Prom

BY THE TIME he's ready to play Saturday night, Michael Keir might be exhausted from shaking his head back and forth. Keir, a 6-2, 215-pound quarterback from Roman Catholic High, remains bothered and bewildered, even disgusted, by the fact only 28 players will represent Non-Public vs. Public - the roster limit is 50 per team - in the 39th annual City All-Star Football Classic, set for 7 o'clock at Northeast High. "Twenty-eight? That might be generous," Keir said yesterday. "Since they counted up that many, I'd bet we've lost a few more.

Do you have warm memories of your prom? Were you the prom king or queen? Or were you a prom victim, forced to take a date you didn't want? Tell us your stories in 200 words or less. Send your response by April 22 to Pa. Commentary Page, Philadelphia Inquirer, 800 River Road, Conshohocken, Pa. 19428, Fax: 610-313-8243, E-mail: suburbanletters@phillynews.com, putting "Prom story" in the subject line. Include your name, home address and day and evening telephone numbers.

It seemed an open-and-shut case. A half-dozen seniors at Highland Regional High in Blackwood, N.J. are arrested after setting off firecrackers in the middle of the night on their science teacher's front lawn. It was their third such visit of the season - the first two times they had draped the front yard in toilet paper. The science teacher wisely decides not to press charges, and the school suspends the boys for a day and bars them from attending the prom. Most of us would say they got off easy.

DON'T TELL HER I said this, but I'm happy that my daughter isn't overexcited about her senior prom. "I'm going, but only because I don't want to look back years from now and think I've missed out on something," Olivia said as she discussed her budget for this rite of passage for which many students and parents spend way too much money. My daughter isn't fawning over dresses. She's still looking and rejecting pricy frocks. She grumbled about the price of the prom - $90 a ticket.

Dorothy Kownacki of Willingboro got a second chance - at age 93 - to dress up and dance at a prom. She and 34 other senior citizens at Zurbrugg Adult Medical Day Center in Riverside participated last month in a "senior prom" and luncheon sponsored by the center. Each month, the center prepares a special event for the 65 older adults who live with family but come to the center for special care during the day. Because their emotional needs are just as important as medical and physical needs, a prom was arranged to arouse happy memories of younger, healthier days, said Barbara Batson, the center's director.

UPPER Darby has suffered another black eye, this time at the prom of Upper Darby High School. I know that a rule is a rule. I also know what it is to be young, and the time that's necessary for a lady to get ready for any date, let alone her promenade. I also know that myriad factors, including finding the ballroom, could be responsible for a couple arriving after the stated time for a function. Given the expense involved in attending a prom, one cannot blame the student's parents from going to her defense.

The prom is not the best party of the year for everyone. Just ask John Libertz, 22, who graduated from Roman. "I hate proms," he says. "They sucked then and they suck now. " Libertz is here with Jamie Gault, 18, who had to beg him for two months to come to South Philadelphia High School's Junior-Senior Prom. It's the fifth prom they've each attended, but not together. "This one I wasn't really looking forward to," she says. Yet the prom is the only party where guys will hold beaded purses, bouquets of roses or orchids, a pair of dyed-to-match pumps or a prom queen's crown and not look positively weird.

BY THE TIME he's ready to play Saturday night, Michael Keir might be exhausted from shaking his head back and forth. Keir, a 6-2, 215-pound quarterback from Roman Catholic High, remains bothered and bewildered, even disgusted, by the fact only 28 players will represent Non-Public vs. Public - the roster limit is 50 per team - in the 39th annual City All-Star Football Classic, set for 7 o'clock at Northeast High. "Twenty-eight? That might be generous," Keir said yesterday. "Since they counted up that many, I'd bet we've lost a few more.

Like most teenage girls, 17-year-old Madelyn Rosario is enamored with this spring's prom dresses. She loves the trendy princess gowns and body-skimming mermaid frocks made popular on this year's red carpets by the super-slim Miley Cyruses and Taylor Swifts. But at 5-foot-3 and 170 pounds, Rosario is a confident, well-dressed teen - who is a solid size 14. In the discriminating world of fashion, that qualifies her as plus-size. "Up until now, this is the biggest night of my life," said the Pennsauken High School junior.

