Breaking: Major ‘Metro’ Movement

Three hundred-word stories don’t write themselves, and earlier this week PW looked at Metro and how it’s changed in the eight years in town: “Over the last two years the Metro quietly reinvented itself as a daily niche publication attempting to reach young Philadelphians through stories about indie bands, the future of the city, pseudo-mayoral candidates with mohawks and the anticasino movement.”

Well, yeah. Word trickling out of 30 S. 15th Street is Metro laid off at least two editorial staffers and several business-side staffers today, sadly. The company lost $9 million in its U.S. operations last year.

That other rumor going around, about the Inquirer building being sold to Drexel and the newspapers moving to the South Philly waterfront or the Comcast Center is, I think, BS.

Rendell, Bloomberg To Form Chosen Ticket?

With the Eagles out of the playoffs this year and his weekends free, Ed Rendell will appear this Saturday with Michael Bloomberg in California.

The Associated Press takes this opportunity to let us know this will spark rumors of an independent political ticket for president in 2008, as there is no way a Jewish former mayor of New York City and a Jewish former mayor of Philadelphia — the two most beloved cities in the country, I believe — could possibly lose the presidency. Will it play in Peoria? Where won’t it play in Peoria?

Rendell’s spokesman says the governor is not going to be running for vice president with Bloomberg and says he’s just going to chill with Gov. Terminator and Bloomberg to talk about infrastructure. But that’s much less fun. All hail Vice President Rendell!

Hey, The Eagles Might Need To Win Today

Uhh, yeah, the Eagles might need to win today’s game. It’s, as they say, a “must-win.” Or maybe a “have-to-win.”

Rumor: Eagles facing must win in Minnesota [Yahoo! Sports]

Chat™: NBC 10’s New Website?

An anonymous tip turns into a chat on the future of the NBC 10’s website:

pwddmac: so you know how teresa masterson hasn’t written anything in a while? (i won’t get your hopes up, she still hasn’t.)

anonymous reader: oh, shoot. yes, i have noticed that.
reader: is there a blog turf war going on?
pwddmac: yeah she defected to phawker to interview the ghost of lester bangs
reader: NO
pwddmac: kidding, kidding
pwddmac: but i got an anonymous tip today that she’s going to be spearheading a new nbc 10 website/blog thingy called bigphilly.com
pwddmac: kinda like how fox 29 has myfoxphilly.com, without the myspace co-branding, i guess
reader: shuuuuuuut up
pwddmac: i whois’d the site and it says it’s registered to a leonard pannucci of vegas, so i doubt that’s the name
pwddmac: i’d confirm the tip but i doubt teresa masterson would take my call
reader: maybe she would?
pwddmac: plus i’d have to pick up a phone
pwddmac: okay the second reason is more the reason
pwddmac: anyway i figured i’d chat and post this and hopefully dan gross will confirm the tip
pwddmac: which is sort of how i like to roll, anyway
pwddmac: also: that fan blogger didn’t blog the saints game, as far as i know
reader: well he may not have survived the disappointment
pwddmac: hopefully he’s working on bigphilly.com with teresa and leonard
reader: well it’s good if all the suck is concentrated in one place anyway
pwddmac: bigphilly? more like bigSUCKY!
pwddmac: man, i’m hilarious
reader: isn’t bigphilly dropped like twenty times in every will smith song?
reader: why not gettinjiggy.nbc10.com instead?
pwddmac: great, now they’re gonna see that and use it

Archives: Chat™

Don’t Flick Your Headlights At Cars With Lights Off

When rumors began to spread that Amtrak would soon raise its fares in 2005, what did you do?

A little under a year ago, Amtrak announced that it was raising fares — some marked up 59 percent. While monthly pass sales have fallen, revenue is up a whopping 3 percent. Many passengers have decided to go the SEPTA/NJ Transit route to New York City instead of paying higher Amtrak fees.

But, there was a time when the fare increase was just a rumor, and that forced one resident to make a move right then and there:

In the summer of 2005, when James Walker left his longtime job with a New York nonprofit for a foundation post with the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, rumors of a hefty Amtrak fare hike were a factor.

Yep. I always like to take rumors into account when making important life decisions.

Amtrak fares up; ridership adapts [Inquirer]

If You’re Wondering Where Faye Flam Gets Her Column Ideas…

July 17, calls from readers:

A reader named Bob called me a second time last week to urge me to visit a clothing-optional beach in New Jersey - at Sandy Hook. That’s almost in New York, so I took a shortcut and visited on the Web.

