Muddy Waters

Etta James, 73, the powerful rhythm-and-blues singer whose more than five-decade career spawned such enduring hits as "At Last" and "Tell Mama," making her a profound influence on younger generations of female vocalists, died Friday. Ms. James, who suffered complications from leukemia, according to her manager, had been beset with a variety of health problems. In 2009, she was diagnosed with dementia; the following year, she was hospitalized with a staph infection. In December, weeks after the release of The Dreamer , which was billed as her final studio album, Ms. James' doctor told the Riverside (Calif.)

Long live rock-and-roll Re: "Rock-and-roll is dead; let it be," Currents, Aug. 7: The comments by music executive Thane Tierney typify problems with the music industry today. He lumped together two different and wholly unrelated phenomena: money and art. The amount of revenue earned by rock music is not a barometer for rock's popularity or the creativity of new rock musicians. In recent years, fewer companies own a larger share of the mainstream music market. Most of these companies get most of their revenue from nonmusical enterprises.

Heavy storms disrupted electrical service for thousands of residents in the suburbs of Philadelphia on Saturday night and continued to rage yesterday in Lancaster County, where they dumped more than five inches of rain and stranded more than a dozen motorists in their cars. At least one person whose car was swept off a bridge in Lancaster County was still reported missing late yesterday. Authorities said more than a dozen motorists were stranded by the high waters and had to be rescued.

It was all uphill to the Schuylkill, the wind was blowing, and he was planning a few pirouettes on one stilt, so Kofi Gyemerah chose the short pair. They made him about 10 feet tall and, dressed the way he was, conspicuous. A raffia ponytail swung from the top of his black-masked hood. He wore floppy pajamas splattered with sun-bleached turquoise snail shapes, and waved a feather frond. He also had a cowbell attached to the seat of his pants, which clanged when he walked. Gyemerah, an African stilt walker from Philadelphia, dances above the crowd's hairline for a living, but of all his ethnic gigs, the annual Odunde festival is the one he likes best.

Jim Barker knew something was wrong yesterday afternoon when he spotted two young men who appeared to be standing on the water in the Schuylkill River. When Barker, coach of the crew team at the Haverford School, drew closer in his power boat, he came upon a horrifying scene. The men were standing on a red Chevrolet Corsica that had plunged into the river from West River Drive. Its lone occupant was trapped inside, unconscious. A second man who was fishing by the river when he was hit by the car lay motionless on the muddy bank, bleeding profusely from head injuries.

In this pristine place at the northernmost edge of the park, here beside the rugged, rocky slabs and ancient oaks drifts the peaceful Pennypack. Its dusky, cool waters wind across Pennypack Park, traipsing past Pine and Verree Roads, bending near Tabor Road, then ambling by Bustleton Avenue and under busy Roosevelt Boulevard. It circles on past shady Rhawn Street, forming a still pool of glistening, sun-dappled water. Then - whoosh! - the bottom drops out and down it roars over granite steps, a creamy commotion crashing down, down, splashing against boulders, swirling around rocks, its foamy, white-capped waves washing against the muddy banks, now lapping smaller stones until, spent, it is tranquil again, meandering into historic Frankford, flowing quietly, lightly, beyond Torresdale Avenue where it finally joins the mighty Delaware River.

You know things are bad at the Delaware River Port Authority when union leader John J. "Doc" Dougherty is the person leading the fight for good governance. Dougherty has long been a backroom political operator. But he is on the side of the angels in his fight to bring more openness to a longtime patronage pit. As a DRPA commissioner, Dougherty wants to improve some of the dubious business practices at the bistate agency that operates four toll bridges over the Delaware River and runs the PATCO commuter rail service between Philadelphia and South Jersey.

When the submarine sets out in search of the legendary city beneath the sea in Atlantis: The Lost Empire, it marks a radical departure in the course of Disney animation. Conspicuous absentees on this trip are the Elton John songs, the cute animals and the comic-relief sidekicks. Instead, the production team behind such smashing Mouse House successes as Beauty and the Beast and Tarzan has gone for a curious melange of New Age myth and old-fashioned Indiana Jones adventure. It leads to a confusion of tone and an occasional incoherence in the plotting.