Scissors

DURING THE first few days in the case of the confiscated scissors, we were solidly behind Porsche Brown and her mother. Their anger-laced accusations that Porsche, a 10-year-old fourth-grader, had been mistreated after a pair of 8-inch scissors were found in her school bag - handcuffed, put in the back of a police wagon, put in a holding cell - were right on target. The police clearly overreacted. But several things have happened since to temper us. Police and school officials apologized and promised to re-evaluate how such cases should be handled.

OVER THE last three months, 20 students have used pointed metal scissors as weapons to assault or attempt or threaten to assault other students - 18 of whom were under the age of 14. On Oct. 15, a first-grade male student struck a classmate under the eye with metal scissors, causing a cut and bleeding. On Dec. 10, an eighth-grade female student threatened to throw bleach on a classmate. A search of her locker revealed a container of bleach and a pair of large metal pointed scissors.

A Germantown man was charged Friday with attempted murder after he allegedly stabbed a fellow passenger on the Broad Street Line multiple times with scissors, authorities said. Police said Sheldon Mullings, 36, was on a southbound train Thursday afternoon when a South Philadelphia man boarded at Snyder Avenue. Without provocation, Mullings pulled out the scissors and attacked, thrusting the blades into the man's abdomen, back, face, and arms, said Capt. Larry Nodiff of South Detectives.

A 10th-grade student was seriously injured yesterday afternoon in a stabbing at Bensalem High School that resulted in a lengthy lockdown, officials said. About 1:30 p.m. the student emerged from a first-floor bathroom with a pair of scissors embedded in his stomach, said Fred Harran, the township public-safety director. The student, whose name was withheld, was taken to Frankford-Torresdale Hospital, where he was undergoing surgery. The school was locked down for two hours and 20 minutes, Harran said.

By all accounts - or at least by the accounts on the back cover - Augusten Burroughs' best-selling 2002 memoir, Running With Scissors, is "funny and rich," "funny as it is twisted," "insanely funny," "mordantly funny" and "ridiculously funny. " Alas, something happened on the book-to-screen operating table: Yes, Running With Scissors is rich, twisted, insane, mordant and ridiculous, but it is not funny. Not at all. This film, which marks the debut of Nip/Tuck writer-director Ryan Murphy, is like The Royal Tenenbaums without laughs (and without Gene Hackman as the charismatic, crackpot patriarch - the estimable Brian Cox gets that assignment)

April, 8, is happiest when she's creating artwork. Taking a sheet of paper, she folds it, draws a picture, and adds a written message for a holiday or just for fun. Her teacher told her foster mother that April could stay busy and interested all day if it involved crayons and scissors. Getting her to do her schoolwork was a little more of a struggle, but she did very well in her final marking period. Her grades in reading, phonics, spelling, social studies and math were A's, with just a few "needs improvements.

She's big in Brussels. She's huge in Bruges. But despite her avid fan base in Belgium, singer-songwriter Catherine Feeny, born in Germantown and raised in Norristown, has had a hard time gaining an earhold in her own country. That may change with yesterday's release of the soundtrack to the film Running With Scissors. It contains Feeny's haunting song "Mr. Blue," which also will be featured in an episode of Fox's The O.C. "Mr. Blue" stands out on the Scissors soundtrack like an iPod in an antiques store.

A 10-year-old fourth-grade girl at Holme Elementary School in the Far Northeast was pulled out of class, handcuffed, and taken to the local police station in the back of a police wagon earlier this week after a pair of 8-inch scissors were found in her book bag, according to authorities and her angry mother. School district and police officials said yesterday that they were following state law and procedures in dealing with students who have weapons on school property. They say that those rules demand police be called and that procedures call for handcuffing suspects regardless of age or crime.

Urban neighborhoods once had many vendors peddling their wares. Taking advantage of every pleasant day, they hawked their goods throughout the streets of Camden and Philadelphia. Some parked their carts at favorable corners, while others took more peripatetic paths in pursuit of profits. From their heavily laden, two-wheeled carts, hardy vendors sold many of the necessities of city life. Some offered fresh fish or fruit and vegetables. Others followed the seasons with items such as children's clothing, dry goods, or needles and thread in time for the back-to-school season.

A Willingboro police officer shot and critically wounded a teenager outside a Burlington County school for youth with emotional disorders yesterday after the boy attacked the officer with scissors, authorities said. The teen, a student at the Garfield Park Academy whose name wasn't immediately released, was wounded in the chest and abdomen. He was flown by medical helicopter to Cooper University Hospital in Camden, where his condition was not available. Willingboro police officers raced to the school shortly before 4 p.m. after several people called 911 reporting a student who was out of control and threatening staff members, said Jack Smith, spokesman for the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office.

