With all the leafy branches lying around, it takes a special kind of focus to just stick to one.......

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Ever thought you would spend the night at the Kimmel Center? Take part in an event, which under normal circumstances, would never happen. It’s the annual all-day, all-night celebration known as the Kimmel Center's Summer Solstice Celebration, commemorating the longest day of the year. Featuring games, music (classical, jazz, and pop), dance performances, and even a drag show, it begins at 3 pm on Saturday and runs until dawn on Sunday. It’s $10 for......

Remember, Eagles fans: tickets go on sale this morning at 10AM. The Inquirer offers tips on how to score some for yourself. Today is Philadelphia City Council's last meeting before summer break, so they're going to try to make decisions on a lot of leftover items at the last minute, including proposals to hike fines for littering, privatize the city's sludge plant, take control of Fairmount Park, force contractors to keep sidewalks open during construction......

The Inquirer covers yesterday's early school closings due to heat, and points out that we'll see more of the same today. They also talk about the help and charity inspired by an article about a family struggling without air conditioning in the heat. A while back, state legislators increased pay for injured police officers and made it easier for them to resist returning to work. Now on any given day, roughly 250 Philadelphia police......

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We are already having a bad Friday. Why? The Flyers didn't win last night, as they probably should have. And today just feels like a long day. We're not feeling positive about it right now. WHAT'S NEW AT THE PHILADELPHIA ZOO We're stretching this right now, but how can you say no to a smile like that?! The zoo is open from 9:30am to 5pm every day. That excludes the possibility of a visit......

Having a craving to see the elephants before they move on (seriously, why are they still here again)? The Philadelphia Zoo is running a “Pay the Weather” promotion, which links the admission price to the mark on the mercury. If the temperature outside is in the 30's, you’ll pay $3; in the 40's, $4; and in the 50's, $5. They don’t mention the 20's particularly, but we’re guessing that would be $2. If it’s less......

In the wake of the deadly tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo, the Inquirer takes a look at the safety of the tiger exhibit at the Philadelphia Zoo. Seven state lawmakers, naming the city as the defendant, brought a lawsuit before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court yesterday asking that all construction of the proposed SugarHouse Casino be halted, "contending its license to build on submerged land beyond the river's edge is illegal." Chester Township......

If it weren't there, this would go from adorable to bad in a matter of seconds.........

Disclaimer: This story relates to a promotion run by First Person Arts, of which Editor Jill is an employee. Editor Jill did not have a hand in writing or editing this post, and the opinions contained herein are exclusively those of the author, who would think this is pretty cool even if he wasn't Editor Jill's better half. If you read Sunday's Inquirer, you might have seen a story about a psychedelic-looking van that's making......

Rendell is now supporting the idea, spearheaded by outgoing Philadelphia School Reform Commission Chairman James Nevels, of trying to bring a major league soccer franchise to the city of Chester. While the court battle still rages over whether SEPTA will be able to eliminate transfers or not, Rendell and Fumo announced Tuesday that all seventh-through-12th graders who live more than 1 1/2 miles from their schools will ride for free with a new weekly transit......

One of the Philadelphia Zoo's former residents, Asian elephant Dulary, safely arrived yesterday at the sanctuary in rural Tennessee that's to be her new home. The union that represents faculty and coaches at the 14 state-owned universities in Pennsylvania has voted overwhelmingly to strike "if contract negotiations with the State System of Higher Education break down." Current contracts expire June 30, so the earliest strike date would be July 1. Here's hoping negotiations go well!......

Oh no! The Zoo's three African elephants are all of the sudden in limbo. The plan was to ship them to the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, where they could frolic in the expanded elephant habitat there, but now it turns out the expansion won't be ready on schedule. Officials at the Philadelphia Zoo "are working with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to find another home for the animals." So, how about this mayoral......

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As we've known for some time, the Philadelphia Zoo will soon be shipping its elephants away. The last two weekends in March will be Elephun Days at the Zoo, and will be packed with farewell activities and photo opportunities. The Zoo has even issued elephant trading cards. Okay, we're going to stop talking about this now before we start to tear up... The Inquirer looks at why there won't by a female mayor of......

Ah, Valentine's Day: refuge of the uninspired lover and bane of the singleton's year. Fear not! We present our annual offbeat V-day guide, guaranteed to add some flair to the red-heart holiday (whose idea was it to put a celebration of love and relationships smack in the middle of the great gray beast February anyway, we ask you?). Ancient Girls Gone Wild The Young Friends of Penn Museum present their second annual look into......

Due in large part to a long and nasty freeze in California, citrus fruits and leafy vegetables will be scarce, and thus their prices will be going way, way up, even in the Philly area. The Inquirer has a creepy, and perhaps too detailed, article about the Philly Zoo's attempts to get two tigers to mate. The tigers did in fact mate multiple times, and if all goes well, there may be tiger cubs......

This week's quote is from the always-clever, very talented Peter O'Toole (a.k.a. Lawrence of Arabia), who said: "I have no intention of uttering my last words on the stage. Room service and a couple of depraved young women will do me quite nicely for an exit." Now, on with the listings! The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee - Once upon a time, we were in a spelling bee. You weren’t allowed to sing......

The Philadelphia Zoo, unable to provide their elephants with the space they require, is giving them up to Maryland & Tennessee. Now our old zoo key is extra redundant. Bon Jovi and President Clinton have teamed up to help repair homes in North Philly. It is our hope to see them in painters pants, putting up drywall, but we're pretty sure that that's only how celebrity charity endorsements work in our minds. The CHUD are......

A steaming hot pile of our favorite things from around the internets. Apparently a Christian arts festival in England is embracing and celebrating Simpsons character Ned Flanders by adding a Ned Flanders Night to their program this year. But...but he's a parody! And he's insufferable and nerdy and annoying! Have they ever watched the show?? (Via Jill) Speaking of England, who wants to send us to London to see Star Wars...Shortened? C'mon Londonist, what do......

There's a couple of weird crime epidemics afflicting the city, my friends. The first is dangerous and nearly unstoppable pit bulls. On Monday we mentioned the couple of pit bulls that jumped a trucker in Southwest Philly the previous Thursday. They got hit by a bat, attacked somebody else, got shot at, and then were finally captured and euthanized. Well, on Monday another pit bull attacked three people in South Philly, and then escaped......

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Students of Swarthmore are heading to the Tower Records on South Street this Saturday to protest the use of Digital Rights Management copy protection on CDs. Their issue with the copy protection is that it's restricting customers from exercising the rights of fair use that US copyright law gives them. Phillyist is thinking about joining them; we've got a couple of CDs that we can't put on our iPod because of that damn DRM......

Penn students aren't the only ones being affected by the Philly crime wave - a 30-year-old Drexel grad student was assaulted by four high school students. Luckily, the high school students were dumb enough to film themselves planning and executing the crime, and were handily apprehended by police.Pennsylvania lawmakers are considering legislation that would limit the number of passengers allowed in vehicles driven by teenagers. Considering how much teens like to thwart authority, we envision......

The black cat, the bat, the spider and the armadillo: All are staples of scary movies and Hallowe'en fun, and all can be found at the Philadelphia Zoo. On Saturday, October 29th, the Philadelphia Zoo is having their annual kid-oriented "Boo at the Zoo" event, which features song, dance (by Dance Fusion!), costume contests, spooky games, and free candy. That's right! Free candy! Oh, and there are some animals on display or something. We're......