Has anyone here seen these "She's coming home, Philly" advertisements that are floating around the Internet and Chicago? I have no idea who's coming, but it is definitely interesting. Something is coming up and it looks big. It's viral marketing at its finest. Here's what Philebrity.com had to say about it:

"This Moment In Viral Marketing: “She” Is Coming Back To Philly, Whoever The Hell “She” Is

If you’ve been on The Book of Faces or The Google or elsewhere on the web lately — and obviously, you have — you may have seen links for shescominghome.com, with the tagline, “Hey Philadelphia! She’s back… Can you guess who it is?” Go to the site, and it’s a woman’s silhouette against the Philly skyline with a countdown clock to the reveal of who “She” is. (As of this writing, 2 days, 19 hours.) Well, we’ve done a little snooping around, and we’ve got two theories on who “She” might be:

First, the real one: The shescominghome.com domain is registered to concert promoters AEG, so we can safely assume whoever “She” is, she is a musical performer of some kind. We called the AEG Philly office — full disclosure, they’re an advertiser on Philebs — and found that either they really did not know who “She” was, or were feigning ignorance. Fair enough. Without the “viral,” it’s just “marketing” and what fun is that? But upon further Internet snooping, we have developed a hunch, and we think that the “She” in question, could be, maybe, Celine Dion. The weird miniature Jennifer Aniston silhouette would seem to back that up, as would this link, which purports that Dion is “back” in 2010 with a series of concerts booked by - natch - AEG. So, yeah, Celine Dion. Who cares.

Second, the better one: That the “She” in question is the long-standing mysterious subject of every “That’s What She Said” joke, ever. Which would be AMAZING. For years, we have been amazed by both the candor with which the infamous “She” reportedly jokes about her sexual exploits, as well as the fact that, after all that nasty stuff, “She” is even actually still in possession of a working vagina. The identity of “She” has been a mystery through the ages, and the idea that she would be coming “back” to Philly opens up a, pardon the expression, Pandora’s box of other questions. It makes the mind wobble. And then reach for penicillin.

And, if perchance “She” would turn out to be Celine Dion and the woman Who Said That, well, that would work out pretty awesome, too."

Well, what do you guys think? Who do you think this mysterious girl coming home to Philly is???

The people of the world are not that aware of daily price updates in Gold & Diamond market the popularity and price in Gold Jewelry & Diamond Jewelry are increasing like. As all of us know that Gold & Diamond are the most precious metals found today. And as the preciousness gets high the price of Real Diamond & 14K Gold is also getting higher & higher day by day.

The Demand of Real Diamond Jewelry & 14K Gold Jewelry is also increasing with the latest trend. People demand the Gold & Diamond Jewelry in various designs and also with some great combination like GOLD Chain with Perl Stone or Diamond Bracelets set with gold chain. And with this latest trend as the demand gets high the price is also stepping up.

Can we do anything to decrease the price??? The answer is nothing. Off course we can not decrease the price. But we can always have some better solutions. And according to me the best solution is that to buy the jewelry of your choice at wholesale rates rather than buying them in retail price.

We can buy the jewelry at wholesale price and buying them at wholesale rates saves a lot of money in our pocket. And for that we need some good source to buy them. But as the technology is also going ahead we are getting different the ideas to buy things, like buying them online or off line. There are some wholesale jewelry stores who deal at wholesale rates at Online as well as at off line. You can always visit such stores to buy the jewelry at direct wholesale rates.

For More Information about Online Wholesale Jewelry where You can get the variety gold & diamond jewelry at one of the biggest online Jewelry stores like RICHARD CANON JEWELRY

Terror Film Festival – Submit your films & Screenplays Today!
TERROR FILM FESTIVAL
Horror, Fantasy, Sci-fi, Thriller, Drama, Screenplay
www.TerrorFilmFestival.net
October 21-25, 2008 | Philadelphia, PA

Are you the next Hitchcock, Lucas, Romero, or Spielberg? Then TFF is for YOU. Submit your films and screenplays, and be a part of this one-of-a-kind film festival. Over $10,000 in cash and prizes!

