It's a survival instinct, and more so than any other contemporary Philadelphian, T. Milton Street Sr. is a survivor. A survivor with some damn big fangs, too.

Nobody likes to be called a flip-flopper, especially after a month in office. But if leadership is about taking calculated chances, good leadership is about taking big calculated chances.

A lead that warrants follow-up has been summarily dismissed by someone who swore to serve you and me, thus leaving a woman and her family no closer to an answer.

Should you ever find yourself in the bathroom of your workplace at 6:57 a.m., wearing what you wore to bed last night, and carrying a plastic ShopRite bag containing a bar of Dove, a Bobby Abreu commemorative beach towel, some Old Spice High Endurance and a change of clothing down to the socks, you'll have a good idea of how things were going for me Wednesday.

First, I was going to hit the state store across the street and grabsome plastic-bottle vodka along with a couple cans of Red Bull. Then,it was off to Rite Aid to pick up Vicodin, Ritalin, Zantac, NyQuil andthe best over-the-counter sleeping and diet pills that company moneycould buy.

"The brothers and sisters are running the city. The brothers and sisters are running this city. Running it! Don't let nobody fool you. We are in charge of the City of Brotherly Love. We are in charge!"
I haven't been able to get it out of my head, and with each passing moment, the anger has built. If we Irish are good at anything, it's holding a grudge.

Clarke says he didn't know anything about Brewtown until this week. "My God," he said, laughing. "I value my job too much to get involved in something like that."

Even though he played for the rival Washington Redskins, Sean Taylor's tragic, untimely demise — he was 24 — was sure to garner much more local attention. Another cold reality.

Listen, I'm all for a good debate. So here's what ticks me off: All anybody does to counter my stance — that anybody who kills a cop deserves to die — is call me a name, claim that I don't have a right to have an opinion, or condemn the whole capital-punishment system as racist and broken.

It's the final morning of their pre-"First Family of Philadelphia" existence, and the sun has yet to shine on the Nutters' block in Wynnefield.