In the May 22 Message column, Rocky Mountain News cartoonist Ed Stein (pictured) discusses his decision to end “Denver Square,” his long-running local comic strip — and while he declines to talk about specific plans for future projects, Rocky editor/publisher/president John Temple hints that they’ll likely involve animation. Turns out,…
Oh, how the worm has turned for J. David McSwane. Last year, as outlined in this More Messages column, McSwane, the editor for Colorado State University’s Rocky Mountain Collegian, wound up as a coast-to-coast whipping boy thanks to his part in the decision to publish an oversized, two-word editorial: “FUCK…
“Taco the Town,” Adam Cayton-Holland, May 15 Up and Adam I don’t care what everyone says, Adam; even if you are a pretentious asshole at times, I fucking love your column. I hate Toxic Hell almost as much as I despise the growing sect of our culture I have come…
If Christine Smith is elected president this November, she wouldn’t be the first published author in the oval office, or the first marksman, or even the first redhead. But she would be the first woman, the first Coloradan, and the first person to have written a book about the spirituality…
This past Saturday, a column appeared in the Rocky Mountain News under the headline “At ‘Westword,’ the sh— must go on.” The piece was penned by a balding man named Dave Kopel, and the two dashes in the headline weren’t referring to “show.” No, Kopel was citing our rag’s predilection…
The Rocky Mountain News’s Ed Stein is ending “Denver Square,” his long-running comic strip, on May 21, but he’s not wrapping up his career at the paper — and for that he’s grateful, particularly since editorial cartoonists in general have become an endangered species. “More and more, you’ve got managers…
Jessica Young can remember the exact moment when politics infiltrated what was until then her exclusively biological viewpoint regarding the Gunnison sage grouse. “I was out to breakfast with a lot of different guys from the Division of Wildlife,” says Young, then a visiting scholar at Western State College of…
Gathered did a group of men in a hall like this one many years ago. And with simple words like these, launched did they America’s improbable experiment in democracy, yessss. Farmers and scholars, they were; statesmen and patriots! Traveled across an ocean they did, to escape tyranny and prosecution and…
It’s not often that you can mute an Obama victory speech and still get the full weight of the message. His fine oratory, sharpened and grounded by the five-month primary season, is still his best political weapon, one that will doubtless be called upon relentlessly to smother the woeful delivery…
Plenty of authors are shy about pimping themselves — but not Chuck Palahniuk, the subject of a Q&A conducted in advance of a May 22 event at the Tattered Cover LoDo. His website is a hype spot par excellence that currently lavishes attention on his latest book, Snuff, via t-shirts…
Beginning with the 1996 publication of his provocative book Fight Club, author Chuck Palahniuk has earned a reputation for writing things that many of us wouldn’t dare think, let alone put into print – and he hasn’t lost this quality during the intervening years. In the following Q&A, held in…
Back in February 2007, after the murder of Darrent Williams had Denver on edge about gangs, Michael Asberry told Luke Turf how tough it was to get out of the gang life for this story. And Asberry knew all about gang life: He’d started the Crips here back when he…
As noted in a More Messages blog from late April, the Denver dailies interpreted recent circulation figures in different ways, with the Rocky Mountain News headlining a precipitous dropoff and the Denver Post suggesting that the numbers had actually stabilized. However, both cited robust online figures. Omniture Website Traffic Reports…
Step aside, mountain pine beetle. There’s a new, unstoppable animal taking over our fair state, and its name is the urban chicken. First the Denver Botanic Gardens held an April 26 class on raising chickens in the city, even though no one seemed certain whether the chickens were even allowed…
Pass the lutefisk! Do those Minnesotans know how to party, or what? Last week, Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty signed a bill that will let local municipalities push back closing time from 2 a.m. until 4 a.m. at bars across the seven-county Twin Cities area — but just from August 31…
In Chicago they’re forking over four bucks a gallon for basic unleaded. The going price at the chain stores around town today ranges from $3.68 to $3.78. But the Bradley at 50th and Federal is holding the line at $3.59. Today, anyway. Get it while the getting is good, junkies,…
View larger image Rhode Island Total Number of Delegates: 33 Pledged: 21 Unpledged: 12 How to Recognize a Rhode Island Delegate: Rhode Islanders are the third-thinnest of all U.S. residents, which is a miracle, considering that there is a Dunkin’ Donuts shop on every corner in the state. It’s because…
No doubt many area fans of Stephenie Meyer (pictured) were thrilled to discover that the young-adult author would be appearing at East High School Auditorium on Monday, May 19, to talk about her latest book, The Host. I know my fifteen-year-old twin daughters were. But whereas virtually all book-oriented appearances…
Most folks who aren’t part of the print-journalism industry don’t understand why a newspaper would publish a correction for an item in that same day’s issue. After all, why apologize for an error instead of simply fixing it? However, newspapers pre-print certain non-breaking-news-oriented sections of oversized editions, like those that…
I began going to movies in 1967, when my parents took me to see Disney’s oh-so-faithful adaptation of The Jungle Book (I’m sure Rudyard Kipling would have loved the voice work of Phil Harris, who portrayed Baloo the bear as a perpetually dazed hippie/slacker). And while I’ve always loved the…
If Chris Matthews has to ask someone “Why are you screaming?” then you know something interesting must be going on. And that it was, on Hardball this week. Conservative Los Angeles political commentator (and occasional talking head on CNN and CourtTV) Kevin James was on to address President Bush’s recent…
It was almost two years ago that the parents of Jennifer Marcum posted a billboard by Shotgun Willie’s, offering a $20,000 reward for anyone who could tell them the whereabouts of their daughter, who’d been working as a stripper at Shotgun Willie’s before she disappeared. The last her parents knew,…
