They say people get the government they deserve. As state legislators vote to cut off medical care to children, that may not say much for the people of Colorado. But, taken as a group, the people who want to run Denver are a good reflection of the city they call…
By 8 a.m., the Zephyr Lounge has already been serving for an hour. The bar is dim, and the previous night’s smoke has yet to settle in the air. But the jukebox is kickin’ out Patsy Cline, and Barb Pooler (she goes by Barbie here), decked out in rhinestones and…
Héctor Muñoz is a self-described “Chicano poster boy.” Born in Mexico and raised in the United States, he spent much of his 45 years with one foot in Piedras Negras and the other in cities like Denver, where he wrestled with issues of culture, identity and belonging. “I’m an Americanized…
1. When Denver City Councilman Charlie Brown criticized colleague Kathleen MacKenzie for missing the April 21 council vote supporting U.S. troops in Iraq, he said all but one of the following: A. “Maybe doesn’t support our troops.” B. “War is not junior high.” C. “Chatting and eating cookies is fine…
With all of the fur flying over dog parks and canines pooping at Cheesman, the Spring 2003 issue of Children’s couldn’t have come at a better time. For the past two years, each edition of the Children’s Hospital magazine has included a thank-you note from a patient, and in the…
Ask typical area viewers to list the most influential figures in Denver TV, and you’ll probably wind up with a roster filled with on-air talent. In truth, general managers have the real clout. Channel 9’s Roger Ogden has assembled so strong a news organization that the comings and goings of…
Every professional athlete and Fortune 500 assistant vice president with a million or two in chump change has a home gym tucked somewhere between the gourmet kitchen and home theater. So you figure a couple of U.S. record-holders for power-lifting would have a pretty sweet set of iron, too. And…
Chairmen of the Board Snow job: On my annual ski trip to Colorado over the last several years, I have noticed a decline in civility at ski areas. I know some people may think it is unfair, but I blame the snowboarders. They take up more than their share of…
In the best of times, with grants and proceeds from art sales and events, CHAC’s annual budget exceeded $100,000. Programs hummed along, the director received a modest salary, and there was usually enough left over for an assistant or two. But during hard times, the budget fell well below $30,000,…
Twenty minutes ago, I popped a pair of tiny white pills, each containing 25 milligrams of pure ephedrine. And right about now, I’m channeling the Latter-day Saints of the Wild West. I’m kicking back frontier-style with a steaming cup of Brigham Tea, and I’m thinking to myself: Fuck coffee. This…
Former guard Duane Coleman got to go home. Embattled director Brian Gomez got a new job. And the teenage girls of Colorado’s Youthful Offender System got a change of scenery — though whether the move will help salvage the troubled program remains unclear. Personnel changes and revamping seem to be…
1. What first name placed first in the most mayoral elections in Denver? A. John. B. Charles. C. William. D. Quigg. 2. From the time Denver was incorporated until 1904, mayors served: A. Until they were driven from office by hooting, drunken crowds of miners. B. Two years. C. A…
The Vans Westminster Skatepark gets props from Skateboarding magazine in its June issue — but in a very backhanded way. The article hypes all of metro Denver’s great free parks before suggesting a visit to the pay park’s competition vert ramp and clover bowl pool, because, you know, Colorado can…
Media-friendly military specialists became a sought-after commodity months before American armed forces set foot on Iraqi soil, and once hostilities broke out, the stock of folks such as KNRC-AM analyst Andy Lightbody rose as rapidly as bombs fell. But while Lightbody frequently shared his interpretations of current events and predictions…
If some of the cowboys wanted him bucked off, they kept it under their Resistols. If there was envy, you didn’t see it. Fact is, in the hours leading up to something called “The Bud Light Million-Dollar Bounty (presented by Ford Trucks)” — aka “The Richest Eight Seconds in Sporting…
A Peña for Your Thoughts The greats of wrath: I just finished reading Patricia Calhoun’s ” The 7 Percent Solution,” in the April 17 issue. I would like to say that I respect her and her writing and that I have been a Westword fan since its birth. This is…
Breckenridge, Colorado. Population: 2,408. Percentage of population that is male: 62. Average age of residents: 29. Number of liquor licenses: 79. Number of churches: 5. In the Julius Caesar Lounge, a small, smoky bar tucked in back of a restaurant on Main Street, Maggee Mae sits on a bar stool…
The drive-thru outside the McDonald’s on Colorado Boulevard just south of Bruce Randolph Avenue is a typical fast-food express lane in every way but one: Planted next to the squawking speaker box, in the shadow of the Golden Arches, is a strange green sign. “Welcome to Our Backyard Habitat,” it…
Four Aprils ago, as investigators strung yellow crime-scene tape and boarded up bullet-riddled windows around Columbine High School, snow began to fall — a wet, heavy spring storm that masked the carnage in merciful white. But the snow couldn’t quite obscure the spontaneous memorials that were already surfacing on and…
1. Denver once manufactured its own weapons of mass destruction: plutonium triggers made at Rocky Flats. How long does it take for plutonium to lose just half of its radioactivity? A. A while. B. 24,000 years. C. 500 years, give or take. D. 100,000 years. 2. Speaking of toxic, the…
Colorado Institute of Art student Adam Diaz is a real Playboy. Last month he won the magazine’s national College Nude Photography Contest and earned a trip to the company’s Chicago headquarters, where he shot a bunny. Next week, his images of a playboy.com intern splayed on a background of gray…
The Rocky Mountain News’s Charlie Brennan has always considered himself to be lucky. So when one military spokesman predicted that a journalist would die covering the war in Iraq, he tried to keep this prophecy in perspective despite the knowledge that, as an embedded reporter with the U.S. Army’s V…
