Bad Ex-Sixer Says Team Is Better Without Good Ex-Sixer

Ooh! Ooh! I know who else they’re better off without!

(By the way, last night’s box score: John Salmons, 17 minutes, 0 points.)

Salmons: Sixers better off without A.I. [Daily news]

Hipsters Continue Infiniti Media Blitz

I must say, I was so enamored by the Joey Sweeney/Philebrity Infiniti testimonial that I missed this continuation of the Philebrity/Infiniti crossover later in the magazine (click to enlarge):

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m picking one up tomorrow.

Yesterday: Hipsters Now Popular Enough To Shill $30K Cars

Milton Playing Musical Chairs With Lawyers

Sometimes we must have forgotten why Milton Street — duck boat operator, mayor’s brother, hot dog vendor, mayoral candidate, traffic ticket scofflaw — was in the news in the first place. He is, of course, facing trial for fraud and tax evasion after he was indicted last year. (Be sure to take note of the headline on that Nov. 28, 2006 link: “Milton Street Indicted, To Announce Mayoral Bid Soon.” Prophetic.)

Of course, he’s pretty much done everything but prepare for his trial in the last few weeks, focusing instead on his mayoral bid, his wacky interviews with the local media and coming up with old movies to pinch campaign slogans (Watermelon Man) and/or campaign ideas (Police Academy 4) from.

Well, apparently, that’s not the best legal defense strategy, as Street’s court-appointed lawyer has quit due to a difference of opinion with Street on how to handle the case. Perhaps, the Inquirer’s Robert Moran theorizes, she wanted him to stop running for mayor and stop giving interviews to any schmoe with a microphone. But no one would say, and Street later said he wasn’t sure why his lawyer, Jeanne K. Damirgian, quit the case.

The Daily News, however, quotes from court papers to show that it wasn’t just a lawyer leaving, it was more like a divorce.

Last Thursday, Damirgian filed court papers saying her professional relationship with Street had “deteriorated,” the two had “irreconcilable differences,” and she no longer wanted to represent him.

Oh, Milton. Keep up the good work, buddy.

Milton’s own lawyer has had enough [Inquirer]
Lawyer quits Milton’s case [Daily News]

Independent Speaker To Piss Off Everyone, Hopefully

Newly elected State House Speaker/professional soul stealer Denny O’Brien is in an interesting position: He’s the Republican Speaker of the House, but the Democrats hold a one-seat edge.

As you may remember, ex-Speaker — and current “Speaker Emeritus,” a new title somebody made up to make him feel better — John Perzel had a naked, sex-crazed legislator agree to vote for him so he could stay as Speaker. But then the Democrats came up with a trick of their own and randomly nominated Denny O’Brien as Speaker, getting some Republicans to vote for him instead of Perzel and giving the Democrats a chance to still have some power.

Of course, this leaves O’Brien in a tough position. He’s a Republican, so he’s not going to defer to the Democrats too much, I assume, or else the party will find someone to run against him in Northeast Philly (or something). But if he defers to the Republicans too much, the Democrats will just find somebody else to put in that spot. And if he’s totally 100 percent independent and fair, both parties are going to be begging for John Perzel to be back by the summer. (If both parties are pissed, you know he’s doing a good job.)

He tells KYW 1060’s Tony Romeo, though, he’s going to go the independent route:

“So those who see only weakness in the speaker model, do not confuse independence with ineffectiveness. To those who seek only to preserve the status quo, the public has spoken and continues to speak loudly: no more.” [Do you really think the public speaks in such angry, simple, vapid terms? Wait, that makes sense. —ed.]

O’Brien says his role as a speaker of the minority party represents a “paradigm shift” in House governance, one where the speaker will not give up authority but instead will administer it fairly across the board.

Administer it fairly across the board, eh? I give him six months until both parties hire a pack of wild dogs to tear him apart.

New Pa. House Speaker Highlights His ”Independence” [KYW 1060]

Abridged ‘Daily News’ Columnists

Ronnie Polaneczky: “Ninety percent of the CEOs in the biggest American corporations didn’t go to Ivy League schools, while a number of notorious criminals - including Michael Milken and the Unabomber - sure did.” 100 percent of the good columnists in the world don’t work for the Daily News, while a number of the shittiest ones sure do. What, no Ira Einhorn reference? (Or: I know someone who will be playing the don’t-vote-for-Michael-Nutter because-he’s-smart-and-went-to-Penn and-would-do-a-good-job card in a few months!)

Carol Towarnicky: People should work!

Toll Brothers Destroying Open Land, Frogs

Andrew Leonard’s “How the World Works” column on Salon wrote about Toll Brothers the other day. And, apparently, in addition to building McMansions all over Jersey — possibly built by Jeff Thomason — they’re also, uh, killing frogs?

