Odd Man In

Mike Miles has been getting used to posing for photos, talking into microphones and even kissing babies. Now state Democratic Party leaders are starting to get used to Mike Miles. And they’d better: Miles is perhaps their last best hope to beat incumbent U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campell in the…

Pop Quiz

1. Ted, United Airlines’ low-cost sibling, is set for takeoff next month from Denver International Airport. What can’t you find now on its cutesy Web site? A. Electronic refrigerator magnets of states that Ted will be flying to. B. A digital coloring book. C. A list of famous Teds, searchable…

The Message

The images that recently upset Fort Collins Mayor Ray Martinez and University of Northern Colorado professor Junius Peake aren’t exactly sophisticated. A sketch of Martinez rendered by cartoonist Nathan Thrailkill and first published December 11 in the Rocky Mountain Bullhorn, a Fort Collins weekly, is simple and rough-edged, while a…

Taking a Shot

In the beginning, Rashiem Jefferson couldn’t get any fights. There were no other seventy-pound fourteen-year-olds in North Philadelphia willing to put on boxing gloves and rumble, so Rashiem would fill his pocket with the fight-gym tokens they gave him at school and go down to Joe Frazier’s and hit the…

Letters to the Editor

Quit Monkeying Around Wally world: I find it interesting that in Patricia Calhoun’s “The Apes of Wrath” piece in the January 15 issue, she wrote that she had never before visited a Wal-Mart. That seems hard to believe! I always find it interesting that people condemn every Wal-Mart that is…

Visa — It’s Everywhere You Want to Be

A large world map hangs above Gale Frierson’s twin bed in his Capitol Hill apartment. Red-pin flags stick out of almost every country, marking the 67-year-old retiree’s extensive travels. A year ago, he and Amarzaya Toodoi would often stare into the map, sounding out the names and tracing the route…

All Wet

In any other burg, the decision over which fancy-label bottled water to sell at the local opera house would cause scarcely a ripple of comment. But this is Aspen, Bub, where no official action is too small for parsing by folks who think globally, snipe locally. Town leaders in the…

Pop Quiz

1. Before playing at the Pepsi Center on January 8 — his first game in Denver since he was charged with sexual assault last summer in Eagle County — Kobe Bryant said: A. “I can’t comment, but if I could, I’d ask fans to forgive me.” B. “My expectations are…

Follow That Story

City librarian Rick Ashton is still pushing Denver to establish an independent library district funded by property taxes — but don’t look for it to show up on the ballot this coming November. For almost a year, Ashton has been floating the idea of establishing a library district in Denver…

Off Limits

The Denver City Council was a real three-ring circus Monday night, when a public hearing had been slated for fifteen-year-old Heather Herman’s initiative to ban the use of exotic animals for entertainment, particularly by circuses such as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. Before the real public comment could begin,…

The Bite Stuff

This holiday season, many of you no doubt basked in the shared warmth of the same comforting customs that people have enjoyed for centuries during this festive and peaceful time of year: Sipping a warm glass of port, wearing your fanciest clothes, spending quality time with your friends and favorite…

The Message

At any given time, untold thousands of folks are trying to get into journalism — and quite a few are looking for a way out. The turnover rate among members of the media may not be as high as that of, say, fast-food employees (probably because reporters usually don’t have…

Letters to the Editor

Are You Cracked? I’ll connect you now: David Holthouse’s “Call Me,” in the January 1 issue, was a fun read. I really, really liked it. It gave context to the agitated junkie who always seems to be screaming into thin air via the pay phone at 11th Avenue and Grant…

Man of the Hose

It can be difficult to find pantyhose that fit properly when you’re a 6’2″, 220-pound hunk with lumberjack legs and large, flat feet. This is a problem that Bill has learned to live with — just one of the many sacrifices a girl-in-training must make for beauty. “Sometimes I’ll use…

Cross-Dress for Success

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, the show that transforms sloth-like macho men into burgeoning metrosexuals, received the seal of approval from American television audiences this year. But the male makeover is hardly a new phenomenon: Christopher Gradford, a cosmetologist, drag queen and owner of Studio Lites, has been beautifying…

On Deck

In the summer of 2002, three punks from East High School and their Brickyard skate crew (BYC) gained sudden and unexpected notoriety. At the Tony Hawk Skate Park Tour, BYC member Alex Calvert sneaked the crew’s banner into a prominent spot on the stage, hanging it among the high-dollar-sponsor advertisements…

Pop Quiz

1. During last year’s State of the State address, Governor Owens asked the Divine Being to bless all but which of these? A. You. B. Colorado. C. Ken Salazar. D. America. 2. Cribbing from an op-ed piece he wrote in 1990 for the Rocky Mountain News, Owens said this in…

Follow That Story

When we last checked in on Rick Stanley (Hall of Shame, December 25), the former Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate was doing time in Adams County Jail after being sentenced to ninety days following his conviction for openly wearing a .357 revolver at a Thornton community event in violation of…

Off Limits

Now that the holiday parties are over, it’s time to get on with the serious business of the new year — picking the designer disease of 2004. After 9/11, anthrax was the disease of choice for late 2001 and early 2002, as fashionistas across the country integrated gas masks into…

The Message

Disc jockey and filmmaker Raechel Donahue is standing behind a bank of buttons, faders, computer screens and assorted doohickeys at the Mountain, Denver’s latest classic-rock purveyor, when the studio door swings open and five visitors pour inside. Leading the pack is Sire, the host of the Mountain’s weekly reggae program,…

High Hopes

They aren’t hanging any championship banners over Chopper Circle just yet. But Denver Nuggets fans are taking the brown paper bags off their heads in record numbers, and their families have cut back on those worried phone calls to the shrink. Hope, hoops and hooplah have returned to lift high…

Letters to the Editor

Meow Nix Dumb and dumber: While I don’t condone violence against cute animals, I also do not condone the predictable letters to the editor written by dumb animals. I thought your December 25 Year in Review cover was shocking in a completely innocent manner. My young daughter enjoyed the shot…