Articles by Bob Whitby

Truth to power: Remembering tenacious radio talk show host George Crossley

9/16/2010 | By Bob Whitby

In July 2008, George Crossley buttonholed me in the outside smoking area at Club Firestone. I’d invited him to the annual Best of Orlando party, as I’d done every year since we’d met in 2002, and as u...[MORE]

Slug

Slug | 4/14/2010 | By Bob Whitby

So now we come to the final installment of this very, very occasional news column, which hasn’t seen print since November 2008, right after the election. Not continuing this thing on a (more) regular ...[MORE]

Florida Film Festival:Making faces: The 19th-annual Florida Film Festival unveils cinema’s variety of looks and voices

4/7/2010 | By Justin Strout, Rob Boylan, Trevor Fraser, William Goss, Billy Manes, Steve Schneider, Lindy T. Shepherd, Bob Whitby, Jessica Bryce Young

Florida Film Festival 2010 April 9 – April 18 at Enzian Theater, Regal Winter Park Village 20 and Plaza Cinema Café 407-629-1088 www.floridafilmfestival.com $10 (individual scr...[MORE]

Happytown

Happytown | 3/31/2010 | By Jim Gaines, Billy Manes, Justin Strout, Bob Whitby

The region’s political climate went up in smoke last week in a manner not seen since the heyday of the Clinton ‘90s. At issue were a series of “No Name Club” gatherings of local powerbrokers of the ma...[MORE]

Happytown

Happytown | 3/24/2010 | By Jim Gaines, Billy Manes, Bob Whitby

What’s more dangerous to the 3,000 quickly aging orphans tied up in Florida’s adoption web: Bubba’s unlocked guns or same-sex couples with disposable incomes? That’s the question that had a surprise a...[MORE]

Happytown

Happytown | 2/24/2010 | By Jim Gaines, Billy Manes, Bob Whitby

So this is the way the booby crumbles. Late last year, we told you about alleged lady-loving Winter Park undercover officer Carlos Calderon’s wild nights of reckless abandon at breast-shaped Club Har...[MORE]

Happytown

Happytown | 2/17/2010 | By Jim Gaines, Billy Manes, Bob Whitby

Tired of fishing shows based on the well-worn premise of some fat Southern bubba in a bass boat tossing lures into the water and reeling in lunker after lunker? Seriously, who isn’t? Orlando ...[MORE]

Happytown

Happytown | 2/3/2010 | By Billy Manes, Bob Whitby

Oh, that wacky Brian Feldman. He eats, and calls it art. He jumps, and calls it art. He reads this paper, and calls it art. (He’s dead-on about that one, BTW.) There’s so much “art” in Orlando wi...[MORE]

Happytown

Happytown | 1/27/2010 | By Jim Gaines, Billy Manes, Lindy T. Shepherd, Bob Whitby

The 37th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision to legalize abortion in this country did not pass without notice in Orlando. First up, on the pro-choice side of the ring, was the Jan. 21 event...[MORE]

Happytown

Happytown | 1/20/2010 | By Billy Manes, Lindy T. Shepherd, Bob Whitby

With every DUI infraction comes a heap of regret. Whether it’s the booze-filled gibberish of your just-two-beers-officer story or the realization that a sequined miniskirt wasn’t the best fashio...[MORE]

Happytown

Happytown | 1/13/2010 | By Jim Gaines, Billy Manes, Bob Whitby

You know what? Gun laws are way too restrictive in this state. After all, the right to bear arms is in the Ten Commandments, isn’t it? That’s why some local Republicans in the Florida House a...[MORE]

Happytown

Happytown | 1/6/2010 | By Billy Manes, Bob Whitby

So, if you were a grumpy attorney general with terminally equine facial features and you were running for governor of this great state despite a charisma deficiency, what would you do when ...[MORE]

