Patch is Giving Away iPads; Plus: Eli Answers, Buddy's Bucks

Patch is giving Hobokenites the chance to win a free iPad as part of its Shop Local campaign.

Readers can enter the random drawing either by filling out a card found in participating stores all over the city, or by submitting their email on .

The iPad to be awarded is top of the line: 32GB of storage space, a retail value of $599.

The Shop Local campaign involves almost every city in the surrounding north New Jersey area that has a Patch site. In total Patch will award 35 iPads.

The campaign concludes on December 31, with the winner declared shortly thereafter. Good luck, and if you win, just think - you'll have the perfect instrument for reading Patch on the bus or train.

About Town is a quick look at the not-quite-news but still-neat happenings that occur in Hoboken all the time. Seen something wacky, wild, cute, cuddly, funny or fun? Got an incidental observation or a minor celebration? Shoot it to alanskontra@hotmail.com. We want pictures too.

There are  to the Giants collapsing to the Eagles last Sunday that we're still just getting a handle on them all.

An alert reader (with Phily sympathies) pointed our attention to the press conference Eli Manning held after the game. It was, let's say, intimately attended. We found this short clip for you to see what we mean.

About Town would have been there to ask very professional, provocative and poignant questions, but we weren't asked to attend.

So while everyone can make fun of Eli for the embarrassing moment, we're griping more that some wandering punk kid has more journalistic chops that us. C'mon, man.

Through one of our Google Alerts, we encountered this site, which provides the supposed net worth of celebrities. We found it in an alert for Buddy Valastro. Conveniently we've always been curious about how much of that TLC cash he's been getting on top of Carlo's.

This site says Buddy's net worth is $2 million, but that's it. No, we're not saying that's it about $2 million. We know that's a lot of dough. The page just has Buddy's name, his photo and that dollar amount.

Same thing for the other celebrities listed. Shouldn't the site provide some supporting information? You can't just say so-and-so is worth such-and-such. Link to an article at Forbes at least. Break into a house, steal a paystub, scan it and upload the digital image.

And could the site actually be insulting? Not for the privacy breach, but for the potential to short-change the celebrity's clout. What if Buddy has way more than that, and they're trying to make him look like a chump with just $2 million, like he's a mop-up reliever for the Yanks.

And more, look at the list on the right hand column. Is that the weirdest procession of names ever? Sinead O'Connor (one hit wonder) Don Imus (is he on the radio anymore?) Grandmaster Flash (a legend, but probably got swindled by the music execs) Kandi Burruss (who?) and a baker from Hoboken, who, as much as we love Buddy, realistically will have a fame shelf life proportional to his cakes.

Who is taking the time to research, or at least pretend to research, 90% of those people ? Is this the lowest form of journalism possible? Like it goes upwards: the net worth website researcher, About Town columnist, punk kid at Eli Manning press conference, Bob Woodward?

The reporter mentioned in the title who was bred to lack human empathy or compassion is none other than Hoboken's own Bob Bowdon.

Wait, what does that mean? Does About Town have a beef with Bowdon?

Nope, not at all. We got that line from the trailer for the forthcoming Onion News Network program coming to the IFC channel in January, and which will feature Bowdon as a correspondent.

The Onion News Network, of course, is the most serious news network in the world.

Pay attention at the 41 second mark for a flash of Bowdon. And be sure to tune in to see his reports come January.

(So now it goes: net worth website researcher, About Town columnist, punk kid at Eli Manning press conference, Bob Woodward, the Onion News Network.)

So what are we missing? Openings, closings, winners, losers or just plain strange, drop us a note, alanskontra@hotmail.com. And check back often.