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May 1-7, 2002

May 1-7, 2002 / Vol. 18 / No. 18

Filling empty bowls across the nation

We love the concept of dining out. Other people cook, serve and even clean up afterward. Now imagine adding social consciousness to that delightful experience, which is the goal of Taste of the Nation, a culinary event shared by 70 cities across the United States and Canada that aids organizations working to end hunger and…

Joseph Hayes

For those who get their juices flowing

Ah, the gym. The smell of sweat, the sound of weights being flung to the ground, and the taste of kiwi, banana and pineapple. The combination makes sense if you’re visiting the “café” at the Ozone Athletic Club (133 East Robinson St.). Call them extreme smoothies or shakes for the gym crowd, but the concoctions…

Joseph Hayes

Televised reality

A drama queen I’m not. Nonetheless, here I am, squished into a drama-class corner in the old Fred Stone Theater at Rollins College, surrounded by frosted heads and shoulder straps. Think “Fame” mixed in with the “Facts of Life” tax bracket, and you’ll know my pain. Talk of Pilates and toenail polish titters in the…

Billy Manes

Moving accounts

Trent Tomengo is a conventional-looking 34-year-old who likes to shake up convention. If conventional wisdom stereotypes artists as bohemians who sloth around in paint-splattered T-shirts and grungy denim, Tomengo shatters the image. An artist who will receive his master’s degree in fine arts this month from the University of South Florida, Tomengo often spends his…

Patricia Madden

The beasts and burden

Elvira doesn’t like men. The 16-year-old black leopard eyes me carefully as she marks her turf along the walls of her studio-apartment-sized cage. Next door is Saber, an 18-year-old Bengal Tiger that doesn’t like women. But he apparently likes men: As I turn away, I hear Saber grunting. “You know what he’s doing?” asks Christin…

Jeffrey C. Billman

Death row: 100 innocent inmates

Last week, Ray Milton Krone — pegged for the 1991 stabbing death of a Phoenix waitress — was finally let off death row. New DNA evidence proved that Krone had not committed the crime. After three years on death row and 10 years in prison, he became the 100th innocent death-row inmate to be exonerated…

Gabrielle Banks

Class distinctions

My high school reunion is this weekend, and I’m debating whether to attend. It’s not that I don’t see the value in such an event. After all, I went to Winter Park High School, which was stuffed with rich kids. Writers are notoriously good at affixing themselves to money sources like barnacles on the hull…

Liz Langley

Breaking the silence

As a parish priest, whenever Father Steve Rosczewski wanted to celebrate Mass for the gay and lesbian members of Dignity in Central Florida, he had to walk a straight and narrow line. The 30-year-old organization for homosexual Catholics, which has 80 chapters nationwide, is officially non grata to the Roman Catholic Church. Dignity’s very presence…

William A. Sievert

The cost of courtesy

Can you really put a price tag on being polite? Lee Cockrell, executive vice president for park operations at Walt Disney World, thinks so. On April 12 he issued a memo in which he told WDW cast members they are under no obligation to be nice to the customers when they’re off the company clock.…

Jim Hill

Concerned for his honor

At press time, the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board was still considering what to do about Pittsburgh Common Pleas Judge H. Patrick McFalls Jr., based on recent alleged incidents: creating a disturbance at an airport ticket counter (while visiting Charlotte, N.C., late December); “giving” his $60,000 car to a young man and not remembering it so…

Chuck Shepherd

For the love of funny

There’s so much good feeling emanating from the stage whenever the SAK Comedy Lab players go to work that it’s easy to assume they haven’t a care in the world. Performers this enthusiastic — nay, giddy — must come to work with pockets full of Godiva-chocolate coupons and spend their off-hours having group sexual congress…

Steve Schneider

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