General Motors Commercial Hits New Low

Don’t try to convince me that "real" Americans only buy Chevy BY DAVID STONE

One of the most popular TV commercials right now is disgusting, absolutely stomach-turning. You know the one: A little boy is being taught to salute by his older brother. Then, just as Grandma and Grandpa (Gramps is wearing a Vietnam vet hat) step out onto the Norman Rockwell porch, a Chevy Equinox pulls up with Mommy at the wheel. Daddy steps out of the SUV in full camouflage. The little tot runs to him and salutes. Anthem-like music swells. A baritone voiceover says, "Bringing heroes home for generations. Just another reason Chevy runs deep." Pardon me while I puke.Look, I...

Who Reads the Daily News on Saturday?

I have found the worst way to spend a dollar in Philadelphia BY DAVID STONE

I have found quite possibly the worst way to spend a dollar in Philadelphia. Buy the Daily News. On Saturday. This past Saturday, it was a whopping 40 pages, including the front and back cover and headline pages. And with very few exceptions, there was absolutely nothing in it that wasn’t in the same day’s Inquirer. The most accessible English translation of Tolstoy’s War and Peace has 1,281 pages, and Amazon is selling it for $14, including shipping. When you do the math, you realize the Saturday DN is twice as expensive as the Greatest Novel Ever Written. Of course...

Dude, Where’s My Wheelchair?

It’s cool, Hahnemann. I’ll just drag myself to get an x-ray. BY ERICA PALAN

“Can I please have a wheelchair?” I asked the x-ray technician. He seemed a little surprised, but said, “Yeah, sure. Let me find one.”“Find one?” I thought. It was an emergency room. Shouldn’t wheelchairs be pretty accessible?

Remind Me: Why Can’t SEPTA Run On Time?

Screw the Silverliners. Just send me a train, any train BY EMILY GOULET

As I stood on the train platform yesterday morning, not-so-patiently waiting in the rain for the R3 as its scheduled 7:35 a.m. arrival time came and went, it occurred to me—not for the first time—that this train debacle makes no sense. Why is it that we can launch people to the moon, perform surgery on tiny fetuses in the womb, reattach severed limbs, but we can’t figure out how to make trains run on time?

I Don’t Care About Your Facebook Relationship Status

Spare me your online displays of love By Katie Eder

My college boyfriend and I, who make the most un-mushy couple on Facebook, both have friends and young family members who litter our news feeds with the most eye roll-inducing, lovey-dovey statuses. We like to "call" when they will break up or get dumped. Ten out of 10 times, I see a change in relationship status pop up before the year’s end.

Planned Parenthood Needs Federal Funding

And the reasons have nothing to do with abortions. By Erica Palan

This afternoon, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to ban federal funding for Planned Parenthood.Last Saturday, I cried in the lobby of the Elizabeth Blackwell Health Center, one of the Greater Philadelphia area’s 20 Planned Parenthood locations.

Remind Me Again Why Philly Cabs Suck

The bad local taxi service that almost ruined a wedding BY JANINE WHITE

At 7 a.m. two Sundays ago, I was on my way to Mexico to get married. (Before I left the office that previous Friday, we were wrapping up our February feature on the state of the Philadelphia taxi system by Nick DiUlio, “Hell Called. It Wants Its Cabs Back.") At a time when I should have been all giddy with excitement, I had a bitter Philly aftertaste in my mouth. Just a few hours earlier, I had called for a cab to the airport and was immediately funneled into the hold queue where I held. And I held. EIGHT minutes...

Advertising Circulars = Litter

If the Nutter administration is really serious about cleaning up the streets, they should ban this now BY JANINE WHITE

I don't know how it works in your neighborhood, but Spring Gardenians get an extra helping of litter on ad circular day. In the wee hours, a delivery guys drops off bundles of circulars on street corners—yes, in rain and snow—where they then sit exposed—in rain and snow (see picture)—for hours until another person arrives to distribute those that aren't ruined to rowhouse stoops where they become "stoop" litter as renters step around them and over them until they eventually blow away and become neighborhood litter. Yes, I'm certain some people do want/need these coupons. So the city should force...

Icy Feelings About Cold-Weather Warnings

Is a sign really going to save me from an icicle falling 37 stories? BY DAVID LIPSON

Winter in Philadelphia. After the record snow fall last year I was convinced that, thanks to the law of averages, this would be a mild winter. It is not. I am cold.As I was hustling back from lunch, I came upon this sign.