EDITORIAL: So the Guild has a meeting last night at a synagogue near 400 North Broad street to discuss the new contract their negotiators fought tooth and nail for, shitty as it may be. And you know what? Out of nearly 1,000 guild members only 200 bothered to show up. Reminds of that great Mickey Rourke line from Rumblefish where someone asks him what California was like and he says something to the effect of: She’s like a beautiful girl on heroin, she’s high as a kite thinkin’ she’s on top of the world, not knowin’ she’s dyin’ even if […]
EARLY WORD: ‘You Could Feed The World With My Garbage Dump, And That Sums It Up In One Big Lump’
EVA SAYS: Few things can drag me out of bed before noon on a Saturday. An inexhaustible assemblage of some of the coolest junk Philadelphia has to offer happens to be one of them. And this weekend the Starlight Ballroom will be the mecca of cool junk. That 79? Cost of Living Clash EP? It?ll be there. Turkey-flavored vegan scrapple? No problem. Screen-printed Butt Heads? Got it. And it?ll be the kind of heartwarming event that people of all creeds can indulge in, with the hippies hovering in ?hand made? sections, the hipsters at the ?vintage only? tables, disgruntled old […]
HOT DOCUMENT: Aw Ma, Shit Sandwiches AGAIN!?!
From: Ferrick, Tom Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2006 11:45 AM To: Ferrick, Tom Subject: To Inquirer Guild members As you know, the Guild reached tentative agreement with the company last night on a new contract. To summarize: it is a shit sandwich. The full details will be discussed at tonight’s meeting. But, I know that people in this room are interested in the new language re reduction in force. The current language bases RIF’s on seniority, with some enumerated exceptions. The new language maintains seniority, but expands the enumerated exceptions to additional beats:There are 21 beats enumerated, some filled by […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
Fresh Air from WHYY The end of the year brings with it “word of the year” designations from professional societies and dictionaries. Linguist Geoff Nunberg considers some of the words that made headlines this past year, including some newsmaking racial epithets. ALSO, Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) is serving out his term after being ousted by Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse in the midterm elections. Considered to be the most liberal Republican in the Senate, Chafee is the only one to have voted against the war in Iraq. He made another notable split with the GOP when he opposed the nomination of John […]
HOLLA: J-Kenn, Straight Outta The 610, Lord Help Us
THE WOOK SPEAKS: You gotta at least give Jamie Kennedy a shout on this front — he’s easily the second best performer ever to emerge from the 19082 — a few paces behind Tina Fey and a good mile ahead of the dead heat that is the chick from the “Blair Witch Project” and the corpse of Jim Croce. Which is to say that when “Scream” was the shizzy back in ’96, J-Kenn was assuredly Upper Darby’s Great White Hope.Which explains why 10 years on, he’s put out a rap album. Actually, the tense on that should be past, as […]
SHAMEFUL: Rendell Doles Out Cushy LCB CEO Post As Golden Parachute To Retiring Harrisburg Hack
HARRISBURG – Out of a job for only two weeks, former State Sen. Joe Conti today will be named chief executive officer of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, a newly created $150,000-a-year post with the nation’s largest buyer of wine and spirits. The Rendell administration pushed the appointment of the Bucks County Republican, calling him perfect for the job. Yet the news was immediately met with outrage by the LCB chairman.”This is not transparency in public government,” said Jonathan Newman, adding that he learned of Conti’s hiring when Rendell’s office gave him a job description for the new position at […]
BREAKING: Peter Boyle Dead at 71
Dec. 13, 2006 — Peter Boyle, who gained fame playing everything from a tap-dancing monster in “Young Frankenstein” to the curmudgeonly father in the long-running TV sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond,” has died. He was 71. Boyle died Tuesday evening at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He had been suffering from multiple myeloma and heart disease, according to his publicist, Jennifer Plante. Boyle was beginning to gain notoriety playing hard-bitten, angry characters when he took the role of the hulking, lab-created monster in Mel Brooks’ 1974 horror film sendup. The movie’s defining moment came when Gene Wilder, as scientist Frederick Frankenstein, introduced his […]
PROFESSOR PLUM SAYS: Septegenarian Chadds Ford Handyman Killed Misses Peacock & Col. Mustard
A handyman who believed he was being given poisoned coffee has been charged with the four-year-old murder of an elderly Chadds Ford couple. Walter James Rosengarth, 73, will be arraigned today in the deaths of Miles Warner and Mary Chamberlin Warner, both 81, who were shot to death Dec. 10, 2002. Rosengarth is currently incarcerated at a state prison in Camp Hill on an unrelated attempted homicide charge. In July of 2003, he opened fire on two sheriff deputies who were trying to deliver an eviction notice to his Chester County home.[…] Rosengarth met the couple while riding his bike […]
OUT OF THE FRYING PAN: Philly River Docks Safely Out Of Hands Of Soft-On-Evil-Doers DUBAI PORTS, But Now At The Mercy Of The Truly Merciless, An INSURANCE COMPANY
Dubai Ports World is selling ports operations in New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia and four other U.S. cities to AIG Global Investment group. Dubai’s planned takeover of major U.S. port operations ignited a political firestorm earlier this year. Critics cited the United Arab Emirate’s history as an operational and financial base for the Nine-Eleven hijackers. The government supported the Taliban before the attacks. The company announced the deal Monday. The U.S. operations at six major U.S. seaports in New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami, Tampa and New Orleans were approximately valued at $700 million, but DP World did not disclose […]
DON’T STOP THE PRESSES: Guild And Company Reach Agreement, There Will Be No Strike, Repeat THE STRIKE HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO LACK OF INTEREST ALL AROUND, Back To Same As It Ever Was
JUST IN FROM ATTYTOOD: The Newspaper Guild and the owners of the Daily News and Inquirer reached a tentative contract agreement minutes ago, averting a newspaper strike here in Philly…assuming the contract is ratified by union members (never a slam dunk). I know nothing of the details, although I imagine Steve Volk will figure it out soon. The upshot is you still have Attytood to kick around — aren’t you glad? GUILD PDF: NO STRIKE PREVIOUSLY: A Strike Would Be ‘Mutual Suicide’ SGT BYKO REPORTS: The Guild and the PN reached a tentative agreement on all issues at 10:15 p.m. […]
On Phawker Radio: LOS CUBANOS POSTIZOS
To mark the timely death of Augusto Pinochet (could not have happened to a nicer guy) and the impending depature from this mortal coil of one Fidel Castro, we bring you this wonderful 1998 collection of ersatz bueno vista social clubbing by Marc Ribot & Los Cubanos Postizos.