Stroll

Southwest Airlines brought its chairman and cofounder Herbert D. Kelleher to town yesterday to tout its plans for a quick buildup of service this summer from Philadelphia International Airport. The airline will start flying from Philadelphia on May 9 with 14 flights a day to six cities and, by July 6, will have 28 daily flights to 14 cities around the country, Kelleher announced during a noon speech to the World Affairs Council at the Park Hyatt at the Bellevue. But the real purpose of Kelleher's visit was a return to his roots in Philadelphia and New Jersey, where he grew up in the 1940s.

With a tape recorder in hand, Ernest Yates walks the streets of Philadelphia, observing his environs ever so carefully until an image catches his eye, sparking his imagination and his next poem. Yates, a Lansdowne resident who was born in the Panama Canal Zone and grew up in New Orleans, is fascinated by the rich ethnicity and history in his adopted city, Philadelphia. "I'm a poet of the Philadelphia streets," said Yates, who will present a selection of his poems at a reading Wednesday at Tyme Gallery in Havertown.

An elderly Burlington County woman was attacked early yesterday as she walked near her home in the Governor's Walk section of Medford, authorities said. The woman, whom police are not identifying for her safety, was taking her routine morning stroll down a footpath in the woodsy community about 6 a.m. when she passed a young man, police said. Seconds later, the woman heard someone rushing up behind her. She turned around to confront the man and was pushed to the ground. She tried to fend off the attacker, but he pulled her off the footpath and punched her repeatedly, said Sgt. Jack Smith, spokesman for the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office.

On a recent trip to Ireland, I stayed at a B&B in a wooded rural area outside of Tralee, County Kerry. Once settled into my room, I took a stroll down a paved country road. The evening was mild, cloudless. Across my path, shafts of honey from the setting sun pierced through the trees, and Ireland's 40 shades of green glistened in the sunset. Along the road, modern houses hid behind long, curling driveways and foliage. I passed a driveway with maples arched over the entrance. Barking dogs snapped my serenity.

Is it so bad to rig the game of life? C'mon. It's a hard game no one understands. Very hard. With a lot of rules! And they're, well, stretchy. And all that competition. Six billion other players, in fact. So who could blame you if you, well, fudged a teensy-weensy bit here and there? Y'know, cram your bat with cork, as Sammy Sosa did? Hey, come on, those pitchers throw hard! Those home run fences are far! Or game the stock market and lie about it, as Martha Stewart is accused of doing?

For decades, those wishing to honor Benjamin Franklin, arguably Philadelphia's most famous deceased citizen, could only pitch pennies through the heavy iron gates that guarded his tomb at the Christ Church Burial Ground. Now, visitors such as Fabienne Madsen and her 9-year-old son, Peter, of Needham, Mass., can pay homage in more personal ways. They were among the first to stand close to the patriot's grave as the cemetery was opened to the public yesterday for the first time in more than 25 years.

Only six weeks into the job as interim executive director of Fairmount Park, and already Philip R. Goldsmith has encountered his share of weeds and briers. He's listened to bemused park commissioners wonder what they've just voted on; he's pondered the metaphysics of litter; he's girded himself - amid stern mayoral warnings - for more cuts in an agency that's already lost about two-thirds of its employees over the last three decades; and he's tried to make sense of a labyrinthine management structure.

Jamie Moyer was not around to see Bret Boone's game-tying single with two outs and the bases loaded in the fifth inning last night. No, the New York Yankees had not knocked the Seattle Mariners lefthander out of the game. Moyer had just decided that, after seeing his team struggle to score runs for 2 1/2 games, it might be best if he took a little walk. So he went up into the clubhouse. "I thought if I went inside, it might change our luck," Moyer said later. If Moyer's retreat to the clubhouse for an inning was the thing that got the Mariners' offense going, then he had better watch all of Game 4 of the American League Championship Series from the clubhouse tonight.

Wander a pathway that follows an old railroad line once traveled by Abraham Lincoln; view a grand old mansion built during the Civil War; or see where Gen. Cadwalader had his headquarters during the American Revolution. These points of interest and dozens more are included in the newest edition of "A Self-Guided Walking Tour," a pamphlet published by the Bristol Cultural and Historical Foundation. The free guide lists 46 places - parks, residences, churches, schools and commercial properties - that history-minded pedestrians might want to explore in the compact 320-year old borough.

A student strolls across a bridge on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania yesterday, taking full advantage of a beautiful fall day. Another pretty fall day is expected today.