Ronnie Polaneczky has been an award-winning columnist for The Philadelphia Daily News since 1999, offering a front-steps perspective on every aspect of city life, from the stupid to the sublime. In her past life, she was the editor-in-chief of Atlantic City Magazine, asociate editor at Philadphia Magazine and a fulltime freelancer published in, among other publications, Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, Reader's Digest, Men's Health and MarieClaire. She lives with her husband, daughter, dog, two cats and hermit crab in the city's Fairmount section. You can also enjoy Ronnie's musings in podcast form at So What Happened Was.
- Poll: What would motivate you to give up your car? (31 votes)
AS P.R. STUNTS go, yesterday's Low-Car Diet was fun, but frustrating.
Organized by the Zipcar car-sharing company, the event at City Hall's Dilworth Plaza required car owners to give up their automobiles for a month. In exchange, "dieters" received a free, yearlong Zipcar membership, $500 worth of drive time, free SEPTA tokens and bonus stuff from Amtrak.
- Video: Buddhist conflict on South Broad Street
- Gallery: The Dalai Lama Visits Philly
SOME HOLY people, when you hear them speak, have a way of making you feel holy, too.
For me, Mother Teresa fit into that category. So did Pope John Paul II. So do a handful of unfamous, but unquestionably holy, folks I've been lucky enough to have in my orbit over the years. They emanate a light so clear and peaceful, they inspire other souls to glow, too.
- I ONCE BOOKED a carriage ride through Old City and was floored when my tour guide mentioned, with awe, that, during the Civil War, "about a thousand people died!"
- TODAY, ON THE EVE of the 232nd birthday of American liberty, it's heartwarming to know that we're free to take personal photos on Penn's Landing.
- THIS IS NOT the column I wanted to write about Candy Battistelli. That one would've been about how Candy, 64, had been on an organ-transplant list, waiting, with unflagging good humor, for a new liver to replace her own cancerous one.
- MY COLUMN last week about Betsy Betancourt prompted both an outpouring of sympathy for her plight as well as a tough observation from some readers: How might Betsy's life be different, they asked, had her deceased sister made different choices while alive?
- THERE ARE TWO reasons to do cartwheels at the Fire Academy on State Road, where 20 newly hired paramedics begin job orientation today.
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Ronnie Polaneczky: She takes in sister's 4 kids - and tries to finish school
- BETSY BETANCOURT and her sister, Neida Cardona, were as tight as two sisters could be. They talked every day. Looked after each other's kids - Betsy has a 3-year-old daughter; Neida had five kids, ages 9 to 15. And, as single mothers, they dreamt of jobs that would give their families stability and opportunity.
- SOMETHING extraordinary is going on at the Philadelphia Marriott Hotel: A bishop is being called on the carpet for not alerting church authorities, parents or police that a church youth-group leader at his church was having sex with a teenage member.
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Ronnie Polaneczky: One boy's faith, and the miracle of St. Cyril's
- AGAINST CRAZY odds, Tommy Geromichalos graduated last night from St. Cyril of Alexandria Elementary School in East Lansdowne. The odds he trumped weren't only those related to his health. Tommy has cystic fibrosis, a disease that kids didn't used to survive past early childhood. But Tommy and his older sister, Samantha - who also has the malady - are thriving.
- SOME DAYS, I wonder if the affection I feel from my fellow Daily News columnists is real or a veneer of pretense over an underlying jealousy of my copious talents, stunning beauty and total perfection.
- WHEN SOME PARENTS called last week to complain that their kids wouldn't receive their diplomas on stage at Cardinal Dougherty High School's graduation today, I couldn't imagine what the problem could be.
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