NOBODY AT the Daily News or Inquirer ever called Floyd Culver anything but "Mr. Floyd."

"That's the kind of respect we had for him," said Bob Palmo, district circulation manager for the papers as he talked about a man who had been selling the papers in the streets of the city since 1947.

He was still selling them through helpers until a few weeks ago. After all, he was only 100 years old.

"He still wanted to be involved," Palmo said. "But about five weeks ago, he called me and said, 'I can't do it anymore.'"

Mr. Floyd, who began his working life on a pecan farm in Alabama, served as a cook in the Navy in World War II, and had been a loyal ambassador for the Daily News and Inquirer for six decades, died yesterday. He had turned 100 on Oct. 3.

Well into his 90s, Floyd loaded up the sturdy bicycle he bought in 1954 with newspapers, along with his cane, and would ply the streets of Center City and South Philadelphia, delivering hundreds of papers to the customers he loved.

Cape Advisors, Inc. Brings The Chelsea, The First Non-Gaming Boutique ...

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J., Feb. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Come Summer 2008, Cape Advisors, Inc. will launch Atlantic City's first non-gaming boutique hotel to open on the Boardwalk since the early 1960s. Featuring 332 guest rooms and suites, a roof-top swimming pool area with private cabanas, Sea Spa - a 6,500- square-foot spa complex, two signature Stephen Starr restaurants and the 5th Floor - a social destination housing the hotel's prime hotspots - the Chelsea will infuse "America's Playground" with a sexy refinement and timeless Hollywood glamour not seen since the Rat Pack put the seaside resort town on the map. Reservations are available through its official website: www.theChelsea-AC.com.

Located on Atlantic City's best beach and neighboring The Tropicana Casino & Resort, the Chelsea combines two properties (previously the Holiday Inn Atlantic City-Boardwalk and the adjacent Howard Johnson Hotel Atlantic City), into a luxury destination catering to those who value relaxed elegance, service on an intimate scale and a fresh vibe.

Civil Affairs in Israel, Public Relations Image Challenge

Politicians started following the leads of marketing firms and hiring PR consultants to help them dress, speak and convey their message - or image - and reach their target audiences. Politicians in Israel have only begun to take such strategies seriously in recent years, holding on strongly to traditional, informal ways. Golda Meir used to smoke cigarettes while being interviewed on TV. And years later in 1993, When Teddy Kollek ran for mayoral reelection in Jerusalem, he hired a very young and recent army press-corps graduate as his PR director, and a lay art staff to design his posters, many of which were made by hand. He also smoked cigars publicly. Israeli candidates for prime minister started hiring American consultants as far back as 1977, but it wasn't until the 1999 elections, when Binyamin Netanyahu hired Arthur Finkelstein and Ehud Barak brought in James Carville, Stanley Greenberg and Bob Shrum, that top American consultants totally revamped the Israeli electioneering process to follow American marketing strategies.

Earlier 'Reader Response'

God forbid this country should ever become a "fully paid up member" of the EU. Being British I have the experience of before and after the fact as it affects the UK. Do you really want to go down the UK route and that of all the other members; high unemployment, greater national debt, ever increasing immigration problems, increased crime, escalating terrorism, reduced health service, armed services made up of publicity seeking juveniles and incompetents, corrupt officials offering "favours" for backhanders, national resources being controlled by others, etc, etc .....

Instead of the media only reporting on the story of some publicity seeking politician raising the positive aspects of Norway joining the EU ...

The rules on plagiarism, (with full credit to MLK)

Deval Patrick of Massachusetts are not, as Hillary Clinton put it in last Thursday's University of Texas debate, "change you can Xerox," an inappropriate use of another's words: Patrick was advising Obama on his speeches and encouraged Obama to use the lines.

Rule No. 3: If it's from a widely known source, such as the Bible or the founding documents of America, it's not plagiarism. King's speeches, like most civil rights oratory, drew on two primary sources: The Bible and the founding documents of America. King quotes the Declaration of Independence and the Bible in "I Have A Dream," but he does not always attribute the sources. He says "we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream," for example, but does not acknowledge he is quoting God's words to Israel in Amos 5:24.

Cyclists not welcome in Scottsdale neighborhood

Homeowners and bicyclists are squaring off in a gated community on Scottsdale's border with Fountain Hills. Homeowners in Hidden Hills complain that cyclists are using 145th Way, a steep private street at the end of Via Linda, as a training ground where they speed down the long, curving hill en masse and invite accidents. Cyclists say homeowners are exaggerating problems with a minority of riders and reneging on their subdivision's 2000 agreement with Scottsdale to allow a non-motorized connection to Fountain Hills. .

Tamara Bradford Pleads Guilty

The Rapid City woman accused of hitting four young boys while driving drunk last September pleaded guilty today to two counts of vehicular battery. She caused cuts, bruises and broken bones when she drove into a group of boys on their bicycles. Today the family of those victims were relieved when she walked into the Pennington county courthouse and pleaded guilty. "We're kind of excited because now we don't have to go to a jury trial," says Keri Ihle, mother of one of the victims. The plea is part of an agreement. The victim's families were willing to drop two charges of vehicular battery, one for driving with a revoked license and a D-U-I third charge. Police say she had a blood alcohol limit of .27 the day of the accident... three times the legal limit. "I still can't believe it happened and that she got this far into the system before something was done," says Ihle.

Let the Ponycar wars begin again!

One obvious difference is that there's far less chrome showing now than on the original, giving it a bumper-free, slab-sided appearance.