Unreal estate: Seems like only yesterday that Denver megadeveloper Larry A. Mizel, last week dubbed "dean" of real estate at the University of Denver's Daniels College of Business, was just another rich kid in Tulsa. Eventually, of course, he became George Bush's mightiest fundraiser (he collected $1 million for the future president at one Denver bash), a groupie of junk-bond guru Michael Milken, a phone confidant of financiopath Charles Keating, a key figure in the Silverado thrift disaster, a contributor (along with business-school namesake Bill Daniels) to lascivious senator Bob Packwood, and the proud possessor of an official U.S. government cease-and-desist order to never, ever engage in the banking business again. Still, on May 9, DU--which proudly boasts of its business "ethics" program--beknighted Mizel for his "outstanding career in real estate and banking" and his "distinguished philanthropy and community service." Back in Oklahoma in the late Fifties, who woulda thunk it? In his early teens, the spoiled little schnook was known primarily for being the first in his Sunday school class to get his own motorcycle.
Bear facts: Adams State College may think it dodged an arrow this month when the school dumped the "Indians," its seventy-year-old nickname, in favor of the more politically correct "Grizzlies"--but that's only if the British Columbia-based Grizzly Project doesn't pick up the scent. The environmental group has been on a rampage for over a year, ever since the NBA's expansion team in Vancouver adopted "Grizzlies" as its name. It's all part of an attempt to "greenwash" the government's mistreatment of the environment, the Grizzly Project charges. "They are targeting children with a mass-marketed cartoon logo depicting an attacking bear," says the group's founder, Candace Batycki. In the real world, she notes, grizzlies typically shy away from encounters with humans. In fact, according to the group, it's the bear--North America's most slowly reproducing large omnivore (and you thought that was Rush Limbaugh)--that's under attack in Canada, losing habitats to logging and mining industries.
So far, the campaign against the Vancouver Grizzlies has kept Project Grizzly busy on its side of the border. And that's where the group plans to stay, so long as other teams that adopt the Grizzly name show the right spirit. "We're encouraging them to be cheerleaders for the real grizzlies," says Irwin Oostindie. "They have a responsibility to their namesake."
The merry month of May: Gee, could it possibly be sweeps month for the TV stations? No sooner had Channel 9 started hyping Paula Woodward's interview with Nathan Dunlap than both Channel 4 and Channel 7 hurried to play catch-up--with 7 running a Bertha Lynn interview that failed to wrest a confession from Dunlap and 4 running a report on why the station wouldn't be running a piece. Since then, though, 9 has had an undeniable exclusive on a confused duck sitting on a bunch of golf balls (during which reporter Ward Lucas, like the duck, looks understandably pained); and 7 was certainly the only station to offer an inane, side-by-side comparison of the murders of Debra Cameron and Nicole Simpson. Both 4 and 7, however, are still competing for bragging rights for having inspired the recent changes regarding the operation of tow trucks.