Terror Film Festival is a world renowned international independent film festival that's designed for filmmakers and screenwriters. TFF runs every October in the heart of Philadelphia PA at the prestigious and creepy Ethical Society Building (right across from beautiful Rittenhouse Square) and we offer over $10,000 in cash and prizes, ranging from our coveted Claw Awards to loveable cash. Plus, our world-class screenwriting competition!

Check our "Reviews" webpage to see what everyone’s saying about our festival!

TFF accepts both short and feature length films and scripts, and we offer filmmaker awards, screenwriting awards, Claw Awards, cash prizes, discounts to Earlybird submitters, and Free Tee Shirts! TFF is committed to the filmmakers and screenwriters who bring great genre movies to our world.

Win FREE Festival VIP Passes. Go to our tickets page to enter!

TFF was founded by filmmakers and screenwriters and each year we offer an environment of creativity, networking, industry, fans, excitement, and fun. And our Claw Awards ceremony is excitement and anticipation personified, hosted by the sexy Princess Horror herself. It’s an event that you don’t want to miss!

TFF Bad-Azz Festival VIP and One Day Passes go on sale starting every February 14 (Valentine’s Day)!

TFF is like no other festival in the world because it’s geared to promote YOU. And we’re the only festival in the world who places your director photo, project poster, website link, and project synopsis on our website just for SUBMITTING a project. TFF pioneered the concept in 2006 and we’re proud to continue to offer it to our creative artists.

Mark Your Calendars NOW!

TFF believes in promoting YOU as much as possible, so we feature indie filmmaker interviews on our website in the THE CAVERNS, we give you FREE promotion, and we go WAY beyond just taking your submission fee and screening films. We actually help with achieving distribution for our filmmakers! Amateur, indie, or pro, TFF wants your film and screenplay to get attention. Submit and be recognized, because it’s all about YOU.

The Claw Awards...who will win this year? Live your dreams!! Or at least...YOUR NIGHTMARES.

Claw, Festival Director
TERROR FILM FESTIVAL
Horror, Fantasy, Sci-fi, Thriller, Drama, Screenplay
www.TerrorFilmFestival.net
October 21-25, 2008 | Philadelphia, PA

We are ready to retch over an AP story we just read - as you know out of curiousity we follow real estate and mortgage stories out there so we stay current.

Even more disturbing? This AP article is about people who abandon their pets when they abandon their homes one step ahead of the foreclosure man. This article is profoundly disturbing, and people who do this should get their asses thrown in jail. Our pets depend on us, they are part of our families. They aren't furry accessories to be discarded...

Foreclosures Lead to Abandoned Animals
By EVELYN NIEVES – 4 days ago

The house was ravaged — its floors ripped, walls busted and lights smashed by owners who trashed their home before a bank foreclosed on it. Hidden in the wreckage was an abandoned member of the family: a starving pit bull.

The dog found by workers was too far gone to save — another example of how pets are becoming the newest victims of the nation's mortgage crisis as homeowners leave animals behind when they can no longer afford their property.

Pets "are getting dumped all over," said Traci Jennings, president of the Humane Society of Stanislaus County in northern California. "Farmers are finding dogs dumped on their grazing grounds, while house cats are showing up in wild cat colonies."

....The abandoned pets are overwhelming animal shelters and drawing fury from bloggers, especially as photos of emaciated animals circulate on the Internet.

The first people to enter an abandoned house, such as property inspectors and real estate brokers, have discovered dogs tied to trees in backyards, cats in garages, and turtles, rabbits and lizards in children's bedrooms.

No one keeps track of the numbers of abandoned pets, but anecdotal evidence suggests that forsaken animals are becoming a problem wherever foreclosures are climbing...

and

Hidden victims of mortgage crisis: Pets/Owners abandoning their dogs and cats after foreclosure

related video

Please support animal rescue and no kill shelters. We suggest Main Line Animal Rescue. Support them, support your SPCA, support breed specific rescue...

