Smoke and mirrors
Florida tobacco settlement lawyers got the last laugh. Rejected a month ago for the 25 percent fee they had negotiated ($2.8 billion of the original $11.3 billion deal), which a court called “unconscionable,” they went to a three-mediator panel, which was to assess Big Tobacco for the fees and not taxpayers. Result: $3.43 billion, split…
Miso soup for the soul
Winter Park’s Millennium restaurant seemed a perfect choice for the “Geisha Glam” party Bruce Marshall had elected to throw last Saturday night. It was Nippon atmosphere he was after, so why not capitalize on the existing ambience of a venue that had already reinvented itself as a Japanese steakhouse of the August moon? I wonder,…
Strange and excellent adventure
Movie: Gadjo Dilo
Tale of corruption tests limits of temptation
Movie: A Simple Plan
Cool calculation
Movie: Jack Frost
Make it so-so
Movie: Star Trek: Insurrection
Freaks like us
Movie: Pecker
Strange and excellent adventure
Movie: Gadjo Dilo
Tale of corruption tests limits of temptation
Movie: A Simple Plan
Cool calculation
Movie: Jack Frost
Make it so-so
Movie: Star Trek: Insurrection
Freaks like us
Movie: Pecker
Not-so-flaky protests
Arriving quicker than a flash, like Robin Hood on fast-forward, they’ve struck again: the Biotic Baking Brigade! The BBB is a movement that actually moves — a network of political pranksters who literally practice in-your-face politics. They target assorted greedheads, hitting them right in the smacker … with pies! As “Agent Apple” of the BBB…
The craft of seclusion
Eighty-six-year-old John Gerdes lives alone in his Orlando home. It is a cocooned environment, with drapes pulled closed and windows tightly sealed. He’s affable, so long as the conversation remains centered on the craft of his art; otherwise he seems the quintessential loner. Hanging throughout his home are his “inlaid paintings”; each one is made…
The train that couldn’t
The Fun Train’s former owners, who claim $5 million in assets and $22.7 million in liabilities, don’t have any records of what their defunct companies owe to whom. After the parent company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Oct. 6, but before it filed its schedules of assets and liabilities on Nov. 13, the computer…
Subtle ‘encouragement’
Workers at “The Happiest Place in the World” were told last week to vote “yes” and smile for a labor contract they have twice rejected, lest Walt Disney World’s overseers stick them with something worse. The raises offered — 30 cents an hour for starting employees, which would bring them to $6.25 — could be…
Sunshine law’s eclipse?
Two bills filed in the state House aim to curtail the state’s public-records law. HB 43, filed by Rep. Lindsay Harrington (R-Punta Gorda), would close all public access to identifying information on motor-vehicle records while allowing private investigators, rental-car companies, insurance companies and others exempted under the state Driver Protection and Privacy Act to keep…
A cool deal, going once, going twice
Zellwin Farms General Manager Glenn Rogers knows well this vegetable precooler, a quartet of 10-foot diameter, 50-foot long steel vacuum tubes, plus assorted condensers and pumps. Rogers bought the precooler’s last tube just five years ago and oversaw its installation under the metal roof here at Zellwin Farms, on the north side of Jones Avenue…
Burning desires
Entrepreneurs in Wisconsin and South Korea have recently introduced products to encourage cremation as an alternative to burial (in Korea mainly because land for burial is scarce). Two Wisconsin women sell pendants and blown-glass sculptures to display ashes in a more attractive setting than in urns. A South Korean man found a way to treat…
Box-set bonanza
There’s nothing quite like a CD box set to thrill the heart of even the most jaded music junkie on Christmas, or any other special occasion during the holiday season. Rip open the packaging, and find such previously unissued goodies as the B-sides, alternate takes and demo recordings heard on Bruce Springsteen’s “Tracks.” Or, as…
If you can’t beat ’em, eat ’em
Having thrown away the best years of my life right here in Orlando, I can say, as can many of you, that I’ve slaughtered enough bugs to qualify as the insect Grim Reaper, black evening dress and all. Like Commander McBragg, I could tell droning war stories all day long about being buzzed by flying…
Victorian-era decor adds life to Dickens
Each year when we arrive at the days at the end of the calendar, our thoughts turn to death. After all, this is the time of year when media of all sizes and stripes roll out their tributes to notables who have passed away in the preceding 12 months — the Johnny Cashes and Barry…
Quintet thrashes past setbacks
Finger Eleven’s fast-rising debut recording, ‘Tip,” is the album that almost never was. The disc, which mixes the Toronto guitar-rock quintet’s frenetic six-string thrashing with moody textures, was released by Mercury Canada in August 1997. But label restructuring resulted in a tragically short life for the initial incarnation of the CD. “It didn’t get a…
Newfangled version offers updated vision of terror
Movie: Psycho
Natural high
Pizza without beer? Lasagna without wine? It’s unthinkable according to Anthony Marku’s standards, but then he’s a native of Italy and the owner of Thornton Park’s newest restaurant, Anthony’s Pizza Cafe. Marku feels so strongly about the pairings that he’s prepared to start giving away beer and wine at his establishment – and he may…
Newfangled version offers updated vision of terror
Movie: Psycho
‘Tis the season for chi-chi lunches
Maison & Jardin is such a sought-after, chi-chi dinner destination that it doesn’t do lunch, except during the holidays, when more customers want to celebrate in a rarefied atmosphere. Through Dec. 23 only, it’s open for lunch from 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. daily. This is the one time of year when you can lunch on the…
