Inqlings: Thinking inside the box since '52
Thirteen letters for "record-breaking crossword-puzzle builder"? That would be Bernice Gordon. At 96, the Center City resident is the oldest person to create a crossword puzzle for the New York Times, according to editor Will Shortz. (She was oldest last year, too, when she submitted one.)
Thirteen letters for "record-breaking crossword-puzzle builder"?
That would be Bernice Gordon.
At 96, the Center City resident is the oldest person to create a crossword puzzle for the New York Times, according to editor Will Shortz. (She was oldest last year, too, when she submitted one.)
"I had a very fine education and a good vocabulary," the Penn grad, whose first NYT entry appeared in 1952, told me. "I was babysitting two little children and decided to make some money on the side."
Her latest effort will appear Sept. 20. Start now: 15 across is "the capital of Ghana."
On the mend
Suzanne Roberts
broke her neck but caught a break. In what can only be described as a freak accident over the summer, the 89-year-old Comcast Corp. matriarch and TV host got clunked on the head by an iron door knocker. Thinking it was just a bad bump, she waited three weeks before seeking a doctor. The diagnosis: a C1 Jefferson fracture - that is, a break of the cervical vertebra that connects the skull to the neck. Docs told her that had she turned her head the wrong way, she could have become paralyzed. Surgeons at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania re-fused her C1 ring, so after physical therapy and time in a neck collar, she's back to work.
Soon to launch is a series of reports called "Exploring the Arts" within her current Comcast-produced series, Seeking Solutions With Suzanne.
Eagles notes
Don't expect Eagles wives
Kendra Wilkinson
and
Julie Lesicki
at Sunday's season opener. Wilkinson, wife of wide receiver
Hank Baskett
, will be taping her E! reality series,
Kendra
, at New York Fashion Week, and she'll have Lesicki, wife of long snapper
Jon Dorenbos
, in tow.
Radio talkers Reuben Frank and Marc Farzetta will host Eagles-themed Monday outings at Vesuvio (Eighth and Fitzwater Streets) from 7 to 8 p.m., starting this week. Players appearing as guests will be asked for their favorite childhood dish, and executive chef Mike O'Mara will re-create it. The dish will become a weekly special, with a portion of proceeds going to the Variety Club. Shows will be streamed at www.vesuvio-online.com
If the jumbo TV screens at Lincoln Financial Field and your BlackBerry and your buddy sitting next to you providing commentary at the game are not quite enough: The Eagles are one of 12 NFL teams offering a handheld thingie called FanVision, which will be given to premium and club-seat holders at Sunday's game. The devices, selling for $199 in the store (plus $5 a game, which the Birds will waive this season), offer peeks at every TV feed to allow for custom instant replays and buttons for stats and scores, NFL RedZone content, and real-time updates on fantasy players. Audio from WYSP's Merrill Reese and Mike Quick is piped through FanVision, which works only within the stadium. The public will be able to buy in Oct. 3. See a demo at http://go.philly.com/fanvision
For those at home: Comcast is giving a free preview of NFL RedZone, in standard and high-def, from Monday through Sept. 24 to those who get Expanded Basic service packages and above.
Foodstuff
The
Stephen Starr
restaurant orbit employs two of the four final chefs competing on Bravo's
Top Chef
:
Kevin Sbraga
, finishing a year's stint as chef at Rat's in Hamilton Township, Mercer County, and
Angelo Sosa
, who consults at the two Morimotos. Winner, who gets $125,000 and all the accolades he can stomach, will be named Wednesday night.
The next season of Food Network's The Next Iron Chef, premiering Oct. 3, has a local link: Celina Tio, a 1992 Drexel University and 1988 Westtown School grad. She banged pots at the old Ritz-Carlton before heading to Walt Disney World and later landing in Kansas City, Mo., where she won a James Beard Award.
After nearly seven years, Dave Magrogan is pulling the plug on the Kildare's Irish Pub location on Route 202 in King of Prussia. Finale is Sunday.
Media notes
A budding journalist, eh?
Jane Pepper
premiered last week as an arts and culture reporter on WRTI-FM (90.1). She retired in May after nearly 30 years as Pennsylvania Horticulture Society president.
AFTRA (the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) has asked for federal mediation in its contract talks with CBS3, whose deal for 65 workers expired Oct. 1. Snags include calls for reporters to carry and use cameras, a proposed two-year wage freeze, and 10 days of unpaid furlough, plus what the union calls an insistence on including noncompete clauses in contracts for staff facing salary cuts. A CBS3 rep said it's not policy to discuss contract negotiations.
Monday marks the homecoming of Wallingford's Chris O'Connell as a night reporter at Fox29. His last stop was the ABC affiliate in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Fox29 has lost the services of consumer reporter Michelle Buckman, who quit to spend more time with her husband and baby daughter.
Briefly noted
The Flyers will audition women 18 and older for its ice team starting at 1 p.m. Saturday at the team's Skate Zone in Voorhees. Details:
» READ MORE: www.philadelphiaflyers.com/iceteam
Teacher Ellen Kennedy of Havertown sits in the hot seat on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire at 12:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday on 6ABC. Kennedy, 27, taped Aug. 18 and a week later secured a job teaching reading/language arts at a Feltonville middle school. On her first day, she played an icebreaker game with students called "Two Truths and a Lie." She thought it was hilarious that most of them thought her story about appearing on a game show was her lie. Also true: Her on-air companion, sister Liz Kennedy Walsh, is a vice president at Villanova.