Another story all shoud read is A mortgage crisis that didn't have to be
By Gail MarksJarvis Chicago Tribune:

"It's not a pretty picture, and it didn't have to come to this.
The worst housing slump since World War II is showing no sign of abating. Manufacturing activity is hinting at recession. Employment is weakening. The stock market has fallen dramatically. The mistakes banks and brokers made with mortgage-related bonds have left a lingering credit crunch, or a reluctance by lenders to make affordable loans to consumers and businesses.

Investors have gone into the new year with a dreary attitude, and Wall Street analysts are warning investors to be careful.

"Batten down the hatches," Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. economist Michelle Meyer said in a recent report.

Meyer estimates that the housing mess, which set off the economy's problems, is only half over, and that home prices will be down at least 15 percent when they hit bottom in 2009.....As early as 1999 to 2000, consumer advocates were tracking what Keest calls a "foreclosure crisis," in which one in four homeowners were unable to handle payments.

"The industry wouldn't listen," she said."

Scrooge in Ardmore?

PUD = Planned Unit Development (wasn't Ardmore Crossing one?) - ergo shouldn't some board vote as to what to do with comon areas? Planned Unit Developments, which this is we assume the case, should have some kind of board that discusses common areas, as in areas not contained within the four walls purchased as townhomes? So some kind of owners association should have rights with deciding on things like lawn and garden maintenance, common areas, and ohhh....a Community Room? Longstanding developments all across the Main Line - Old Forge Crossing, Chesterbrook, etcetera. And senior assisted living facilities - what ones DON'T have community gathering rooms? And shouldn't buildings that contain affordable housing untis have this as well?

Is Canus Corp, apparently the new building owner, under Susan Rabinovitch playing Scrooge this holiday season in Ardmore at Ardmore Crossing, now with it's new name change to "Greenfield Commons"? That is what the article in Main Line Life and Main Line Times infers, right?

So...Natalee Holloway is back in the news again, eh? What about Jamie Cockayne? Why not equal time for him as well? Is his death so unimportant?

Cockayne Family Photo previously released to friends, family, media, etc.

Jamie Cockayne was brutally murdered in June, 2007. It took until August, 2007 for the U.S. Virgin islands Government to finally act, and at that time, they put first degree murder suspects, Kamal Thomas and Anselmo Boston back on the street with bail that was utterly laughable. We have to wonder if those two are really under house arrest and wearing monitoring bracelets as the U.S. Virgin Islands limps into another tourist season.

The news of the updates in the Natalee Holloway case undoubtedly made for a more hopeful or joyful Thanksgiving for the Holloway family, but are the Cockaynes not to receive such a gift ever? How is it justice still appears so fleeting on a United States of America territory? Are the laws different?

Coffeepot Ghost Photo

So back to "America's Paradise". Why is it that local business owners write mean letters to local papers? in one the writer, a local business person, says Mrs. Cockayne must be drunk while writing them? Seriously? Nice empathy and sympathy. Way to go, care about those tourism dollars - but hey, maybe it's just us, but reading this letter we wondered WHY anyone would want to visit a place so cruel. Yes, Mrs. Cockayne is drunk...drunk with grief...and who can blame her? Her son was brutally murdered! And it does not matter if his son was being mouthy, had too much to drink, flirted inappropriately or whatever - murdering him and leaving him to just die on the street only a short distance from a police station was NOT the appropriate response to any of that!

And what about Chicago native Don Calloway, brutally beaten to a pulp for no reason in 2006? Did he deserve THAT?

Don Calloway personal photo from www.caribbeannetnews.com

Here is an excerpt from a CBS2 news report in Chicago from 2006:

(CBS) You go on vacation to escape from the troubles of everyday life.

Now, there's a disturbing trend of violent crime in tropical paradises considered to be very safe.

The latest involves a Chicago man who suffered a vicious attack on the U.S Virgin Island of St. John.

As CBS 2's Suzanne LeMignot reports, his mission now is to spread the word.

