Concept

Revel, Revel, Revel . . . . That's all the noise one hears these days coming from the Jersey Shore - especially when it concerns new prospects for dining. Granted, the gleaming $2.4 billion tower of Atlantic City's latest casino resort is hard to miss. And with more than a dozen restaurant concepts involving some very big names, its spring debut has no doubt been the biggest food news to hit this casino town since the Borgata began A.C.'s high-end remake. Jose Garces should have Philadelphians' attention right off the bat with three restaurants: an outsize version of Amada with ocean views and flamenco; a jumbo Village Whiskey clone for gourmet burgers and booze; plus Nuevo Mex concept with a Distrito Cantina serving margaritas and a replica Guapo's Taco truck.

Elizabeth Dow is president and chief executive officer of Leadership Philadelphia Sometimes on vacation, you get a perfect snapshot that sums up the essence of the trip in one great photo. Likewise, occasionally a movie offers up a brilliant and impressionable concept that makes seeing it worthwhile. Such was the case recently when I saw Flight , the Denzel Washington movie. The movie is a nuanced character study of a pilot whose heroism, demons, and humanity entwine and unfold around a fascinating plot.

An editorial published Monday about the Philadelphia Planning Commission's building-height proposals improperly failed to note that Mayor Goode's 1984 "skyscraper zone" was an interim concept. It was intended to control building heights until a Center City master plan with height rules was completed by the commission, working with the mayor's administration.

A concept drawing to expand the Longwood Inn restaurant and motel from 30 to 184 rooms was approved by the East Marlborough Township Planning Commission Tuesday night. Ted Skiadas, owner of the inn on Route 1, east of Schoolhouse Road, presented a land development concept calling for expansion over 10 acres - two two-story buildings with a total of 80 motel rooms, three buildings with a total of 48 suites and 26 townhouse-style cottages. The commission approved the concept by a 4-to-2 vote, and Skiadas said he would bring the concept before the supervisors at their meeting tomorrow.

Members of the Oxford Circle Townwatch were among townwatch groups in the Northeast that participated in the fourth annual National Night Out Tuesday to get people involved in fighting crime. The townwatch concept urges neighbors to watch each other's properties and to notify authorities when things seem wrong or out of place. Homeowners had been asked to turn on their outside lights and to sit on their porches during the event.

The Inquirer is dramatically revamping its commentary pages starting Monday. The old concept of separate editorial and op-ed pages is being replaced by a new design that melds the two. Look for even livelier pages that include same-day responses to editorials and more interaction with the Editorial Board's "Say What?" blog, which you can find at www.philly.com/opinion . But don't let the new format fool you. Your favorite features and writers will be here, and some new ones added, including a daily poll.

Paul Baran, 84, whose work with packaging data in the 1960s is credited with playing a role in the later development of the Internet, died of complications from lung cancer Saturday at his home in Palo Alto, Calif. Mr. Baran, who was raised in West Philadelphia and earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Drexel University, is best known for the idea of "packet-switching," in which data are bundled into small packages and sent through a network. He outlined the concept while working on Cold War issues for the Rand Corp.

Every now and then, I like to suggest surefire concepts by which you readers can make millions of dollars without doing any honest work. Before I tell you about the newest concept, I'd like to apologize to those of you who were stupid enough to attempt the previous one, which, as you may recall, involved opening up Electronic Device Destruction Centers. The idea there was that consumers would bring their broken electronic devices, such as television sets and VCRs, to the destruction centers, where trained personnel would whack them (the devices)

"Music from all over the world, not just one sound," is the concept behind AfroRikan Vybe, set for the first Friday each month at Fluid, says Dennis Perez, who spins with Rich Medina. "I thought Philly needed that. " Three years ago, Perez fathered AfroRikan Vybe, recruiting Medina and Eric Colon. It started as a weekly party, though as of late, it has been curtailed to once a month. Perez, from Brooklyn, thought his concept would get lost in New York's night scene, so he brought it to Philly.

NEW YORK - A new, posthumous story of science gone wrong is coming in November from the late Michael Crichton, with help by Richard Preston. Crichton, author of such blockbusters as Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain , died in 2008 having written one-third of Micro , a thriller about a biotech company in Hawaii and the graduate students who end up stranded and endangered in a rain forest. Preston, known for his best-selling nonfiction work about the Ebola virus, The Hot Zone , used Crichton's outline, reference materials, and notes to finish the book.

