Big Brother

9 tonight CHANNEL 3 Remember your college roomie from hell? How long would you spend with him or her for a shot at $500,000? Tonight we find out who takes home the jackpot.

YES, my friends, since the late '50s I've been told Big Brother was coming. Well, lo and behold, the land of the free is no longer. Understand, I'm not saying all this is healthy, but where's our choice? You can no longer smoke in most places, but they sure as heck want our tobacco-tax money. What about owners deciding what their clients want? What's wrong with a "Smoking permitted" sign? Let the people choose to go in or stay away. Same for transfats - let people choose, we do have some smarts!

PICTURE THIS: An Arabic-looking man loses his high-speed Internet connection. He calls Comcast. They send somebody out to the house for repair. When the Comcast representative arrives, he sees what be believes to be bomb-making material and a model of the Walt Whitman Bridge sitting on the kitchen table. Would a call to authorities be in order? I assume that your answer, like my own, is "Hell yes!" It's a no-brainer. And I'll bet you agree that the same would apply to a plumber, meter reader, telephone man or letter carrier.

At the moment of deepest grief in "Crooklyn," Spike Lee's paean to family life in Bedford-Stuyvesant in the early '70s, the oldest brother reaches out for his younger sister's hand, redeeming with one small gesture his years of petty selfishness. The tender act could not be further removed from the way Lee's character in "Do the Right Thing" ignited the summer of 1989, by throwing a garbage can through the window of a white man's pizzeria, but the gentle act of atonement punctuates "Crooklyn" just as effectively.

The people behind CBS' reality competition "Big Brother" will continue to be mocked by a grassroots group that has been flying banners over the show's house, according to the head of the group. Jeff Oswald, a free-lance videographer who claims responsibility for some of the banners over the house, said this week the group is conducting "culture jamming," which he described as using legal avenues to mock the media. "This is the first thing that we've tried, and we've been getting some interesting feedback," Oswald said.

Cameras here, cameras there, cameras everywhere. Whether we are shopping in a store, picking our kids up at school, or merely grabbing the dry cleaning, Big Brother is watching - and in many cases recording - our every move. While it feels creepy to know we are being watched, in many instances these cameras have helped nab criminals or prevent crimes from occurring. Recently, the surveillance camera in ShopRite came through for me in a way I couldn't have imagined. After checking out an unusually large order, the cashier asked for my Price Plus card, which would give me savings on items I had purchased.

The 1,200 new closed-circuit cameras that airport officials want to mount throughout Los Angeles Airport (LAX) to thwart terrorists would join cameras already spying on Christian youth groups proselytizing on the stairs of the Lincoln Monument and union organizers discussing strategy on the sidewalks of Virginia Beach, Va.. . . Since 9/11, the government has thrown its formidable weight onto the security side of the tenuous balance between safety and...

IN HIS JULY 19 column, Stu Bykofsky makes the incredible claim: "Once you allow smoking prohibitions in public places, Government Busybodies soon will stick their long noses into private spaces. " That has to be the stupidest pseudo-attempt at logic I've ever read. Governments regulate hundreds, if not thousands or tens of thousands, of activities in public areas that are perfectly permissible in private spaces. Rules ranging from public-nudity regulations to no swimming in certain fountains have absolutely no private equivalent whatsoever.

The racing Burton brothers are having satisfying seasons. There is, however, one major difference: Jeff has won six races and Ward has a zero in the win column. Ward also isn't crazy about the number 2 these days. For the third time this year, Ward finished runner-up to the younger Jeff in Sunday's Winston Cup race at North Carolina Speedway. While Jeff has been kind toward Ward, many older brothers know how annoying it can be to continually finish behind a younger sibling.

A month after his release from prison, Hamza Muhammad made a purchase that he hoped would alter his life's path. The package came the next week from an online retailer: an all-black heavy bag and a pair of black and gray punching mitts. Before his one-year prison term in 2004 on gun charges, Muhammad trained as a boxer. But teaching the sport, he thought, would be his way to show youths in his West Philadelphia neighborhood another way. On Tuesday, Muhammad danced around the ring of West Philly's James Shuler Gym as his prized amateur targeted his outstretched punching mitts.

