Bunch

A dream had carried the boys so far from home, some 5,000 miles across the ocean to a cramped and dingy apartment in Philadelphia: a hope that ice hockey could change their lives. Ivan Pravilov could fulfill that dream, they were told. He could take them from the daily grind of post-communist Ukraine to the gleaming ice of the NHL. He'd done it before. He'd done if for Andrei Zyuzin, who went on to play for six NHL teams. He'd done it for Konstantin Kalmikov, a third-round draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1996.

WHERE CAN we begin to say "thank you" for the nice surprise the residents of the Philadelphia Protestant Home residents received on Sept. 11? The Daily News said it all on the first anniversary of the attacks: "There are no words!" The paper is a treasure of remembrance that we can keep and pass on to our children. Again, so many thanks for sending those papers over to the grateful folks at PPH. Dottie Warrington The Philadelphia Protestant Home

YOU JUST can't make make this stuff up! First we have Sen. Edward Kennedy, in his questioning of Alberto Gonzales, wanting to know if he thought holding someone under water would be considered torture. The senator, of all people, should know! Then we have Sen. Robert Byrd, ex-KKK member, criticizing Condoleezza Rice for "increasing isolation, enmity in the world. " The Democrats might have lost the election - but they certainly deserve an award for unmitigated gall! John M. Kaufmann Sr., Springfield

WHO IS paying Will Bunch's salary - the Democratic National Committee? I just read another of his inaccurate and heavily biased polemics. The target was Mitt Romney. Bunch cherry-picked the quote to purposely smear Romney. The full and unobjectionable quote was: "You know, if someone doesn't give me the good service, then I want to say, 'I'm going to get someone else to provide that service to me.' " Surely, only a desperate Democratic demagogue like Bunch would stoop to twisting that, right?

Three young white men who have been accused of harassing a family here because the sons are friendly with African American men say they are not instigating trouble, and deny that they are members of a hate group. "No, I am not a skinhead," said Matt Szymanski, 19, of Franklin Township, in an interview last week outside Municipal Hall. He was accompanied by James "Jimmy" Downs, 20, of Vineland, and a 16-year-old Delsea Regional High School student who asked that his name not be used.

A bunch of eating utensils, the plastic variety, bedeck a fence next to abandoned railroad tracks at 10th and Spring Garden Streets.

I FOR ONE have had it. I'm sick and tired of a bunch of idiots foaming at the mouth regarding President-elect Obama having no experience. Unless I've lost my mind, neither did Ronald Reagan. He was a Hollywood actor. Need I say more? Ann Townson Philadelphia

Daily News senior writer WILL BUNCH has been reporting on the rise of the "tea party" movement, the conservative backlash against President Obama and the influence of Glenn Beck and the media for much of the last year, both for the newspaper and on his blog, ATTYTOOD. This week marks the release of his book on the subject: THE BACKLASH: RIGHT-WING RADICALS, HIGH-DEF HUCKSTERS AND PARANOID POLITICS IN THE AGE OF OBAMA, from Harper Books. You can learn more about Bunch's book online at or watch a video trailer for the book at .

WHEN THE NHL decides to have a season, I have an idea how to get some viewers back. We don't need more scoring, we need the old-time fights. Bench-clearing, in-your-face, butt-kicking fights. Trust me, hockey stinks without the fights. Who wants to see a bunch of foreign pansies skating fast? Not me! Jerry Founds Philadelphia

Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters, and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama By Will Bunch Harper, 354 pp. $25.99 Reviewed by Robert Schmuhl Today's political pendulum swings with such frequency and ferocity that it's no wonder a centrist position seems elusive. Even before Barack Obama had a chance to get settled in the White House, a vocal and vigorous movement was working not only to oppose him but also to orchestrate his downfall. Welcome to the fear-fueled, full-boil anger that Will Bunch portrays in The Backlash . A senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News and husband of Inquirer staff writer Kathy Boccella, Bunch takes to the road to report what animates anti-Obama Americans.

Sandy Paul is growing 14 varieties of tomatoes, 75 plants in all, in the basement of her 19th-century Burlington County farmhouse. "My jungle garden," she calls it. Actually, until very recently when she gave some away, Paul had 100 tomato seedlings down there, along with dozens of peppers and eggplants. But make no mistake: In Paul's house, as in most American gardens, tomatoes rule. Her favorite — one of them, anyway — is Cherokee Purple, a dense American Indian heirloom with smooth skin, rosy flesh, and funky green "shoulders.

