Recently I devoted this space to a modest essay about the renaissance of Miami Beach’s Lincoln Road Mall. The headline: “Lincoln Road Miracle: From Scruffy Derelict to Enchanting Shoppers’ Paradise.” The piece generated a fair amount of mail, most of which we published the following week. We didn’t have room…
I love baseball. And being a Yankees fan, I also love to watch the Baltimore Orioles get clobbered. So last week’s game between the O’s and a group of Cuban all-stars was great fun for me. I must admit, though, that while watching this particular game, as well as the…
Lead Stories *According to an April Associated Press report, the University of Illinois managed to find women to fill fifteen laboratory positions in which the only job is to sniff pig manure. They work three hours per week at $15 an hour attempting to recognize certain chemical markers in the…
Lead Stories *New Scientist magazine reported in April on findings showing that weaker males of two animal species father almost as many offspring as their studly competitors. Researcher Brian Preston told a conference in Newcastle, England, that strong rams get more sex but that toward the end of mating season,…
Lincoln Road: It’s “Ironic” I just finished Jim Mullin’s wonderful take on the new Lincoln Road (“Lincoln Road Miracle: From Scruffy Derelict to Enchanting Shoppers’ Paradise,” April 29). The only problem is that some people won’t understand the irony! As a merchant there for the past seven years, I have…
StreetSmarts: Alive and Well, Thank You Your report of StreetSmarts magazine’s demise (“Riptide,” April 22) is, as they say, greatly exaggerated. StreetSmarts will continue to publish. We must. Who else creates meaningful, dignified employment for South Florida’s homeless and hard-core unemployed? Only StreetSmarts takes anyone willing to work, trains them…
I know I’m not alone in wishing to express my gratitude to those Miami Beach leaders who have done so much to revitalize Lincoln Road. An appropriate opportunity for praise occurred a couple of weeks ago, on April 13, when city officials gathered to commemorate the installation of the final…
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…
