BERLIN -- Gabriele Klose simply couldn't let the hunter kill the
wild boar running around her flower store. Not after it looked up at
her with big, innocent eyes.
The hairy beast was one of thousands of wild boars that have
discovered the charms of urban living in Germany's leafy capital city.
[...]
The swine are an obstacle on Berlin's streets ... But despite the porcine
problem, part of Berlin's human population is siding with the boars
against those who shoot them.
The boars are usually peace-loving. But 250-pound adults armed with
sharp, upward-curving tusks can be dangerous if they think they're
cornered. In October, when hunters shot a tusker in a cornfield south
of Berlin, the wounded animal counterattacked, killing one man and
injuring another who'd come to finish it off. Every year in Berlin
several dogs are gored to death after rashly challenging boars to a
fight. On one occasion, three boars got lost in a day-care center on
Alexanderplatz in the heart of Berlin and panicked. The children hadn't
arrived for the day yet, but the boars nearly gored the janitor.
People in Philly get sore when dog owners let their pets off the leash in the park. Could you imagine if Rittenhouse Square suddenly became overrun with wild boars (and their tiny, precious offspring)? Think they would gore those college kids on Walnut who keep asking me for money to save polar bears?
I meant to highlight this yesterday: A good story in the Inquirer about Philly's tax abatement program. This is one of those things that I know exists, and I know is important, but don't really know how it works. It's also one of those things where I have a fuzzy sense of it's value. I know the arguments on both sides: On one hand, rich people aren't paying much in property taxes (in this story, the example is Pat Burrell); on the other hand, would those rich people live here, build here, pay other taxes here etc. if not for the abatement?
The Inquirer does us a favor by bringing the facts:
Last Friday, while Philadelphia liberals whimpered in the cold, Flowers was there early, her torch of justice a'blazing with a column entitled "The Little Viet Who Could."
Quite the title.
IF A TREE falls in the forest but there's no one there to hear, does it
make a sound? Well, that would depend if it was a Democratic, or a
Republican, tree.
Quite the lede!
The column was about Anh "Joseph" Cao, the recent victor of Louisiana's house race. Cao, who was born in Vietnam, defeated long-time incumbent William J. Jefferson in what most politicos considered a wild upset. Cao is also a Republican — which is why Flowers likes him.
Which is why, Flowers says, the liberal media completely ignored Cao's victory. She calls her enemies by name: "Gloating pundits," the "liberal blogosphere," "the national media," "the New York Times and their unusually diversity-conscious brethren," — none of them bothered to cover the story, she says.
She's wrong, of course.
The New York Times, in fact, had a rather lengthy piece about Cao — four days before Flowers' column debuted in print. I happened to know that because I read it myself. (Just keeping an eye on the enemy, Christine). It was kind of hard to miss.
But not too hard — never too hard — for Christine M. Flowers.
Mumbai, Dec 16: Bollywood’s most talked about couple Saif and Kareena
sent the sparks flying, this time not in Mumbai but in the chilly
winter of Philadelphia. The duo turned cosy [sic] to beat the shivery winter
chill.
Saifeena, who are currently shooting in US for a Karan Johar production
alongside Vivek Oberoi, caused a stir amongst the unit members by
getting closer than ever to warm up things between the lovers.
Unit members suggest that Kareena seemed happier than ever on
that particular night and spent the entire starry night in the arms of
her beau. She apparently told a few people present that it was the
coldest and the most beautiful night she had ever experienced and the
snowfall made the ambience heavenly.
Hey, that's nice. Thank you, anonymous sources who allegedly talked to Kareena Kapoor!
As a frame of reference: Googling the phrase "Saif and Kareena," without quotes, pulls up 1.2 million results. Googling "Brangelina" pulls up less than 400,000.
MEXICO CITY (AP) - A well-known U.S. anti-kidnapping expert has himself fallen
victim to the wave of abductions in Mexico as unidentified assailants
snatched him from a street in the northern state of Coahuila.
