Block Party

Let’s take it back. Back before scouts whispered her name as a top-five pick in this year’s WNBA draft. Before she broke all those records at Texas Christian University. Before, even, that one game her junior year, when she considered giving it up, all of it, the basketball, the fame…

Tailpipe

From the Marano Playbook At most police departments, it’s the chief of police who fires officers. In Hollywood, it’s the officers who dump the head man. In the past decade, Hollywood police union leaders have successfully ousted Chiefs Rick Stone and Richard Witt after they attempted to clean up a…

The Corrupter

Ken Jenne thinks you’re an idiot. The Broward County sheriff believes us all to be morons. And if we let him stay in power after what he’s done, then he’s bloody well right. Jenne, as we all know, is at the heart of one of the largest law enforcement scandals…

Letters for March 31-April 6, 2005

Slots Are Only the Start Imagine Casino Disney: Bob Norman makes light of a serious situation with his sarcasm in his March 24 column, “The Slots King.” I moved from South Florida to Gulfport, Mississippi, and am impressed with the positive impact casinos have made for the educational system here…

Cash Cow

Tall and thin, Alfred Fisikelli walks on his land with a slight tilt of the head and a slow, respectful gait. “Watch that,” he cautions, pointing to a thin electrical wire running along the white PVC fence surrounding his cow pasture. “It’s hot.” Fisikelli, who goes by Freddy, is a…

Tailpipe

Death Is a Minor Setback Tailpipe was surprised to learn that the dearly departed cannot only vote but can actually run a business. Take the case of David Bethell, a Nassau attorney who met his maker in October 1998. Bethell has continued to serve from the grave as sole director…

The Slots King

Nobody should be more proud of Broward County’s recent vote for Vegas-style slot machines than state Sen. Steven Geller. During the recent slots debate, the Hallandale Beach Democrat slung quotes from here to the Panhandle, promoting the gaming industry at every turn. You might even have heard Geller’s gab on…

French Doorman

Gryphon/Pangaea: 5711 Seminole Way, Hollywood, 954-581-5454.

Mama Mia: 1818 S. Young Cir., Hollywood, 954-673-5555.

Letters for March 24-30, 2005

Da Man Has Her Down He’s oppressing the needy: Regarding the “Let’s Party” item in March 17’s Tailpipe column: It’s not surprising that the federal government sprang the specific plans for the Organization of American States meeting here on the city manager at the last minute. The city shouldn’t allow…

Urban Removal

Mary Cleare’s mother rarely talked about the place where she was born. Her home was a squatter’s settlement for the African-Americans who built the Breakers Hotel for Henry Flagler. Construction and domestic workers used driftwood and the remains of old crates to construct a village of lean-tos and shacks at…

Sunk!

If you believe Capt. Ernesto Garfias Ramirez’s story, the mysterious sinking was straight out of a Joseph Conrad tale. A tugboat called the Rosarita was chugging north along the coast of Baja California on the night of April 6, 2002, when a storm suddenly overtook it. Twelve-foot waves and 30-mph…

Tailpipe

The Theater Vanishes When city officials started talking about creating the Hollywood Arts District — or HART — at Young Circle, Tailpipe was skeptical. It sounded like the same old development flim-flam, with a few artsy touches thrown in. The city gives developers Gary Posner and Patricia Peretz $3.5 million…

A Culture Change

Capones: 310 New River Ct. , Fort Lauderdale, 954-524-1969

Dicey Riley’s: 217 SW Second St., Fort Lauderdale, 954-522-1908

Poor House: 110 SW Third Ave., Fort Lauderdale, 954-522-5145

Karma Lounge: 4 W. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, 954-523-7159

Letters for March 17-23, 2005

We Win. Or Do We? Power to the slots, man: Unlike those Calle Ocho lemming losers in Miami-Dade County, I was glad to see that the majority of Broward Countians overwhelmingly support the slots referendum (“Battle of the Frankensteins,” Tailpipe, March 3). Despite the last-minute “B.M. Movement” (Governor Bush-Mayor Mara…

ELVIS LIVES!

Checkout lanes at grocery stores are all the same. Behind the rows of gum and breath mints are America’s most delicious impulse buys: tabloid newspapers. Cellulite Stars! Drug Collapse! Angelina Rejects Brad! Did Britney’s Hubby Cheat? Slater’s Stripper Obsession Drove Wife Away! Lisa Marie Presley Engaged! You’ve thumbed through them…

Pickpocketing the Public: Part 1

Gotten that call yet from FPL? Or the letter in the mail? They’re asking you to do your part and tack on an extra $9.75 to your monthly payment. It’s for “renewable energy.” Who in good conscience could say no? The pitch is this: Florida Power & Light promises that…

Pickpocketing the Public: Part 2

You’re sitting down to dinner, slicing into that juicy red steak, and the phone rings. A sincere yet persistent voice tells you he’s calling on behalf of your local firefighters. Those men and women who risk their lives vanquishing fires and saving lives. The kind of brave rescuers who lost…

Pixelating Experience

Tailpipe stumbled into the current Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach last week like Rip Van Winkle coming out of a long snooze. Like, uh, where’s the finish line? the ‘Pipe asked a scowling bettor. Just then, a pack of thoroughbreds galloped past, aimed in the general direction of an unlighted…

Letters for March 10-16, 2005

Pop Dispute My daddy done told me…: In connection with her February 24 story “Rock the Vote,” Deirdra Funcheon spoke with my dad regarding my involvement in the Lake Worth mayoral race. He mentioned something about not supporting my efforts because I would try to make people live in trees,…

Karma Is Dead

It seems that a new nightspot opens every month in Broward County. The pace lately — hastened by the popular Seminole Paradise’s Gryphon and Pangaea, Park Sports Club, and Tequila Ranch — has been exciting. But when you take a look around downtown, people are still partying like it’s 1999…

Who’s Your Daddy?

Josephus Eggelletion knows how to keep his mouth shut. When it comes to his unethical lobbying work, the Broward County commissioner is lip-locked. Now, as allegations swirl that he had a sexual relationship with a teenaged student when he was a Dillard High School teacher and later fathered her child,…

The Fish Walks

Who knows what they might try to shove down students’ throats in public schools these days? Tailpipe has been worried that the Broward County school system might try to teach his little Pipette — despite a mountain of scientific evidence to the contrary — that the world and all its…