Mountains

PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Down by three and faced with a fourth and goal from the 1 on a miserable, wet, snowy day, first-year West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen didn't hesitate. The No. 25 Mountaineers were going for the lead and putting the ball, and possibly their Big East title hopes - in what might be their last year in the conference - in the hands of quarterback Geno Smith. Smith didn't run the play as called, but the junior improvised well enough and made a headfirst dive into the end zone on a scamper around right end as West Virginia rallied for a 41-31 victory over Rutgers on Saturday.

Anyone see a lion in Upper Darby? On Tuesday, police received two anonymous calls reporting a mountain lion or bobcat may have been sighted entering the woods near Township Line Road and State Road, police said. Animal Control was dispatched to the area, but no supersize feline was found, Police Superintendent Michael J. Chitwood said. There were reports of an earlier dogfight involving a "large, burly-looking dog" that ran off, Chitwood said. "That is what we believe it was. " That, however, did not stop the media circus.

With winter on the way, ski resorts across the region are preparing for their busy season. But at Sno Mountain, the electricity has been turned off for weeks. The resort's online ski-pass-ordering feature worked Tuesday, but repeated calls to Sno Mountain's toll-free ordering number and administrative office rang over and over with no answer, no voice mail and no answering machine. An iron gate blocked vehicles from entering the resort's sprawling parking lot. No staff vehicles were visible.

By Rich Westcott With a 13-inning victory in the last game of the regular season, Charlie Manuel ascended to the top of a very special page in the Phillies' record book this week, becoming the winningest manager in the team's 129-year history. It's a considerable accomplishment: His 646th Philadelphia win moved him past not only Gene Mauch, one of the most highly regarded skippers the team ever had and the 12th winningest in baseball history, but also 49 other former Phils managers, including three members of the Hall of Fame.

I GREW UP in South Jersey and, over the last 10 years, lived off and on in Philadelphia. Even now, I remain vested in the city I care very much for, warts and all. I write to express my views on the negativity spewed toward the city by folks in the Delaware Valley as well as around the nation. I now live in New York City, and have lived in Washington and Austin, Texas. I've regularly had to defend Philadelphia from negative observations from people many of whom have never visited or examined what the city offers.

By Karl Marlantes Atlantic Monthly Press. 254 pp. $25 Reviewed by Bryan Grigsby In 1967, Karl Marlantes was a Rhodes Scholar in Oxford, England. A year later, he was a 23-year-old second lieutenant leading a platoon of young Marines in Vietnam's Quang Tri Province, a rugged area of cloud-topped mountains and deep jungle valleys. What he learned from that experience is the gut of his book, What It Is Like to Go to War . When I first picked up this book, I had doubts that I could read it, much less finish it. Even 42 years after my own experience in Vietnam, I wasn't eager to relive those days.

The soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou celebrates its 10th anniversary this month with a fresh reissue that debuts Tuesday. The music that scored the Coen Brothers' Depression-era adaptation of Homer's Odyssey changed popular music in a big way, bringing old-timey mountain music to the forefront of America's pop market for the first time in decades. And we're still feeling the soundtrack's influence. Would the masses have been ready for roots-minded crossover acts Mumford & Sons, Old Crow Medicine Show, the Civil Wars, or the Avett Brothers had it not been for the brave, game-changing appeal of O Brother ?

PINE MOUNTAIN, Ga. - Behind every garden is a story, and Callaway Gardens, atop the slopes of Georgia's Pine Mountain, is no different. The backstory is that Cason Callaway, a Georgia textile magnate turned gazillionaire, once said that every child should see something beautiful before he was 6 years old so he would remember it all his life. Callaway then carved out 2,500 acres from cotton farms he owned that had been eroded by poor farming practices and created Callaway Gardens, a beloved Georgia landmark threaded with woodlands, pastures, golf courses, and spectacular gardens that defy generalizations.

TALK ABOUT "out of sight, out of mind. " Because it's tucked away off Route 611 high in the Pocono Mountains some 110 miles north of Philly, Mount Airy Casino Resort doesn't always enter the discussion when the subject is eastern Pennsylvania gambling halls. After all, the full-service resort complex - complete with 188-room hotel and golf course - located on the site of the old Mount Airy Lodge, doesn't have the glitz or high-voltage action of Bensalem's Parx, or the urban setting of SugarHouse in Fishtown.