Deck

Pam Chandler decided to accompany her husband, Bob, to the extraordinary auction of an Ocean City, N.J., mansion Saturday to keep him from "going overboard. " But an hour after she toured the 7,000-square-foot Victorian-style house on the Great Bay, she was the one prodding him to stay in the frenzied bidding on the breezy bayside veranda. The Chandlers, who live in Rumson, Monmouth County, with their three children, won the auction, ultimately paying $3.9 million for a property that was listed at about $6.5 million two years ago. It is assessed at $5 million.

AVALON, N.J. - A thick wave of fog washed over the beach yesterday, spilling onto the dunes and scrubby pines, right to the deck of Joe Paterno's oceanfront home. You could almost imagine the fallen legend out on the deck alone, staring off into the mist. He will have more time for that, now that he has been deposed as Penn State's football coach. This town's motto is "Cooler by a Mile," and for 25 years Paterno and his family have traveled more than 250 miles to chill out inside a comparatively modest two-story house nestled between certifiable mansions on the dunes.

Here they go again out in the National League West. The San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks continue their joust for the division lead in a three-game series that begins tomorrow in Phoenix. The teams met four times last week, with San Diego taking three of four. Also, 11 months after shoulder surgery, Pedro Martinez is scheduled to come off the disabled list and make his season debut for the New York Mets tomorrow at Cincinnati against the Reds.

Steve Franck is a rock climber, and he's climbed trees in his job with Plant Place. For this job, though, he rose to new heights.

When city crews arrived at the That's Greek to Me restaurant on South Street yesterday morning, they weren't there to ask questions. Jim Pender fired up a propane torch and began cutting the sidewalk seating deck into pieces that his partner, Henry Tucker, threw into a Streets Department truck. By noon, the deck was gone. After three years of complaints from civic groups, Licenses and Inspections officials finally tore down the deck, which they said was illegal. "It's been a long time coming," said Gray Smith of the South Street Neighborhood Association.

A Devon Square resident who built a back-yard deck without a permit will have to dismantle the structure after losing an application for a variance before the Radnor Township Zoning Hearing Board. Though calling the absence of a building permit an honest mistake, the board voted 4-1 Thursday night to reject the request of Henry and Marilyn Sommo, of 120 Eaton Drive, for other reasons. The Sommos' attorney, Nicholas Caniglia, said his client was undecided whether to appeal the decision to Delaware County Court.

There's nothing like adding a deck to transform an ordinary home into a home attached to a mass of inexpertly nailed wood. And just imagine the family fun you'll have this summer with a deck! "Come on kids!" you'll call to your children. "Let's go out on the deck and have some fun!" "Shut UP," they'll gaily reply, because they are engrossed in a Sony PlayStation video game that they've been playing for 11 consecutive weeks. "OK then!" you'll say, stepping out onto your new deck.

Looking for a good excuse to whoop it up tonight? Here are two: it's Saturday, and it's Independence Day. And if Mother Nature decides to smile upon us, you'll be able to take advantage of the Shore's many alfresco nightspots, where you can enjoy fresh bay or ocean breezes - and fireworks. One of the best vantage points can be found on the upstairs deck at C.J.'s Key West Bar and Grill, 939 Bay Ave., Somers Point - the newly renovated former site of Crazy Jane's dance club.

The Lower Gwynedd Township Zoning Hearing Board denied a variance Wednesday night for a deck on a one-year-old house that was sited incorrectly as the result of a surveyor's error. Because the house on Tanglewood Drive in the Gwynedd Knoll housing development was built 23 feet closer to the rear property line than it should have been, a variance was required to permit construction of the deck. The owners, John and Ruth Dalina, had argued that they should not be held responsible for the surveying error made by Toll Bros.

AS A WRITER, Matthew Quick has traveled from Collingswood, N.J., to outer space and inner teenage psyche. Quick, who grew up in South Jersey and taught at Haddonfield High School, is the author of "The Silver Linings Playbook," the Collingswood-set novel that recently got the big-picture treatment from Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro and director David O. Russell (it's slated to hit theaters in November). But Quick's last two books have been young-adult fiction, first with "Sorta Like a Rock Star" and now with "Boy21," which hits bookstores next Tuesday.

