June 02, 2006

Philly Preteen Totally Awesome; N.J. Teen Slightly Less So

Last night, a girl from New Jersey became the first female since 1999 to win the National Spelling Bee. Pretty cool. The 13-year-old is from North Jersey, but that hasn't stopped the local news from jumping on it. She won on the word ursprache, which means a parent language.

Fair enough. But, uh, she won a spelling bee. Which is fine, but not nearly as cool as a Philadelphia 10-year-old, who dove in front of the EL to save her brother.

KYW 1060 tells the story like so:

Last February 17th, Darien’s mom lost control of the baby’s stroller at an elevated train platform, and Alexandra jumped onto the tracks with a train heading toward them:

“My nephew got caught on a wind gust and his stroller got pushed onto the El tracks. And I had to jump down there because nobody else would. Then I put him up, and I got the stroller, but luckily nothing fell out but a binky.”

First off: Wind gusts can push strollers onto train tracks? Yikes. Second off: That's amazing. Way cooler than winning a spelling bee. Can't somebody give this girl a college scholarship?

Local 10 Year Old Girl Honored As Hero [KYW 1060]
Schoolgirl is first ever from N.J. to win national bee [AP/Inquirer]

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June 01, 2006

Quickies: Vito The Line And Rizzo The Rat

• A man named Vito the Line and Rizzo's son-in-law was charged with running a gambling ring yesterday in Montgomery County. Just set up an Internet gambling business offshore. It's much, much easier. Come on. Frank would have thought of that. [Inquirer]

• Democratic State Rep. Mike McGeehan had a polie report filed against him for cursing at a man who McGeehan said called the office and had previously used profanity. Ahh, Northeast Philly. [Daily News]

• Photoblogger Brad Maule takes a look at The Avenue -- Passyunk, not Frankford -- and finds that there's, uh, not much parking. [phillyskyline]

• O-U-T! (Yeah, yeah.) An Upper Moreland girl is out of the National Spelling Bee after missing on gueridon, a French word meaning a small, round table. French word? Boy, whoever made up that word list must hate America. [Doylestown Intelligencer]

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May 31, 2006

Blogicized: H-E-A-D-L-I-N-E-S L-I-K-E T-H-I-S A-R-E N-O-T C-L-E-V-E-R A-N-Y-M-O-R-E

• Over at A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago, they're liveblogging the preliminary rounds of the spelling bee. One kid actually got to spell Grimace as a word. The definition was, assumedly, "A big giant purple... corporate... spokes... thing... oh, whatever, you know how to effing spell Grimace." [A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago]

• In America, your vote counts. Except when it doesn't. With Bonus "Press 1 for Spanish" things to anger Joseph Vento! [The West End]

• The Fightin' Phils sure could use a pitcher. Everyone knows that. So why was their big offseason move -- besides the Thome trade -- to send Vicente Padilla (a starting pitcher!) to Texas?! Argh! [Phillies Nation]

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April 26, 2006

Leftovers: Snitchin' Ain't Bitchin'

• Ex-Rick Mariano lawyer Nino Tinari is now a consultant with Philip Chartock's defense team, who are now saying Mariano was simply a thief and not someone who could have been bribed. There are so many stories that you just can't make up today. It's been too much. [Inky]

• Despite all this, here's the headline of the day: "NFL Great's Relative Admits Having Sex With Student." Yes, and it's George Halas' great-nephew. That's a bit of a stretch. [NBC 10]

• How do you publicize next month's Phillymag issue? Why, you publish the article about Donald Trump online, because what we really need is to read more about him! The kicker, though: The article's effing detailed, well-sourced and actually just tremendously interesting. One of the better things I've read in a while. Yes, I know. Black is white, and down is up. I can't figure out what the hell's going on, either. [Phillymag]

• Ex-MTV jock Chris Booker is headed to Q102, and the straight ladies and the gay men scream. Meanwhile, everyone else is like, "Holy shit! Q102 still exists?" [Inky]

• This story has everything: A ridiculous interpretation of spelling bee rules, a lot of angry parents, a lot of angry parent backlash and a newspaper editor accusing another newspaper of doing hack jobs on the spelling bee his paper sponsored. It's the scandal of the century in the Lehigh Valley! [A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago]

• A woman in Bucks County has topped that whole newsstand stealing thing: She stole a whole house. She didn't get a crane to pick it up or anything, though -- check fraud is not nearly as cool. [AP/Inky]

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