Toy Store

Scott Boren's store hasn't changed much in 20 years. The aisles are narrow and so crowded with merchandise that customers and shopping bags often tangle as people pass one another. But Boren's corner shop at Kings Highway and Haddon Avenue is one of the most beloved places in the popular Haddonfield business district. For three generations of customers from South Jersey and beyond, Happy Hippo is the place to buy pink, high-bouncing rubber balls; velvety-soft hand puppets; and any one of five kinds of jack-in-the-boxes.

Fire apparently caused by electrical wiring gutted a second-floor apartment and damaged a toy store in the business district yesterday but did not spread to other stores because of the quick response of fire companies, an official said. Three firefighters suffered minor injuries battling the blaze at the apartment above T Bumble's toy store at 5 S. Chester Rd. about 8:40 a.m., said Chief Chris Hansen of the Swarthmore Fire Company. The injured volunteers were treated at a nearby hospital.

Consumer confidence seems alive and kicking to me. Don't let anyone try to tell you we're heading for a recession. Believe me, we're not. My evidence is a trip to Toys R Us last week. After being stuck in traffic for 20 minutes waiting to snake our way within 100 feet of the shopping center, my husband and I innocently walked up to the store with the giant giraffe on the front. We grabbed a blue cart and ventured through the electronic doors. A couple that entered about the same time pushed two carts through the entrance - one for each parent.

A 14-YEAR veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department was arrested Monday for allegedly engaging in an ongoing conspiracy to steal from a local toy store, police said. Bridgette Paris, 48, was charged with retail theft, theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property, forgery and related offenses, police said. The charges followed an investigation by the department's Internal Affairs Bureau and the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office. Police have not identified the store that Paris allegedly targeted.

You know another summer is here when the new fads begin. The Hula-Hoops and Frisbees, the balsa-wood airplanes that you launched with a rubber band all were born in a summer season. This year the big rage may be Skip Sticks. Here's what will happen: three kids will all of a sudden appear at a Philadelphia public school with a new kind of jump rope. They will show it off at recess. After school, the entire sixth grade will run to the nearest toy store. Skip Sticks will quickly sell out, thereby ensuring their place in the Hall of Summer-Fad Fame.

It started innocently enough in May with a brief item in the Chestnut Hill Local, but Wagoneers have been circling ever since. "Chestnut Hill will have a new toy store," the article announced, telling how a prime, top-of-the-Hill location - for decades the home of Dorothy Bullitt's dress shop - would be reopening soon as a Kay-Bee Toy and Hobby Shop. Angry letters to the editor ensued. The first came from Carol Dilks, a free-lance writer and mother of two, who wrote: "This is not an inspired or attractive chain of stores - it is mass market, full of high-priced, well- advertised plastic.

With sparkling eyes and excited smiles, the Chen family wandered through the hordes of shoppers at Toys & Entertainment, a type of store unimaginable in China until recently. As in a dream, Chen Chang Rao, his wife, Chen Xianze, and their 5-year-old son, Jian, passed the stuffed animals, the puzzles, the bubble-shooting guns, the bicycles and the robots. Chang Rao, an engineer, had had only one toy as a child - a slingshot made from a tree branch. Xianze, a factory worker, said her favorite toy had been dirt: "You can make lots of animals with it. " The family stopped before a counter filled with toy vehicles and highways.

Faced with a string of declining earnings and stock prices, Keith C. Spurgeon resigned yesterday as chairman and chief executive of the Zany Brainy Inc. toy store chain. The firm, which is based in King of Prussia, named Thomas G. Vellios, an executive there since 1995, as acting chief executive. He was also elected to the company's board. Richard Zimmerman, an analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott who monitors the firm, said: "The company's profitability and productivity were lagging.

For a few days each December, the Church of the Sacred Heart in Camden is awash in dolls, games, stuffed animals and such. The church's toy store allows low-income families to buy gifts for children at reduced prices. The new toys, mostly donated by schools, churches and individuals, cost between 50 cents and $4 each.

WHEN I was a schoolteacher in Olney, a fellow teacher used to regale the staff every September with stories about his travels to Mexico and South and Central America. Relaxing! A journey he'd never forget, he'd crow a little too loudly in staff meetings as he passed around pictures. I still remember the nausea I felt when I opened a national news magazine a few years later to see his face on a story about international child predators. He was serving 10 years in a Mexican prison for soliciting sex from children the same age that he taught at our school.

