Rage

Adapted from a recent online discussion. Question: I've debated asking you this question for years, but it has never seemed to be a serious enough problem. I'm a middle-aged gay man, one of two sons raised by a widow with physical (and mental, I suspect) health issues that filled her with rage, which persists to this day, though she does function better. Or maybe I'm more inured to it, I'm not sure. Anyway, two close friends of mine lost incredibly loving parents recently, and that has gotten me thinking about what I could possibly say about mine in a eulogy.

The Rage's recent road woes continued last night with a 78-75 loss to the Chicago Condors at the UIC Pavilion before a crowd of 4,695. The loss was the third straight by coach Anne Donovan's team (8-5), all by narrow margins. It was the Rage's first setback of the season to the expansion Condors (4-7) after two wins in Philadelphia. The defeat dropped the Rage 2 1/2 games behind two-time champion Columbus in the East Division. The Quest will make their second appearance of the season here tomorrow at 4 p.m. when the Rage return to the Apollo of Temple.

Taj McWilliams scored a season-high 20 points as the Rage overcame an 11-point halftime deficit and defeated the Atlanta Glory, 75-70, Saturday night. Adrienne Goodson added 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Rage, which trailed, 38-27, at intermission. "We couldn't hit a barn in the first half," Rage coach Lisa Boyer said. "They had control of the game. We had no offensive boards in the first half. Nobody was on the boards for us. " Rage guard Dawn Staley, from Dobbins Tech, was held to seven points on 2-for-16 shooting.

The coach is new, and the roster is almost totally rebuilt. But in last night's American Basketball League opener for the Rage, things were not much different from the way they were last season. The New England Blizzard, claiming their eighth victory in the teams' last nine meetings, beat the Rage, 72-63, at the Hartford Civic Center. The only solace for the visitors was a fourth-quarter comeback that provided some reason to hope there would be happier occasions to come. The Rage, who had trailed by 15 points late in the first half, began the last period with a 14-4 run that cut their deficit to 56-53 with 4 minutes, 14 seconds left.

Anne Donovan's preseason coaching debut was a success last night as the Rage flashed and crunched their way to an 87-78 victory over the New England Blizzard in an ABL exhibition game at the New Haven Coliseum. "It's good to get this one under our belts against someone else, rather than playing against ourselves" in practice, Donovan said. The two teams will meet again Nov. 5 in Hartford to launch the ABL's third season. Powered by point guard Andrea Nagy and four-time Olympian guard Teresa Edwards, the Rage used a 10-point run midway through the first quarter to break from a 5-5 tie and never trail again.

The Rage couldn't say "good-bye, Columbus" fast enough after the defending ABL champions won again, this time by 74-68 at the Palestra last night. The Quest (31-7) finished the eight-game season series with the Rage with a seventh straight win. After losing Saturday in a 100-64 blowout in Columbus, the Rage (12-25) succumbed last night to a defensive shutdown in which they failed to hit a field goal in the last 6 minutes, 23 seconds. That occurred after rookie Beth Morgan's three-pointer had given the Rage a 65-61 lead.

Adrienne Goodson scored eight of her 19 points in the third quarter to lead the Rage over the New England Blizzard, 95-76, in an American Basketball League game at the Palestra last night. The victory was Philadelphia's first of the season against the Blizzard, which had won the previous four meetings. Carolyn Jones led New England with 26 points and six rebounds. After trailing 38-37 at halftime, the Rage opened the third quarter on a decisive 15-3 run to take a 68-48 lead entering the final quarter.

Dawn Staley was under the weather, and the Columbus Quest pushed the Rage further under the gun. With Staley slowed by a bum knee, a sore ankle and a bad cold, the Rage had trouble keeping up with the Quest after the first quarter. Columbus, thanks to a flurry of three-pointers and fastbreaks, rolled to a 77-61 victory last night before 4,109 at Battelle Hall. Philadelphia continues to slip deeper into last place, and further out of the playoff race. "We talk about it all the time," Rage coach Lisa Boyer said.

The first Rage season here came to an end at the Palestra last night with promises from the general manager and more of the same from the team. Playoff-bound Long Beach, the ABL's lone expansion team, used a balanced attack to roll to a 108-93 victory. The Rage also had balance, but they couldn't handle the inside power of the StingRays. The defeat was the ninth in 10 games for the Rage (13-31), who started the season 3-0 before slipping to the depths of the ABL. The StingRays (26-18)

New city, new attitude, new results. The Rage, which left Richmond, Va., this summer for a new home in Philadelphia, accomplished something last night it couldn't do when it mattered most last March: Beat the Columbus Quest. The Rage, sparked by a heroic effort by Dawn Staley, turned the tables on Columbus in the fourth quarter to win, 87-86, before a crowd of 3,850 at Battelle Hall in the American Basketball League season-opener for both teams. Staley, who had 10 of her 15 points in the fourth quarter, hit a driving 10-foot jump shot with 2.6 seconds remaining to cap a back-and-forth final minute.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Remains of two people have been found in an area burned by a wildfire that has destroyed at least 360 houses northeast of Colorado Springs. El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said one person who was reported missing Wednesday was found safe, but crews on Thursday found the remains of another person reported missing. About an hour later they found the remains of a second person, he said. The number of homes destroyed by the voracious wildfire, driven in all directions by shifting winds, was likely to climb as the most destructive blaze in Colorado history burned for a third day through miles of tinder-dry woods.

