Post Cards

At the flick of a switch, Robert Skaler can see a city practically disappearing before his eyes. It vanishes right between the covers of his photo albums and the clicks of his slide projector. Now you see it. Now you don't. One minute there are homes, trees and children. The next there are vacant lots, abandoned houses, deserted streets. Skaler's city is - and was - Philadelphia. And he sees its boom and doom through his vast collection of post cards and photo slides.

Dennis Kinslow is crazy about roller coasters but finds that the glitzy amusement parks of the 1980s don't have the charm and thrill of the rides he recalls from his boyhood. "I think it's become packaged fun," he said. "In the old parks you would just go in and look at the architecture. " To recapture the enchantment of the past, the 37-year-old Abington accountant has turned to collecting picture post cards of old amusement parks. Kinslow and a colleague, Mel Keiser, a salesman from Northeast Philadelphia, have organized a post-card show in Willow Grove on Sunday.

Are we missing the real market? Do we really need conventioneers? Can we afford to spend $500 million for a convention center? Most people believe this city needs the Convention Center to prove to the world that we are a world class city. Baloney! Philadelphia is not world class. It is unique. Last year, 1,848,195 people came to visit our Liberty Bell precisely because we are unique. No other place in the world can claim to be the Birthplace of Liberty. For all their claims, other areas, like Boston or Williamsburg, are second rate when it comes to real American history.

An audience of 150 in WPVI's studio will participate in the season finale of "America's Funniest Home Videos" on May 20, when the surprise hit TV show awards a $100,000 grand prize to the video voted the year's funniest. The audience, sitting in Channel 6's studio on City Avenue, will be one of six groups around the country voting on the funniest video. The 60-minute special will be taped on Saturday, May 19, and broadcast the following evening. "We're excited because it's the hottest show on TV, and we get to be integral part of it," said Bill Burton, WPVI-TV's director of promotion and station advertising.

Playing 20 separate chess games at the same time might seem difficult, if not impossible, but for Gerald M. Levitt, it's as easy as, well, writing a post card. Levitt, 37, of Bustleton, practices podiatry in Frankford and plays chess with people from all over the country through the U.S. Chess Federation's Postal Chess Program. In the postal program, chess games are played through the mail. By printing their moves on the back of post cards, each player can play chess without ever meeting their opponent.

A researcher working on Thomas H. Kean Jr.'s proposed film attacking U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez once sent out thousands of anonymous post cards and automated phone calls accusing a New Hampshire candidate's wife of being in an orgasm cult. Christopher Lyon's resume includes work done for Republican state parties in New York and Virginia, more than one New Jersey congressman, former New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Bret Schundler, and now Kean, Menendez's challenger in New Jersey's U.S. Senate race.

One of Philadelphia's most unusual public auctions in recent memory will be held Thursday evening at an even more unusual location. "A veritable treasure trove of Nazi Third Reich and Italian Facist letters, post cards, photograph and other assorted documents will highlight the sale," explained auctioneer Barry S. Slosberg. Included: Christmas cards signed by Adolf Hitler, and his henchman Heinrich Himmler, letters from Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and Joseph Goebbels, snapshots of Hitler and Mussolini reviewing troops.

"It's 100 percent usable. " "It's local. " "It's increasingly difficult to find. " I heard those phrases time and time again two Sundays ago. "It" could have been an apple peeler or an armoire, a post card or a print, linen or lace. Whatever "it" was, it was an antique (or collectible) and it was in Lancaster County. Besides being the home of the Amish, Lancaster County is also the land of antiques, which in America, are loosely defined as objects more than 100 years old. It's a treasure-trove for collectors, especially the eight-mile stretch along Route 272 in Adamstown, a stretch that some claim is more densely populated with antique dealers than anywhere else in the United States.

Now that we have whipped up a frenzy among collectors turning flea markets and rummage sales upside down looking for old baseball gloves, wooden bats, used equipment, old flannel uniforms, pennants, plastic figurines, Kenner statues, programs, scorecards, ticket stubs, publications and autographs, it has been pointed out to me that there are several other sleepers and potential sleepers out there. So on those frosty weekends when you just have to get out of the house, check the classifieds and continue your search at flea markets, junk shops and rummage sales.