I'VE HAD many adventures with my 11-year-old daughter, Eve. When she was 1, I clutched my wallet in horror as she uttered the words "Da-da" and "Boom-ingdales" in the same sentence. When she was 2, she talked me into using her pink feather phone to converse with her imaginary boyfriend, Poo Poo. When she was 4, I videotaped her "Lifestyles of the Not Quite Famous" tour while 1-year-old Little Solomon yelled, "Superman!" No matter how weird the situation, no matter how endless the talking, my experiences with my baby girl were always enjoyable.

EVEN WITH one week left until Christmas, I refuse to panic like those other parents. You know the ones. They're at Toys "R" Us right now, having sneaked out of work to buy little Johnny that Lego set he demanded. I've seen such parents engage their shopping rivals in WWE-style matches. It's the same every time. The toys run out, the coats come off, and a teenage temp with a Justin Bieber face tattoo gets on the P.A. system. "Security to aisle three," she says in a disinterested tone.

A 14-YEAR veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department was arrested Monday for allegedly engaging in an ongoing conspiracy to steal from a local toy store, police said. Bridgette Paris, 48, was charged with retail theft, theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property, forgery and related offenses, police said. The charges followed an investigation by the department's Internal Affairs Bureau and the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office. Police have not identified the store that Paris allegedly targeted.

WHEN I was a schoolteacher in Olney, a fellow teacher used to regale the staff every September with stories about his travels to Mexico and South and Central America. Relaxing! A journey he'd never forget, he'd crow a little too loudly in staff meetings as he passed around pictures. I still remember the nausea I felt when I opened a national news magazine a few years later to see his face on a story about international child predators. He was serving 10 years in a Mexican prison for soliciting sex from children the same age that he taught at our school.

In Matt Kriebel's world, stuffed microbes are cuddle toys. After all, there's nothing more adorable than a plush salmonella or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus , also known as MRSA around school gyms and nursing homes. But for endless hours of amusement, Kriebel recommends Buckyballs, a cluster of 125 highly magnetic spheres the size of BBs that can be assembled in as many ways as the mind allows. He also likes the fake butterfly in a jar that appears to take flight (thanks to electronics)

Imagine strolling through Chestnut Hill's shopping district, where quaint is the reigning aesthetic, and suddenly seeing a six-story development, including a 20,000-square-foot grocery store, hard up against Germantown Avenue. That is what Richard Snowden, a developer both praised for his dedication to historic renovation and criticized for antagonizing neighbors, wants to build where the long-vacant Magarity Ford stands. Current zoning would not allow that. To help him realize his goal of bringing a Fresh Market store, eight townhouses, plus additional retail and apartments there, Snowden has enlisted departing Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller.

THE PHILADELPHIA Eagles have a secret Santa on their team - and, no, it's not Andy Reid. While Big Red might have the right physique to play the Big Red Guy, it turns out injured cornerback Ellis Hobbs is the Eagle most likely to be mistaken for Jolly Old St. Nick. Hobbs, 27, stepped into a South Philadelphia Toys "R" Us yesterday afternoon, smack in the middle of one of those manic Christmas-is-just-a-week-away sales. No one noticed that an Eagle had landed. There were no cheerleaders flipping through the store, no public-relations handlers handing out photos, no sign even of Swoop, the mascot.

I PREDICT poor sales for trashy novels this summer. Suntan without Danielle Steel in Sea Isle. Summer sans Sidney Sheldon in Ocean City. No need for Nora Roberts in North Wildwood. And it has nothing to do with gas prices. Why spring for a shiny-covered novel when you can just devour a daily installment of the Christie Brinkley-Peter Cook divorce trial - for the price of a daily newspaper? You know the storyline: The Uptown Girl found the fourth time to be no charm after marrying handsome but caddish architect Peter Cook.

Hurricane survivors offer thanks for kindness My wife and three young children are among the hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced by the effects of Hurricane Katrina. We were (are?) residents of New Orleans but were fortunate enough to escape before the full impact of the storm. After driving more than 2,000 miles under difficult circumstances, we finally arrived here, in Philadelphia. From the moment we arrived, we have experienced overwhelming kindness from everyone, without exception.

After Bennifer's breakup, we honestly don't know whether we can handle this: Power couple Tom Cruise and Pen?lope Cruz has dissolved. And get this: The pair ended their totally non-torrid three-year relationship back in January, but their reps are just now telling us about the unhappy event. Robert Garlock, Cruz's spokesman, told People mag that neither star is dating anyone else and that they "remain good friends. " Garlock reassured the world, saying religion didn't cause the split: Cruz did not convert to Scientology, Cruise's brand of soul medicine, "but she has taken [church]