Local authorities say American Felix Batista was in Mexico to give talks and offer advice against kidnapping. The
former U.S. army officer sometimes serves as a negotiator with
kidnappers.
I hope he gets home safe and sound. Read more here and here
Okay so these pirates were having a fun little rally. Then these ninjas show up and start causing trouble... And then things get kinda crazy. Great surprise ending.
In preparation for their new exhibit, the Rosenbach Museum launched their 21st Century Abe blog, dedicated to looking at our 16th prez through a 21st-century lens. Basically, it centers around the question: Why are will still fixated on a 19th century leader? The exhibit isn't up until May, and the full site doesn't launch until Linc's b-day on Feb. 12. For the full-fledged site and exhibit, the Rosenbach has asked artists and scholars (including the National's Bryce Dessner and 1812 productions) to interpret Lincoln all modern-like.
What I think is really interesting is the layman's view, like this post about finding people with Lincoln tattoos (their example at right). That guy (a kayak instructor named Mike) uses it as means to advertise is his Illinois pride/heritage. Would any other president inspire such devotion? I've never seen a Martin Van Buren tat. Or what about this Iranian carpet sporting Lincoln's visage? How does the symbolic reverence ascribed to him today jive with the real man in question? It's just something to think about while pondering things like, "Did Lincoln use beard product?" or "Did he ever stash things up in that hat of his? 'Cause I would definitely keep snacks up there."
On a final note, as Lincoln put forth in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, "Be excellent to each other and party on dudes."
Want to do something more productive at the corner of 40th and Walnut than see The Day the Earth Stood Still at the Bridge? (Reviews are in, and they are not good.)
This afternoon, the Mural Arts Program hosts an opening reception for its Art Education Winter Exhibit over at the Rotunda. The reception itself is free, but when you go, think about buying a piece of art created by a young person enrolled in MAP's Big Picture and Youth Corps programs. For this exhibit they've drawn inspiration from Gandhi, who famously said "Be the change you want to see in the world." Artwork starts at $25, which is affordable even for
Afterward, hit up Mar Bar right around the corner for a Holiday Happy Hour ($10) benefiting the Young Advocates for Mural Arts. They'll have drink specials, free snacks and a raffle, plus no Gandhi-related guilt trips.
Opening reception, 4:30-7 p.m., free, Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St., 215-685-0726; happy hour, 7-9 p.m., $10, Mar Bar University City, 200 S. 40th St., 215-888-9116.
Just when we were getting used to the idea of Philadelphia, in the massively ego-centric world view of New Yorkers, as some sort of remote sixth borough, the Obama inauguration is exerting a bit of reverse polarity.
Why Visit Philly? If you can't find a room in Washington,
D.C., for the inauguration on Jan. 20, try Philadelphia instead — just
two hours away by train or three by car. The city's tourism board is
offering a "Philly Overnight" hotel package: At more than 30
participating hotels, you'll get free parking with a two-night stay,
plus a Macy's savings pass. Check the tourism board website to book.
I love the "Why Visit Philly?" slug. You just don't ask this unless the you've got deeply held beliefs of the W.C. Fields variety that the idea of visiting Philadelphia is only slightly better than death. Let's move on.
Then there's the WaPo's Chat Plus, wherein a reader asks where to get away to for New Year's Eve, given that New York is too crowded and you have to fly to South Beach. WaPo responds:
Me, I'd head for Brooklyn, N.Y., stay in a B&B on Prospect Park, eat Italian at local joints and avoid Manhattan's ball-dropping madness entirely.
But if even an NYC borough is out of the question, how about Philly?
The city offers concerts, parties, fireworks and the annual New Year's
Day Mummers Parade and Fancy Brigades Finale to ring in '09. The
tourism office has lots of hotel package deals, from luxury high-rises
to chichi boutique properties, and you can cap off New Year's Eve at a
hot Center City restaurant. Details: 800-537-7676, http://www.gophila.com.
