When assholes in my city do rotten things like this. But then, team sports seem to attract these people.
Category: Life in the Big City
The invisible child
It breaks my heart, that there are so many children like this. Covering stories like this is the area in which the Times truly shines.
And these are the people conservatives intend to teach a lesson by cutting what little they have left.
It’s coming down
A California friend called to inform me (courtesy of the Eagles game) that Philadelphia will now see six inches of snow, not the trace amount that was predicted. I just went outside to clean off my car, and the snow is really heavy. The car’s covered already.
Snow days
There’s a blessing on the ground! Trip Shakespeare:
Holiday greens
My neighbor and I went to Bartram’s Gardens for their annual Greens Sale today.
I love the place; when I was a kid, this is where we used to hold our family picnics. John Bartram was America’s first botanist and a good friend of Benjamin Franklin’s. (Franklin once brought the Continental Congress here to distract them and break a deadlock.)
Anyway, I now have a beautiful assortment of greens. And since I’m greatly allergic to them, they will soon be festooning the front of my house.
Sad
So many vets make it home and then get killed here, usually by some fuckhead with a gun.
Cacia’s bakery
I may not have mentioned this before, but this is a cool tradition in South Philly. A local bread bakery cooks your turkey — for free!
Good morning
Headed over to what I thought was a Walmart protest this morning, but when I got there, no one else showed up. I mean, it is 20 degrees this morning, but if I could get my ass out of bed, dressed and out of the house, anyone can.
So instead I filled up my gas tank and swung by Mickey D’s drivethrough for breakfast. I decided to get a Sausage McGriddle (I only do it maybe every two years, don’t judge) and some hot tea. As I paid the woman at the window, I said, “I hope you’re at least getting time and a half.”
“Nope,” she said, shaking her head. “I wish.”
“Well, the same people who are organizing Walmart are coming after you guys next,” I told her.
“Good. I can’t wait.”
Junkies
Believe it or not, the Times did an thoughtful, humanizing look at the patients in a Pittsburgh abuse clinic. My part of the city is full of problems. Even though I live in one of the nicer neighborhoods, a guy up the street died of an overdose last month; I only know about it because my neighbor took in his cat.
Junkies are everywhere. You’d be surprised at how many of them live in the suburbs, running businesses, raising families — and doing heroin every day. People are in pain, and they medicate themselves. Some of us choose more acceptable poisons, I guess.
Occupy sues City of Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – November 14, 2013 (WPVI) — More than two dozen Occupy Philadelphia protesters have filed suit against the city and police over their arrests when authorities broke up their encampment two years ago.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court accuses officials of false arrest and violating constitutional rights of free speech and assembly.
Attorney Lawrence Krasner called his clients “American heroes who effectively fought against economic equality for the 99 percent … whose thanks from the government was this bogus arrest.”
Another attorney representing the plaintiffs, Paul Hetznecker, said the arrests struck at the “very heart of our democracy.”
“We live in a dangerous time when the right to gather in protest in a collective voice of dissent is criminalized,” he said.The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages as well as injunctive relief involving the city’s handling of the Occupy demonstrators. There are 26 plaintiffs, and the police commissioner and other police officials and officers are named as defendants.