Officially the worst pothole season ever.
Category: Life in the Big City
What Kareem Granton saw
Kareem is an 11-year-old kid who lives in Brooklyn and is known to run off now and then — except this time, he was gone for five days and the entire city was looking for him. (He was just found.)
Here’s a great graphic depiction of his week, based on his own words.
Oh no
The local diner is closing. This is the one that made the news when customers were buying meals for other customers and paying it forward…
Layover heaven
There’s a new library in Philadelphia – and it’s in the airport.
The Free Library of Philadelphia recently opened an outpost in the Philadelphia International Airport in the form of a book-themed lounge with free Wi-Fi access to the library’s digital catalog.
Passengers are encouraged to relax in the reading room, in the concourse between the D and E terminals, and download books or author podcasts from the library’s collection of nearly 30,000 titles.
“We brought our high-speed line out to the airport in that little area. That Internet connectivity is extraordinarily robust, it matches what we have in the library,” said Siobhan Reardon, president and director of the Free Library.
The idea was inspired in part by an especially snowy winter, she said.
“We were having extensive blizzards here in Philadelphia, and we knew that there were thousands of people camping in the airport,” Ms. Reardon said. “We thought, ‘What if we put a library in?’ ”
Hah
What is it about some men that they think women don’t notice when they’re fat, or that they need a “helpful” push to do something about it? This is awesome. I especially liked the Bukowski line:
An anonymous author penned this blistering “missed connections” post on Craigslist today, entitled “To the s—stain who made a woman cry on the T.”
The author then proceeds to go off on an applause-worthy rant against what can only be described as an astonishingly rude man who told a woman on the Orange Line to “have some respect for [herself] and lose weight.”
The “missed connections” section of Craigslist is a message board on the site that often contains posts written by those who regret not speaking up in the moment.
“You: blond, slicked hair, hipsterish. You manage to be both tasteless and sanctimonious, and something tells me you brag about loving Bukowski even though you only made it 80 pages deep into Women. [editorial aside: LOL] You definitely think you’re smarter than everyone, and you love reflective surfaces. You work in design/tech/oh wait, who cares, you don’t f—ing matter. You treat women like garbage, but don’t worry—we hate you. You have a stank on you, and a lot of us can smell it…truly a dookiestain made flesh. You don’t have an original thought under that stupid haircut. You are a straight up f—ing bully, and you should be ashamed of yourself. Bullies are the absolute worst.”
As readers can probably surmise, the full text is not exactly safe for work, but definitely worth a read.
Blood test
I had to go early this morning to get my thyroid tested at Northeastern Hospital, which is now part of Temple’s health system. The nurse who took my blood was listening to Miles Davis. I looked at her and said, “Oh, thank God, real jazz.” Because I really hate smooth jazz. It makes my skin crawl. (Sorry if I offend anyone, but to each her own.) She laughed, said it was a Miles Davis iTunes station.
We commiserated a bit about how fragmented radio is these days, and then she told me the best-kept secret in jazz was the summer jazz series at Camden’s Wiggins Park, across the river. “It’s really nice, not that many people so it’s very relaxing,” she said. “I take my elderly aunt.”
She mentioned that a friend recommended Ortleib’s Jazz House in Northern Liberties, and I told her I used to go there all the time, but hadn’t been there in years. I came home and looked it up. Now it’s a plain old music venue, and another piece of local history goes with it.
Collapse
Wow, I was parked a block from here this morning:
OLD CITY – March 13, 2014 (WPVI) — A building under demolition collapsed on Thursday in the Old City section of Philadelphia.
The collapse happened around 1:20 p.m. at the intersection of 3rd and Market.
Authorities on the scene said it was the old “Shirt Corner” store.
This collapse comes less than a year after another building under demolition collapsed along Market Street in Philadelphia.
Thanks to Car Accident Lawyers at Price Benowitz LLP.
Road trip
One of the things I like best about where I live is that I’m right next to a street that runs parallel to I-95. So if I want to shoot downtown, it’s much easier — or was, until this week. The state has just begun the two-year reconstruction of a railroad bridge over that street, and this week was the first navigating the ensuing clusterfuck of detours.
It’s mostly not an issue for me (because I work from home) but this morning, I had a last-minute doctor’s appointment, and I had to drive at the height of rush hour. I have to say, although I do miss working in an office and being around people, I most emphatically do not miss rush hour traffic. Even my last office job was an easy 22-minute commute, so I’m spoiled.
This morning? Oy. But I did finally get to Delaware Avenue and drove through Society Hill (named after the 18th century Free Society of Traders, which had their offices there) over those goddamned frigging cobblestones*. Boy, do I hate cobblestones. Every time I complain about them, people say, “But they’re historic!” They’re not, not in the way they think. (They were installed in the late 1800s, and if you really want Colonial authenticity, the streets should be mud.)
But here’s the thing: The cobblestones, unlike the rest of the city, do not have potholes. So there’s that.
*Technically, they’re not cobblestones. They’re Belgian blocks, carved from granite. Cobblestones are actual round stones. But everyone calls them that, so…
Infrastructure
Yeah, I worry about this a lot. I don’t live in the oldest part of the city, but shit blows up nearby more than I’d like.
One dead, at least 16 hurt in Harlem explosion
It’s reported to be a gas leak:
NEW YORK – March 12, 2014 (WPVI) — New York police and fire officials are on the scene of an explosion and partial building collapse at 116th Street and Park Avenue in Upper Manhattan Wednesday morning.
At least 11 injuries were reported, and Harlem Hospital has one patient with heavy trauma and is expecting at least one more, according to WABC-TV in New York.
A fourth-alarm fire was burning, and the structural integrity appeared to be compromised. Witnesses reported seeing what appeared to be at least a partial roof collapse.
Smoke poured from the top of the building, and huge amounts of debris littered the surrounding sidewalks and elevated tracks in the area.Windows of buildings in the area were blown out by the force of the blast, and the fire may have spread to other structures as well. Firefighters were dousing the site with water from ladder trucks.