Riddle

Let's think about eggs. Really think about them. What they were meant for. What they were not meant for. Eggs. They sustain life, don't they? Life emerges from them. And they can keep you alive - happy, even - in any number of ways. Omelets, say. Egg salad. Quiche! Eggs Benedict! But mankind, never satisfied, persists in carrying things too far. Somebody, for example, actually came up with this riddle of applied engineering. Call it, for reasons that will become clear, the Humpty Dumpty conundrum: What's the safest (for the egg, that is)

Opera companies can inspire the hometown loyalty of a sports team, the sort that says, "It may not be the best, but it's ours. " And when a smallish company like Opera Delaware mounts a biggish opera like Puccini's Turandot, the kind of raucous, whooping ovation it received at Saturday's opening is justified even if the production is just an approximation of the piece. The opera is full of "greatest hits" arias one applauds almost by reflex, but it also presents such casting challenges - the biggest one met by the exciting young dramatic soprano Othalie Graham - that it's not coming back any time soon outside any of the major operatic capitals.

In taking a fresh look at the allegations of womanizing and sexual misconduct by former Warminster Police Chief Elmer P. Clawges, Bucks County District Attorney Alan M. Rubenstein has added fuel to the notion that this case is too hot to handle. A few weeks back, the D.A. said the former police chief's alleged conduct in one instance was "not only criminal, it is reprehensible and it's wrong. " The case involved a former township police clerk, Julie Beekman, who said the chief had sex with her regularly, beginning when she was 16. While he said he wanted to prosecute, Mr. Rubenstein said he was "absolutely barred by the statute of limitations.

At 81, Margaret "Peg" Pinkerton would not be blamed if she slacked off a bit. But when that is suggested, she quickly responds that keeping busy keeps her healthy. So even though she is recovering from torn cartilage in her knee, she volunteers at Riddle Memorial Hospital in Media at least five days a week, eight hours a day. She has been at Riddle since 1965 and last October she reached an astonishing 50,000 hours as a volunteer. Pinkerton, of Middletown Township, Delaware County, was honored for her accomplishment at an April luncheon at which she received letters of recognition from President Bush, Gov. Ridge and local politicians.

District Attorney Lynne Abraham has been warning for months that she will seek fines of $3,500 and even jail for Philadelphians who try to beat high insurance rates by registering their cars out of the city. Now she's nabbed someone. From her own office. Assistant District Attorney Judith Riddle said yesterday that she had been ordered to "resign or be fired" after she was found to have registered her car at her boyfriend's suburban home. Riddle said she had decided to quit.

Raising his shackled arms to his face to wipe away tears, a shaken Philadelphia man pleaded guilty yesterday to shooting Cherry Hill Police Officer Thomas Riddle with his own gun on March 2. "I went for his gun and got it out and told him not to move. He persisted in moving and the gun went off," Steven Anthony Press, 21, of the 1800 block of Wilder Street, Philadelphia, told Superior Court Judge A. Donald Bigley while pleading guilty to attempted murder. Dressed in the Camden County Jail's standard-issue orange jump suit, Press talked in a trembling voice as he described how Riddle was shot shortly after midnight on March 2. Riddle, 33, had gone to the Provincial Apartments in Cherry Hill to stop an attempted car theft by Press and three other Philadelphians, including Press' brother Darren, 22, of the same address, according to police.

Most weekends, Skip Riddle is likely to be found camped out in a field, polishing his musket and swapping trivia about the Revolutionary War. Although Riddle, 36, is too young to have helped found the nation, he and about 160 other mock soldiers will replay a portion of the 1777 Battle of Brandywine on Saturday and next Sunday. The re-enactment of a typical skirmish of the battle will occur about 1 p.m. both days. In addition, demonstrations will take place from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, said Anne Woodward, site administrator of the Brandywine Battlefield Park in Chadds Ford.

With Jason Statham, Ray Liotta, Vincent Pastore and André Benjamin. Distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films. 1 hour, 55 mins. R (violence, profanity, nudity, inanity, adult themes). Playing at Ritz at the Bourse. Guy Ritchie's Revolver premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival two years ago September. That's 26 months on a shelf somewhere, depriving moviegoers the thrill of jaw-droppingly awful Ray Liotta line readings, of bloody shoot-outs, bags of money, cutaways to frosty babes sucking on lollipops, and even a bit of violent anime.

IT'S NEVER too late to give thanks for the rich bounty this nation has given us - especially editorial writers. So before the turkey is completely digested we give thanks for: FEMA: Which incredibly listed its response to Hurricane Katrina as one of its top accomplishments for fiscal year 2005. The Virginia Department of Transportation: For settling a riddle users of high occupancy lanes have long wanted solve. If you're pregnant do you count as two passengers? The answer: Nope.