Interpreted: "I'm a super-hipster. I go to Brooklyn. But if you can't hang, there's always Philly!"
Can we officially change our slogan to "Philadelphia, the East Coast's #2 option"? Any other cities we're a decent fallback for? To wit: Want to tour the drug corners, corrupt port and failing schools of Baltimore but without the pervasive smell of Old Bay? Why not Philly? Who's got more?
I was out of the office Friday and missed this post,
in which Philebrity suggests that the concept for last week's cover
story ("The Nutters") is a rip-off of a running Philebrity joke
(Bizarro Nutter).
It's hard to know when to respond to Philebrity, because you never know when Joey Sweeney is going to claim that the whole thing was just a joke and you guys are so lame for not getting it!,
but suffice it to say that I really don't see much overlap between the
two. Both hinge on the idea of alternate identities, which is a pretty
common device and not one that Philebrity deserves credit for. Beyond
that, Bizarro Nutter (who I think is funny) serves to point out that
Mayor Nutter is different from and less transparent than Campaign Nutter. Our story is about the various characteristics that
Philadelphians are seeing in Nutter in the budget crisis; I used "the
Nutters" (hat tip to Isaiah Thompson) because, in reporting
the story, I'd found that people right now tend to see the mayor in one of four
or five different lights.
Joey, if you want to pretend that our story doesn't add value
beyond your posts, that's fine — I understand it's your business model. But
it's not true, I suspect you know it's not true, and that's why I'm definitely
not buying you any beer.
What was I doing in Camden on the freezingest, rainiest and dampest of December nights? Is this how it ends? You find yourself adrift, alone during the holidays in some near-Christmas wallow, and you wind up here?
No, I suppose not. But if I had felt death's door bad, a new multi-million-dollar hospital wing would be the best place to flop. That was me Thursday night, at the dedication of Cooper University Hospital's new patient care pavilion. Ten stories, $220 mil. They call it the "new face" of health providing. There’s a tony restaurant within its walls and scads of metal and marble. This place is faaaaaaab-u-lous.
NJ community leaders like Cooper Chairman George E. Norcross III and Camden native Aaron McCargo Jr. (the chef from Food Network's Big Daddy's House) attended, as did Gov. Jon S. Corzine, who made a whole lotta jokes about having stayed at Cooper's trauma center after his big car crash. The big get, however, was Camden County Freeholder Joe Ripa's little girl, South Jersey native Kelly Ripa.
Ripa and her father got their own Ripa Center for Women's Health and Wellness, which was nice. And Ripa's husband, surprise guest Mark Consuelos, didn’t seem too bored. (Man I hope they don’t bust up, as the Post keeps gossiping.) But the weirdest part of all this was how queenly Kelly was portrayed by most of the local gentry I spoke with ("She was so brave to tackle this rain," I overheard one woman with Dinah Shore hair say quietly) and how patently plebian, nice and solid-citizen-like Ripa came across, even for that brief moment our eyes met. Then her handlers hit me with a ball peen hammer and I sat down again.
Philly From Scratch: The Podcast is back. Today's guest is Pennsylvania Representative Mark B. Cohen, who recently spoke in opposition to the closing of 11 branch libraries. Cohen argues that closing libraries may result in lowering property values near the libraries, and that these measures could lose the city more money than it would save.
Mr. Cohen also talks about the potential of legal action — an imminent possibility, according to sources. The suit would most likely invoke the little-known Council Bill 226, which prohibits the mayor from closing public buildings without the approval of City Council. It has never been fully tested legally.
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Stream our conversation with Rep. Cohen above.
COMING VERY SOON: You will be able to subscribe to Philly From Scratch: The Podcast via iTunes and let it do the downloading for you. Stay tuned!
Staff Blog
The Unborn (PG-13)
Saifeena, who are currently shooting in US for a Karan Johar production
alongside Vivek Oberoi, caused a stir amongst the unit members by
getting closer than ever to warm up things between the lovers.
