Your Elected Representatives Will Now Insult You Jim DeFede’s story “How to Save the Neighborhood” (September 24) describes a group of citizens trying to protect their neighborhood from a development that violates county regulations. Grinding down citizen opposition is a tradition-bound tactic, and in Miami-Dade County it is public sport:…
Lead Stories *This past summer the city councils of Fostoria, Ohio, and Victoria, British Columbia, adopted codes of conduct for their citizens, in Fostoria to provide a “moral compass” and in Victoria to restore “courteous behavior.” Fostoria implores people to “try to do what is right and try to help…
Around 6:00 a.m. Friday morning, with the worst of Hurricane Georges still a few hours away, Doug Hawley is totaling up the register receipts at Jack’s Bait and Tackle. “Fifty-six dollars in the last six hours,” he tells his brother Gary, disappointment evident in his voice. “Not too many people…
Imagine Marcia and Greg Ambling Down Ocean Drive In response to Robert Andrew Powell’s article “TV from There” (September 24): It’s disappointing to see that WAMI-TV, which started with the aim of boosting South Florida TV with original shows and series, has only served to drain its talent. I can’t…
After spending seven years covering politics in Miami, recent events have caused me to realize that I owe several people apologies. Let me start with the most obvious: Joe Gersten. Joey, I’m sorry. Speaking not only for myself but on behalf of all those “media elites” who ran you out…
Kinko University, Specializing in Custom-Designed Degree Programs Judy Cantor hears the music but does not get the rhythm (“The Politics of Music,” September 17). Despite the protests that so bothered her (in Ms. Cantor’s perfect world, the First Amendment applies to everyone except Cuban exiles), Cuban musicians from the island…
Lead Stories *Sweden’s Social Democrat party and England’s Vegetarian Society released controversial erotic video ads in August. The Swedish commercial was shot by the party’s youth wing and featured a young couple in bed discussing how cool their “first time” was (meaning, first time voting). In the English spot, phallic-shaped…
Lead Stories *Among the street theater performances at New York City’s International Fringe Festival in August: a 45-minute satirical, bigoted rant against hunchbacks from Nebraska; a six-person troupe performing Eugene Ionesco’s Bald Soprano play continuously, for a total of 24 times in 24 hours; and “Brown and Blue,” an “ode…
New Times Launches Vicious Pre-emptive Strike against Upstart Competitor May I suggest that an advertising-supported publication like New Times should tread lightly when reporting on the standards of the telemarketing industry? The indignant tone of Tristram Korten’s story about Richard Bronson (“Bull in the Market,” September 10) and his alleged…
Lead Story *In separate incidents over a three-day period in July, three cousins in Shasta County in northern California lay down on or dove onto Highway 89 directly in front of approaching cars, apparently on purpose, resulting in the death of one and serious injuries to the other two. There…
Ted Gives His Pulitzer the Boot This is in response to Ted B. Kissell’s article “Parking and Politics” (September 3). Does Mr. Kissell think the public to whom he’s addressing his article is a bunch of juveniles who cannot see clearly through the manner in which it was constructed? He…
Lead Stories *A man whose name was not released checked in to a motel in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on July 15 for two days and left behind twelve jars’ worth of Vaseline smeared on the carpet, furniture, curtains, walls, bedspreads, sheets, and towels, necessitating a $1300 cleanup. No motive was apparent,…
Good News! The Food May Be Chancey, but You Won’t End Up Hospitalized In response to Jen Karetnick’s article about Islands Cafe (“Restaurant 101,” August 27), I would like to make the following comments: It seems pretty sad to me that a restaurant critic has to go around critiquing educational…
Party Poopers and Proud of It! I hope New Times is proud of itself for single-handedly being responsible for the demise of the Miami High School athletic program and possibly costing a number of student athletes college scholarships because of Robert Andrew Powell’s articles (August 20, August 13, July 2,…
Lead Stories *Six women filed a lawsuit in July in Birmingham, Alabama, in protest of the state’s new ban on the sale of sex toys (“any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs”). According to an Associated Press report, four of the women…
Last month Miguel Moya was walking to his car in an employee-only parking lot at Miami International Airport when he was approached by a large and rather ominous-looking fellow. The man stood approximately six feet four inches tall and appeared to weigh in excess of 300 pounds. His face was…
Lead Stories *In July in Columbus, Ohio, the prison sentence of convicted child-pornography importer Timothy Rowles, age 29, was bumped from one year to two after he wrote the judge a letter showing a lack of remorse. Rowles asked the judge matter-of-factly if his explicit child-sex magazines could be returned…
Steroids: Thick Outside, Thin Inside The cover photograph for Ted B. Kissell’s article “Size Matters” (August 13) says it all: no face, no personality, just body. What a sad and pathetic statement for the gay community. The fact that there is so much emphasis placed on physical appearance — and…
Lead Story *NASA revealed in May that it had inadvertently allowed an astronaut impostor to sit at the mission control console at Alabama’s Marshall Space Center during a shuttle flight in which actual astronauts were preparing to rescue a satellite from space. Jerry Allen Whittredge was arrested in Houston and…
The Miami Herald used fourteen reporters last week to cover the resignation of its publisher, David Lawrence, Jr. Fourteen! With so many people on the story, you might have thought Lawrence had made his announcement from the deck of the burning Ecstasy. Testimonials gushed forth from the governor, lieutenant governor,…
Apology Accepted With regard to Jacob Bernstein’s article on travel to Cuba (“Passport to Paradox,” August 6), I am writing to clarify that the promise of money to begin a Website [devoted to scholars’ travel concerns] at the American Association for the Advancement of Science came from the John D…
Lead Stories *According to Pat Rusin and her team of researchers at the University of Arizona, the toilet seat is actually one of the least bacteria-laden surfaces in the home. Study results were published in a June issue of New Scientist magazine; three times as many bacteria were found on…
