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1. FORGET THE PAST They laid Ma Bell to rest in Denver last month, on the last day of the second quarter of the fiscal year. She was a sick old gal, but nobody could agree on the cause of death. Rot and parasites had been eating away at her…

In 1975, Colorado freshman congressman Tim Wirth got it into his head to seek a seat on the House Telecommunications Subcommittee. It wasn’t considered a glamorous assignment, but the young Democrat had a keen interest in the cable-television industry, an emerging force spearheaded by Denver mavericks such as Bill Daniels…

If you’re the type who gets off on the intellectual intersection between city planning, economics, public policy and artful culture — and especially if you’re a starving artist — Ginger White may be the wonkette of your dreams. Two months ago, the 31-year-old was hired by the Denver Office of…

Here Off Limits sits, in the belly of the beast, right across the street from Planned Parenthood headquarters, and not a peep from the Reverend Flip Benham and his traveling circus, Operation Save America, which launched its “Name and Shame Campaign” in Denver — “ground zero,” they call it –…

“Hey, man, do you need some weed?” a young Hispanic man with a black eye asked What’s So Funny as we strolled gingerly through Civic Center Park, not skipping, but not not skipping, on a smoldering-hot Tuesday morning. “No thanks, man,” we responded. “But do you have any suggestions on…

On July 8, confessed serial rapist Brent J. Brents, who’d received an epic 1,319-year sentence in Denver two days earlier, appeared in Arapahoe County Court to learn how many more theoretical decades he would be ordered to serve for his heinous behavior in that jurisdiction. While there, according to observers,…

Cowboy Up What’s not so funny: I don’t know who or what Adam Cayton-Holland is — meaning if he’s gay or straight — but I was highly offended by what he wrote regarding the gay rodeo in the July 14 What’s So Funny? He should have taken the mayor’s advice…

Martha Thayer’s brown curls bounce as she nods admiringly at the Primrose, an elegant-looking coffin sitting against the south wall of her classroom. “This is the same kind of casket that Karen Carpenter was buried in,” she says. “That’s sort of its claim to fame. But when I tell my…

While Congress fights over what promises to be the nation’s energy policy for the future, a University of Denver law student is fighting to make the federal government keep its energy promises of the past. Last fall, Kathleen Booth signed up for DU’s Environmental Law Clinic Partnership, a semester-long course…

Terry Graham is fighting a losing battle. Last July, the anti-immigration activist was in the audience for an immigration reform panel at North High School’s auditorium where, she claimed, another audience member assaulted her (“Trial by Wire,” March 3). The program was hosted by First Data Corp., a Greenwood Village-based…

Fame is so fleeting. Ozzie, a nine-week-old American pit bull terrier puppy, became an instant star back in May, when he puked on Channel 12’s Colorado Inside Out Live. The dog, who’d sat patiently in a vet’s lap while Peter Boyles led the one-hour discussion of Denver’s ban on pit…

It would appear that Queer Eye for the Straight Guy has led America astray. While the Fab Five would have you believe that the modern homosexual landscape is dotted with theater-going sophisticates, martini-sipping literati and devastatingly dressed couples with annual memberships at the Met — in short, people of culture…

Killer Instincts The blame game: The contrast between the message delivered by Patricia Calhoun’s “Crash Course” column last week and that of Luke Turf’s “Headed for Trouble” left me with a somewhat disturbed feeling. Calhoun’s column was remarkably sensitive given the horrible nature of the crime for which Mr. Romero…

The boys played together in a punk-rock band, Troublebound. They went to high school together at Highlands Ranch. They worked together at Einstein’s bagel shop. And when Nate Ybanez decided to murder his mother, he went to his frontman, Erik Jensen, for help. On June 5, 1998, Erik got stoned,…

The files of the Pendulum Foundation overflow with cases of people convicted of committing crimes when they were juveniles and who are now in prison for life. Many of those crimes were less gruesome, and much less cut-and-dried, than the murder of Julie Ybanez. Back in 1991, a sixteen-year-old black…

Two nearly identical Victorian-style office buildings sit in old downtown Parker, like gingerbread houses crafted from the same mold. They share a parking lot. One’s address is on Pike’s Peak Drive, the other on Pike’s Peak Court. One is dusty pink, the other is baby blue. But according to the…

While Ingrid Vachier, a 35-year-old Coloradan who’s originally from the Dominican Republic, was getting the works for ABC’s Extreme Makeover, she had no idea her husband was cutting a rug with another woman. Ingrid was in California for two months, where plastic surgery was done on her face, breasts and…

In fifth grade I submitted a poem to my school’s literary journal that, to borrow a phrase from Muhammad Ali, shook up the world. People were stunned. No one could believe that an eleven-year-old had penned such a moving poem, one that resonated with such earth-shattering profundity. My English teacher…

The late Dalton Trumbo may be the most famous person to hail from Colorado’s Western Slope. But in Grand Junction, where the award-winning novelist and screenwriter was raised, Trumbo has been persona non grata for seven decades because of Eclipse, an often stinging satire of the town and its inhabitants…

Heavy Petting It’s the pits: Kenny Be always displays a fine sense of humor, but with his “Denver Dogs: On Death Row” that ran below the June 23 Worst-Case Scenario, he displayed real fine art skills as well. This man is a true talent! (And really funny.) Liza Robbins Aurora…