Leftovers: Fire, Water, Sue

• PECO is probing the cause of yesterday’s explosion/fire/half-day. But guess what? “Litigation is possible,” according to the Inquirer. Dun dun dun! [Inky]

• Several commenters on this thread have proposed John Kruk as the Phillies’ new manager. It’s official: Beerleaguer has gotten too popular. Then again, who could resist the dreamy Jason Weitzel? [Beerleaguer]

• Yesterday, the Space Shuttle Atlantis returned to earth very smoothly. Today, an astronaut fainted at a press conference. (The astronaut is okay.) It was not the one from Philadelphia, though. Hooray! [AP/CNN.com]

• Two more homicides in Philadelphia this morning — a 19-year-old and a 20-year-old. Sigh. [Inky]

• And, finally, Sweeney is hosting the Dog Olympics tomorrow. Oh, now this is an event for the ages. [Philebrity]

Leftovers: Hey There, Blimpy Boy

• The feds arrested 115 illegal immigrants over the past five days in Pennsylvania and Delaware. Holy Geno’s, Batman! [AP/6 ABC]

• The blimp flight that was the dream of seniors went off yesterday, although high winds grounded at least one person’s turn on the blimp. (They went one at a time, it seems.) Alas. [Doylestown Intelligencer]

• NB to vandals: The police have access to your Myspace bragging, too. [Inquirer]

• The space shuttle Atlantis is cleared for landing! Chris Ferguson can come back to Earth and prep for a parade down Woodhaven Road. [AP/Phillyburbs.com]

Leftovers: First They Came For The Marlboro Men, And I Did Not Speak Out Because I Was Not A Marlboro Man…

• The Bulletin on the Smoking Ban: “The anti-smoking Nazis have passed their first Nuremberg law, and more will follow.” Because if you can’t compare genocidal facism to a not being able to light up in a bar, what can you compare it to? [Bulletin]

• The Inquirer’s Marc Narducci asks if Eagles fans are overrated because he saw a few people leaving the game early Sunday. As a commenter pointed out, the Eagles certainly left the game before any of their fans did. And who the hell is Marc Narducci (or anyone, really) able to judge who is a “true” fan or not? That being said, Eagles fans did get way too many votes in the most recent AP poll. [Eye on the Eagles]

• Your three new City Councilpeople come November, ladies and gentlemen: Carol Campbell, William Greenlee and Daniel Savage. How many people saw that list and said, “Wait. The writer of Savage Love is running for City Council?” [AP/Philly.com]

• Terrell Owens is now “likely” to rejoin the Dallas Cowboys for their Oct. 8 game at the Linc. ARAMARK breathes sigh of relief, buys 50 billion kegs of Bud Light in advance of game. [AP/Yahoo!]

• And now for the latest edition of Northeast-Philadelphian-In-Space: The shuttle Atlantis has had its return delayed due to a piece of debris that may have floated out of the craft. They’re likely to return Thursday or Friday now, upon which Chris Ferguson will get a celebratory shopping spree at Franklin Mills. [AP/CNN.com]

Leftovers: Tough Break

• Jevon Kearse, injured near the end of the Eagles’ loss to the Giants yesterday, is out for the year with a knee injury. Gee, yesterday’s game just keeps getting better and better. Tomorrow, the team’s going to announce that anthrax was accidentally released at the game and everyone needs to get tested. [Inquirer]

• Wireless Philadelphia has a pricetag! $21.95 a month. (The “Digital Inclusion” — read: poor — rate is $9.95.) The service hasn’t even started yet, and the rates have already gone up from the $20/month promoted when the city signed the deal. Capitalism sure is a hideous bitch goddess. [Civil Defense]

• In New Jersey, the state will no longer pick up deer carcasses, which means driving in Jersey just got about a million times more awesome. [AP/Camden Courier Post]

• Just after Chris Ferguson, the astronaut reared in Northeast Philly, leaves the space station, there’s a toxic spill. Coincidence? Yeah, most certainly. [Reuters/CNN.com]

• Hey, Bob Casey can talk!

