James Randi, a.k.a the Amazing Randi, has made a career out of debunking purportedly fantastical events. In the late ’70s, the magician and scientist humiliated spoon-bender Uri Geller on The Tonight Show by scuttling a supposed demonstration of psychic powers. About a decade later, Randi exposed televangelist Peter Popoff as…
At a recent evening of “girl talk” with some of my friends, the subject of makeup tips came up. One of the women said her mother swore by Preparation H to reduce the dreaded under-eye puffiness we all get sometimes. We all laughed, but afterward I wondered: Does it really…
Warning: Watch Out For Gothard’s Little Soldiers Congratulations on your report on Bill Gothard (“Little Soldiers in the Culture War,” Bob Norman, February 18). Excellent research! You can expect flak from Gothard and his followers. They will be livid. Keep up the good work! G.R. Fisher via the Internet Gothard’s…
Every city likes to pretend to some kind of distinction, no matter how humble or how true. Fort Lauderdale has its picturesque waterways; Lauderdale-by-the-Sea its small beachfront hotels; Sunrise its economy-size mall; Dania Beach its antique district. Even Hallandale has a roadside Christmas light show that, though ghastly, is certainly…
Here’s a little something that local officials “forgot” to tell homeless people and their advocates when they recently closed Fort Lauderdale’s Tent City and prodded the residents to move into the new Homeless Assistance Center on Sunrise. The Fort Lauderdale Police Department last week told us they expected to get…
They came with hoods on and guns drawn in the middle of the night. They brazenly swept past the signs cautioning, “If nudity or sexual activity offends you, please do not enter.” They proceeded down the purple-walled hallway of the private club, past two more signs warning of impending non-PG…
I’ve heard of people under general anesthetic who become physically paralyzed but remain mentally alert. They feel the surgeon’s scalpel but are helpless and unable even to blink an eye or make a sound. Could you give me the straight dope on this phenomenon? — Pandora, via the Internet It…
Capital Punishment: Use It or Lose It! Capital punishment (“Dead Man Waiting,” Paul Demko, February 11) is like the drug laws. [The authorities] simply don’t enforce either one! Use the law or abolish it. Having a law and not enforcing it only makes young people think they can get away…
A dismembered flamingo lies on a plywood plank, a pink stump protruding from its underbelly. The ceramic creature’s legs and several of its feathers have long since snapped off and now rest by its side in a storage chamber at the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Lake Worth. The…
He’s brokering peace between ancient enemies in northern Ireland. He’s investigating Olympic scandal in Salt Lake City. But no matter how illustrious he is, a guy has to take a break and make some money. So former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell found himself in Fort Lauderdale last week…
Meyer, HEAL Thyself I read the article, “Nova HEAL Thyself” (Harris Meyer, February 4), and was disappointed. The piece is the worst journalism I have read in a very long time. HEAL and its members were misquoted and the information reported was grossly out of context. This, along with buzz…
I have heard that armadillos carry leprosy. Is this true? How about any other nasty diseases? — Tom Wilkinson, via AOL A query to the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board drew the following response: Q. Why don’t lepers play hockey? A. Too many face-offs. You see why scientific progress is…
One of the lessons for today is obedience, and the first graders at the school inside the First Christian Church building in Fort Lauderdale sing about it quite obediently. While the students at the Charter School of Excellence are divided fairly evenly between blacks and whites, they dress alike, with…
William Duane Elledge had a moment of flawed prophecy on March 27, 1975. The 24-year-old drifter and carnival worker known as Willie the Kid had just been sentenced to die in the electric chair for the grisly murder of Margaret Anne Strack in Hollywood. Elledge granted an interview to a…
The first time, the thieves came through the front door, smashing the glass and going straight for the glimmering display case full of silver jewelry. They didn’t touch the T-shirts, the magnetic clocks, or the martini glasses. Ignoring the Monica Lewinsky kneepads, the rubber aliens, and Catholic school salt- and…
Al Jones strode to the microphone at Hollywood City Hall last week to address a proposal that could revolutionize politics in Broward County. The teacher and former Dania city commissioner was attending a town hall meeting called by the county commission to discuss next month’s seemingly arcane referendum question: Should…
Nobody’s ever accused former Miami Herald reporter and columnist Ron Ishoy of being a particularly hard-hitting journalist. His Sunday column, “Ron Ishoy’s People,” provided weekly evidence that he was much more a cheerleader than an impact player. His move this past week to become the chief flack at the Broward…
I was at a lecture on existential philosophy, and it was mentioned in passing that Nietzsche proposed to someone early in his life. She turned him down, and he got bitter. Later in the same lecture, I was told that another famous philosopher met this same woman at an artists’…
“Useless Meandering and an Excess of Opinion”? Sounds Like Your Letter, Matt The recent rise in “personal journalism,” where a journalist reports on their own experiences and thoughts instead of facts and events around them, is distressing. Your article on Marilyn Manson is a good argument that personal journalism should…
In one cage a quintuplet of blue-green rhinoceros iguanas crowd driftwood perches. In another, cougar cubs wrestle like rambunctious children. Seized at Miami International Airport two years ago, the cats arrived here when they still fit in the palm of a hand. South American marmosets, banned as imports, clutch the…
Kai Thorup sees himself as a victim of a vast conspiracy. The 27-year-old Nova Southeastern University sophomore claims that school officials are trying to stop him and his small band of true believers, a student group called Health Education AIDS Liaison (HEAL), from telling the world the truth about AIDS…
So here we are sitting in the lower level, row 9, at the Super Bowl, and we’re doing our best to compete with the Eugene Robinson jokes flying around. Robinson is the Atlanta Falcon player who was arrested for soliciting oral sex in Miami the night before the game, purely…
