It's Book Quarterly time! They got fiction, non, and some excerpts. Politics get under their skin, and may keep someone from coming home again. Meanwhile, the PA delegates to the RNC had quite a trek from bed to boardroom. As if Chester didn't have enough issues, now they got the Bloods and Crips running around. Frankly, Philly has enough to worry about without nursing homes, so we tend to agree: get out of the business.......

by Sarah Gormley The best of the internet, chopped into tiny bits and grilled for your enjoyment. Presenting the 2008 Maxim Hometown Hotties semi-finalists from PA. You can check out Nabila, Kimberly, Alexa, and Kayla and vote for your favorite. (via Tom) Though it’s similar to the last one, and grainy, this new trailer for Dark Knight is a favorite over at The Movie Blog. The blaze at Universal Studios on Sunday did a fair......

Hello! Welcome to my gossip blog! It is wonderful that you chose to read me today. Good for you! Here’s what’s hot: Guess which young male heartthrob was seen snuggling with a famous male sports star while his wife and child waited at home? I am not going to tell you, that is between them and their families. Britney Spears was seen at the 50th Birthday party for fashionista Christan Audigier in LA this holiday......

We bring you the buzz from the 215 blogosphere this week. The Illadelph called for a bar to up the awesomeness level at Franklin Square. Beer and mini golf? We're so there. And actually, it just might happen, though not until next summer. Foobooz posted a recession specials guide highlighting the best cheap eats around town. From happy hours with free or discounted food to specials broken out by day of the week and price......

We bring you the buzz from the 215 blogs this week. Philebrity dissected the Comcast/BitTorrent relationship and broke down exactly why it's not good news for anyone. In short, it deals a crushing blow to net neutrality. Well hey, it's not as if Comcast is known for their great business practices. This Phillyist in particular has had one problem after another with the behemoth. Metroblogging pondered Obama's status as a pop culture icon on par......

Here's what went down in the 215 blogs this week, with some unintentional emphasis on cheesesteaks. Dan Gross at the Daily News Philly Gossip blog spilled the latest pseudo-celebrity gossip: cheesesteak mogul Tony Luke Jr. has landed a starring role as a boxer in upcoming film The Nail, set to start shooting in South Philly May 20. We can't wait to have our streets blocked off for camera crews and craft services. In other cheesesteak......

The Daily News takes a look at the problem of domestic violence in the city and the rather poor way that it's dealt with by officials. Foreclosures were down in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in November, as compared to October 2007 and October 2006. Governor Rendell called into 610 WIP to talk about Lanegate. Basically he wanted to explain what her phone call to him had been about (she just wanted someone to hear......

CBS 3 anchor Alycia Lane was arrested at 2:04 AM yesterday at the corner of W. 17th Street and 9th Avenue in NYC for allegedly punching a female police officer in the face. She was locked up in a New York jail cell as of yesterday afternoon. More on this story later. (Via Jason) TV star Bam Margera of West Chester, along with business partner and bar owner Don Moore, plans "to open a theater,......

A steaming hot pile of our favorite things from around the internets. Phillyist Sarah is always tempting this Phillyist with articles on food blogs about inventive things to do with bacon, but this may be our favorite yet - bacon chocolate chip cookies with maple cinnamon glaze. Imagine Homer Simpson with his held tilted back, his eyes glazed over, and drool dripping out of his mouth, and you will understand our reaction. The first Speed......

You gotta wonder about Penn students (and alums too, as it turns out): they shoot up terrorists, steal panties, and now apparently they adopt other people’s identities and swindle them out of loads of cash. To be fair though, Drexel does share some part of the latter, seeing as one of the accused is still a student there. You all know what we’re talking about right? Because it’s in the friggin international news! So Philly......

The cold weather - and holiday festivities - descended upon Gothamist. The Rockefeller Christmas tree was lit, Broadway stagehand finally ended their strike, and NASCAR decided to run their victory lap through Times Square. There were disturbing photographs revealing the working conditions in which many city manholes are produced and ninjas were also a hot topic, either robbing homes or entering into alibis. But the city was really rocked by how Rudy Giuliani's visits......

A steaming hot pile of our favorite things from around the internets. Apparently it's National Fast Food Day! Is that a bell we hear? Perhaps a... taco bell? (Via Sarah) Rumor is that Tom Cruise will play Hugh Hefner in the upcoming biopic. It's kind of a creepy idea, but it sort of works, too. The secret, true name of Cloverfield is supposedly... Cloverfield. Also, there's a new trailer online, but it's a poor quality......

If you were a cool girl, you had a crush on a New Kid. If you were a nerd girl, you had a crush on a graphic artist. Phillyist fell (who are we kidding, falls) into the latter category with a decidedly loud thud. So it is with the drooling affect of an oversexed pre-adolescent that we greet the news that Adrian Tomine, our very first comics crush, will be reading tonight at the Free......

Phillyist loves food. A lot. So much so that when we’re trapped at our desk unable to nosh, we spend a good deal of time online looking at food-related items and salivating on our keyboard. A particular form of torture pleasure is checking out local food blogs and listings so we can fantasize about restaurants and markets that we could be enjoying that very second if it weren’t for the dastardly need for full......

Don't forget that Daylight Savings Time ends this Sunday at 2AM, folks! That means an extra hour of sleep on Sunday morning – and we'll never complain about getting more sleep. (Confused as to why the change is happening so late this year? Just blame the candy lobby...)......

