Letters to the Editor

The Best of Denver 2008, March 27, 2008 Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow First of all, great issue, as always. It’s always a yearly delight poring through it and finding a few quibbles. This year is no exception. Your Best TV Newscast — Night award to Channel 9 is just lazy…

Mayor Hickenlooper and Governor Ritter Inhaled!

Governor Bill Ritter and Mayor John Hickenlooper were feeling no pain the day they filmed a promotional ad for the 9HealthFair, an annual community project that KUSA Channel 9 has been running for close to thirty years. To hype this year’s incarnation, which runs April 12-20, Ritter and Hickenlooper filmed…

Inviting Hickenlooper to Break Bread

Hickenlooper, buddy, what’s going on? It’s your old pal Adam Cayton-Holland. Yes, the same Adam Cayton-Holland who grew up in Park Hill. Hey, how are you enjoying the neighborhood? I noticed you put a trampoline in the yard — nice move. I’m sure Teddy’s loving that thing. My dad would…

Deconstructing the DNA of a Denver Post Pulitzer Finalist

“Trashing the Truth,” a four-day Denver Post feature about the destruction of DNA evidence, was the broadsheet’s single finest achievement in 2007. Beginning July 22, Post staffers Miles Moffeit and Susan Greene delivered an impassioned, far-reaching plea for justice that continues to resonate. And the section related to Clarence Moses-EL,…

Target Practice: Racism and Police Shootings Are No Game

At 2:10 a.m. on December 19, Denver police officer Timothy Campbell was standing in the middle of the street in a west Denver neighborhood, his gun pointed at a man. The patrolman had been driving north on Irving Street when he’d passed a 1997 Saturn that seemed suspicious. When Campbell…

Would You Shoot A Man Based On His Race?

Jared Jacang Maher’s April 3 feature, “Target Practice Racism and Police Shootings Are No Game,” profiles a new video game system created at the University of Chicago that Denver cops have used to determine whether officers are more are less likely than your average Joe to shoot someone based on…

Jameson Rarest Vintage Reserve: Best. Whiskey. Ever.

Of the many contributions of the Irish to world culture—from colcannon and those silly snap-brim tweed hats of which my father is so fond to the music of the Pogues and the films of Jim Sheridan—I don’t think anyone would argue with my saying that whiskey is the best. There’s…

Post Editorial Attacks Bill Inspired By Its Own Pulitzer Finalist

The April 3 Message column about recent controversies involving the Denver Post’s fine “Trashing the Truth” series, a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize to be announced on April 7, focuses on credibility assaults made by outsiders – a reporter from the Charlotte Observer, who initially felt the Post used some…

Ten Things that Are Not April Fools’ Jokes

Of all the things to be celebrated cross-culturally, to have the potential to bring people of the world closer together, it would have to be April Fool’s Day. Seriously, any other holiday would be better, don’t you think? Instead of turning our friends into dupes, maybe we could all do…

Obama Conspiracy Theories…with Eggs

College kids, when not sexing and boozing, are attending Obama rallies. When there isn’t an Obama rally to attend, they’ll make one up. Perhaps because April Fools’ Day fast approaches or perhaps because they got tired of the election year sex and beer, unnamed miscreants on the University of Pennsylvania…

ProgressNow Shows Subscribers a Dick For April Fool’s Day

April Fool’s Day: the most irritating holiday or undeniably the most irritating holiday? The date tends to bring out the dumbness in even the smartest people. Every once in a while, though, a prank actually produces a chuckle — like, for instance, the one the lefties at ProgressNow pulled on…

Encore, Encore!

My friend and the waitress were still talking about recycling, about the re-use and re-application of found objects, cast-off materials. And though I was concentrating on the food, some of their conversation must’ve penetrated, because I found myself thinking about recycling, too. About the salvage and reclamation of forgotten things…

More Rocky Employees Head For the Exit

The exodus from the Rocky Mountain News and its affiliates continues at such a dizzying pace that the front door is in danger of flying off its hinges. Among the recent departees is Travis Henry, the editor of YourHub.com, whose farewell piece, published on March 20, reveals that he’s accepted…

Looking for Larry #4

Preston Peerman continues to hunt for Senator Larry Craig in the bathrooms at DIA. Here’s his latest report: Location: Men’s room in the main DIA terminal, just to the right where passengers exit at the top of the escalator (in front of the fountain). I’m currently in the middle stall…

Rest of the Best: Not Easy Being Green

While most of the Best of Denver 2008 fallout has been outside the office, there’s been plenty of talk here at Bite Me World HQ regarding my Best Green Chile award for Jack-n-Grill. Backbeat editor Dave Herrera takes it very personally when I say things about Colorado-style verde being just…

Barfly Taxonomy: The Chattering Coldmonger

View larger species In order to make more sense of the world around us, illustrator and public house naturalist Nate Stone is compiling here a taxonomy of different barflies. While you’re out and about in Denver, if you spot any of these specimens please add your observations about their habitat…

Delegating Denver #37 of 56: North Carolina

View larger image North Carolina Total Number of Delegates: 134 Pledged: 115 Unpledged: 19 How to Recognize a North Carolina Delegate: Ahh, the Land of the Sky — such a lovely state, full of beautiful people who are impossible to understand. The only reason that John Edwards is not the…

Mile Low City

Denver has been getting a lot of plugs in the national media over the last few months, and nearly all of it has to do with the Democratic National Convention. The city is typically characterized as a vital and prosperous regional center with a personality reflecting both its status as…

The Post’s Bizarre Anti-Broncos Editorial

Newspaper editorialists spend more time opining about local politics and global brinksmanship than they do musing about fun and games. As a result, their occasional forays into sports can feel clunky, odd and forced. But understanding that still won’t prepare readers for “Broncos Taking Hits On, Off Field,” a March…

Hank Brown for President?

The Wall Street Journal gave Hank Brown a heckuva going-away present when the former Colorado senator left his job as president of University of Colorado earlier this month. In a March 22 editorial, the paper called Brown “the best college president you’ve never heard of,” praising his common-sense handling of…

Unintended Consequences of The Fan’s FM Move

In early March, The Fan, a sports-talk station long heard at 950 AM, announced its move to 104.3 FM — and as noted in this More Messages blog on the topic, a simulcast on its old dial spot was slated to continue until March 31. Well, the last date has…