The shapeless dough of the internet, formed into tasty pellets and baked to perfection, just for you. A father went to a lot of trouble to find a copy of Guitar Hero III for his son for Christmas, but when he caught the kid smoking pot, he put the game up for sale on eBay - and made 9,000 dollars. (Via Ross) A couple of inmates in New Jersey's Union County jail pulled their own......

As Phillyist Sarah pointed out yesterday in a comment on Philly in the News, Mark O'Donnell was arrested yesterday in the murder of Ebony Nicole Dorsey, the daughter of his girlfriend. He's been charged this morning with beating, strangling and sexually assaulting the 14-year-old. Dorsey's mother says the attack came after O'Donnell had been smoking crack all night, but O'Donnell says that's not true and that he caught the girl molesting his daughter. About 100......

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......

The best of the internet, chopped into tiny bits and grilled for your enjoyment. Exer-gaming is the way of the future, people! We know we'd be doing a lot more exercising if it were also a video game. (Via Sarah) Even though we use Microsoft's products every day, and often even enjoy doing so, we have to admit to feeling quite a bit of schadenfreude when we read this article. (Via Sarah) Sad news -......

Happy first weekend of September - and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let's take a look at what's been happening around the Ist-a-verse. The deaths of two firefighters shook Bostonist this week. Boston's firefighters bent over backwards all week long - first, they fought flames pouring from the Boston Tea Party museum, and then a restaurant fire killed two and injured many more. Their efforts make everything else - like Tom......

Chicagoist is gearing up for this weekend's annual Air & Water Show along the lakefront. In what's becoming an annual tradition around there, staff member Todd McClamroch even got to fly with one of the participants. Chicagoist's decidedly opinionated readership was also appalled that one of their staffers found a popular local brewpub to be a great place to bring a kid. They also think that an unlikely activist for immigration rights should just take......

A tall, icy glass of our favorite internet junk, just for you. Our friend Boutell makes a very good point about that McDonalds study we were freaking out about the other day. Now we feel a little better about the state of humanity. So is Heath Ledger a convincing Joker? Another actor on set says, "Hell yes!" Only not in so many words. We do not condone smoking, because it is very bad for you,......

While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton's San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan's cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a......

LAist was comped front row seats by the Dodgers due to Malingering being struck by a foul ball last week, and she came back with some great photos, and earlier made fun of 4th of July on Venice Beach. But the biggest stories of the week was that the Mayor's Hot Tamale was revealed, and that a Kwik-E-Mart was erected in Burbank. Phillyist was busy doing the Fourth of July up right, exercising their......

It's all Fumo, all the time! Fumo might lose his defense counsel! Fumo might sell his house to pay for his defense! Fumo is still an important figure in local politics! Fumo, Fumo, Fumo! Speaking of "fumo," no fumo in PA! Well, sort of. The state senate passed a statewide ban on smoking yesterday, which would theoretically replace Philly's own smoking ban if it were to get signed into law, even though it has so......

A steaming hot pile of our favorite things from around the internets. Extra, extra! Google cares a lot less about the First Amendment than we thought. Think those squirrels you see frolicking in the park are adorable and harmless? Not in Denver, where apparently, they're carrying the plague. On this day ten years ago? Computer Deep Blue Something (how 1997 can you get?!) beats its human opponent in tournament-level chess. In what's surely an attempt......

There's so much going on across the Ist-a-Verse that it's almost impossible to keep track these days. Fortunately, we do it so you don't have to! Londonist took a walk through Oliver Twist's London, thanks to a gorgeous map layer for Google Earth. They also caught up with modern-day fictional London, with the Fantastic Four and 28 Weeks Later. It was a week of insanity over at DCist. They started the week off with......

Hey, how about this lovely weather we're having lately? We've got a nor'easter in the area, today supplying us with flooding, high-speed winds, and snow and rain at the same time. Is it really Springtime, or is it the end of the world? You decide! A U. Penn researcher is using Science!TM to try to disprove a fascinating story about maidens ritually killing themselves in a Mesopotamian tomb 4,600 years ago. The guy who......

Films: Exiled, Sisters Future Screenings: Exiled, April 8 (today), Ritz Five at 2:30PM Sisters, April 10, Prince Music Theater at 9:30PM Yesterday was only my second day at the festival, and already I think I'm losing it! I got to my first screening a full 40 minutes early because I had somehow become convinced that it was at 7PM and not 7:30PM. Then I stood in the wrong line for about 10 minutes. I also,......

...Obsession: We love Hugh Grant, but clearly, we don't love Hugh Grant. (Via Editor Jim, via Cinematical.) ...Schadenfreude: And now, a moment of silence for the poor Bentley that had to be driven by... her. (Via The Superficial.) ...Infection: Here's a happy story about how everyone in Hollywood may very well have the Hep. If not yet, then soon. (Via What Would Tyler Durden Do?) ...Weird: Isn't this what everyone does before rehab? (Via Us......

