Kenneth Jessen is a student of the eccentric. The 64-year-old retired engineer turned writer has delved into the lives of such characters as Indian Eater Big Phil, who allegedly ate two of his wives, and gunslinger Jack Slade, who shot one of his enemies between the eyes, sawed off his…
As a Florida schoolboy, Gary Nurkiewicz used to take his dad’s Nazi propaganda films for show- and-tell. “They’re 16-millimeter, so it was easy enough to just throw them on the classroom projector and go for it,” he says. Four decades later, Nurkiewicz realized that the reels he’d nonchalantly lugged around…
“Insure your soul with Jesus Christ — avoid hell,” reads a handwritten note on one of Stephanie Schultz’s Colorado Insurance Professionals business cards. The businesslike red, white and black cards — their printed information supplemented with scrawled messages of hell or salvation (“No Jesus — Know Hell; Know Jesus –…
Not far from the three wise men, a man holding a sack of money stands on a high desert studded with rocks and yucca. Like everyone else in the scene, he’s headed to see the Christ child. “Recognize him?” asks Father Marcus Medrano. “That’s Satan. To me, this is not…
The decision of columnist Tina Griego to leave the Denver Post in favor of the Rocky Mountain News — a move discussed in this space last week — thrilled the folks at the News. But Post staffers in general were considerably less excited by the change, with a handful of…
“A weekend of frightening scenes at college football games is forcing university presidents and the NCAA to try to find ways to stop violence on college campuses.” — December 6, 2002, Associated Press “New tactics are being tried this year in hopes of preventing University of Colorado students from rioting…
Cream of the Crap Spot news: Great article by Michael Roberts on the difference between the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News editorial pages (“Calling All Columnists,” December 12). I noticed that the Post filled Tina Griego’s spot with some lame-ass column that made the hard-hitting point that its…
Maria Mosina is fluent in Russian, which isn’t surprising, since she was born in Moscow and is a graduate of the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. But the ballerina, now in her eighth season with the Colorado Ballet, did need a little help with the relentless Pop Quiz questioning (typically conducted in…
Franklin Azar’s office doesn’t look much like the headquarters of a holy jihad. His law firm occupies nearly two floors of a surprisingly low-key, boxy Aurora office building that is hidden in an anonymous office park tucked between equally anonymous subdivisions. Inside, the rooms are comfortable but hardly flashy. The…
“Gimme a W! Gimme an A!” yelled a Stapleton Wal-Mart manager to then-associate Joe Walker. “Gimme an L!” Reaching the hyphen, he belted out, “Gimme a squiggly!” squatted down, shook his hips and expected Walker to do the same. Walker had just been initiated into the Wal-Mart cheer, a scene…
Durward Minor is losing his chops a little bit every day. For this he can blame both arthritis and inertia: It’s been nearly four months since he held either of the instruments he mastered long ago — the acoustic bass and the tuba — and his hands are starting to…
At five years old, Nugs is feeling the effects of middle age. He has arthritis in both hips and doesn’t walk like he used to. Rather than suffer, though, he gets physical therapy. He steps into a tank and waits as water fills up to his chest. The treadmill beneath…
Last month, the Virgin Mary and Child suddenly appeared alongside Sixth Avenue — okay, on a billboard near Denver Health — beaming down on passersby and delivering the very biblically worded message “Pregnant? Be not afraid.” A note on the bottom of the billboard credited it to the memory of…
Last year, Christmas was less than merry at the Tabor Center. The downtown mall was halfway through a massive renovation project, its front entrance closed, many of its spaces boarded up and empty. But Ron Neel waited it out, knowing that good taste never goes out of style. Sooner or…
Shortly after his June arrival in Colorado, Denver Post editor Greg Moore declared that his paper was overstocked with columnists — a point he elaborated upon during a subsequent interview with Westword (“Moore Than Before,” August 8). As he put it then, a surplus of columns “gives the paper a…
The other day, a man with Christmas on his mind walked into a sporting goods store to buy a baseball mitt for his son. “I’d like to buy a baseball mitt for my son,” he told the clerk. “Oh, yeah?” the clerk answered, giving his customer a narrow-eyed gaze. “How…
Of Mice and Men Lock ’em up: Julie Jargon’s article on sex offenders (“Arrested Development,” December 5) was well-written and very informative. Nice job! Now let me get to the part of this letter that might offend some people by stating bluntly: Sex offenders, take notice! Fair treatment and understanding…
Robert Wayne Rosberg is a convicted sex offender. Some would say he shouldn’t be allowed the luxury of rejoining society. He should be locked up forever. Castrated. Even killed. But since none of those measures are possible, a judge ordered Rosberg to enter Teaching Humane Existence, a nineteen-year-old Denver treatment…
Just before 6 p.m. on a recent, unseasonably warm Thursday, two young girls exit a nondescript office building off Colorado Boulevard and Louisiana Avenue. The girls, who can’t be more than twelve years old, are accompanied by one of their mothers; they’ve just come out of the Glendale Family Resource…
For the first time this century, Denver’s baby Jesus can remain asleep on the hay, undisturbed in the reflected, garish glory of the City and County Building’s annual display. And the City of Denver can rest easy this month, too, since no civil libertarians or religious activists plan to play…
Since the North American Aerospace Defense Command was locked down to the public in April 1999 — when NORAD brass decided that allowing the great unwashed into the top-secret base in Cheyenne Mountain posed a security threat — only military personnel have been permitted beyond the three-foot-thick steel doors. Military…
Sometimes Teri Cueva forgets she’s an old Anglo lady. She’s 35, married to a cop, the mother of three kids, definitely white, and prone to wearing low-key, almost church-going clothes. But as she spends her days talking with teens on probation, all that recedes. She might lose herself as she…
