Poor Richard's Scorecard

Imagine What the Lower Merion School District Would Have Done if Blake Robbins Had Been Eating M&Ms

The most startling information to emerge from the well-publicized lawsuit filed by a Lower Merion family this week against the township school district is not that:

• School officials are alleged to have remotely activated a laptop webcam to spy on a student. (School officials are charter members of the Don't You Guys Have Anything Better to Do? Club.)
• Parents reacted to a perceived slight by filing a suit in federal court. (It's Lower Merion, the Official Home of Helicopter Parents.)
  
• County and federal law enforcement are investigating. (Grandstanding DAs and feds sniffing around a sensational story? Who'd have thought?)
• The story has gone global. (The only thing missing is sex, which would have sent the news interplanetary.)

No, the most surprising facet of the story is this:

Comcast Should Know: When in Doubt, Bring in the Marketing Team to Clean Up the Mess

The company has denied it, but Comcast's rebranding of its cable television, Internet, and telephone services as "Xfinity" smacks of an effort to repaint a collapsing fence in hopes that people won't know it's in such sad shape. That is, with its customer-service rep in the toilet, Comcast may have concluded that it was easier or cheaper or both to change signage and stationery than to, y'know, fix the actual problem.

Which raises an interesting possibility for another of its failing brands:

Technology Is Wonderful, But It Can't Replace Being at the Ballpark in October

Early yesterday afternoon, when I spoke to the Inquirer's Jeff Gammage about keeping up with the Phillies when you couldn't be at the ballpark or in front of a television, I was planning on where to watch today's playoff opener. Then, late last night, a friend of a friend scored a ticket she couldn't use, and, voila, I had a seat at Citizens Bank Park for this afternoon.

In the interest of giving as much as I've received, I'll be tweeting updates from the game for Phans stuck in cubicles this afternoon. My Twitter handle is @tomdurso.

Oh, and for those of you who have made it this way thanks to Jeff's piece, I appreciate your stopping by. Poke around a bit; join the conversation. And come back for more. Philadelphia is a hell of a place to live, and even better to write about. | PRS

Next We'll Hear That Tony DiLeo Is on Facebook and John Stevens Twitters

How perfect. As David Murphy reports in today's Daily News, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel and Eagles head coach Andy Reid have taken to offering each other words of support and encouragement in a most unexpected way:

Several times throughout the playoffs, Reid would send a text message to Manuel with some encouraging words. Then, last month, as the Eagles made their unlikely run to the playoffs, Manuel began to return the favor. After each win, he'd shoot Reid a message. Nothing long. Just an encouraging word or two.