Suburban Guerrilla

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AP TICKER! [makes fake applause noises]

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We’re getting a small storm this afternoon, an inch or less. But the local weather bobbleheads are so starved for snow stories, you’d swear it was an impending blizzard.

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This is very sad. We need more places like this, not less.

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Philadelphia Catholic school closings listed here. My high school – gone. The school down the block – gone.

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I couldn’t begin to count how many Catholic schools have already closed in Philadelphia over the last 20 years, and now the relative few that are left are on the chopping block.

I’m not fond of the Catholic church, to say the least, and they’ve lost a lot of local support since the sex scandals. One could well argue that the church is abandoning its core mission of educating the inner cities in order to pay their legal bills, but what’s the point? They’re leaving.

I feel bad for the elementary school teachers (one of my relatives teaches in Catholic school). They don’t get paid much and they have almost no job protections (in sharp contrast to the public school teachers I know, who frequently have graduate degrees and decent salaries). I suppose the teachers thought loyalty would be protection enough, but the Church’s loyalty has always been to its own interests, and not of its members.

That’s why, no matter how many statements the Church released on the right of workers to unionize and to get a living wage, it rang so hollow. They treated the people who worked for them like peons.

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If you live in Philadelphia, you know what it is. And yes, it’s shameful.

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I had an hour to kill between physical therapy and my haircut appointment today, so I stopped into a local diner for lunch. It’s a small place but it was pretty crowded, mostly women: working class whites, Latinas, black women. Most of them seemed to know the waitresses by name.

One of the waitresses sat down in an empty booth and scratched off a winning lottery ticket. “Forty dollars!” she proclaimed loudly to the customers, who applauded.

“What are you gonna do with all that money?” one woman said.

“I have off for the next two days, so I’m going to climb into bed with a big bottle and drink margaritas,” she said. “I’m gonna put on my fuzzy bathrobe and my slippers, and stay in bed. I can’t wait.

“That’s gonna be my idea of Christmas.”

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It’s been raining for days. Yesterday, it was 67 degrees. Today, it’s still raining, but tonight we might see some snow. Oy.

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I’ve often wondered why they don’t use some version of a giant blowdryer to melt snow, so this is very satisfying to me.

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One of the odder things about Philadelphia is that you can keep a horse in your backyard — and chickens, too, if I recall correctly.

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[My Thanksgiving Day post, two days late]

A bad cold was kicking my ass, but I felt the need for sun and exercise late in the afternoon. All around me was that weird holiday stillness and quiet. It felt as if everyone had gone somewhere and I’d missed the boat — a boat I wouldn’t have wanted to board. More here.

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I find this entire sale ritual so bewildering. “I’m a great parent because I camped out on a sidewalk all night to get you the newest toy at 40% off”? My sister and her daughter were out at 4 a.m. today – eww. When you could still be warm in bed, sleeping? I don’t get it. Am I just being an old crank, or is it crazy?

Authorities are searching for a woman accused of pepper-spraying other shoppers Thursday night at the Wal-Mart in Porter Ranch so that she could grab more discounted merchandise.

Twenty customers, including children, were hurt in the 10:10 p.m. incident, officials said. Shoppers complained of minor skin and eye irritation and sore throats.

“This was customer-versus-customer ‘shopping rage,’” said Los Angeles Police Lt. Abel Parga.

The woman used the spray in more than one area of the Wal-Mart “to gain preferred access to a variety of locations in the store,” said Los Angeles Fire Capt. James Carson.

“She was competitive shopping,” he said.

Black Friday’s sales began at the Wal-Mart at 10 p.m. and featured door-buster sales on toys, including $5 Bratz dolls, $10 Wii video games and $29 tricycles.

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Back when I was a reporter, I used to live in this tiny town while I was covering it – which is where I developed my taste for the truly weird.

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Reelection safely behind him, is turning up the screws on Occupy Philly.

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Blues great Robert Johnson’s songs include “Me and the Devil Blues” and “Cross Road Blues,” which explains how he sold his soul to Satan in return for guitar skills.

It looks like some Christians in Texas are at a crossroads, too. They’ve bought a building where Johnson recorded his final batch of songs, and will use it to preserve his legacy. It’s next to a building the church uses to serve the homeless. More here.

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