• From 12:30PM to 2PM today, you will find members of the Philadelphia Youth Chess Challenge plying their skills at the Shops at Liberty Place. Passersby are invited to play, but beware! We bet you will get your ass handed to you.
• As you've probably noticed, it's been hot and humid around here recently, which is uncomfortable and disgusting for everybody, but can also be deadly for some, especially the elderly. The Inquirer has an article about how people are coping, and helping other people cope.
• As part of a "Day of Outrage" organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network with the purpose of demanding a single standard of decency from the music industry, 40 people gathered outside the FYE at Broad and Chestnut on Tuesday and protested "the use of the words 'nigga,' 'bitch' and 'ho' in hip-hop lyrics."
• The case of the murdered man with one wife in Montgomery County and another in Morocco has taken a not entirely surprising turn with the charging of Myra Morton, the man's Montco wife, with his killing. By the time you read this post, she should have already turned herself in to authorities, according to Inquirer sources.
• Starting tomorrow and continuing for 16 days, the El will be closed from 40th to 69th Streets. Shuttle buses will replace train service. But the closure is for the best, as it's part of the $567 million rebuilding of the El in West Philadelphia, a project which should be complete by 2009.
• The West Philadelphia man accused in the July 22 triple murder inside Abay's Wheeler Bar in Southwest Philadelphia has hired his own lawyer rather than use the services of the public defender, so his preliminary hearing was postponed yesterday to give the new lawyer more time to prepare.

Photo of a particularly hot day in Philly's past by Flickr user bearclau