Atlantic City’s Signature Attractions

And you thought the Trump Marina was classy: Ivanka’s pop has sold the Atlantic City casino to a group that plans to turn it into the Margaritaville casino; a KYW 1060 reports the “Maragitaville Marina Resort Casino” is “for those who are fans of the Buffet lifestyle as portrayed in his music.” Indeed! It will be the second Margaritaville hotel; another is under development in Biloxi, Miss.

That’s not all that’s going on in Lannick Siddy. The Borgata’s new $400 million tower is set to open sometime next month. Oh, sorry, not a tower:

Borgata executives resist using the term “tower” to describe The Water Club, preferring instead to call it a “signature hotel.”

Ahh, yes. Signature hotel it is. It will look so classy next to Kahunaville or whatever.

[one of these via Down the Shore with Jen]

SEPTA Google Maps Update

The SEPTA Google Maps hack recently updated to the new API, which adds a fun little search box in the corner so you can search for a bar or whatever and then find a SEPTA stop close to it. Neat!

Not-really-related, but also cool: Giant maps of Philadelphia.

[via Livejournal, where I also found this post]

National Spelling Bee Is On!

Adam Bonin has noticed that that Philly’s entrant at the spelling bee competition is completely awesome because she has blue-streaked hair. (Though, personally, I would have gone with the “laser” background.)

Thirteen year-old Hannah Schill (an eighth-grader at Penn Alexander) has spelled volute correctly and is in to Round 3 (Update: Correction, we’re not sure if she’s in round three yet). As usual, follow it at ALOTT5MA.

Update: OMG, sabermetrics was just a word in the bee.

Blog-Powered TV Ad Predictably Great

I had heard a while back about ads funded by readers of some liberal blogs running against Democratic Rep. Chris Carney of Pennsylvania. I didn’t know until today how awesome they were. Ha ha, Monopoly photoshops and scary voiceovers about Bush and Cheney. I think I can safely say any increased influence of the Internet on politics is going to be great.

Fake Grammy Nom Somehow Impresses

Montgomery County authorities arrested a man who allegedly scammed money from people he met online, saying he was a Grammy Award-nominated music producer.

How does that work? I have to assume every woman (at least every woman I know) would immediately look up her date’s award nomination online.

Paul Krueger allegedly gambled away the money he got from the women he met on Millionairematch.com, which just looks like a very reputable site. He was arrested in Atlantic City, to boot.

Online Romeo Scams Women Out Of Thousands [AP/CBS 3]

Only Apply If You’re METAL Enough

Major local media outlet is looking for freelance music journalists who specialize in METAL.

You must be passionate about METAL and have an extensive knowledge of the local METAL scene, relevant bands, releases, and history.

Your Craigslist ad of the day, people. METAL. Thanks, Emily G.

Mike Richards Loves German Engineering

If you’ve watched sports in Philadelphia for any amount of time, you might be familiar with the BMW ads from a dealership called West German. In short: They make buying a BMW from the dealership akin to achieving Nirvana.

We finally caught the famed/hated remix with the Flyers’ Mike Richards remix the other night, and… I must say, this is simply the most convincing testimonial ever. Now switch to Camera 2 one more time.

Phillies Have Yet To Melt Down

Hey, how about that local baseball nine? The Phillies scored six more runs yesterday to get Adam Eaton his first win and sweep the season series with the Rockies (5-0). Take that, NL champs! The Fightins are now 31-24 and have a three-game series this weekend against division leading Florida, who are only a half-game up right now.

After the jump, highlights

More »

Abridged Daily News Columnists

Michael Smerconish: Okay, let’s bring up a bunch of times where cops hitting people on tape, and explain why they were all good. Oh, but this recent one… maybe it wasn’t so okay! But he gives them some options for stories the cops can tell that will make him feel better: “Did they believe that one of the men they were apprehending was wanted for the murder of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski? Did they think the three were involved in the shooting of a civilian? Did they encounter resistance that the camera didn’t pick up? Were any police injured in any way by the three men? Were racial epithets hurled by the men toward police?” What a strange column, even for Smerconish.

Stu Bykofsky: Come on, Stu, enough people know about the Tuskegee Airmen by now — look how long their Wikipedia entry is! — to call them “one of World War II’s least-known outfits.”

John Baer: Ha, ha, Bill Clinton has become a trainwreck of some sort.

Ronnie Polaneczky: Yes, how dare the Boy Scouts attempt to keep their rent-free building with a lawsuit. Come on, they’re just doing the American thing!

Leftovers: Popeye Snuff Strips

This week’s Popeye plot is “Popeye’s girlfriend Olive Oyl attempts to kill herself and fails. Above is Day 3, Day 2, Day 1. What is with this girl and at Comics Curmudgeon.

• Unsurprising news alert: Rick Santorum’s column about gay marriage in Sunday’s Inquirer was all wrong. [Dispatches from the Culture Wars]

• Girls got naked at the Flaming Lips concert. Not safe for work, obviously. [Philebrity]

• Meanwhile, 2 cops are charged with beating up a guy they caught “spray-painting a congratulatory message to a newlywed couple on a wall.” [Daily News]