HAPPYTOWN: HAPPYTOWN

12/30/2009 | By Billy Manes, Bob Whitby

End of the year? Check. Short attention span? Hi! How are you? Well then, it must be time once again for Happytown™’s Year in Review in 425 words or less! And what a crappy year 2009 was. In no...[MORE]

Happytown

Happytown | 12/17/2009 | By Jim Gaines, Billy Manes, Lindy T. Shepherd, Bob Whitby

We’re getting commuter rail! Soon, you’ll be able to get there from here and back again and stuff. A pretty slight representation of the state Senate voted during their special session Dec...[MORE]

Holiday Guide 2009: Animal service officer

11/18/2009 | By Bob Whitby

When there are only 27 people in the entire county who do your job, and your job is to protect animals all over the county 24/7, it’s inevitable that you are going to work a few holidays. So when L...[MORE]

Holiday Guide 2009: Holiday Hours: Meet the folks who work Christmas so you can be safe, fed, entertained and drunk

11/18/2009 | By Trevor Fraser, Billy Manes, Lindy T. Shepherd, Justin Strout, Bob Whitby, Jessica Bryce Young (Photos by Jason Greene)

Holiday Guide 2009 With the exception of the lonely and those in serious need of cash, no one wants to work Christmas. You’re supposed to be at home with the family tearing into pre...[MORE]

Happytown

Happytown | 11/18/2009 | By Billy Manes, Bob Whitby

“I guess Mr. Harris must have taken the week off,” were the prophetic (and chipper!) words of Mayor Buddy Dyer at the end of the Nov. 2 Orlando city council meeting upon noticing the absence of ...[MORE]

Happytown

Happytown | 11/11/2009 | By Bob Whitby

Didn’t get enough crazy last summer with tea-partiers shouting angry slogans at anything and everything they could shake a fist at? Well, voter, now you have an alternative. You can be an officia...[MORE]

Happytown

Happytown | 11/4/2009 | By Billy Manes, Bob Whitby

While it might have been more hilarious had it included a tiny black tuft of lip hair, last week’s half-assed Hitler-as-Charlie-Crist YouTube parody did succeed in drawing some national attenti...[MORE]

Happytown

Happytown | 10/28/2009 | By Billy Manes, Bob Whitby

Last week we copped a feel on the Winter Park Police Department’s unhealthy obsession with the silicone bust of Club Harem (see “The booby trap,” Oct. 22). For eight months in 2008, undercover v...[MORE]

Sanaa

Restaurant review: by Bob Whitby | 11/18/2009

‘Eighty percent of everything you see here is authentic,” says Charlie, our greeter for the evening at Sanaa, the newest dining option at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge. “Sanaa” is the Swahili...[MORE]

Caffe Ritazza

Restaurant review: by Bob Whitby | 4/12/2007

On your first visit to Caffe Ritazza — now open in downtown Orlando in the SunTrust building — you may be confused. Relax. What at first seems needlessly complex is actually a well-sorted system to ...[MORE]

DVD review: by Bob Whitby | 2/1/2007

Ewan McGregor may have loosed a lot of bad acting on the world, but he’s a big fan of motorcycles and motorcycling, so we must forgive him his sins. He rode a bike around the world for 2004’s Long Way...[MORE]

The Capital Grille

Restaurant review: by Bob Whitby | 5/18/2006

When dining out, do you like to be greeted three times, by name, before you are seated? Do you like to have someone refold your napkin every time you get up to use the bathroom? Speaking of the bath...[MORE]

Caribbean Queen Cuisine

Restaurant review: by Bob Whitby | 8/12/2004

Foodwise, our corner of the state is a lot more diverse than meets the eye. You could dine at Applebee's every night for a fortnight and never eat at the same restaurant twice, true, but if you ventur...[MORE]

Raglan Road Irish Pub

Restaurant review: by Bob Whitby | 3/16/2006

I've always considered Irish food to be similar to British food in the sense that it's something you eat because you're already at the pub, have had a few pints and don't feel like driving somewhere ...[MORE]