July 24, emails from readers:

July is dominance/submission month, or so it would seem from the strange confluence of e-mail that readers sent. First came a couple of e-mails from “Brian.” Brian is looking for a woman to dominate him, but until he finds his dream dominatrix, he said he’d like me to help him practice by occasionally telling him to go to bed. He usually retires about 11, but said it would be really fun if I ordered him to bed at, say, 10.

Today, rumors:

It sounded incredible. A species that can live virtually forever, enjoy sex well into its second century, and bypass menopause completely. ¶ Rumor had it such a charmed life belonged to a humble turtle that inhabited the marshlands of the Jersey Shore.

Next week? Some really sexy smoke signals.

Terrapins: At well past 100, they’re in the mood [Inquirer]

Sixers For Sale?

The Boston Globe had this interesting item buried deep within an NBA notes column yesterday. It said, in essence, Comcast was going to sell the Sixers almost imminently. Then it contained this sentence: “The Sixers’ announced attendance was down about 7.5 percent last season and the Allen Iverson-Chris Webber marriage seems to be working about as well as the Julia Roberts-Lyle Lovett union did.”

Okay, so that sentence should make you less likely to trust the article. But the Comcast Spectacor brass just issued a non-denial denial: “We receive expressions of interest from time to time…. we’re not actively selling the team.”

Which means… hey, maybe the team is for sale. Joe Juliano notes all the Sixers’ recent problems in an article in today’s Inquirer, but notes that the team is worth upwards of $351 million, according to Forbes.

It’d seem a little strange for Comcast to deal the 76ers, since they also own the Flyers and the stadium both teams play in. And, yeah, the attendance is dropping, but just five years ago the team had the highest attendance it ever had.

Still, there’s one nagging question that makes us think this report is just a bit off: Who in their right minds would want to buy the 76ers?

For sale: Philadelphia 76ers [Boston Globe, 2nd item]
Executive: Sixers not for sale [Inquirer]

Leftovers: Welcoming Our New Handbag Overlords

• Today at 30th Street Station (aka Ben Station): The world’s largest handbag! The 22 (width) by 20 (height) by 7 (depth) bag is part of a celebration of the 10th anniversary of Philly non-profit Career Wardrobe and is an attempt to get into the Guiness Book of World Records. Frankly, we’re a little worried it’s for a giant. [Inquirer/It's A Big Dill]

• PW managing editor Liz Spikol has begun videoblogging. Fantastic stuff. Look for the “Dan McQuade Plays With Puppies” videoblog to start up any day now. [The Trouble With Spikol]

• One of the four teenagers accused of attempting a Columbine-style attack on New Jersey’s Winslow High School pled guilty today, citing the fact that threatening to shoot up a school is so 1999. [Inky]

• A SW Philly massage parlor was robbed on Sunday night, which led a patron to tell police he had gone there “for a steam.” Is that what the kids are calling it nowadays? [Daily News]

• Philly Future’s current top post is this 684-word opus about a hole in the sidewalk in Ardmore. Truly, citizen journalism has reached its apex. [Philly Future]

• Breaking: Is Fidel Castro dead? [Wonkette]

Rumor Watch: From Pundit To Politician?

There’s no story to link to, because this is all they have currently up there on the Huffington Post. I’m not quite sure when, exactly, he’d be running — it’s a little late to jump into the fray for 2006. Would he be going for Specter’s seat in ‘08? Or perhaps Chris Matthews is considering running for Senate in 2010 in the same way I am: If some sort of giant bomb hits State College and 99.99 percent of PA residents were killed off — if the bomb was big and was dropped during a Penn State game, it’s possible — I’d probably make a run at the senate, provided I could beat my dad in the primary. Shit, you have to be 30, don’t you? Oh, nevermind.

Let’s hope Matthews makes a run. It’d give Will Bunch material for about the next 30 years.

Update: Oh snap! Should have read Bunchy’s site first, since he already has an analysis of Matthews running as an independent in 2006. Since I feel more people are familiar with SNL parodies of Matthews than his actual show — and nobody watches SNL — I don’t think he’d have much of a shot, but, eh, wouldn’t you vote for Matthews over man-on-dog fearmongerer Rick Santorum? Or, for that matter, over noted zombie Bob Casey?

We’re Hearing… [Huffington Post via Wonkette]