Based on the Tillie Olsen novel, Tell Me a Riddle (1980) marks actress Lee Grant's debut as a feature director. It's an unusually sensitive story of a terminally ill woman (Lila Kedrova) who comes to terms with her political past (as a Socialist dissident in Russia), with her personal present (Melvyn Douglas as her long-suffering husband) and with her posterity (Brooke Adams, the granddaughter). Co-billed with the peerless Brief Encounter, David Lean's 1945 film starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard as married (but not to each other)

A NOISE in the night awoke Sherrell Rhine-Paul from her sleep early yesterday and put her in the middle of a living nightmare inside her Strawberry Mansion home, police said. By the end of it her husband was dead, and her body was ravaged by up to 10 bullets. About 3:45 a.m., two men entered the house, on Cecil B. Moore Avenue near 32nd Street, that Rhine-Paul, 39, shared with her husband, John Paul Jr., 35, and their two young children, police said. Homicide Capt.

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. - Sad as it is to say, the Eagles defense had its best outing in four games. But even its best is rather poor. And Sunday's 31-24 loss at Buffalo did nothing to ease concerns about the readiness of coordinator Juan Castillo or the effectiveness of his inconsistent defense. The same problems reared their hideous heads yet again. The Eagles couldn't stop the run. They couldn't cover running backs catching passes out of the backfield. They were weak up the middle with linebacker Jamar Chaney and safety Jarrad Page . And they couldn't force turnovers.

A Delaware County jury has ordered Riddle Memorial Hospital and two physicians to pay more than $3.8 million in damages to the husband of a 52-year-old Media woman after finding that the doctors were negligent in her death. Janice Heffner, the co-owner of an eyeglasses manufacturing business in Media, died of a blood infection on Oct. 26, 2007, 14 hours after she was admitted to the hospital with severe stomach pains attributed at first to constipation. In the suit, Heffner's husband, William Heffner 3d, argued that Lawrence P. Wean and John A. Kotyo failed to treat his wife with the urgency that her condition demanded after it became clear that she was getting sicker.

A man was shot some six times and killed early today on a street in North Philadelphia, police said. Police found the victim, who appeared to be in his early 20s, about 2 a.m. on the 2400 block of North Hollywood Street in the Strawberry Mansion section. Initial police reports indicate he had been shot one time in the head, twice in the groin, twice in the back and once in the left leg. He was taken to Temple University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:29 a.m., police said.

J. Ronald Halenda, 78, of Chadds Ford, former chairman of the division of pediatrics at Riddle Memorial Hospital, died of complications from a stroke on Friday, April 29, at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Born in Dickson City near Scranton, he graduated from Dickson City High School in 1949, was an Eagle Scout, and earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Scranton in 1953. Dr. Halenda graduated in 1957 from the Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University. Dr. Halenda began his private practice at the Media Clinic in 1962 and, after Riddle Memorial opened, he became chairman of its division of pediatrics in 1964.

Camden Catholic softball coach Mav Hering had been waiting for her players to have a breakout game, and they obliged her Thursday at home. Unfortunately for Shawnee, the Renegades were the perfect foil, a team beleaguered by injuries that forced coach Paula Escudero to move around players like pawns on a chessboard. The result was a 10-2 victory for the home team in an Olympic Conference interdivisional game in which the usually sure-handed Renegades (1-3) made five errors.

NASHVILLE - Nate Allen sat on his stool, his back to a swarm of reporters, and stared into his locker as if there was some riddle in there he was trying to unravel. But there were no answers in the visiting locker room at LP Field following the Eagles' 37-19 loss to Tennessee on Sunday. And there was no solution to their greatest puzzle of all - Titans wide receiver Kenny Britt. Britt put up a whopping 225 yards receiving off seven catches, including two backbreaking touchdowns.

Homicide detectives Wednesday were trying to determine if a man found riddled with bullets near a hospital in Kensington had been shot during a store robbery earlier in the day, police said. Police found the unidentified man on the 100 block of West Huntingdon Street not far from Temple University's Episcopal Hospital. The man, who police said probably was between 16 and 23, had been shot seven times. Doctors pronounced him dead at 12:38 p.m., said police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore.

As the enigmatic Flyers prepare to open the playoffs against the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday, you can look at their chances in two ways. Glass half-full: The Flyers have momentum from winning three of their last four games, including a riveting 2-1 shoot-out victory over the Rangers that pushed them into the playoffs. They also have the Devils' number - five wins in six regular-season meetings - and a goalie, Brian Boucher, who is on a roll with a .931 save percentage in his last five starts.