KILLADELPHIA: It’s Always Gunny In Philadelphia

DAILY NEWS: Pennsylvania residents who are denied a license to carry a concealed weapon, or have theirs revoked, have found a loophole that allows them to get a license from another state that must be honored here. “They could be disapproved here and they could apply in Florida and we are not notified,” said Philadelphia Police Lt. Lisa King, commander of the Gun Permit Unit. “So if we are not giving them a permit to carry, how is Florida allowed to override our decision?” District Attorney Seth Williams said that the loophole defeats local efforts to keep streets safe. Police […]

Norristown Shelves Plans To Become Hollywood East

INQUIRER: Perhaps those visions of Hollywood glitz for humble Norristown were unduly rosy, like most showbiz dreams. For now, the hyped plan to revive the hard-bitten Montgomery County seat with one of the largest movie studios on the East Coast is off the table, replaced by the more pragmatic construction of office space for a janitorial concern and a Pathmark. The latter, aimed at completion early next year, would be the municipality’s first new full-service supermarket in a generation. It won’t be the glamorous, California-esque 100,000 square feet of studio space talked up in 2007 as a magnet for feature […]

WING BOWL: It’s Like Jersey Shore On Ice

    BY FELICIA PERRETTI They call him Kid Knish. I call him dad. On January 28th 2000, he was a wing-eating competitor in Wing Bowl VIII. He was always the outgoing, fun one in the family and this event was just another chapter in his otherwise ordinary surburban dad life in Roslyn. My dad was never the strict parent; he always knew how to have a good time. The first time he went to the Wing Bowl, he was just a spectator. This would be 1999, and back then it was at the Spectrum and it was free to […]

WARNING: Something Wicked This Way Comes

[photo by MOOCAT] WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 4 PM FRIDAY TO 7 PM EST SATURDAY UPDATE: “Accumulations have the potential to reach 2 feet in some areas.” The highest numbers apply mostly from Virginia to through far-southern Jersey, but “Over a foot of snow from Philly to DC,” reads a headline at AccuWeather.com. Meteorologist Tom Kines not only confirmed by phone that the city could get 16 inches of light powdery stuff, but said more is even possible. “Even a 50 mile shift to the north could bring 18 to 24 inches into downtown Philly,” he said. This […]

PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies

BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]

TOXICOLOGY: Jay Reatard Killed By ‘Cocaine Toxicity’

Jay Reatard, self-portrait, December 9, 2009 via TWITTER NEW YORK TIMES: A medical examiner said that cocaine and alcohol had contributed to the death of Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr., the punk rock musician better known as Jay Reatard, The Commercial Appeal of Memphis reported. After an autopsy Dr. Karen E. Chancellor, the medical examiner of Shelby County, Tenn., told The Commercial Appeal that Mr. Lindsey, above, had died from “cocaine toxicity, and that alcohol was a contributing factor in his death.” MORE PREVIOUSLY ON PHAWKER: Just heard back from a trusted and informed source on the ground in Memphis who […]

A FEW GOOD MEN: Powell Adds His Voice To The Choir Of Pentagon Brass Calling For Repeal Of DADT

NEW YORK TIMES:  Gen. Colin L. Powell, who as the nation’s top military officer in the 1990s opposed allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military, switched gears today and threw his support behind efforts to end the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law he helped shepherd in. “In the almost 17 years since the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ legislation was passed, attitudes and circumstances have changed,” General Powell said in a statement issued by his office. He added: “I fully support the new approach presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee this week by Secretary of Defense […]

NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t

FRESH AIR Colin Firth has played Mr. Darcy in the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice and Mr. Mark Darcy in Bridget Jones’s Diary, but it’s his role as a gay British professor in Tom Ford’s A Single Man that may have Firth seeing Oscar gold. Firth was nominated Feb. 2 for the Best Actor trophy for his role as George Falconer, a professor struggling to survive after the accidental death of his longtime partner, played by Matthew Goode. Set in 1962, around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the movie follows George over a single day as he contemplates his […]

HOT DOC: A Love Letter From Black Francis

I finally came into possession of an old guitar someone had given me at a nightclub in San Francisco awhile back; Eric Drew Feldman had been holding it for me there on Haight Street.  He convinced me that it looked cool (it was black) and had been given in the spirit of benevolence.  Every time I picked it up a nice chord came out and so I lovingly cleaned it with red wine in the dressing room the following night and began to write.  I told the tour manager that we would drive in my Cadillac directly to a recording […]

VALANIA: Last Night I Sneaked Into The Tea Party

BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY A word of warning: The story you are about to read is neither fair nor balanced; just true. The other night I snuck into the Tea Party, like a spy in the House of Glenn Beck Love, and nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen. You know about the Tea Party movement, right? The populist jihad—sponsored by Fox News, FreedomWorks, the Taliban wing of the Republican Party and the rest of the Dick Armey—that’s putting the RIOT back in PATRIOT. They’re white as hell and they’re not gonna take the 2008 presidential election anymore. […]

PRICE IS RIGHT: Bob Barker Donates $1 Million To The Movement To Stop Pennsyltucky Pigeon Shoots

Dead pigeon, 20th & Springarden, October 1st, 2008 [photo by RAY SKWIRE] DAILY NEWS: Animal-rights activists, buoyed by the donation of $1 million to their cause by former game-show host Bob Barker, say that the money will go to help fight a Bucks County gun club known for its live pigeon shoots. The Philadelphia Gun Club, located on the Delaware River, in Bensalem Township, is “secretive” about the shoots, and protesters don’t know when the next shoot will be but plan to be there to voice displeasure, Steve Hindi, founder of an anti-cruelty group called SHARK, said late last week. […]