BEST OF ORLANDO® NOMINATION BALLOT IS OPEN THROUGH MAY 6!

Apr 2-8, 2003

Apr 2-8, 2003 / Vol. 19 / No. 14

Annie up

Ah, progress. It seems whenever something new appears (the downtown Mini dealership for example), something old and treasured gets shoved aside. Such was the case with Café Annie, a neighborhood breakfast and lunch staple that occupied the corner spot on Jefferson Street and North Orange Avenue — spiffy new cars in, gyros for lunch out.…

Orlando Weekly Staff

Hot off the press in College Park

If you like pork and a pressed Cuban sandwich, you’ll find several variations on the theme at Habana Joe’s, the latest entry in a wave of new restaurants opening in the College Park area. The people who run Habana Joe’s (2912 Edgewater Drive; 407-246-0609) also own Jose’s Sandwich Shop on East Michigan Avenue, which has…

Joseph Hayes

Ties are not funny

As America’s misunderstood lesbian, Paula Poundstone chiseled away an (almost) bankable niche in the national consciousness, deadpanning in bangs and a tie to the delight of game-show and comedy-club audiences alike. Never really funny, but always kind of funny looking in a girl-who-should-have-been-a-guy way, Poundstone’s observations on middle-brow meanderings assured her audiences that their lives…

Billy Manes

Talking to your president about war

Explaining the sticky subject of war to a naïve, adorably helpless commander-in-chief is one of the most daunting tasks a concerned adult can face. Unlike the rest of us, presidents lack the life experience and highly developed value systems to comprehend the full implications of global conflict. But the following suggestions (tendered by our blue-ribbon…

Steve Schneider

Won’t you be my president?

I’ll admit it. Sitting in the back of Knowles Memorial Chapel March 28, listening to the choir do an angelic rendition of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” I felt a tear welling up. It would be a cold SOB who didn’t. This, after all, was Rollins College’s official adieu to its most famous alum, Fred…

Bob Whitby

Dear God: Please help us smite the Iraqis

You gotta hand it to the brave men and women collectively known as the House Republicans. A month after erasing the word “French” from the House cafeteria; a couple days after floating the idea of digging up the red, white and blue remains of Americans buried in the dishonorable soil of France; and less than…

Jeffrey C. Billman

Stamp of disapproval

A New York Daily News investigation revealed in March that the Postal Service has spent at least $3.6 million of stamp buyers’ money in recent years sending its Inspector General staff through a series of executive conferences that featured exercises in wrapping each other in toilet paper and aluminum foil, building sand castles in freezing…

Chuck Shepherd

Dial 911

In his first 20 days in office, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer delivered on a campaign promise by cutting the city’s remaining $15.8 million budget deficit. He delayed several projects, cut money to the arts and froze an employee-bonus program. He also agreed to get agenda information to commissioners earlier than his predecessor, and provide them…

William Dean Hinton

There’s something happening here

What do police officers, sunburns and the war in Iraq have in common? They are all spring break buzzkills, dude. Knowing soldiers wake up to gunfire and sandstorms can make a student feel silly waking up to a stranger and a hangover. When it came time for the students at the University of Central Florida…

Michael Blakley

Bling Fever

It’s Friday night on Atlantic Avenue, the main artery in Daytona Beach, and I am following five large men dressed in high heels, red wigs and white bikinis. They strut, for the sheer enjoyment of it, past thousands of black men and women in town for the Black College Reunion, the unofficial end to Daytona’s…

William Dean Hinton

For some writers, war’s a rush

War is a force that gives us Meaning By Chris Hedges (hardback, PublicAffairs; paperback publishes June 10, Anchor Books) War is brutally physical. It is the wholesale acceptance of the devastation of property, industry, life and limb by violence and might. It’s a force, all right. A force that gives us meaning, says Chris Hedges,…

Elizabeth Kiem

Cotton crown

As I sit here with my original CD of Sonic Youth’s “Daydream Nation” — tray spindles gone, case cracked and unclosable, but still slightly possessed of the patchouli smell that was so strong 15 years ago — I have to wonder what the hell’s wrong with this world. Long lauded as a watershed album for…

Jason Ferguson

Cruise control

When you’re an instrumental band, there are some sizable obstacles to overcome to warrant notoriety and critical appeal. Even if you’ve got the chops to back up the unspoken approach, you run the risk of losing people’s attention without words to convey a message. And then there’s the tendency to become so rapt in avant-garde,…

Micky Michalec

Very necessary

Lil’ Kim La Bella Mafia (Atlantic) Ms. Dynamite A Little Deeper (Interscope) In the testosterone-saturated world of hip-hop, the survival of the fittest for the female rapper is driven by what separates the girls from the women: balls. You want to stomp with the big boys, you better be fearless, feisty and willing to defy…

Felicia Pride

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