A blood-stained face, an open wound on his knee; this is how Don Calloway said he looked after he fell to the ground following a beating with a shovel.

"This kid started swinging. The first couple shots, I took in the arms, I caught one. Then, after three or four shots, he landed one on my head," Calloway said.

Calloway said he was attacked while vacationing on St. John. He had left a local bar on the island and was trying to hail a cab. That's when he said two teens approached him from behind.

"I took off my watch, threw it to them, asked them what they wanted, do you want my money. They never said anything," Calloway said.

Calloway said he was able to get away from his two teenaged attackers. He ran to a nearby police station.

Police found his battered watch on the road. The attackers never took it.

Weeks later, Calloway's wounds may have healed, but now, he wants justice.

So...Don Calloway left a local bar...and see? he gets beaten to a pulp for contributing to the island economy? That is why we scratch our heads when we read letters from local merchants in the St. John Tradewinds lamenting the unwelcome attention - they say the letters from the Cockaynes are "tedious" and infer they are bad for business. Well, if these fine merchants think the letters are bad for business and toursim, what about the crimes occuring that go unsolved? According to Mrs. Cockayne there are significant number of unsolved crimes and crimes like rape, burglary and assault go unreported more times than not. Explain to us all again why we should vacation in "America's Paradise"? Why is a boycott such a bad idea? Didn't boycotting Aruba get instant attention to the Natalee Holloway case?

What are all those folks on St. john in the U.S. Virgin Islands afraid of? Why is the United States Government not doing more here? If this is a United States Territory, then as taxpayers, don't we have a say in where some of our tax dollars go? So, if we can't control the spending of the tax dollars, why not control the spending of the tourist dollars? Why NOT just vacation someplace else? Why would we want to go to a place that also has things reported like horrible animal abuse? Do you want to vacation in a place that allows ears to be cut off dogs and little cats are drowned for fun? Is St. John USVI paradise or a little island slice of hell?

And so what if we hear more from Mrs. Cockayne. She has a mission: Justice for Jamie Cockayne and other crimie victims in "America's Paradise", the United States Virgin Islands. No, the residents of St. John USVI might not like it, but she is entitled to say what is on her mind. Recent thoughts can be found here and here.

Do you know something that could help Jeanie Cockayne get justice? Are you a Government official in the United States of America who could help? Are you a member of the media that thinks equal time for Jamie is in order?

Then here, contact Mrs. Cockayne - she asks time and again in published letters to the editor:

215-862-1142 or email jeancockayne@mac.com

.

We understand that the Cockayne family still has real concerns about law enforcement entities not communicating with each other. We really wish the Cockayne family would set up a website and make all these documents, articles, and letters available. We really wish the Cockayne family would set up a website and make all these documents, articles, and letters available. We really wish that elected officials would get off their keysters and get busy demanding justice and enact change.

Give the Cockayne family peace and closure for Christmas - Advocate Justice for Jamie Cockayne.

This area has been talking about Andy Reid and his spoiled druggie sons since February! Haven't we hear enough? Empathy and sympathy are becoming fleeting emotions when all you hear is how one of these two druggie, yet good Morman sons has failed a drug test, been found with more drugs, etc. What are Andy and Tammy Reid doing? If they live in the same house with these boys, we can understand them not knowing initially what was up with their bad seeds, but now? How can you keep excusing the parents? Granted, these boys aren't boys any longer, but legal adults, but the question has to be asked: are the parents enablers?

Whatever the case may be, this ongoing drama is yet another black eye on this area. The saga over Baldwin School vs. fired teacher vs. spoiled parents is bad enough, but now this? And add to that all the murders in Philadelphia, and the horrible story of murdered Philadelphia police officer Chuck Cassidy, who left behind a wife and kids. Officer Cassidy isn't a multi millionaire like Andy Reid must be, and he lost HIS life doing one of the toughest jobs in the world: being a police officer.

