What Is Early Word? The Philadelphia Inquirer's experimental online "morning show", which began in Sept. 2005, went on hiatus in the summer of 2006, after a gradual shift to putting more of its content directly on Philly.com.
About the Host Peter Mucha, husband and father of two, grew up in Cherry Hill and is a lifelong Philly sports fan. He's been writing and editing for The Inquirer for 18 years.
His motto (at least for today): "If I'm not brief, give me grief."
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Wednesday, March 15, 2006
There Was Hair in Their Soup, Not a Mouse
Remember the case of Pearl Parkey, the 89-year-old Kentucky woman who found something gross in a mouthful of Campbell's Kitchen Classics Bean With Bacon Soup? As a daughter gawked, a granddaughter said, "Mama, that's a mouse!" A teeny baby mouse. And a local paper ran the story ... which then ran all over the country, including (with some skepticism) in Early Word. Campbell Soup has gotten back to the family's lawyer with test results: Uh, the granddaughter's and local media's analysis was kind of flawed. The offending stuff was human hair that had never been cooked, so it couldn't have come from the can. (Yikes! What's that on my floor? Where's the broom? Wham! Wham! Take that, you disgusting ... harmless clump of cat fur. Never mind.) When asked if it didn't appear to be a simple mistake, since any sharpie attempting extortion would use a real rodent corpse, Campbell's rep John Faulkner said matter-of-factly the family hasn't asked for money or anything else.