ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN KESWICK THEATRE SUN., APR. 25, 8 PM Tickets on sale this Sat., Feb. 27 at Noon! Woo hoo! We can still vividly recall the spring of 1984, furtively blowing bong smoke out our dorm room window while Ocean Rain blared from its semi-permanent perch on the turntable, only to be replaced by the Smith’s Meat Is Murder and REM’s Reckoning. Ah, good times — even if the jocks kept calling us ‘faggot’ because of our Ian McCulloch haircut (looking back at old pictures, we mighta brought that on ourselves, but still…).

ACCUWEATHER: The monster storm set to target the Northeast will also drop monster snow totals. The storm will unleash over a foot of snow across the mountains of northern New England and from central New York to northwestern New Jersey. All of this snow is expected to start on Thursday. The worst of the storm will rage Thursday afternoon into Friday morning. At that time, the snow will fall at a rate of 1 to 2 inches per hour where total of over 6 inches are expected. Strong winds will severely blow and drift this heavily-falling snow, making travel nearly […]

HUFFINGTON POST: Brian Westbrook was released Tuesday, ending an eight-year career with the Eagles during which he racked up nearly 6,000 rushing yards and more than 3,800 receiving yards. Naturally, ESPN sought an interview with the former All-Pro running back, and they appeared to secure one. That is until “Brian Westbrook” actually spoke on SportsCenter. The caller’s real identity is Captain Janks from the Howard Stern Show, and it took less than 30 seconds of speaking before the impostor said that he has “nothing but respect for head coach Andy Reid and I look forward to a future of worshipping […]

FRESH AIR In The Hurt Locker, Jeremy Renner plays Sgt. 1st Class William James, the leader of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit responsible for disarming improvised explosive devices (IED) in the Iraqi desert. On the film’s set, Renner spent hours a day packed inside a Kevlar bomb suit, while temperatures climbed upward of 100 degrees. For his intense, swaggering portrayal of James, Renner was nominated for an Academy Award. Renner, 39, wasn’t widely known in Hollywood before he landed the role. Kathryn Bigelow, the film’s director, has said that she chose Renner to play Will James after seeing his […]

WASHINGTON POST: PARIS — A provocative anti-smoking ad campaign featuring teens in a subservient sexual position has sparked a storm of controversy in France, with the country’s family minister calling Wednesday for the advertisements to be banned. The ad, sponsored by the Association for Nonsmokers’ Rights, features a teenage boy who could be construed to be performing oral sex on a man in a suit, except the teen has a cigarette in his mouth. A caption reads, “Smoking means being a slave to tobacco.” There are two other ads in the same vein, one featuring an adolescent girl. The leader […]

KAREN HELLER: The laptop-in-every-lap program began two years ago at Harriton and this academic year at Lower Merion. Why did the district hand out MacBooks like so many No. 2 pencils? Because it could. The schools are situated in one of America’s richest communities, where almost all family bank accounts are above average – the median household income is $112,300. The houses are exceptional, too, the median home valued at $583,900. The family poverty rate is almost squat, 2.4 percent. Among Southeastern Pennsylvania’s 64 school districts, Lower Merion is top in student expenditures, $21,663 per child in 2008-09, while the […]

WASHINGTON POST: More than eight years after the Taliban was toppled from power, the number of U.S. military fatalities in the war in Afghanistan is nearing 1,000, a grim milestone in a resurgent conflict that is claiming the lives of an increasing number of troops who had survived previous combat tours in Iraq.  As of Tuesday, 996 U.S. military personnel had died while serving in Operation Enduring Freedom. The roll call of the fallen began on Oct. 10, 2001, when Air Force Master Sgt. Evander E. Andrews was killed in a forklift accident in Qatar while building an airstrip in […]