If you were going to vote for Philadelphian of the Year for 2003, who would you vote for?

I'd vote for that real estate mogul who donated a kidney anonymously (i.e., to someone other than a friend or relative) and is in the process of giving away most of his fortune. His selflessness is the polar opposite of what we get from our elected public servants. Put that guy in the same room as Vince Fumo or John Street and the universe would probably explode. Anyway, I don't know his name and he technically lives in Elkins Park, but he gets my vote. He was one of the few positive stories about Philly to make national news this year.

If you disqualify him for being from the suburbs, I'd vote for those four school girls from St. Maria Goretti in South Philly who beat up that flasher! Now that's a real Philadelphia story.

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Mayor Street? M. Knight Shamylan? Andy Reid?

Holy crap, Steve! Are you nuts? We're still recovering from the last fracas talking about Street caused!

LOL

But some people would still say he was.

Is there any clear cut person who you would name for this?

Pat Croce.

MR.DJ

Interesting choice, but why?

I had to vote for him... He's my cousin... And before anyone asks, no, I can't get you free cable or tickets to go see "Slamball" (why would you want to anyway?)... There is nothing special about having a celebrity relative... More often than not, people ask me questions like," Isn't his brother in jail?"

Let me break it down for you... Imagine you had a relative who snorted cocaine. Would you want people to bring that up all the time? (My humblest apologies to anyone out there who uses cocaine.)

MR.DJ

Noam Chomsky, hands down, should be Philadelphian of the year. Although he resides in Boston, he was raised and educated in Philly. Sad thing is, not many folks know his work. WHich is a shame. Only in Philly can a man given the 2003 Award in Excellence from the United Nations Society of writers, written thousands and thousands of essays and books, and was called by the NY Times "The most important intellectual alive today", be completely shunned by the Philadelphia media.

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don't know about hands down.