They don’t call sunny skies “chamber of commerce weather” for nothing; the last thing any of these membership organizations wants is clouds on the horizon. That’s why officials at the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce were taken aback last week when they were criticized for their portrayal of pioneer businessman…
“Did you see that?” In a blur of movements from measuring cup to rolling pin to cast-iron griddle, Charlotte Saenz mixes, rolls, toasts and then presents the perfect homemade tortilla to her Aurora cooking class. “You make it look so easy.” “Do you cater?” “What about the aluminum tortilla press…
“I don’t think there’s any real TV sports journalism in this market any longer,” says veteran Denver broadcaster Les Shapiro. “It’s been thrown out the window. The TV stations don’t care about it anymore, and evidently, the current anchors don’t either, because they don’t work it very hard.” Harsh words…
Time was, sports and recreation were something you did in your off-hours. Sure, there was always the company softball team. But at least you could choose who was on the squad. No geeks allowed — and that guy in sales and marketing who showers once every pay period? Forget it…
Garden Party Things that go bumpkin in the night: As a native of LaSalle, another dusty little town on the way from Denver to Greeley, I appreciated Robin Chotzinoff’s “The Plot Thickens,” her February 8 article on Garden City and its infamous history. During my adolescent years in the area,…
In the late 1800s, what is now lower downtown was the heart and groin of Denver, a rowdy, rollicking locus that served as a jumping-off point for folks hell-bent on gold and riches. The neighborhood teemed with saloons, gambling halls and bawdy houses, and it seemed that cardsharps, ladies of…
Ali Pahlavi certainly isn’t the first hustler to find his way to Denver. He isn’t even the first person to pose as a member of one royal family or another, although in this sports-crazy town, cops are more familiar with men who pretend they’re a member of the Denver Broncos…
The smell of feedlot hung in the air as I drove up Route 85 from Brighton, and a sign reading “Welcome to Garden City” flashed by. Whatever sort of place Garden City was, I drove through it in less than a minute and right on into the heart of Greeley…
For weeks now, Mike Cerbo has been Mayor Wellington Webb’s worst nightmare. Cerbo, the secretary-treasurer of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 14, has campaigned relentlessly against Denver’s $64 million subsidy of a Hyatt hotel planned for a parking lot across 14th Street from the Colorado Convention Center. The $217…
Peter Reshetniak respects wildlife. Dale Todd respects life. Neither man feels he is getting much respect from the state legislature, however, since lawmakers are well on their way to approving a bill that would not only make it harder for groups to qualify for specialty license plates but could also…
Every February, Rocky Mountain Wa Shonaji invites a well-known quilter to give a lecture in Denver. This year, the group (whose name means “people who sew” in Swahili) selected Raymond Dobard, a respected quilter and art-history professor from Howard University in Washington, D.C. Two years ago, Dobard, who gave his…
Oh, the heartbreak! For all these years, we thought we’d been buying Girl Scout cookies in support of the organization’s efforts to build character in young girls and help them do good deeds (and because we have no self-control when it comes to Tagalongs). But as it turns out, our…
Linda Chavez lost her chance to serve as George W. Bush’s Labor Secretary when the news broke that she’d once sheltered an illegal alien. But, since she dropped out of the running for the position on January 9, the onetime Denver resident has been cashing in — or trying to,…
Given the exalted circumstances of today’s professional athletes and the inadequate appreciation most of them show for their good fortune, it’s always nice to find the rare individual who does the job without complaint, keeps his mouth shut and demands no special treatment…save for the occasional raw carrot. No thoroughbred…
Sheep Thrills Like lambs to the slaughter: I can’t tell you how much my circle of friends and I enjoyed Stuart Steers’s “Meaner Pastures,” in the February 1 issue. I have never met the Peroulis family, I know nothing about them, and I don’t hear anybody defending them in Moffat…
Last May, a sick and injured Peruvian sheepherder showed up on the doorstep of a rancher near Meeker. The herder, Remigio Inga Damian, had spent several days walking from the remote backcountry pasture where he’d been tending a herd of 1,000 sheep. Exhausted and feverish, he’d hidden in an abandoned…
The Black American West Museum and Heritage Center won’t be open during Black History Month. The venerable institution has been forced to close its doors for all of February, and possibly longer, because it doesn’t have enough money to continue operating. “That’s very, very unfortunate,” says museum boardmember Ottawa Harris…
Twelve weeks into the school year, Joy Kay got the surprise of her teaching career. A parent who had come to her biology classroom at Thomas Jefferson High School to pick up her child’s progress report wondered why her kid had gotten a B at the six-week grading period and…
For once, the City of Denver and local Freedom From Religion Foundation activist/attorney Bob Tiernan are on the same page — if not the same chapter and verse. Tiernan, who has battled the city and other government agencies over separation of church and state matters, won his recent fight to…
Not too long ago, a customer walked into Martín Ramirez’s botánica complaining that he couldn’t have sex. And he’d tried, the man explained. A lot. So Martín asked him for a personal object, and the man handed over a watch. Martín rubbed the trinket in his hands, closed his eyes…
At first glance, the Denver Post’s January 14 introduction of columnist Tina Griego seemed benign — but wrapped inside it was a needle aimed straight at the Rocky Mountain News, the Post’s joint-operating-agreement buddy. Specifically, the item announced that Griego’s work will appear on the editorial page in Saturday papers…
Want to make your high-powered colleagues down at the club think you’ve lost your competitive edge and corporate marbles? Try out this pitch the next time you run into a couple of venture capitalists while sweating over your “friendly” game of lunchtime squash: “Boys, I’ve been an athlete all my…
