Whiskers

The hairier things get for the Flyers during the NHL playoffs, the closer they will be to winning the Stanley Cup. The most grueling tournament in professional sports begins tonight and the success of the 16 teams involved can be measured by the length of the whiskers on the skaters' faces. Many players go unshaven until they are eliminated. "I started [growing a beard] in New York, so it's almost a week now," Flyers winger Simon Gagne said yesterday as he scratched the growth on his neck and prepared for tonight's game against Pittsburgh.

The family of Whiskers the cat has filed suit against the Delaware County SPCA for euthanizing their pet and then trying to cover up the error. The civil suit is asking in excess of $50,000, but Kathy Giaconia has more in mind. She wants to ensure that what happened to her cat won't happen to another pet. The SPCA says the death of Whiskers, followed by another incident involving a second pet, may already have ensured that. "The unfortunate incident has led to an almost completely new Delaware County SPCA," said Norman Haase, attorney for the shelter.

Not all the big cats at the Philadelphia Zoo are kept in cages. Jim Fisher had the run of the place yesterday, poking his whiskers into such places as this newly restored iron gate. The gates and their gatehouse were finished in 1876 for the centennial exposition at Fairmount Park, and were rededicated recently after restoration.

SLOVENES MAKE HISTORY BY SKIING DOWN NEPAL SLOPE Two Slovene climbers made history when they skied from the top of Annapurna I, the world's 10th-highest mountain in the Himalayan range, according to Nepal's Tourism Ministry. The ministry said two Slovene brothers and a Mexican climber reached the 26,500-foot summit on April 29 from the north face. It said the brothers from Jezersko, Slovenia - 32-year-old ski instructor Davorin Karnicar and 25-year-old Drejc Karnicar - skied back to their base camp at 14,018 feet on the same day, making it the first continuous ski descent.

A former Delaware County SPCA official who told a family their cat had bitten an employee to cover up a mistaken euthanasia, then falsified state documents, has entered a program for nonviolent first-time offenders. Debra Jane Marchetti, 50, of Upland, was sentenced to 32 hours of community service and 12 months of probation Tuesday. Marchetti was charged with tampering with public records and other related charges. She had been the SPCA director of operations. "She is very contrite," said defense attorney Eugene Bonner who described his client as a caring person who regrets her decision.

Over the last year, the beleaguered Delaware County SPCA has been making changes. The shelter had been plagued in recent years by mismanagement, unhealthy conditions and inadequate veterinary care. Pet owners found their newly adopted animals had grave illnesses. A former board member said the shelter had a high euthanasia rate because it was cheaper than treatment. The state's Bureau of Dog Enforcement conducted a surprise inspection in February 2004 after receiving numerous complaints.

The former Delaware County SPCA director of operations has been charged with tampering with public records and fabricating physical evidence in the death of Whiskers the cat in February. Debra Jane Marchetti, of the 1000 block of Church Street in Upland, has been accused of pressuring another employee to fill out a report that said the cat bit a shelter worker. Marchetti, knowing that a bite never occurred, then completed a state document and submitted it to the Pennsylvania Department of Health lab in Lionville in order to cover up oversights made by the shelter before the cat was euthanized, court records say. The charges against Marchetti were filed by the Upper Providence Police Department on Tuesday evening.

GLANCING through your Dec. 8 edition, I saw a picture that I first thought was that of the Adopt-A-Pet. Then I realized it was in the front section of the paper. Upon closer perusal, I figured it was a story concerning a creature escaped from the zoo or SPCA. Putting on my specs, I zoomed in - and lo and behold it was Howard Eskin minked up to his neck, exposing just whiskers and beady eyes, topped off with a mink cap. I would like to advise Howard not to bend over, which he does often looking for loose change while wearing the mink.

Five minutes after her handlers used a pail of fish to coax Echo into her new outdoor home at the New Jersey State Aquarium, she gave it her seal of approval. The little blind harp seal immediately began probing the floor of the Seal Shores compound with her whiskers. "Whiskers help seals feel vibrations that help them find fish," said Rhona St. Clair, assistant curator of marine mammals. "Echo's using whiskers to do the job eyes can't. " After nine months of extensive audio training in her indoor pen, Echo yesterday afternoon moved to Seal Shores, outdoor home to the aquarium's eight resident gray and harbor seals.

The Bearded Ladies are five women and two men. They sing - very well - and they wear bizarre costumes. Their new show, Wide Awake: A Civil War Cabaret , at the Wilma Theater this weekend and again Dec. 2 and 3, is wildly entertaining, even if it still needs some kinks worked out. Medley is the name of their complicated, charming, entertaining game: old and new, historical and contemporary, male and female, funny and moving, parody and pointed, if...