The Philly Inquirer reports on the trademark/name battle amongst the Olivieris, the city's famous cheesesteak family. Just who is the King of Steaks? Apparently, only the court can decide. Peco and PSE&G both hire crews, as a safety measure, to trim back trees that grow around electrical wires, but often they do a real butcher job, leaving hideously hacked trees in their wake. Many people are angry about this, but the electric companies say......

Dear smokers: It is called a ban. Not a friendly reminder, a polite suggestion, or a mild request. This is purely semantic. A smoking ban. That means that those of you who were smoking in Copa, Too last night, were actually breaking the law. Yeah, yeah. I know. The smoking ban infringes on your rights. Specifically, your right to slowly kill yourselves. And those around you. Sure, there was that one study that indicated that......

It's Fumo all the time over at Philly.com. The Daily News is looking at what will happen if he goes down, and they also have a timeline covering the entire history of his present legal troubles, in case you're a bit lost. The best part may be this litanny of all the juiciest details from Fumo's indictment, although there's a separate article focusing on all the crazy he stuff he paid a private eye......

A new report says Pennsylvania does a bad job at helping people through the last stages of their lives, and suggests some possible improvements to end-of-life care in our state. Bees across the nation, including in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, have been dying at alarming rates and no one knows why - although possibilities include a virus, a fungal pathogen, or new pesticides that could be affecting the insects' ability to find their way home.......

Between fake terrorist alerts and scandals big and small, this just might be the Best Best of the -ists ever. We're exhausted just thinking about it. First up, SFist, who saw their little 'ole site be the center of what was a nice little scandal (even getting their editor on TV) only to find their scandal dwarfed by the even bigger scandal caused by their Mayor boffing the wife of one of his aides.......

At the Galactic show on Thursday night, the attitude was "What smoking ban?" New friends became old friends who passed the bowl without thinking about TLA security guards trying to blend in with the crowd in their maroon t-shirts. The room, about three-quarters full, moved intently, sometimes languidly for those with grey beards and wedding rings; more jerkily for those with bare chests and new curly cues. Maybe it's the whole New Orleans thing. When......

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. Londonist HQ—that is to say, the city of London—was battered by heavy winds, making it a bad time to be a twelve-meter (nearly forty-foot) tall snowman. Still, not everyone decided to keep warmly covered. Meanwhile, back indoors, the Big Brother racism is now causing all kinds of headaches for international diplomats, and Londonist got into......

We don't know about you, but it's friggin cold out there. Well, not for some of you. It seems as though places that are supposed to be cold are warm and places that are supposed to be warm are cold. Or maybe that's just us. Either way, we're freezing. Austinist said goodbye to their co-editor (sell-out) and played rumor monger on the SXSW lineup. And when dozens of dead birds littered downtown Austin, it's......

Yo, Philly Orchestra rocks, man! It received "one of four MetLife awards for Excellence in Community Engagement.... for its Camden Community Partnership Initiative, a three-year-old partnership committed to using musical engagement as a means to improve the economic condition, emotional health, and future outlook of the city." Very nice. Speaking of cool local music stories, check out this article about an 11-year-old sixth-grader who's a talented and accomplished jazz pianist, with his own band......

That ramp at the Linc was swaying again, and this time the movement was even caught on tape. But engineers still insist the ramp is safe and sound. Regardless, it sounds like during the off-season they're going to try to find a way to make it not sway, so fans don't get so freaked out all the time. Fighting crime is clearly going to be the big issue in the 2008 mayoral race, so......

So, apparently, Rocky decided that the patrons of the craptastic bar I live dangerously close to didn't have enough inspiration for their drunken antics under my window. That's right, Rocky himself (not Mr. Stallone) wanted to make absolutely positively sure that they had good reason to be loud during their smoking breaks. So he (not the City's Bureau of Tourism) hung a sign on top of it. The sign says "Rocky Loves Philadelphia." And......

DISCLAIMER: I wrote this months ago. I'm fully cured now. I've been saving it until I thought maybe I wouldn't be embarassed to post it. I still am. But I'm also suffering from Writers' Block. Hello. My name is Katie. I am 22 years old. And I have a yeast infection. This wasn’t always a problem, you know, I didn’t always have this issue. In fact, this is my very first yeast infection. I developed......

The PA Gaming Control Board isn't handing out its two Philly slots parlor licenses until tomorrow, but Mayor Street has already picked one group he'd like to be a recipient: Planet Hollywood's Riverwalk Casino. That just happens to be the group with lots of local minority investors that plans to use city-owned land - and that's funding the New Years Eve fireworks display. The foot fetish guy has moved on to South Philly, but......

With the Army-Navy game in town this past weekend, by mid-Friday, the streets of Center City were packed with men in uniform and sighing women. As I walked home from work late Friday evening, for every one military man I saw, I quickly spotted at least to two women pointing and girlishly giggling. I can’t explain the “I love a man in uniform” phenomenon. Sometimes it works for me (as can be proven by......

The city's smoking ban is being modified, with the new version (which prohibits smoking at sidewalk cafes, and gives a permanent exemption to small taverns that generate only minor revenue from food sales) getting signed around December 14th, and then taking effect on January 8th. Between those two dates, no ban of any kind will be active or enforced. The organizers were apparently trying to keep it quiet, but news leaked that the Union......