Beer Pong

I REALLY want to thank the Daily News for following up the tragic story of a senseless shooting death at the hands of an immature, power-drinking father of two who couldn't control himself in a fit of rage by printing "The Official Rules of Beer Pong" that followed the story. I'm sure there were some people who were up in the air on the actual rules and are glad they are clear now. Josh Piersol Conshohocken

After they got into a dispute over a beer-pong game, Joseph Jimenez, 24, and Scott Riley, 25, met in a Bridgeport alleyway and Riley made a dare, investigators said. "Shoot me, shoot me," Riley said to Jimenez and a companion. "You guys ain't got the . . . " Jimenez accepted the challenge, police said, and yesterday he was being held without bail at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility on murder and related charges pending a hearing next Monday. The Montgomery County District Attorneys' office gave the following account: Late Friday night, Jimenez and Riley were inside a house in the 100 block of West Second Street playing beer pong, a drinking game in which participants attempt to throw ping-pong balls into cups of beer.

ARE YOU ready for some beer pong? If you are, the Wild Wild West casino at Bally's Atlantic City is the place to be as the town's first bee- pong facility opens tonight. In case you just got back from an extended trip to Saturn, beer pong is a college-campus and sports-event tailgating staple. It's played on a regulation pingpong table, but no paddles are involved. The object is to toss a pingpong ball into a plastic cup filled with beer on the opponent's side of the table. (The game generally involves 10 cups per side, arranged in a triangular shape.

ATLANTIC CITY - There is trash talking in sports. And there is trashed talking in life. In beer pong, perhaps as nowhere else, they are one and the same - even in competitive beer pong, where the iconic red plastic cups are filled with water, not beer, and the beer costs $5 a bottle. And so, as you navigate around the 2-by-9-foot tables filling the ballroom at Resorts Casino Hotel - the site this week of the $25,000 World Pong Tour Championship - you might hear seriously intense, and profane, attempts to psych out the other guy. You might see two fullback types rolling on the floor, bellowing.

All morning long, I led a frenzied caravan of beer cases and growlers through the newsroom, followed by a mountain of ice in preparation for the big event. It was only natural that it might pique some curiosity. "Are you competing?" called out one of my youngest new colleagues from philly.com, who quickly noticed my look of confusion. "This is a giant Beer Pong game, right?" No, not quite. The seven esteemed judges who had thirstily assembled to join me at the paper had come for the Third Annual Inquirer Brew-vitational, a local beer competition set to grapple with some of the most important questions of our time (especially with Philly Beer Week set to launch Friday)

The focus in the hunt for a missing College of New Jersey freshman took a grim turn yesterday - a dormitory trash chute that authorities inspected with a special tethered fiber-optic camera. A day earlier, investigators searched the 10-story building from top to bottom with cadaver-sniffing dogs. Investigators wanted to get a "good look inside the chute" at Wolfe Hall, where John Fiocco Jr., 19, a well-liked graphic-arts major from Sewell, lived on the fourth floor, said Capt.

An argument over a drinking game in Cherry Hill left one man dead and another facing murder charges on Monday. The two men, authorities said, were playing beer pong when an argument erupted over the game, spilled outside and ended when one man pulled a knife on the other. William Walker Jr., 21, of the 200 block of Madison Avenue had been fatally stabbed about 2 a.m. He was rushed to Cooper University Hospital and later was pronounced dead, said Capt. Richard Minardi of the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.

WHEN DID the Super Bowl become an excuse to sell junk to beer drinkers? I'm not talking about beer itself, for it goes without saying that plenty of cold suds are a necessary lubricant for the 12 or so hours you'll be spending in front of the wide-screen on Sunday. No, it's all the other stuff they're palming off on beer-loving football fans. For example, the Krups BeerTender. It's a countertop keg dispenser that chills beer to precisely 37.4 degrees. The $150 unit is being promoted as a "Super Bowl essential.

Jimmy Fallon has nothing to sweat about. The latest host of NBC's "Late Night" may have begun his new gig last week looking not unlike the anchor wannabe Albert Brooks played in "Broadcast News," but we know - don't we? - that he's not going anywhere. NBC doesn't make late-night mistakes. And when it does, it rides them out until they stop being mistakes. Fallon, whose first reviews almost had to be better than his predecessor received in 1993, is being measured against a man many consider a comic genius.

