HOLCOMB: NO NEWSPAPER STRIKE TONIGHT “We’re not going to finish tonight,” said Local President Henry Holcomb at 9:42 p.m., during a break in negotiations. “We will keep talking as long as we are making progress, and we are.” For that reason, a strike will not be called tonight. Negotiators for both sides will continue talking until the federal mediator sends them home for the night. They will return tomorrow to resume talks. This is not an “extension,” Holcomb said. Even though the contract expires at midnight, it will remain in effect. “We will keep talking and keep making progress,” Holcomb […]
Stop The Presses: HANDICAPPING THE HANDICAPPED or So Fucked I Can’t Believe It
IF THEY SETTLE: The ownership will have expended all goodwill and local-boys-make-good political capital earned from buying the Inky/DN out of Knight-Ridder indentured servitude and now leads a dispirited and mutinous newsroom aboard a creaking wooden ship into the darkening seas of print journalism’s final voyage, hoping against hope that the scout team sent to Online Island returns with news of a place to dock, potable water and low-hanging fruit that can sustain the captain and crew into the sunset of senescence. IF THEY STRIKE: Guild puts out online paper and really gets the hang of this Web content thing […]
Junk Science: THE SELLING of SICKNESS
ELIZABETH FIEND REPORTS: Pharmaceutical corporations hire PR firms to sell disease like they do sneakers. “Just do it” becomes “just take it” — the little purple pill, that is. Do you have a going problem, or is it a growing problem? One pill (Viagra) makes you larger and one pill (Avodart) makes you small. But the question remains, do they do anything at all? Go ask Alice. Alice went to sleep one night feeling perfectly fine. The next day she woke up to learn she had high blood pressure! Absolutely nothing about her changed, her numbers were exactly the same. […]
HOLLA: GUNS! WEED! COPS! Say It Ain’t So, SNOOP!
THE WOOK REPORTS: Wait a second — am I to discern from yesterday’s news that Snoop Dogg’s an unrepentant and heavily-armed stoner? Exactly. That incredulous, “how far outside of the pop cultural beltway do you hover, Wook” sentiment is exactly how the LAPD must feel every time they have to do some limpin’ to the pimpin’, whether it be at LAX or outside the NBC Studios. The fact is that after a decade of extolling the virtues of the sticky icky icky clear across the commercial landscape – be it music, film, porn or kids books – “Snoop as stoner” […]
REALITY CHECK: Oh,You Mean THAT Gun?
F.B.I. ARREST PHILADELPHIA PHILANTHROPIST EX-CON (CBS 3) PHILADELPHIA Philadelphia Philanthropist Joseph Mammana was arrested at his Bucks Countyjoe2.jpg An F.B.I. arrest affidavit released Thursday states businessman Joseph Mammana, owner of Yardley Farms LLC, was arrested for a firearms violations. The affidavit states, “Mammana knowingly possessed in and affecting interstate and foreign commerce a firearm after previously having been convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year in prison.” Authorities said the F.B.I. searched Mammana’s home in the 600 block of Sedgley Avenue in Yardley, Wednesday, in connection to an I.R.S. investigation, seeking tax and business records. During the […]
THE NEW PANIC: Bicyclin’ BUTT Grabber Passes Torch To Pistol-Packin’ Toe SUCKer In Pageant of Fear
Authorities say attacker has a foot fetish The Center City groper — who authorities now say has a foot fetish — yesterday sent police chasing after fresh leads and women shopping for pepper spray. The man, armed with a black handgun, has robbed and groped five women, age 21 to 55, mostly in the early-morning hours in and near Center City since Nov. 18. In some cases, he has ordered them to remove their shoes so he could touch their toes, authorities said. INQUIRER: No Word Yet From The Mayor About A Shoe Ban
EARLY WORD: Girl, You’ll Be A Woman…SOON!
(Got an event that needs some love? Well, you better have a badass flyer or ain’t nobody goin — no how. Seriously. And send it to feed@phawker.com. Like, early and shit. We’ll let you know if it sux or not. Because, really, you should know.)
ROMAN HOLIDAY: A Citizenry Clawing Each Other’s Eyes Out To Get The Short End Of The Stick Is News?
In ancient Rome, at night, when they were drunk and high, and feeling poorly about themselves, they used to toss bread in the alleys and shoot the rats with machines guns as they scrambled for the crumbs. And then they would feel better about themselves. That, as much as anything else, explains why Rome burned. Today, we shoot them with TV cameras and it makes us here at Phawker Industries feel very Roman. So much so that we burn every time Jim Gardner fiddles. [Hat tip to The Wook]
ASK MOTHER PHAWKER: The Importance of Wearing Clean Underwear To EVERY Book Club Meeting, Not Just Some
Dear Mother Phawker: My wife is a member of a book club whose members meet once a month, rotating from one house to the next. Two weeks ago, my wife was the host, and I watched as our living room filled with about 10 women. I played a support role in the proceedings, keeping the refreshments flowing and the food bowls filled. Everything was fine until I bumped into one of the club members in the hall. We’ve been friends for several years, and she’s always been welcome in our home — maybe too welcome. She smiled at me and […]
QUESTION: When Is A Serial Killer NOT A Serial Killer? ANSWER: When The Victims Are Sex Workers And BILLIONS of Casino Tourist Dollars Are At Stake
ATLANTIC CITY – Identifying the four women whose decomposing bodies were found facedown in a ditch behind a strip of seedy West Atlantic City motels last week had been the most pressing task for investigators. Now police face the daunting task of finding their killer. Yesterday, authorities identified the fourth victim – the youngest – as Molly Jean Dilts, 20, an unemployed fast-food cook from Blairsville in Western Pennsylvania. She last spoke to relatives on Oct. 7, after going to Atlantic City with her boyfriend. Sometime after that, her family filed a missing persons report with police, authorities said. “She […]
STOP THE PRESSES: And Fire Up The Internets, There’s A New Paper In Town And You Can’t Read It On The Can
From Sgt. Byko’s Lips To Our Ears: Guild And The Company are in FINAL bargaining meeting, could last an hour, could last 48 hours, but if THE STRIKE comes: Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News staffers to launch competing online paper if workers strike By Associated Press Wednesday, November 29, 2006 – Updated: 08:14 AM EST PHILADELPHIA – The largest union at Philadelphia’s two biggest daily newspapers is planning to launch\ an online newspaper to compete with the company Web site if workers go on strike after midnight on Thursday. Employees from The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News would contribute local […]
The Resurrection Of GREGG FOREMAN?
FROM PITCHFORK: Chan Marshall has recruited Dirty Three’s Jim White, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s Judah Bauer, the Delta 72’s Gregg Foreman, and Lizard Music’s Erik Paparozzi to accompany her on the rest of her tour dates this year, under the appropriate band name of “Dirty Delta Blues”. Four of those dates feature White and Bauer as the opening act and two will be in California for New Year’s celebrations with Gnarls Barkley and the Flaming Lips. PREVIOUSLY: Heroin Is Cool WILL Fuck Your Shit Up [PW]