If you think you can brave the heat wave this afternoon and you feel like trekking out to West Philadelphia, then you might want to check out “Big Cat Day” at the Philadelphia Zoo.

In honor of the new big cat exhibit at the zoo, today and tomorrow from 10 am - 4pm, the zoo will have cat crafts, cat talks, and cat demonstrations. The cat extras are free, but you still have to pay the normal price to actually get into the zoo. ($16.95 for adults and $13.95 for children 2-11 years old.)

Two random facts about the exhibit: It cost $20 million to build and features 12 species of endangered cats.

While everyone else in the region who is interested in sports is debating, discussing, and dissecting the Floyd Landis Tour de France fun, the Phillies did something that is good and interesting.

I’ll pause for you to catch your breath after that big gasp.

Yes. As everyone feared, the Phillies traded David Bell (who has been sucking it for so long) for pitching! Or rather, a pitcher named Wilfrido Laureano from some random single-A team. That’s not important. The important part is that we have some attempt at getting pitching! There is progress! Pitching! Progress! (Amidst many of my own bad puns.)

The “Inquirer staff” wrote a little blurb about the trade here with some stats. I can’t wait to see how to pronounce this guy’s name or how he’ll hold up on the mound. Here goes nothing with some hope!

VS

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Final Score: 4-1 Marlins
Season Record: 46-54

To start this odd five-game series with the Marlins, Chase Utley extended his hit streak to 28 games; Ryan Howard hit his 33rd homer; and Brett Myers pitched through eight innings and gave up only one run. Sounds like a stellar game, right? When that’s all to speak of, you’re in trouble. Tonight, the Phils got outpitched, outhit, and outplayed, and it showed.

On the mound for the Florida Marlins was right-hander Ricky Nolasco, who had an 8-6 record coming into Friday’s game. Through seven and a third innings of play, Nolasco absolutely puzzled the Phillies, allowing one hit by Abraham Nunez and struck out three.

The Phillies couldn’t find their stride at all, and it showed. Brett Myers pitched through eight innings, letting by five hits (including two doubles), one run, and striking out eight. The pitching was stellar on both sides of this matchup, but the thing the Phillies lacked in this matchup was hitting.

Oh, and a bullpen. In one inning combined, Geoff Geary and Aaron Fultz gave up three runs on three hits, with two walks and no strikeouts. The Phillies bullpen continues its perennial struggle to finish up games, and by the look of things, hope for the Phils’ bullpen is bleak.

With this loss, the Phils fall to 14 games behind the first place Mets, while the Marlins increase their winning streak to two games and come to within 12.5 games of the Mets. Saturday’s game starts at 7:05, with “Hollywood” Cole Hamels starting on the mound against Marlins pitching ace Dontrell Willis.

She’s back in custody:

Authorities captured an exotic dancer accused of illegally keeping human body parts in her Middlesex County home.

Linda Kay was arrested today, two days after she skipped a court appearance. [6ABC]

The story goes on to say that the bondsman who helped her get out on bail helped with the capture—which in a backhanded kinda way sort of affirms the checks and balances of our nutty court system…..

Other posts:
What is wrong with our court system?
More news about the human hand collecting stripper

So, I can’t decide whether my favorite headline-to-date on the simmering Floyd Landis controversy is:

If it involves Philly area sports, and it sounds to good to be true, it probably is [Attytood]

or

Floyd Landis says He’s Naturally High [6ABC]

(As for the controversy itself, I gotta admit that the explanation—Landis just happens to have unnaturally high testosterone levels—is one of those that’s so pathetic-sounding that it’s probably true. Like when I cancelled the first date I’d scheduled with Matt on account of getting pneumonia. It’s like, if you’re gonna lie, you’d come up with something that sounds more plausible, y’know?)

Yesterday, Anya wrote a post about bail-jumping Linda Kay, the all-nude stripper who was found with several human hands and a skull in her apartment. Well, it seems that Linda Kay is that Linda Kay. The one who used to play bass for Lifetime, the punk rock band that hailed from Jersey.

*Okay, I admit, I had never heard of Lifetime until an email came my way with the article linked below included.

Stripper’s an ex-rocker [Inky]

I missed mayor Street’s live televised speech, but caught some of it later at night. The whole idea of the broadcast, to me, is pathetic. What a sad statement it makes when the mayor has to go on television and beg citizens to stop murdering one another. I’ve neither seen nor heard of anything like this in my lifetime in any other city. Have other mayors resorted to such measures in other cities in recent years?

One proposed idea to help reduce gun violence is to give police the right to stop and search violent crime parolees without a warrant or even suspicion. According to this daily news article: “81 percent of murder victims and 76 percent of killers have criminal records.” A similar law is already in effect in California, upheld as constitutional by the supreme court.

This starts to touch on the privacy rights and civil liberties issues again. However, a search law seems innocuous when compared to some measures already in effect, like the very public and accessible sex offender registry.

My Harry Potter group Potterdelphia planned a great summer picnic in East Fairmount Park for this coming Sunday, but the threat of thunderstorms caused us to cancel. Of course this leaves people uspet at not only missing out on some fun but also stewing at home with unused fruit, hot dogs, cake and more. But what can we do? We didn’t pay to reserve a pavillion and we can’t possibly have a picnic in the rain—the grill would keep going out and the buns would get a bit too soggy.

Does anyone know of any free or very cheap indoor locations that would be ideal for a rainy day picnic?

This is part of a new Metblogs feature where I — Dr. Don Juan — will give you my first-thought response to your love quandries. Send your questions to doctor.donjuan@gmail.com or leave a comment at the bottom with your question. Leave me a question, and I promise I will get to it in a future column.

Brady, aka “Doctor Don Juan”

Hey Doc,
I’m having a tough time figuring out Lara, since her red flags aren’t clear. My gut tells me to forget her. I met her on catholicsingles.com. She contacted me first and is five years older (33 to my 28). After several humorous exchanges she asked me if I’m as funny in person and gave me her number. I called her and we set a date.
(more…)

Did anyone else happen to catch that vicious, vicious lightning storm last night? It was so loud and so bright that I jumped out of bed. I had the TV and VCR on, and turned both off (I usually don’t). I laid in my bed with my light on and my flashlight clutched should I need it. And I cried. Seriously, it was that scary. I thought the large tree outside my window was getting it for sure.

And I prayed for the first time in years. Yet — amazingly — no power was lost through the whole storm.