A researcher working on Thomas H. Kean Jr.'s proposed film attacking U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez once sent out thousands of anonymous post cards and automated phone calls accusing a New Hampshire candidate's wife of being in an orgasm cult. Christopher Lyon's resume includes work done for Republican state parties in New York and Virginia, more than one New Jersey congressman, former New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Bret Schundler, and now Kean, Menendez's challenger in New Jersey's U.S. Senate race.

Backed by Philadelphia FBI agents, police in Wales have arrested two teenagers suspected of hacking into information on 26,000 credit-card accounts from around the world and causing losses of up to $3 million, British police said yesterday. A police spokesman in Carmarthen, in southwestern Wales, said two men, both 18, were arrested Thursday in the nearby village of Clynderwen. One of the teens, identified as Raphael Gray, was captured at his home by investigators from the FBI and Welsh county police on charges of violating the 1990 British Computer Misuse Act. The other suspect's name was not immediately available.

One of Philadelphia's most unusual public auctions in recent memory will be held Thursday evening at an even more unusual location. "A veritable treasure trove of Nazi Third Reich and Italian Facist letters, post cards, photograph and other assorted documents will highlight the sale," explained auctioneer Barry S. Slosberg. Included: Christmas cards signed by Adolf Hitler, and his henchman Heinrich Himmler, letters from Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and Joseph Goebbels, snapshots of Hitler and Mussolini reviewing troops.

Now that we have whipped up a frenzy among collectors turning flea markets and rummage sales upside down looking for old baseball gloves, wooden bats, used equipment, old flannel uniforms, pennants, plastic figurines, Kenner statues, programs, scorecards, ticket stubs, publications and autographs, it has been pointed out to me that there are several other sleepers and potential sleepers out there. So on those frosty weekends when you just have to get out of the house, check the classifieds and continue your search at flea markets, junk shops and rummage sales.

The Swiss come here for their holidays. Situated midway between Bern and Basel, Solothurn is at once a village of medieval fortifications, cobbled streets, baroque architecture, world-class museums, a stunning cathedral, hillside farms, a splendid mountain range, snow and skiing, sun, outdoor cafes, forests, streams, a fine river, flowers, fresh fruits and vegetables, cheeses, farmers' bread, enough armor to re-enact - and win - the Thirty Years...

At the flick of a switch, Robert Skaler can see a city practically disappearing before his eyes. It vanishes right between the covers of his photo albums and the clicks of his slide projector. Now you see it. Now you don't. One minute there are homes, trees and children. The next there are vacant lots, abandoned houses, deserted streets. Skaler's city is - and was - Philadelphia. And he sees its boom and doom through his vast collection of post cards and photo slides.

They started lining up 10 hours before the grand opening on Oct. 1, 1940. This was an historic moment: the opening of the first highway with no traffic lights, no stop signs, no intersections, no speed limit. Instead of going over or around mountains, this amazing road went through them, cutting the six-hour grind from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh to three hours. They're celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Pennsylvania Turnpike this year with hoopla, history books and special events ranging from antique auto shows to a turnpike memorabilia fair.

Liselotte Neumann has addressed post cards better than golf balls lately. She has stood on some tees and wondered not whether she would hit the fairway, but the back of the ball. And when she did connect, there have been days when she was afraid to look where she sent it. Ten-foot putts have been adventures. Pars have at times been reasons to dance to the next tee. "My mind has been my biggest problem," she said yesterday. That's no tiny problem, folks. A troubled mind on any golf tour can put you in the sport's intensive-care unit mighty quickly.

An audience of 150 in WPVI's studio will participate in the season finale of "America's Funniest Home Videos" on May 20, when the surprise hit TV show awards a $100,000 grand prize to the video voted the year's funniest. The audience, sitting in Channel 6's studio on City Avenue, will be one of six groups around the country voting on the funniest video. The 60-minute special will be taped on Saturday, May 19, and broadcast the following evening. "We're excited because it's the hottest show on TV, and we get to be integral part of it," said Bill Burton, WPVI-TV's director of promotion and station advertising.

Three jugglers calling themselves Airjazz took over the Zellerbach Theater yesterday at the Annenberg Center's "Family Holiday Special," a term that correctly describes an entertainment that is both universally accessible and morally irreproachable. It is a come-one-come-all proposition and I'm not going to challenge it, not when there is such a shortage of respectable theater whose appeal spans all the ages of man. However, some things should be noted about Airjazz and its place in the larger scheme of things.