DON'T TELL HER I said this, but I'm happy that my daughter isn't overexcited about her senior prom. "I'm going, but only because I don't want to look back years from now and think I've missed out on something," Olivia said as she discussed her budget for this rite of passage for which many students and parents spend way too much money. My daughter isn't fawning over dresses. She's still looking and rejecting pricy frocks. She grumbled about the price of the prom - $90 a ticket.

Gay marriage at hand in R.I. PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Rhode Island appears poised to become the nation's 10th state to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry after a legislative panel voted Tuesday to forward same-sex marriage legislation to the full House for a final - and largely procedural - vote. The outcome of Thursday's House vote is not in doubt, as the House overwhelmingly passed an earlier version of the bill in January. Gov. Lincoln Chafee is expected to sign the bill into law. - AP Nuke shutdown proving costly LOS ANGELES - Costs tied to the idling of California's San Onofre nuclear power plant have climbed to $553 million, while the majority owner raised the possibility Tuesday of retiring the plant if it can't get one reactor running later this year.

THE BLACK, midcalf lace dress that 19-year-old Alicia Gaitor modeled for her family and onlookers hit all the right notes. It was classic, yet fresh. Form-fitting, yet tasteful. "I love it," her sister said. "That dress was made for you," an onlooker agreed. It was a great choice. But the look on Gaitor's face said it all: It wasn't the dress. "She's always been picky," sighed her mother, Michelle. "Usually about the wrong things. " She and her other daughter headed back to the chairs they'd been keeping warm for more than an hour.

WHEN CENTRAL HIGH School student Walid Abduldaki asked a girl to the senior prom, he didn't stop her in the hallway to pop the question. He didn't call. Or email. He sure didn't text. Instead, the 17-year-old sent prospective date Ana Koerner on a scavenger hunt, a daylong quest that led from her school locker to an office and classroom, and friend to friend, until she wound up, said Abduldaki, "on the blacktop by her car, where I was waiting with a bouquet of flowers. " If such a shenanigan sounds like a romantic scene from "The Bachelor," consider this: Abduldaki and Koerner aren't dating.

Friday was going to be a big day for the seniors of Penn Wood High School, the day they would get to buy prom tickets. "All of us have been talking about prom since January," Sabreen Abbass, 17, said. "All of us had our passes to come down and buy our prom tickets. We all had our dresses. " Instead, she had a day off she didn't want. She and her friends will get to buy their prom tickets eventually, but they don't know when or where. A blaze early Thursday that officials have declared arson has barred them from their Lansdowne school, its walls charred and windows boarded.

Kelly Nelson was rather expecting her best friend, Pat Burns, to ask her to the Haddon Township High School prom. She knew his words would be sweet. But they certainly weren't short. And that was just the start of the surprise. "My mouth dropped open," says Nelson, 18, in describing her reaction to the 8-by-80-foot invitation she encountered on her way to school Monday: "Kelly Prom? [heart] Pat. " Burns, 18, built the display by inserting individual plastic foam cups into a chain-link fence along Crystal Lake Avenue.

SULLIVAN, Ind. - A quiet Indiana community known for its parks and corn festival has become the latest setting for the debate over gay rights and bullying after several area residents, including some high schoolers, proposed holding a nonschool-sanctioned "traditional" prom that would ban gay students. School officials and many residents of Sullivan, a city of about 4,200 near the Illinois border, have scrambled to distance themselves from the controversy caused by the group's plans and from some strong, antigay remarks made by one of its members.

NEW YORK - Sex sells. Babies sell even more. And advertisers are hoping animals will make you laugh all the way to their stores. While the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens battled on the field during Super Bowl XLVII, marketers from Best Buy to M&M to Toyota were competing against each other on advertising's biggest stage. And were pulling out the most persuasive tools of their trade. The stakes were high, with 30-second spots going for as much as $4 million and more than 111 million viewers expected to tune in. Here are some ad highlights through the third quarter:   Babies and families Hyundai's "Epic Playdate" spot, right before kickoff, showed a family partying with the band The Flaming Lips: wreaking havoc at a natural history museum, getting chased by bikers, going to a petting zoo and playing in a park.