There was plenty of incentive for the Rocky Mountain News to soft-pedal the decision of its parent company, E.W. Scripps, to put the tabloid up for sale on the cusp of its 150th anniversary. But to the paper’s credit, editors put the story front and center. As seen here, the…
Ho-ho-holy crap, it’s that time of year again. The North American Aerospace Defense Command has gone live with its weird, kid-friendly NORAD Tracks Santa website, offering its Santa-centric obsession in seven languages. Among goofy local holiday traditions, I’ve never quite understood this one. NORAD gets some cutesy publicity, I suppose,…
Denver’s spent decades trying to convince the rest of the country that everyone in this town doesn’t walk around singing the tunes created by John Denver, a man who a) wasn’t born in Denver (he hailed from Indiana) and b) wasn’t born John Denver (his birth name was Henry Deutschendorf)…
One of the few things worth laughing about among reporters and editors following yesterday’s announcement that E.W. Scripps has put the Rocky Mountain News up for sale was columnist Mike Littwin’s newsroom reenactment of a famous scene from Animal House — John Belushi’s “It’s not over!” speech. (“Was it over…
Now is a great time to enter the banking industry, wouldn’t you say? As our economy collapses, some unlucky schmuck still has to make cold calls from the vacant desks at the newly merged WaMu Chase Wachovias of America, asking customers to entrust their savings to the corporate titans who…
Nothing to do? Allow us to help you fill your time. Today in Cafe Society: • A brief (100 year) history of Sixth Avenue — including a stop at Little India (pictured). • Oodles of noodles are coming to town. • Cheer! We’re not number three in binge-drinking. • Prices,…
Jason Bosch, sole dynamo behind the weekly ArgusFest human-rights film series, originally planned to screen the Errol Morris documentary Standard Operating Procedure, a stark look at the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, tonight at the Mercury Cafe. But he changed his mind when he decided to also host the fest’s annual Fair Trade Holiday…
Don’t worry, doomed Rocky Mountain Newsers! When you start your blog, we’ll link to it! We do it every day! Send your links to joe.tone@westword.com!Here’s a story/Of a man named Clady/Who was holding up the Broncos’ offense on his own. (Mile High Report)Sure, we voted Democratic. But is Colorado really…
In the hours since the development spotlighted in today’s blog “Rocky Mountain News Put Up For Sale” first broke, I’ve had the chance to speak with numerous staffers at the paper. The majority chose to talk on background, and with only a couple of exceptions, they had similar reactions to…
Click here or on the cartoon thumbnail to see a larger image; it’ll take a few seconds. Good Morning America is turning the holiday spotlight on Denver! The Mile High City, along with Atlanta and Kansas City have each been chosen to decorate a window and transform the studio into…
It’s the sort of headline most media observers in this area have been anticipating for quite some time, but it’s still a shock to see it in print: “Rocky Mountain News For Sale.” The article, published moments ago on the Rocky’s website, quotes from a press release in which Rich…
A report that suggests an aroma for CSU perfume — the topic of today’s blog “Colorado State University Smells Like… Deer and Locker Rooms?” — wasn’t only the unusual mention of this state we’re in on National Public Radio yesterday. An unexpected local reference popped up in “Mumbai Attacks Offer…
Yesterday, National Public Radio aired a story about Masik Collegiate Fragrances of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which is developing a line of scents that are supposed to capture the essences of specific universities. Thus far, the firm has only come up with fragrances for Penn State and the University of North Carolina…
In yesterday’s blog “Were Photos of Grieving Mom in the Post and Rocky intrusive — or great journalism?,” I wrote about the ethics behind the Post’s decision to run the image of a mother at the instant she learned her son had been killed by an Aurora police officer on…
What is it with me and red lights lately? In the November 17 blog “No Justification for Denver Police Ticket Trap Near DCPA on Saturday Night,” I wrote about a traffic ticket set-up at the intersection of Glenarm and Colfax, where three traffic officers lined up to snare people who…
As noted in this morning’s blog “Wake-Up Call: Mr. Salazar goes to Washington?,” Colorado Representative John Salazar has confirmed that he’s in the running to become Secretary of Agriculture in the administration of president-elect Barack Obama. This news likely came as a surprise to readers of the Rocky Mountain News…
Saw this sticker on the back of a truck the other day and couldn’t help thinking how quickly its message has dated. Not the oral sex part, of course: That’s timeless — although I suspect that people of all political persuasions would be disturbed by thoughts of an intern giving…
I recently Netflixed Apocalypse Now Redux, the extended version of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 masterpiece, and had the following thoughts: One, all he added were wet dreams that the studio probably found too racy — the crew hooking up with USO girls, Martin Sheen taking down some smoking French broad;…
Thirteen children whose families had been brought to the attention of child protection workers still died as the result of abuse or neglect in Colorado in late 2007 and early 2008, prompting Governor Bill Ritter to establish the Child Welfare Action Committee last April. “One child’s death is too many,”…
Nothing warms the heart around the holidays like the vision of laughing children playing in the snow, drinking hot chocolate, sending wish lists to Santa Claus or Chanukah Charlie, and wiping their boogery noses with their grody little hands and then touching everything in sight. But it doesn’t have to…
Sharles Johnson was on the phone with his mother when the doorbell rang at his home in Bolingbrook, Illinois. It was a Tuesday afternoon, and the stay-at-home dad was tending to his four youngest kids while the other two were finishing the school day and their mother was working at…
“Name Game,” Off Limits, November 27 Horse With No Name “Mustang” is so ugly that the only possible nickname would be a play on Bucky, the name of the far more appropriate horse that stands above Invesco Field at Mile High. And that name would be: “Sucky.” Joe Manning Denver…