SEATTLE - Police in Washington state on Saturday arrested a 34-year-old man accused of stabbing a judge and shooting a sheriff's deputy in a courthouse struggle, one day after he fled the small town of Montesano. Officers took Steven Daniel Kravetz into custody Saturday afternoon at his mother's home in Olympia, Grays Harbor County Undersheriff Rick Scott said. The gun taken from the deputy during Friday's courthouse attack and other evidence were recovered, he said. Scott identified Kravetz earlier in the day as the lone assailant in Friday's attack that wounded Judge David Edwards and Deputy Polly Davin.

Funny, Jack Bogle doesn't look like any of the members of Occupy Wall Street we've been seeing on television. I can't picture the legendary founder and former CEO of the Vanguard Mutual Fund Group, clad in Brooks Brothers suit, adjacent to City Hall, or as one of the 50 who were arrested in Atlanta, not to mention those being sprayed with tear gas in Oakland. But that doesn't mean the Main Line patrician and capitalist icon is lacking in sympathy for some of their grievances. Bogle believes attention must be paid to their complaints.

DETROIT - Anna Fionda, a hairstylist who occupied the first chair at Edwin Paul Salon in Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich., for 27 years, drove herself to the hospital emergency room on Valentine's Day 2010. She was queasy, dehydrated, and feverish. The next thing she remembers is waking up in a hospital bed on March 13. She had developed a bacterial infection, which led to septic shock, and her body had shunted blood away from her appendages to save her vital organs and brain. Her limbs were black up to her elbows and knees.

LONI W. LUPAK was a sought-after hairstylist in Frazer, Chester County, for 21 years. He didn't have far to go to get to work; he lived upstairs with his beloved dogs and cats. It was clear that Loni's popularity was not confined to scissors and curlers. A well-read man with many interests, he could discuss any subject with authority, and many customers sought him out for that reason. Loni, an immigrant from Poland who became a naturalized American citizen in 2001, died Thursday after a struggle of several months with colon cancer.

Q: Where is it OK for me to take my dog? I'd like to bring her to restaurants, shops and friends' homes, but I know she won't always be welcome. A: You can cross restaurants, supermarkets and beauty salons off the list of places you may visit with your pooch. Health codes in the U.S. ban dogs from such establishments (unless you have a service dog, which can accompany you anywhere, according to the Americans With Disabilities Act). When it comes to other destinations, always check ahead, even if you're planning to visit a close friend.

MIKE DOUGHERTY has been going up in lifts to film Eagles practices for nearly 4 decades. During that time, he hasn't given much thought to the possibility of the lift tipping over and killing him. But it crossed his mind this week. "I thought about it today when I went up," the longtime Eagles video director said Wednesday. "Because of the bye week, it was the first time I've really been up in the lift since the thing happened. " Dougherty is referring to the tragic accident at the University of Notre Dame last week that killed a 20-year-old student video assistant at the school.

YOU DON'T HAVE to be gay to like the Scissor Sisters , allows vocalist Ana Matronic (aka Ana Lynch), the only official "sister" in the troupe. But it does help to have an open mind about glam rock and pumping dance pop chock full of sexual innuendo and enhanced with provocative visual imagery. 'Cause that's the stock and trade of this giddy, good-time party troupe named after an, um, creative position for girl-on-girl sexual frolics. While U.S.-based, and cited as an "influence" by current queen of pop Lady Gaga, the Scissor Sisters have achieved far bigger popularity on the international stage, especially in the United Kingdom, their "spiritual home," where the group's self-titled debut album was the best-selling album of 2004.

A Germantown man was charged Friday with attempted murder after he allegedly stabbed a fellow passenger on the Broad Street Line multiple times with scissors, authorities said. Police said Sheldon Mullings, 36, was on a southbound train Thursday afternoon when a South Philadelphia man boarded at Snyder Avenue. Without provocation, Mullings pulled out the scissors and attacked, thrusting the blades into the man's abdomen, back, face, and arms, said Capt. Larry Nodiff of South Detectives.

A 29-year-old Delaware County man remains under police guard at Crozer-Chester Medical Center after allegedly stabbing his father, his uncle and himself with scissors and glass shards Sunday night in what police said was a "nasty scene. " "There was blood everywhere," Collingdale Police Chief Robert Adams said. "We don't yet know what the motive was other than intoxication. " Police were called to the home that the three men share on Walnut Street near Clifton Avenue, in Collingdale, about 9:51 p.m. after reports of a suicidal person, Adams said.

A Willingboro police officer was justified in the use of deadly force against a 15-year-old student, according to the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice, authorities announced yesterday. The decision concurred with findings by the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office. Sgt. William Smith followed the the state Attorney General Office's guidelines regarding use of deadly force when he shot a male teenager armed with scissors on June 7, 2007, the prosecutor's investigation determined.