Captain and the Cowboy

Restaurant review: by Bob Whitby | 2/2/2006

If your trip to Captain and the Cowboy originates in Orlando, expect to spend mile after mile crawling north on U.S. Highway 441 through some of the worst scenery Central Florida has to offer: strip ...[MORE]

Fish on Fire

Restaurant review: by Bob Whitby | 11/4/2004

Judging by the crowd on a recent Friday night, someone in charge at the new south Orlando Fish on Fire restaurant is paying close attention to marketing studies; though barely a month old, the place w...[MORE]

Lead Film Review review: by Bob Whitby | 4/29/2004

Wedged into the corner of the Edgewood Isle mall, which itself is wedged into the south tip of the island of land where north- and south-bound Orange Avenue diverge, is Whammies, an unassuming eatery ...[MORE]

Truth & Lies

Recording review: by Bob Whitby | 11/17/2005

Trial lawyer by day, folksinger/songwriter by night. You're excused if you see that as combination tha bodes for some bad music. But Orlando artist Doug Spears must really be chafing in the courtroom ...[MORE]

The Sea and the Rhythm

Recording review: by Bob Whitby | 10/2/2003

If you liked last year's "The Creek Drank the Cradle," you'll like "The Sea and the Rhythm," a five-song batch of acoustic brooding from the same recording session in Sam Beam's Miami bedroom. In a wo...[MORE]

The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions: Deluxe Edition

Recording review: by Bob Whitby | 4/17/2003

"The Red Rooster" is track nine on disc one. Listen to it first, because it's the key to this re-issue. On it, Howlin' Wolf schools Eric Clapton on how to play the blues. As in, "No man, do it this wa...[MORE]

The Essential Willie Nelson

Recording review: by Bob Whitby | 4/10/2003

What's left to say about Willie Nelson? First-class singer/songwriter, country-music innovator, stoner-cowboy Buddha, the guy on whose bus you'd most like to ride. It's all been said before, and it's ...[MORE]

Origami Sushi

Restaurant review: by Bob Whitby | 2/12/2004

The wilds of east Orlando, almost to the edge of civilization where Colonial Drive intersects Alafaya Trail, is not an area that immediately springs to mind for those on the hunt for good sushi; burge...[MORE]

Juliana's Restaurant & Bar

Restaurant review: by Bob Whitby | 12/2/2004

There I was, set for a big paella feed. I had the scene all laid out in my head: We'd sit down at a round table, because round tables are inherently more jovial. The round table would be covered with ...[MORE]

Recording review: by Bob Whitby | 10/2/2003

If you liked last year's "The Creek Drank the Cradle," you'll like "The Sea and the Rhythm," a five-song batch of acoustic brooding from the same recording session in Sam Beam's Miami bedroom. In a wo...[MORE]

Omaha Steakhouse

Restaurant review: by Bob Whitby | 5/20/2004

Take a peek at the "Steaks" heading in Orlando Weekly's 2004 edition of BITE, and you'll see that this town is up to here in steakhouses. From Linda's La Cantina, to Kres (you say steakhouse, they say...[MORE]

Recording review: by Bob Whitby | 4/17/2003

"The Red Rooster" is track nine on disc one. Listen to it first, because it's the key to this re-issue. On it, Howlin' Wolf schools Eric Clapton on how to play the blues. As in, "No man, do it this wa...[MORE]

Recording review: by Bob Whitby | 4/10/2003

What's left to say about Willie Nelson? First-class singer/songwriter, country-music innovator, stoner-cowboy Buddha, the guy on whose bus you'd most like to ride. It's all been said before, and it's ...[MORE]

903 Mills Market

Restaurant review: by Bob Whitby | 3/25/2004

If you've ever lived south of the East-West Expressway, in the vicinity of Lake Davis, you probably remember El Rincon, a beer-in-a-bag kind of market at the corner of Mills Avenue and Gore Street. If...[MORE]