Scary Thoughts Self-absorption: We have governors become presidential candidates who rush to execute a person with the mind of a 6-year-old (Clinton in 92) or who cruelly mock an executed woman who had uplifted her life (George W. in 98). If the media slide over such things, can we expect…
Alka-Seltzer, Anyone? Has Howard Seftel, the restaurant critic for the Millennial Arizona Republic, lost his mind? Or is a hacker impersonating him on the Republic’s Web site, Azcentral.com? The “Ask Howard Seftel” message board has contained a couple of hilarious — or troubling, depending on your point of view –…
Argentine artist Claudia Bernardi remembers a tiny tee shirt unearthed from the exhumation site she was working at in El Salvador in 1992 — a spot that harbored the remains of 143 slaughtered children. A small, intact rib cage was hiding inside the shirt. It was so tiny that it…
Some rob you with a gun, some rob you with a fountain pen. — Woody Guthrie Greg Maruda doesn’t know who Nancy Elliston is. Nor does he realize that, in her capacity as his court-appointed financial conservator, Elliston stole more than $40,000 from him by signing her name to a…
A deep bellow and prolonged crotch sniff may not constitute a welcome from an actor with big-screen credits. But Vanilla Fudge, a Harlequin Great Dane, seems oblivious to the social etiquette associated with stardom. Still, the docile giant, who dons a white coat with splashes of black, displayed enough grace…
When Sophia Lopez-Espindola started Mothers Against Gangs in Phoenix, she wanted to stem the gang violence that had claimed her son’s life and to keep her other five children out of trouble.Last fall, when asked by New Times whether she felt she had succeeded in saving her kids from the…
Arizona State University anthropology professor Christy Turner, well-known for his thoughts on cannibalism among the Anasazi Indians, is himself mad enough to bite somebody’s head off. He was savaged in print in a scholarly journal, chewed up and spit out by other archaeologists and then denied the chance to write…
Rabid Dogs Justice denied: Well done, Michael Lacey (“Bad Dog,” June 1). Thanks for pointing out how a repugnant gang from Gilbert needed to be prosecuted as sure as any south Phoenix gang. The slap on the wrist handed down will only encourage more violence in Gilbert. How many random…
Republic to Sell Out — Again So the Millennial Arizona Republic is for sale. This is not big news to the Flash. The Republic has always been eager to be bought off. Still, the tortured scribes on Van Buren are all atwitter about the apparent impending sale. News that Central…
No one can argue with the amazing popularity of rapper Eminem. Still, his meteoric rise has been fraught with as much controversy as success. In his climb to the top of the charts, he’s managed to anger gay and women’s groups, the media, fellow musicians (‘N SYNC, Britney Spears, Christina…
Kids killing kids. Kids killing teachers. Kids killing themselves. The nation’s youthscape is a fright, all right — but there’s one person who thinks he’s got the magic bullet. That would be The Scary Guy, “America’s Only Live Comic Book Hero.” “The country’s No. 1 social disease?” asks Scary, as…
Last February, 500 fired-up Valley Latinos tried to squeeze into a legislative hearing room that typically holds no more than 200. By the time the state Senate transportation committee began debating, the crowd had spilled out of the room to the hallway, past the lobby, and outside the doors of…
In 1989, Erik Barnes bought a derelict ranch off U.S. Route 93 somewhere north of Wickenburg and south of the middle of nowhere. He’d made his fortune as a fisherman in Alaska, and he wanted to spend his winter months playing cowboy. The ranch was about 1,000 acres of private…
It was a star in empty space. A media-friendly, metaphor-inspiring ’90s hipster that was fashionably alienated, yet never lacked attention. But then (cue tragic Behind the Music soundtrack here) the Mojave Phone Booth, that isolated telecommunications anomaly and object of Web fan worship, was disconnected and carted away. In a…
Suburban Subhumans Sit, roll over, beg: The sad truth of the violence and subsequent punishment of the Devil Dogs (“Bad Dog,” Michael Lacey, June 1) is that this is all too common in suburban America. The only saving grace for the victim is knowing that there is a good chance…
Party Like It’s 1969 The weekend past brought some 800 members of the so-called “alternative media” to Phoenix for the annual convention of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. New Times was the host, and the Arizona Biltmore teemed with mostly white, increasingly hoary and paunchy denizens of what once was…
Cheri Jarvis raced to the emergency room, afraid. “When I arrived at the hospital, I did not even recognize my son. He was covered in blood and his head was swollen and his nose was everywhere on his face. He had so much blood caked on his teeth and mouth…
Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley sits at the table with his attorney, his chief of staff and a reporter. He is asked some troubling questions. Why is Stapley listing his 7,251-square-foot Arcadia residence for $2.5 million at the same time he is seeking lower property taxes by telling the Maricopa…
Joyce Thayer eases her pickup truck onto the dirt path beside the Highline Canal in south Phoenix, glances at the water near the top of the banks and shakes her head. “That’s just not running right,” she says. “It shouldn’t be that high unless something’s plugging the grate up ahead.”…
State Department of Environmental Quality director Jacqueline Schafer is apparently refusing to pursue legal action against a Yuma manufacturing plant that her staff says should be slapped with more than $2 million in fines. But that may not be surprising, considering that the owner of the plant is a major…
Like any good teacher, David Wadding wrote lesson plans, made up tests and offered seventh, eighth and ninth grade students one-on-one instruction in math and science at Dragonfleye Charter School in northwest Phoenix. Only problem, David Wadding was an eighth-grader at the school himself. Wadding says his incredible stint as…
It was a star in empty space. A media-friendly, metaphor-inspiring ’90s hipster that was fashionably alienated, yet never lacked attention. But then (cue tragic Behind the Music soundtrack here) the Mojave Phone Booth, that isolated telecommunications anomaly and object of Web fan worship, was disconnected and carted away. In a…
