Melo Out!

In the white squall of media coverage surrounding the Denver Nuggets of late — and I do mean “white” — the criticism has been flying like a Southern pilot on the Concorde: fast and racist. Take the latest Carmelo Anthony smack-my-bitch-up incident against the Knicks this Saturday in New York,…

More Messages: The Wrong Forecast

Not quite cynical enough about weather forecasting? Then here’s an item that should make you feel even more jaded. As he watched the snow falling this morning, a sharp-eyed reader thought of this article in the December 6 Denver Post. Headlined “Arrival of El Ni�o May Mean Dry Winter for…

More Messages: Snow Job

Yeah, it’s snowing — and if predictions are even close to accurate, it’ll continue to do so for quite some time. But unless I’m very much mistaken, this is Colorado, where snow is a part of life. So why are the local stations reacting to this slow-moving weather system as…

A Call to Arms

Excess—that’s what I love about the Palace Arms. And not just plain excess. Not cheap, tawdry, modern excess but classy, well-aged and dignified excess. The kind of excess that almost demands you don an ascot and monocle before partaking. And yet, there is no credit check at the door, no…

Anything But Melo

Pick up any paper, check any website, talk to anyone at a sports bar, and you’ll find yourself inundated with opinions about Carmelo Anthony. He’s nothing but a thug. He’s misunderstood. You can take the NBA player out of the street but you can’t take the street out of the…

Scout’s Honor

After many years of effort, my son, Nick, recently earned the ranking of Eagle Scout — and shortly thereafter, he received letters of congratulation from two elected officials, Representative Tom Tancredo, in whose congressional district we live, and Senator Wayne Allard. However, he’s heard squat from Colorado’s other senator, Ken…

The Nutty Professor’s Twisted Sequel

We knew it was coming, but nothing could prepare us for the true awfulness of the deed itself. The fourth (and, if God is merciful, last) television documentary on the JonBenet Ramsey case concocted by University of Colorado journalism professor Michael Tracey and British producer David Mills aired in the…

A Towering Fall

The shuttering of Denver’s Tower Records branch at the end of this week demonstrates that when it comes to the music business, the virtual (i.e., downloading) is currently kicking the crap out of the physical (CDs and so on). But for yours truly, the death of this retail outlet, and…

Mother’s Day

Baby Girl has a baby girl. About a year has passed since the former Colfax streetwalker graduated from the Chrysalis Project, a program designed to rehabilitate women who’ve been selling their bodies for crack. It hasn’t all been smooth sailing for Baby Girl. She did a little time this past…

More Messages: Coaching Change

Circa early 2006, J.J. McKay and Rick “The Coach” Marshall (seen in the foreground of the accompanying publicity shot) were mainstays of KOOL 105’s s0-called Kool Morning Krew, and they were doing fine in the ratings. According to McKay, “We were number eight with adults from 25-54, number three for…

More Messages: The Spellchecker Strikes Back

Each year, RegretTheError.com catalogs the biggest, funniest and most outrageous print gaffes from the previous twelve months. This year’s offering, headlined “Crunks ’06: The Year in Media Errors and Corrections,” sports just one Colorado item: Attention-seeking student Cassidy Grigg is acknowledged for punking national and local news outlets following the…

More Messages: All That Jazz

Public entities are often just as secretive about internal strife as private ones, as the current turmoil at public-radio signal KUVO/89.3 FM demonstrates. In recent weeks, a power struggle has been taking place at the outlet, which Jazz Week magazine designated as the top U.S. jazz station in each of…

Pot of Gold

Joseph Brodsky eyes the freshly pulled double espresso with scorn. “This looks terrible,” he mutters darkly. From its poorly foamed surface, he can tell the coffee has been extracted from the espresso machine in a few measly seconds rather than the ideal 25. “And there’s a fishy smell. Stomaching this…

Roast of the Town

Black Gold, a documentary about Ethiopia’s coffee industry, promises that after you see it, “coffee will never taste the same.” In the film, shots of perky Starbucks managers are followed by clips of barefoot Ethiopian coffee pickers; first-world supermarket aisles packed with different coffees are interspersed with third-world therapeutic feeding…

Roast of the Town

Black Gold, a documentary about Ethiopia’s coffee industry, promises that after you see it, “coffee will never taste the same.’ In the film, shots of perky Starbucks managers are followed by clips of barefoot Ethiopian coffee pickers; first-world supermarket aisles packed with different coffees are interspersed with third-world therapeutic feeding…

All In

This is no bluff. Chuck Humphrey swears it — and his face is giving nothing away. Even though the Lakewood attorney is the sole plaintiff in a New Jersey lawsuit claiming that online pay-to-play fantasy-sports competitions are actually illegal gambling, he’s not some spoilsport out to rid the world of…

Pressed

One of the most common criticisms of journalism schools is that, outside of internships, they don’t offer students enough in the way of real-world experience. But that’s hardly been the case for Stephanie Clary, a University of Colorado at Boulder attendee who’s just ending her run as editor-in-chief of CU’s…

Boot Hill

The Mile High City has snubbed its most famous — and infamous — namesake. Denver no longer gets its parking boots from Clancy Systems. That’s the hometown company that in 1986 bought the patented Denver Boot from the family of Frank Marrugg, who invented the contraption in 1953 and has…

Monkey See, Monkey Doo

Every year at this time, people start acting real antsy around me. I’m half Jewish and half Christian — what biblical scholars refer to as a “mulatto” — and as a result, people don’t know whether to greet me by exclaiming, “A most fecund Jesus harvest to you, kind brother…

To Your Health

A Denver jury last week found Atlanta-based Mariner Health Care Inc. — the third-largest nursing-home company in the country — liable for negligence, extreme and outrageous conduct and deceptive trade practices. Plaintiff John Gordy, a 41-year-old quadriplegic who suffered injuries at Red Rocks Health Care Center in Denver, was awarded…

Letters to the Editor

“Of Meth and Men,” Luke Turf, December 7 Meth America Kudos, and thank you very much for last week’s cover story on meth and its effect on the gay community. As a recovering meth addict, I can relate and appreciate the honesty and courage Rod speaks of. This drug has…

More Messages: Returned Bill

This week marks the return to KHOW’s airwaves of The Radio Factor, hosted by Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly. However, the evening slot he’s been handed says more about the weakness of KHOW’s schedule than it does about the strength of O’Reilly’s appeal. O’Reilly’s disappearance from the outlet was awkward…