Punching out an arrhythmic battery of beeps on his horn, Lu Castillo swings the well-worn white van off Biscayne Boulevard and into a paved parking area at Bicentennial Park. He stops the truck a short grassy stretch from the street, along the deep-water slip that leads to Biscayne Bay. A…
Imagine the subject of this article, a woman in her late fifties or early sixties, five feet ten inches tall, with long white hair that falls onto a page exactly like this one as she examines each sentence with an unforgiving eye. A red pen is poised, ready to strike…
More than ever in these waning days of Fidel Castro, the air between Miami and Cuba is electric with intrigue, upheaval, and the schemes of all types of would-be revolutionaries. There are the militarists, who would wage war against Communism. There are the politicians, who would bring democracy to the…
Not that anyone outwardly disliked the proprietor of the Americana Bookshop in Coral Gables. (No one we at New Times know of, anyway.) It’s just that Detrick, founder of the Miami River Yeti Watch and chairman of the West Zion Primitive Neo-Dionysian Church of Elvis Slim and Triumphant, was a…
Part 2: Miriam Alonso knows how to put votes together, but she can’t seem to separate dirty tricks from politics By Steven Almond Miriam Alonso wanted to make the point crystal clear: She was not responsible for the “Miriam Alonso for Mayor” banner that flew overhead during the recent burial…
A letter arrives in the mail, addressed to you, from something called the American AIDS Alert Association (AAAA). “Ref: Possible HIV Infection,” it says at the top, which makes you feel a bit short of breath. “We regret to inform you that someone who claims to have been intimate with…
In these last weeks, they all come to pay their respects to Mom: J.J. the Boxer, Tomato Man, Sapphire. If Alan the Crazy Towel Vendor hasn’t been by yet, it’s only because he’s still explaining to the authorities why he tried to visit the President of the United States with…
On those days when passions flare, when Miami cannot help revealing its more ominous shadings, half the city seems determined to have Miriam Alonso canonized. And the other half to have her eliminated. There is no middle ground when it comes to the woman who would be Miami’s next mayor…
If all goes as planned, the scene should unfold something like this: December 1995. A conference room in New York’s Plaza Hotel. The owners of the 28 major league baseball teams are seated around a large roundtable. Their suits are somber. The mood is tense. Dick Ravitch, the owners’ mouthpiece,…
On August 28, when state and local officials discovered that Miami Beach’s drinking water supply was contaminated, they jotted down a notice on a piece of paper, slipped it into a fax machine, and sent it to about 30 local media organizations. Then they went back to what they were…
On the day he was scheduled to die, Giuseppe Zangara pushed past prison guards and entered the electrocution chamber of Raiford State Prison. He sat himself squarely in the chair, gave instructions about how to strap himself in properly, and said, “Push the button.” Five weeks earlier, on February 15,…
The heart of Rick Prelinger’s movie empire, in a building in the New York City meat-packing district, is a space the size of maybe three closets. It’s crammed to the ceiling with film cans, a few thousand of them, some so old they’re rusted over, others he hasn’t had time…
There’s nothing like the threat of a tourism boycott to rattle a small tropical island dependent on a steady influx of dollar-toting visitors. Just ask Aruba’s government officials, who for the past few weeks have been reviewing a permit application for an aquatic theme park that would include a controversial…
When she read the Miami Herald’s June 27 Tropic magazine, the issue with anti-gay crusader Ralf Stores pictured on the cover, Carol Parker knew she had the makings of a good column. As a regular contributor since 1991 to the South Dade News Leader, a twice-weekly newspaper based in Homestead,…
On May 25, two weeks shy of his 80th birthday, Robert S. decided it was his day to die. He had read Final Exit, the treatise on suicide and how-to guide for the terminally ill, and he had determined that killing himself was the best solution to his faltering health…
Superstar model Niki Taylor is a Miami native with a discreet beauty mark a centimeter above her upper lip, a body of perfection, and a fondness for rock and roll. Her favorite band: Van Halen. It’s surprising and remarkable she’d choose that veteran metal act. You’d think she’d be in…
At first people just stare. Then come the whispers. Then, invariably, they ask Gemma Stafford the question: “Are those real?” What they mean is: “Could those huge, curved monstrosities truly be your own?” If Stafford hears it once a day, she hears it a dozen times. “Yes, these are my…
March 16, 1993 Ellen Kaden Corporate General Counsel CBS Entertainment Group 51 West 52nd Street New York, NY 10019 Dear Ellen: I enjoyed our phone chat a couple of weeks back. As I promised, I have consulted with Knight-Ridder CEO Jim Batten and have informally canvassed board members. They, too,…
DAVE’S WORLD “Coach Dave” (Pilot) ACT ONE IN BLACKNESS: SFX: BILLY JOEL’S “YOU MAY BE RIGHT” FADE IN: CARTOON SEQUENCE (STOCK) OF DAVE BARRY CHARACTER WALKING ON SIDEWALK, AVOIDING CRACKS. FADE IN TITLE: “WELCOME TO DAVE’S WORLD” PULL BACK AND WIDEN TO: EXT. BARRY HOME (STOCK) – DAY THE MEDITERRANEAN…
Feb. 22 To: Jamie, Jonathan From: Fred Re: Dave’s World/Miami trip Just back from Miami and wanted to write these notes while I’m still fresh on it, so bear with me. Kind of a bizarre trip — but nothing life-threatening. To answer a few openers: Dave’s house is nice. Real…
Dave Barry has a network TV show. So what? That’s what we thought, until we received a mysterious package. “I PROBABLY SHOULDN’T HAVE DONE THIS.” That’s how the typewritten note began. The note, in turn, came clipped to a bundle of papers we received a couple of weeks ago. Whoever…
Does the pantheon of civil rights pioneers have room for an earnest, pasty-faced nurse who wants to work hard and save lives? Will MLK, the Woman Suffragettes, and the Stonewall combatants slide over a little and let Bruce Wheatley in? Two years ago Wheatley changed careers and became a licensed…
