Food Fight

Last month, a frenzy broke out when Mayor Nutter said he wanted to prohibit outdoor feeding of the homeless, especially on city parkland, including the Ben Franklin Parkway. Critics, mainly those who provide food for the hungry and homeless, claimed the city just wanted to get the homeless away from the Parkway, especially once the Barnes Museum opens. The city said that it's a health issue, that there should be safety measures in place for food and its handling — including running water — which can be better addressed indoors.

The Market at NewMarket, which opened last year as the keystone of a turnaround strategy for the Society Hill shopping complex, is nearly empty. Most of its vendors, who once peddled produce, fish, meat, bread and specialty items, have cleared their displays and quietly closed. "No business. Just not enough business, no customers," said Casey Ro of the produce firm Ro and Sons. Wayne Martin, spokesman for Fidelity Mutual Insurance, which owns the complex at 2nd and Lombard streets, said Fidelity hopes to decide within two months what to do at NewMarket.

Police in Radnor arrested 10 members of a Villanova University fraternity after a "food fight" on the front lawn of the Wayne Post Office about 3:30 a.m. last Thursday. Radnor police Sgt. John Rutty labeled the incident "a friendly war that got a little rough. " "It looked like they were actually in a physical fight," said Rutty, although no one was treated for injuries. According to Gary Bonas, Villanova University assistant director of student activities, the incident was a "purely internal" one involving Tau Kappa Omega, a fraternity whose house is in the 100 block of West Wayne Avenue, about 50 yards down the street.

"Frankenstein foods. " That's what many Europeans call the genetically modified crops that America produces and exports across the Atlantic. Few Americans realize that since the early 1990s the Food and Drug Administration has been ruling that foods with GM (genetically modified) ingredients are safe and can be marketed without labels. But that good old American faith in science and progress would probably keep most U.S. consumers from worrying. Not so other parts of the world.

American Idol never-was Corey Clark, who earned his 15 minutes by claiming he had an affair with Idol judge Paula Abdul, has proven what a dangerous man he is. Clark was cited and released Saturday on a misdemeanor battery charge for his part in a . . . food fight. Police said Corey and his record company manager, Laura Kathleen Troy, were having breakfast in one of two hotel rooms they had rented in Sacramento, Calif., when an argument broke out about Clark's concert the night before in West Sacramento.

DEAR ABBY: Because my 90-year-old mother is homebound, she qualifies for a meal program through a senior charity service. The program is free of charge for those in need. She didn't like some of the meals, so she asked me to give them to my father-in-law, "Louis. " Louis is 88. He still drives and is well-off, so he doesn't qualify for the program, but he accepted the meals that were offered. My mother has now decided she can no longer eat any of these meals, so I told her we should discontinue the program.

You need a split screen to watch the Bush White House careen between the Trivial and the Ominous. One minute these guys are mimicking "Saturday Night Live," the next minute they're replaying "Seven Days in May. " The trivial - which has done wonders for late-night comics and the broccoli industry - was George Bush's "No-I-Will-Not-Eat-My-Broccoli" ultimatum. The ominous is a tough question: What does Bush do if Soviet troops start killing people in the streets of Lithuania?

Salad bars, photo processing centers, takeout hot food, cosmeticians and larger stores that offer more non-food items have given a new look to the neighborhood supermarket. Hoping to build market share, ward off competitors and appeal to the needs of on-the-go shoppers, Philadelphia's major supermarket chains are sprucing up, restocking and expanding existing stores and building "super-size" stores. "Food retailers have tried to get into one-stop shopping since the early 1950s.

Tired of hearing "You are what you eat"? Now it seems worse: Apparently, you are what your children eat. After a six-year nationwide study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine revealed last month that people who live with children (under 17) are more likely to eat pizza, cheese, cookies, ice cream, bacon and other high-fat foods. Need we say it? That's a bad thing. Ultimately, adults need to change not just their own diets, but their children's as well, said Helena H. Laroche, the lead author of the Journal report and an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Iowa.

Twenty-seven years after their first TV special, Carol Burnett and Julie Andrews reunite enthusiastically tonight on ABC (Channel 6 at 10), in a fresh and funny new show. Long ago, the stupid skit and clever tune were television's staples. For years, variety shows - Milton Berle's, Sid Caesar's, Ed Sullivan's - were the most popular form of TV entertainment, far outdistancing westerns, dramas and sitcoms in the ratings. But The Carol Burnett Show, the last successful TV variety series, left the air in 1979.

