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Archive for “History” news
BuzzFeed Discovers Beloved Philly Dog Who Was “Sentenced” to Jail
By Simon van Zuylen-Wood 5/16/2013
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And when I say "discover," I mean it in the same way that I might say Christoper Columbus discovered America. BuzzFeed, meet Pep. Pep, you're unfortunately not around to meet BuzzFeed. Pep was the dog that Governor Gifford Pinchot sentenced to life in prison, on August 12th, 1924, for murdering the cat of his wife. Though he was actually sent there to boost prisoner morale, Pep did die of old age in the Eastern State Penitentiary in 1930, according to a 1994 Inquirer article.
[BuzzFeed]
It’s All About the Benjamin: Philly Featured Prominently on New $100 Bill
By Simon van Zuylen-Wood 4/26/2013
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The upshot of the new $100 bill, besides the fact that it should be harder to counterfeit: Good old Philadelphia is center stage.
Look closer and you'll see a certain cracked bell.
And a certain document, signed on July 4, 1776.
If you're really into the new bills--and after that demonstration, who wouldn't be--the Fed has put out a handy video on the new Benjamins.
Update [4:00 p.m.] Philly.com points out that the back of the bill, featuring Independence Hall, has gotten a redesign too.
It’s Time For An Isaac Asimov Memorial In Philadelphia
By Joel Mathis 4/23/2013
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Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow reports:
Science fiction author Michael Swanwick sez, "In my adopted hometown of Philadelphia there's a move afoot to put up a plaque where Isaac Asimov lived while he was working (and writing seminal Foundation and Robot stories) at the Naval Yard during WWII. Asimov hated Philadelphia while he lived here but came back for the conventions year after year. He gave back. Now it's time to Philadelphia to give back to him. The Change.com petition seems to have stalled at 364, 136 short of its goal. This despite the fact that you don't have to be a citizen
America Is Soft on Terrorism
By Michael Coard 4/22/2013
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The cowardly murderous attack on innocent and defenseless men, women and children at the Boston Marathon on April 15th was terrorism. Accordingly, if preliminary reports prove correct, then Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his dead brother Tamerlan, who killed three people and wounded about 170, are terrorists, and the survivor should be tried and, if found guilty, punished harshly—like all terrorists.
But punishment of the most egregious terrorists hasn’t happened in America, and it’s still not happening anywhere in this country—including in Philadelphia.
Letter From MLK To Philly Officer Now For Sale
By Joel Mathis 4/03/2013
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AP reports that a letter from Martin Luther King Jr. to Philadelphia Police Sgt. James Adair is on the auction block. In the letter, King thanks Adair for being part of his security detail during a 1965 visit to the Penn campus. "While I hardly feel this necessary most of the time," King wrote, "it is both comforting and humbling to know that there are persons who are so concerned about my welfare." The Philly-based Raab Collection is offering the letter for sale, with an initial asking price of $10,500.
Don’t Be a Dick, Dick Yuengling
By Jonathan Valania 2/08/2013
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There was a time back in the '90s that a portion of my nightly prayers were dedicated to asking God to make Dick Yuengling adopt me.* Such was the depth of my devotion to Yuengling Lager back in the day. It was church and everything else was just beer. It wasn’t just that Yuengling offered full-bodied flavor and a rich amber hue at a reasonable price in a marketplace monopolized by over-priced, piss-tinted corporate firewater. Yuengling represented the triumph of indie, proof that a small, family-owned brand tucked away in the mountainous redoubts of Pennsyltucky’s Coal Belt could take on the transnational corporate beer barons and not only hold its own, but grow up to be the largest American-owned brewer in the nation. And it only took 184 years!
John Kerry’s Easy Confirmation Signals Waning of the Baby Boomers
By Stephen Silver 2/06/2013
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When I first heard that President Obama was considering nominating John Kerry to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, I figured, oh great, we get to re-litigate the Swift Boat controversy again.
That Other Liberty Bell No One Cares About Locked Away in Closet Today
By Simon van Zuylen-Wood 1/31/2013
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In 1976, the Queen of England brought over a replica of our old pal Liberty Bell, to commemorate the Bicentennial. How sweet and thoughtful--our new friend was even molded in the same foundry as the original!
But when the six-ton bell arrived, no one could bear to look at him and his hideous uncracked facade. So he was banished to the red brick tower on Chestnut and 3rd, where no one could see him. For 25 years, until the dawn of the 21st century, the poor bell rang twice a day, wailing out in solitude. Finally, one day, the clapper broke,
Philadelphia Wax Museum: Sleek or Just Plain Ugly?
By Victor Fiorillo 1/22/2013
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Al Gore to Spice Things Up at the Constitution Center
By Simon van Zuylen-Wood 1/18/2013
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Just when you thought the National Constitution Center was getting too edgy with their Prohibition exhibit, they've decided to scale things down to PBS-volume again. On February 4th, Rolling Stone author Al Gore will crash the NCC to protest Article II, Section I of the Constitution. Ha! No, actually, he'll be there to hawk a new book, The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change. Insert lame 'inventing the internet' joke here. [Philebrity]
