Budgetary news is pretty bleak in most cities these days, so it’s no surprise that Mayor Wellington Webb has been tightening the belt. But in one section of his proposed $769 million budget for 2003, the mayor went beyond mere tightening: He plans to ax the city’s entire Asset Recovery…
The national Prohibition Party likens itself to an oasis, “a refreshing place to be,” as one member calls it. But these days, the tiny group’s disputed turf seems about as hospitable as Baghdad. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the party’s emblem, a camel (chosen for its ability to travel long…
John Stubbs likes to smoke. That’s not surprising, given his line of work: He’s a fireworks expert. And at the Putting Green Pub, 7785 West Colfax Avenue in Lakewood, he’s allowed to indulge his habit. Stubbs — known in the bar’s trivia contests as “Pyro” — cradles a cigarette in…
Denver Water Manager Chips Barry — Hamlet J. Barry III, for those seeking the pedigree, which extends back through various jurists including a Colorado Supreme Court justice — considers his empty water glass. Unlike his Shakespearean namesake, there is no hesitation. “I guess I’ll have some of yours,” he says,…
The silver-and-gray sentry is flashing a red warning: Expired. Expired. Expired. But plug a quarter into parking meter number BN-46, and it will calm down for an hour. That’s just enough time for Anthony Gengaro to step into the Hornet, a restaurant at 76 Broadway, and give his perspective on…
Tuesday was the day former Glendale city manager Veggo Larsen was expecting a $100,000 check from his former employers. But instead of a nest egg, he got a goose egg. That’s because Glendale’s city council voted last week to hold off on honoring the May 7 separation agreement (which also…
Veggo Larsen eases his six-foot-three-inch frame into a chair at a corner table in Tuscany at the Loews Denver Hotel, his restaurant of choice when seeking discreet surroundings in Glendale. “I don’t have to worry about running into someone here I don’t want to see,” he says. Without naming names,…
Members of the West 29th Avenue Neighborhood Association, who objected to a recent United States Postal Service plan to change their zip code (“Stripped of a Zip,” March 7), credit U.S. Representative Diana DeGette with accomplishing in the nation’s capital what they couldn’t do here: getting postal officials to withdraw…
A weather-beaten man identified as Will stares ahead and explains his escape from Denver. As a thirteen-year-old, he wanted to get away from the hostility directed toward him because he was overtly gay. Anything had to be better than his existence at home or school, he reasoned. “I was wrong,”…
Rumors of the zip code shuffle started bubbling through parts of Sloan Lake and West Highland — north Denver neighborhoods that had been happy with their 80212 label — a few months ago. Then came the special-delivery surprise: Not only was the United States Postal Service proposing to move some…
Author Carl Hiaasen is stuck in the swamp. It’s not that the south Florida native can’t imagine setting his satires about greed and crime in other locales. It’s just that the 48-year-old Miami Herald columnist and former investigative reporter realizes that his soggy state is a moldy gold mine for…
After pedaling down the street, the skeleton pauses to slurp a sports drink — and the yellowish liquid starts to splash down through his interior. No, you’re not watching some Hollywood slasher-flick spoof, although the film is sometimes as colorful. Instead, The Human Body is a lavishly produced IMAX film…
The great British explorer Ernest Shackleton is very hot these days — in marked contrast to how he and his hardy band felt during their 1914-1916 expedition to Antarctica. The “most glorious failure” of the British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition is more gloriously popular than ever, with a recent book and…
Horace Walpole, who said that “life is a comedy to the man who thinks and a tragedy to the man who feels,” could not know how his words would echo in the waning days of 2001. The jarring events of the past few months have left most Americans hungry for…
The sight of adults slowly snaking about while holding antlers on their heads might strike you as a wee bit silly. But the Abbot’s Bromley Horn Dance, as it’s officially known, is no Monty Python skit — even if it also boasts an English pedigree, which dates at least to…
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is the most-anticipated holiday flick of the year. Friday’s opening will unleash an outpouring of Harrysteria and related merchandise. So that you’re not left wasting away in Muggleville, get prepared with this modest Potter quiz. 1. Harry got his scar from: a. An encounter…
Robert wasn’t a man of many words. In fact, he tended to repeat himself over and over and over. Still, what he said long ago in his scratchy, singsong voice stills resonates: “I am Robert Robot, mechanical man/Drive me and steer me/Wherever you can.” The sixteen-inch-high red-and-silver toy, modeled on…
As David Bowie sang “Heroes” at the recent benefit at Madison Square Garden, crowd shots of uniformed New York firefighters and police flashed across television screens. Spontaneous cheers confirmed these public servants’ new status as American heroes recognized for their collective response to terrorism. Only a short time ago, public-safety…
Since its opening in 1892, the Brown Palace has experienced its share of oddities — including ghosts who check in but don’t check out. How else to explain the sudden, static-filled telephone calls from the ninth-floor suite where famed Denver socialite Louise Hill once lived…and died? Not only was Mrs…
Forget about the buzz over Whatchamacallit Stadium. Ignore the pull toward The Can where the Avs will see if they can once again win the Stanley Cup. And gaze not at the melancholy of Coors Field, where the Rockies are having a rocky time of it. Now it’s the time…
After the Civil War, the legendary Colonel Little settled in Douglas County, seeking to build a new utopia. By the time he was planted in his tiny grave (not far from a former onion patch), “Littletown” had grown to 42 buildings and over 1,200 residents. To this day, no one…
Are coin collectors being buffaloed by Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, or will a slightly altered reissue of the popular American Buffalo Silver Dollar be money in the political bank for Colorado’s senior senator? Earlier this year, the U.S. Mint’s initial offering of 500,000 commemorative silver dollars featuring James Earl Fraser’s…