Adapted from a recent online discussion. Question: I've debated asking you this question for years, but it has never seemed to be a serious enough problem. I'm a middle-aged gay man, one of two sons raised by a widow with physical (and mental, I suspect) health issues that filled her with rage, which persists to this day, though she does function better. Or maybe I'm more inured to it, I'm not sure. Anyway, two close friends of mine lost incredibly loving parents recently, and that has gotten me thinking about what I could possibly say about mine in a eulogy.

What if we could heal our economic woes, reduce unemployment to less than 1 percent, and solidify America's position as the world's greatest financial and military power? What if we could do it all in only a handful of years? That's the utopian world offered in The Purge , a riveting, thoughtful psychological thriller starring Ethan Hawke ( The Woman in the Fifth ) and Lena Headey ( Game of Thrones ) which opens Friday. The Purge is set in an America that has instituted a simple formula for achieving economic success: Cull the population once a year, cutting out (killing)

One in an occasional series on attempts to solve a medical mystery. 'I can't move my head" was the first thing our 2-year-old daughter, Sarah, said to me on a cold wintry morning several years ago, as she awakened from a deep sleep. Instinctively, I felt her forehead. Her skin was on fire. I was a second-year pediatric resident at the time. Our training prepared us to consider the worst first, and then to work backward to the probable. "Meningitis, encephalitis, septic shock!

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Workers around the world united in anger during May Day rallies Wednesday - from fury in Europe over years of austerity measures that have cut wages, reduced benefits and eliminated many jobs altogether, to rage in Asia over relentlessly low pay, the rising cost of living and hideous working conditions that have left hundreds dead in recent months alone. In protests, parades, strikes and other demonstrations held in cities across the planet, activists lashed out at political and business leaders they allege have ignored workers' voices or enriched themselves at the expense of laborers during what has been a difficult few years for the global economy.

ATTENTION, MOTORISTS: Be on the lookout for a hotheaded driver on Roosevelt Boulevard who'll knock your teeth out if you diss him. I share this warning because the guy is a menace, even if a certain cop in the 8th Police District doesn't think so. And I want to spread the word before someone gets beaten up, the way William Velasquez did. Last Saturday afternoon, Velasquez, 40, was cruising north on Roosevelt near Welsh Road, headed for Walmart....

THIS [the Boston Marathon bombing] makes me sick. Aren't we tired of these reprehensible people? Someone has hurt us again. Our country has been attacked again. Even if it proves to be a single person or a group of people attacking us in remembrance of other violent attacks, they must be dealt with and punished immediately. We are too politically correct in the way we handle these terrorists. I say they must be tortured to find out the truth of who they are, who they work for and what will come next.

A road-rage incident turned into a shootout Sunday afternoon in North Philadelphia when a private security guard and another man traded fire at 13th and Wallace Streets around 2:15 p.m., police said. It was not immediately clear who fired first, or how many shots were fired. The security guard pursued the man, who was in a car with several others, police said, to the 800 block of Reno Street. The man then jumped out of the car, the security guard reported, and barricaded himself in an apartment building.

GERARD SHAFFER JR., who once aspired to be a Philadelphia firefighter just like his dad, was sentenced to jail Wednesday for killing a man during a 2010 road-rage incident. Before being sentenced to 11 1/2 to 23 months in jail, Shaffer, 24, cried and apologized to the victim's family. They responded by calling him a "crybaby" and an unrepentant "punk" who acted like a "badass" on his MySpace page even after the killing. Shaffer and his father, Gerard Sr., were in an SUV at the intersection of Knights and Fairdale roads in Northeast Philadelphia on April 8, 2010, when they thought the victim, Mark Wallace, was crossing too slowly in front of them.

Gerard Shaffer Jr. sobbed throughout his sentencing hearing this morning, just as he did through the trial in which he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the 2010 road-rage beating of a Northeast Philadelphia pedestrian. The emotional display of the 24-year-old Shaffer did not impress Common Pleas Court Judge Lillian Ransom, who sentenced him to 11-1/2 to 23 months in prison followed by two years probation. Nor did it impress the family of Shaffer's victim, Mark Wallace, 54, whom Shaffer and his father, Gerard Sr., beat to death when he walked too slowly in front of their SUV. "You blame your dad," said Wallace's sister, Nancy Kolenkiewicz, looking directly at Shaffer.