Merion Station News

The Paul clan of Blue Bell bag all the essentials to ensure a festive Chanukah celebration.

Everyone likes to order in now and again, but takeout choices can get stale pretty quickly.

Five local schools have been named 2009 U.S. Blue Ribbon Schools. The winners, announced yesterday, are: Bodine High School for International Affairs and Ad Prima Charter School in Philadelphia; Waldron Mercy Academy in Merion Station; Epiphany of Our Lord School in Plymouth Meeting; and Grey Nun Academy in Yardley.

Labor Day has come and gone, and soon, summer will be just a pleasant memory. In the meantime, Mitzvah Mania coordinators are busily engaged in recruiting volunteers for two community-service projects designed to make the winter warmer for area older adults.

A federal judge yesterday gave what he called "a huge break" to a former Main Line elementary-school teacher convicted of possessing kiddie porn.

In a buyer's market, hungry homeowners often think too big, then are shocked when the tax bill arrives.

Impact100 Philadelphia is one of several groups across the nation in which 100 or more women in a community pool $1,000 each to create grants of $100,000 or more.

FRANKLIN H. LITTELL, world citizen, scholar, theologian, educator, moral ethicist, and dynamo of creative energy and inspiring humanist vision, died at his home in Merion Station, Pennsylvania, Saturday, May 23, 2009.

Built in the late 1800s, this gorgeous farm home has been completely renovated and upgraded with Viking, Bosch, and Sub Zero appliances.

There's not a whole lot of residential construction going on these days, which is the reason that some builders are cutting to the bone to survive, while others are sailing into Bankruptcy Court, leaving broken dreams in their wake.

SPEEDING FORWARD: Calcutta House's April 24 "Night Train to Calcutta" fundraising event brought together about 170 supporters of the HIV/AIDS housing organization, including event co-chairs Jody Marcell , Elizabeth Nourian and Jill Demmy and Calcutta director of development and communications Heather Osborne.

Sailors have a short list of what to grab in an emergency. When the urgent long-short-long-short din of the Maersk Alabama's alarm bell woke third engineer John Cronan on April 8, he didn't hesitate.

Fundraiser for HIV/AIDS housing group Calcutta House, which provides housing and services for the local HIV/AIDS community, will host a fundraising event tonight at 7 at the Merion Tribute House, 626 Hazelhurst Ave.

"I looked down the barrel of an AK-47 a couple of times." 46-year-old merchant marine John Cronan recalled the morning of April 8th, when Somali pirates boarded the merchant marine vessel Maersk Alabama.

As the American skipper once held hostage by pirates headed home early today aboard an executive jet, and his 19-man crew received a heroes' welcome in the United States, the source of the piracy plague in the Indian Ocean - Somalia - said it could help fight the problem.