Sand

MAYBE journalists are different from the rest of the world. After all, the entire accounting industry didn't rise en masse to apologize for the shortcomings of Arthur Andersen during the Enron mess. Yet, we feel compelled to apologize to the public for Geraldo Riveria. Journalism is a serious business - especially when the subject is war and lives, both American and foreign, are on the line. During this war, we've seen some exemplary print and broadcast journalism. But even a battle for the soul of a Middle East nation isn't big enough to eclipse the egos of some TV personalities.

SINCE the OPEC members have little more than oil in their countries, and grow little if any produce, we should immediately cease exporting our goods to them. And no more financial aid, either. Let them eat their sand and drink their oil. Then they'll stop the extortion and price-fixing they use against the rest of the world. William Palmer, Philadelphia

Tucked behind the swimming pool and between the tennis courts and the blacktop hockey field is a bed of clean, yellow sand. A little slice of Maui, perhaps. Well, maybe the Jersey Shore. Call it what you will, it's definitely not a mirage. This is the YMCA and those are honest- to-goodness sand volleyball courts. The two courts are a fixture at the Phoenixville Y where they are used for four-on-four men's teams and a six-on-six coed league. The sand, several tons worth, was trucked in from local beaches, said Brian Devost, the Y's senior physical director.

Two days after several Flyers observed some kind of sand-like substance in the tunnel outside of their dressing room in Montreal - which, some say, forced them to repeatedly resharpen their skates during their Game 4 victory, and which resulted in towels being laid in the hallway later in the game - Canadiens coach Jacques Martin categorically denied that there had been a problem. Flyers officials have gone out of their way to say that they knew nothing about any sand, and nobody has accused anybody of anything nefarious.

When Dr. Mark Carroll walked into Room 3265 at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia late Thursday night he was ready to "break out my sunglasses and beach towel. " "There was so much sand, the room looked a bit like a beach," Carroll said yesterday, motioning toward Room 3265. "There was sand in her ears, eyes, the corners of her mouth . . . " "Her" is Staci Bonelli. But Thursday night, life for Staci was hardly a beach party. For four and a half tense hours, the 13-year-old girl was trapped in an eight-foot-deep sand pit she fell into while playing on the property of a Southwest Philadelphia cement company.

Ever since an accident left her paralyzed from the waist down, Nahara Rodriguez has needed a lift to get into the water at the beach. Her wheelchair's wheels sink into the sand, so she can't roll to the surf. That may change soon, thanks to a beach wheelchair designed by local high school students. The new chair, designed by students from William Penn Charter School, is easy to maneuver in sand and water. It is collapsible, less obtrusive, and, most important, cheaper than existing beach wheelchairs.

It was acceptable for Pennsylvania's population to trail that of New York, a pushier state with a little more land, as the 20th century began. It was tolerable when the Golden State - with six times the area - grabbed the No. 2 spot in 1945 and barely sufferable in 1973 when Texas - almost a nation in itself - stomped Pennsylvania down to No. 4. But last week the Census Bureau announced something so absurd, bizarre and downright annoying that...

The new mayor of this island city says it's a wonderful place to visit, but he wouldn't want you to live here. In the last decade, the year-round population of Brigantine jumped from about 4,000 to 12,000. The enrollment at its only school has gone from 600 to more than 1,000. With such rapid and disconcerting growth, the city has had to beef up its fire and police protection and build new streets. An addition was put on the elementary school; now a second addition is on the way. And most of the motels have disappeared, converted to condominiums and sold to the newcomers.

Three investigators summoned to work with the grisly discovery of Susan Reinert's body in 1979 said yesterday they had no knowledge until this week that sand could have been found between her toes. The three men, all Pennsylvania State Police officers, testified yesterday during the trial of Jay C. Smith in Dauphin County Court to rebut a claim made by a former colleague on Monday. Smith, 57, is a former Upper Merion High School principal accused of three counts of first-degree murder in the 1979 deaths of Reinert, 37, an Upper Merion High School English teacher, and her two children, Karen, 11, and Michael, 10. Reinert's nude and badly beaten body was found June 25, 1979, in the rear luggage compartment of her compact car. The car was parked at a suburban Harrisburg motel.

Tony Onesky insisted there was no political guise in his sculpture of a pair of hands in handcuffs at yesterday's ninth annual Bally's Grand Sand Sculpture Contest. But it's clear that the arrest last week of Atlantic City Mayor James Usry and other city officials didn't hurt Onesky's selection as first-place winner of the over-16 individual category for "Arrested. " "I've planned to do something with a chain for a while," said Onesky, a 33-year-old dealer at Bally's Park Place Casino Hotel.

