Letters from the Issue of August 5-11, 2002

Go Ahead, Call Me a Zealot Just don’t call me a Bush fanatic or a Cuban hardliner: After reading Max Castro’s “Triumph of the Zealots” (July 29), I came to realize why I no longer pick up your newspaper: Poor research and both sides of issues not accurately represented. By…

The Dead Only Quickly Decay

Were it not for all the delusional people The Bitch runs across, this column would be about 90 percent white space (the remaining 10 percent would, of course, be devoted to the welfare of pigeons). Fortunately the horror vacui bullet is dodged again this week, though the lead is buried…

Democratic Mayor or Republican Mayor?

Have you heard about John Kerry’s secret connections to Fidel Castro? How about the hidden financial links between Teresa Heinz Kerry and the Cuban government? No? Derek Newton rolls his eyes, and with a laugh plunges his hand into the six-inch-deep sea of paperwork that covers his entire desk. As…

Current Events

Indie film director Troy Duffy will someday overcome the creative blocks he has suffered in trying to make All Saints Day, the much-anticipated sequel to The Boondock Saints. Though only released in 1999, that film is already a classic in the underserved cinematic genre depicting Boston-based, Irish-Catholic-catechism spouting, arsenal-brandishing, law-giving…

Letters from the Issue of July 29 – August 4, 2004

A Bird Leg in the Hand Is worth two or more in the alley: “The Bitch” has been writing about a mystery man who cages and steals pigeons (July 15), and now this: Pigeon legs are being tied up with plastic tape and left in our Miami Beach alley. How…

X Marks the Crosswalk

Out of the billowing exhaust of Grand Theft Auto 3: Vice City comes Driv3r, another mega-selling video game that tries to convince anyone who hasn’t actually driven here that Miami is one big, lawless speedway. The Atari game is stunningly detailed to the point of eerieness in its re-creation of…

No More Mayor Loco

It is almost too easy to make fun of Xavier Suarez. Miami certainly has suffered through its share of troubling political leaders, but only Suarez managed to have reporters across America, from the Washington Post to the Los Angeles Times, wondering in print if our mayor had lost his mind…

Letters from the Issue of July 22, 2004

Micky Arison, You’re Outta Here You’re being replaced by some real business pros — Miami-Dade’s county commissioners: As Jim Mullin correctly implies in “Down in Flames” (July 15), the reasons given by the Miami Business Forum for terminating the referendum drive to create an independent airport authority were never robust…

Between Something and Nothing

Shoegazer: Hey, at least it’s not emo. Sometimes The Bitch’s addiction to the music that has evolved into the more flatteringly termed “dreampop,” thrumming with the alien wail of guitar reverb and a Dagwood sandwich of effects, is soothed with the live music methadone known as Internet radio. No, it…

Down in Flames

For the sixth time in recent years a promising effort to create an independent body to govern Miami International Airport has flamed out. A group of business leaders last month dropped its plans to place on the November ballot a referendum for an airport authority that would finally put an…

Bickering Not Allowed

“We’ve got real plans, we’ve got a better sense of what’s happening to America. And we’ve got better hair.” — John Kerry, introducing running mate John Edwards at a Cleveland rally “You need to call Dennis, he’s freaking out!” sputters Charles Lenchner, thrusting his cell phone at Tim Carpenter. Lenchner’s…

Letters July 15-21, 2004

New Questions That Won’t Die If I were investigating David Berkofsky’s death, here’s what I’d ask: Forrest Norman’s very well-researched article about the mysterious shooting death of U.S. Customs inspector David Berkofsky (“The Question That Won’t Die,” July 1) raised several questions of interest to me as an attorney. First,…

From the Cradle to the Rave

Given the rolling, glow stick-wielding dancers, the 100-plus-degree heat, the total indifference of the cops, and the concentrated presence of more than 5000 men in tank tops, Peacock Park in Coconut Grove could well have been the scene for mass chaos, even a riot — but The Bitch was disappointed…

Letters from the Issue of July 08, 2004

Portrait of the Artist as an Old Hag That was my mother you smeared: I’m Neith Nevelson’s youngest daughter and I would like to comment on Forrest Norman’s story about her (“A Brush with Death,” June 24). My mother seemed very excited that someone was interested in interviewing her, and…

Two in the Bush

A few months ago The Bitch was waiting for the bus at the Omni station when she observed a man capturing flocks of pigeons in a wire-mesh trap set with bread-crumb bait, then dumping the bewildered, cooing birds into a bicycle basket seemingly made exactly for the job of avian…

Letters from the Issue of July 01, 2004

Old Friend, New Story I know Neith, and this was Neith: Thanks to Forrest Norman for writing such a great article about the artist Neith Nevelson (“A Brush with Death,” June 24). Neith is a long-time friend. I represented her for many years during the Eighties and early Nineties at…

The Gridlock Candidate

If you’ve ever found yourself stuck in I-95’s snarl, gazing with envy as a television news helicopter whipped past overhead, take comfort in Dave Slater’s anger. Before he retired in 1996 as a traffic reporter for both WPLG-TV (Channel 10) and WIOD-AM (610), Slater spent nearly twenty years flying above…

Gang Related

Many faithful — okay, a few faithful readers of The Bitch have written to inquire about an earlier reference to throwing gang signs. Some have expressed a desire to get in on the bandanna-happy action. So here is some lowdown: Before the deployment of complex gang greetings may commence, one…

Letters from the Issue of June 24, 2004

Sure Sign of a Wise Leader Knowing when to call it quits: Brett Sokol hits the nail on the head in his “Kulchur” column about Miami-Dade mayoral candidate Maurice Ferré (“Ego Without End,” June 17). It was a great piece about a has-been who doesn’t know when to stop. Obviously…

Fear? No, Evil

The amount of research and study that has been brought to the subject of “the eternal battle between good and evil” in the 21st Century is truly amazing. It seems to overflow from the pages of university dissertations, newspapers, popular psychology books, and comic books with such spellbinding regularity that…

Letters from the Issue of June 17, 2004

Pipe Dreams vs. Harsh Reality Simply put, the Star of Miami ain’t gonna happen: If I were Jewish, I’d say, “Oy vey!” But I’m Italian so I’ll say, “Fuhgeddaboutit.” While Kirk Nielsen’s article “Aqua Nova” (June 10) regarding Roberto Behar and Rosario Marquardt’s plans for the Henry Flagler monument and…

Ego Without End

“This is it. I am done.” — Maurice Ferré, announcing the end of his political career after decisively losing the Miami-Dade County mayoral race in September 1996 “I’m finished. I’m no longer a candidate for anything.” — Ferré, after losing the City of Miami mayoral race in November 2001 “Hey,…