Garden Hose

Sprinkler systems are handy when there's a lot of yard to care for. Few things remain as useful, however, as the traditional garden hose. Need to know: What a hose is made of determines how long it will last (along with how well you treat it, of course). Rubber hoses are more durable, but typically cost more than vinyl. The most durable rubber hoses have been reinforced with polyester or nylon tire cord, to resist weathering and cracking. Vinyl hoses are the least durable. And in between on the toughness scale are vinyl hoses reinforced with tire cord and rubber-vinyl combinations reinforced with tire cord.

A Philadelphia man who spent three months in jail after he was caught washing his hands with a garden hose in Havertown pleaded no contest yesterday to loitering and prowling at night, and must serve one more month's worth of weekends in jail. John Patrick McClellen, 27, was sentenced to four to 12 months in jail by Delaware County Judge Frank T. Hazel, who gave him credit for time served. Hazel also granted McClellen a weekday furlough so that he may continue to work full-time at his construction job. This means that McClellen must now serve only one month of weekends in prison.

Delaware County District Attorney William Ryan Jr. said yesterday that he would seek a six-month-to-one-year jail term for a Philadelphia man who has been jailed since Aug. 31 after washing his hands with a garden hose outside a Havertown home. Ryan said his office had determined that John Patrick McClellen had five past convictions and had violated a previous bail-reduction agreement. Both facts were probably unknown to authorities when McClellen was first incarcerated, his lawyer said.

The Delaware County District Attorney's Office wants bail increased to $10,000 cash for a Philadelphia man who has been jailed since Aug. 31 for washing his hands outside a Havertown home, based on information that the man is wanted in Philadelphia on robbery and other charges. John Patrick McClellen, 26, charged with loitering and prowling at night in the Havertown incident, has "a history of failing to appear and a history of convictions," according to Assistant District Attorney Robert J. Rossi.

When the temperature reaches 82, as it did yesterday afternoon, a little cooling off with a garden hose is in order. Paulo Travizan, a bricklayer, took time out to do just that while working on East Market Street in Center City.

It's summer all over the area, but not all area pools are open to the public. Of 81 in the city, 75 are and one is to open Monday. Yesterday, residents used a garden hose to create a water slide for children at the closed pool at 32d and Dickinson. That pool - like the ones at Aramingo and Lehigh, J and Tioga, Boyer and Pleasant, and Rittenhouse and McMahon - is not expected to open before the 4th of July weekend. The city needs lifeguards. Residents have applied, but the hiring takes time, an official said.

SOME memories are painful. Like the frigid night of Feb. 23, 1991, when the 38-story One Meridian office tower in Center City caught fire and became a nightmarish scene of acrid smoke, searing heat and falling glass, leading to tragic loss and heroic rescue. The sacrifice of three Philadelphia firefighters who perished that night - David Holcombe, Phyllis McAllister and James Chappell - will be honored today with the unveiling of a memorial at the site, now occupied by the Residences at the Ritz Carlton.

THE GIZMO: How'd you celebrate the Earth this month? We've been checking out new products that use precious resources more responsibly, saving our planet one gizmo at a time. IT'S A GAS (HYBRID): Love the petrol-sipping charms of the Toyota Prius hybrid, though not its relatively compact proportions? Maybe you'll be won over by the Prius V, now making the rounds of car shows and coming to dealers late summer. That's if Toyota can get its earthquake-shaken Japanese parts suppliers and assembly lines running at peak volume again.

Question: I live in New England, which has had all the ice and snow this winter. My gutters, filled with ice, have drained massive amounts of dirt on my 1940s shingles. Should I plan to repaint or will soap and water do the trick? Answer: One cedar shingle manufacturer, SBC, says a garden hose and a mild detergent are all that is needed. Oh, and no power washing. I went to the Cedar Shake and Shingle Bureau (no kidding, it's an arm of the manufacturers) to see its recommendations.

FIFTEEN PEOPLE were evacuated from rowhouses in Northern Liberties after a smoky three-alarm fire ate through an adjacent two-story vacant factory yesterday afternoon, authorities said. Deputy Fire Chief Joe McGraw said the evacuees were from "two to three homes to the left and right" of the blaze in the red-brick former Pennsylvania Engineering Co. building, on Howard Street at O'Neil, just south of Girard Avenue. A plume of smoke was visible for miles after the fire broke out just before 3 p.m. The fire was brought under control by 4:30, authorities said.

The spindly man walked quickly with one hand resting in the small of his back, a smoldering Dominican cigar wedged between his bony fingers. Down a hall, up a flight of stairs, he came to a fortresslike door and swiped his identity card over a security sensor. "In here," he said, stepping inside the room. Before him, like a futuristic Stonehenge, stood a semicircle of black monoliths, all electronic equipment. Nearly every bit and byte of the contraption was this man's brainchild.

SOME memories are painful. Like the frigid night of Feb. 23, 1991, when the 38-story One Meridian office tower in Center City caught fire and became a nightmarish scene of acrid smoke, searing heat and falling glass, leading to tragic loss and heroic rescue. The sacrifice of three Philadelphia firefighters who perished that night - David Holcombe, Phyllis McAllister and James Chappell - will be honored today with the unveiling of a memorial at the site, now occupied by the Residences at the Ritz Carlton.

One of the two children critically injured in a Gloucester Township house fire Wednesday died yesterday at St. Christoper's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. According to fire investigators, the fast-moving blaze was ignited after Justin Freitag, 5, of Deptford, and Mason Hicks, 2, spilled a can of gasoline in the basement of the home, where Justin was being babysat by Christina Holland, a friend of his mother's. Justin was pronounced dead around 4 a.m. Mason remained in critical condition at St. Christopher's.

Sprinkler systems are handy when there's a lot of yard to care for. Few things remain as useful, however, as the traditional garden hose. Need to know: What a hose is made of determines how long it will last (along with how well you treat it, of course). Rubber hoses are more durable, but typically cost more than vinyl. The most durable rubber hoses have been reinforced with polyester or nylon tire cord, to resist weathering and cracking. Vinyl hoses are the least durable. And in between on the toughness scale are vinyl hoses reinforced with tire cord and rubber-vinyl combinations reinforced with tire cord.

Andrew Reid's routine on school mornings included leaving his house on Fern Street in Olney between 7 and 7:15 and walking his 8-year-old son to the school bus stop a block and a half away. Around 7:15 yesterday and about halfway to the stop - on the kind of crisp fall morning that makes children hurry to get to school - a man cruelly interrupted that routine, gunning down the 41-year-old father of two while his son trailed behind him. "This occurred in front of his 8-year-old son," said Sgt. Al Strong of the police Homicide Unit.

MTV has a show, much favored by my son and his crew, called Cribs. It's Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous without the Brit accent and with its baseball cap on sideways. A camera crew visits a castle of conspicuous consumption owned by some hip-hopper, b-baller or X-Gamer. The celeb leads a tour, chattering about the closets as big as squash courts, the swanky home theater, the Jacuzzi as wide as Lake Ontario. The other day, as I watched an NFL player conclude his Cribs tour by stroking the hood of the obligatory Escalade in the driveway, I wondered: What if Cribs visited my house?