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…
The way they’ve done South Florida, a guy like Andy Anderson learns to take his communions with nature where he can find them, even if it means spidering his pickup truck down a steep, grassy knoll at a treacherous angle, or breaching barbed wire barricades, or dealing face-to-face with the…
If you listen carefully as you lie in bed tonight, and if the wind is blowing just right, you may be able to hear an extraordinary chorus of animal noises drifting in from south Broward County. Not the usual nocturnal screeching and caterwauling of the wild, but the joyous sounds…
Georgina Otero Lee drives a big green van for a living. She transports handicapped people around Dade County. Lately Lee has been driving with a suspended drivers license and is due to appear in court this Thursday on a careless-driving charge. Just one more nut on Miami’s chock-full roads? That…
About a dozen Metro-Dade Department of Corrections officers, most in their uniforms of forest green pants and light green shirts, were bunched together in the small waiting area outside the courtroom on the eighth floor of the Dade County Courthouse. Sitting, standing, leaning, talking, chortling. All at that very moment…
An aspiring bail bondsman must take an 80-hour certification course and a 20-hour correspondence course, and pass a state examination, to become licensed by the State of Florida. Even then he or she can’t open for business until signing a contract with an insurance company, which gives the bondsman authority…
Trivia question: What do the black Gibson Flying V guitar with gold hardware on which Jimi Hendrix played “Red House” on Rainbow Bridge; an empty sleeping pill bottle filled at Schwab’s pharmacy on May 5, 1961, by Marilyn Monroe; a pen-and-ink self-portrait of John Lennon masturbating; Madonna’s wedding dress from…
GUNS! UZIS! AMMO! South Florida’s largest selection of assault systems.” “CENTERFOLD MODELS! Available 24 hours for personal escort services. Discreet. Professional. Credit cards accepted.” “SEXY WONDERS! Corsets. Garters. Adult toys beyond imagination.” These are just a few of the temptations beckoning those who have been finger-walking through Southern Bell’s Greater…
In less than five months, the tea dance has become an institution. Or at least as much of an institution as anything can be in the mercurial world of South Beach. Initially held at Aqua, the restaurant in the Winter Haven Hotel on Ocean Drive at Fourteenth Street, the tea…
What a glorious day to take the kids for a motorcycle ride to the park! The sun was high and the sky clear of the thunderous rain clouds that had darkened and drenched Miami for a day and a half. South Florida’s bikers participating in the “Beach Bash Poker Run”…
