PlanPhilly enables Philadelphians to take part in a dialog about the future of the city. Its home page was recently redesigned. Check it out.

Christopher Wink, co-Founder of Technically Philly, has a diverse set of interests that place him right in the middle of media's evolution in Philly. He shares these interests on his terrific personal blog that you want to subscribe to. Check it out.

Pat at The Frankford Gazette in "Thankfully, Our Neighbor Had Our Back!" talks about how great his neighbors are in Frankford. I can relate here in Fox Chase Philly. We can't say it enough.

Our neighbor is a hero. I told him that and he said he would tell his wife. I also told him we already knew that about him. God bless you, neighbor and friend! God bless all those who are willing to get involved and help their neighbors!

YouTube: "Vignette from Project H.O.M.E.'s 20th Anniversary Gala (Employment)":

Related: Philadelphia Inquirer: "Mary of mercy"

Albert Yee shares news that R. Bradley Maule has completed his move to Portland, OR. He managed the very significant phillyskyline for almost ten years. His knowledge and love of architecture, of place, of photography and Philadelphia inspired and informed thousands across the city.

From the phillyskyline about page:

Hello, I'm R. Bradley Maule, sometimes RBM, always B Love. This is my web site. It is made in honor of the city I live in and love, Philadelphia. It is to present an honest look—warts and all—at the city and its varied urban fabric.

I came here from Tyrone, Pennsylvania (Steelers Country) in 2000, and have spent all my 33 years at a PA address. I have no mission statement or goal with this site, but if I had one wish, it would be that Pennsylvanians could see past the nonsense and love one another, from Erie to Philly up to the Poconos back out to the Burgh and everywhere in between.

But here on Philly Skyline, my friends and I are just sharing our experiences right here in Philadelphia with our fellow humans.

Albert points to his Farewell, Philadelphia slideshow on Flickr. Make sure to subscribe to Maule of America to follow his work in the future (some great shots already there!).

He left an imprintis going to be greatly missed. His impact will live on.

Thank you Brad.

Philadelphia Inquirer: Villanova football star Szczur to donate bone marrow:

Szczur, a wideout in football and outfielder/catcher in baseball, is preparing to become a bone-marrow donor. The junior learned three days ago that he was match for a 1-year-old girl who has leukemia. He did not comment; when and where the procedure will take place were not disclosed.

Philadelphia Inquirer: From Ardmore to Afghanistan, a mission of giving:

The goodwill gesture is called Operation Angel Wings, and it's the brainchild of an Ardmore shopkeeper and a Broomall trauma surgeon stationed in Afghanistan, Lt. Col. Kenneth Marx.

"Someday those kids will grow up to place their finger on a trigger," Marx said in an e-mail. "The moment when the target in their sights resembles the guys who once gave them a winter cap is that moment when reconciliation might hold violence at bay.

"Life in the mountains here is nasty, brutish, and utterly strange. Soft power and indirect means may be the winding path to an improvised solution, if there is a solution to be found."

Writing from Nangarhar province, where he is deployed with the National Guard's 108th Cavalry, Marx said the immediate aim was to get Americans and Afghans talking.

"We have asked for folks at home to send small gifts of winter clothing, which are excellent conversation-starters," he said.

When he arrived in Afghanistan on Oct. 12, Marx said, he saw a need for children's hats, gloves, sweaters, socks, scarves, fleece jackets, and small, lightweight toys that could go with soldiers on patrol.

On Nov. 9, Marx received an e-mail from Sherry Tillman, 6,824 miles away in Ardmore, inviting him to the holiday sale at her gift and art-gallery store. He wrote back, saying he couldn't attend and asking if she could send warm clothes for the Afghan children.

"He wrote me that the kids are barefoot and in rags, and it's winter," Tillman said. She said she recalled thinking, "Oh, my God, I have to do something."

Sponsored by First Friday Main Line, a nonprofit organization that promotes the Lancaster Avenue shopping district, Operation Angel Wings began immediately.

Tillman, director of First Friday Main Line, said she was determined to collect everything on Marx's wish list. The gifts will be stored at her shop, Past*Present*Future, and the Ardmore Initiative office, both on Lancaster Avenue.

Tillman has set Friday as the shipping date for the first donations.

"I'd like to be able to send several packages right away, and to be able to continue sending," Tillman said.

A couple of weeks ago, Carla J. Zambelli, publicist for First Friday Main Line, sent out an e-mail blast asking residents for donations. The donations have started trickling in, Tillman said.

Visit First Friday Main Line for more information.

Philadelphia Inquirer: How he rescued Boscov's: Al Boscov's work and goodwill saved the stores that bear the family name.:

The odds were against the Reading company when it went bankrupt just weeks before last fall's stock market crash.

There was, conventional wisdom said, no realistic way to rescue its thousands of regional employees, dozens of stores, or century-old legacy. No money. No banks willing to step into the economic meltdown with emergency loans. No hope.

But in crunching the numbers that spelled doom for the nation's largest family-owned department-store chain, the doubters underestimated the power of a pint-sized 79-year-old man.

Had their spreadsheets been able to tabulate big-time heart and brains, they would have predicted a different outcome. Because Al Boscov is no ordinary businessman.

"I can dance, I can sing," Boscov joked later in a Manhattan elevator, tap-dancing in a charcoal suit to an absurd ditty about saving the company. The vaudevillian flash ended as the doors opened. "That's what did it," he said, and hopped out.

It would, indeed, require an extraordinary businessman to pull off a Rocky-worthy win against an economy devouring itself: a savior who was beloved, not feared, but no-nonsense when needed; one with more friends than enemies; who preferred details and long hours over swagger and power lunches.

CityPaper: A Voice For The Fallen: One man's quest to memorialize the 4,600 gay men who died of AIDS in Philadelphia.:

If Bartlett's wiki had a mission statement, it would probably go something like this: "To help those who lived through those dark years heal, and to connect that generation with those who came after."

"As I am gradually becoming an elder in the gay community, I'm trying to find that next way to connect these generations," Bartlett says. "This wiki is a tool to develop conversation between young generations of activists — gays, yes, but not just gays — also anyone who wants to start, live and sustain a movement."

In the summer of 1991, ACT UP Philadelphia converged with other LGBTQ, labor, women's rights and sundry liberal organizations in Kennebunkport, Maine, to protest then-President Bush's re-election campaign. They chartered a bus. Bartlett was riding. So, too, was a man named Harry Reed, a sanitation worker who came with a travel bar in tow, making martinis and handing out beers — which, as Bartlett mentions, is referenced on Reed's wiki entry.

"A lot of the people on that bus died that year or soon after, including Harry," Bartlett says. "I think we all knew he was sick then and that must have been scary." But they pressed ahead anyway. The movement was bigger, more important, than any individual, or any disease.

"That was a time when I realized I was born at a unique moment that allowed me to participate in a defining time in history," Bartlett says. "We can't possibly let all these stories disappear."

Link: Gay Networks in Philadelphia Wiki

Philadelphia Inquirer: Guided by his father's hands:

His parents were at home watching TV when Rob's friends rushed in: Rob was hurt. He banged his head.

"I thought, 'Oh, we're going to have to go and get some stitches,' " Wunder recalled.

As he and his wife entered the yard, they saw their son in a neck brace on a stretcher, and their fears mounted.

He was airlifted to the Atlantic City Medical Center and later to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia for surgery. The report was dire: His C5 vertebra was crushed, and pieces of it had pierced the spinal cord.

The injury was irreversible, and the life of their son - an avid guitar player, surfer, and scuba diver who had just become certified on a trip with his father in the Bahamas - was changed forever.