New Idea

Flexible "incubator" space, an idea already established in California and northern New Jersey, came one step closer to reality in Middletown Township on Wednesday night. By a 4-2 vote, the Middletown Planning Commission approved McKee Group's plans for an incubator space in the Bucks County Industrial Park, near the Oxford Valley Mall. According to Ed Gunning, who represents the McKee Group, the incubator is a fairly new idea that accommodates small businesses by putting them side by side in a large area where they can share services.

LONDON - Even as Scotland's separatist leader kicked off his party's independence campaign Friday, he also floated a compromise option that would fall short of his cherished goal of full separation from the United Kingdom. It's a proposal that's been described as "Independence Lite" - something that would give Scots control of all their affairs except foreign policy and defense, which would still be run out of London. First Minister Alex Salmond, the leader of the Scottish National Party, gave an ambiguous endorsement.

Max Elsman fears we are about to deinstitutionalize the poor the way we deinstitutionalized the mentally ill two decades ago: with compelling logic and disastrous result. You will remember that the first wave of deinstitutionalization started with the self-evident fact that mental hospitals (like insane asylums before them) were too much like prisons, too little like treatment facilities. It may have been that the prison-like nature of the places actually retarded mental recovery.

This cannot be a new idea I am expressing. How can the people of America - who elected Ronald Reagan, who has just cut off 22 percent funding for a cure for AIDS - be rated so cowardly as to fear death because someone died from Tylenol contamination? One hundred fifty million dollars to stop production of capsules when the pill could be just as easily poisoned in the future sounds like a waste of money. But of course, I forgot, AIDS has killed 1,700 so far - gays by and large, and this is different.

IN RESPONSE to Joe Sixpack's article "Let's get sensible about suds," this reader believes that rules are there for a reason. Why on earth would you attempt to take a law that prohibits those under the age of 21 from indulging in alcohol legally to a new idea of a "provisional drinking license" - and let people embark on a mission whose sole goal is to make sure you are throwing up by the end of the evening. By instituting a "provisional drinking license," you are taking all of the 19- and 20-year-olds and giving them a reason to experiment, to get out of control and to learn the hard way that being 21 is not all it is cracked up to be. Phillip A. Kees, Willow Grove

Mayor Street deserves credit for resurrecting the vital issue of creating a fund to support the region's cultural riches. And he deserves credit for having the guts to throw out a new idea on how to get that fund started in his speech this week to the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. It's so much easier to wait for the other guy to go first, rather than to put your idea out there for people to shoot at. Unfortunately, his idea is an easy target to shoot at. The mayor suggested selling naming rights to the Pennsylvania Convention Center, with the money feeding a culture fund.

I'M PROUD of my state Rep. Denny O'Brien for not "knuckling under" to add another burden to law-abiding gun owners. Jill Porter, it's not whether it's "arduous" or not. Every time people come up with a new idea for controlling guns, the burdens are only placed on the law-abiding guns owners and never deal with the proper behavioral corrections. Stop making people like me jump through more hoops every time there is a new idea. Mayer Krain, Philadelphia Phoning it in I've just seen Hillary's latest commercial.

PEAS, PLEASE Compulsively follow directions? Stifle yourself next time you pull out the frozen peas. Sure, the directions on the bag tell you to boil them. But think about it: Those tiny, defenseless spheres already were cooked before freezing - why do you want to cook them again? Here's what you do, according to "Vegetables: The Most Authoritative Guide to Buying, Preparing, and Cooking" ($35, William Morrow and Company): Thaw, then heat briefly in butter, olive oil or a little broth.

STANDING on a podium hastily set up behind second base, moments after the Phillies had clinched only the second world championship in franchise history, 71-year-old general manager Pat Gillick looked out at the cheering crowd and yelled into the microphone. "Thanks for your support! And let's do it again!" he shouted hoarsely. Uh, again? Isn't Gillick supposed to be retiring now? "This is a great celebration. Let's worry about that tomorrow," he said. Most likely, Gillick was just having a little fun. Every indication is that he plans to go out on top, just as he's said he will all along.

CITY COUNCIL is brewing up a new idea - using booze to fund schools. During Council's first session since the inauguration, City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown yesterday introduced a bill that would extend bar hours to 3 a.m., generating up to $5 million annually in liquor taxes for the cash-poor school district, which announced last week that it must cut $61 million by June. "We need to be . . . looking for unconventional . . . new revenue streams for funding the school district," said Reynolds Brown.

