Philly Diary
I'm in Philly for a couple of days. It's my second visit here this year and the thing I most note is how surprisingly cool a city it is. A little more on my time here in a moment, but first this piece of local news...
Since I got in last night I've been reading up on two unrelated public-sex-in-private-places stories that have been making news here. There's the one about the UPenn student who photographed a couple having sex in full view of pretty much everyone. The university chose to punish the student, then quickly reversed itself. No telling if the folks at FIRE (quoted in the latter article) helped set the university straight. And there's the story of an adult swingers club that was shut down (for some trumped up safety-code violations) after a local-news crew snuck a camera in and found people... having sex!
OK: now back to me. The easiest (but perhaps most surprising) observation I can make about Philly is just how great the food is here. These people may be fat as hell, but they've definitely got reason.
Last night I supped at the swank, retro, Continental Mid-Town next to my hotel (the inexpensive yet hi-tech Club Quarters on Chestnut). The Continental (though a bit pricey) really impresed me. I had an enormous bowl of homemade potato-leek soup; a plate of lemony hummous and fresh, hot pita; and a much-too-big calimari-and-greens salad; and a couple of nice drinks (about $50). The restaurant's exceedingly cool atmosphere comes complete with swing chairs and free cigarettes (check out a great photo of the layout here and a nice review of the food here).
I'm very much looking forward to attending my first-ever Monday Night Football game later tonight, this one between the Eagles and Seahawks. Tonight's game has some special features. The home team will be honoring their late star lineman Reggie White -- as great a player as he was a moron in my book -- who died in his sleep on Boxing Day last year. A slew of former teammates will be in attendance (Randall Cunningham!) and White's number 92 will be retired during a halftime ceremony.
The game would be extra cool even without all that since I'll also get to see fantasy (and now real-life) stud Stephen Shaun** Alexander -- who's on pace to shatter the single-season rushing touchdown record. Oh, and weather reports predict we'll be in the middle of a 6-8" snowstorm by gametime.
Of course all this is to say nothing of the racous Eagles fans, who once famously booed an on-field appearance by none other than Santa Claus and for years had the distinction of being so belligerent as to necessitate this country's only in-stadium jail. Let's just say I'll be wearing my Eagles-green parka and won't be mentiong my diehard allegiance to the New England Patriots -- who beat the Eagles in the Super Bowl earlier this year. And hopefully I'll live to blog again.
**Correction: Thanks, Russ. Of course my two best fantasy players this year were to be Priest Holmes and T.O., so the Stephen/Shaun switch is the least of my problems.
Since I got in last night I've been reading up on two unrelated public-sex-in-private-places stories that have been making news here. There's the one about the UPenn student who photographed a couple having sex in full view of pretty much everyone. The university chose to punish the student, then quickly reversed itself. No telling if the folks at FIRE (quoted in the latter article) helped set the university straight. And there's the story of an adult swingers club that was shut down (for some trumped up safety-code violations) after a local-news crew snuck a camera in and found people... having sex!
OK: now back to me. The easiest (but perhaps most surprising) observation I can make about Philly is just how great the food is here. These people may be fat as hell, but they've definitely got reason.
Last night I supped at the swank, retro, Continental Mid-Town next to my hotel (the inexpensive yet hi-tech Club Quarters on Chestnut). The Continental (though a bit pricey) really impresed me. I had an enormous bowl of homemade potato-leek soup; a plate of lemony hummous and fresh, hot pita; and a much-too-big calimari-and-greens salad; and a couple of nice drinks (about $50). The restaurant's exceedingly cool atmosphere comes complete with swing chairs and free cigarettes (check out a great photo of the layout here and a nice review of the food here).
I'm very much looking forward to attending my first-ever Monday Night Football game later tonight, this one between the Eagles and Seahawks. Tonight's game has some special features. The home team will be honoring their late star lineman Reggie White -- as great a player as he was a moron in my book -- who died in his sleep on Boxing Day last year. A slew of former teammates will be in attendance (Randall Cunningham!) and White's number 92 will be retired during a halftime ceremony.
The game would be extra cool even without all that since I'll also get to see fantasy (and now real-life) stud Stephen Shaun** Alexander -- who's on pace to shatter the single-season rushing touchdown record. Oh, and weather reports predict we'll be in the middle of a 6-8" snowstorm by gametime.
Of course all this is to say nothing of the racous Eagles fans, who once famously booed an on-field appearance by none other than Santa Claus and for years had the distinction of being so belligerent as to necessitate this country's only in-stadium jail. Let's just say I'll be wearing my Eagles-green parka and won't be mentiong my diehard allegiance to the New England Patriots -- who beat the Eagles in the Super Bowl earlier this year. And hopefully I'll live to blog again.
**Correction: Thanks, Russ. Of course my two best fantasy players this year were to be Priest Holmes and T.O., so the Stephen/Shaun switch is the least of my problems.
posted by TtP Staff @ 12/05/2005
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