Leftovers: Buy, Eagles Fans, Buy

• The Eagles will be selling 1500 standing-room only tickets for each home game tomorrow morning, sending IT departments into a frenzy when they realize that every single person at the office is constantly refreshing the Eagles homepage. [Daily News]

• John Perzel has proposed a huge increase in police officers all over the state, including 1,300 new cops in Philly alone. Perzel: “We’re here today to send a clear message to the drug-dealing thugs, the illegal gun-pushers, and all those responsible for terrorizing our neighborhoods and communities - your days are numbered.” Drug-dealing thugs had a mixed reaction to the news. [Inquirer]

• Herb Denenberg answers the tough questions: “Question: Can an insurance company refuse to insure my dog?” [The Evening Bulletin]

• Is it any coincidence that when a Northeast Philadelphia native is in space, the astronauts lose a bolt into the abyss? I think not. [AP/CNN.com]

• Now you can get to Harrisburg in 90 minutes instead of two hours! Yay? Hurrah? Does anyone actually travel to Harrisburg? [AP/Philly.com]

Astronaut Finally Goes To Place More Desolate Than NE Philly

Chris Ferguson, the Northeast Philadelphia native who had to sit through weeks of delays of the launch of his first shuttle flight, has finally popped his microgravity cherry.

Ferguson (at right) and the rest of the astronauts took two days to get from Earth to the International Space Station. The AP reported that he had a wide grin as he was given a tour of the ISS. Hurrah!

The crew is on schedule for its very important mission: Installing solar panels on the space station. If you’re scoring at home, that means we can use solar energy reliably, but only if we travel two days into space first. Hey, it’s a start.

Shuttle Atlantis Docks at Space Station [AP/Phillyburbs.com]
Space Shuttle [NASA]
Archives: Chris Ferguson

Northeast Philadelphian Will Apparently Never Make It Into Space

Another day, spaceship delay.

Ex-Northeast Philadelphian Chris Ferguson was originally scheduled to go into space Aug. 27, but Hurricane Ernesto delayed the launch. Since then, there have been about four days prepared for launches, but various problems with fuel sensors have delayed the mission.

Today was the latest fuel sensor to delay the mission, and NASA said they’ll likely try again tomorrow. But, really, don’t expect the shuttle to launch tomorrow, either: It’s clear that space doesn’t want a Northeast Philadelphian, and is doing everything it can to stop it. Alas.

NASA manager: 24-hour launch delay likely [CNN]
Shuttle Has Another Glitch, Faces Possible Launch Delay [KYW 1060]
Aug. 18: Northeast Philly Renaissance Continues: Ex-NEstie To Go Into Space

Northeast Philly Renaissance Continues: Ex-NEstie To Go Into Space

Okay, so Bianca Ryan’s million dollars is a pretty big thing to happen to Northeast Philadelphia; probably the biggest thing since, uh, ever.

But Ryan might’ve just been one-upped by Chris Ferguson, who is slated to head into space at the end of the month. Space? Holy shit! (Ferguson is also a fellow alum of St. Martha’s grade school, although our similarities pretty much end there, since he’s successful.)

During his roughly 12 days in space, the 44-year-old Ferguson will “conduct high-intensity robotics operations and perform administrative jobs,” according to the Northeast Times. (That second part kind of makes him sound like a space secretary.) Ferguson also plays drums in a “rock and roll band,” according to his NASA bio.

The main point of the mission is to install solar panels on the International Space Station. But it’s not just that:

“Expanding your horizons doesn’t come without a cost,” he said, adding that Earth is a small planet in a large universe.

NASA’s long-term goal is to go farther into the universe, perhaps to Mars or back to the moon. It might be generations before NASA gets back to the moon or centuries before Earth can colonize another planet, but Ferguson is glad to be doing his part to advance the cause.

“You have to start some place,” he said.

And, really, what better place to start than by installing some solar panels. Godspeed.

Off he’ll go… [Northeast Times]
Christopher J. Ferguson [NASA]