“Every cabbage,” Frenchman Jean Giraudoux once wrote, “has its pimp.” Given the absurd mutterings Giraudoux inflicted upon his characters, the line passed as little more than fanciful. Surely the playwright could never have anticipated the true-life biker corollary to his queer pronouncement: Every hog must have its trademark attorney. At…
Dorothy Richardson has never thought much of police officers. “Got no use for them,” snaps the 60-year-old retiree, whose night table is stacked with medications for arthritis and other assorted ailments. “Survived so far without them and I’ll survive the rest. Shoot, I don’t even call the police when trouble…
He was a down-on-his-luck youngster facing a bleak future when the scouts found him in eastern Iowa, running with the wrong crowd. Beneath his rough exterior, they detected a courage and dignity that couldn’t be taught, the instinct and poise of a born champion. So they decided to give him…
Bjorn DiMaio is sixteen years old, Anthony Vincent is seventeen. Next Monday, in accordance with Florida law, the two boys will begin serving second-degree murder sentences for the killing of their best friend, Andrew Morello. According to the official version of events, the sixteen-year-old Morello was shot and killed on…
United States District Court Judge Federico Moreno gave the City of Coral Gables a spanking this past Thursday in federal court and upheld the right of New Times to be distributed in distinctive red boxes throughout the so-called City Beautiful. Since seizing seven New Times boxes and 400 copies of…
Harvey Ruvin didn’t think it was going to be any big deal. When the veteran county commissioner met with attorney/activist Dan Paul months ago to discuss a proposed county charter amendment that would require a countywide referendum on major commercial projects in parks, he figured the measure was a gimme…
For most of the past decade, South Beach was anything but a Miami Vice pastel playground for the young and restless. From Alton Road to Collins Avenue, the hunched-over elderly lined the porches of dilapidated residential hotels and apartment buildings. Landlords allowed Art Deco edifices to decay with little regard…
Years ago, when Dean Powell moved to Broward, he swore off Miami for good. In the eyes of the Sixties hippie turned computer-programming yuppie, the Magic City had lost its luster, yet another soulless metropolis with neither direction nor purpose, bloating in the sun. Yet something called him back for…
Swamilike, the man they call Tomato Richard is seated peacefully in a folding lawn chair beneath an oak tree in Coconut Grove, his thin legs crossed so tightly they’re braided, a flip-flop dangling from bony toes. He’s holding forth in his crackly tenor about the spiritual pleasures of the farmers’…
Just when zealous county and state bureaucrats thought they had all their ducks in a row last Tuesday, up popped Kirk Swing, bandy-legged homunculus, noisy organizer, ecological heretic. Swing installs large neon signs for a living but yearns for wilderness. Lately he’s taken to toting a faded snapshot in his…
For the past several weeks radio listeners tuning in to WDNA-FM (88.9) have heard only static where once they could find Miami’s most eclectic music mix: jazz, Latin, blues, folk, rock, and funk. Not to mention Indian, Haitian, Pakistani, and more. Those curious or desperate fans of the community-sponsored, nonprofit…
Imagine Grandma, up bright and early to bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies for little Timmy. She uses big, tasty semisweet chocolate chips and just a touch of cinnamon, because she knows that’s the way her grandson likes them. Still warm from the oven, the cookies are carefully wrapped…
For the past two weeks South Beach sun worshippers have had to enjoy the surf and sand the way the early settlers did — without colorfully striped umbrellas or cushions for the ubiquitous wooden lounge chairs on the sand. Comfort and shade turned to sodden ashes June 18, when a…
An unsettling stillness has befallen the Miami coast. Swimmers have abandoned the beaches of Key Biscayne and Virginia Key. Sailboats and windsurfers no longer ply the bay, the marinas are lifeless, and there isn’t a fishing boat in sight. Rotting fish and natural sponges clog the shoreline from Coconut Grove…
This past Friday, June 19, the Florida Press Association announced the winners of its annual Better Weekly Newspaper contest for material published during 1991. For the second year in a row, New Times won six awards in competition with weekly newspapers throughout the state. Two first-place awards were given to…
In its own paradoxical fashion, the Haitian Refugee Center’s lawsuit against Secretary of State James Baker was a coup. A media coup. The court action, filed in November 1991 and aimed at blocking the repatriation of refugees fleeing the September 30 military coup in Haiti, catapulted the local agency into…
It was another lesson in imprudence, taught in this tortuous miasma of hucksters and schemers called South Florida. And everything seemed so legitimate. Here were two smooth-talking guys wielding the name of Mickey Rourke like a magic wand, putting in a last-minute order for a pair of boxing trunks and…
When Richard Peacock proposed building Grove Calloway’s restaurant on McFarlane Road in 1988, he labeled the existing historic Peacock House on the site of his envisioned eatery “an old dump” and “the armpit of the Grove.” It was a termite-infested eyesore of no value to anyone, argued Peacock, a descendant…
At first blush, Kelly Vitolo would seem to be the perfect choice to model for Mary Kay Cosmetics. So when the stunning face that has graced several bridal magazine covers turned up on fliers advertising Mary Kay makeovers for young brides, it should have come as no surprise. Except for…
At least once a week for more than a year Corri Barrs has gone to the beach. Not just any beach, mind you, and not for the usual swimming and sun worship. Corri Barrs is into trash. More specifically, she’s into trash that washes up along a 100-yard stretch of…
At a time in history when South Florida’s mainstream media have devoted unprecedented resources to brainless babies and crackhouse testimonials, it’s comforting to know that at least one member of the fourth estate is determined to keep the grounds free of garbage. The Lantana-based Weekly World News scored another journalistic…
Knife-wielding youths repeatedly stab newspaper editor Jay Vail and his friend as they take in the salt air one recent spring night on the South Beach sand. Another group of kids club interior designer George Tamsitt across the face with a plank and leave him unconscious in a pool of…
