Ledge

"MAN ON a Ledge" is a movie so bold, so innovative, there hasn't been anything remotely like it since . . . "Ledge," a couple of months ago. The latter starred Charlie Hunnam as the ledge-bound protagonist, Terrence Howard the sympathetic cop, and went pretty much straight to DVD. Now comes "Man on a Ledge," which merits theatrical release based of its "B" movie panache, and the way it expands from its pitch-meeting premise into an action-thriller about...

Man on a Ledge would have been much more impressive before Dec. 16. That was when Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol arrived in theaters with Tom Cruise treating the world's tallest tower like an indoor rock-climbing wall. He wasn't just teetering on a ledge 21 stories up in Manhattan. True, Cruise's derring-do is just a fraction of that movie while much of Man on a Ledge occurs on a 14-inch stone shelf outside a room on the 21st floor of a Manhattan hotel. That is where Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington)

A week to the day after a man convicted of rape leaped to his death through a City Hall courtroom window, a distraught court officer climbed onto a sixth- floor ledge of the building and hovered there yesterday for 15 minutes. Two police officers from the transit division raced from the street to the sixth floor and, finding the courtroom locked, climbed out onto the ledge from a hall window and coaxed the court employee back inside. The man, whom police identified as Frank Stranix, 56, said he had intended to jump but apparently became frightened of the height, according to one of the officers.

It was an ordinary afternoon in late February when Roxborough High School security guard Charles "Chuck" Damiani received an urgent phone call from a teacher. Someone was on the third floor ledge outside her classroom. Damiani ran up the stairs and out onto the ledge himself. Luckily, he recognized the distraught student. He knew him well and he understood his problems. Within five minutes, Damiani talked him down. "I reached through the wrought iron fence and grabbed his belt," Damiani said.

A MAINTENANCE WORKER sweeps up glass from a ledge of the UGI Building, Broad and Arch Streets, after a client of the city's Department of Human Services broke five windows yesterday afternoon. City workers told police that the woman stepped through a second-floor window onto the ledge and began smashing the windows. Police took the woman to Hahnemann University Hospital, where, they said, she refused to identify herself.

What a time for a breakfast order. There he was, Hilton head butler Mel Thompson, hands grasped around a screeching, pecking, newly banded 3 1/2-week-old peregrine falcon chick, the mother bird shooting daggers as she watched from a ledge outside the penthouse suite. And the phone rang in the butler's pantry. "I've got to put him down," he said, before depositing the chick out on the ledge, where the little guy promptly sank his claws into the clothes of the nearest human, also perched on the ledge.

A woman who apparently was frustrated over delays in getting attention at the city's Department of Human Services office went on a rampage yesterday before being subdued, according to police. Melissa Murphy climbed out on a second-floor ledge, smashed a dozen windows with a nightstick, terrified several children, and assaulted a man, police said. Murphy, 20, who gave police an address on Parrish Street near 24th, was charged with criminal mischief and simple assault. Police and witnesses said Murphy showed up at the office a day early for an appointment and was told she would have to wait about an hour.

WHY DID Councilmen Kenney feel it necessary to commend Councilman DiCicco for doing nothing more than what he gets paid to do - HIS JOB! Is this the latest trend? If so, I'm curious as to why no one has given you a "pat on the back," Mr. Kenney. I didn't realize self-esteem was such a problem at City Hall. But if this keeps another councilman from climbing out on the ledge, so be it. Jason Henry, Philadelphia

The Vine Street Expressway, I-676, was closed in both directions for about an hour Sunday after a man threatened to leap from an overpass at 18th and Vine Streets, police reported. The man was holding onto the gate and standing on the ledge, the Breaking News Network reported. Police were able to persuade him to return to safety. State Police closed the road about 6:40 p.m. They were able to reopen it about 7:30 p.m.

Two young Britons, who said they did it "just for kicks," parachuted yesterday from the 86th-floor observation deck of the Empire State Building. As they floated to the street, one was snagged by a traffic light and the other landed without incident, calmly folded his chute, hopped into a cab and rode away. "The idea was that we would land and then get away, but I didn't land in the way I intended to," said Michael McCarthy, 25, of London, who was arrested after police disentangled him from the light post at 31st Street and Fifth Avenue.

