[Illustration by ALEX FINE] We will be liveblogging the Sestak vs. Toomey debate tonight at the Constitution Center starting at 7 PM. 7:00: A new Morning Call/Muhlenberg College Tracker poll came out late last night that has Sestak pulling ahead with a three point lead over Toomey after trailing for months. Just yesterday, the almost-always-reliable Nate Silver poured cold water on internal Dem polling that showed the race tightening. But if past elections are any indication, and of course they are, Sestak tends to rope-a-dope until the final rounds and then come out swinging. He currently enjoys a $1 million […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR On the HBO comedy Bored to Death, Jason Schwartzman plays Jonathan Ames, a struggling writer who turns to unlicensed private-detective work after flailing in both his writing and his personal life. (The character was created by real-life writer Jonathan Ames, who is also one of the show’s executive producers.) Bored to Death, which co-stars Ted Danson and Zach Galifianakis, follows Schwartzman’s character around as he tries to emulate his favorite fictional detective — Philip Marlowe. After getting the part, Schwartzman tells Terry Gross, he had very specific ideas about the ways his character should be portrayed. “Basically, I […]
SIDEWALKING: In The Belly Of The Beast
43rd Street, NYC, 8:59 AM by JEFF FUSCO
Wife Of Clarence Thomas Asks Anita Hill To Apologize
NPR: In a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction twist, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas earlier this month left a voicemail message for Anita Hill, asking Hill to apologize for her 1991 testimony accusing then Supreme Court nominee Thomas of sexual harassment. Virginia Thomas has confirmed through a spokesman that on Saturday, Oct. 9, she left a voicemail message at Hill’s Brandeis University office. News organizations, including <em>The New York Times</em> and ABC, have reported that they heard the recording, which said: “Good Morning, Anita Hill. Its Ginni Thomas. I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask […]
IDIOCRACY: Christine O’Donnell Clueless On Separation Of Church & State; Joe Miller’s Journalist-Handcuffing Private Guards Were Active Duty Military
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] ASSOCIATED PRESS: “Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?” O’Donnell asked him. When Coons responded that the First Amendment bars Congress from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, O’Donnell asked: “You’re telling me that’s in the First Amendment?” Her comments, in a debate aired on radio station WDEL, generated a buzz in the audience. “You actually audibly heard the crowd gasp,” Widener University political scientist Wesley Leckrone said after the debate, adding that it raised questions about O’Donnell’s grasp of the Constitution. Erin Daly, a Widener professor who specializes in constitutional […]
RIP: Tom Bosley, AKA ‘Mr. C’, Dead At 83
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: It’s not easy to play warm-and-cuddly and smart-and-funny, but Tom Bosley, who has died at age 83, managed to do it. As Howard Cunningham in Happy Days, Bosley was a model TV parent: patient, occasionally wise, sometimes exasperated, yet blissfully ordinary. It’s not easy making “ordinary” interesting, but Bosley managed to do that, too. Bosley died of lung cancer in his home in Palm Springs, Calif. The most modest and charming of actors, Bosley was happy on Happy Days to be part of the ensemble, working with crack timing alongside costars Marion Ross, Ron Howard, and Henry Winkler. […]
Unwitting Local Man Stars In Bogus Tiger Sex Tape
INQUIRER: A Philadelphia boxer was hired to portray Tiger Woods in a sex tape [NOT pictured, above] co-starring a self-styled “porn queen,” who is selling it as the real deal, according to the gossip site RadarOnline. The light heavyweight, Teneal Goyco, said he met Devon James and her husband in a Philadelphia nightclub at the end of July, and at their request – thinking she had this fantasy to make love to the swinging legend – he donned a Nike hat and sweater vest for scenes at a Comfort Inn as she called him “Tiger” throughout the shoot. “I was […]
Philadelphia Averages 700 Home Invasions A Year
DAILY NEWS: Home-invasion robberies, besides leading to lost possessions or physical injury, also take a psychological toll on victims and neighborhoods, experts say. And the residential robberies happen more often than you might think. There have been more than 700 in the city every year since 2005, and less than half have resulted in arrests. “When your main base of safety is taken away from you, it feels like no place is safe,” said psychologist Robin Lowey, who has worked with crime victims for 20 years. “It’s a normal reaction to abnormal circumstances.” […] According to police, intruders usually know […]
LIT: Don’t Hate James Franco Because He’s Beautiful
SALON: Envy, then, is a prime consideration in confronting Franco the Writer. It’s not enough that he should be Salon’s Sexiest Man Living of 2009. Or an artist with a solo exhibition in Tribeca. Or an extremely well-compensated and (when occasion demands) competent movie actor. Nooo, James Franco is now making a play for the New York Times Book Review and the monthly Book Sense list and the Barnes & Noble 100 and all those places where homely, unsocialized men and women once held sway. Snark is the default response but not, I am sad to say, the honest one. […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Dead Kennedys At The TLA
BY ARTHUR SHKOLNIK After a stop at South Street’s Lorenzo’s Pizza for one of their renowned mammoth slices, I walked into the TLA and almost immediately my ears perked up to the sound of 80’s hardcore bands including Bad Brains and Minor Threat blaring on the house speakers. It might have been a good idea to hit a bar beforehand, because a seven dollar cup of beer from the TLA couldn’t possibly taste anything but bitter. I put my money to better use, instead buying a Dirty Tactics CD. Philly punk trio Dirty Tactics had just recently come back from […]
WANTED MEN: In Connection With The Beatdown And Attempted Robbery Of A Sugarhouse Winner
INQUIRER: Cinnaminson police are looking for the public’s help in identifying two men suspected of trying to rob a man who won about $2,000 at Philadelphia’s SugarHouse Casino on Saturday. After a taxi dropped off the 26-year-old victim about a block from his Burlington County home at 6:30 a.m., he was struck in the head and fell to the ground, according to a police statement. The streets were dark at the time, and gusty winds apparently kept the victim from hearing his attackers sneak up behind him, according to Det. Sgt. William K. Covert. At first, the victim thought he’d […]
KHYBER PAST: Two Of David Coleman Headley’s Three Wives Tried To Warn Officials Of Mumbai Attack
PRO PUBLICA: In three interviews with federal agents, Headley’s wife said that he was an active militant in the terrorist group Lashkar-i-Taiba, had trained extensively in its Pakistani camps, and had shopped for night vision goggles and other equipment, according to officials and sources close to the case. The wife, whom ProPublica is not identifying to protect her safety, also told agents that Headley had bragged of working as a paid U.S. informant while he trained with the terrorists in Pakistan, according to a person close to the case. Federal officials say the FBI “looked into” the tip, but they […]