Israel
“They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity,” said Israeli ambassador Abba Eban about Israel’s Arab neighbors. This was decades ago, but they are about to miss another opportunity — a peace plan proposed by the United States, announced by President Donald Trump, who is impeached, standing next to
Philadelphia Flyers
I left you yesterday at the Palm, with former Municipal Court Judge Georganne Daher asking me to return a Flyers Stanley Cup hat from the 1997 championship, while my lunch mate, former Inquirer editorial Bill Marimow sat with an amused expression on his face. Did I remember getting the hat?
Philadelphia Flyers
This is a story about a Flyers cap, but it’s like a Matryoshka Russian nesting doll, with stories hidden within stories, with a pinch of irony thrown in for added flavor. Good columns are like rifles — they pick a single target, filter out distractions, and drill it. This one
Culture
Using blackface is a sin, in a secular sense, but should it be a crime? City Councilwoman Cindy Bass thinks so, and has introduced a bill to make wearing blackface a crime, with a $75 fine. She thus reduces something really hateful to something like a parking ticket. This issue
Mummers Parade
In an exclusive (and satirical) response to Major Jim Kenney’s threat to ban the Mummers Parade, the Mummers have demanded an end to the Democratic Party in Philadelphia. In a letter to the four Mummers divisions, Kenney specifically noted two men appearing in blackface, which is prohibited by parade
Uncategorized
Talk about two-faced! In what it called a “break with convention,” the New York Times editorial board offered a kind-of BOGO — two Democratic presidential nominees for the price of one. It was also a break with courage. When you are called on to make a choice, you must
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Having announced I was having eye surgery about a week ago, I feel an obligation to bring you up to date. After the surgery, you get cool shades for free. (Notify Bernie Sanders.) The glasses are to be worn outdoors and in bright light. That is easy. Harder is putting
Bicycle Lanes
The first thing you have to understand about the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia is that it does not give a damn about the Greater Good. It is a small but effective lobbying group determined to shove bicycles down our throats. And to accomplish its ends, it will color the
Bicycle Lanes
I will say this for the Bike Cult — enough is never enough for them and they never give up. In numbers, they are insignificant, yet they get their way because there is no organized opposition to push back. Just 2.6% of Philadelphians commute by bike to work according to
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Someone (it was Sigmund Freud) once asked, what do women want? The answer is not shoes — and an even harder question is what do city residents want, or at least what do they like and dislike. Philadelphia surveyed 20,000 residents last year — I was one of them — and the
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Tuesday I enter the world-famous Wills Eye Hospital for surgery on my left eye, to be followed in two weeks by surgery on my right eye. Cataracts. I am told I will be in the hospital for a few hours and that I will be able to function later.
Political Correctness
No kidding. I posted this on Facebook and it was taken down for violating “community standards.” The only thing I added was a caption that said, “Just like a man,” as a j-o-k-e, of course, because the lioness was doing all the work. I appealed the decision