Kenny Be’s Yard Arteology: Caught in the act

The study of neighbors through their lawn ornaments… Figure 6. Hale: (Am)Bushed While there is no university program in place to earn a degree as a Yard Arteologist, the training can take years. It would almost be fair to say that the coursework is only available at the School of…

MediaNews Group tops Newsosaur’s Default-O-Matic roster

Veteran journalist and executive Alan D. Mutter’s Reflections of a Newsosaur blog has become a popular destination for media members and observers hoping to get a better handle on the troubles being experienced by the industry. He’s been a thoughtful and credible chronicler of the business as a whole, with…

The Denver Zoo asks: I can haz Valentinez Dey card?

Cute cats rule the Internet, as documented in the February 10 Salon.com article “The Internet Is Made of Kittens.” And in the hierarchy of kitty-cuteness-overload, the LOLCATS reign supreme, mostly because the combination of furry adorableness and cheeky spelling mistakes is enough to turn the world’s manliest carnivore — nay,…

Top ten songs that should be renamed after Barack Obama

The campaign by several Boulder High School students to rename their facility after President Barack Obama was dropped yesterday due to a lack of support, but not before inspiring our satirical blog “Ten More Things That Should Be Named After Barack Obama Other Than Boulder High School.” Frankly, though, our…

Boulder Daily Camera to begin charging for electronic edition

Pundits eager to come up with ideas to rescue the foundering newspaper industry have lately been touting a back-to-the-future concept: charging for online content. Most prominent among this group is Walter Isaacson, who made “micropayments” a cornerstone of his recent Time magazine cover story, “How to Save Your Newspaper.” Meanwhile,…

The Westword.com blog shortcut, February 12 edition

Welcome. Make yourself at home. Today in Cafe Society: • Arugula’s big night in Boulder. • Our Weekly Bread: Mendelson’s Greenwich Village. • Veggie Girl: Il Vicino. • The Sandwich Solution. Today in Backbeat Online: • An evening with Yes tonight at the Paramount is a no-go. • A time-lapse…

Five reasons to take in the Boulder International Film Festival

For details on this week’s Boulder International Film Festival, go to bouldertheater.com, and check westword.com/slideshow next week for photos from the event. Our Boulder International Film Festival top five: 1. Be less poor. If you’re like everyone else in America — broke — Recession Proof Friday is your night. For…

Stimulate me: Local panhandlers launch their own bailout appeal

Not so long ago, downtown panhandlers merely had to proclaim their misfortunes — disabled, homeless, stranded, just got out of the hospital or the military, pregnant, or any combination of same — in order to secure that every little bit that helps, God Bless. Like Scott, pictured here, working 18th…

Birthday Q&A with Abraham Lincoln — or as close as we could get

February is to Abraham Lincoln impersonators what July is to ice cream men, Sunday is to preachers and 2 a.m. is to phone-sex operators. Busy. And Littleton’s John Voehl is no exception. He started the month by helping Governor Bill Ritter kick off Colorado’s Lincoln Bicentennial Celebration on February 2…

Does the Denver Newspaper Agency want double the previously announced cuts?

The Rocky Mountain News typically steers clear of anonymous sources. In a February 2008 column about accusations of lewd conduct by state rep Michael Garcia (read about them in the Message column “A Denver Daily Wouldn’t Touch Michael Garcia”), editor/publisher/president John Temple quoted his paper’s policy on this issue, which…

Channel 9’s Susie Wargin responds to her biggest critic

The November 2008 blog “9News’s Susie Wargin gets blistered — by my daughter” features a rant by Lora Roberts, age fifteen, directed at the aforementioned Ms. Wargin; she became the object of Lora’s ire after Lora tuned in to Channel 9 to see highlights of a Denver Nuggets victory and…

Gilbert Sam Roberts, 1935-2009

Palisade, Colorado, resident Gilbert Sam Roberts, age 73 — my father — died at 3:30 p.m. yesterday at St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction. Those are the facts. But like any straight-forward recitation of basic data, they tell only a sliver of the story — and in this forum, I…

A boisterous game of PlayStation leads to arrest

At about midnight on December 2, Sean Duffy and his girlfriend, Molly Knudson, were playing MVP Baseball on their PlayStation 2. As on most nights, they sat on the couch in the carpeted living room of their neat Aurora apartment, ripping on each other. “When I play Home Run Derby,…

Jell-O wrestling is a firing offense at the South Pole

Jell-O wrestling isn’t all that unusual. A staple of biker bars and fraternity parties everywhere, it typically involves wiggling, jiggling and giggling. But at the bottom of the world, on the McMurdo ice station, Jell-O wrestling recently became a firing offense — at least for one employee of Centennial-based Raytheon…