A Stranger Walked Me Home in West Philly

Safety first.

Saturday, I was scheduled to be at an event at 36th and Walnut. Had I not worn my gold wedge heels with the agonizingly biting heel straps, I would have walked. Instead, I took the trolley, got off at the wrong stop and had to toddle across Penn’s campus. It occurred to me along the way that I’d be more attractive if I walked gracefully in heels rather than clomped like a skinny-jeaned pack mule. So I decided to channel a famous actress and walk with her confidence. But I couldn’t think of anyone—it was like the US Weekly of my brain went out of print. The only famous person I could think of was Jessica Simpson, who I often think of, sympathetically, because we have the same body type: flat ass, big boobs, the ability to be skinny but a lamentable tendency to fatten up if we take our eye off the ball. No point in channeling her.

Good Writing Is About Talent, Not Penises and Vaginas

Ask Tina Fey, Tolstoy and Mary Tyler Moore.

In the March 26th New Yorker, Ian Parker profiles Armando Ianucci, the creator of Veep, Julia Louis-Dreyfus's new show on HBO. Ianucci is the genius (some might say monster) behind Steve Coogan's Alan Partridge character on the BBC. But he's best known here for the Brit TV series The Thick of It and its movie adaptation In the Loop, which was nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar. Indeed, his acrobatic profanity—in screenwriting, though not in person—is legendary and hilarious. Given that I'm a fan of Ianucci's work, I liked the article.

Ann Romney’s Shirt Cost $990. What Did You Expect?

Rich women buy expensive clothes.

Mitt Romney's wife, Ann, wore a $990 shirt on CBS's This Morning and boy, was that a mistake. Not because it was an ugly shirt—which was the correct reason to be offended, in my opinion—but because of the price. Of course it was easy to figure out how much the shirt cost since it's so unique (and so uniquely ugly), it couldn't be mistaken for another. How many designers, after all, sell t-shirts with enormous yellow falcon faces on them? If Romney had been wearing a plain blue sweater set, it would have been harder to track down the price info.

This Weekend, Philadelphians Can Say “Screw You” to Normal

Reasons to protest a new book.

This weekend, there's going to be an Occupy day of protest and rallies in Philadelphia—but not by Occupy Philly. On Saturday, activists will come from all over the country for Occupy the APA, a peaceful day of action to protest the new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), which is being rolled out at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) at the Convention Center. Unlike other protests that sometimes divide the mental health advocacy community, this protest will include people from diverse constituencies—from psychiatrists and those who take medications to psychiatric "survivors" who believe psychiatry is dangerously abusive.

I Could Use a Nose Job, Frankly, and I Want to Laugh About It

The Anti-Defamation League should relax on video about Jewish boy’s tale of rhinoplasty.

In the past month or so, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)—which monitors discrimination and hate crimes—has tackled two youth-related flaps related to Judaism. The first was a music video by the Groggers—an Orthodox pop-punk band—which tells the story of a Jewish boy who wants to get a nose job to impress a girl. The second was a yellow t-shirt shown on Urban Outfitters' retail website that appeared to have a blue Star of David patch on the breast pocket, recalling the Yellow Badge Jews had to wear during the Holocaust. First, that video:

Philadelphia Inquirer Pulitzer Is Extra Sweet This Year

The ingredients of good journalism.

You know you're a journalism nerd if—when you read that your hometown newspaper has won a Pulitzer—you jump off the couch and start cheering as though your team just won the World Series. That was me after I saw the headline on Google News. My dog jumped off the couch and ran away, and my boyfriend came out of the other room. "What's going on?" he said, watching me do my celebratory Irish/Jewish jig. "The Inky won a Pulitzer! The public service Pulitzer! Take that, motherfuckers!" He reminded me that I don't work for the Inquirer, which was helpful, but it really wasn't the point.

Top 10 Reasons Passover Is the Favorite Holiday of American Jews

Plus: Dressing your cat for the occasion.

It has been said—not only by researchers, but also by my grandmother and her five sisters in Miami—that Passover is the favorite holiday of American Jews. As Passover comes to a close this year (by nightfall, Saturday), I’d like to reflect on why this is so. 1. Passover is centered around a big meal. This addresses two key facts: We eat a lot and we get cranky if we can't. A serious fast like Ramadan isn't on the table; the kvetching gets serious after just two hours on Yom Kippur. In fact, Yom Kippur is so stressful we have to end it by furiously tearing apart enormous platters of lox, herring and cookies with sprinkles that have been covered with plastic since the Destruction of the Second Temple.

Mistakes by NBC, CNN Make George Zimmerman a Hero

News scoops trump facts.

Three major news organizations, NBC, ABC and CNN, were forced to "walk back," as they like to say—as though they've merely started a waltz instead of a cha-cha—from previous reporting on the Trayvon Martin case. The backstepping led to what was surely one of the most satisfying headlines penned by a Fox News employee: "3rd News Network Admits to False Reporting on Zimmerman."

Don’t Know What Foursquare Is? You’re Not Alone

Plenty of people don’t know what the hell people are talking about when they get nervous about social media.

The Foursquare-based iPhone app Girls Around Me has been the subject of much media attention and controversy for the last few days, ever since the website Cult of Mac wrote a detailed explanation of the site's functionality, describing it as a creepy tool that could be used for stalking. As we speak, more mentions proliferate, this one included.