Florida is not a state with a great literary tradition. The Southern lit writers — Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, Eudora Welty — mostly gave it a pass. Playwright Andrew Rosendorf’s Cane is an attempt to redress the state’s literary lack, and it does so by reaching backward for old, old…
You’ve got to admire the spunk and sanity of Bruce D. Grant, director of the Florida Office of Drug Control, appointed by Charlie Crist. He didn’t much like the insinuation, in our story published here yesterday, that the Florida government has been lazy about funding legislation that will help curb…
At 11 a.m. today, all Broward County’s schools went on lockdown due to a “credible threat” received by Pembroke Pines police. An as-yet-unidentified informant reportedly said that “something big” was going to happen at Broward government buildings, which include schools. (And one “virtual” school!) Presumably, “something big” is also “something…
There’s a stretch of Andrews Avenue near Commercial Boulevard that Fort Lauderdale tourism officials probably would rather out-of-towners skip. It’s exactly where a Knoxville TV station visited recently for a report this week titled “Aboard the Oxycontin Express” — the latest in a line of reports on South Florida’s pill…
William Brower loves the Titanic. Really, really loves it. Brower, a freelance writer who lives in Coral Springs, has written seven books and a screenplay about the star-crossed ocean liner, plus at least one syrupy prose-poem in which he misspells twilight and viciously mangles a John Masefield quote.According to identical…
First, there was Wendy Portillo, a Port. St. Lucie teacher who was censured for allowing her kindergartners to vote an autistic child out of the classroom — after each kindergartner was given an opportunity to explain to the 5-year-old why he was disliked. Like Survivor! Now comes this weird item…
Joe Angelo lost his race for the mayorship of Wilton Manors on Tuesday against incumbent Gary Reznick. His loss was due, at least in part, to a series of editorials in the Island City News by publisher Steve Kelley. The articles claimed Angelo was able to “elude prosecution” after a…
Jose Torres is a child who will be tried as an adult on a manslaughter charge for allegedly accidentally shooting his playmate in the face.Adults, as it turns out, have “playmates.”Jose, a 17-year-old Deerfield Beach teenager, shot that playmate in the face with a 9mm pistol, which was one of…
Blain and Robert Aymond, the middle-aged duck killers of Palm Beach Gardens, have taken their place in history.A judge on Tuesday declared the couple guilty of misdemeanor ducknapping after they hired a trapper last year to round up a gaggle of neighborhood ducks and ship them to a local animal…
There was a city living in the head of George Bernard Shaw. More than any playwright since, he had the ability to let his characters see the world from their own angles and report back on their views. Shaw’s plays have a particular verbal crackle, inspired by the playwright’s love…
Father Neil Doherty — whose long, sordid story was recounted in a 2008 New Times cover story — was arrested last night in Palm Beach County. Doherty is an alleged serial abuser of children who has been walking free while awaiting trial since his 2006 arrest. Police apprehended Doherty because…
Early Sunday afternoon, two citizens strolling through a park in Plantation noticed a couple of strange objects lying the grass. The objects looked like pipe bombs. And they were!The citizens, fearing that someone might be hurt, picked up the bombs and brought them to the swale in front of the…
Stick someone in a box for two and a half years and their imaginations are liable to run away with them.Take Warren Newell, the disgraced Palm Beach commissioner who was recently released from federal prison. In an interview conducted over the weekend with Laurel Sauer of WPBF 25, he hinted…
When George W. Bush reads from his memoir at the Miami Book Fair Int’l on November 14, it will not be his Floridian literary debut. So profound is George W.’s love of literature that he actually took time during his presidency to take part in a reading in Florida. The…
Charles Valerie lived a short, sad life. According to a report just issued by the Broward Sheriff’s Office, Valerie killed himself at the county jail just before 11 last night by fashioning a noose from his bed sheet and hanging himself from the ceiling. He was 33 years old.According to…
Joe Angelo, the Wilton Manors mayoral candidate, has had a tough month.Tomorrow, his campaign against popular Mayor Gary Resnick draws to a close. He has been outspent, and he has been outmaneuvered in the media.If he loses in a landslide tomorrow, one man will be more responsible than any other…
Two weeks ago, officials from the University of Florida announced that a moratorium would be placed on travel to Haiti for student projects. This was somewhat redundant: There already had been a moratorium on travel to Haiti for undergrads, because of unsafe conditions on the island resulting from the earthquake…
When critics want to attend local theater houses, it’s common for them to score a free ticket to the show. But when critic Mary Damiano contacted Rising Action Theatre for a ticket to an upcoming production of The Boys in the Band, she learned that she had been blackballed for…
Touring Florida in support of Democratic candidates last week, Bill Clinton quietly pressured senatorial candidate Kendrick Meek to drop out of the race and endorse independent candidate Charlie Crist, according to Politico.com. By throwing the race to Crist, Clinton hoped to prevent “the rise of [Marco] Rubio, who is viewed…
It is a sad day for Fort Lauderdale’s stoners.Responding to “complaints from patrons,” Broward Sheriff’s Office personnel, working in concert with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, seized 5,691 pieces of drug paraphernalia from kiosks at Fort Lauderdale’s Swap-Shop. Signs on the kiosks suggested that the paraphernalia — which included glass pipes,…
Ann Coulter is magic!With no effort, research, or due process at all, she can tell the difference between a totally bogus, bullshit threat to your bodily harm, and an honest-to-goodness portent of doom. She demonstrated this remarkable skill yesterday in Human Events, in an editorial explaining why Allen West is…
In scenic Frenchman’s Landing, they came for the ducks.The ducks were captured — probably in a standard trap that resembles a soccer goal — and brought to the Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League. And they were killed.Their probable crimes? Noise and poop.This was April 2009. Today, the Frenchman’s Landing residents…
