Fish Tank

KEMAH, Texas - Not all boardwalks are created equal. There is one along Galveston Bay in Texas where the Boardwalk Bullet coaster reigns supreme, accelerating riders up to 51 m.p.h. and culminating in a gut-wrenching 96-foot drop. I braved the Bullet, but not until I had taken in the rest of Kemah Boardwalk, home to 10 themed restaurants; a 52-room boutique hotel; 13 amusement rides; and a 424-slip marina that features a 149-passenger, 117-foot luxury yacht for bay cruises. I lunched on grilled mahimahi and shrimp at the Aquarium Restaurant, where the room centerpiece was a 50,000-gallon fish tank filled with everything from tropical fish to sharks.

Off Rittenhouse Square, atop the restaurant Friday Saturday Sunday, there is a teeny spot called the Tank Bar. The walls are draped in dark fabric and hold twinkling white lights. Behind the brass-topped bar, a fish tank gently hypnotizes patrons. The fish tank's mesmerizing effect and the Tank Bar's relaxing, womblike atmosphere allow bartender Sherry Kopell to work differently from other bartenders. She often ends up asking if people need their drinks freshened instead of their asking for another.

A second grader at the Anne Frank School in Northeast Philadelphia was killed and his great-grandmother critically injured when they were struck by a car that had run a red light on Roosevelt Boulevard yesterday morning. Shane Philson, 7, was described by school district officials as a good student and a "little comedian" who liked to tend to the classroom fish tank. His death stunned the school community, especially those who knew the boy. Shane and his great-grandmother, Mable Taylor, 68, were crossing the inner lanes of Roosevelt Boulevard at Lott Avenue in Bustleton when they were struck by a car heading south.

I reached for the phone to call the doctor's office, but the number eluded me. For most of the last 15 years, I could recite the pediatrician's phone number in my sleep. But now I couldn't even remember the exchange. I could have chalked it up to old age; I do seem to forget more and more these days. Instead, I chose a more positive and forgiving view. Now that my children are older, I rarely need to call their doctor anymore. When my firstborn entered the world in 1987, my husband and I went to interview Dr. Edward Rosof of Marlton.

The Montessori Genesis II School in Mantua didn't get its new pet rabbit by pulling it out of a hat, but magic of some sort has occurred since the school was vandalized Monday. Early Monday morning, ruffians broke into the tiny, private elementary school and overturned desks, threw books and papers, destroyed supplies and broke the hearts of the staff of this institution that was started 25 years ago by low-income African-American families. Destroyed in the rampage was an aquarium and its goldfish named Mr. Fish.

The New Jersey State Aquarium, slated to be the cornerstone of the economic revival of the Camden waterfront, will cost nearly 25 percent more than originally planned, prompting an appeal to the legislature for more money. The aquarium is now expected to cost $52 million, nearly $10 million more than anticipated when the legislature approved construction plans two years ago. In a statement yesterday, the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority said that "inadequate original structural designs and higher than expected bids on major contracts" prompted the cost increases.

Who lives in an anemone under the sea? Little Nemo! When this frisky orange clownfish (think candy corn with fins) breaks free from the Great Barrier Reef, he proves to his timid dad that there is nothing to fear but fear itself. And also sharks, barracuda, jellyfish and scuba divers who would fishnap a tropical youngun and plunk him into an aquarium. Finding Nemo, the delightful underwater adventure from Pixar Animation, has two heroes: Nemo and his father. Nemo (voice by Alexander Gould)

Gene Crane is unique: He is the only announcer who has worked at WCAU-TV (Channel 10) throughout its entire 40 years on the little screen, and he is one of only a handful of people anywhere who have been on the television airwaves that long. He goes all the way back to the days when they were literally trying to figure out how to do it. Crane, 68, had been an announcer for WCAU radio for two years when TV began at the station on May 23, 1948. He remembers one of the days when the staff first fully understood that TV was different from radio.

CAMDEN - Bigger isn't always better, especially when it comes to attractions for Adventure Aquarium's smallest visitors. "KidZone," which opens Saturday, is the aquarium's most child-accessible exhibit space yet. The underwater windows are closer to the ground, the rooms encourage interaction, and the sea creatures are relatively small. But they all have their quirks. Any child who remembers the film Finding Nemo will recognize the display's orange-and-white clown fish, or the outgoing cleaner shrimp - which, given the opportunity, will climb on your hand and inspect your cuticles.

SIMON RESURRECTS VOODOO ECONOMICS George F. Will's Nov. 26 column, "Among the Democrats, neo-voodoo economics and politics," noted that Sen. Paul Simon (D., Ill.) favors enormous increases in domestic spending, which he claims will reduce unemployment and interest rates and thereby generate enough additional revenue to balance the budget. Mr. Simon's formula for painless deficit reduction has been dubbed "neo- voodoo economics" by his opponents, which is an especially telling criticism since Mr. Simon has continually claimed that he can be trusted to level with the American people.

