Lead Stories *According to an April New York Times report, the purchase price of giant stag beetles in Japan has dropped recently to about $300 from the early-1990s price of about $6000. The beetles, which resemble four-inch-long cockroaches, are traditional Japanese pets that, according to insect salesman Katsutoshi Misaki, “have…
Norland — It’s the Bomb! My son is in tenth grade at Miami Norland Senior High. As a believer in the education system, I took his reports of conditions at Norland with a grain of salt. So Ted B. Kissell’s article (“Blackboard Bungle,” April 8) was not only a shock…
Lead Stories *England’s Plymouth University announced in March that it would offer an “academically rigorous” bachelor’s degree in surfing beginning in September. The degree will be known formally as Surf Science and Technology and will offer research opportunities in surfboard, wet suit, and accessory design, and furnish to society not…
Not All High School Principals Are Embarrassments Ted Kissell’s article “Blackboard Bungle” (April 8), about Norland High School principal Carroll E. Williams, makes me even prouder to have been associated with Mr. J.J. Norton, principal at Coral Gables Senior High School during the Sixties. Mr. Norton’s expertise and uncanny administrative…
Lead Stories *The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority in Glasgow, Scotland, announced a cutback in services in March because there was only one sperm donor left in the city, and even he will face mandatory retirement after impregnating ten women. Although the donor was not identified or described, officials warned…
The witness, having been duly sworn, appeared on Monday, April 12, 1999, before the grand jury investigating county lobbyists. “Please state your name for the record.” “Jim DeFede.” “Now, Mr. DeFede,” the prosecutor begins, “I see here that …” The prosecutor hesitates, shuffles through a stack of papers. “Excuse me,…
Lead Stories *Catholic officials in Brazil attribute the recent 250 percent increase in church attendance to the popularity of priest Marcelo Rossi, age 31, a singer and former aerobics instructor described by his young female parishioners as a “hunk” and whose high-energy stadium masses regularly draw 20,000 worshipers. According to…
Virginia Key: Keep It Open, Keep It Public I was appalled when I read Jim Mullin’s article “Saviors of Virginia Key” (April 1) and became aware of Miami’s plans to lease the old county park for private development. I would like to get involved with the groups that are trying…
Foutanga Dit Babani Sissoko may be gone, but he is not forgotten. On January 12 a group of prosecutors and U.S. Customs agents gathered in Miami to discuss the mysterious West African millionaire, suspected of embezzling nearly $250 million from a Middle Eastern bank. Federal officials flew in from New…
Lead Stories *The Times of London reported in March that a convicted rapist in his thirties has been recommended for British government-provided Viagra to treat the depression he has been suffering since his release from prison a year ago. Doctors at St. George’s Hospital in south London say his main…
His Four-Year-Old Must Have Some John Hancock Regarding Tristram Korten’s “damn good question” of why the authorities are “going after Miami’s finest street artists?” in “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Suspect” (March 25), I have a better query: How is scribbling your name on signs, overpasses, and palm…
The moment Athalie Range approached the podium and began to speak, it was all over. Anyone at Miami City Hall who had been hoping for an uneventful meeting and a quick vote was about to be sorely disappointed. The 83-year-old matriarch, who in 1965 became Miami’s first black commissioner, returned…
Crocodile Tears for Cowboys in Gatorland I almost cried reading Jacob Bernstein’s romantic and touching drivel about the 8 1-2 Square Mile Area’s cowboys (“Home on the Glades,” March 18). But I wish to clarify a few points. First things first. To my knowledge nothing sinister or underhanded or vengeful…
Lead Stories *In March Alan and Christine Davies of Rhondda, Wales, were awarded about $200,000 from the driver who caused the collision that, according to doctors, left Alan with a rare brain condition. Alan developed Capgras’s syndrome, a separation of connections between visual perception and emotion that causes the victim…
A week after his release from the Krome detention center, Jorge de Cardenas is sitting at home recalling the events of the past two years — his indictment and conviction on corruption charges, the year he spent at a federal prison in Kentucky, and his three months in the Kafkaesque…
Lead Stories *In January North Dakota legislators decided against a proposal to crack down on impatient motorists who relieve themselves while driving and then toss their urine- (and even feces-) filled plastic containers to the side of the road. The containers create hazards when clean-up crews accidentally smash them with…
One for the Money, Two for the Show … Some research into past rock concerts at Gulfstream Park would have added a welcome historical perspective to Robert Andrew Powell’s article “Rock Me Like a Thoroughbred” (March 11). On December 28-30, 1968, Gulfstream hosted the Miami Pop Festival, post-Monterey and pre-Woodstock…
I wanted to be supportive. I tried to like it. But I’m sorry, I think all the hoopla surrounding the Miami Circle is just asinine. How in the world did a hunk of limestone with a giant septic tank in the middle of it become the most important issue in…
The Town That Was Big Enough for Two Dictators Regarding Tristram Korten’s “A Brotherly Imbroglio” (March 4), I am glad to see that someone is finally trying to take the dictator and his sons to task. Hialeah Police Chief Rolando Bolanos, Sr., has ruled with an iron hand, along with…
Lead Stories *In February Eastern Illinois University officials declined to refund $364 in tuition to April Hixson for the course “Nonwestern Music,” which Hixson said was little music and much pornography, seemingly designed to draw reactions from female students. According to professor Douglas Di-Bianco: “You have to understand the extremes…
Lead Stories *According to a January report in the San Francisco Chronicle, the percentage of gay men who engage in risky sex without condoms (“barebacking”) is growing, and a tiny minority of those men have taken their passion a step further, in the form of Russian roulette parties that are…
Send Clarke Packing and Don’t Pay Him! Regarding Jim Mullin’s column, “Brainteaser” (February 18), please keep the pressure on former Miami Northwestern High School principal William Clarke. His conduct and his superiors’ lack of guts have cost Miami-Dade taxpayers enough. I called Superintendent Roger Cuevas’s office today, only to discover…
