Beer Pong

In the world of do-it-yourselfers, who would argue that among the bravest are those who would renovate a house that has been rented to college students? Meet Al and Paula Imperial of West Chester. They not only took a trashed, century-old brick Victorian in the borough and restored it to its former glory, they stripped and restored chestnut doors, trim, flooring, and fireplaces - then continued to rent to students. And they love doing so. "We just have a great time here," says Al, 51. "People say, 'How can you live with students?

A little boy in tremendous pain likely cried himself to death last month while lying on the floor of his bedroom for hours with a lacerated kidney, authorities said. David Ward, the man who allegedly kicked or punched 2-year-old Riley Cuffee in the abdomen inside the Gloucester Township townhouse he shared with the child's mother, sobbed in court yesterday, but it was hard to tell if he actually shed any tears. After the alleged assault on the afternoon of July 30, authorities say Ward left Cuffee to "die a slow, agonizing death" in the bedroom while he smoked marijuana and played beer pong with more than a dozen friends into the next morning.

It's a sunny, glorious day at St. Davids Golf Club in Wayne, and wedged between the 4th hole and the tennis courts are what look like two dozen fraternity brothers, but better dressed and not playing beer pong. Without warning, one of the guys sneaks up and dumps two cups of water on another guy's socks, sending the group into hysterics. "We pretty much do anything to pass the time," said Mark Baker, 22, who like the rest is wearing a bright red polo with crest and khaki shorts, resembling Lego people or someone who just hit the last-call sale at Abercrombie.

Murphy needs to walk the antiwar line As a voter in Pennsylvania's Eighth Congressional District, I felt some pride in seeing the story Sept. 10 featuring Patrick Murphy, whom we helped get elected. It said he has "a national profile as an antiwar leader" in Congress. Yet we Bucks County peace activists also feel a tinge of nervousness, because when war funding came up in the House in the spring, after voting not to fund it, Murphy voted to send the funding bill on to the Senate, knowing the senators would complete the sellout to President Bush.

NOT SO LONG ago Dan Lindsay was a guy who'd played a waiter on "Entourage," and the director of an unreleased documentary about beer pong. Now, he and buddy T.J. Martin are newly minted Oscar winners, the kind of guys who lunch at the home of Sean "Diddy" Combs, hang out with Michael Moore. They are the co-directors of "Undefeated," an Oscar-winning, emotionally-charged sports documentary about a Memphis, Tenn., businessman who turns around a hard-luck high school football team and the lives of some of its players.

A fair amount of Phillies fans made the trip out to L.A. for the first two games of the NLCS. They seemed well-behaved. I generally believe that Phillies fans are Eagles fans are Sixers fans are Flyers fans, but I know Bob doesn't feel that way. Do you guys think there's a difference in how Fightin's fans travel compared with Eagles fans? This is like comparing the tenor section of Up With People with a horde of plundering Visigoths. And, in some ways, I say that fondly. Eagles fans who travel have a great time, enjoy their own company immensely and can actually make a difference in the stadium of the home opponent.

News item: The Brewers Association has updated its Beer Style Guidelines, with definitions of 142 separate styles. The newest additions are Adambier and Grätzer. SO, THE authoritative organization of small American brewers has reached back a few centuries and turned up a pair of thoroughly obscure smoked European wheat beers for its comprehensive directory. They join a list of everything from Leipzig-style Gose to good ol' American malt liquor. I'm a big fan of style guidelines (heck, I wrote an entire book about 'em)

DEANS, FACULTY, STAFF, parents and graduates: It is my honor to address the 666th graduating class of the School of Hard Knocks.   Graduates, you have labored hard to achieve your dream. The sheepskin (kind of awful, when you think about it) proves you have survived four years of rigorous academic challenges and intense games of beer pong to earn your degree, which you have been told is the key to employment and a bright future. That's the story you have heard, and for some of you it will be true, but not for all — not as long as the Philadelphia Housing Authority is hiring.

The lawyer for a Fishtown man accused of delivering the fatal kick to the head of David W. Sale Jr. during a beer-fueled melee two years ago outside the Phillies' ballpark told a Philadelphia jury that his client was a victim of mistaken identity and would testify. "He never touched David Sale," Jack McMahon, the attorney for Francis Kirchner, said Wednesday in his opening statement to the Common Pleas Court jury in the trial of Kirchner and two others in the death of Sale, 22, of Lansdale.

With the sun setting and Penn State's Big Ten title hopes fading, Rodney Kinlaw sat alone on the sideline. The last Nittany Lion to leave the field, Kinlaw was engulfed by jubilant Michigan players after the Wolverines prevailed, 14-9, yesterday in an old-fashioned - some might say ugly - slugfest. As he headed to the locker room, Kinlaw took one last moment in the Big House, a place where Penn State has endured so much misery. "We haven't beat Michigan since I've been here," Kinlaw said of the Lions' ninth straight loss to the Wolverines.