CLOSE UP by Brian Rudnick

Clean up your own toys! (Meet the Toydozer)

The "Toydozer" was invented by a Wyndmoor, Pa mom who modeled it after a shoebox she was using to scoop up her six-year old's Legos. It  looks like a large, plastic dustpan and comes with a scoopy thing that looks like the curved blade of a bulldozer. The idea is if it's a toy, moms will get relief because kids will use it clean up their toys themselves. In this video, Molly Ellis, co-owner of Threadwell, an embroidery shop in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, which retails the 'dozer for $18.99 in a choice of bright colors, demonstrates how it works.

Joltin' Joey Jabs

So I’ll have her hitting uppercuts over here.  I’ll have her do a little bit on here. This is for slipping. Hand and eye coordination. Slip, slip, roll, counterpunch, OK? I’ll have her on the speed bag. [Hits the speed bag] I’ll have her hit the heavy bag. That was the uppercut bag. That’s where uppercuts and hooks go. Of course you start off with your jab.  A jab is your range finder. On here is your straight punches. You can jab right handed,  left hook and you don’t really throw uppercuts here but you can throw body shots.  Sit on your punches as you go.  And the focus mitts. She’ll have a pair of gloves on and I’ll be here. After I’ve already worked with her and showed her how to punch correctly. How to shift her weight. She has proper balance and weight distribution. And then I would just hold the punch mitts and she would punch I’d counter with some wild hooks and she’ll just roll, come back and counterpunch me.
Joey DeMalavez, Owner/Trainer, Manayunk, Philadelphia.

Watch video here

Reacts to hate crime verdict

Angie Brown and a friend react to the 30 day jail time imposed on the defendant in the notorious New Jersey spycam case. Watch here.  "[Dharun]Ravi, 20, of Plainsboro, N.J., was found guilty by a Middlesex County jury in March of bias intimidation, invasion of privacy, and hindering prosecution for using his laptop to secretly live-stream an intimate encounter between his Rutgers roommate, Tyler Clementi, and another man two years ago"from Philly.com

Nana's Wicker Back

Nancy-Ellen sculpted characters from her book “Nana’s Wicker Back.” The title references the scarring pattern on her own grandmother’s back from whippings as a slave. “These women are bought and sold [many were bore] into slavery who were regarded as mules or just property. Yet I wanted to depict that they had spirits, they had souls, they fell in love, they cried and some were very overt in personality some were very quiet and timid. And I never know what I’m going to make. As I start pushing clay, they start telling me who they are.” Nancy-Ellen. Watch video interview here

Women enter forensic science

Women are entering the forensic science field and now have their own association which had a booth at the Philadelphia Science Festival carnival. Watch video interview here.