Last month, a frenzy broke out when Mayor Nutter said he wanted to prohibit outdoor feeding of the homeless, especially on city parkland, including the Ben Franklin Parkway. Critics, mainly those who provide food for the hungry and homeless, claimed the city just wanted to get the homeless away from the Parkway, especially once the Barnes Museum opens. The city said that it's a health issue, that there should be safety measures in place for food and its handling — including running water — which can be better addressed indoors.

DEAR ABBY: Because my 90-year-old mother is homebound, she qualifies for a meal program through a senior charity service. The program is free of charge for those in need. She didn't like some of the meals, so she asked me to give them to my father-in-law, "Louis. " Louis is 88. He still drives and is well-off, so he doesn't qualify for the program, but he accepted the meals that were offered. My mother has now decided she can no longer eat any of these meals, so I told her we should discontinue the program.

In pointed language usually avoided by politicians, both Pennsylvania senators and Mayor Nutter yesterday excoriated the U.S. Department of Agriculture for terminating an innovative breakfast-and-lunch program in Philadelphia schools. "It's bizarre," Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) said. "It's incomprehensible," Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) said. "This is one of the most cruel and inhuman decisions any government could make ... a stupid decision," Nutter said. The trio, along with Democratic U.S. Reps.

Was it only two weeks ago that one wag quipped that "Philadelphia's City Council appears an extension of LOVE Park?" Dearest readers, my apologies. Little did I recognize the tempest in a cheesesteak brewing between Bill "Your Next Mayor" Green and Fightin' Frank DiCicco. Last Wednesday, Bill wrote in the Daily News about the fattest, meatiest imbroglio of our day: Rick's Steaks versus Reading Terminal Market (the market wanted him out; he wanted to stay), a fight that has raged longer than the Battle of Verdun.

FIRST, SHUT off the TV. Here's how we stack up in average daily viewing hours per household: Sweden, 2.5; Britain, 3.1; Italy, 4.1; Turkey, 5.0; United States, 8.2. "Television," Fred Allen said, "is a device that permits people who haven't anything to do to watch people who can't do anything. " Second, don't file those new gift cards in the junk drawer in the kitchen. From the Harper's Index, December 2007: "Estimated amount that Americans lose every year by not redeeming gift cards - $8 billion.

Imagine having your house ravaged by hard-drinking teenagers who doused your clothes with urine, pooped on your piano, and played catch with 10 pounds of homemade meatballs while you were away for the day. Imagine watching the kids who got caught get off without so much as an hour of community service, a mandatory essay, or an AA meeting. Not one of the 10 Haddonfield teens who struck plea deals last week apologized in court unprompted. Only after being nudged by a judge did two boys and one parent say, uh, sorry.

To chef David Ansill, foie gras is rich, silky liver, the perfect topping for his signature dish at his Queen Village restaurant. To animal-rights activist Nick Cooney, foie gras (pronounced "fwah GRAH") represents the freakishly engorged liver of a brutally force-fed duck or goose. So Cooney and about a dozen fellow placard-wielding protesters have gathered twice a week in front of Ansill and other Philadelphia restaurants that serve foie gas. Their goal is a foie-gras-free city.

It wasn't clean. It wasn't dry. And it certainly wasn't ketchup-free, as University of Pennsylvania officials and student government leaders had hoped. But yesterday's raucous junior class procession through campus, known as "Hey Day," wasn't nearly as gooey as in years past. "I'm a little disappointed," junior Bryan Maliken said as he stood on the grass in front of College Hall, his hair matted with peanut butter, his shirt splattered with maple syrup. "I wanted to get pelted with eggs.

Tired of hearing "You are what you eat"? Now it seems worse: Apparently, you are what your children eat. After a six-year nationwide study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine revealed last month that people who live with children (under 17) are more likely to eat pizza, cheese, cookies, ice cream, bacon and other high-fat foods. Need we say it? That's a bad thing. Ultimately, adults need to change not just their own diets, but their children's as well, said Helena H. Laroche, the lead author of the Journal report and an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Iowa.

Admit it: There's a food fight inside you that's just dying to get out. And if you're going to throw food in New Jersey, what better weapon than a tomato? That gem of the Garden State will be the object of mass affection Sunday at the second annual New Jersey Tomato Festival, at Wiggins Park in Camden. The idea, says Ira Shaffer, president of the Gloucester County Business Association and event chairman, is to educate people about farming and to promote an initiative to have the tomato named as the state vegetable.