Mayor John Street signed a revised bill into law on Thursday, allowing smaller bars to apply for permanent exemptions. That ban goes into effect January 8th, and overrides the current one. So, until then, smoking is allowed, although it is expected that most restaurants will continue to enforce the ban. Under the new law, outdoor cafes and taverns which make no more than 10-percent of sales off food can apply for exemptions. 6ABC: Quitters Never Win, Plus It Makes You Look Cool And More Grown-Up
THE MONEY $HOT: Mazel Hop
SHADRACH THE MIC: Matisyahu, TLA, December 14, 2006 [FLICKR]
TRIBUTE: Peter Boyle Has Exited The Monster’s Ball
Actor, Emmy winner, Philly native, LaSalle College alumnus and former seminarian Peter Boyle, 71, died Tuesday night. DAN BUSKIRK REMEMBERS: Peter Boyle didn’t look good bald. Actually, he didn’t look good with hair either, and perhaps you should put aside your warm memories of the recently departed actor and take a good look at his picture. His eyes are partly unreadable because of his natural squint, his lips are thin and seem to rest in a perpetual smartass smirk, and that forehead! With its thickened brow leading up to that bulbous dome, Boyle’s swollen head seemed to suggest both the […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
MY DRUG BUDDY: Evan Dando, North Star Bar, December 14, 2006 [FLICKR] FOR THE INQUIRER BY JONATHAN VALANIA Hard to say exactly which bad sign indicated that the woozy Evan Dando train wreck was still hitting the wall of sober expectations. Maybe it was the marked thinning of the sold-out crowd by mid-show. Maybe it was Dando’s spontaneously electing to cover Suzanne Vega’s “Luka,” when clearly neither he nor his bandmates knew the chords or lyrics. Maybe it was his lying on his back to sing another song while a roadie held the mike above him, only to abort the […]
TROUBLE IN ‘RIVER CITY’: Logan Square Neighbors Underwhelmed By Plan To Build ‘Colossal’ $3.5 Billion 60-Story Mansions In The Sky
Its developers call it “Philadelphia River City” — a colossal $3.5 billion project that would remake northwest Center City along the Schuylkill with 12 million square feet of residential, commercial and office space in a series of 10 towers that would dwarf anything in the neighborhood. [NOT pictured, left, that’s actually circa now China] But reaction was decidedly cool this week at a crowded Logan Square Neighborhood Association meeting to the plan floated by World Acquisition Partners’ President Ravi Chawla and a team that includes Daroff Design architects. According to Logan Square president Rob Stuart, Chawla sought the association’s support […]
GOODNIGHT MR. SURE SHOT: Jumpshot Pioneer Dead At 78
FROM ESPN: Hall of Famer Paul Arizin, who was one of the first in the league to make the jump shot a regular part of his arsenal, died in his sleep in his home in suburban Philadelphia. He was 78. The Philadelphia Warriors and Villanova University both claimed Arizin as one of their own. Arizin was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1978. He played with the Warriors from 1951-62, making the All-Star Game 10 times and winning the league’s MVP in 1952. He led the league in scoring twice. The 6-foot-4 forward finished his NBA career with per […]
STOP THE FUCKIN’ PRESSES: If The INKY Rank n’ File Don’t Give A Damn, Why The HELL Should We?
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 […]
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 […]
GUNCRAZY: Eagles Scout Gets Bad Report Card, Shoots Self In Head Between Classes
An 11th grader purportedly despondent about his grades brought a rifle to Springfield High School in Montgomery County this morning, fired high into a wall to frighten other students into a hallway and then shot himself to death, witnesses and officials said.No one else was injured, authorities said. […]Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor told reporters at a late afternoon news conference that Halligan died after putting the barrel of the AK-47 semiautomatic rifle under his chin and firing. Castor said that a suicide note was found in the right front pocket of Halligan’s jeans and that the suicide followed […]
MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING or How The TOWER Of Song Got Its Lean On
RICHARD KAUFMAN REMEMBERS: Tower Records, so many bittersweet memories. In those crazy go-go days of the early ’90s, there was so much optimism for the future. Papa Bush was imploding faster than a smart bomb, Fast Eddie was mayor, the Eagles had a mobile QB that would finally lead us to the promised land, and flannel-wearing rockers were starting to turn the rock world on its head. The word around the water cooler was that Tower was going public, and all of us smelly, underpaid buyers and clerks would get in on the ground floor. The Tower model seemed to […]