Life imitates Bart
My love affair with “The Simpsons” has lasted for a decade now. As longevity goes, that beats my most successful human relationship by … let’s see … carry the 2 … nine years. I make no apologies; I’m a cartoon guy living in a cartoon world. I’m not alone. Last Sunday’s Simpsons Fan Fest at…
Beyond human Kenya
Movie: I Dreamed of Africa
Try this at home
Movie: Held Up
Melodrama with a few good points
Movie: Center Stage
Scientology fiction?
Movie: Battlefield Earth
Ridiculous exercise in ‘what if?’
Movie: Deterrence
Beyond human Kenya
Movie: I Dreamed of Africa
Try this at home
Movie: Held Up
Melodrama with a few good points
Movie: Center Stage
Scientology fiction?
Movie: Battlefield Earth
Ridiculous exercise in ‘what if?’
Movie: Deterrence
Festival is all ears — and more
Zellwood corn is famed for its sweetness, but like any other variety of corn, it has a short shelf life for peak flavor. As soon as it’s picked, the natural sugars begin converting into starch. Ears of Zellwood corn stacked in the supermarket might look like they’re at the peak of ripeness. But the difference…
Minor threat
Sweet-16 pop princess Mandy Moore isn’t your average, everyday Longwood, Fla., spawn. In the past six months the blossoming singer has gone from high schooler to international superstar, breaking hearts around the world, all the while maintaining a firm grip on her own chirpy blond career. “Candy,” her debut single from her smash Epic album…
Ring bearer
In the late 1980s, Ed Turanchik made a name for himself in the Tampa Bay area: He was a radical environmentalist, a Sierra Club chairman, a guy who at one point argued that development in rural south Hillsborough County should be limited to one dwelling per 10 acres. Convinced that a government-drawn land-use plan would…
Speakeasy rider
If David Wyatt is any indication, future presidents will do most of the following: Wear a ponytail. Sport six tattoos. Drink Michelob Lite. Endorse marijuana. Write poetry. Reject corporate America. Travel around the world, twice. Wear muscle shirts to most White House functions. Smoke Marlboro Lites. Listen to Kid Rock. Build their own tombstones. And,…
This just in
Last week’s conclusion of the Florida Legislature’s 2000 term brought an end to updates of three recent articles. Topping the list is Ken Wright, a development attorney and the target of environmentalists’ ire `Wright or wrong, March 16`. Wright’s appointment to fill a lay seat on the Environmental Regulations Commission irked those who said he…
Urine trouble
Athletes of at least one Osceola County high school will have to pass a drug test if they want to play on their school’s sports teams, after the district school board acted last week to adopt a proposal that strives to hold athletes up as model citizens [High spirits?, March 2]. Board members, who voted…
Help wanted: waste manager
Some years ago, when I lived in Massachusetts, I used to watch sessions of the state House of Representatives on TV. Andrew Natsios, then a Republican legislator from the suburbs, seemed to take up more than his fair share of face time, usually ranting about misplaced spending priorities and bloated budgets. He was a conservative…
School of hard knocks
Inspired by the Brad Pitt movie, seven Brigham Young University students recently organized a Fight Club that periodically draws as many as 300 screaming spectators to watch college-age men pound each other into submission. According to an April Salt Lake Tribune report, the events differ from the movie in that boxing gloves are used and…
Pulling rank
“Unskilled and Unaware of It” is the title of a recent study by social psychologists at Cornell and the University of Illinois who tested subjects to find their skill levels in various things and then asked them how well they thought they did. Guess what? The people who did the worst thought they had done…
It’s do or die for devilish solo artist
Chad Jasmine — singer-songwriter/saxophonist/guitarist — epitomizes seduction with a jagged edge. If you want to get into his head and understand what drives this wild-eyed, 6-foot-6 alpha-macho performer with the spiked Mephistopheles goatee, don’t go alone. And be sure to take weapons, and/or his favorite book, “These Lovers Fled Away” by Howard Spring. Then maybe…
