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(09/03/07 2:12am)
PHILADELPHIA– Call it theater of the macabre: A jar containing a small piece of tissue from the body of John Wilkes Booth, President Abraham Lincoln’s killer, will be on display when the musical “Assassins” opens in Philadelphia.\nIn fact, it will be a twin bill: theatergoers will also be able view a piece of the brain of the lesser-known presidential assassin Charles Guiteau, the man who killed President James A. Garfield in 1881.\nThe specimens will be on loan to the Arden Theatre from Philadelphia’s Mutter Museum, which boasts a large collection of medical oddities. They will be on display in the lobby for one night, the opening of “Assassins” on Sept. 19.\n“People know who they are, but to see them in the flesh – no pun intended – to me is exciting, it’s relevant, it’s interesting and it’s educational,” said Anna Dhody, a spokeswoman for the Mutter Museum.\nThe museum is run by the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Dhody said the samples were acquired long ago but she did not know the circumstances.\nLincoln was shot on April 14, 1865, at Ford’s Theatre, and died the next morning.\nBooth was killed by pursuers 12 days after shooting Lincoln. Guiteau was hanged – after an insanity defense failed – on June 30, 1882.\nThe tissue fragment from Booth is believed to have come from his neck, Dhody said.\n“Assassins,” a Stephen Sondheim musical that explores the nine people who have taken aim at U.S. presidents, won five Tony awards in 2004.\n“When you have the first two ... successful assassins in U.S. history in a city, and you have this wonderful show going on, how do you not combine the two?” said J Nathan Bazzel, a Mutter Museum docent who came up with the idea.\nThe specimens are preserved in fluid in small, vintage glass jars. If a few patrons find the display in poor taste, organizers hope most will appreciate the chance to connect to history.\n“We prefer to think of it as we’re showing our tangible evidence of very, very important parts of American history,” Dhody said. “So we’re hoping people would approach it from more of a historical than a macabre viewpoint.”
(11/29/04 4:07am)
PHILADELPHIA -- Divers found a six-foot gash on the tanker that leaked 30,000 gallons of crude oil into the Delaware River and created a 20-mile-long slick that killed dozens of birds and threatened other wildlife, officials said Sunday.\nDivers investigating the listing Athos I on Saturday found holes in the underwater cargo tank closest to the rear of the vessel and in an outside ballast tank, said Jim Lawrence, spokesman for the tanker's Greek owner, Tsakos Shipping and Trading SA.\nThe company said something probably struck the tanks underwater, but the Coast Guard investigation has not confirmed that, spokesman Lt. Buddy Dye said.\nTwo tug boats were guiding the tanker toward a dock in Paulsboro, N.J., where the Venezuelan crude oil was to be delivered to a Citgo Petroleum Corp. refinery, when the leak was discovered late Friday.\nU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said 50 birds were dead from the spill, 300 others were affected and fish also were threatened.\nA stretch of the busy river was closed to commercial and recreational traffic while the spill was being cleaned up, although the Coast Guard hoped to allow a few commercial vessels through Sunday to deliver goods to the busy Port of Philadelphia.\nDye said more than a dozen vessels, mainly carrying oil and chemicals, were parked at both ends of the port. About a million barrels of oil normally come through the Port of Philadelphia each day.\nLawrence said Tsakos hoped to unload the remaining oil from the Athos I, which had 325,000 barrels of oil aboard in seven cargo tanks, before repairing the ship.\nActing New Jersey Gov. Richard J. Codey has said Tsakos will foot the bill for the cleanup, which he estimated will take two to three months.\nResidents were still fuming about the spill, the worst on the river in nearly a decade.\n"It's terrible. It's absolutely terrible. Being a resident here and seeing the impact on the wildlife, it makes me sick," said Brian Goldy, 48, who often spots hundreds of Canadian geese from his waterfront home in Essington, Pa.\nHe said he found five geese on a grassy slab by the river Sunday, all of them blackened and unable to fly. In an effort to clean themselves, the birds appeared to be ingesting the oil, he said.