AFTER a national search, Southeastern Pennsylvania's Big Brothers Big Sisters chapter has settled on one of its own to take over as chief executive officer. Marcus Allen, a Temple graduate and former CEO of Philadelphia-based nonprofit ACHIEVEability, will take the helm from interim CEO W. Wilson Goode Sr., the organization announced Monday. Allen's former home, ACHIEVEability, helped encourage self-reliance among underprivileged and impoverished families by providing education, housing and service programs.

Jrue and Justin Holiday have beaten some incredibly long odds as brothers who will play on the same NBA team. The Holidays became 76ers teammates after Justin, 23, was called up this weekend from the Idaho Stampede of the NBA Development League. The Sixers waived guard Jeremy Pargo to make room for Justin on their 15-man roster. The 6-foot-6, 180-pound guard, who practiced with the team on Monday, is signed through the rest of the season. "Now I get to play with [Jrue] at the highest level," Justin Holiday said.

We have surveyed what's new and exclusive to the Citizens Bank Park Majestic Clubhouse Store this season. And we can assure you of this: The "Hug-A-Phanatic" plush ($29.99) will be the runaway hit in the Daddy I Need That category. It's big. It's plush. It's the Phanatic. And beyond that, it's interactive. A child puts her hands into the Phanatic's own fuzzy green paws, and whenever she claps he claps. Genius. Our own SportsWeek mascot Jessica Berkery (left in photo), got the hang of it in, oh, a second and was last seen leaving the Daily News premises with the Hug-A-Phanatic glued to her person.

Big Brother could be watching you, right here in Philadelphia, come Friday. The CBS reality show - preparing for its 15th season - is holding a series of open casting calls around the country, and Philly's turn happens from 2 to 4 Friday afternoon at the CBS3 Studios, 1555 Hamilton St. (between 15th and 16th, a block south of Spring Garden Street). A producer, looking for "big personalities," will interview applicants, who should explain why they'd make "the ultimate housemate," according to CBS3.com.

A little more than 24 hours after Shamsiddin "Snap" Sallam shot Greg Jarvis dead in West Philadelphia on Sept. 7, 2009, the killer's phone rang. "Yo, Snap, this is Jarvis," said a familiar voice. "I'm still breathing. " Snap stuttered - "Who? Who is this?" - and hung up. In that moment, a trap had been sprung, and Snap Sallam had no idea.   Sallam and Jarvis had kept in touch since prison, both still dealing drugs. On the morning of Sept. 7, Labor Day, Sallam told Jarvis he had new connections and would repay a debt owed from a previous deal.

JOHN HARBAUGH told a Baltimore reporter recently that he never teased his brother. This would imply that he also never put his hands on Jim Harbaugh, which we already know from descriptions of their childhood, is simply not true. "I think that brothers both do this and so do sisters," Jackie Harbaugh, the mother of the two Super Bowl coaches, said during a news conference this week. "So everyone out there that has a brother or sister, you all have had your little ins and outs with one another.

While I'm away, readers give the advice. On wanting what everyone else has: I admit I occasionally wish I had someone else's income, legs, job, etc., but the feeling is momentary. When I was 11, I was desperate to change places with Mary K., a beautiful blonde in my class. She had everything I wanted: a big brother, a big house on the lake, a father who was a doctor and thus didn't change jobs and force us to move every year, a bubbly personality. Her 11th birthday party was a sophisticated trip to dinner and the movies; mine was a run-of-the-mill slumber party.

The NHL has had numerous brother acts over the years. Some brothers were bruisers (Bob and Barclay Plager), and some were Hall of Famers at vastly different positions (Phil and Tony Esposito). More recently, Henrik and Daniel Sedin have blossomed into perennial all-stars with the Vancouver Canucks. There are many other sibling combinations, of course, but the brothers who are now shaking the league to its core may not even know how to skate. Meet the Fehrs, Donald and Steve, the NHL Players Association's heavyweights in their feisty labor battle with the league's owners.

"Calling all bad girls!" declares an e-mail shout-out for the Oxygen network's highest rated show, Bad Girls Club . On Saturday, Oct. 20, the expletive-laced reality show will host an open casting call for "local feisty females" at McFadden's in Old City. Feisty is right, because although the show officially frowns on violence, well, smackdowns happen, like the slapfest featuring Philly's Aimee Landi in a first-season episode titled "Smack My Beach Up. " (See the video: http://youtu.be/qklr4e_Wy6k .)