I'm not going to lie: I text a lot. I got into the habit in high school - it was a means for inter-class note passing. Sure, we weren't supposed to have our phones on campus, but our teachers very rarely seemed to notice or care. But even back then, as a cellphone-obsessed teenager, I tried to keep things polite. Not, admittedly, for my teachers (seriously, text messaging in AP statistics is decidedly impolite), but......

We're a little narcissistic. We have a Google News Alert set up to tell us anytime anyone mentions Phillyist on the internets. Usually, it's just a fleeting reference (like a "fleeting expletive," we suppose) to us on someone else's blog – quite often another -Ist blog. So imagine our surprise last night while we were sitting on the sofa watching a backlogged episode of Ugly Betty on our DVR and GMail told us that......

For a band with only a three-song EP to its name, Vampire Weekend sure has polarized the indie rock blogs. It’s like a cage match between hype and backlash: on one side you’ve got a long line of critics and fans hailing the New York band’s refreshingly polyrhythmic, Afro-pop sensibilities, while on the other, there are just as many people resenting the mounting hype or their sunny tunes or both. (You can sample some of......

Performance: Gatz (Part One) (Elevator Repair Service) (Second half and future showtimes) I'm actually not going to review Gatz until after I see the second half tonight, but as this is a diary, meant to track the Phillyist staff's Live Arts/Fringe progress over the course of the festival, I thought I'd at least give the show an endorsement, based on the half that I've seen. Why? Well, because it only runs until Sunday. So I......

A steaming hot pile of our favorite things from around the internets. Here are 20 comic covers on which Superman's secret identity is revealed. Most of them, of course, involve him in some state of undress. (Via) The internet is home to many strange, pathetic, nerdy, ridiculous, hilarious things, and this is one of them! Enter your IP address to hear a woman moan it at you, as if in the throes of ecstasy. Beware,......

Oh, you'd better believe Phillyist will be visiting The Victor Cafe soon. (Via the MenuPages blog, via Sarah, via Editor Jim.)......

The best of the internet, squirted out in flavorful neon globules, just for you. The headline (Creepy Dog Robot Planned for the US Military) almost says it all, but watching the embedded video will complete the picture. *shiver* (Via Jill) More funny scans from scans_daily. Included this time is an amusing comic strip and one hilarious panel from The Tick. Celebrities are taking over the web! Run for your lives! (Uh... any celebs lurking around......

Banner week for SFist as the site's new editor introduced himself -- hooray for Brock! While the NY Times weighed in on SF's mayoral race, only SFist had the (insert tongue firmly into cheek) hard-hitting latest on candidate/activist Josh Wolf. Coverage of a protest vs. gentrification spawned a fantastic debate amongst SFist's readers. Finally, from the sublime to the ridiculous: video of a man that confused a Board of Supes meeting with "open mic......

Hey there, readers! I'm back liveblogging the second day of the First Annual BlogPhiladelphia "unconference." This post will be constantly updating throughout the day, so it's going to stay at the top of the Phillyist main index. But be sure to scroll down for the rest of our regular content, and see full liveblog after the jump! (Meanwhile, forgive us any resulting funny HTML, folks. We're fixing mistakes as soon as we find them.)......

Paris Power Ballad ...Gay? Lindsay Lohan is... confused? (Via The Superficial.) ...Highs: Paris Hilton got high a week after her jail release? Shocking! (Also, we LOVE the expression "heirhead!") (Via What Would Tyler Durden Do?) ...Crazy: We'll bet her hair smells lovely, too. (Via Dailiy Mail.) ...Proposals: Given Charlie Sheen's history with women, we're not too optimistic about this one. (Via Xinhua.) ...Touchy, Touchy: Nick Lachey is a big baby. (Via My Fox NY, via......

The best of the internet, chopped into tiny bits and grilled for your enjoyment. Apropos of Something has declared today International Onomatopoeia Day! We would like to contribute with a great big healthy KRAKA-BA-DOOM!!! CNET blog parent.thesis is making a big deal out of the fact that you have to submit your Social Security number to activated your iPhone, but we're not too outraged or surprised by the news. Who doesn't want your SSN these......

A steaming hot pile of our favorite things from around the internets. The internet is pretty much all Transformers, all the time these days. The latest morphing robot fun comes from Cracked and their list of The 7 Most Useless Transformers Ever. (Via) Wow, this weekend is the 60th anniversary of the Roswell Incident. What really happened? Will we ever know for sure? Why not head out to New Mexico and see if you can......

As you may or may not have heard by now, there's going to be a huge gathering of the minds right here in Philadelphia next week. "What minds?" you might ask. Well, minds just like yours, which is to say: blogger minds. Thursday and Friday of next week will mark the first-ever BlogPhiladelphia "unconference," an opportunity for bloggers in the greater Philadelphia area and beyond to convene and chat about blogging and all other......

Fox 29 anchor and reporter Tom Burlington has been suspended from his duties at the station according to Philadelphia Daily News columnist Dan Gross. The incident appears to have happened during a story meeting about NAACP Philadelphia Youth Council holding a mock funeral last Saturday for the N-word at Dobbins High School, which "offended staffers of all races." The suspension began last Friday, although no reason for the suspension was given. We should also note......

The best of the internet, squirted out in flavorful neon globules, just for you. Heh heh. Hearing somebody actually try to pitch some classic video games of the past makes you realize how insane the premises of some of them really are. (Via) Yay! 1UP has more terrible video game box art for us (via)! Meanwhile, Yahoo has the Top 10 Cheesiest Classic Game Commercials (via). You'd be surprised and amused by what odd combinations......