Philadelphia author Barbara Holland had a sharp wit and a taste for extravagant titles. Hail to the Chiefs: Presidential Mischief, Morals, and Malarkey from George W. to George W. was a 2003 reworking of an earlier raspberry. Of President Chester A. Arthur, she wrote that his extravagant cheek whiskers suggested that "he'd been trying to eat a sheep without peeling it. " You might not remember Mr. Arthur's career highlights, but you might well remember that image. Barbara Murray Schilling, 77, a longtime Philadelphia writer who as Barbara Holland penned 15 nonfiction books such as Endangered Pleasures: In Defense of Naps, Bacon, Martinis, Profanity, and Other Indulgences , died of lung cancer Tuesday, Sept.

The electricity stayed on at the First Unitarian Church on Friday night, but if storms had felled the power lines, the Low Anthem could have continued with only a few tweaks to the set list. The Providence, R.I., quartet's hour-long show was half over before they hooked up anything more elaborate than the house PA, relying instead on an assortment of acoustic instruments ranging from commonplace guitar and drums to rustic throwbacks like pump organ, harmonium, and a handmade music box. With their ragged hair and shaggy whiskers, the band's men looked like hippie woodsmen, while multi-instrumentalist Jocie Adams wore a dress out of Little House on the Prairie.

I am a guy, and not apologetic about it. I'm a person with a paunch, with bristly whiskers that my wife wants shaved (I won't), and a tendency to talk about myself. A lot. And I can be loud. But now and then I listen, too. I catch the ads between baseball innings. I glance at the headlines and book covers. And I'm breaking ranks by telling you this, but my buddies and I are stifling a laugh over the experts deciding that men are suffering. There's The Decline of Men by Guy Garcia, Guyland by Michael Kimmel, and Save the Males: Why Men Matter, Why Women Should Care by Kathleen Parker.

The hairier things get for the Flyers during the NHL playoffs, the closer they will be to winning the Stanley Cup. The most grueling tournament in professional sports begins tonight and the success of the 16 teams involved can be measured by the length of the whiskers on the skaters' faces. Many players go unshaven until they are eliminated. "I started [growing a beard] in New York, so it's almost a week now," Flyers winger Simon Gagne said yesterday as he scratched the growth on his neck and prepared for tonight's game against Pittsburgh.

Anthony Francolino and Brian Mantooth, aspiring champions both, faced each other at Geno's in South Philadelphia the other day, comparing training regimens and scouting for possible contenders for America's Team. Standing along Passyunk Avenue like two monumental figures carved in granite, they chewed over strategy while keeping watch. An unsuspecting gray-bearded biker, a cheesesteak in hand and unprintable words tattooed on his right arm, ambled up to a sidewalk table. Francolino made a beeline to him, parting a throng of tourists.

Tony Lawton started shaving when he was 14, before he had a single hair on his face. It was a matter of coolness. A matter of manly. A matter of stopping the bleeding with toilet paper. Now 41, the actor from Roxborough has a shaving routine. It's always after the shower, with a four-blade razor. He fills up a basin with hot water and shaves with the grain - except for the spot right under the chin. "The hardest spot is under the left nostril," he said. "There are two or three hairs that sprout there and the blade won't reach them.

The family of Whiskers the cat has filed suit against the Delaware County SPCA for euthanizing their pet and then trying to cover up the error. The civil suit is asking in excess of $50,000, but Kathy Giaconia has more in mind. She wants to ensure that what happened to her cat won't happen to another pet. The SPCA says the death of Whiskers, followed by another incident involving a second pet, may already have ensured that. "The unfortunate incident has led to an almost completely new Delaware County SPCA," said Norman Haase, attorney for the shelter.

A former Delaware County SPCA official who told a family their cat had bitten an employee to cover up a mistaken euthanasia, then falsified state documents, has entered a program for nonviolent first-time offenders. Debra Jane Marchetti, 50, of Upland, was sentenced to 32 hours of community service and 12 months of probation Tuesday. Marchetti was charged with tampering with public records and other related charges. She had been the SPCA director of operations. "She is very contrite," said defense attorney Eugene Bonner who described his client as a caring person who regrets her decision.

The former Delaware County SPCA director of operations has been charged with tampering with public records and fabricating physical evidence in the death of Whiskers the cat in February. Debra Jane Marchetti, of the 1000 block of Church Street in Upland, has been accused of pressuring another employee to fill out a report that said the cat bit a shelter worker. Marchetti, knowing that a bite never occurred, then completed a state document and submitted it to the Pennsylvania Department of Health lab in Lionville in order to cover up oversights made by the shelter before the cat was euthanized, court records say. The charges against Marchetti were filed by the Upper Providence Police Department on Tuesday evening.