So Andy Reid, Tammy Reid, we hope you get it together because at this point y'all need to decide what is more important: fame or family. Dealing with addictions is not easy we're told, nor is the path to a drug free life simplistic. But seriously? Maybe it is time to say sayonara to this area and concentrate on your family. The Philadelphia area deserves better. It's not our collective job to watch your sons, and every single time they are picked up for something new it costs the taxpayers more money for babysitting.

Your kids are addicts. Own it. Get used to it. Deal with it. And maybe, just maybe, you might want to publicly address this family issue taking up so much of our time. This stopped being a private family matter a long time ago.

Baldwin's Dirty Laundry Saga Continues....sing along now children:

Anything you could sue, we could sue better
We can sue anything better than you!
No you can't!
Yes we can!
No you can't!
Yes we can!
No you can't!
Yes we can!
Yes we can!

Anything you can be, We can be greater
Sooner or later We're greater than you!
No you're not!
Yes we are!
No you're not!
Yes we are!
No you're not!
Yes we are!

Couple sued by Baldwin School teacher file response claiming she had poor record
By Martha Woodall
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

The Gladwyne couple who are being sued by a former second grade teacher on grounds they cost her her job at The Baldwin School have responded to her allegations by detailing 72 complaints from parents and others about her loud, threatening classroom manner.
In documents filed yesterday afternoon, Michael and Sheryl Pouls charged that rather than being the model teacher as she has claimed, Patricia Tollin "had one of the worst records--if not the worst record--of all the teachers in the roughly 120 year history of The Baldwin School."

The documents from the Poulses includes a counterclaim in which they are suing Tollin for defamation, invasion of privacy, assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The 86-page file from the Pouls family is the latest salvo in a bitter, Main Line dispute that erupted in June when Patricia Tollin, 67, filed suit against the Poulses and against the private girls' school in Bryn Mawr where she had taught for 22 years.

In her complaint, Tollin alleged that rather than risk a mult-million gift for a new athletic facility promised by the Poulses, Baldwin's new head of school sided with them and did not offer Tollin a new, one-year teaching contract for the current school year.

The family had complained to Baldwin officials that Tollin had shouted at and humiliated their second-grade daughter during the last school year.

The Poulses' filing, which includes what the complaint says are excerpts from Tollin's personnel file...

Since when did personnel files become public? What is with these Pouls people? Can't they move someplace else? Oy vey

Our Call For Entries is OPEN!!

Terror Film Festival is a bad-azz international independent film festival for lovers of horror, fantasy, sci-fi, thriller and drama, and we put our filmmakers, screenwriters, and fans FIRST! Our award-winning website gets tons of hits for you and we run every October in Philadelphia PA at the very cool Ethical Society Building, right across from beautiful Rittenhouse Square.

Now in Year Two, TFF offers OVER $10,000 in cash and prizes, including 14 filmmaker awards, 6 screenwriter awards, 20 Claw Award categories, and 4 cash prizes! Plus! Our world-class screenwriting competition! Plus! Every submitted project is featured on our website along with photos and website links JUST FOR SUBMITTING A PROJECT, to maximize your exposure. TFF pioneered the concept in 2006 and we’re proud to continue to offer it to our creative artists. And that’s why they love us. Because we know it’s all about THEM! And by that, we mean YOU!!

So, submit a film, submit a screenplay, or just come out and enjoy the fun. We’ve got the latest and greatest from the next wave of up and coming filmmakers and screenwriters from around the world!! Tell all your friends and feed the need to yell out SPEED!

Claw, Festival Director
TERROR FILM FESTIVAL
www.TerrorFilmFestival.net
www.myspace.com/terrorfilmfestival
October 16-21, 2007 | Philadelphia, PA

...they get away with assault with a slap on the checkbook. This summer, I ranted about the Social Light who beat her nanny with carrots....Social Register she wasn't, family money a plenty, ayup there is apparently....anyway, it has been a long time since July when I last discussed this.

Of course, no one dished this better then John Grogan who said in November:

On the Main Line, where money, class and privilege collide in a perfect storm of hyper-precious living, there are rules. They are unspoken but ironclad nonetheless.

