Things In Coatesville Still Not Great

As you might’ve heard, there have been 13 arsons in Coatesville in the last four weeks, including one on Saturday that burned 15 homes.

Sadly, though, for Coatesville’s residents, things are going to get worse before they get better. Case in point: The Guardian Angels are coming to town! Curtis Silwa and his crew did such a bang-up job patrolling SEPTA, they’re headed to Coatesville to… I dunno, walk around and try to catch someone setting more fires.

And even the city’s charity isn’t working out: The Coatesville Memorial Community Center has put a stop to collecting food and clothing: “The community center at 99 9th Ave. in Coatesville has so much donated clothing that it is hard for it to provide all its normal recreation activities[.]”

Oof. Is there anything people out there can be happy about? Why, yes! The West Chester Daily Local — which did this amazing year-end video — has a new video out with the same awesome narrator. I think he’s doing a Walter Winchell impersonation, but I can’t really be sure. You know what? Forget the other links in this post. You really need to hear the first 10 seconds or so of the video.

Photo by Cyberesque used under a Creative Commons license

How Dare You Try To Help Cure AIDS In Africa

As you probably know, recently Warren Buffet decided he was going to give away all his money. He’s giving it to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is dedicated to things like AIDS prevention in Africa, eradicating diseases in third world countries and the like.

Well, one recent letter writer in the Camden Courier-Post thinks that’s not quite the best thing:

Is the United States part of this world gift? The United States has poverty like we can’t even imagine. Kids are hungry every day. There are diseases to cure right here in our own backyard. We have families who lose their homes through money and/or job problems and families who need money to fix their homes after hurricanes and floods.

I think helping our own country should come first. These Third World countries are beyond help. The help these other countries should get is a strong dose of birth control. The amount of people in these countries multiplies at a mind-boggling rate and the population of them is not going to lessen any time soon whether they get $33 billion in aid or not. [...]

There are families who need money for operations for their children but don’t have health care insurance. Why not give them the money they need, tax free, of course.

Buffet is very generous — but it looks as though he is being generous to every other country but his own. The Gates Foundation has enough money. The American people need some, too.

Yeah. Screw you, Warren Buffet, for deciding to donate to a charity that operates mainly overseas! What a jerk.

Warren Buffet emptying his pockets for charity [WABC]
Here here [Camden Courier-Post]

Have Lunch With Mike Mamula! (No Felons Or Angry Eagles Fans, Please)

Burrowed deep in the depths of Michael Klein’s column in the Inquirer today is a little auction being held on eBay. Turns out, if you have a few hundred bucks to spend, you can win a lunch date with none other than former Eagles first round draft pick Mike Mamula!

Mamula, of course, is famous for being a first round bust for the Eagles. Though he wasn’t as bad as some make him out to be, the Eagles traded up to get the “workout wonder” — his draft stock rose due to incredible pre-draft workouts — and passed on Warren Sapp to get him.

The auction’s current high (and only) bid is a cool $300. It benefits the United Way and ends June 10. However, there’s some interesting fine print:

Lunch will be in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, on an agreeable date and time; the cost of lunch will be the responsibility of the winner (not to exceed $50.00). The winner will also be required to complete a personal background check.

We’ll put it in sports terms. Remember when the Eagles built their new stadium, season ticket holders could purchase a “Personal Seat License,” granting them the right to buy better season tickets. Think of the Mike Mamula auction as a PSL: You’re only bidding for the right to have lunch with Mamula — after that, you gotta fork over another fifty bucks for his food.

Lunch with Mike Mamula to benefit United Way Charity [eBay]
Briefly noted [Inky, fourth item]

$40,000 worth of bobblehead bling

A press release came across my desk the other day, and it’s quite possibly a new sign of the apocalypse:

Sports Radio 610 WIP’s Howard Eskin is proud to announce that this year’s “Eskin Bobblehead” raised over $40,000 for charity. The Eskin Bobblehead, available at kingbobblehead.com, sold out even quicker than last year’s. It also generated more money for charity.

Well, at least Howard is using his fame for good.

Full press release after the jump.

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