Growing up in the 1950s on the outskirts of what was then east Aurora, Robert Michael Pyle discovered a child’s paradise a short walk from his home: a wide ditch brimming with muddy water, its banks covered with thick weeds and stately cottonwoods that sheltered magpies and butterflies. As a…
As far as US West is concerned, no news is good news. The telephone monopoly is asking the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to deny public access to information on the number of delays customers are experiencing in getting new service, as well as information concerning the salaries it pays top…
That takes the cake: The sordid details continue to pile up in the sorry saga of Spicer Breeden and Peter Schmitz–the two occupants of the car that killed Rocky Mountain News reporter Greg Lopez on St. Patrick’s Day. After popping into several LoDo bars early last week, Schmitz, facing vehicular…
It’s curious how the prospect of jail can make a rich man find his wallet. What’s even more curious is how Evergreen-based homebuilder Clyde Hoeldtke lost his again. This tale of a here-today-gone-tomorrow checkbook began about four years ago, when Gail Conolly, an assistant statewide prosecutor in Florida, began pursuing…
To the immutable rules of life mandating romantic fidelity, high-quality whiskey and early knowledge of the multiplication tables, it might be wise to attach the following: The moment you turn twelve, stop seeking autographs. This comes to mind in the wake of an announcement last week that Michael Lasky, founder…
Taken for a Ride In the September 26 “A River of Money Runs Through It,” Patricia Calhoun is right on the money…our money. I voted for the 1989 bond issue. I bought the argument “Vote for Elitch’s–It’s Denver.” Now it looks like what I really bought was a break for…
Drive to Pagosa Springs, then south through the sloping ranchlands of south-central Colorado and across the Rio Blanco on Route 84, one of the few paved roads in Archuleta County. About five miles shy of the New Mexico border, you’ll see the Chromo Mercantile, where Fitzhugh Havens has been the…
The other Staabs are in the restaurant business. Twenty-nine-year-old Gary likes his critters much older–and colder. He is a paleo-reconstructionist, which means, in extremely introductory terms, that he builds big models of dinosaurs, using real bones and fossils to guide him. There are others who do this type of work,…
Twelve years of research and close to $3 million of taxpayer money have made scientist Mark Laudenslager’s monkey project a sitting duck for national animal-rights activists. Opponents of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center researcher’s experiments on 120 macaques have picketed the medical center, written scores of letters demanding…
Soar losers: Another lousy week for former Denver mayor Federico Pena. Largely overlooked these days–reportedly on purpose–by the Clinton administration, the Transportation secretary nonetheless appeared on Ralph Nader’s radar screen. The Green Party presidential candidate has called for Pena’s resignation, along with that of two other top regulators, because of…
The U.S. Postal Service wants to deliver a nice little centennial birthday gift to the tiny mountain town of Ward: a brand-new post office. And what do the people of Ward say? Return to sender. This century-old burg, which rests in a bowl west of Boulder just off Highway 72,…
C. Lodge, executive director of Adult Care Management, considers himself an innovative guy. He talks about breaking away from “the patriarchal relationship between provider and consumer” in the health-care field, about “empowering the client,” about setting up “virtual offices” and flex time so that employees who are single mothers can…
How about a nice hand for Hideo Nomo? Better yet, how about skipping the usual courtesies and immediately installing Hideo Nomo in the Hall of Fame? On September 17 the Dodgers’ high-kicking, skyward-gazing right-hander waited out a two-hour pre-game rain delay, then threw the third no-hitter of the 1996 baseball…
“A miserable yellow melancholy stream”–that’s how Mark Twain saw the Platte River. In his book Roughing It, Twain described his first encounter with the pathetic little trickle, which fellow travelers had the nerve to say was “up.” If that was so, Twain replied, he’d hate to see it when it…
Screen Gems Regarding Chris LaMorte’s “Tune In and Turn On,” September 12: What was your reporter on when he picked out the “news babes”? Marcia Neville a news babe? Far from it. Let’s see the Women of Westword! Derek Mooneyham via the Internet A Ted-Letter Day I enjoyed Robin Chotzinoff’s…
Seven years ago, the Colorado legislature passed a law designed to put the bite on convicted criminals. The concept was sterling: to force lawbreakers who had money to reimburse the state or the county for the cost of their incarceration. In theory, such a bill would offset the cost of…
Ruth Blackmore leads a few of her south Boulder neighbors on a field trip, down a path she’s taken many, many times before. The excursion begins in a vacant field a few blocks from her home, where the trail is hemmed in by knee-high weeds and skittering grasshoppers; crosses a…
Did a math instructor at the Community College of Aurora whistleblow herself out of a job? For the past three years Katherine Mills has railed unsuccessfully against a colleague named George Bruner, whom she claimed was unqualified to teach anthropology because he doesn’t hold a degree in the field. Two…
All bets are off: Ten years ago, when Mike Plante was hired to manage a renovated warehouse at 15th and Platte streets owned by a bunch of Texas doctors, he never imagined himself someday owning the place–much less running a restaurant/ club that takes up a quarter of the space…
But at Denver International Airport, London’s still calling–and taxpayers are being asked to answer. Denver is the largest American market without nonstop airline service to the United Kingdom. So the city’s aviation department has spent tens of thousands of dollars in recent years trying to land a British Airways flight…
Characters in soap operas have phony first names like Blake and Krystle and Fallon and Caress–names no one else has. Real people have real names like Sandis and Uwe and Sylvain–you know, everyday names. The characters in soap operas are always trying to screw other characters in the bedroom or…
X Marks the Spat Will someone please tell Patricia Calhoun that it’s time to get over it? I appreciate the sentiment in her September 12 column, “Nip It in the Bud,” but the May D&F paraboloid is gone–and Adam’s Mark is still here. Some of us think the expanded hotel…
