Plumber

By day, Bruce Riffel was a respectable plumber. But by night, he prowled the Northeast as the notorious "convenience store bandit," using Molotov-cocktails and knives to terrorize and rob store clerks. Now, Bruce Riffel will have a new persona: prisoner. Common Pleas Judge Pamela Pryor Cohen sentenced Riffel, 35, to nine to 20 years in prison on Tuesday for six holdups between June and October 1989. "He was a predator," Assistant District Attorney Edward McCann told the judge.

James E. "Jimmy the Plumber" Armstrong, a retired city sanitation worker who knew he couldn't change the world but could clean up his small part of it, died Saturday. He was 68 and lived in Southwest Philadelphia. Armstrong worked for the sanitation division of the city's Streets Department for 20 years, most of that time pushing a cart and broom in Center City. He got to know every merchant and vendor by name. He was a supervisor when he retired in 1981. There was no hiding place for so much as a gum wrapper on Market Street between 11th and 12th when Armstrong was on the job. A few years later he was back in Center City with his daughter, Gloria Becerril.

Thomas J. Scanlan, 84, of Southampton, a retired plumber and volunteer, died of kidney failure Friday, Aug. 12, at home. As a master plumber, Mr. Scanlan worked at Nazareth Hospital and then at Liberty Bell Park in Philadelphia from its opening in 1963 until it closed in 1986. Mr. Scanlan was a member and past president of the plumbers union Local 690. At 17, he dropped out of Northeast Catholic High School to join the Navy and, during World War II, served in the Pacific aboard the destroyer Keys.

Edward Pickens, 38, of Lansdale, a member of the North Penn school board, died Friday of a heart attack. Mr. Pickens was stricken at Webraft Mailing Systems in Chalfont, Bucks County, where he had worked as a master plumber for the last year. He was taken to Doylestown Hospital. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Mr. Pickens graduated from Oceanside High School on Long Island in 1970. He attended St. John's University in Queens, N.Y., and graduated from Suburban Technical School in Long Island with an associate's degree in electronics.

James George Douris' billing practices were called outrageous, even for a plumber. Douris found a way to turn $75 service calls into bills for more than $300 to $1,200 - often without so much as lifting a wrench, state and Bucks County officials charged yesterday in a lawsuit. When consumers filed complaints, Douris, owner of George Plumbing Inc. in Newtown, billed them an extra $200 for "office fees," the lawsuit said. "This is the most outrageous billing case I've ever seen," said Courtney Yelle, director of Bucks County Department of Consumer Protection.

Adam Hughes set his prized possession on the table for everyone to see - Barry Bonds' record-tying home run ball, already safely encased in an acrylic box. "It was pretty neat to be part of history," said Hughes, a 33-year-old plumber from San Diego's La Jolla section. "I'll have something to tell my kids. " Hughes became an instant celebrity Saturday night when he scooped up Bonds' No. 755, which tied the San Francisco Giants' slugger with Hank Aaron as baseball's most prolific home-run hitter.

In an upset to prognosticators who said Kelly Clarkson was a shoo-in for the World Idol crown, Norwegian plumber Kurt Nilsen won the title. The gap-toothed, cherubic 25-year-old, who looks like a cross between a hobbit and Clay Aiken, won Thursday night in London with his rendition of U2's "Beautiful Day. " "This is totally amazing," a thrilled and tearful Nilsen said. "I love you guys," he told the 10 other competitors. And American sweetheart Clarkson? She came in second, while Belgium's Peter Everard was third.

Victor Marcus Snyder, 60, of Lansdale, a former Philadelphia plumber-turned-criminal defense lawyer, died suddenly Friday at home. Relatives said Mr. Snyder may have suffered a heart ailment. Mr. Snyder became a household name in the region when he appeared in TV commercials in the 1970s promoting himself as "Philadelphia's plumber. " He later went to law school, passed the bar and became a lawyer. He maintained law offices at 2 Penn Center in Center City until his death. Born in Philadelphia, Mr. Snyder graduated in 1958 from Girard College.

Arthur J. Kehoe Sr., 66, a retired master plumber who received a heart transplant 11 years ago, died of heart failure Friday at Allegheny University Hospitals/Hahnemann. He lived in Conshohocken. Heart problems had dogged Mr. Kehoe early on. He had suffered heart attacks at age 42 and at 44, his family said, and a third, massive attack that required quadruple bypass surgery on Nov. 8, 1985. Mr. Kehoe received his heart transplant at Temple University Hospital April 7, 1986 - on the seventh birthday of his grandson Paul Taboga.

