Twin Peeks

From the tandem-riding Doublemint girls of the ’60s to today’s insufferable Olsens, blond twins have always been big. But the mere flicker of Elaine and Diane Klimaszewski across a TV screen is enough to turn most hot-blooded American males into drooling idiots. “The twins are so hot. Man, are they…

The Coors of History

The target market that Coors Light is now trying to reach wasn’t even born when light beer was invented in the late 1960s to the scorn and snickers of hard-core beer drinkers. And many 21- to 25-year-olds completely missed the controversies that swamped the brewer in the 1970s and early…

Soda and Water

Call them the Pepsi Generation. Just under five years ago, Denver Public Schools gave PepsiCo the exclusive right to install up to ten vending machines in each of the district’s 134 schools in exchange for more than $1 million a year. Since then, DPS’s middle and high school students have…

Follow That Story

Every night at seven, sixty-year-old Naim Amini calls his eldest daughter from prison. It’s been their ritual since Amini was incarcerated three years ago. During their conversations, he’s often told her, “After every darkness, there is daylight. Allah will answer our prayers.” On Thursday, January 16, his daughter picked up…

Pop Quiz

So, there was the Quizmeister, admitting that he’d just taken the kids’ Colorado quiz on Tom Tancredo’s Congressional Web site — and scored a solid 80 percent. (Hey, who knew the state flag had red in it? We thought no Reds were allowed here.) But the third-term congressman from Colorado’s…

Off Limits

The Denver Police Department had its biggest dope bust ever last week, recovering 763 pounds of pot. For now, it’s stashed in the DPD’s evidence room — but once the case is adjudicated, it’ll be tagged for burning at Denver International Airport. Yes, the incinerator is back in business after…

Malicia Movement

Baba prefers to materialize. While waiting for him to do so, I look at my watch, then look up — only to discover that he’s gotten into the room somehow and is now waiting on me. “So, let’s talk about my life,” he says. “I’ll give you the truth, but…

Green-Light Specials

For most people, late December is a time for family, friends and racking up tremendous personal debt, not for professional crises. But things didn’t play out that way for Cindy Velasquez, vice president and general manager of Channel 7. A dispute between her outlet and AT&T Broadband over a proposed…

Hard-nosed Headmaster

It’s strong stuff, especially at seven o’clock in the morning. Coach is unhappy with his players. Unhappy? Hey — to hear him rage, Coach is infuriated by his players, all-out disgusted by his players, and for 22 minutes he lets them have it with both barrels, like a drill sergeant…

Letters to the Editor

Lineman for the County Half-Bakered: The people of Arapahoe County knew what they were doing when they voted for Tracy Baker in November. The Arapahoe County commissioners can just live with him until six months pass and the voters recall him. Besides, if Baker resigned early, who would everyone talk…

Lost and Found

Simon Garang is running behind. He is hunched over a burrito in the student-union food court at the University of Colorado during finals week, backpack sagging with books. He’s supposed to be on break, but for Simon, there are no breaks. He glances at his wristwatch, inhales a forkful of…

Geo Whiz

Josh Fritz and Scott Hoffman sip lattes in the REI Starbucks, killing time as they wait for their buddy, Jonnie Veatch, to arrive. The three met during elementary school and have stuck together through high school, graduation, college and even marriage. Fritz and Hoffman are hitched to sisters, and they…

Pop Quiz

In keeping with Pop Quiz’s noble mission to remind citizens of useless facts they might otherwise forget, this week’s incarnation — the Pop(ular Vote) Quiz — was culled from still-Mayor Wellington Webb’s briefing last week for the current crop of mayoral hopefuls. Nine wannabes, each eager to learn the secrets…

Off Limits

Denver Art Museum director Lewis Sharp unveils the institution’s new logo in the current issue of On & Off the Wall, the DAM’s newsletter, likening the mark to the logos of Coca-Cola and Apple Computer. “Chances are, when you read these names, you think of the logo or typeface of…

The Basement Tapes

The old steam boiler in the basement of the apartment building at 13th Avenue and Pearl Street has the word “IDEAL” molded into its cast-iron side, below a patent date of 1905. It’s kicking out sauna-like heat, just as it has since 1917, when the building was new. “Think of…

Seeing Red

Like anyone who’s lasted more than a week as a talk-show headliner, KHOW’s Scott Redmond is accustomed to being ripped by callers. In most cases, though, the blows hurled at him come courtesy of folks he doesn’t know, not from colleagues who traipse the same hallways he does. But that…

Big Bucks

If you want to watch some of the most highly compensated athletes in the world compete, don’t waste your time trying to catch the Wizards courtside, scamming a ticket to Augusta or road-tripping it to Arlington, Texas. Compared to these gilded athletes, Mike, Tiger and A-Rod are practically indigent street-corner…

Letters to the Editor

Yeah, That’s the Ticket Lots of luck: After reading Patricia Calhoun’s “Time’s Up,” in the December 19 issue, I don’t feel so bad about recently receiving a parking ticket in Denver. A resident of Colorado Springs, I visit Denver on a fairly regular basis. Last year, a friend of mine…

Taking Stock of Change

With less than a month until the National Western Stock Show throws open its doors and pens, general manager Chuck Sylvester is still putting out fires. On this mid-December morning, for starters, he has had to pull the plug on the team-penning competitions due to a lack of paying contestants…

Inside the Gates

Heather Lamm has fond memories of her childhood home: playing hide-and-seek, hunting Easter eggs in the back yard and decorating for Christmas. She even considered getting married at the 18,231-square-foot, ten-bedroom, two-and-a-half-story house. But, like many children, Heather can never return to her nostalgic place because another family occupies it…

Pop Quiz

1. For $2.50, Denver’s Catholic faithful can now: A. Give a street urchin a coupon that’s redeemable for a free meal at a participating McDonald’s. B. Order a pin that says “Chaput for Cardinal.” C. Buy a 2.5-ounce bottle of Lourdes holy water that’s been shipped from the French shrine…

Off Limits

Using a rather paternalistic tone (he’s a former high school principal, after all), Aurora mayor Paul Tauer warned the overflow crowd to keep it civil at the Aurora City Council’s January 6 meeting. Apparently, the public had gotten a little overheated the last time the eleven-member panel discussed gentrification of…