All morning long, I led a frenzied caravan of beer cases and growlers through the newsroom, followed by a mountain of ice in preparation for the big event. It was only natural that it might pique some curiosity. "Are you competing?" called out one of my youngest new colleagues from philly.com, who quickly noticed my look of confusion. "This is a giant Beer Pong game, right?" No, not quite. The seven esteemed judges who had thirstily assembled to join me at the paper had come for the Third Annual Inquirer Brew-vitational, a local beer competition set to grapple with some of the most important questions of our time (especially with Philly Beer Week set to launch Friday)

WHEN DID the Super Bowl become an excuse to sell junk to beer drinkers? I'm not talking about beer itself, for it goes without saying that plenty of cold suds are a necessary lubricant for the 12 or so hours you'll be spending in front of the wide-screen on Sunday. No, it's all the other stuff they're palming off on beer-loving football fans. For example, the Krups BeerTender. It's a countertop keg dispenser that chills beer to precisely 37.4 degrees. The $150 unit is being promoted as a "Super Bowl essential.

NEED TO TELL your Aunt Sarah you don't need another knitted sweater this holiday season? Clip out this all-purpose gift list and slip it into her handbag. Maybe she'll get the hint. FOR THE DIYER: The Complete Homebrew Beer Book by George Hummel (Robert Rose, $16.47). With 200 easy recipes, anyone can brew lager, mead, fruit beer - you name it. Order it with a homebrewing kit directly from the author ($150 at www.homesweethomebrew.com ). FOR THE BOOKWORM: " The Oxford Companion to Beer " (Oxford University Press, $65)

LONG A nonacademic pursuit on the college campus, beer is now part of the classroom, too. As students begin their new semesters this month, they'll find numerous full-credit courses devoted to suds, from "Understanding Wine and Beer" at Cornell University to "Beer Tastings and Pairings" at the University of Utah. Some of the courses, including those at the prestigious University of California-Davis masters brewing program, are naturally designed for food and beverage majors.

WE'RE ALL nostalgic for those days when getting out of bed before noon was blasphemous and having any kind of obligation on a Friday was unheard of, otherwise known as college. But the World Beer Pong Tournament exists to transport you back to those glory days when your highest purpose in life was to aim pingpong balls into keg cups. This weekend, McFadden's will host Philly's qualifying matches, which involve 10 cups on a 9-foot table. Each team will play four preliminary games with the top half of the teams moving to a single-elimination tournament.

The new pseudo-sports keep flying at us, as fast as Phillies injury updates, major winners from Northern Ireland, and altered Flyers philosophies. Rugby sevens, twenty20 cricket, mega-ramp skateboarding, netball, disc golf, stunt-pogoing, BMX, UFL, UFC, MLL . . . S-T-O-P! It's time we whittled them to a more manageable number. Here are some simple tips for doing just that: We can do without any sport . . . that has "synchronized" in its name. This stuff should be confined to dinner theaters.

"He was a tireless worker, self-motivated," Frank remembered yesterday. He also remembered his father as a "fearless man who didn't back down from anyone. " He shared a story about his father putting one of the Washington Redskins in the hospital after being called an Italian slur in the 1950s. Frank wasn't sure of the player's name but swears it is a true story. "He leaped across the table and laid this guy out," Frank said. He said his dad was proud of his and Sly's accomplishments, though his father recently teased Frank about getting a real job. Frank said that he and Sly visited their dad on June 12 at his Florida home and that Frank Sr. said it was the happiest day of his life.

ATLANTIC CITY - There is trash talking in sports. And there is trashed talking in life. In beer pong, perhaps as nowhere else, they are one and the same - even in competitive beer pong, where the iconic red plastic cups are filled with water, not beer, and the beer costs $5 a bottle. And so, as you navigate around the 2-by-9-foot tables filling the ballroom at Resorts Casino Hotel - the site this week of the $25,000 World Pong Tour Championship - you might hear seriously intense, and profane, attempts to psych out the other guy. You might see two fullback types rolling on the floor, bellowing.

An argument over a drinking game in Cherry Hill left one man dead and another facing murder charges Monday. The two men, authorities said, were playing beer pong when an argument erupted over the game, spilled outside, and ended after one man pulled a knife on the other. William Walker Jr., 21, of the 200 block of Madison Avenue, was fatally stabbed about 2 a.m. He was taken to Cooper University Hospital and later pronounced dead, said Capt. Richard Minardi of the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.