Nowadays, the massive Miami tennis tournament is called the NASDAQ-100 Open, but locals still refer to it as the Lipton International Players Championships, which was its name for 15 years. The 12-day extravaganza features so many of the world’s top players that it used to be nicknamed the “Winter Wimbledon.”…

Once upon a time, in a country far, far away (Canada), a little boy’s poor television reception was to have a profound impact on the rest of his life. Because young Charles Ross got hardly any channels, he resorted to watching VHS tapes of the original Star Wars trilogy. Over…

So it’s 1962. John F. Kennedy is president, there’s a happy cultural zeitgeist in the air, and you just want to dance! Without messing up your blue bouffant, of course! So what if you’re a plus-sized girl in small-minded Baltimore? You can win the Corny Collins Show dance contest and…

You would think that hockey players feel shafted. After all, the NBA players get all of the media hype. Major League Baseball gets all the television coverage. NFL teams get whole squads of cheerleaders – but the Florida Panthers only have six. “Is that all?” said Panthers center Stephen Weiss,…

Back in the 1940s and ´50s, Air Force Colonel John Paul Stapp just loooooved being a human guinea pig. One time, he flew in a airplane at 570 miles per hour, with the top down – just to see if it was safe for humans to do. Another time, he…

We’ve all been there – fiddling with iTunes for hours, trying to get the playlist juuuust right. But the perfect mix remains elusive. So we asked Mr. Tall, Dark, and Yummy himself – the Miami-based DJ named Cue – to share his secrets for creating a flawless flow. “It’s like…

According to Black Issues in Higher Education, Nova Southeastern University (3301 College Ave., Fort Lauderdale) is the number-one producer of African-American doctorates – and that’s among both traditionally white and historically black colleges. Take that, Howard University! So it’s no wonder that NSU has whipped up a month-long agenda of…

Why do Americans fight wars anyway? Because we want to capture baddies like Saddam and Osama? Or because Dick Cheney likes watching his stock ticker and seeing the price of Halliburton shares go up, up, and away? In his 1961 farewell address, President Eisenhower – the only five-star general to…

What goes through Lance Armstrong’s head while he’s chugging up the French Pyrenees on two wheels? Does he think about how much his thighs are burning? Does he ponder his favorite color of spandex? Does he sing to himself, “Every Day Is a Winding Road?”? You may soon have a…

Zagat gave Bistro Zenith (3011 Yamato Rd., Boca Raton) an “excellent” rating for its “eclectic American” food, but has anyone paid attention to the bar in this place? Manager Brian Kirk says that they have a healthy 58-bottle-long wine list, sake and champagne, “more vodkas than I can count, a…

It wasn’t that Charles Ludlam didn’t understand Shakespeare or Wuthering Heights; it’s just that he found the whole world of Victorian and Gothic literature a tad too pretentious for his tastes. So he threw in a few dirty jokes, a whole lot of cross-dressing, and a werewolf. Ludlam, known and…

Jim Florentine can do more than just answer the phone on unsuspecting telemarketers and mess with them. But the formula has been so successful that he’s recorded four volumes of his comedy CD, Terrorizing Telemarketers, and landed gigs on Comedy Central’s Crank Yankers and The Howard Stern Show because of…

The great thing is that more than 50 former major league ballplayers and celebrities will be playing in the 18th Annual Joe DiMaggio Legends Game and raise money to build a pediatric oncology wing at the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood. The curious thing is, how are they going…

Pablo Francisco has called himself “a universal comic” who tries to appeal to all audiences, but if he’s offered extra work based on his Hispanic heritage, he’ll take it. Sure, he’ll host the Latino Laugh Festival for seven million viewers. Sure, he’ll get paired with Carlos Mencia for a Comedy…

“We love our audiences,” said Valerie Zach, cast member of the improv comedy troupe Laughing Gas. “Valentine’s Day is our chance to show just how much… with a card. Cards and love are the same thing, right?” All members of the audience who attend tonight’s Laughing Gas show, called “Valentine’s…

Ed McMahon is coming! Too bad it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve won the Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes, or Star Search. A classic member of the so-called greatest generation, McMahon sold vegetable slicers on the New Jersey board walk as a teenager, flew combat missions as a fighter pilot during…

Unless you let women make their own reproductive decisions @body no indent:The test, it seems, had been passed. Plan B, a form of emergency contraception manufactured by Barr Pharmaceuticals, had been submitted to the Food and Drug Administration. Scientists at the department’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research had done…

When we asked basketball star Tim Hardaway if there are any players he’ll be scared to face during today’s ABA All-Star game, he straightened us out right quick. “First of all,” he said, “Tim Hardaway is not scared of nobody. Second, I’m the one who puts the fear in everyone…

“Acey Sickly woke up one day and found he was living the American nightmare: an interminable cycle of work, sleep, and monotony with nary a white picket fence or Stepford wife in sight.” This may not be the most groundbreaking storyline in the world; but the way that the story…

Part art and part tool, there’s just something about a map that opens up the imagination. Where does that road lead? How did that bridge get built? Who put the Pembroke in “Pembroke Pines”? Where is Bora Bora anyway? Of all the souvenirs you could buy in New York City,…