Weeks    Per    Rank/Title/Studio Last Week   Total    Out   Location    1. The Grey (ORF) $19.7 mil.   $19.7 mil.   1   $6,174    2. Underworld Awakening (Sony S.G.) 12.4 mil.   45.0 mil.   2   4,013    3. One for the Money (Lionsgate) 11.5 mil.   11.5 mil.   1   4,207    4. Red Tails (Fox) 10.4 mil.   33.8 mil.   2   4,030    5. Man on a Ledge (Summit) 8.0 mil.   8.

"MAN ON a Ledge" is a movie so bold, so innovative, there hasn't been anything remotely like it since . . . "Ledge," a couple of months ago. The latter starred Charlie Hunnam as the ledge-bound protagonist, Terrence Howard the sympathetic cop, and went pretty much straight to DVD. Now comes "Man on a Ledge," which merits theatrical release based of its "B" movie panache, and the way it expands from its pitch-meeting premise into an action-thriller about...

Man on a Ledge would have been much more impressive before Dec. 16. That was when Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol arrived in theaters with Tom Cruise treating the world's tallest tower like an indoor rock-climbing wall. He wasn't just teetering on a ledge 21 stories up in Manhattan. True, Cruise's derring-do is just a fraction of that movie while much of Man on a Ledge occurs on a 14-inch stone shelf outside a room on the 21st floor of a Manhattan hotel. That is where Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington)

Having been properly rewarded by the players for giving them a full week of rest during the bye, kindly old Andy Reid shut down mandatory work at the NovaCare Complex on Monday and told the guys to take off another couple of days. The Eagles will return to practice and meeting sessions on Thursday, which is the standard operating procedure for an NFL team heading into a Monday night game. Perhaps the standard would have changed had the Eagles stumbled in either of their previous "must-win" games against Washington and Dallas, but the team has found a blessed patch of calm in a stormy season and Reid is smart enough to let that vibe continue as long as possible.

"It moves you away from the ledge. " - economist Tom Porcelli, after news Friday that the unemployment rate did not worsen in September. "Apple would come out with something that you just felt like hugging. They felt good. " - technology professor David Farber, on why Steve Jobs, the Apple Inc. chief executive officer who died Wednesday, mattered. "He was a beneficial member of the human community. " - Occupy Wall Street protester Thorin Caristo, on why he considered Jobs a "different, quiet billionaire.

The Vine Street Expressway, I-676, was closed in both directions for about an hour Sunday after a man threatened to leap from an overpass at 18th and Vine Streets, police reported. The man was holding onto the gate and standing on the ledge, the Breaking News Network reported. Police were able to persuade him to return to safety. State Police closed the road about 6:40 p.m. They were able to reopen it about 7:30 p.m.

A Memoir By Leslie Marmon Silko Viking. 336 pp. $25.95. Reviewed by Helen W. Mallon Why do human beings have such a great need to tell their stories? According to acclaimed American Indian writer Leslie Marmon Silko, the springs of narrative lie beneath our feet: "You cannot stop it," she once said in an interview, "the land speaks to you. " Silko, recipient of a MacArthur grant, is the author of Ceremony , among other novels, as well as short stories, essays, and poetry collections.

Out on a walking tour of the city last week, Michelle Davis, Rhiana Pettenati, and Michelle Gailey strolled around City Hall (very nice) and LOVE Park (ditto), then pushed through the revolving doors into the refrigerated lobby of the glass skyscraper at 17th Street and JFK Boulevard. The women were confused. Some guy they'd met at a party the night before had told them, "Your life is not complete until you see the Comcast Center's video wall. " So here they were, and all they were looking at was a corporate-sleek, wood-paneled surface - 83.3 feet wide by 25.4 feet high, to be exact - above the three hallways leading to the building's innards.

With its rugged Western landscape and otherworldly rock formations, Moab is a strange and beautiful place. Located in eastern Utah, Moab experiences its hottest temperatures in July. During our visit last July, we had higher-than-normal temperatures in the triple digits. Four miles north of Moab, Arches National Park contains the world's largest known concentration of natural sandstone arches - more than 2,500. Perhaps the most famous is Delicate Arch. With its image on everything from license plates to postage stamps, it's instantly recognizable.

Two of the three red-tailed hawk chicks on a ledge of the Franklin Institute - webcam stars that have attracted thousands of viewers since they hatched on April 16 - took their first flights yesterday, observers said. The news spread quickly through followers who have been posting comments on the Ustream.tv Web site, which shows the Franklin's cam feed. Online viewers spiked from an average of about 300 at any given time to 800 by midafternoon. Overall, the site has attracted 359,011 unique visitors since it went live in early March, Ustream president Brad Hunstable said.