Category: Life in the Big City

Dear sweet Jesus, our media is incompetent

~ susie

Smart move

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

the linc

The traffic is already awful when there’s a game:

Pope Francis is due in Philadelphia in September, and the city’s football team will be nowhere in sight.

According to Sports Illustrated writer Peter King, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput sent a letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on July 8, 2014 requesting that the Eagles be out of town for the pontiff’s visit — presumably hoping that football would not interfere with the millions expected to gather in the city that weekend for a mass outside the Philadelphia Art Museum.

The NFL released its full 2015-16 season schedule on Tuesday, and the Eagles will not be in Philadelphia during the pope’s visit. NFL senior vice president of broadcasting Howard Katz responded to the archbishop in October, according to King, saying the football team would be in New Jersey playing against the New York Jets on September 27.

“The pope did influence the NFL schedule,” Katz told King on Tuesday. “My name may be Katz, but I wasn’t taking any chances.”

Blood test

~ susie

BLOOD DRAW LAB

I have to get a blood test today for my thyroid meds or they won’t refill my prescription (I don’t know why, I’m doing fine), so I went over to the local ambulatory center (which was a hospital until right after I moved here). I sit and wait my turn for about a half-hour. One of the patients is watching a movie trailer on his phone; it’s really loud, and he’s chortling loudly as he watches. “DAY-UMN!!!” he says to the woman he’s with. “He shot him right in the stomach, yo!”

I finally get in to get my blood drawn and I’m bitching to the technician how much easier it was when doctors took blood right in the office. “I know, I remember it, too,” she says. “I don’t know why they stopped.” I tell her it’s because doctors were making so much money, ordering extra tests.

“Don’t kid yourself,” she says. “They’re still doing it.”

He snapped

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

This happened in my neighborhood. I heard through neighbors that the kid was bi-racial, and his mother was embarrassed about it. So she wouldn’t let him out of his room. Very sad, even more maddening that the neighbors kept calling the cops and city agencies and nothing was done.

Do I think this kid should go to prison? Hell, no. If he goes to prison, the head of DHS should be right there with him.

And speaking of my neighborhood: Another dead body found.

Elections have consequences

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

Capitol Lighting

And thanks to the usual anemic turnout, our state legislature is run by even worse wingnuts than the last batch:

HARRISBURG – The Republican-dominated state Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would invalidate Philadelphia’s new mandatory paid sick-leave law.

The bill, which passed 37 to 12, would effectively preempt local governments from requiring companies to provide workers with paid sick days. The measure’s supporters say it is necessary to have uniform rules across the state for businesses to operate.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. John Eichelberger (R., Blair) called Philadelphia’s new sick-leave law “a mistake.”

Critics of Eichelberger’s bill, many from Philadelphia, said it would disproportionately hurt low-income workers who often work through illness for fear of losing their jobs – and stomps on Philadelphia’s right to decide what kind of business climate and practices it wants within its borders.

The bill “denies the city of Philadelphia the right to govern itself,” said Sen. Vincent Hughes (D., Philadelphia), ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Polish lunch day!

~ susie ~ 5 Comments

Syrenka_Polish_Philadelphia

I’ve been jonesing for some Polish food. So I drove down to Syrenka, the Polish cafeteria, and got myself some potato pancakes and a gołąbki (or galumpki, as we always called them). It’s a cabbage roll stuffed with ground beef and rice in a tomato sauce. For some reason I’ve never understand, Polish restaurants don’t have anything approaching a real tomato sauce — everything seems to be made with ketchup, even spaghetti and meatballs.

syrenka2

I know you’re jealous.

Just awful

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

This story is horrible on so many levels.

He was left in the park where we played as kids, and where my own children played. It’s awful. But I will withhold judgment of the mother, because I have friends with disabled kids and I know the strain they’re under. We used to fund things like respite care, but not so much these days.

Relatives say they would have watched him, but who knows? It’s an enormous task, taking care of a child who’s this profoundly handicapped. The whole thing is very sad.