QUICK TAKES

BAD MEDICINE, GOOD PROPOSAL Nothing says “I love you” like a marriage proposal to the tune of “Bad Medicine,” so when Jon Bon Jovi launched into his hit at the Philadelphia Soul inaugural pep rally in January, Frank DiGraci dropped to his knee at the 10-yard line and asked his girlfriend, 30-year-old Carol Buch, to be the Heather Locklear to his Richie Sambora. “My girl is a huge Bon Jovi fan, and ‘Bad Medicine' is her favorite,” says Hoboken resident DiGraci, 39. “She's not very romantic, so I knew this was perfect.” The day didn't start out that way — ups momentarily lost his 2.09-carat ring, and at the Spectrum, the couple had to sneak down to the lower level. The Soul even denied DiGraci's request to propose over the PA, but it was probably for the best. “She said it's a good thing Jon didn't announce it,” DiGraci explains. “She would have fainted.”

DOC IS IN? Electricians boss John Dougherty hasn't yet announced whether he'll run for mayor three years from now, but red-white-and-blue fleece scarves and baseball caps in various colors bearing the logo JOHNNY DOC 2007 have hit the streets. The first items of apparel in the mayoral race's invisible primary have quickly established themselves as the It accoutrement on Dougherty's home turf of Pennsport. “People are passing them around town,” says Street transition spokesman Mark Nevins, spotted recently in a black-and-silver Doc hat. “It's like a ‘Draft Doc' effort.”

RORSCHACH VALUE What do you see when you look at a bearded Sam Katz? Some find subliminal homage to Al Gore's post-election malaise. Some see a man hiding from the city that overwhelmingly rejected him for the third time, or one reinventing himself as he heads out into a tight employment market. To Katz, the fuzz is the vestige of a three-week South American adventure, and a look as transient as his mood. “I wake up in the morning and decide on a daily basis,” he says. His favorite analysis: “I'm sure this must mean he's going into the hills or something.” We see the sleekly professorial style as perfect for the man on the cutting edge of urban-studies-department chic.

INDEPENDENCE MAULED Don't look for architecture critic Martin Filler to spend the Fourth of July in Philly. In February's House & Garden, Filler — who also writes for the New Republic — trash-talks the latest additions to the Independence Mall area. The Cliffs Notes version: He calls the Visitors Center “a sorry sight,” says the new Liberty Bell Pavilion makes the bell feel “fake,” and describes the Constitution Center as a “chilly, corporate-looking building [that] might well be a pharmaceutical company headquarters in a suburban office park.”