CAMDEN - Bigger isn't always better, especially when it comes to attractions for Adventure Aquarium's smallest visitors. "KidZone," which opens Saturday, is the aquarium's most child-accessible exhibit space yet. The underwater windows are closer to the ground, the rooms encourage interaction, and the sea creatures are relatively small. But they all have their quirks. Any child who remembers the film Finding Nemo will recognize the display's orange-and-white clown fish, or the outgoing cleaner shrimp - which, given the opportunity, will climb on your hand and inspect your cuticles.

KEMAH, Texas - Not all boardwalks are created equal. There is one along Galveston Bay in Texas where the Boardwalk Bullet coaster reigns supreme, accelerating riders up to 51 m.p.h. and culminating in a gut-wrenching 96-foot drop. I braved the Bullet, but not until I had taken in the rest of Kemah Boardwalk, home to 10 themed restaurants; a 52-room boutique hotel; 13 amusement rides; and a 424-slip marina that features a 149-passenger, 117-foot luxury yacht for bay cruises. I lunched on grilled mahimahi and shrimp at the Aquarium Restaurant, where the room centerpiece was a 50,000-gallon fish tank filled with everything from tropical fish to sharks.

By George Parry Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein was recently confirmed by the Senate as the Obama administration's regulatory czar. Sunstein is a brilliant defender of animal rights who has argued for permitting lawsuits on behalf of non-humans. He will be a stellar addition to Team Obama as it goes about the task of remaking society. Currently in this country, one out of every three people seems to be a lawyer. So it was that the trial bar cheered Sunstein's ascension into the ranks of executive power and the welcome expansion of tort liability - and contingent fees - that it portends.

A second grader at the Anne Frank School in Northeast Philadelphia was killed and his great-grandmother critically injured when they were struck by a car that had run a red light on Roosevelt Boulevard yesterday morning. Shane Philson, 7, was described by school district officials as a good student and a "little comedian" who liked to tend to the classroom fish tank. His death stunned the school community, especially those who knew the boy. Shane and his great-grandmother, Mable Taylor, 68, were crossing the inner lanes of Roosevelt Boulevard at Lott Avenue in Bustleton when they were struck by a car heading south.

The fourth- and fifth-grade students from J. Hampton Moore Elementary School listened intently to the costumed guide at Stenton. "Does anyone know what this is?" asked Janine LaBletta, pointing to a wooden box in the dining room of the 18th-century home in Germantown. The children, who were touring the historic site last week, fidgeted and whispered amongst themselves. "It's a present," said Allison Shainline, 10, who had been raising her hand at each stop during the house and barn tour, trying to answer every question.

We don't ordinarily think of construction materials as the kind of thing that can tug at our heartstrings, evoke cozy memories of childhood, or fill us with dread and vulnerability. But after a spin through two current architecture shows in Philadelphia, you may find it difficult to dismiss stainless steel, polymer, fiberglass, Homasote and rubber as lifeless chemical compounds again. Both shows, "Hopping Fences: Influences in Modern Living" at the Philadelphia Art Alliance and "SmartWrap" at the Institute of Contemporary Art, straddle the terrain where architecture, installation art, and trade show converge.

Glenn McGee said he would complain more about the ethics of messing with fish genes, if only he didn't want a GloFish so much. "I want my aquarium to glow in the dark - what's wrong with that?" said McGee, professor of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania and editor in chief of the American Journal of Bioethics. "Ethically, a fish is a fish, it's barely got a brain, and it doesn't know that it glows. " The first genetically engineered pets went on sale publicly this month in the United States, except in California, whose Fish and Game Commission banned the sale in December, citing ethical concerns.

Friday marks the 30th anniversary of the start of the 1973 Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries oil embargo, which brought several months of long lines at the gas pumps. In 1979, revolution in Iran was blamed for a second energy crisis. Gasoline prices soared to almost $2 a gallon in today's dollars; by 1980, the nation was in a recession. The initial response? Conservation and a search for alternative sources of power. The long-term result? The bad news, from the nonprofit Alliance to Save Energy, is that U.S. dependence on oil from the volatile Persian Gulf region has more than tripled since 1973.

I reached for the phone to call the doctor's office, but the number eluded me. For most of the last 15 years, I could recite the pediatrician's phone number in my sleep. But now I couldn't even remember the exchange. I could have chalked it up to old age; I do seem to forget more and more these days. Instead, I chose a more positive and forgiving view. Now that my children are older, I rarely need to call their doctor anymore. When my firstborn entered the world in 1987, my husband and I went to interview Dr. Edward Rosof of Marlton.

Who lives in an anemone under the sea? Little Nemo! When this frisky orange clownfish (think candy corn with fins) breaks free from the Great Barrier Reef, he proves to his timid dad that there is nothing to fear but fear itself. And also sharks, barracuda, jellyfish and scuba divers who would fishnap a tropical youngun and plunk him into an aquarium. Finding Nemo, the delightful underwater adventure from Pixar Animation, has two heroes: Nemo and his father. Nemo (voice by Alexander Gould)