| Pigging out never looked so good
I'd ordered it on a whim, after sharing plates of sweet potato fries, a grilled cheese sandwich, tomato bisque and a magnificent cheeseburger ($9) the height of the Sears Tower and width of a Frisbee. I'd ordered it because it sounded like such a quirky combination, so weird yet so right. And after just one bite, I knew I had entered the pearly white gates of the sandwich universe. At The Berkshire, in the blossoming Stapleton area, the universe is aligned with intoxicating food, a lovely staff and animated crowds having the time of their lives. This is the perfect neighborhood restaurant, an unpretentious, come-as-you-are, uncomplicated gathering spot for friends, couples, stroller-toting families and anyone who has never had peanut butter, bacon and bananas on buttered and grilled Hawaiian bread.
MasterCard Incorporated Reports Third-Quarter 2007 Financial Results
PURCHASE, N.Y., Oct. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -. MasterCard Incorporated (NYSE: MA) today announced financial results for third-quarter 2007. For the quarter, the company reported quarterly net income of $314 million, or $2.31 per share on a diluted basis, which includes after-tax gains of $70 million or $0.51 per share on a diluted basis from the partial sale of the company's investment in Redecard S.A. in Brazil. Net revenues for the quarter were a record, at $1.08 billion, a 20.1% increase versus the same period in 2006. Currency fluctuation (driven by the movement of the euro relative to the US dollar) contributed approximately 2.3% of the increase in revenues for the quarter. Fueling the higher revenue in the third quarter versus the same period in 2006 was growth in MasterCard's gross dollar volume (GDV), which increased 12.8% on a local currency basis, to $577 billion; a 13.3% increase in the number of transactions processed to 4.8 billion; and, an increase in cross- border volumes of 20.6%.
Changing Skyline: Thanks - but no thanks
But instead, the city told the young developers it was committed to preserving their junk-strewn, half-acre lots in the event an industrial user came along. "You get the feeling," Nebel later grumbled to me, "that cities are the worst redliners." The surprise here isn't that Philadelphia believes it should set aside land for industry. Even though we're deep into the post-manufacturing age, every city needs places where fabricators, warehouses, truck depots, junkyards and other messy enterprises can feel at ease. But this enclave claimed by the Kensington South Neighborhood Advisory Council is a place that abounds with vacant tracts. You can hardly walk a couple of blocks without bumping into one of the great redbrick relics of Philadelphia's industrial heyday, like the Rieger & Gretz brewery on Germantown Avenue.
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