When Mike Sutton talks about his injury and where it leaves his St. Augustine lacrosse team, two things stick out. The first is how calm he is about his team's prospects while he's sidelined. The second is just how much he cares about those prospects. Both offer insight into where St. Augustine is as a program and how it got there. "The kids stepping in know the role that they have to pursue," said Sutton, the area's most dangerous offensive player, who broke his right thumb in a March 16 scrimmage against Jackson Memorial.

Mark Bucher grew up in Philadelphia but sought his fortune elsewhere. After developing casual, beef-based restaurants in the Washington area, he and his partners sought to expand to Atlantic City. During their drive to scout the site, Bucher decided to take a detour to his hometown. They saw a thriving Center City, Bucher said. "We decided that Philly was the place for us," Bucher said outside the future Medium Rare, in a new apartment building on the 1600 block of Sansom Street in Center City.

Elizabeth Dow is president and chief executive officer of Leadership Philadelphia Sometimes on vacation, you get a perfect snapshot that sums up the essence of the trip in one great photo. Likewise, occasionally a movie offers up a brilliant and impressionable concept that makes seeing it worthwhile. Such was the case recently when I saw Flight , the Denzel Washington movie. The movie is a nuanced character study of a pilot whose heroism, demons, and humanity entwine and unfold around a fascinating plot.

FOR CHEFS, the number 86 holds such a sinister, teeth-chattering connotation that the eight might as well be replaced with double sixes. It's restaurant slang for a dish or ingredient that's been completely shot, a state of cupboard's-bare vulnerability brought about by poor planning, lackluster resource management, an unexpected slam of business or any combination of these things. Marshall Green speaks for most chefs when he calls a kitchen hampered by a list of nixed items his "absolute worst nightmare.

Revel, Revel, Revel . . . . That's all the noise one hears these days coming from the Jersey Shore - especially when it concerns new prospects for dining. Granted, the gleaming $2.4 billion tower of Atlantic City's latest casino resort is hard to miss. And with more than a dozen restaurant concepts involving some very big names, its spring debut has no doubt been the biggest food news to hit this casino town since the Borgata began A.C.'s high-end remake. Jose Garces should have Philadelphians' attention right off the bat with three restaurants: an outsize version of Amada with ocean views and flamenco; a jumbo Village Whiskey clone for gourmet burgers and booze; plus Nuevo Mex concept with a Distrito Cantina serving margaritas and a replica Guapo's Taco truck.

Hear the name Anita Hill and you think of a young law professor telling the Senate Judiciary Committee that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her at work. Twenty years later, Hill has shifted her focus away from the office in a new book that looks at the connection between home and equality. "Home is not just a place, it's also a state of being," Hill explains. In Reimagining Equality: Stories of Gender, Race, and Finding Home (Beacon Press, $25.95)

JACKSON, Miss. - A chorus of "amens" filled the statehouse in Jackson on Halloween night. About 75 people were gathered for a briefing by backers of a ballot initiative that would make the state the first in the nation to ban abortion by declaring that life begins at conception. "Fighting for preservation of the unborn in the state of Mississippi - that's a cause worth our strongest efforts and our most committed prayers," Brad Prewitt told the crowd. The 42-year-old lawyer heads Yes on 26, a political-action committee whose television ads, signs, and fliers argue that a vote against the proposition is a vote for abortion.

At age 5, my daughter Sally could make lovely pancakes all by herself. Perched on a stool at the kitchen counter, she measured ingredients, cracked eggs, mixed the batter, ladled it onto the griddle, flipped the cakes proficiently, and proudly served them to the family. So, why, after showing such promise, is she saying at age 25 that she doesn't know how to cook? Somehow, in the years in between, too many other things took precedence. The all-consuming mad dash of studies-sports-friends-etcetera that started in high school continued right through college and then into her working life.

HARRISBURG - The governor has said he won't sign it. Top lawmakers call it a deal-breaker. Yet, the Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission has revived a debate over whether to allow areas of Pennsylvania rich with natural gas to be gathered into large land "pools," even against property owners' wishes. The practice, referred to as pooling, sparked controversy when it began circulating in Harrisburg last year. Opponents portrayed it as a grab by drillers at private property rights.

SVETLANA SPENDS her summer days in a starched maid's uniform, cleaning up dirty bedsheets in Atlantic City motel rooms, more than 5,000 miles from home. But there are a few magical hours each week, when the Russian sociology student can wear her smartest dress, hear her favorite homeland music and dance until morning with handsome, Bulgarian men beneath pink neon lights and hovering seagulls. "I like to go to the beach and boardwalk if I can. I like to meet new people, especially Russians and Bulgarians," the 21-year-old Russian native said excitedly.