Dr. G Spot
(Filed under: Flotsam)"Call Dr. G Spot!" the announcer cries out on FM radio station Y-100, in an ad sandwiched between up-tempo songs extolling the various virtues of bumping, winding, and grinding.
Tamarac gynecologist Dr. Michael Benjamin says he can add immeasurably to the bumps and grinds in your bedroom. His work is all about helping his patients who pine for better sex lives.
G-spot enhancement is about injecting a collagenlike substance primarily used to diminish facial wrinkles and laugh lines into the vagina wall. "The G spot is real," Benjamin insists. "The concept that there's some mystery about it just isn't so."
Doctors like Benjamin — there are at least five in Florida offering the procedure — use collagen or something similar to plump the G spot, making it easier to stimulate during intercourse, they contend. "It's as cutting-edge as you can get," he says.
A nurse in Dr. Benjamin's office breathlessly recounts her experience with the procedure. She received the shot at 2:00 p.m. on a Friday, she says. By 7:00 she was begging her boyfriend for sex. "I just attacked him," she says. They had intercourse eight times in three days. She felt insatiable. "This is a bad thing for single girls!" she exclaims.
The nurse concedes she did not pay for the procedure, for which Dr. Benjamin charges regular customers $1800.
Dr. Alan Gibstein performs G-spot amplification at the Aesthetic Science Institute in Boca Raton. "The fee should be sane," he says.
But Jeffrey Spike, a bioethicist at Florida State University's College of Medicine, says that the G spot is "like a folk tale." At best, Spike believes, doctors who allegedly enhance G spots are profiting from women's insecurities. At worst, they're engaging in "something more like medical fraud."
The Food and Drug Administration has not approved any fillers for G-spot amplification, or for injection into the anterior vaginal wall. Nor has it received any complaints. — Deirdra Funcheon
Two-Wheeled Blunder
(Filed under: Bike Blog)Miami Police Chief John Timoney likes bicycles. Back in 2003, some 2500 law enforcement officers under his command were deployed to control the streets during the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit. Timoney himself mounted a two-wheeler to lead the brigade into battle.
And once a month he leads department brass in leisurely bike rides through the city. So he should have been at ease when, on a recent Saturday, he addressed five or six dozen Liberty City kids — all of them astride brand-new kids' mountain bikes. But somehow the chief seemed out of place, maybe because city cops inspire mixed feelings in poor black neighborhoods.
Timoney came to the job in January 2003, in the wake of a long string of civilian deaths at the hands of Miami cops. He brought the number down, but 11 officers charged in federal court with planting guns on unarmed suspects were acquitted shortly after he took office. And his controversial handling of the FTAA protest — in which more than 250 people were arrested — didn't make the department any more popular.
Hence the bike ride, which the police cosponsored along with the activist group Emerge Miami and the Liberty City community group Weed and Seed. What better trust-building exercise could there be than a friendly jaunt with the neighborhood kids?
Led by Timoney and escorted by at least four squad cars, the ride proceeded smoothly for the first half-block or so. But then the crashes began. As soon as one accident was cleared by a crew of vigilant adults, elsewhere in the pack another kid would bite the dust. At one point, after a particularly bad pileup, the youngsters turned away from the chief altogether and began pedaling back to see the mess for themselves.
It was time for action. "All right, listen up," Timoney barked as the group reconvened for water at the halfway point at American Legion Park. "We're going to proceed military-style! I need everybody to get in columns of two!"
Chief Timoney was in his element at last. — Isaiah Thompson
Miami 21: By the Numbers
(Filed under: News)2002: Year that Miami Mayor Manny Diaz had "the vision" to undertake a complete overhaul of the zoning code to improve quality of life.
2004: Year that city leaders hired Duany Plater-Zyberk — the nationally known, locally based architectural/planning firm — to create a blueprint for city development.
$1.7 million: Cost of hiring Duany Plater-Zyberk to carry out "the vision."
$90,000: Cost of marketing/outreach of Miami 21, which includes a public relations consultant, a radio and print advertising campaign, bus shelter posters, a Website, and a direct mail campaign.
114: Number of major projects, most of them high-rise condos, that were under construction or in the planning stages in Miami in 2005.
0: Number of those projects affected by Miami 21.
11,300: Number of Miami 21 flyers inserted into Miami Today.
100+: Number of public hearings, workshops, and meetings held about Miami 21 since 2005.
9: Number of hours city commissioners discussed Miami 21 on June 28.
57: Number of citizens, architects, lawyers, and others who spoke during the meeting.
1: Number of people who referred to Fidel Castro while commenting on Miami 21 during the meeting.
90: Days that city commissioners voted to defer the item because of confusion over details of the ordinance.
— Tamara Lush
No More Nightmares at Tranquility Bay
In "Rough Love" (June 2006), New Times wrote about five South Florida teens who alleged they were abused, tortured, and starved by staff at Tranquility Bay (TB), a residential facility for troubled teens in Treasure Beach, Jamaica.
This past week, Ken Kay, president of the school's parent organization, World Wide Association for Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS), confirmed the controversial school is shutting down.
"Passports have a lot to do with it," Kay said in a telephone interview from WWASPS headquarters in St. George, Utah. "The group of kids that they deal with down there are in crisis at the time, and to get them to volunteer to get a passport is difficult."
In the past five years there have been serious complaints. A teenager claimed to have had his teeth knocked loose by a staff member. Another said he was made to defecate and urinate in a black garbage bag tied around his waist; he was then allegedly pepper-sprayed and dragged across a cement floor face-down, and had his genitals scrubbed with a hard-bristle toilet brush. Six other WWASPS-affiliated schools and organizations have been raided or closed in the past decade following similar charges.
Kay denies the allegations and is adamant TB's impending closure is the result of "immigration laws" that have caused admission to plummet. "You can't hang on until you get down to two students. It gets to a point where it's not cost effective to run a school." — Joanne Green
