Hot Water

A long run of goosebump showers at Cheltenham High School may be near an end. Plumbing problems that have persisted for more then a year, during the course of a two-year $23 million renovation of the school, caused shower in the locker rooms and taps at many sites in the school to run tepid, if not cold, water. The chilling effect has been especially noticeable in the boys' and girls' locker rooms, where a hot shower after a swimming lesson became impossible for youth in Cheltenham Township's swimming program.

A Common Pleas Court judge gave MOVE neighborhood residents mixed news yesterday afternoon: They can stay in their homes with hot water but no heat - at least until Thursday, when a full hearing will be held. At issue was whether the Philadelphia Gas Works could send inspectors into homes to shut down furnaces and hot-water heaters that the city believes could leak toxic levels of carbon monoxide. The city had planned to shut off the appliances yesterday and offer residents alternative housing until Sept.

The complaints were hot, but the water was not, so the city's Department of Licenses and Inspections declared the Drake Tower apartments in Center City unfit for habitation Friday. Although corrective action by the owners of the landmark former hotel on Spruce Street near 15th resulted in L&I lifting the unfit designation on Monday, many residents say a host of other uncorrected problems is forcing them out. "My biggest problem is they billed this place as a luxury building, but they are doing nothing to maintain it," said one resident, who described his almost two years at the Drake as a living hell.

The Army is investigating allegations that eight men in a Virginia National Guard company photographed and videotaped up to 21 women in the unit while the women showered at Fort Dix in Burlington County, officials said yesterday. The images were allegedly taken in the fall when the Manassas-based 266th Military Police Company was undergoing mobilization training at the fort. The 150-member unit was deployed to Iraq in December, said Carolee Nisbet, a spokeswoman at Fort Dix. "The investigation started while they're still serving in Iraq," she said yesterday.

If working nights as a mental health counselor and sleeping days ever threw off Ronald Dales' sense of time, he got a bracing reminder when the weekends rolled around: Ice-cold water even from his hot-water tap. Every weekend since the spring, said Dales and other residents of the Queen Lane Apartments public housing project in Germantown, their hot water has gone off, leaving them to either boil water for washing or wait until Monday morning when...

Suspended Cleveland Browns defensive lineman Bill Johnson has a substance- abuse record that might merit disciplinary action from the NFL if he is reinstated, the Plain Dealer reported. In addition to a June 19 conviction for driving under the influence in Cleveland, Johnson was convicted on April 22, 1994, of DUI in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, the newspaper said. The two DUI convictions could result in a suspension or fine by the NFL under its alcohol policy. Johnson remained under suspension, in part for punching teammate Gerald Dixon during a bar fight on June 10, the newspaper said.

I've got this thing about immersing myself in water - I like it body temperature or higher. So plunging into Ireland's frigid sea was out of the question; I'd limited my adventuring to manor houses, monasteries, and ancient Celtic sites. Then I glimpsed a little red notation on the road map. It read "hot seaweed baths. " I made a detour. Perched on a windswept cliff that overlooks six miles of pristine North Atlantic beach, Kilcullen's Bath House was built during the elegant Edwardian age. When Michael Kilcullen, great-grandson of the original owner, ushered me into my private bathing room, it was apparent that in all the intervening decades not a faucet or shower pull had been changed.

Question: We are ready to gut our children's bathroom. They are getting to the ages where they'll be showering more frequently, and our 80-gallon electric hot water heater isn't enough to allow for five showers in a row. We are considering a separate hot water heat source just for their shower. I've read about instant heaters online, but a plumber recommended we get a second 80-gallon tank, which I feel is overkill and would be too expensive. We have been told the electric tankless models aren't satisfactory performers.

It takes just three seconds under a faucet pouring out 140-degree water for a child to suffer third-degree burns. Just a turn of the bathtub faucet while mom or dad steps out of the room. In 1988, 37,000 children under age 14 - nearly half of them under 5 - were treated in hospital emergency rooms across the country for burns from hot liquid, food or tap water. "Most parents have little understanding of just how dangerous hot liquid burns are," said Elizabeth Blunt, director of emergency and trauma nursing at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Dear Anne and Nan: Is there any way I can get rid of poison ivy without poisoning myself in the process? - Steve The best way to eradicate the awful stuff is to pour boiling water directly on each plant. Leave the plant there for a few days to make sure it is thoroughly dead and then, wearing protective leather gloves, either pry or dig it up. Do NOT burn. Discard the plants either in plastic trash bags or in a pile far away from the house. If, while you are doing the boiling water trick, you come into contact with the poison ivy, run straight to the house and wash the area with vinegar.