Poor Susan Tabas Tepper, the socialite who now finds herself in a bit of a legal jam, appears to have broken some real doozies.

Roughing up the hired help at the mansion and then getting trotted out in public for it is a mondo Main Line no-no. One that can never be quite forgiven or forgotten at the country club.

Très gauche!

Tepper, 43, lives in a sprawling, multimillion-dollar estate in Villanova, a community if not at, certainly near, the epicenter of the rarefied, Botox-and-liposuction Main Line experience.

Lower Merion police in May arrested Tepper after her housekeeper accused her of behaving very, very badly

....Temper, temper, my pampered little friend.

Sigh...no one does Nanny 911 like Grogan....

Well....today, Social Light Nanny Beater did get away with assault and a slap on the checkbook as everyone sadly predicted...ahhh yes, the rich are different and Prada doesn't do Prison...

Philly Sports Net - I’d like to ask my brethren of Philadelphia, who is the worst sportswriter in our great city of Philadelphia? I know this could be a little overwhelming because the pool of candidates is vast. Kind of like trying to figure out the drunkest guy in the parking lot on Sunday. Below is my list of top offenders. Please nominate potential candidates, as, I’m sure to overlook someone. This is going to work like the stock market, as suggestions and votes are tallied, writer stocks will rise and fall.

By all means, this is not the be all and end all. Any writer at any time is one “LeCharles Bentley is coming to Philadelphia” story away from rocketing up the charts to take the top spot on any given week. These rankings are always vacillating as varying levels gross negligence and idiotic opinions pour from the sportswriters’ minds, through his/her pen, and into the collective consciousness of Philadelphia.

The candidates:

Continue reading this story

"I hate the whole 'blame the media' slant that many celebrities take when things don't go their way, but too often in this city, sportswriters attempt to make the news rather than just report it. Each moment, no matter how trivial or minor, is analyzed to death."

In case you missed it, the Philadelphia media breathlessly reported on yesterday's Donovan McNabb Chunky Soup press conference with a fervor and zeal usually reserved for coverage of assassinated heads of state.

The reason for the intense interest? Well, apparently, McNabb and Eagles head coach Andy Reid ruffled some feathers a few weeks ago when Reid cancelled a scheduled McNabb press conference, thereby denying the soap opera-obsessed writers in this town an opportunity to ask Donovan if he's jealous of Jeff Garcia. Yesterday, they finally got their chance.

Congested, busy road, floodplain, altering historic character,high end development, "area in need of rdevelopment"? Who has this need exactly?

This is a post about stuff happening in Radnor Township, the foreign, but related country next door. But we are promoting it due to the commonality of life. It is painfully obvious that developers are flying faster than the wheels of government are turning. And can't we surmise that what is being built, most of it isn't needed, won't "enhance" all areas, but is still all about that almighty bottom line? The dollars of profit to be made? The lure or tantalizing ratables?

Radnor has a perfect storm brewing, and it has a LOT of familiar names involved. Every citizen, regardless of township, county, neighborhood should follow this story. If Radnor allows all this development on Conestoga Road to go through, the perfect storm will rip through a historic area like a developmental Katrina.

We are referring to the proposed development along Conestoga Road just before Newtown Road. Once again, they want to pave paradise and condofy...from the practical stand point, given the nature of weavy, windy, often narrow Conestoga Road the first knee jerk reaction is "are they nuts"? Then comes the pit in the bottom of every local historian's stomach: this development would occur in historic Ithan, a/k/a "Radnorville". Environmentalists too must be clutching their hearts as there is tremendous potential impact in that way too.

Like "Allaire",Rugby Road, 254 Righters Mill Road can't we say this has the potential of being life altering event for surrounding neighbors? Plus it is just so very ROHO, don't you think?

