred for Life.” His perception of people and issues is unreal. He described us and our surroundings perfectly, down to…
Chris and Robin DiFranco operate a small contracting business from a worn second-story suite in North Miami. A couple of blocks from Dixie Highway, their cream-colored building is surrounded by a hodgepodge of auto-body and machine shops. The deadbolted first-floor door opens to a long flight of bare-wood steps. Their…
Santa is frantic. Pacing through the living room of his red-and-green-and-gold Christmas-spangled home in an absolute dither. The cause of his distress? Barbie, a doll that has held an enviable position on Christmas wish lists for generations. A Santa must-have. And a mere week before Christmas, Santa’s major problem. Out…
Editor’s note: This is the last of a three-part series. The first column described Plantation’s racist history and showed that blacks are severely underrepresented in the police department and in supervisory positions throughout the city. The second told of City Hall’s unequal treatment of black and white nightclubs. Emelio Davis…
She knows apartheid, and this is no apartheid: I am curious as to whether Bob Norman’s article regarding the City of Plantation is supposed to be factual or opinion (“Down on the Plantation,” December 12 and 19)? If it is supposed to be factual, it seems to me, a lot…
Boxes of pizza are stacked over on the plastic picnic table, and a waitress brings out free bottles of Bud. There’s a guy on a cordless microphone singing karaoke-quality funk tunes. But overall, it’s not a fancy party. That’s not Fay Fiess’ style, even though she just became a wealthy…
Some people might think Jim Crow died a long time ago. But the City of Plantation enacted laws a couple of years ago that were clearly designed to run black patrons out of town. And it has protected white-owned businesses, even when they break city ordinances. A group of political…
On the art of defacing: I read Rebekah Gleaves’ December 12 story about street art (“Tagged”). A friend and I have had many a heated argument about graffiti and its place in the art world. Gleaves’ article was very eye-opening and has caused me to realize that I was generalizing…
George Hanneforf III is short, broad, and muscular, with Johnny Weissmuller, 1930s, old Hollywood, he-man good looks and an Old World demeanor. At the moment, his natural courtliness is at odds with the outfit he’s wearing — baby blue-and-white-striped cotton clown pants, decorated with red, yellow, and green saucer-size patches…
Spray cans clink every time “Dems” takes a step, the pellet in each tapping with his every move. His sagging, desert camouflage pants droop with the weight of his loaded pockets, and his shoulders slump under the heft of the gear in his backpack. Darting back and forth across East…
Jim Ironman wants to sell you the gift that keeps on giving. For two months now, Ironman (not his real name), a family man with the face of a deacon and the body of a department store Santa, has written, edited, and distributed the Pynk Pages from his Boynton Beach…
The boys ride to my driveway on mad killer bees. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! The sound emanates from small gas-powered motors, which are attached to little steel scooters called Go-Peds. They come for the basketball hoop, and I let them play, though the near-daily thumping of the ball on the blacktop and the…
Her blood is boiling: I was disappointed in the irresponsible approach that New Times took in dealing with the issue of blood services in South Florida (“Blood Trade,” Eric Alan Barton, November 28). I believe that the use of terms “corporate thievery” and other sensationalistic devices, in addition to being…
Leon Braun just wanted to show off his latest enterprise to his friends that Sunday afternoon some 13 years ago. They were driving back to his home in Hollywood after attending a wedding in St. Petersburg. Then in his late 60s, Braun was an engineer, inventor, and venture capitalist; he…
It’s 11 a.m. in a dusty driveway called Domino Corner in northwest Hallandale Beach, and a crowd ranging in age from 16 to 70 lounges on folding chairs and garbage cans while pondering the recent conviction of a local man for rape, burglary, and stalking. Lenny Hope, a 34-year-old sometime-landscaper,…
Nader’s Raiders weigh in: The Miami-Dade Green Party expresses its deep appreciation for the November 14 article, “The Antiwarriors,” by Bob Norman. It is refreshing indeed to read this well-written and in-depth article on an important news event that the so-called “mainstream” media chose to ignore. Again, our thanks. Stacy…
Michael Piquion, a shy 13-year-old with a soft smile and eyes that dart timidly away from strangers, sits in a Jackson Memorial Hospital room with walls decorated in pastels, polka dots, and Rugrats characters. With his left hand, he curls a crimson cord connected to a plastic bag overhead that…
Jimmy Walker seemed hell-bent on taking a bad situation and making it ten times worse. Although ten times might be a conservative multiplier. On September 20, at an age when most young men are embarking on adult life, the 23-year-old was sentenced in Broward County Circuit Court to life in…
Roy Baker uses a lot of code names, which can make it hard to unravel the meaning in the sharply analytical political columns he writes for Pompano Beach’s little weekly newspaper, the Sentry. When Baker refers to “Goliath,” for instance, the casual reader likely doesn’t know he’s talking about Tom…
It’s se-e-e-erious: Eric Barton’s November 21 story, “Cashed,” was humorous. His point was perhaps to prod drug-policy reformers into action? I hope so, because there is nothing humorous about drug prohibition. It is the social policy that causes far more societal damage than it prevents. On one hand, we have…
The clink of glasses. The murmur of the crowd. The smell of newsprint and cigarettes. The pregnant pauses. The flecks of spittle arcing through the smoky air toward a waiting microphone. The creak of stretching similes. The rumble of mixed metaphors. The thud of thematic anvils. The screams of tortured…