LONGPORT, N.J. - This borough of exclusive beachfront homes will take those dunes now, thank you. It took the storm of the century to do it, but there has been a sea change in Longport, which had long said a big no, thank you, to dunes that might block pricey ocean views. "I think Sandy took the subjectiveness out of it," borough engineer Dick Carter said Wednesday. Now, those views are seen through a new prism: the memory of punishing waves crashing through floor-to-ceiling windows and lifting up swaths of asphalt roadway, ocean-to-bay flooding, and two feet of sand dumped all the way to Atlantic Avenue like some kind of Saharan blizzard.

MANTOLOKING, N.J. - The Jersey Shore town hit hardest by Hurricane Sandy is planning to put sand-filled fabric tubes on its beach to protect its storm-ravaged coastline. Mantoloking says it needs signed easements from all oceanfront homeowners by April 12. The tubes would form the basis of a new dune system. No price tag is yet available. It is a supplemental protective device that would go along with a widened, replenished beach in front of it, according to borough spokesman Chris Nelson.

LONDON - British music put on a brash, confident show at the Brit Awards on Wednesday, celebrating a resurgent industry whose bands and artists are topping charts around the globe. Winners ranged from established acts such as Coldplay and Adele to world-conquering boy band One Direction, who won in the new Global Success category. One Direction's Louis Tomlinson called the prize "absolutely mind-blowing. " American artists Frank Ocean and Lana Del Rey were among the non-British winners at a ceremony that embraced the mainstream while rewarding artists with distinctive personalities.

Although Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem grossed the second highest slots revenue in the state last year, and generated the most from table games, Wall Street gaming analysts say parent company Las Vegas Sands Corp. may be looking to unload it to focus on developments in Asia and Europe. The Las Vegas-based giant, which owns the Venetian and Palazzo on the Strip, was among the first major American gambling companies to establish a presence in Macau, a tiny peninsula on the southeastern tip of China.

"I am full of light," Emeli Sandé belted from the stage of the Theatre of Living Arts on Saturday night. The line is, of course, merely a metaphor from the uplifting "Wonder" off her stunning 2012 debut, Our Version of Events . But so full of energy and positivity is the diminutive Scottish soul singer, it's easy to imagine her opening her mouth and the warm glow of a sun spilling out. Sandé's story is as intriguing as her voice is powerful: After...

Las Vegas Sands Corp., the company controlled by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, is seeking a buyer for its casino in Bethlehem, Pa., according to people with knowledge of the situation. The Las Vegas-based company is asking as much as $1 billion for the property, the second-largest casino in the state based on gambling revenue, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. A deal is not certain. Efforts to sell the casino have been complicated by price and potential buyers involved in other deals.

SIWA, Egypt - The driver pulled the Land Cruiser to a stop at the top of a 50-foot-high dune for a breathtaking view of the endless golden sands that span the Egyptian and Libyan frontiers. He then backed up slightly, I assumed to turn around. Instead, the vehicle lurched over the edge and plunged down the steep slope at breakneck speed. This is the only way to begin a desert safari in the Great Sand Sea, 28,000 square miles of rolling dunes along the northern edge of the Sahara, one of the main attractions of a visit to the Egyptian oasis of Siwa.

SEA ISLE CITY, N.J. - Drawing a line in the sand, Cape May County officials began a campaign Monday against a bid in the state Senate to bar Shore towns from charging for beach access if they take state or federal aid to restore beaches ravaged by Sandy. They said the measure would be more catastrophic than the storm itself. "We'll do whatever we have to do to put a stop to this ridiculous idea," Freeholder Leonard Desiderio, who also is mayor of Sea Isle City, told a news conference in the gymnasium of the former Sea Isle elementary school called to show a "united front" against the bill and the first organized opposition to it. Desiderio said the Cape May County group will also solicit opposition to the bill from officials in Atlantic, Ocean, and Monmouth Counties.

The Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem sustained only a minimal loss of business because of Hurricane Sandy, even though it goes after the same customers as Atlantic City's casinos. The Sands, the largest in Pennsylvania in terms of total investment and one that models itself after the Atlantic City casinos, targets customers from North Jersey and New York who can literally get dropped off in its parking garage via Interstate 78. "Our business has not seen any lingering impact other than the first few days of the storm," Sands president Robert DeSalvio said on Monday.

THE UNITED Arab Emirates Football Association has demanded an apology after a story on the Asian Football Confederation website referred to its national side as the "Sand Monkeys. " General Secretary Yousuf Abdulla on Sunday called the wording in Friday's 2015 Asian Cup profile an "unfortunate affair" that "revealed some racist acts by some AFC officials. " An AFC spokesman said the wording was immediately removed once editors were made aware of it. He called it a "genuine mistake" inserted by a new website writer who had seen "Sand Monkeys" wrongly listed as the team's nickname on its Wikipedia page.