By Julie Gregory(Bantam, 256 pages) On the surface, things seemed perfect, as these sorts of “wish you here” family postcard portraits do: A ’70s family fooled by its own appearances of stability. But the world of Julie Gregory, author of the painfully funny yet steamrollingly tragic memoir, “Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy…

Billy Manes

Dude, Where’s My Country?

By Michael Moore(Warner Books, 259 pages) Michael Moore’s new book, “Dude, Where’s My Country?,” shouts it from the rooftops: Moore wants a regime change — in the United States. The message is delivered before the book is opened, as the cover depicts Moore single-handedly yanking down a Saddam-esque statue of President Bush. Throughout “Dude,” Moore…

Keith Finley

What we want for Christmas

Let’s cut the pretense, shall we? Christmas “gift guides” are nothing more than a thinly veiled excuse for newspapers to suck up to advertisers in an attempt to rake in a few more bucks during the holiday season. There’s always a conceit: the “hot” gift guide, the “practical” gift guide, the “what-to-buy-your-jerkwad-boss” gift guide, the…

Staff writers

Space Wars: Apocalypse Soon?

October was a busy month for two U.S. Lieutenant Generals, and they weren’t even in Iraq. Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin hit the headlines when it was discovered that he had been visiting fundamentalist Christian churches across the country delivering speeches sprinkled with anti-Muslim bigotry. Dressed in full military regalia, Lt. Gen. Boykin equated the…

Bill Berkowitz

Will Bush bring back the draft?

When I was a kid, standing around the post office waiting for my mom to buy stamps, I entertained myself by flipping through the “wanted” notices clipped to the bulletin board. I was impressed by the fact that most of the people who’d done bad things didn’t look all that evil in their mug shots.…

Ted Rall

789 Deli rolls out another round

The cult of roll-up sandwiches has rolled into downtown with the opening of 789 Deli (501 N. Magnolia Ave., 407-650-1789). Unlike its numerical compatriots 1-6-8 and 459, the closest 789 comes to Chinese is their homemade black beans and rice. The menu is loaded with rolled, subbed or marble-breaded treats such as Italian (ham, salami,…

Joseph Hayes

Thinking about it? Try these 20 titles first.

“Basically, we try to pick things we think would sell,” laughs Andy McKaie. McKaie’s job is to decide which titles get rolled out into SACD and, now, DVD-Audio. “It’s basically an upper demographic thing, people who would be prone to buy something that’s a little more expensive and are more audiophile-oriented.” Though that’s just one…

Jason Ferguson

Perfect sound (for now)

The 20-year run that compact discs have had in the U.S. market is a respectable one. The 45 rpm record was introduced in 1949 and held on strong until the mid-’80s. Stereo LPs came along in 1958 and ruled the marketplace until, well, CDs debuted in the spring of 1983. In that first year, more…

Jason Ferguson

No one’s leaving

Reunion albums are typically the last place to look for musical surprises. Usually, they’re nothing more than a hollow piece of product on which to hang a nostalgic — and lucrative — road trip. Thus, when Jane’s Addiction re-emerged this July with “Strays,” some 13 years after their landmark “Ritual de lo Habitual” album was…

Jason Ferguson

Hot for teacher

In August, residents learned that the county librarian in Concrete, Wash., offered her spare-time services as the S&M dominatrix Lady Jane Grey in nearby Bellingham. Despite her credentials and passion as a librarian, her contract was not renewed in November. Also in August, Shannon Williams, 37, a teacher for the Berkeley, Calif., Unified School District,…

Chuck Shepherd

Purple rain and lost love in the mini-apple

This was supposed to be easy. The always laughable mass of culture that is Mike Tyson was set to lisp something about how much he loves children — and, perhaps how much he shouldn’t like facial tattoos — at a Thursday Toys for Tots benefit. Only, Tyson never showed, and I ended up drinking to…

Billy Manes

Of mice and men

On Nov. 30, 2003, Roy E. Disney resigned from the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company. He enumerated the reasons for his departure in an accusatory open letter to Chairman Michael Eisner, the contents of which were swiftly repeated in the media. Five days later, Eisner received another resignation letter from elsewhere in…

Steve Schneider

Dec 10-16, 2003

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