Where are we going with this? Simple: the same developmental players are doing the same thing from township to township, county to county. Among other things, what does this say once again? That the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania needs to wake up and update that stupid Municipal Planning Code to actually protect citizens, or at least level the currently slanted playing field. And what else does this say? That basically, all these municipalities need better and stricter zoning and comprehensive plans (not that we know one of those if it bit us in the rump here in Lower Merion), and that perhaps neighborhood groups from municipality to municipality should join forces and lobby as one for reform.

Here's the article:
The Suburban and Wayne Times: Sleepy Ithan block may see action, battles soon
By Sam Strike

Well hello chickens, I know you thought I had flown the coop, become a top model in Paris (wowing them on the runways, of course), gone undercover Peter Porcupine, or was taken out by the Lois Murphy Campaign, but alas, nothing so exciting...just busy...but, I am pleased to announce that I'm baaaack! And I was right about Lois Murphy.

Anyway, what has this gal in a lather? Sub par department stores.

So, I pulled someone in the family pollyanna who lives too far out of town to deliver her gift to as the most stylin' Santa around, so I had to find her gift and either ship it, or if it was a main stream department store, she'll go pick it up.

Well my chosen gal is a domestic diva and she wanted a rare home appliance, found in limited places...Like dare I whisper it aloud? Ohh ok, SEARS.

So I locate the appliance of choice and go to order it for pick up because their shipping is well, highway robbery. Five long distance phone calls and four ignorant customer service/sales reps later I have my answer. Or should I say my second answer.

My first answer was that I could not pay for something as a gift for the recipient to pick up. The second and final answer was that I could do it if I had a SEARS CARD! I don't have a SEARS card. I have Amex and Visa like most grown ups with sense. After all, why would anyone in their right mind use store charges with those rape and pillage interest rates?

So I say I don't have a SEARS card. Helpful sales rep says "well then we can't help you. It's for your own protection"

What the f*ck is for my own protection? I don't shop at SEARS, so I guess they are protecting me from bad fashion, poor service, and all around ignorance.

This is why I will never attempt another SEARS experience. The logic is astounding: it's holiday time, biggest most important shopping season for every retailer not smoking the crack pipe across America. But SEARS, in their desire to leave happy customers everywhere, is turning away business. Go figure.

In the end, it's their balance sheet. I hope they have a horrible season.

Sears Sucks, pass it on.

Bah humbug.

(cross posted on blinq)

A story about Philadelphia's hardcore punk days is scheduled to be the centerpiece in the Inquirer Magazine section Thursday. It's written by Lou Perfidio, a freelancer that some of you may recognize from Blinq's comments section or as the blogger known as Tacony Lou.

When an editor called Lou's house Tuesday to ask a question, his wife, Mary, delivered the news. Tacony Lou Perfidio had died the night before. He'd had pneumonia and suffered from high blood pressure. They had a nine-year-old son, Caesar. Lou was 43.

I'm pretty shaken. I've known him since 1988, when I walked into the Inky's Horsham Neighbors section and there he was, in the back, a giant, bearded bear with claws. Lou wanted to know, in so many words, if I was one of us or one of them.

I never really knew how we defined the terms, other than I did my best to be one of us. He was a formidable guy.

I ran him through the Nexis database because I remember a few highlights of his life in print - most of them coming outside of the Inquirer, where he was a somewhat frustrated suburban correspondent for a few years after J school at Temple.

I remembered something about him appearing on an Arizona cable show as The Great Satan, and winding up in some sort of hot water. I remembered something about him showing up in a New York bar and proclaiming himself the Greatest Pool Player in the World - and winding up in a New York Times column.

The facts are even juicer than I remember.

Douglas Martin's "About New York" column went this way on Jan. 13, 1990:

Lou Perfidio arrived at least one beer before the appointed interview time at the same smoky haunt. He wore a tie decorated with pictures of houseflies. ''For luck,'' he inexplicably explained. His cap was on backward. Later in the day, he planned to pick up a blind cat, a gift he professed to greatly prize. He kept saying such as this: ''I'm the greatest pinball player of all time.''