California is a strange land that prefigures possible futures for the world. The Toll Brothers’ Dublin Ranch is one version. The frogs peeping on Morgan Territory Road are another. The struggle to keep one version from destroying all others is eternal.

I think that’s what he’s trying to say. But, then again, I read paragraphs like this

The paradox that I had plenty of time to think about as I waited for the lights to change at the humongous intersections standing ready for the hordes of cars to come, is that the San Francisco Bay Area can be simultaneously home to such car-centered contemporary culture, and to one of the largest community of progressive activists dedicated to smart growth and ecological sustainability in the world. And while from my corner of the blogosphere I find myself fascinated by such topics as China’s environmental chaos and biopiracy in the Amazon rain forest and genetically modified cotton in the Warangal district of India’s Andhra Pradesh, right in my backyard, a titanic struggle between the capitalist-driven tendency for unrestrained development and the hard-headedness of Bay Area open space activists is being fought every day.

and I spend the rest of the article saying to myself, “How can you write so many fucking words and not say anything?” Also, I believe anyone who writes “from my corner of the blogosphere” should be punched, repeatedly, by me. Ah, shit, I got about 20 people to get to.

The battle for California, as seen by bike [Salon (you have to watch an annoying ad first)]

Philly Love #63: Central Girls Hoops

Almost every year, Central High School’s girls’ basketball team makes it to the public league championship. And every year, they have girls that look like this.

Seriously, what do they feed the girls at Central? It’s like this every year; girls who could not only kill me with one punch, but can do a pretty good job driving to the hoop as well! Did you see that one girl’s play? She’s, like, Charles Barkley but she can make a sweet spin move to the basket.

Perhaps this is why, even though I couldn’t watch a WNBA game if you paid me to, I always, without fail, enjoy both the boys’ and girls’ public league championship games every year. (Plus, there’s always some unintentional hilarity from announcer Don Tollefson.)

Leftovers: Heroic Rock Shows Kindness

• My campaign to have the news media stop anthropomorphizing famous animals continues to hit snags with this headline from the Inquirer: “Puppy rescued in Camden shows gratitude, fortitude.” [Inquirer]

• PennDOT was way ahead of you this time, salting the roads and making sure there was no backup on Interstate 78 this week to battle the huge ice storm we were sure to get in these above-freezing temperatures. [Bucks County Courier Times]

• Oh, yea, the Eagles decided not to bring back the 37-year-old quarterback who was terrible in Cleveland and Detroit and half-decent here in favor of the younger guy with more hair. Fans will continue to argue Jeff Garcia vs. AJ Feeley, as well as which guy has the hotter girlfriend (Carmella DeCesare vs. Heather Mitts). [Inquirer]

• Seventeen people were arrested after a brawl at Camden High School. Six people went to the hospital. Huzzah. [Camden Courier-Post]

• Whoever Photoshopped Mickey Mantle and George W. Bush onto Derek Jeter’s Topps card this year, I owe you a beer. [Sports Collectors Daily via Deadspin]

Mayor Street Upset By Hypothetical Philly Disaster, Still Ambivalent About Current Philadelphia Disaster

If you’re wondering what has John Street’s ire these days, it’s not the city’s murder rate, or the lack of snow removal last storm, his brother Milton or even the terrible play of the Flyers and 76ers.

No, he’s upset about a new book that hypothesizes about a terrorist attack in Philadelphia. That’s not the whole point of Stephen Flynn’s The Edge of Disaster — which “offers a chilling Philadelphia scenario in which terrorists target the Sunoco refinery, causing toxic fumes to drift over Citizens Bank Park packed with Phillies fans” — but it’s gotten Street up in arms nonetheless:

“They ought to be qualified in a way so that they’re not calculated or likely to create any kind of panic in Philadelphia, New York or any other cities.”

With any luck, this will happen during a Phillies-Mets game, taking out a bunch of North Jersey residents in the process. Hey, you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.

New Terrorist Book Upsets Mayor Street [KYW 1060]

Hipsters Now Popular Enough To Shill $30K Cars

You might be wondering just what the above photo is. Or, if you know who the people are, you might be wondering just why Philebrity power couple Joey Sweeney and Ruth Carpenter are standing in front of their Nolibs loft palming an Infiniti G.

Well, I’ll clue you in: Sweeney and Carpenter are featured in a three-page “Special Advertising Section” (read: advertisement) for the Infiniti G, which they enjoyed on a weekend at the Tropicana. (”Of course!” you’re saying as you slap your head. “Of course this blogger and his girlfriend were featured in a three-page spread about their weekend with a $30,000 car at the Tropicana in Atlantic City! I should have known that!”)

Follow me after the jump for an in-depth analysis of the advertisement.

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