Good thing my clothes can't feel anything or talk. If they could, they'd surely berate me. I used to bathe them in nice warm water. These days, they're thrashing about in cold. From my viewpoint, it's all good. Cold water means they don't shrink, they don't fade, I save money by not using hot water, and — more to the point of this column — I'm helping the environment by not using as much electricity. According to most estimates, heating the water accounts for about 80 to 85 percent of the energy consumed by a typical batch of laundry.

In 2010, after I wrote about sewage, rodents, and frigid showers compromising "luxury" living at the Marquis apartments in King of Prussia, the complex's Boston owner sent a scathing letter to my editors urging them to silence me and insisting "good news should have found its way into her column. " A week later, many of the 1,200 residents at the hilltop complex shivered through the coldest day of the winter without heat, taking no comfort in the "million-dollar fitness center" with busted equipment.

IF YOU'RE GOING to play the "I'm a celebrity" card and expect free cab rides, people should probably know who you are. But that didn't stop 97.5 The Fanatic nighttime host Tom Byrne (who?) from using his "celebrity" to try to beat a cab driver out of $5 before allegedly beating him in the street, according to a police report. Byrne, who'll be 31 next week, was arrested about 2 a.m. Monday, after the cabbie told police that Byrne, whom he picked up a few minutes earlier at 12th and Sansom streets, had punched him repeatedly.

Question: We recently checked in to the Holiday Inn Express Hotel Poulsbo in Poulsbo, Wash., and experienced a lapse in service. We need your help with a refund. There was a winter storm with ice on the road, and after a treacherous drive from the Kingston Ferry, which was shut down after we disembarked because of wind, we arrived in Poulsbo. We checked in to the hotel at 5:30 p.m. or so. At 6:45 p.m., the lights went out. We thought that the power would come back on soon, but seeing that the power was off as far as we could see, we hunkered down.

There is a certain wind-chill factor seldom mentioned on weather reports. It's the point at which consenting adults agree that "having a drink" means sipping something hot. Winter is no time for a "tall cold one. " Whether you plan to meet at a bar, a gastropub, a cafe, or on the couch, your wintry drink should be warm to the touch and the taste. In this economy, you might want to experiment at home, and stock up on less expensive alternatives, applejack brandy instead of Calvados, or triple sec instead of Cointreau.

THE CARTOON character SpongeBob SquarePants is in hot water from a study suggesting that watching just nine minutes of that program can cause short-term attention and learning problems in 4-year-olds. The problems were seen in a study of 60 children randomly assigned to watch either "SpongeBob" or the slower-paced PBS cartoon "Caillou" or assigned to draw pictures. Immediately after these nine-minute assignments, the kids took mental function tests; those who had watched "SpongeBob" did measurably worse than the others.

The NCAA has told Ohio State that it won't face the most severe charges possible in the memorabilia-for-cash and tattoos scandal that cost football coach Jim Tressel his job. Investigators said they found no evidence that Ohio State failed to properly monitor its football program or any evidence of a lack of institutional control, according to a letter sent to the university and released Friday. Two Rutgers football games, Sept. 1 against North Carolina Central and Sept.

A Philadelphia charter school is in hot water again after expelling a kindergartner it says inappropriately touched another classmate's "private area. " The student's mother sued the First Philadelphia Charter School in federal court this week, charging that the 6-year-old girl was improperly expelled in May. The suit seeks to have the girl, identified in the suit as "Jasmine J.," reinstated as a first-grader and her record expunged. It also wants the school to extend proper expulsion hearings to kindergartners.

WASHINGTON - AARP, the powerful lobby for older Americans, was hammered Friday by fellow activists for refusing to oppose any and all cuts to Social Security benefits, a position the group says it has long held as a way to extend the life of the massive retirement and disability program. The group, which has 37 million members, adamantly opposes cutting Social Security benefits to help reduce the federal budget deficit, said David Certner, the organization's director of legislative policy.

We take your questions, but we also welcome readers' input. Reader John E. Dinsmore offered his own experiences in restoring kitchen cabinets in response to a request for advice on sprucing up 23-year-old oak ones. "I had fabulous results with Howard Restor-A-Finish on my oak cabinets," he said. "I cleaned with mineral spirits, then applied Howard's with 000 [grade] steel wool and wiped it off after a while. " "The cabinets look new," he said. "Howard makes a beeswax for keeping the finish looking new. New hinges and handles, if you want, and you're done.