The 26-year-old bachelor told the story of a slightly tilted life. His truck driver father met his mother at a Philadelphia candy store where he was putting some eye-catching moves on a pinball machine. Mr. Perfidio's own youth was squandered developing otherwise marginal motor skills behind a captivatingly cacophonous contraption in a Philly cheese steak shop. ''I was flipper-crazy from the beginning,'' Mr. Perfidio said.

It was a half-year later when Lou wound up in an Associated Press dispatch out of Tucson.

His talk show was suspended from its public access TV slot as Arizona authorities investigated whether it was obscene. The man from the Tucson cable company described it as "sort of a talk show, but it's definitely not the Johnny Carson Show."

Appearing in costume as The Great Satan, Lou offered profanity, nudity, ethnic and racial slurs plus explicit talk and depiction of sex acts. There wasn't a follow-up article, but two years later, Lou turned up in another piece, by an Inquirer feature staffer writing about those who do odd jobs.

Lou Perfidio, 29, is no student, and he's not out on the streets trying to pay for college. He needs money to live. Although he holds a journalism degree from Temple, he has been driving cabs on and off during the last few years to keep his stomach happy. Despite the free-time thrills, he finds that odd jobs pay the bills.

"When I go out in my cab," I expect to make between 80 and 100 bucks a night, realistically," Perfidio says. "That's what I rely on to pay the bills. That's what I do best."

But he has other skills.

Perfidio recently began tutoring fellow writers. His ad in City Paper said, "Can't Write? I can."

That he could.

He wrote a letter to the Los Angeles Times when he was living out there in 2003.

Tell me, if I were a white clergyman and told everybody that six black guys raped a teenage white girl, smeared dog feces and spelled out a racial epithet on her body -- and that a black district attorney was in on the act -- and then the girl was found by a grand jury to have fabricated the whole episode and I was found guilty, by a jury, of defaming the district attorney, do you think I'd have a bat's chance in hell to be a Democratic presidential candidate 15 years down the road? Black clergyman Al Sharpton paid his $65,000 fine for defamation as if it were a parking ticket and was free to go stir up more racial hatred in New York and, now, in sheep's clothing, on a national stage. Now he is cute and cuddly. Now he leads all the folk. God bless America.

Lou wrote with more attitude than just about anyone I know. It came naturally, and so when he started putting it all down on a blog, which he called I Love Misery, he drew a crowd. (He chose for his picture that of Peter Kropotkin, the anarchist prince.) He wondered why I didn't quote him much, or put him on my blog roll. He'd headline his e-mails, "Where is the Love?"

The problem, I explained to him, hemming and hawing and sounding like one of them, was that his language would make a stevedore blush, and make some people who didn't understand the size of his heart, think he was intolerant of others. That he hated them, actually. I don't think I had a good excuse. So I quoted him a little more, particularly about the Phillies, who drove him crazy.

Last week we exchanged e-mails. Agreed we were going to have lunch in Kensington. He was going to show me some deli that had survived on the Avenue.

I just went onto his site to catch up on what I've missed. His last piece is about the Phillies, how ex-Phillies' deaths seem to come in threes, with Johnny Callison's following Cory Lidle's. Who would be the third? It began:

I’m gonna bring up something morose and depressing, so turn your heads and watch a repeat of “The View” if you can’t handle it. On second thought, Rosie O’Donnell defines morose and depressing, so maybe you should watch “Sponge Bob” if you can’t handle today’s subject, which is death and dying. ...

Ex-Phillies, like movie stars and Jesuits, will begin to die in three's. The Great Cosmic Jackoff has foretold this to me. The off-season will become a cornucopia of close calls, assaults, arrests, manic depression, and finally, death – but only for one more EX-PHILLIE.

We are spared the off-season torment of 40-man roster deaths because each game every season is one quiet, inexorable march to the season’s nihilistic end. We all die a little every day with this team. But as for the others…

Ex-Death Number Three is right around the corner.

Let's just say Lou had a sense for things. I wish he could have seen his piece on punk's glory days dominating the feature section on Thursday. He'd find something to complain about. He'd probably be right.