Luck

CHRIS POLK will tell you now that he had zero expectations heading into last month's NFL draft. "My expectation was just to get drafted," he said after a morning practice at the Eagles' 3-day rookie camp at NovaCare. That, of course, isn't quite true. It's one of those things players say after they've taken the kind of disappointing, look-out-below draft fall Polk took 2 weeks ago. The 5-11, 220-pound running back from the University of Washington, who is just one of seven players in Pac-12 history to rush for 4,000 yards, had hoped to be selected in the third — maybe even the second — round of the draft.

WE CAN'T say we're all that surprised at John Perzel's latest scheme to fix the Pennsylvania Convention Center - install slots there. Seems like the endless revenues of slot machines could be the answer to almost everything that ails us in Pennsylvania. Why stop at the Convention Center? Why not install them in schools, right next to the Coke machines, and let the kids pay for their own education? We could put slots in the local pharmacies and forget about having to come up with a Medicare prescription drug benefit.

The Eagles have given up more yards than any NFL team this season, they have done the poorest job of protecting their quarterback, they have been outscored, 90-45, in the first quarter, and their rushing game has been in no particular hurry. Their best wide receiver has been injured and unavailable for the past seven weeks, their so-called franchise player is gaining 2.7 yards per carry, and their sack total is down 31 percent from a year ago. So how is it possible that these same Eagles are tied for first place in the NFC East and are thinking and talking and maybe even planning for their first playoff appearance since 1981?

IN 2004, THE Building Industry Association of Philadelphia commissioned "If You Fix It, They Will Come," a report detailing the city's confusing and complex development process. The report, produced by Karen Black of May 8 Consulting, identified many of the reforms for zoning and planning that are now being addressed by the zoning reform commission. Here is a graphic depiction from the report of the 28 steps required to get the permits and approval required to build a project in the city.

No, the Philadelphian who led Union troops at Gettysburg was not Thacher Longstreth. It wasn't Ulysses S. Grant, either. These were only two of the imaginative answers to what we thought was a pretty easy question. It was Gen. George G. Meade. Callowhill Street was not named in honor of "Wild Bill Callowhill" or "Benny Hill, a callow fellow," as readers suggested. It honored the family of William Penn's second wife, Hannah Callowhill Penn. Our first Poor Ronald's Philadelphia History and Trivia Quiz, published May 17, proved again that nobody is perfect.

A Philadelphia favorite son earned new prominence on the national stage last week when the Rev. William J. Shaw was elected president of the National Baptist Convention USA. Rev. Shaw is the pastor of West Philadelphia's White Rock Baptist Church and has long served as a board member for numerous Philadelphia hospital, religious and charitable organizations. Now he has the opportunity to put his skills to work rebuilding the prestige of one of the nation's oldest and largest African American denominations.

We live in a costume backwater or, more appropriately, a musty attic. Past & Present in Mount Airy sells Clinton, Jay Leno and Santana. O'Byrne Costumes in the Northeast has Howard Stern and Clinton. Stern's in Wayne has Nixon, both Reagans and Gorbachev. Nixon? Gorbachev? Why not Herbert Hoover? If a 10-year-old wants to be Arnold the Governator or a 30-year-old wishes to be a slash-happy Kill Bill Uma Thurman or a 50-year-old dreams of going out tippling as a vodka-empowered Liza Minnelli, they're out of luck - unless they have a gift for makeup or are deft with latex and a glue gun. Manhattan, the New York Times reports, has Arnold masks and Matrix costumes.

Pat Croce doesn't gamble. "I believe in leveraged risk," the 76ers' president said. And luck. "Call it luck, God's will, fate, whatever," Croce said, looking ahead to Sunday's NBA draft lottery in Secaucus, N.J. "I'm lucky I'm healthy, lucky that I have the family I have, lucky to have the seat I'm sitting in, lucky that Harold Katz was in a selling mode and that I was the one who precipitated it. "I'm even lucky the Sixers...

Bourbon and burgers have long been two of my favorite food groups. But when I behold them side-by-side in their highest forms, posed on the zinc bar-top at Village Whiskey, it's clear this duo is the ultimate height of low-down American decadence. With 150-plus bottles of bourbon, Scotch, and rye majestically arrayed before the mottled bar mirror to choose from, this is surely one of the city's deepest wells of dark-spirit luxury. Add to this mix a splash of super-chef Jose Garces, and rest assured that the burger itself has also been given its gastronomic due. Ground in-house daily from grass-fed, naturally raised Maine beef, with different grind sizes for the various cuts in the blend, and an ingenious shaping technique that results in patties with a perfect end-grain (as opposed to one big bouncy smush)

Kirkbride Elementary School pupils in Philadelphia created cards yesterday to wish Sen. John Glenn good luck on his Oct. 29 mission aboard the space shuttle Discovery. Epson America is making a national bus tour to let children use its printers to make the cards.