Fred Ward Moore, 88, a retired plumber, died of complications of multiple strokes on Saturday at the Glen Mills home of his daughter. Before moving in with his daughter, Mr. Moore had been a resident of Havertown for many years. Mr. Moore had worked for 10 years as a plumber for a subcontractor at Peco substations. Before that, he had been self-employed as a plumbing and heating contractor in Haverford Township. Mr. Moore was raised in Haverford Township on the H.G. Lloyd Estate where his father was superintendent for 70 years.

MICHAEL ROSATI had never sung in an opera, but he was eager to participate when he had the opportunity to be part of the chorus in a production of "Aida" in New York's Central Park in June. So what if he was in his early 80s? It made no difference to him. He still had a voice and he was practicing to lend that voice to the special demands of opera. But it was not to be. He died Saturday of cancer. Michael Rosati, an Air Force veteran who worked in the family plumbing business and as a pipe fitter at the old Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and whose passions included singing, coaching baseball and golf, was 82 and lived in Malvern, Chester County.

Anita Zager's headache began one Wednesday evening in early April, when she discovered a problem any homeowner would dread. Backed-up sewage was spilling from her washing machine onto the basement carpet in her Narberth home. Her headache blossomed into a full-bore consumer nightmare the next day, after she called HomeServe USA under a service contract she buys for water and sewer emergencies. HomeServe sent a plumber the next morning to unblock her drain. Just as promptly things went awry.

By Jamaica Kincaid Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. 192 pp. $23 Reviewed by Susan Balée See here, readers: See Now Then , the new novel by Jamaica Kincaid, traces the interior history of a (ticked off) black woman whose heart has been broken by her (once beloved) husband. And although she says otherwise in interviews, it sure looks like Kincaid is the woman and her erstwhile ex-, Allen Shawn (son of famous editor William, brother of actor Wallace), is the heartbreaker.

George Fox was a plumber with red hair so flaming that some called him Tomato or Carrot. He cared about his girlfriend of 10 years and the longtime regulars he knew at T-Barr's Bar in South Philadelphia. He cared enough to fill in Saturday night as a bartender when T-Barr's owner was looking for someone to cover a shift. The regular bartender needed the night off to go to a party. Fox hadn't poured drinks there in about three years. Sometime after 1 a.m. Sunday, a hooded robber walked into the tavern in the 2220 block of South Eighth Street, strolled past a dozen or more patrons, and held up Fox, bar owner Tom Barr said.

Watching Bruce Graham's absurdist comedy Any Given Monday , now being presented in New York by Ambler's Act II Playhouse, can't help but produce a warm and fuzzy feeling, especially if you're from the playwright's hometown. It's heartwarming to hear laughter coming from a hard-core Big Apple audience that supposedly has seen it all. I guess they haven't seen Philadelphia recently - at least not through Bruce Graham's eyes. Any Given Monday (originally coproduced in 2010 by Act II and Theatre Exile)

Officers arrested in federal sting NEW YORK - Five New York Police Department officers smuggled firearms and slot machines they thought were stolen and some even used bolt cutters to pilfer hundreds of boxes of cigarettes from tractor-trailers as part of a 12-person theft ring that was under federal surveillance the entire time, authorities said Tuesday. Three retired NYPD officers and a New Jersey correction officer are among the other defendants named in a federal criminal complaint alleging an undercover agent paid them more than $100,000 to moonlight as gun runners while under FBI surveillance.

Thomas J. Scanlan, 84, of Southampton, a retired plumber and volunteer, died of kidney failure Friday, Aug. 12, at home. As a master plumber, Mr. Scanlan worked at Nazareth Hospital and then at Liberty Bell Park in Philadelphia from its opening in 1963 until it closed in 1986. Mr. Scanlan was a member and past president of the plumbers union Local 690. At 17, he dropped out of Northeast Catholic High School to join the Navy and, during World War II, served in the Pacific aboard the destroyer Keys.

Edward A. Papa, 79, of Somerdale, a Crescent Temple Shrine clown who for more than 30 years put a smile on the faces of handicapped and injured children by performing at area fund-raisers, died on Saturday, Oct. 9, following complications of a stroke, at Vitas Hospice in Stratford. With his signature butterfly glued to his red clown nose, Mr. Papa attracted children of all ages during his appearances. "He knew just how to treat a sick child," his wife, Patricia, said. "He teased them and made them laugh.

Question: We are remodeling the kitchen in our 1893 house. We would like to have the space our hot-water radiator is taking up. It is 50 inches long by 25 inches high by 8 inches deep. What would be our alternatives? Would under-the-floor heat be enormously expensive? We do have some wall space planned that could accommodate the flat wall-hung-style radiator, but do you know anything about them? The kitchen is about 12 feet by 14 feet with 10 feet of ceiling height. Have you heard any more on the tankless water heater?