INGRATITUDE: NOLA Mayor Literally Trashes Philly

PHILADELPHIA — New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin criticized the cleanliness of Philadelphia after a visit to the city last week. “Let me tell you something. You ought to go to Philly and you will appreciate how clean New Orleans is,” Nagin said Saturday to a crowd of New Orleans residents concerned about the city’s recovery from Hurricane Katrina. “Just go and walk around Philly a little bit and you will appreciate,” Nagin said. ” … We still have some work to do but we definitely beat them by a long shot.” Nagin struck a different tone when he was in […]

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AMUSE BOUCHE*: Wavy Gravy

BY AMY Z. QUINN This past week, Mrs. Quinn Version 1.0, aka my husband’s mother, was in for a visit. This is not a bad thing, as she lives in New York and we don’t get to see her very often and usually on holidays, and well, time with Grandma is an important thing for a little boy. And for me, time with MQ1.0 is valuable on many levels. I like — no, make that love — my mother-in-law, and why not? She’s smart, genuinely funny, adores my son, tells awesome Years Ago stories and has embraced me like a […]

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AUTHOR, AUTHOR: Q&A W/ GARY SHTEYNGART

[Illustration by ALEX FINE] BY MAVIS LINNEMANN BOOK CRITIC Gary Shteyngart’s second novel, Absurdistan, is a biting comical ride in the adventures of Misha Vainberg, the 325 lb. son of the 1,239th richest man in Russia. After attending Accidental College, USA, and living in the South Bronx with his hot Latina girlfriend, Misha must return to Russia to see his father. When his father kills an Oklahoma businessman, Misha can no longer obtain a visa from the INS. Misha’s love for New York and multiculturalism take him to the little-known country of Absurdistan, were he’s supposed to get a Belgian […]

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LIVE REVIEW: TV ON THE RADIO, Troc, Last Night

EVA SAYS: Overall, the show was relatively mediocre. And this is coming from someone who’s a pretty big TV On The Radio fan. In general, I really dig the whole Fela Kuti + The Roots + The Killers thing they’ve got going on. To me, they’re the epitome of what integrated urban culture sounds like. It’s not white and it’s not black and it’s not rock and it’s not rap. And it’s not exactly electro or world music either, though it does combine all of those things. Early on, it seemed like they were off to a good start. Lead […]

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We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It

LONE STARS: Norah Jones & M. Ward, Tower Theater, Last Night BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER Judging by Friday’s night’s performance at the Tower, every drop of the gallons of ink spilled extolling the virtues of Norah Jones is justified. She is a poised and classy young lady with a Natalie Portman-esque bearing, blessed with enormous talent and a voice that is wise and soulful beyond her relatively tender years. And it will be our pleasure to hear her grow into that voice in the coming years. However, a Grammy-winner like Jones doesn’t need the Inquirer’s megaphone to alert […]

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‘ROSA PARKS Of GIRARD COLLEGE’ Dead At 83

BY GAYLE RONAN SIMS INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Marie Hicks [pictured, below], who in 1965-66 led thousands of pickets, including the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., around the wall that stood between two of her sons and entry into Girard College because they were black, died Thursday of complications of Parkinson’s disease at Willow Terrace in Germantown. She was 83 and lived in Germantown. The 10-foot wall and what it symbolized at Girard College inspired one of the most dramatic civil rights confrontations in Philadelphia history. The journey to Girard began in 1965, when Mrs. Hicks wanted two of her […]

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KILLADELPHIA: Gunfight Erupts Outside Anti-Violence Meeting — With Cops In Attendance

Philadelphia police at a community meeting Wednesday evening on Germantown Avenue, suddenly found themselves on the scene of a shootout just outside the building in Nicetown. It was just after 6:30 when shots rang out outside the meeting hall. Some attendees fell to the floor. But Captain John McCloskey and officer Vince Laspina rushed outside, virtually into the middle of the gun battle on a busy Germantown Avenue: “Bullets that hit close to a car that was parked near where I was at. You could hear one of the bullets kind of like ‘ping’ off the wall where we were […]

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SHOOTING THE MESSENGER: DN Offers Dueling Mea Culpas & Self-Serving Justifications For Cho Cover

“We’d also like to think [NBC] had a profound reason to give this murderer just what he wanted, some sick moment of glory after his death. He knew he’d get it. He knew how our world of 24-hour news works. Could any news organization resist such temptation? The answer was on your TV and computer screens. And on the front page of yesterday’s Daily News. The photo of the man pointing his gun in the reader’s face was meant by the killer to elicit fear, and the depraved hope that those who saw it would have to contemplate what it […]

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