BEFORE WE marvel that there are 30 percent fewer Philly kids in foster care or delinquent placement today than three years ago, let's marvel that Rashan Clarke survived the system at all. From the age of 3 months until he aged out of foster care last year, Rashan, 18, bounced from placement to placement. A few of his caregivers were well-intentioned, he says, but those relationships were short-lived. Mostly, he endured abuse or neglect by people who were supposed to protect and care for him. "Too many of them are just in it for the money.

CITY COUNCIL is brewing up a new idea - using booze to fund schools. During Council's first session since the inauguration, City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown yesterday introduced a bill that would extend bar hours to 3 a.m., generating up to $5 million annually in liquor taxes for the cash-poor school district, which announced last week that it must cut $61 million by June. "We need to be . . . looking for unconventional . . . new revenue streams for funding the school district," said Reynolds Brown.

Eddie Murphy had a simple suggestion about six years ago: Why not make an all-black version of Ocean's Eleven ? Director Brett Ratner and producer Brian Grazer loved the comedian's idea. Before long, the three were throwing around ideas about who could star opposite Murphy: Jamie Foxx, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Tracy Morgan, and Chris Tucker headed the list. The resulting movie, Universal Pictures' Tower Heist , arrives in theaters this weekend, where it will face solid competition from Warner Bros.' A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas . But after more than five years of development, Murphy's original pitch has been transformed into a different film, with the all-black conceit replaced by an ensemble cast led by Ben Stiller and including Casey Affleck and Matthew Broderick.

LONDON - Even as Scotland's separatist leader kicked off his party's independence campaign Friday, he also floated a compromise option that would fall short of his cherished goal of full separation from the United Kingdom. It's a proposal that's been described as "Independence Lite" - something that would give Scots control of all their affairs except foreign policy and defense, which would still be run out of London. First Minister Alex Salmond, the leader of the Scottish National Party, gave an ambiguous endorsement.

In pushing to award Pennsylvania's presidential electoral votes by congressional district rather than the current winner-take-all system, Republican leaders in Harrisburg are headed in the wrong direction. They should be moving to rid the country altogether of the archaic Electoral College, which allows the loser of the national popular vote to become president. Instead, state Republicans are trying to rig the nation's antiquated election system to their advantage. They want to guarantee their candidate gets at least some electoral votes from a state their party has failed to win in the last five elections.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd has it good. Ever since this Louisiana native turned 18 and released the modern classic Ledbetter Heights, he's been dropping gold and platinum blues albums that usually hit the No. 1 spot on their assigned Billboard chart - just like his new How I Go . Shepherd, now 34, is a self-educated guitarist (no formal music lessons) whose intuitive nature and brazen independence eventually found him producing a film, the 10 Days Out (Blues From the Backroads)

Sometimes in science, what you get wrong can be just as important as what you get right. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania set out two years ago to prove that a new drug could marshal T cells, key players in the immune system, against pancreatic cancer. That didn't happen. Instead, the experimental antibody turned more primitive immune-system cells that often get co-opted into helping pancreatic cancer tumors against part of the tumor structure. Tumors shrank substantially in some patients, and median survival time lengthened by two months, to 7.4 months.

Drawn by repeated distress signals from the Foxwoods Casino project, the preservation group at the helm of a historic ghost ship, the SS United States, is offering to sail upriver with a novel alternative. The proposal: Move the derelict cruise liner about three-quarters of a mile north from its resting place at Pier 82 in South Philadelphia and place it next to a new 10-story garage with two floors of gaming. Cut a dock into the 16-acre site and slip the bow in, facing Columbus Avenue.

THE FIREWORKS were nice, but it seems that the entire July Fourth festivities just aren't as good as they could be. I live in the Fairmount section, and in the afternoon I walked down to take in some of the fun along the Parkway. First, I found that the entire Art Museum area - from the steps to the Rocky statute to the entire lawn at Eakins Oval - was completely fenced off. One police officer told me that it was because of cables running to the stage. But it was strangely empty all day around the entire museum.

Dear Hollywood: Stop ruining our childhood media memories by remaking them. Are there no stories to tell other than The Karate Kid , The A-Team , or Clash of the Titans ? Does a bad skit on Saturday Night Live really a movie make? Is Shrek's life worth four motion pictures? We know it's difficult to resist copying old masterpieces when you raked in $56 million from this weekend's opening of The Karate Kid , or $210 million for a month's run of that Forever After saga.