Hidden at the center of downtown Fort Lauderdale at 335 SE Sixth Ave. sits the Stranahan House, a green-and-white, two-story, wooden rectangle on the north shore of the New River with massive wrap-around porches ringing both floors. At 101 years old, the oldest residence in Broward County has survived hurricanes,…
Four self-propelled harvesters clank their way through a sugar-cane field at the south edge of the tiny hamlet of Pahokee. The 20-acre stand abuts a finely coifed yard and tidy ranch-style house to the north. To the east lies State Highway 715; narrow canals and miles of cane border the…
Every time James “J.W.” Long hears his phone ring, he gets a little pang in his gut. He knows it might be a threat from one of his former investors. The calls have gotten so bad that he ends the greeting on his home answering machine with a taunt to…
WorldWide response: Bob Norman’s January 24 column on “Betty” the whistleblower and her accusations against WorldWide Security ignored most of my comments to your reporter and leaves a distorted picture of the situation. Allow me to reiterate the key points that your reporter conveniently omitted. The article omits my statements…
Turkey vultures are big: more than two feet long, with a wingspan of up to six feet. They need a lot of room — especially when they’re learning to fly. But the black-feathered bird with the bare red head that’s been at the Wildlife Care Center in Fort Lauderdale since…
‘Twas the day after Christmas in 1998 when John boarded the Robin’s Song at Fort Lauderdale’s storied Bahia Mar marina. The 51-year-old mate had plenty of experience in bagging big game fish, but he surely never expected what followed. After the boat left port, somebody hooked a wahoo. It was…
Spiritual bankruptcy abounds: I happened to stumble on Chuck Strouse’s column on the art debate in Hollywood (“Ax, Lies, & Audiotape,” January 17). I think it was the word dullards that caught my eye. Once again… a liberal never fails to show his true colors. Granted, the Easter Bunny and…
Bonnie Canino, the Women’s International Boxing Federation (WIBF) featherweight (126-pound) champion out of South Florida, flew to New Orleans in March 1997 to defend her title against a young Irish puncher named Dierdre Gogarty. This was at the beginning of a huge crest of popular interest in women’s pro boxing,…
You likely don’t know about the federal investigation of WorldWide Security Associates, which screens passengers at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport and 11 other airports across the country. The Sun-Sentinel and Miami Herald published short, vague stories last month about a December 19 FBI raid of the WorldWide office in…
Walter Philbrick cues the music, a symphonic piece on CD that has the verve of John Philip Sousa meets John Williams. He dims the lights in the small workout gym and urges Nelson Ricardo, one of his employees, to take a position on a foot-high platform. The gym lies deep…
Della Judd is a bundle of nervous energy, shifting from foot to foot on the sidewalk in front of her small house on 18th Street in West Palm Beach. It’s a chilly afternoon this day in early January, but her constant motion has less to do with the frigid air…
Christians have rights too: With all due respect, I will never understand the modern liberal mind that is so offended by God and religion and devotes so much time and energy to its crusade of opposing any free expression of faith but then at the same time celebrates with such…
A cool wind has kicked up, shaking the limbs of this November night with anticipation. But in the chutes, where 33 bull riders are gathered for the Crown Royal 61st Annual Sunshine State Championship Bull Riding competition, it’s hot as the devil’s barnyard. Five Star Rodeo has trucked in 40…
When unsuspecting bystanders see Robert Kwasny working on the beach in his mobile video production studio, many of them initially believe he’s disabled. The studio, after all, is mounted on a motorized wheelchair. “A lot of people think that I must be Stephen Hawking’s first cousin,” says Kwasny, referring to…
It seemed an ugly end to an even uglier dispute. “Controversial art to be moved,” read the headline on page 3B of the January 10 Sun-Sentinel. “Museum agrees to make location less prominent.” Leaders of the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, the paper reported, had decided to take down…
Norm Kent revisited: Upon reading the cover story regarding Gary Steinsmith (“Drug Holiday,” Ashley Fantz, January 10), I was unclear as to what purposes the author was seeking to achieve. If she was seeking to reveal the limitations of the social service agencies about which she reported, her exposé seemed…
It’s visitors night at Fort Lauderdale Hospital. A woman behind the front desk buzzes more people into the waiting room. They take a seat, and most stare at a small corner television that flashes “America’s New War” in bright red letters. The woman yawns and gestures toward a clipboard. “Oh,”…
Linda Davis is trying to hang on to the Christmas spirit. A week after the holiday has come and gone, the tree is still up in her home at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac in Pompano Beach. As Davis sits in her neat but sparsely furnished living room, two…
The Octagon Wildlife Sanctuary might well be coming to town. The nonprofit Punta Gorda facility — which houses some 500 animals, including lions, a tiger, and bears (oh my!) — is looking to open a satellite operation in either Broward or Palm Beach county. The sanctuary’s local representative, Carrie Bradford,…
Boring in on Strouse: I can’t take it any longer. Why do you waste my time with your sniveling, piffling, ridiculous Undercurrents offerings? After each and every column I find myself asking myself, “…And?” If you are attempting to demonstrate to the world that the column’s author is a peevish…
You can’t hide from Miss Cleo. The self-proclaimed television psychic’s grinning, beturbaned head pops up everywhere, urging viewers to call her now for free foreknowledge of romance, jobs, family matters, and health, all delivered in a vaguely Caribbean accent. Mass e-mails breathlessly urge recipients to listen to her visions and…
If Troy Weekley hadn’t gone to the rodeo in Davie in 1956, his son might not rock at night in a hammock on the porch of a cedar-covered cottage overlooking a rock pit, breed bucking bulls, or stick plugs of Skoal chew inside his lower lip. Troy Jr. has always…
