Ceilings

WASHINGTON - Two top Republicans said Sunday that they oppose raising the nation's debt ceiling without major cuts in the federal budget deficit, suggesting that the GOP may be heading toward a showdown with Democrats as the deadline for congressional action nears. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said on NBC's Meet the Press he was prepared to keep the ceiling in place "unless we do something really significant about debt and deficit. " Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican candidate for president, challenged the Obama administration's contention that not raising the debt limit would trigger a default.

THE MOST important thing to know about raising the debt ceiling is this: The federal budget is not anything like your family budget. Dealing with the federal debt is not the same as cutting up your credit cards and vowing to pay cash going forward. Many people apparently do not understand this: That's the only explanation for why seven out of 10 say they don't want Congress to raise the "debt ceiling. " Framing the question as if it's about "fiscal responsibility" is heinous fiscal irresponsibility.

For years, visitors at the Philadelphia Zoo have been walking right by the funny little house known as The Solitude. It's been locked up, easy to miss, especially when the boxwood hedges were six feet tall. But no more. After decades of being used by the zoo for everything from a snake exhibit in the parlor to executive offices in the library, The Solitude is well on its way to inviting company over. Come September, after $500,000 in renovations that include substantial hedge-trimming, the house will be open for group tours.

Marti Wolever doesn't think much has changed about the Phillies' drafting philosophy during his 18 years in the organization. "I think we're still looking for the same stuff," the scouting director said earlier during spring training from his office inside the recently renovated Carpenter Complex. "We're looking for athletes with good aptitude. " What's changed, he said, is how the Phils go about conducting their draft. "About eight years ago, we decided when we evaluated players that instead of having two boards with high school and college pitchers together and high school and college position players together, we decided we'd have four boards," Wolever said.

JUST AS YOU WERE starting to get over the Cliff Lee trade, you got a fresh knee to the groin. MLB.com is out with its 50 best 2010 minor league prospects list and ESPN.com's Keith Law, a ballwriter, just tossed his Top 100 at the well-punctured dartboard. A couple of weeks ago, AOL's Fanhouse published its Top 100 list. Throw a few thousand grains of salt on these subjective and, in many cases, premature ratings of players anywhere from a few months to a few years from the major leagues.

Live theater is an all-consuming passion for Stan Heleva and Michelle Pauls. That ardent enthusiasm was the driving force behind the creation of the Walking Fish Theatre, which opened in August 2007 on Frankford Avenue near Cumberland Street, in Kensington. Heleva and Pauls grew up in the Lehigh Valley, but a serendipitous encounter brought them together at the Shubin Theater, at Fourth and Bainbridge Streets, in the mid-1990s. They married a couple of years later. In 2006, they seized the opportunity to buy a circa-1840s three-story structure at a bargain-basement price from the New Kensington Community Development Corp.

Rising on the bank of the Delaware River, Philadelphia's own World Trade Center promised nothing less than a new and brighter image for the city in international commerce. With four soaring towers at the foot of Callowhill Street, the gleaming complex would house 13,000 office workers and apartment residents with an investment of $1.1 billion in today's dollars. But now, two decades after the trade center was proposed in 1989, its New York developers are suing the city and three community groups, alleging that the high-rise vision was razed by a brand of neighborhood parochialism and political cowardice unique to Philadelphia.

Question: I have an antique claw-foot tub with the original faucet fixtures. Years ago, stores used to sell the shower hookup kit for old claw-foot tubs. I had the kit installed. I have the showerhead and the circular ring (around the tub for the shower curtain) that it is attached to. I am missing the parts that connect the showerhead to the faucet. It was probably a hose with some type of hardware at the ends that attached to the showerhead and faucet. I am selling the house so I do not want to replace the old faucets on the tub or spend a lot of money for this.

Flat-screen TVs are ubiquitous these days - prices have come down a bit - and they've become a part of the family-room landscape. The Feb. 17 shift to digital signals is expected to further stimulate sales of these televisions and the furniture on which - or in which - to put them. According to an online survey by HGTV and Furniture/Today, a trade publication, 77 percent of 12,330 consumer respondents said they preferred their TVs to be out in the open, rather than hidden inside a cabinet, especially in a family room or den. In more-formal living rooms or master bedrooms, however, the numbers drop more than half.

Two hecklers interrupted Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's January campaign event in a high school auditorium in Salem, N.H., demanding, "Iron my shirt! Iron my shirt!" Clinton paused as police escorted them outside. "Oh, the remnants of sexism - alive and well," she said, adding, to applause, that she was hoping to "break through the highest and hardest glass ceiling. " Six months later, Clinton's failure to crack that barrier is prompting an assessment beyond the usual dissection of a campaign's tactical and strategic mistakes: What role did her gender play, and what does it mean for the future?