ACT ONE. (It is 9 p.m. in a living room that would look like a toy store if toy stores had no shelves and the merchandise didn’t come in boxes. Visible in the clutter are a large, bearded man and a small, unbearded boy. The man looks at his watch…
File it under trickle-down benefit: Among the many aftereffects of the Encanto Park renovation is a cleaner lagoon. Observers say the fish who live there like it better. The recent renovation of the city’s most parklike park, which occurred over a period of almost two years and at a cost…
Nobody likes to admit it, but the much-ballyhooed zoning agreements intended to forestall battles between neighborhoods and developers are riddled with loopholes that can leave residents out of luck. And probably no one knows that better than Phoenix Councilwoman Linda Nadolski, who’s pushing a bill in the state legislature that…
he state Superfund was the undisputed crown jewel of the 1986 Arizona Environmental Quality Act (EQA), a visionary scheme to clean up polluted groundwater that won warm endorsement from legislators and lobbyists, environmentalists and industrialists alike. At last, it seemed, the state had a fast and effective way to attack…
While the state’s high-tech elite occupied center stage with their supercollider capers last year, there was not a word said about a luscious, and much more accessible, little toxic-waste research plum being dangled by federal officials. Arizona’s academic and political leaders spared no expense or publicity stunt in pursuit of…
I used to relax by listening to the radio talk shows. That was before they started taking themselves seriously. I’m still an avid listener. But I’m no longer able to relax while doing so. There was a time when stately, plump Pat McMahon was content to interview the west side’s…
It’s more than an hour before the Cubs’ exhibition game gets underway. The seats behind home plate are already filled. Al Barlik, with the short haircut and the severe expression of a retired police captain, sits straight-shouldered in the ninth row. He is a supervisor of umpires for the National…
Some believe Mayor Terry Goddard lost his backbone during his education at Harvard. Others believe a spinalectomy was performed on Goddard during the many years the silver-spooned bicyclist spent unemployed. Yet a third camp claims the problem is genetic, pointing to the mayor’s dad, woolly Sam, the eccentric state chair…
It recently has come to my attention that you people are not sending me any pictures of yourselves in swimming suits. Two weeks ago I announced my desire to have a swimsuit column of my own, featuring pictures of real people (like you) and not snooty fashion models (like the…
It’s not often you can pinpoint exactly where a generally terrific movie goes dead wrong–but that’s no hard chore while watching New York Stories, a three-part anthology of unrelated minifilms directed by Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, and Francis Coppola. This unusual project derails after Scorsese’s vignette and gets back on…
Writer-director John Milius seems to have a lot of important thoughts he’d like to impart with his new action-adventure film, Farewell to the King–but the only message you’re likely to get is, You Can’t Avoid History. That observation floats to the top of this murky mess only because it’s repeated…
WHETHER INDIVIDUAL ARIZONA cities can compete against Dixie municipalities backed by state money promises to be a pivotal question in the spring training wars. Should Arizona fork over state money to pay for new practice fields, clubhouses or stadiums? It’s a question that already has split Mofford’s task force. The…
For all the Normal Guys of the world who are forced by the circumstance of their employment to have a paging device clipped to their belt–and who hate every minute of being eternally tethered to responsibility–there now comes a unit that might actually be fun to wear. Called the Sports…
Earl Platt leans his old body on his battered pickup and points to the mountains beyond his sprawling ranch in eastern Arizona. It’s way out there, he says, where the Zunis say they have to pray. “Those Indians say it’s important that they cross my land,” Platt starts. “It’s important…
Investment bankers who specialize in handling government bond debt stand to make huge fees if the $8.5 billion ValTrans project is approved by voters later this month. So it’s no surprise that a gaggle of investment houses are pouring money into the campaign. But one company, bond giant Rauscher Pierce…
In 1923, circus czar and Florida land owner Charles Ringling decided a major league baseball team should do its spring training in Sarasota. With the help of Al Lang, the entrepreneurial mayor of St. Petersburg, he lured the New York Giants to the Grapefruit League from San Antonio. When the…
The Republic and Gazette’s latest attempt to check the Mesa Tribune’s growing influence in the sprawling East Valley hit the front lawns of subscribers February 27. But talk of a suburban newspaper war between the Trib and the monolithic downtown dailies already has given way to quiet snickering. You’ve heard…
The residents of Sun City and Sun City West just want some equity. But not too much. To hear state Representative Nancy Wessel tell it, the huge retirement communities are being treated unfairly because state lawmakers last year began requiring them to help support public schools. The residents figured they…
In 1923, circus czar and Florida land owner Charles Ringling decided a major league baseball team should do its spring training in Sarasota. With the help of Al Lang, the entrepreneurial mayor of St. Petersburg, he lured the New York Giants to the Grapefruit League from San Antonio. When the…
Wherever you go during spring training they talk about the great Ted Williams. In my dream, I was still in high school. Our football practice field was at Macombs Dam Park in the Bronx. It was across the street from Yankee Stadium. Suddenly, Ted Williams showed up. Williams was wearing…
I blame Ronald Reagan for many things, but most of all I blame him for his polyp. I remember his polyp almost as clearly as I remember his face. And during the polyp’s heyday, I saw nearly as many likenesses of it: It stared out at me, puffy and pink,…
The young television producer was hesitant. He stood on the top step of the dugout. He looked down to where Jimmy Piersall was sitting. “Jimmy, could you spare a couple of minutes?” the producer asked. “We’d like to get your thoughts on the Strawberry incident?” Although the Chicago Cubs were…