This winter has been a shifty one. One day is fair, the next, well, not particularly wintry. If the weather trends continue, spring cleanup this year should be a snap. No storm damage to worry about, for one thing; no ice dams on the roof, no clogged gutters, no overtaxed furnaces trying to keep up. Unless you've put off routine upkeep for eons, the fixes your house does require may not be as expensive as they might have been. So what you should be doing now is planning maintenance and repair tasks and setting priorities.

The state Department of Education and Camden Mayor Dana L. Redd are losing patience with the lack of progress in the Camden School District. The list of failures is long, starting with low graduation rates, high dropout rates, and the 23 schools (out of the 26 in the district) that were placed on the state's new priority list, which features the worst 70 schools in the state. Those schools on the list will likely see intense state intervention next school year. "We need all hands on deck," Redd said Monday when I asked her about her plans to turn the tide in the school district.

SOMERSET, Pa. - A man who fatally shot his wife's lover with a bow and arrow will not face criminal charges, in part, because the state's expanded "castle doctrine" makes it legal to use deadly force on one's porch or deck, a prosecutor said Tuesday. State police have repeatedly said they believed the 38-year-old Central City man acted in self-defense when he killed Tony Bittinger, 43, of Salisbury, on Oct. 9. Somerset County District Attorney Jerry Spangler formally announced Tuesday that he agreed with police and that no criminal charges should be filed against the shooter, who has not been named by authorities.

COS ECHO, Iraq - American troops marked their last Thanksgiving in Iraq yesterday with turkey, stuffing and a rocket-fire alarm. Fewer than 20,000 American troops remain in Iraq at eight bases across the country. All of the forces must be out of Iraq by the end of this year, and American soldiers have been busily packing up their equipment and heading south. Many of the bases no longer have civilian contractors making meals for them, so the troops have been eating prepackaged meals.

Some people deck the halls before the Halloween candy's been devoured and the Thanksgiving turkey's been thawed. Some might question why they drag out the tree so early, but they know why they do it - to get in the Christmas spirit for their favorite time of the year. Maureen O'Connell and Mid Reed have been putting up Christmas decorations early for years. "I can't get enough of Christmas," says O'Connell, who started decorating her Allegheny Township home on the first Monday in November.

AVALON, N.J. - A thick wave of fog washed over the beach yesterday, spilling onto the dunes and scrubby pines, right to the deck of Joe Paterno's oceanfront home. You could almost imagine the fallen legend out on the deck alone, staring off into the mist. He will have more time for that, now that he has been deposed as Penn State's football coach. This town's motto is "Cooler by a Mile," and for 25 years Paterno and his family have traveled more than 250 miles to chill out inside a comparatively modest two-story house nestled between certifiable mansions on the dunes.

The Phillies, who have clinched the National League's top record, do not know who their opponent will be in the NL division series. If the Braves win the wild card, the Phils would play the division winner with the worst record. (Milwaukee at 92-65 has won the Central, and Arizona leads the West at 90-66.) If the Braves miss the playoffs, the Phils would play the wild-card winner.    W   L   GB   REMAINING    Atlanta    89   68   -   2 at Nationals, 3 vs. Phillies    St. Louis    86   71   3   2 vs. Cubs, 3 at Astros    *San Francisco    84   72   41/2   3 at D'backs, 3 vs. Rockies    * – not including Friday's game

Excerpts from the blog of Inquirer movie critic Steven Rea, who is reporting from the Toronto International Film Festival this week. Brad Pitt talks baseball. Jason Patric works with a stuffed wolverine. Brad Pitt is in Toronto with Moneyball, his inside-baseball bio of the Oakland Athletics' Billy Beane, the maverick general manager who took a motley crew of rejects, has-beens, and problem cases and led them on a historic run to the playoffs - thanks in large part to the counsel of a nerd-boy statistician.

An underage man denied entry to a Manayunk bar Thursday night tried to sneak in by climbing up a back deck bordering the Schuylkill, but fell more than 15 feet and injured himself, officials say. Initial reports had indicated that he was a patron who fell from a deck at the bar into the river, but police and fire officials said that was not the case. Officer Jillian Russell, a police spokeswoman, said the 19-year-old man had tried to get into the Mad River Bar and Grille on Main Street sometime after 11:30 p.m. but was denied entry.