It’s a sad, sad day for Denver when our very own People magazine hunk is shoved aside for a new hottie. Animal Planet’s Emergency Vets is no longer filming episodes at Alameda East Veterinary Hospital, and standup comic/stand-out veterinarian Kevin Fitzgerald has been supplanted by Katrina Warren, who appears to…
Channel 4 news anchor Bill Stuart has spent a big chunk of his career competing directly against Ed Sardella, his opposite number at Channel 9 — and as Stuart concedes, his own squad’s fallen short more often than not. When asked if he feels as if Channel 9’s long-term ratings…
On a rainy Friday in late August, the Evergreen Cougars’ senior-level midget football team prepares for its final pre-season scrimmage. In eight days, the team is scheduled to open its season against the feared South Jeffco Gators, winners of last year’s coveted Carnation Bowl, and a feeling of uneasiness hangs…
A Wrinkle in Rhyme Slam on wry: About three weeks ago I attended poetry night at the Mercury Cafe. In addition to hearing the flabbergasting triteness of the many solo poets, I had the displeasure of witnessing the so-called poetry slam team that Westword featured in “Poem on the Range,”…
Jane Komperda is just learning to hear vowels and consonants in her head. She’s been paying close attention to the whisper and buzz certain letters make as they’re mouthed so that she can sound them out while reading. Until now, she’d never thought about how words beginning with the letter…
Seventeen is not a banner year for female drivers. What with talking on the cell phone, filing nails, applying mascara and lighting a smoke, who has time to pay attention to the road? As if. So when a girl of that dangerous age approaches the courtroom pedestal on her third…
1. According to preliminary July unemployment figures, which county was the leader of Colorado’s unemployment pack: A. Kit Carson. B. Huerfano. C. La Plata. D. Douglas. 2. Is nowhere safe from West Nile? While the Denver Zoo recently reported several animal fatalities, the virus also hit the zoo last year…
Members of the Denver Library Commission got an earful from Denver Public Library volunteers last week, when twenty of them showed up at a commission meeting to express their anger over the way they have been treated by library management. One former volunteer of the year, Rose Keating, was in…
Only Miss Cleo knows for sure, but John Denver’s latest reincarnation may be too saccharine even for him. The troubadour, who sang of Rocky Mountain highs and Grandma’s feather bed, inspired not only a hit posthumous musical, Almost Heaven: The Songs and Stories of John Denver (set to reappear at…
Danica Patrick sizes up her passenger through black wraparound shades and quickly lets him know who’s in charge: “All right. Buckle your belt.” One metallic click and twenty seconds later, we’re screaming down the long back straightaway of the Grand Prix of Denver road course at 110 miles an hour,…
“Life is taking things in stride,” says Jon Bowman. “And if nothing else, I think I’ve been able to do that over the years.” Talk about an understatement. Prior to his recent hiring as an on-air reporter by Channel 31, Bowman hadn’t held such a position since being handed his…
No Nudes Is Good News A site for sore eyes: Excellent job by Eric Dexheimer on “A Model Prisoner,” in the August 14 issue. It’s so nice to read an objective story on this matter, one with some real data in it. After Jim Grady was first arrested, I managed…
It’s a sticky Friday night in Katie Wirsing’s cramped Capitol Hill walkup, and “Puff the Magic Dragon” is turning into a real pain in the ass. “You’ve got to keep it silly, silly,” says Ted Vaca, sipping Sierra Nevada as he sits on a gigantic inflatable couch, absentmindedly clicking the…
Anything to do with water in Colorado has a way of creating awkward situations and odd bedfellows. Consider the typical Aurora resident who buys a lottery ticket. She’s happy that part of her dollar will be used to preserve open space and wilderness, but she probably has no idea that…
1. A newly elected member of Denver City Council asked that a certain meeting not be broadcast on the city’s public-access channel for what reason? A. Fear of profanity breaking out. B. Fear that citizens would see councilmembers eating free cinnamon rolls. C. Fear that word would leak of secret…
In these pressing financial times, it pays to be flexible. For those in touch with their inner yogi, the ability to execute a few downward facing dogs and warrior ones could translate into gainful employment — while their differently abled friends are collecting pink slips. The cities of Denver, Golden,…
It’s been a banner year for very tough guys. Rulon Gardner, the massive farm-boy grappler from Wyoming, has overcome frostbite in his big toe to wrestle again. Tyler Hamilton managed to finish fourth in the Tour de France — riding almost the entire race with a broken collarbone. And then,…
Ray Gifford, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Progress & Freedom Foundation, doesn’t keep his political sympathies a secret. The stepson of Congressman Tom Tancredo and a onetime appointee of Governor Bill Owens, for whom he served as head of the Colorado Utilities Commission, Gifford is a pro-business Republican through and…
Last Writes Innocence lost: Thank you for printing Alan Prendergast’s “The Death of Innocence” in the July 31 issue. It was very well written, very well researched, and I’m so glad I had the chance to read it. I hope your action in increasing public awareness has a positive outcome…
At 6:40 p.m. on April 5, 2002, a police task force made up of local and state law-enforcement agencies swarmed around a single-story cinderblock industrial building on South Federal Boulevard. While their actions — and cries of “Let’s go!” — were captured on film by news crews from two Denver…
In their interviews with several girls who’d worked for Jim Grady, police often seemed perplexed about what they were looking for. At times, the investigators also managed to convey — in not-so-subtle ways — that while the girls may not have felt exploited, they were. After their interviews, some models…
Although “pornography” and “obscenity” are often used interchangeably, there’s a crucial difference between the two words. The first (when it involves adults, at least) is legal; the second is not. But the vocabulary of sin can get garbled quickly when you’re talking about dirty pictures. Discussing obscenity back in 1964,…