WHO IS paying Will Bunch's salary - the Democratic National Committee? I just read another of his inaccurate and heavily biased polemics. The target was Mitt Romney. Bunch cherry-picked the quote to purposely smear Romney. The full and unobjectionable quote was: "You know, if someone doesn't give me the good service, then I want to say, 'I'm going to get someone else to provide that service to me.' " Surely, only a desperate Democratic demagogue like Bunch would stoop to twisting that, right?

BOB BRADY, member of the U.S. House and chairman of the Democratic City Committee, says he was making the best of a situation over which he had little control. It turned out well for Brady. The state General Assembly redraws the lines for state and federal legislative districts every 10 years, based on the latest census. With Republicans in control of both houses of the General Assembly and the governor's office, many Democrats felt pushed around in the remapping approved last month.

ANDY REID was asked yesterday if his team is "soft. " "No," Reid expounded. Funny, Reid's Eagles sure seemed like a prime target for a good squeezing from Mr. Whipple through most of Monday night's 30-24 loss to the bigger, more physical Chicago Bears. What is a team that has led in the fourth quarter of seven of its eight games, yet sits at 3-5 midway through its season, if not soft? I was trying to make deadline, tapping away at the keyboard through the fourth quarter, so maybe I missed it, but did you see anybody draw a line in the spongy, sandy Linc turf, offensively or defensively?

Basil is officially inescapable. It's exploding in my garden. Neighbors are leaving their surplus on my stoop. Huge bouquets, from local farms, are front and center when I shop at Whole Foods. And when life hands me basil? I make pesto. The garlicky, herby sauce pretty much pairs with everything (watch your back, ketchup), which is why I like to plow through my bounty by blending up a batch of pesto, and then getting creative in the kitchen. Here, with my Garden Fresh Pesto recipe, you can effortlessly pull together a complete and elegant meal, add zip to a healthy weeknight dinner, and spruce up a side so it becomes the star.

I hadn't found myself sitting on my hands at Citizens Bank Park since the last time I watched the Phillies play the Red Sox. That was midseason 2008, although it feels like a century ago. Bostonians arrived then as two-time champs. Philadelphians were still losers. I felt like relinquishing my citizenship in Red Sox Nation. The Boston bandwagon stayed in full throat, shouting down the locals with their "Let's go, Red Sox" chants and candy-colored caps. Their hubris was not easy to sit through, even if you happened to have grown up in Massachusetts and rooted for the Sawks since the days of Dick Stuart, a.k.a.

RE WILL Bunch's column on enhanced interrogation: Even CIA director Leon Panetta, hardly a right-winger, has said this helped capture bin Laden. Why is the left so opposed to anything that will help save American lives? You think it's immoral to use this method, but if we didn't use it and American lives were lost unnecessarily, that would be immoral! Another question: Are you a news writer or an opinion columnist? News writers report the news! They don't put their opinions in the news section.

Many people living north of the proverbial border think Cinco de Mayo is the ultimate holiday in Mexico. Well, no, that honor goes to Mexican independence day, Sept. 16. Cinco de Mayo commemorates a famed victory of the Mexicans over a French army in 1862. It is a day to remember, yes, especially in the Mexican state of Puebla, where the battle took place. But in the United States, May 5 has become a salute to Mexican culture, heritage, and food. "It's popular because it's easy to say, Cinco de Mayo ," says Fernando J. Olea, the Mexican-born chef behind Epazote restaurant in Santa Fe, N.M. Olea says a good way to celebrate is to get sauced - with the salsas and moles of Mexico.

IUNDERSTAND that you guys are going through a transition, but I can't understand the continued emphasis on Will Bunch as a "news" reporter on issues that he has a stated bias against. He rails about the Koch brothers, but doesn't acknowledge he's a paid writer for George Soros (a Koch clone, only liberal instead of libertarian). Will and the Daily News have run no less than two "news stories" forecasting the doom of state labor unions. I would rather wait until Gov. Corbett actually makes a move to that effect or at least have actual facts to back up his and the Daily News cover story.

And now let us pause to thank hateful, hurtful, homophobic Westboro Baptist Church. Only in the land of the free can vituperative, flag-dragging crazies claim both Bill O'Reilly and Michael Moore as critics while reminding the rest of us we're lucky to be Americans. Westboro - less church than family freak show - has protested at Holocaust museums, condemned Mr. Rogers, picketed Michael Jackson's funeral, and thanked God for 9/11 and the hurling of "3,000 vile Americans into Hell.