He’s no anti-semite: People who plunk down their own money to see The Passion of the Christ, just as Mel Gibson used his own money to make it, will find a movie as diverse in its effect on them as the teachings of Jesus Christ has been on history (“Suffer…
The guy behind the wheel of the Corolla doesn’t look amused. It’s too early in the morning to put up with harassment from some dirty bum. The driver starts to roll up the window before the drunk, who looks as if he has rubbed cake mix on his face, shouts,…
Mark Raczkowski makes an unassuming soldier in the war on terror. The 72-year-old Polish immigrant with aquamarine eyes and silver hair shuffles around his tidy Coconut Creek condo in slippers and a blue dress shirt with a gold watch worn outside the left cuff. On his small dining table are…
The warm California sun drenches the buildings in reds and oranges as another hazy January day comes to a close in Los Angeles. On the rooftop bar of the Standard, a swanky, downtown hotel, you have a panoramic view of the whole city, with the Hollywood sign a distant and…
It’s about 10:30 p.m. linear time on a Saturday night, and 40 partially conscious humanoids have just completed an hourlong, energy-generating “Dance of Power” and drum circle beneath towering light sculptures. Dressed in everything from earth-toned linens to tacky lycra, they are splayed across the dance floor like massacre victims…
The times, that is: Hats off to Christopher Smith for the February 19 cover illustration of Courtney Hambright. (“Drunk Side of the Moon”) He captured her to a T! Now the question is, does Hambright do her male impersonation at bookings or exclusively at the Downtowner? She has set the…
Just before it reaches Sunrise Boulevard from the south, Fort Lauderdale’s NW 19th Avenue shrivels into a forlorn road lined by the razor-wire-topped walls of a junkyard. At the end, oil-soaked asphalt gives way to tire tracks woven in mud. Then, a scrubby, sandy berm rises about three feet to…
Mike Smarro offers a smile as he takes drink orders from behind the bar at Georgie’s Alibi on a sunny February afternoon. A handsome, muscular 36-year-old wearing a baseball cap and a stylish 5 o’clock shadow, Smarro has been finding the upcoming election hard to ignore. Since the beginning of…
Dude, come on in. Welcome to the brand- new Broward County North Jail. Have a seat. No, not there. Over here in this boxy wooden chair with the wires. Built not for comfort but utility, you could say. No, no, no. It’s not — ha ha — the electric chair…
At 10:25 p.m. on a recent Wednesday, Matt, a tall bartender with a dark, short-cropped beard, walks perfunctorily toward the dock in front of the Downtowner Saloon (408 S. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale), unhooking his belt and opening his fly. A crowd of ten locals — Night Court included –…
Prosecute ’em: In reference to Bob Norman’s columns on NBHD: great reporting. As a Miami-Dade County teacher, I am so tired of all the corruption in the very places we should most be able to count on. For shame. The Broward Hospital Board should be treated just like teachers’ union…
A white, two-inch-tall teddy bear lies next to an M4 assault rifle. Behind them on a blue wall are T-shirts of Uncle Sam and the Statue of Liberty. One reads: “Fuck You Binn [sic] Laden.” “And welcome to yet another Ted-E Adventure,” a voice narrates. “This week’s adventure is more…
You might think the North Broward Hospital District would be at least moderately thrifty, especially since it keeps raising our property taxes to help fund its monstrous $800 million budget. But then, you’d be wrong. A look at an unauthorized Internet database of NBHD’s expenses provides strong evidence that the…
Dubya is still a deceitful chump: Regarding your January 5 cover story by Sam Eifling, “Liar, Liar…,” a quick note to inform you that I find your antipatriotic, antimoralistic, and antisocietal message immature and obscene. I laugh at your attempt at “journalism” and suggest growing up. I will shun all…
Late last summer, Lt. Jeffrey Marano got wind of fliers making their way around the Hollywood Police Department announcing the “BPO First Annual Picnic” to be held in August at Ty Park. In police parlance, BPO stands for black police officer. Marano was alarmed. After getting a look at one…
Jimmy King leans forward over the poker table with his arms crossed in front of him and glares at the few dollars in the pot, counting what he’ll win. Tight poker players like King, who go to the casinos every day just to scratch out enough for a modest living,…
The most curious thing you notice when cruising Fort Lauderdale with a 12-foot jury-rigged statue of George W. Bush on a trailer is that people delight in giving you the finger. Sometimes, they shout at the hulking, smoking giant, resplendent in a spray-silver flight suit topped by a sort of…
Standing outside the glass wall of the nursery on the third floor of the Broward General Medical Center this past Sunday, Dr. Reynald Pouliot gazed at the two babies who slept peacefully in two of the many cribs. “This is going to be like a ghost town without SunLife,” says…
Take this, you pagan strumpet: Rebecca Meiser’s January 29 article (“Jews for Bejesus”) describes the problems of the extended Rapp family. Edie Rapp is quoted in regard to herself and her dying husband: “If there’s one thing the two of us were definite about, it was our Jewishness.” The story…
The two-tiered ferry boat, the Carrie B., is docked on the north side of the New River, across from the Sea Monster Night Club (2 S. New River Dr., Fort Lauderdale). At 6 p.m. sharp on a lazy Sunday evening, the engine gurgles to life, and the paddleboat’s big, red…
Dressed in a faded pair of jeans cut off just below the knee and a clean, white wife beater with a tiny two-piece swimsuit underneath, grooving to a Mudhoney CD spinning in her boom box, Ginger looks more like a student rocker than a part-time hooker. “You could make good…
Martha Roldan, a 45-year-old employee of the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, doesn’t have a law degree. She never took the bar exam. In fact, she could be arrested if she ever purported to be an attorney. But in an office nestled on the south side of…
