Speculation

Its stock price surged Friday on the news, but Philadelphia auto-parts and service retailer Pep Boys - Manny, Moe & Jack said it was staying mum after a report by Bloomberg that it was considering a sale of the company. Citing unidentified sources, Bloomberg News reported that the 90-year-old company was working with Bank of America Corp. to "explore strategic options" in a likely hunt for potential buyers for the 600-strong chain of outlets, which has headquarters on West Allegheny Avenue.

WHILE HER FRIENDS Smokey Robinson and the Rev. Jesse Jackson have called Aretha Franklin 's recent surgery a success, with the Queen of Soul recovering nicely, there has been no official explanation of either Aretha's condition or prognosis. And when there's nothing official, the unofficial starts. An unnamed source told the Detroit News yesterday that Aretha is suffering from pancreatic cancer. The National Enquirer - which unfortunately makes diagnostic calls as accurately as Dr. House - broke a similar story first.

Reality-check time on the Stacy Andrews speculation. The Eagles are obligated to pay Andrews $5 million this season, whether he is on their roster or not - a $4.1 million bonus that was due back in the spring plus a $900,000 salary guarantee, agent Rich Moran confirmed yesterday. This pretty much means he is going to be the right guard when the season opens, unless he gets hurt. It would really be extraordinary if Nick Cole, a backup type who just returned to practice this week after 3 weeks on the sideline with a sore knee, started ahead of Andrews in Week 1. The fact that Cole is getting some first-team reps here and there, as he eases back into practice, doesn't mean he is going to start.

WASHINGTON - Jayson Werth didn't want the attention, so he wouldn't admit he was paying attention. He was the constant source of trade rumors a week ago. Heck, a San Diego radio station erroneously reported Werth had been traded to the Padres on Monday. But at that time, the Phillies were coming off a horrendous road trip and beginning their winning streak. Ruben Amaro Jr. had never closed the door on possibly dealing a player from his major-league roster, saying that if his current players performed better, he wouldn't have said it. Of course, Werth and the Phillies took matters into their own hands.

Speculation recently again reared its ugly head, leading Peter Luukko, chief operating officer of Comcast-Spectacor, to say last night that "We're not selling the 76ers. " Luukko said "there are no active discussions" with any potential suitors. "Nothing has materialized," he said. "We're going forward, excited about having the No. 2 pick in the draft, about having signed Doug Collins to be our coach. " He termed any rumor about a potential sale "an old story. " In 2006, the Sixers enlisted Galiatoto Sports Partners in New York to review and evaluate the qualifications and resources of prospective ownership groups.

While wondering whether Ruben Amaro Jr. reads Sports Illustrated, it's time to empty out the mailbag:   - Pat   Pat, I wouldn't have traded Lee away, either. I would have kept him and gambled on the Phils winning another championship. But even if you disagree with the move, at least Amaro did it for a reason - to add more minor leaguers to the farm system and keep the payroll from bloating any further. We may not like the players he got in return or dig the plan, but there was an obvious thought process.

It was Las Vegas, Valentine's week, and the headliners were big: Former President George W. Bush kicked things off as keynote speaker. Singer Paul Anka serenaded a black-tie crowd with old classics such as "Put Your Head on My Shoulder. " But the big buzz at the National Grocers Association convention was about a purveyor of sliced bologna and mouthwash: Acme Markets. Supervalu Inc., the Minnesota corporation that owns the Philadelphia area's most ubiquitous grocery chain, had said just that week that it would sell a batch of Connecticut supermarkets.

How did a freak show like Jersey Shore become 2010's must-see TV event? Glamour had nothing to do with it. Take eight young adults - brash, mouthy kids from what is often disparaged as "the bridge-and-tunnel crowd" - and pack them in a rental house in a blue-collar beach town in New Jersey. Give them jobs in a souvenir shop on the boardwalk and let them blow all their wages on bronzer, hair products and steroids before sending them out bar-hopping every night. What you get is reality TV with a far larger component of reality than the genre usually trucks in. The antics of this crass, coppertoned crew fascinated viewers.

For a quarterback whose future with the Eagles has been the subject of much speculation, Donovan McNabb looked awfully relaxed and carefree with the media at the NFC's first Pro Bowl practice yesterday morning. He reiterated that he is confident he will stay with the Eagles. Later, holding court for another 10 minutes at the hotel, he was pressed on how he could be so sure. "I have a psychic and she told me; she said, 'Good things are to happen in Philadelphia and it's going to be really good for you,' " McNabb said while doing his best Jamaican psychic impersonation.

It's the most eagerly awaited tablet since Moses. As with the tablets handed down from on high, no one knows what's on it. Or even what it is. They know only that it's coming. Loud is the hype surrounding what's popularly called the "Apple tablet. " Many observers, including Ken Doctor, news-industry analyst for Outsell Inc., expects it to be "a 10-inch tablet with features like an iPhone, big enough so I can actually read easily. " Bloggers and media snoops claim it will, in unprecedented, cosmos-rocking ways, combine popular applications (Web?