Sometime back in 1960, a full decade before Earth Day I, a Texas-bred hausfrau rolled out of her bed in Hawaii, donned one of her trademark muumuus (which she fashioned from old shower curtains or cast-off bedspreads), parked herself in front of her typewriter and forever changed the way America…
Phoenix Councilmember Howard Adams has a thing about snakes, at least snakes in art. And when artist Luis Jimenez proposed to greet visitors arriving at Sky Harbor Airport with a gigantic image of Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent of Aztec mythology, Adams practically had a meltdown. Adams didn’t care what the…
The Arizona Legislature has been widely criticized for not getting much done this session on important issues. Lawmakers have been meeting since January, seemingly with little positive result. What, people ask, are they doing down there? The best way to follow the action at the state house is by reading…
I’d forgotten the sheer madhouse excitement of it all. At the time, it was both energizing and frightful. Governor Evan Mecham electrified the entire state as he took us on a wild, memorable ride through a firestorm of his own creation. During Mecham’s brief period on the stage, which ended…
You’re Rose Mofford, a governor who’s become bored with her job. With eight months more to serve, you’ve become detached and disinterested. Through your own listless and inept performance, you’ve turned yourself into nothing more than a public freeloader. If you do any work for your $75,000-a-year salary, there’s no…
They’re not kidding when they call it “the miracle of birth.” In addition to the obvious astonishments, it’s a miracle that any woman who’s experienced the agony once could ever suffer enough memory loss to say, “Yeah! I’d like to do that again!!!” It’s a miracle that new fathers readily…
If the guard at Desert Mountain didn’t know Bob Bacon, he wouldn’t be letting us in; he’d be calling the cops. Bacon is a sleepy-eyed, unreconstructed longhair whose curly black locks dangle halfway down the lapels of his black leather jacket. He’s not a biker, but he burned out two…
I used to love writing letters. But that was before writing became my job. Nowadays, I can’t jot down so much as a “Dear Edna” without feeling like I should be getting a paycheck for it. Even if I’m absolutely nuts about Edna. And, of course, when you don’t write…
Lobbyist Alfredo Gutierrez still winces when he remembers the dark, dark days ten years ago when the United States government tried to sabotage its own census. At least that’s how Gutierrez, then a state legislator, looked at increased raids by federal immigration agents against undocumented Hispanic workers in Phoenix. Despite…
“YOU DIRTY HOG!” Eyzie Miles slashed at Bo Bodell with a kitchen knife. “Go wash yourself before you handle me,” she flared . . . In her heart, though, Eyzie knew that Bo would come back for her. But she never dreamed that when he did return, he would find…
A sampling of sleaze from your defunct corner newsstand: Strip for Murder, by Richard S. Prather (Gold Medal, 1956) “I cupped the glass in my hand and aimed it at Garlic’s face like a small bazooka. He was just about to swing at me, so hot he’d undoubtedly forgotten where…
If you live in Phoenix and have cable, the strangest thing on your TV isn’t MTV’s game show, those wild Trinity Broadcasting people, Married . . . With Children or even the Bill Close Report. It’s not the shopping channel, Nick at Night or that Cajun guy who overdoes it…
Max Hawkins, the Svengali of Arizona politics, is certain Evan Mecham will be the next governor of Arizona. “It was like a Greek tragedy when the legislature impeached the little guy,” Hawkins says. “And now it’s going to be a Homeric victory when the voters return Evan to office. “You’re…
Sam Steiger is moving faster than anyone expected. As a result, things have changed dramatically. In the race for governor, the balance of power has shifted. Almost without anyone noticing, Steiger has emerged as a front-runner. At first there was a question whether Steiger could be taken seriously. Now that…
They are tightening the noose on Bob Barnes’ long-shot campaign to become Arizona’s governor. On Tuesday, April 17, four Republican candidates have been invited to speak to the Lincoln Caucus at the west-side campus of Arizona State University. Barnes is the only candidate who’s been told he’s not welcome to…
Self-described teenage hoodlum Leigh Adelmann says his contact last year with the Jehovah’s Witnesses “turned me around and probably saved my life.” Now, the onetime punk is mad because his Intensive Probation officer won’t let him attend the sect’s meetings. “If I were a drug addict or an alcoholic,” says…
At twenty pounds, Air Major is a small dog. He is brown and has short hair and a nice wiggly tail. He barks at strangers before he warms up to them and licks their ankles. He is allowed to sleep on the couch, and even on his owner’s bed at…
In his seventies, Maurice “Biff” Niehaus of Cincinnati found an exciting new career. He had been a lawyer, then a state senator, then a judge. Last year, he became a “news distributor” of horror stories about his old chum Charlie Keating. The law of supply and demand was at work…
I live in a state where the official bird, the cactus wren, refuses to live in half the landscape. The official tree, the paloverde, appears leafless. The official necktie, the string bola, is so goofy most wives won’t let their husbands appear in one. Of the 400 richest people in…
City Sights ‘n’ Sounds, Phoenix’s noontime nod to the muses in Patriots Square, is under siege. By Oscar the Grouch. The daily one-hour serving of live music is the only regular, cheap cultural alternative to dirty-movie houses within miles of downtown. But someone in that swarm of high-rises surrounding the…
It’s early morning. Already, the phone is ringing. Bob Barnes, the most unrelenting of the Republican candidates for governor, is calling. “I’m preparing another position paper,” Barnes says tersely. “I’ll drop copies off at both your office and home today. I consider this to be an important document, one that…
If the Guinness Book of World Records has a category for Shortest Radio Talk-Show Appearance, I’m a shoo-in to make the next edition. In my role as New Times/KTAR-AM radio film critic, I was all set to go on Michael Dixon’s midday program to chat about the previous night’s Oscar-doling…
