Off Limits

Roses are red, violets are blue, if I’m really sorry later, can I rape you? The art of penning a good apology letter is certainly dying, if the note written by a University of Colorado football player to the woman who accused him of rape is any indication. As evidenced…

The Message

Colorado Avalanche announcer Mike Haynes may work on the radio, but he doesn’t use this fact as an excuse to dress down. He arrives at the Pepsi Center several hours before the Avs face the Calgary Flames clad in a well-tailored suit that would do any businessman proud. When asked…

Tuff Buff Love

Like everyone else, I was impressed when the University of Colorado announced a series of football recruiting reforms last week. But I had no conception of how drastic those changes would be — until I received an unmarked envelope that contained the following draft memo. To: University of Colorado Buffaloes…

Letters to the Editor

Sexist Marks the Spot Musgrave reservations: Westword is a publication that I enjoy reading, and I will continue to do so. It functions much in the same way that Radio 1190 in Boulder does, providing a useful forum for viewpoints that otherwise would be ignored. In a letter in the…

The Ride of Their Lives

Dena Melinn’s right foot has a nasty reddish look, barely bends at the ankle and is twice as big around as her left, as though the swelling from two years ago never really subsided. “I shattered my heel jumping a big, big gap,” she says. “I broke it in thirty…

Quagmire Without End, Amen

In a belated effort to clear the air, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office offered up its souvenirs of a massacre last Thursday. It was quite a show — but not quite enough to dispel the stink that has clung to the biggest criminal investigation in Colorado history. For a few…

Off Limits

Thank the Supreme Deity of Sweets for Denver City Councilwoman Jeanne Raab. She always remembers the doughnuts, which is crucial, since a good sugar high is mandatory to get through public hearings. And that’s double-chocolatey true for Saturday-morning conclaves. Drawn in part by pastries, some thirty people met at the…

The Message

Despite all the technical advances in data retrieval that have come into common use over recent years, the primary venue for many periodicals remains the simple, time-tested news rack. No clicking, surfing or Googling is required. A reader need only walk up to a rack, lift its lid and grab…

Ready to Hurl

If the Yankees don’t win the World Series this year, millions of shocked New Yorkers will want to know why. If the Colorado Rockies don’t finish last, three Little Leaguers up in the Rockpile will want to know how. Seen in the cold light of day, the 2004 Rox are…

Letters to the Editor

The Fight Stuff Ref and ready: Eric Dexheimer strikes again! In “Tough Luck,” his February 26 column defending so-called Toughman contests, Dexheimer reveals a total ignorance of boxing — and of the reasons that many state legislatures have rightly sought to ban “Toughman” contests. Colorado was the last of the…

Cruisin’ for a Bustin’

Last July 3 was a gorgeous day, about 85 degrees by early afternoon, and the 37-year-old park visitor was dressed for a spirited summer outing. He wore a hot-pink tank top over a woman’s black, one-piece bathing suit filled out nicely by the pair of latex breasts strapped to his…

Club Dread

Warnings and rules are posted all over Pierre’s Supper Club. No colors, no athletic wear, no weapons. Stay out of the kitchen. Hang on to the handrail when using the stairs — lest you fall down the shag-covered steps leading from the upstairs dining room to the downstairs bar. Since…

Pop Quiz

1. Colorado will have a presence at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony because: A. John Sayles’s Silver City, shot here and screened secretly in Aspen on December 31, sneaked in under the wire in the Best Adaptation of an Original Adaptation category. B. Boulder documentarian Sandy McLeod’s Asylum is nominated…

Quagmire Without End, Amen

In a belated effort to clear the air, the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office offered up its souvenirs of a massacre last Thursday. It was quite a show — but not quite enough to dispel the stink that has clung to the biggest criminal investigation in Colorado history. For a few…

What’s Up With Colorado?

In recent years, Colorado has been very, very good to late-night-TV laugh-seekers, thanks to a string of shocking stories that have gone national with a vengeance. Yet Jay Leno, David Letterman and the rest of their comic fraternity have tended to treat each tabloid eruption, from the murder of JonBenét…

Naming Rights

When University of Colorado president Elizabeth “Betsy” Hoffman put CU head football coach Gary Barnett on paid administrative leave on February 18, she criticized him for making insensitive remarks about once-and-future kicker Katie Hnida — and there’s no doubt he’d done just that. Barnett’s statement the previous day that, from…

Tough Luck

The ever-vigilant Colorado Senate recently passed a bill that would ban so-called Toughman contests — three-round pick-up boxing matches that pit untrained fighters against each other, generally in front of drunken fans. The proposal, which has since been PC-ishly amended to address “Toughperson” contests, now awaits a hearing in the…

Letters to the Editor

Mister Write Great expectations: It had never really fazed me, how much I enjoy this fine paper we are all so lucky to have in this town. It was maybe the third time reading the February 19 Worst-Case Scenario, “Right and Righter,” that it hit me. (That was probably the…

Cable Guy

The opening of the Daniels Fund’s new office building in Cherry Creek last November was a festive occasion. A who’s who of Denver’s prominent and powerful were in attendance to help christen the foundation’s swank new headquarters. Bill Daniels, the legendary cable-TV entrepreneur who created the billion-dollar fund, had personally…

Bill’s Crib

It’s highly appropriate that the former home of one of Denver’s most notorious playboys is now one of the city’s best party spots. Cable magnate Bill Daniels built the mansion, which he dubbed Cableland, on Shangri-La Drive in the Hilltop neighborhood in 1986, and the place is as over the…

Open Spaced

Rita Bertolli first noticed the work crews in the ravine last April. From the kitchen of her family’s home, at the end of a Green Mountain cul-de-sac, she could see them out there, taking measurements and planting little red flags in the high grass. The hubbub struck Bertolli, a 23-year-old…

Pop Quiz

1. Carmelo Anthony spoke out about the NBA All-Star Game selection process that snubbed him and his teammates. Quoth the super-rook: A. “A bunch of old guys picked another bunch of old guys.” B. “I was surprised they didn’t take anybody from us, but I guess it’s Denver.” C. “We’re…