Have South Florida’s punk kids stifled their rage-based love of nihilistic music to saddle up for MTV’s pop culture pony ride? If the punk/hardcore music scene that rages nightly at Pompano Indoor Skate Park is any indication, that question can be answered with a resounding NAAAAAAAAAAY! That’s right. There’s more…
In the oldest bar in Fort Lauderdale, one of the town’s oldest living patrons sits waiting for his bottle of Bud Light to arrive. Artie Yerpe, age 90, is not happy about this whole light beer phenomenon. If it were up to him, he’d order a glass of Crown Royal…
With his education system under attack, Jeb Bush has begun selling a revolutionary idea: Failure is good. The Florida governor is piping that message into our homes as part of a massive state-funded advertising campaign called “Read to Learn.” The ads are aimed at families struggling under the stigma of…
Heck with Arnold. We want Burt Reynolds. Or maybe Maggie. See, Margaret Richardson, a 61-year-old disabled seamstress from Pensacola, is planning a California-type insurgency in the Sunshine State. Last week, she started a petition to recall Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (at petitiononline.com/JebLies/ petition.html). “Our governor has gone from doublespeak to…
Can’t you find anything else to write about? New Times has had two recent cover stories in one month involving firearms. In “Gunning for Profit” (July 10), Eric Barton wrote about the ease with which unscrupulous persons can mail firearms to guerrillas overseas in violation of federal laws. The cover…
Dressed in a black Brooks Brothers suit, Michael Pecora strode into Signature Grand in Davie on Tuesday, April 29, as calm and affable as ever. Following his usual routine, Pecora had driven alone from his million-dollar home in Weston to the Grand, a two-story, salmon-colored catering center, which, with its…
The sun had just peeked over the slash pines in Loxahatchee early on a recent Monday as Terry Wolf got ready for the dirtiest job around. He looked the part of a man who oversees the care of 1,100 animals at Lion Country Safari, the drive-through zoo in this western…
You need some powerful fog lights to navigate the political landscape in Hollywood these days. Direction is fleeting, and suspicion reigns among those who want to unseat Mayor Mara Giulianti in the March election. The would-be usurpers of the crown seem to trust one another less than they do Giulianti,…
Blame it on Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, who turned squealing into an art form. Blame it on Francis Ford Coppola, whose Godfather movies made us look upon Mafia capos not as cold-blooded mob bosses but as gravel-voiced moralists. Blame it on 50 years of obsessive law enforcement. But the Mafia,…
Don wants to remain “port”-able: I’d like to thank Trevor Aaronson for the great article regarding the taxi cabs on Fort Lauderdale Beach (“No Fare,” July 31). I started driving a cab in 1984, left, and then came back in 1994. The gist of Aaronson’s article was certainly true, although…
Ralph Bellman remembers the day he ran into Florida’s future: September 15, 1969. In a way, it was the day he ran into his own future. Bellman is 57 years old now, with a thick horse’s mane of gray-streaked black hair that reaches his shoulders in the back. OK, it’s…
Our man in Baghdad has made his mark on Iraq. And that is to be expected, since Andy Martin always makes his mark — even if sometimes he’s the only one who can see it. Martin, a U.S. Senate candidate who calls Fort Lauderdale home, claims he has all but…
Driving his Yellow Cab taxi down A1A, Jay Cunningham is on a mission. “The other drivers call me Don Quixote,” he says with a slight New England accent. “But really, I’m just stubborn.” On this recent Saturday morning, Cunningham is patrolling Fort Lauderdale Beach. The weather is perfect. Tourists bustle…
The briny deep in depth: You did a great job on “Man Overboard” (Trevor Aaronson, July 17). Not only is your writing both powerful and graceful but you also included other issues of great interest — such as the possibility that lobstermen are not villains destroying habitats and the environment,…
Jeannine Ross felt a familiar rage roil through her when she picked up the newspaper on Sunday a few weeks ago. The 36-year-old artist and filmmaker read an account of a Democratic fundraiser in Broward County that was attended by bigwigs the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Mario Cuomo. An…
The toll-free phone line rings at Adam and Eve Sex Toy Co. A young man answers the line with a generic, memorized customer greeting. “Hello. Thank you for calling Adam and Eve. This is Chris speaking. How can I help you?” Over the jingle of ice, an old lady with…
Morton Iver got to the lobby of the Fort Lauderdale Airport Hilton at 8:15 a.m. By the time the other conferees took their seats in a second-floor conference room, the 81-year-old Lake Worth retiree was already front and center. His friend Hope Ryckman, 82, sat demurely beside him. Propped against…
Can you stay clean in Hollywood? I read Bob Norman’s column “Mayor Mintz” (July 17) and would be remiss if I did not respond. First of all, kudos to the writer. I myself have said almost everything that was written in the article. In 1990, I was Sal Oliveri’s campaign…
Carla Coleman had many titles in her 18 years working for Florida Atlantic University, from low-paid research assistant to her most-recent gig as senior vice president, pulling in a six-figure salary. Now, the heroine of the school’s fundraising efforts is serving a new role: fall guy. Coleman allegedly went behind…
Standing in a bleak parking lot behind a piece of downtown Hollywood’s run-down history, Jerry Mintz — with his Roman Polanski build, Ted Koppel hair, and Norman Mailer eyes — doesn’t seem so threatening. As he talks about saving the Great Southern Hotel, he sounds more like a thoughtful scholar…
At six foot one, 365 pounds, Richard Nielsen Jr. was a man-giant with huge arms that hung from broad thick shoulders. On his left biceps was an enormous tattoo of a fisherman above a line from the Book of Psalms: “They that go down to the sea in ships.” Though…
Rounds aimed at Barton: I will advise Miami Police Supply to sue New Times for Eric Barton’s July 10 article, “Gunning for Profit.” Obviously, there was nothing better to fill its pages with than this antigun, anti-Republican, anti-Florida garble. The only issue I cannot argue with is that there is…
