H.G. "Buzz" Lightyear Bissinger raised some valid points in the critical assessment of Mayor Nutter he published in last Sunday's Inquirer. But after his mouth-foaming anti-blogging rants, it's difficult to accept him as a credible commentator. ... And speaking of misconceptions about the role of blogging, the Raul Ibanez steroid rumor, which would have remained a little-read post until the Inquirer threw gasoline on the barely smoldering ember, did nothing more than dig up and open a coffin long since buried. Uh, guys? Two thousand six called; it wants its MSM/blogging "debate" back. ... Maybe it didn't come from superintendent Arlene Ackerman, but someone leaned on Philadelphia public school teachers to pass students with failing grades. And you have to wonder why, since the practice has absolutely zero positive outcomes for anyone--students, teachers, administrators, parents. ... So suburban Reading's not-so-favorite daughter and son are set for a "major announcement" Monday night. Kate and Jon Gosselin's decision to expose their life and their children to the prurient eyes of America's reality-television watchers was made, I believe, in their family's best interests--two years ago. The family's best interests today involve getting as far away from cameras and boom microphones as possible. ... The Inquirer this week front-paged the ass-kicking even tony Chestnut Hill has taken during the economic downturn. Yet the storefront that has sat empty at the corner of Germantown and Willow Grove avenues for every day of the decade we've lived in the area was a prescient sign that the Hill had some troubles even before things tanked. ... Any night at the ballpark offers its share of unusual sights, but last night at Citizens Bank Park I spied someone wearing--no, really--an Eric Bruntlett t-shirt in Section 104. | PRS
Phodder, a collection of brief thoughts regarding some of the week's happenings in and around Philadelphia, appears Saturdays in Poor Richard's Scorecard.