Johnny Depp, who plays American Indian sidekick Tonto in a Lone Ranger pic, has been made an honorary member of a Comanche tribe in New Mexico. Tribal member LaDonna Harris told the Associated Press Tuesday that Depp was gifted with the proclamation May 16 at her Albuquerque home. He's now considered one of her sons. Six Spidey minutes to amaze Willing to give up six minutes of your life for the most salvific, life-changing experience imaginable? Go see Men in Black 3 at your local Imax theater Friday!

AND SO, THIS is how it ends, one of those only-in-Philadelphia nights. It is a story that we pass down through the hockey generations, like baldness. The Flyers lost a playoff series to the New Jersey Devils and this will be the enduring symbol from the final game: Flyers goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov, trying to shoot a puck away from the front of his net, away to safety, instead seeing the puck picked out of the air by Devils forward David Clarkson and ricocheting behind him and into the goal.

NEW YORK - For two picks, there was no drama at the top of the NFL's marquee offseason event Thursday night. Everyone knew that quarterback Andrew Luck would be the first pick, by the Colts, and that Robert Griffin III would go next, to the Redskins. Then, chaos. The NFL draft turned into a whirlwind of trades and maneuvering that upended months of fevered speculation. The moves included the Cowboys leaping up to grab the top cornerback in the draft, further strengthening the competitive NFC East after Washington grabbed the franchise quarterback they have long lacked.

NEW YORK - Andrew Luck knows exactly where he's heading, and so does Robert Griffin III. For the rest of the college stars preparing for the NFL draft Thursday night, the anxiety is building. Nobody is looking forward to the green room at Radio City Music Hall. "It kind of made me a little nervous when we were talking to the commissioner, and he said, 'You'll be back there for an hour, and it'll feel like you've been back there for five days," ' Southern California tackle Matt Kalil said.

WHILE TAKING hacks in the on-deck circle, preparing for his fifth at-bat, Augusto "June" Ortega was handed a three-leaf clover by teammate Kevin Montero, who was sitting on the grass nearby. "Here, take this for good luck," Montero said, in Spanish. (We'll assume no four-leafers were available.) "I don't need any," Ortega cracked in that same language, though he did tuck the clover into his right back pocket. Ortega rapped a grounder toward first base and, oh, the ball was misplayed for an error.

Question: A friend and I purchased a tour from Friendly Planet to Ecuador last July. We booked a round-trip flight on American Airlines from Dallas to Miami to arrive in time to connect to the LAN flight to Quito, Ecuador. We purchased flight insurance with Access America Insurance for the super-saver flights from Dallas to Miami. In February I received an e-mail from Friendly Planet saying that the tour had been canceled due to too few participants. I was given the choice to receive a refund or to schedule another tour later in the year.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - He allowed himself a 2-hour pout. That was it. For 2 hours after hearing that Jimmy Rollins had re-signed with the Phillies last December, Freddy Galvis felt a little sorry for himself, forlorn, maybe even depressed. "Everybody would be like that, though," he was saying as he sat on a chair on one of the back fields of the Carpenter Complex the other day. "When you have a dream that you want to play in the big leagues and you feel like you've gotten closer and then the guy who is playing in front of you just signed for 3 years, the first thing you say is, 'Wow, I'm going to go to the minors again.' " We are on the back field at his request, out of view of the Phillies' veteran clubhouse.

THE COLTS WILL soon get a more thorough look at Andrew Luck. They won't have the same opportunity with Robert Griffin III. General manager Ryan Grigson said Monday the Colts plan to bring Luck to Indianapolis for an individual workout during the next couple of weeks. Luck is widely expected to be the No. 1 pick in next month's draft. Griffin is expected to go second, but Grigson said the Colts wouldn't see the Heisman Trophy winner work out at the team complex. "Circumstances didn't allow us to do anything private with him [Griffin]

ATLANTIC CITY - They sat on opposite ends of the stage, the divide symbolic of the awkwardness of the situation. But Andrew Luck and Archie Manning - here to accept awards from the Maxwell Football Club - insisted Friday that neither was uncomfortable even though the Stanford quarterback is widely expected to replace Manning's son in Indianapolis. Now, if Peyton Manning were here instead of his father . . . "I don't know if it's awkward to begin with," said Luck, winner of the 75th Maxwell Award as the collegiate player of the year.

WHEN SHE was 7, Lindsay Browning was nervous and excited waiting for her father to come to her school. When he arrived, he was dressed as Abraham Lincoln to teach her class about the former president's life. Today, the Philly-based dancer has transformed that childhood experience into a contemporary dance titled "Lincoln Luck. " Browning was inspired by imagining herself as Lincoln's "daughter of the future," basing her image both on Lincoln's personal history and on her father's portrayal of him. The performance explores themes such as luck and fate, and how they relate to Lincoln's life.