A butler opens the door of the large Sesame Street brownstone and guides me to the parlor. Big Bird is sitting on a large couch, wearing a silk smoking jacket, holding a bourbon and enjoying a drag on what appears to be an unfiltered Camel cigarette.

Boeing’s Mesa rotorcraft unit is experimenting with turning an aging Vietnam War-era helicopter into an unmanned aerial vehicle that can be controlled from the modern Apache Longbow to attack terrorist targets.

Gov’t Spending

Trainer Joe Hedrick holds a pen out. His ostrich draws back. No autographs, please. "They like shiny things," says Hedrick. But the pen doesn’t do it today.

Simply put, the Bird’s Nest was not a good fit for West-World, said Scottsdale and FBR Open officials on Friday.

November 20, 2004

CAMP DIARY

CAMP DIARY

Few topics make parents more squeamish than talking to their children about one little three-letterword: sex. A group of parents from the Kyrene Parent Network in the Kyrene Elementary and Tempe Union High school districts recently met to tackle the daunting subject.

CAMP DIARY

CAMP DIARY

Big Bird is leaving Sesame Street! That’s what he decides on the “Sesame Street” season opener. A rapping real-estate agent pitches him on migrating to a new habitat (“habitat,” the episode’s “Word on the Street”). After sizing up a beach and a swamp for his new habitat, Big Bird chooses a rain forest.

It seems an odd thing for a city to base a yearly festival around an awkward-looking flightless bird taller than most men. And if Dr. A.J. Chandler had decided to import, say, tortoises instead of ostriches back in 1914 … well, the races would be a lot slower, that’s for sure.

March 11, 2005

November 19, 2004

The Bird’s Nest — the FBR Open’s rollicking party tent — is winging its way home to the Tournament Players Club of Scottsdale after spending the past three years at WestWorld.