http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists RSS Feed for P-com Columnists en-us Sun, 27 May 2012 17:31:50 GMT http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/20120527_Lisa_Scottoline__Dog__meet_toothpaste.html So it turns out that dogs need more than love and food. I learned this when I was talking to Francesca on the phone and she’s brushing Pip’s teeth, which she does every night. She also brushes his fur and trims his nails. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/20120527_Karen_Heller__Sharing_loss__finding_comfort.html Jeannie Paul and Ruthie Joyce met a few weeks ago only to learn they've led parallel lives. Both women are 68, raised by independent mothers who were teachers. Both women moved to Philadelphia as young wives and raised one child. Now, they're grandmothers living 10 miles apart. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/20120527_Lynn_rsquo_s_testimony_is_a_losing_gamble.html http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/20120527_Consumer_12_0__Facebook_rsquo_s_worth_is_known__in_more_than_just_cash.html What do Oc­cu­py Wall Street and Facebook’s high-pro­file stock splat have in com­mon? Both look a lot dif­fer­ent depending on where you sit — wheth­er, as the occupiers might put it, you’re in the 1 per­cent or the 99 per­cent.To the 1 percenters who bought in ear­ly and cashed out when Facebook shares went pub­lic at $38, all is good. They took a risk and made bazillions. To their less-hap­py breth­ren — such as the Wall Street in­vest­ment bankers who ap­par­ent­ly got greedy in pricing the stock, or the bro­ker­age executives dealing with investors burned when the NASDAQ went kablooie on opening day — this was a curve­ball when they expected an easy pitch to hit. Stuff happens; they’ll let the lawyers sort it out. To the 99 percenters, the stock splat was most­ly soap op­era, with one ex­cep­tion: Small "mom and pop" investors, usu­al­ly shut out of hot IPOs, were lured in un­usu­al numbers to Facebook’s offering. In­stead of the first-day "pop" in share prices that lucky 1 percenters can usu­al­ly count on, mom and pop got popped in the gut. It’s a shame that Mark Zuckerberg’s en­thu­si­asm for letting Facebook members into the game didn’t in­clude, say, a dis­count tick­et. Still, those are the risks of playing in the big leagues. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/20120526_Is_hon_shy_es_shy_ty_al_shy_ways_the_best_pol_shy_i_shy_cy_.html Ques­tion: I’ve been seeing my girl­friend for about six months. Last night we were talking about a friend’s re­la­tion­ship problems stemming from his re­cent con­fes­sion of in­fi­del­i­ty. My girl­friend said, "Why did he even tell her about it in the first place, if it was just a drunk­en one-night thing?" I muttered some­thing about lying nev­er be­ing good, and she agreed and we changed the sub­ject. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/20120527_Memory_Stream.html Cas­par Wis­tar was once one of the pre­mier physicians in Phila­del­phia. Born in the city in 1761, Wis­tar was the son of Richard and Sa­rah Wyatt Wis­tar, a Quak­er fam­i­ly. As a teen­ag­er, Wis­tar assisted the wound­ed from the Bat­tle of Germantown in 1777, and this ex­pe­ri­ence re­port­ed­ly inspired him to go into med­i­cine. He studied at the University of Penn­syl­van­ia and the University of Edin­burgh, Scot­land, and received his doc­tor­ate in 1786. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/20120527_Quiz_Answers.html 1. c. William Howard Taft. 2. a. Robert Todd Lincoln. 3. b. John Marshall. 4. d. Thurgood Marshall. 5. c. Medgar Evers. 6. b. Benjamin O. Davis Sr. 7. a. Anita Newcomb McGee. 8. c. Edward H. White. 9. d. Walter Reed. 10. d. 1900. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/20120527_Bill_Lyon__The_wonder_of_the_Indianapolis_500.html It is High Noon in the Heartland, on the day in May that we set aside for remembering, and also for the worshiping of speed, which accounts for those 33 land missiles disguised as cars lined up in 11 meticulous rows, three across. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/20120527_Touch__Em_All__Larsen_s__perfect__uniform_will_go_to_auction.html Don Larsen remembers the Yankees getting new uniforms for the 1956 Series. He wore his in Game 2 against the Dodgers, who chased the righthander after he allowed four runs in 12/3 innings in a 13-8 loss. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/20120527_Inside_the_Phillies__Phillies__Halladay_remains_calm_in_subpar_season.html Roy Halladay has extraordinary perspective on many things. He knows what it is like to fail to the point of exile. He learned the hard way in his early 20s, with the help of his late mentor Harvey Dorfman, how to pick up the pieces and narrow his thoughts to only the most relevant things about being an elite big-league pitcher.