Irving Reisfeld has that sound in his voice. Sitting at a small desk in a disheveled office, he has just reached a human on the phone after a lengthy time on hold. From his end the conversation sounds lopsided; Reisfeld’s words drip impatience and pick up velocity. He’s slipped into…
Belle Glade is a city where the difference between the haves and the have-nots is more than the four-lane highway that separates affluent and poor neighborhoods. In the less-fortunate section of this isolated chunk of western Palm Beach County, most buildings are either crumbled shells or liquor-related establishments. People live…
Who doesn’t love Slammin’ Sammy Sosa, the $72 million slugger with a heart of gold? He knocks baseballs out of the park to the delight of otherwise hapless Cubs fans, he vaccinates kids and fixes their teeth in his native Dominican Republic, and he taps his heart and blows kisses…
A mea culpa sans headlock: I read the two-parter on backyard wrestling (“Backyard Bloodbath,” Bob Norman, April 5 and 12). And ya know, for once I don’t feel so good about being a rabid wrestling fan…. I mean I loved the bloodletting of ECW [Extreme Championship Wrestling], but this –…
Ricardo Ramirez doesn’t seem like he would scare easily. A burly Mexican American with a barrel chest, forearms thick with ropelike muscle, and a full beard flecked with gray, he carries a .45-caliber semiautomatic Beretta pistol and speaks in quiet, measured tones. The 41-year-old Southwest Broward resident is a special…
In reply to a faxed list of questions seeking response to Ramirez¹s allegations, the INS media relations office in Miami issued the following statement: The law enforcement actions conducted by the Florida District of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) regarding Elián González were appropriate, have been appropriate, and will…
Their upcoming ailments: Regarding Bob Norman’s article on the teenage carnage taking place in Coral Springs (“Backyard Bloodbath,” April 5 and 12), I don’t know which is more shocking, the self-destructive acting out of these boys or the spectacle of this mother who is so neglectful that she’s not even…
The attorney wears a simple blouse, and her straight brown hair is as no-nonsense as her demeanor. She rests her head in her hands and, in a monotone, cross-examines a man as if reading from a list. He looks fortysomething and vaguely collegiate in a sagging tweed jacket and argyle…
Editor’s Note: This is the second and final installment of a series on a group of Coral Springs teenagers who make up Extreme Fuckin’ Wrestling. The first part focused on 16-year-old John Ulloa, who started the enterprise and whose back yard was the setting for the February 24 show featured…
Strings of boxlike buildings, each a framework of metal and oil-stained cement, line North Andrews Avenue just south of Sunrise Boulevard. The tinted windows of auto-detailing shops, the shimmering metal of used-car dealerships, and the dingy vehicles crammed into repair garages blur into a gray landscape of harsh lines and…
Just the other day Undercurrents received a letter from Paul Anger, Broward publisher of The Herald. We tore into the missive eagerly, hoping it was the job offer that would finally give us a chance to do some real journalism. We long to work cheek by jowl with these lords…
You should have better judgment…: I’m writing to express my extreme displeasure with your choice for the cover photo on the most recent issue of New Times (“Backyard Bloodbath,” Bob Norman, April 5). Frankly I was so turned off by the image that I didn’t care what the story was…
The sickly sweet smell of blood fills the dimly lit bathroom where John Ulloa sits dazed on a closed toilet. The silky red fluid gushes from a gash in his forehead, creating a stream that flows over his cheekbone, past his mouth, and drips like a leaky faucet from his…
When James Lauzerne explored Ernest Hemingway’s Key West home this past October, he spotted a copy of The Exile, a thin literary review from the late 1920s. The journal, created and edited by Ezra Pound, featured Hemingway’s writing. “I saw this thing lying there in a glass case… I couldn’t…
Motoring south on University Drive in Davie last week, Undercurrents suddenly got a terrible hankering for lasagna. And when you’re in Davie and in need of a pasta fix, there’s really only one place to go: Pizza Loft. Without straying too far into culinary criticism, we’ll say that Pizza Loft…
An Aimee Zekofsky backer returns fire: I am writing to you regarding the hatchet job Emily Bliss performed on Apollo Middle School’s principal (“We Have a Problem,” March 29). Let me ask you a question: If you had a daughter that came home with a sleazy picture — and stated…
On November 16, 2000, Apollo Middle School principal Aimee Zekofsky summoned Ofcr. Bryan Roussell of the Hollywood Police Department to her office. The principal handed him what resembled a Rorschach test, then asked him to fold it and hold it up to the light. Roussell, Apollo’s school resource officer, followed…
With the touch of a button on a key-chain remote, Sue Carolyn Wise pops open the door locks of her 1988 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur and slides into the tan, glove-leather driver’s seat. Then she slides out again, walks around the car, and opens the passenger door with the key. The…
I knew Fidel Castro and you, senator, are no Fidel Castro: In regard to the Undercurrents item about the Sun-Sentinel’s Cuba coverage (March 22), any journalist trying to tell the truth from behind the lines of a police state is going to present a big fat target to that special…
The night air was crisp as Undercurrents loitered in the Pine Lake Plaza parking lot listening to trumpeters play “Greensleeves.” Ensconced in a crowd of sartorially splendid gentlemen and surgically enhanced ladies, we felt the electricity in the air. The beautiful people hugged and kiss-kissed as if this were South…
Ferdinand Mahfood is here in spirit. Peering down from a white wall inside the tinted glass doors of Food for the Poor, Inc. (FFP), the Deerfield Beach¯ based charity he founded, Mahfood sees everything. Blessed by soft focus, his face exudes a healthy radiance; his narrow lips purse in a…
Spring brings out the best in a tiny and carefully tilled garden at Nova Southeastern University. Flowers blossom, insects flit about, the air smells sweet and rich. Just nine miles from downtown Fort Lauderdale, its two intersecting sidewalks and picnic tables provide the cozy feeling of an urban oasis. To…
