Letters to the Editor

This bonehead wouldn’t sign his name: Upon reading Bob Whitby’s December 7 article, “Bones of Contention,” I realized why New Times is not considered a reputable news source. I also realized why Bob Whitby writes for New Times and not The New York Times. It appears that neither the paper…

Minority Madness

While the world roosts outside the state capitol in Tallahassee, Democrats huddle on the third floor just trying to cope. Roughly 30 representatives, most hailing from South Florida, sit around a long table in what they call the caucus room, the largest space in the House minority’s suite of offices…

Cindini

Across the street from the Palm Beach Kennel Club, royal palms stand like sentries under a blue sky striated with cumulus clouds. People scrimp and save for years to live in Palm Beach Colony Mobile Home Park, but Cynthia Morrison is trying to escape. In the clubhouse, within sight of…

Letters to the Editor

She’s on Neptune: I just wanted to thank you for your article concerning the CityLink Music Fest (Bandwidth, December 21). I witnessed the shortened performance by Neptune B and the scary yuppies who didn’t understand that a local music showcase was going on. Neptune B was one of the bands…

Deep Roots

The baobab tree’s majestic opulence and generous spirit is memorialized in an African folktale that goes like this: A hare’s usually peppy step slowed to a limp in the hot sun of the Sahara desert when she came upon a noble baobab. “Leaves, can I share your shade?” Hare asked…

Bekoff’s Bounty

At midmorning in early December, about 100 people waited at the central Broward County bus terminal — a long, glorified sidewalk with wooden benches and a roof. Sitting in the middle of the sparse crowd were friends Audrey and Mary, both middle-aged and tired-looking. Since Audrey’s car broke down a…

Undercurrents

In a cavernous warehouse on SW Second Avenue in downtown Fort Lauderdale, the newest media farce began Monday. About 20 reporters and, of course, their accountants began perusing Broward County’s uncounted presidential ballots. The count, which will eventually spread like a swarm of badly dressed locusts to every county in…

Letters to the Editor

Many sources make a symphony: I was thrilled with Amy Roe’s article (“Stage Fright,” December 14). Thanks for taking so much of your time to give it such varied opinions. I think that it could really make a difference. Steve Sigurdson via the Internet Harvey writes till he’s Bluesten in…

Hollywood Tattler

Joe Schneider is a Hollywood lawyer. But he’s a cool guy nonetheless, judging by the ’79 Fender Stratocaster plugged into a Marshall amp that he keeps in his office on the 18th floor of the Home Tower on Young Circle. Then there’s his handmade knife collection hanging on the wall…

Stage Fright

Beethoven’s Symphony no. 6 in F major, op. 68, “Pastorale,” has five movements. The first, allegro ma non troppo, describes the awakening of cheerful feelings on arriving in the countryside. But Tina Raimondi’s pale yellow house is in Oakland Park, not the countryside, and despite a neatly trimmed lawn, it’s…

Undercurrents

When the Florida Supreme Court ruled last week (though it now seems like a political eon ago) that thousands of uncounted ballots from across the state should be hand-counted, state Rep. Chris Smith did something completely unexpected. The 30-year-old Fort Lauderdale Democrat leaped up and embraced minority leader Lois Frankel…

Letters to the Editor

Harvey hurls again: Bob Norman’s article “One Man, One Vote” (November 30) included so much information that was a week or more old, I thought I was reading the news about JFK’s assassination. The angle you took to report this stale news — the disenfranchised Haitian community — is one…

Bones of Contention

There probably isn’t a square foot of the Florida Keys that hasn’t been trod upon by someone at one time or another. As far as terra firma is concerned, the Keys are about as undiscovered as I-95. But when you’re talking shells, both living and long dead, the island chain…

Ribfellas

Detectives watched Frank Galgano for years, but they didn’t nail him until August 25. That was when Galgano, co-owner of the Bobby Rubino’s rib-restaurant chain, was booked into jail. The state Department of Revenue charged him with stealing nearly $250,000 in sales tax. If convicted, the long-time Fort Lauderdale businessman…

Undercurrents

“Winners and Losers” lists are for losers — you know, self-important editors’ proclamations of who benefited and who suffered during a major media event like, say, the Florida election mess. So we at New Times have eschewed that idea — with one exception. After being convicted of writing campaign checks…

Letters to the Editor

Dubya gets down and hypocritical: In New Times’ November 23 issue, letter writer Lucy Keller, a native Texan, says Vice President Al Gore is “… setting an example for our young people that, if you do not like the rules, you can break them.” That statement should refer to George…

One Man, One Vote

Gerlyn Cadet is a driver in the ground war, and he has the feeling his side is going to win. It is Election Day, and the word in Broward County is that people are coming out in record numbers to vote for Vice President Al Gore. Not all the news…

It’s Chad-tastic!

It started as morbid curiosity, like rubbernecking a car crash. The Broward County Emergency Operations Center (EOC), where the manual recount for the presidential election was going on, is just two miles away from my house, and I kept seeing the place all over the national news. So, on November…

Letters to the Editor

G. Herbert Walker may walk again: I must compliment the tenor of the argument in November 16’s Undercurrents. You were right on when you pointed out W’s inability to judge talent, his lack of presidential standing in the way that he has “delegated” the handling of this situation, and his…

Making the Saint

Willie Rios has a flamboyant personality that makes him the life of almost any party. He’s unpretentious, a mile-a-minute talker whose eyebrows are in constant motion. Though he stands only five-feet-eight-inches tall and weighs but 110 pounds, the 22-year-old Puerto Rican man has a commanding presence. His raspy voice is…

Blowing Smoke

There’s Andre Fladell in front of local TV cameras explaining how he mistakenly cast his vote for Pat Buchanan and why he’s taking the matter to court. Note his blue-and-white­checked shirt. Casual yet working-class. There’s Fladell quoted in the pages of prominent daily newspapers such as London’s The Guardian, the…

Letters to the Editor

The Palm Beach ballot was not flawed: What is happening in Florida will go down in history as one of the most corrupt elections in the history of the United States (“Down For the Recount,” November 16). I am a Republican and a native Texan, and I voted in Texas…