(05/09/03 5:37am)
PHILADELPHIA -- Complaining of low pay, cold rooms and air laden with paint fumes and charcoal dust, models who pose nude at a Philadelphia art school voted Wednesday to join a union.\n"We were at a loss about how to get the schools to pay attention to us," said Claire Hankins, 39, who led the effort to organize artists' models at the Moore College of Art and Design.\nThe union vote came after the National Labor Relations Board rejected the school's argument that the models are independent contractors.\n"We feel they are sporadic, occasional employees hired for a specific service, as opposed to employees that we can depend on," said Moore President Happy Craven Fernandez. She said Moore administrators had not gotten any complaints from models about working conditions.\nBased on the NLRB ruling, only 13 models at the school had worked enough hours to vote on whether to join District Council 47 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Hankins said seven of the 13 attended Wednesday's meeting and all voted to unionize.\nThe local -- which also represents white-collar city workers and zoo employees -- wants to organize about 200 models who pose for art classes in the Philadelphia region, which is also home to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and several other art schools.\nGary Kapanowski, a District 47 organizer, said he does not know of any other school in the country where nude models have organized, though he hopes that will change. "The labor movement needs to reach out to constituencies beyond the normal groups," he said.\nHankins wants the all-women's art school to raise its $11 hourly rate and provide its 40 to 60 models with warm, clean, safe spaces in which to work.\nThe Moore models said that disrobing for art school classes is hard work that requires them to hold a pose for long periods under sometimes difficult conditions. The studios at Moore and other art schools often lack private changing areas, adequate heaters and outside air, Hankins said.\n"In the building where models do most of their work, there's no fresh air coming in," said Hankins, a model for nearly 20 years.\nCheryl Breese, 41, does not support efforts to unionize her fellow art class models. Breese, who is raising two teenagers and working on a college degree, made just $12,000 last year, but worries she would lose flexibility if the jobs were unionized.\n"Most of us go into this job because of the freedom it presents," said Breese, who does not work at Moore.
(02/18/03 4:47am)
PHILADELPHIA -- The winter storm that dropped 2 feet of snow in many parts of the East came as another blow to struggling retailers, many of whom spent heavily advertising Presidents Day sales.\n"A storm at this time is the worst thing that could happen to retailers," said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group. "It is a big loss to sales. ... Whether a store is open or not, consumers are not going to risk injury to go out shopping."\nMany retailers from Virginia to Massachusetts closed stores Monday, as snow-covered roads made it difficult for employees to get to work and state officials urged people to stay home.\n"In many areas of the country, stores have just completely shut down," said Ellen Tolley, a spokeswoman for National Retail Federation. "Not only do they lose in sales, but they also lose in the advertising money they've spent."\nFebruary is when retailers aim to clear out their winter leftovers and lure customers with their big sales, hoping they will also buy full-price spring merchandise.\nBoscov's, the Reading, Pa.-based department store chain, had run holiday advertisements in many newspapers in its mid-Atlantic base. Chairman Albert Boscov said he may run them again -- and hold the sale on Saturday, George Washington's actual birthday.\nIn any event, he said, the lost day is a moderate blow to retailers, many of whom are struggling in the weak economy.\n"In comparison to Christmas, it's not a big deal," Boscov said.\nMany department store items are deeply discounted in February, whereas a big snow before Christmas means the loss of a day selling profitable, full-price merchandise.\nStores generally hope to clear out winter inventory with the sales, to make room for spring items. But storms aren't entirely bad news, as they can inspire people to stock up on winter items.\nMay Department Stores closed more than 100 stores in its Lord & Taylor, Hecht's, Strawbridge's and Filene's divisions Monday, including the Lord & Taylor store in Manhattan, said spokeswoman Sharon Bateman.\nEach group will decide whether to replace or extend the holiday sale, she said.\nWal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, closed at least some stores in nine Eastern states.\nThe lost revenue can be made up, as long as the store is stocked -- especially with grocery items -- when people return, said Tom Williams, a spokesman in Wal-Mart's Bentonville, Ark., headquarters.\n"The key thing is to be ready when they do come," William said. "You only sell what's on your shelves"