BEST OF ORLANDO® BALLOT IS NOW OPEN! 

May 28 – Jun 3, 2003

May 28 - Jun 3, 2003 / Vol. 19 / No. 22

Magic number

In a previous life, I spent a lot of time traveling for business, which brought me to a lot of hotel restaurants, usually alone (sniff). Being perched at a noisy, dimly lit table trying to read a book and eat affords ample time to experience the food, and let me tell you, it was usually…

Orlando Weekly Staff

Don’t spare the hot rod

A new Department of Children & Families employee was fired after being arrested on charges that he was drag racing while his 4-year-old child was in the car’s back seat. `Ricardo` Bell, hired in December, was training to become a child protective investigator. &#151 Orlando Sentinel, May 21, 2003 SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! Head on down…

Steve Schneider

For a good time, call 867-5309

What we’re going to do right here is go back … way back. Back to a time when Jessie’s Girl might or might not have been lost between the moon and New York City. A time when the Knack had an affair with a name-challenged Sharona. A time when Jenny had a phone number. 8675309-eyine…

Billy Manes

Piece keepers

Dining-room workers at the United Nations staged a wildcat strike at lunchtime on May 2, causing the building’s restaurants to be locked down, but what Time magazine called a “high-ranking U.N. official” ordered them unlocked so that staff members could eat (perhaps to pay for food on the honor system). What ensued, according to Time,…

Chuck Shepherd

Under the Rainbow … by the Carolina Moon

As Gay Days 2003 comes on strong, there’s a sense of the history building for the event now in its 13th year. There are bigger-than-ever expectations for topping last year’s turnout of 125,000 people, an all-time record. Pat Robertson be damned, rainbow flags are waving strong. Economists be damned, the money is green, and there’s…

Lindy T. Shepherd

Send in the scabs

Once upon a time, publishing a newspaper was about more than profit margins. It was a public service, a means of righting wrongs and exposing corruption. And then came the big “C” — consolidation. Newspapers are no longer their own special entity. They’re part of a chain and answer to directors and CEOs and shareholders…

Jeffrey C. Billman

Putting the moves on Cheney Elementary

It’s the last day of school, and about 30 kids and parents are celebrating in the pool of Kim LaFleur, a local activist whose son attends Cheney Elementary. The kids are swimming and jumping around in the rented Moonwalk while their parents sit on the patio eating pizza, drinking beer and trying to pry information…

Jeffrey C. Billman

A return to segregation?

In the mid 1990s, Orlando city leaders thought they had stumbled upon an idea to entice middle-class homeowners into the downtrodden, west-side Parramore neighborhood. The plan couldn’t have been more wholesome: They wanted to build a school. Somewhere between the idea and the reality, though, something went slightly off course. The school eventually opened in…

William Dean Hinton

Fairy Tales

Queens in the Kingdom: The Ultimate Gay and Lesbian Guide to the Disney Theme Parks By Jeffrey Epstein and Eddie Shapiro (Alyson Publishing) When you think of Gay Days at Disney, several trademark images come to mind — be they of loose-fitting red T-shirts over latter-year bellies or the T-shirt-less bodies of the gym-ed up,…

Billy Manes

Several-shooter theory

Though the pipe dream of our state pulling second to California in film production evaporated sometime back in the 1990s, an awful lot of Floridians keep calling “Action!” anyway. You don’t introduce a virus like cinematic creativity and not expect its effects to continue long after the source of the infection has passed on. That’s…

Steve Schneider

Extracurricular excellence

Some people take vacations only to have their escape become their permanent home. The same can be said about Seattle post-punkers Pretty Girls Make Graves, which came to life two years ago after its members decided that they wanted to escape their previous bands and tackle a new musical adventure. Well, maybe except for bassist/vocalist…

Omar Perez

Biting the hand that feeds

When De La Soul inverted hip-hop hegemony with “3 Feet High and Rising,” the hope was that the genre — which even in 1989 was suffering from the first symptoms of a stultifying sameness — would be irrevocably altered by smart rhymes and ingenious production. Unfortunately, mainstream rap only picked up one thing from the…

Jason Ferguson

Never mind the Häagen Dazs

At most restaurants, dessert is the afterthought to a great meal. At Tuttamore Café (7555 W. Sand Lake Road, 407-352-2033) the meal is really just an excuse to head for the gelato counter. Gelato, ice cream’s richer, tastier Italian cousin, is lower in fat (less than 8 percent versus ice cream’s 14-24 percent), sugar and…

Joseph Hayes

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