HOW IT ALL BEGAN “I was selling portraits door-to-door, and the boss died, so I decided to go to the mall and play the clarinet. On my first day, I sat on a bench and made $60 playing one song after another. I didn’t look up at anyone. I just…
The Bused of Denver Although I enjoyed your annual Best of Denver issue as well as your domestic-violence series, I didn’t know how much I’d missed Patricia Calhoun’s columns until she came out swinging in her July 2 “You Can’t Get There From Here.” Give ’em hell, Calhoun! Send Pat…
Ken Storch and LJ Dalicandro are on a case, the case of a lifetime. They pick an isolated booth in the corner of a suburban Denny’s, light up thin cigarillos and give the restaurant the once-over before they start talking. When coffee arrives, Dalicandro whips out a buck knife to…
On the night of April 1, 22 members of the Mt. Gilead Baptist Church–twelve adults and ten kids–dropped by a Perkins restaurant in Aurora for some coffee and pie. When they asked to be seated together, the manager refused. When they offered to wait or break up into smaller groups,…
Billions and billions served: “AT&T-TCI deal could cut costs, expand services,” said the Denver Post in a headline announcing last week’s monster merger. It was a modest little prediction in keeping with the breathless coverage so far afforded the deal, which of course is the latest step toward all U.S…
Has Denver’s much-ballyhooed “pop-top” ordinance gone flat? The ordinance was passed five years ago by the city council after Washington Park residents complained bitterly about huge second-story additions to area homes that dwarfed neighboring houses and blocked sunshine. The ordinance imposed height limits on the additions–commonly known as “pop tops”–and…
New York writer Ray Jadwick had been through a lot in his journey out West. Roswell, New Mexico: He bought a pair of rattlesnake boots from a roadside Indian who kept calling him “Bro.” Tombstone, Arizona: He ran into a guy who thought he was Johnny Ringo reincarnate–the legendary foe…
If you had a nickel for every man, woman and child watching the World Cup on television, you could buy Denmark–or maybe a decent lunch for two in Paris. Astonishing but true: Around the globe, 37 billion people are currently glued to their sets as assorted South Africans, Paraguayans, Dutchmen…
Yawn Care Your (yawn) Best of Denver (yawn) issue had such (yawn) variety from the (yawn) past few years’ issues (yawn). It was really interesting (yawn) reading all about Aimee Sporer’s (yawn) hair again, and (yawn) all those neato paragraphs by you clever Westword staffers about such (yawn) really cool…
The bus stops here. During last year’s State of the City address, Wellington Webb urged the Broncos to give up on Stapleton and instead support a new stadium downtown. Even in these heady economic times, Webb warned, a Stapleton site was too darned expensive. “Where is that money coming from?”…
There’s not a cloud in the sky. If Neil Slade were just another picnicker at Mt. Falcon Park, this would be an auspicious sign. But Neil was looking forward to something cushy and cumulus. If it were floating in the sky above him right now, he’d deign to show off…
Krystal was getting ready to go to her weekly batterer class when her husband threw a glass of water in her face, called her a slut and took her car keys away from her. No wife of his was going to be counseled about domestic violence–not without a fight, anyway…
Janice didn’t know why she tried to kill the other girl. “She just pissed me off,” she told counselor Adolph Montana. So Janice had lain in wait, and when the girl approached, she stabbed her and kept stabbing her until the knife broke. Montana knew what lay at the roots…
Patricia Ann Burns had been dead less than six years when her killer was paroled from prison. Today, Clarence Burns, who walked out of a state penitentiary on April 2, 1988, is alive and living in Denver. He is 62 years old and reportedly in ill health. Alvin Lichtenstein, the…
Domestic violence doesn’t affect just the two people involved in an abusive relationship: It also hurts their children. And those children, the most vulnerable of victims, can’t afford to wait for the system to right itself. This month, Westword is donating $10,000 to Denver CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), a…
Therapist Nancy Lantz asks Gary to recite the rules for men who attend her domestic-violence treatment group. “You have to be on time,” Gary says. “No missing classes. No violence, no drugs, no firearms, no alcohol. You got to pay. And if you call your wife a bitch”–he nods at…
Eleven men sit in a circle, giving each other the feather. Three feathers, to be exact–stiff, brightly colored plumes that are passed from hand to hand, twirled and talked about. Each man says something about the person who is to receive the feather and then passes it on, until it…
Essential seating: Now that Denver Post editor Dennis Britton is back from his bus tour of the state, the out-of-focus “Snapshot of Colorado,” he’s got a clear picture of priorities. Britton recently issued a micro-managing memo (shown above) detailing a suggested seating plan for the paper’s daily page-one meetings but…
Call it the fence from hell. A Denver man has spent thousands of dollars fighting a city board’s ruling that a ten-foot-high fence between his house and garage must be lowered to eight feet. Despite receiving no objections to the 24-foot-long fence from neighbors, the city is insisting that Jay…
In his storied playing career with the Denver Nuggets, Dan Issel amassed 16,589 points and pulled down 6,630 rebounds–both club records. Now his daunting task is to score a few points with the fans. And any kind of Nuggets rebound will be welcome. As the new vice president, general manager…
Bringing a paring knife to school accidentally. Giving an elementary-school classmate a vitamin C tablet. Signing a yearbook “Have a kick-ass summer.” Distributing an “unknown substance”–organic lemon drops. From Longmont to Colorado Springs, schools, neighborhoods, police and prosecutors are cracking down on juvenile crime. And as the dragnet is cast,…
Domestic Abyss Westword has provided a very valuable public service with its June 11 report on domestic violence, “Hitting Them Where They Live.” But you didn’t stop there: The domestic-violence stories were also good (if depressing) reading, told with the usual Westword flair. Congratulations are in order to all involved…
