Sunday, May 31, 2009

Summer in the city...

... is most glorious. It's warm enough to enjoy long walks, people are having sidewalk sales, there are festivals and flea markets everywhere, and Penn's Landing has started it's series of cultural celebrations. I wouldn't trade summer in the city for anything, except maybe summer on my own private beach. But since THAT won't be happening anytime soon, I'll take summer in the city. I wanted to share a few photos of one activity we did recently: the Italian Market festival.

The Italian Market is an amazing area down 9th Street south of South that's full of little cheese, pasta, and herb places, along with vendors that sell fresh fruits and vegetables. The festival included these vendors, but also added a bunch of craft tents, live music, ready-to-eat foods on sale on the street, and a "stickball" tournament. Yeah, I didn't know what it was either, but apparently it's a traditional game in South Philly. It's much like baseball, except played with cut-in-half tennis balls and broomsticks. That's so people can play without breaking windows. And it's played up against a wall and each level of the wall entails what the hit was - like the lowest tier of the wall is a single.

















And here's a kid playing stickball.



















I know I've said this before but still one of my favorite things about being in the city is that there's so much to see and it's all within walking distance. I encourage everyone to check out Yelp.com or gophila.com to find nearby events. You won't be sorry!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Doing my part for Philly

Last night I exercised my authority as a democratic citizen of the city of Philadelphia and voted in the Municipal Primaries. They'll most importantly decide who will run for District Attorney and Controller.

While I'm not going to pretend that all my information came from the morning's Metro (and that I made my decision that morning based on a one-page feature), I will say that it made me feel important and proud to walk into that booth and do my civic duty. Especially since not many people vote in the primaries, let alone even know that they're occurring unless they've been paying attention to local news. (American Idol fans take note - there is more to life than that banshee Adam Lambert.)

Preliminary results

Ever since the presidential primaries, I've made it a point to keep up on news and politics. It's something I never did before, but it is truly empowering and makes me feel like I'm an involved citizen of the country, rather than just a resident who never really cared to know how things worked. Not to mention it gives me great fuel for starting conversations, though it probably makes me seem a little pretentious if other people have no idea what I'm talking about. Oh well. A little confidence never hurt anyone, did it?

Today, though, I read about how the president is likely to sign a bill that would allow concealed weapons in national parks. Not so Obama-like, I know. But it makes more sense when you know that this measure is tagged onto a larger bill that regulates credit card companies - something that Obama's been pushing for a few days now.

I guess that's what's known as an "earmark". It would be like if your mom announced she was going to the store to get diapers, and your dad chirped after her, "Can you also go to the liquor store and get me a handle of vodka?" The actions are competely unrelated, yet your dad knows your mom is likely to go out and buy things, so he just figured he'd put in a good word for vodka.

Even as I try to understand politics, I realize there will still be things that puzzle me. But one thing I understand more and more is that politics does not exist as a straightforward, regulated entity, rather it's an intricate game people have to learn to play in order to be successful.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Delighting in grammar!

Those of you who know me know I am a stickler for correct spelling and grammar. I frequently take pleasure in pointing out mistakes in the New York Times or other venerable publications, and when I make a mistake myself I'm often quick to correct it lest I end up looking foolish in front of the literati with which I keep company.

In today's world, however, inventions such as texting and Twitter seem to dumb-down our lanugage abilities and turn communication into something that is done in short, carelessly abbreviated bursts (u gng 2 movi 2nite?). It makes me a little bit depressed to think that proper language and all it's beautiful intricacies may be flushed down the toilet. I mean people are writing NOVELS on their CELL PHONES... Dickens must be turning over in his grave!

Amidst all the semantic turmoil, I was happy to stumble across this website: English Grammar Revolution. It's all about learning parts of speech and diagramming sentences--I know it was tedious in elementary school but for adults it's a great way to procrastinate and do your part to perpetuate language correctness.

So please don't let words become obsolete in favor of three-letter abbreviations. Don't let commas become a thing of the past. Don't wait until it's so bad that you get a letter (or more likely, a text) from your child at summer camp that looks like this:
omg mom plz snd sox feet stnk fuds gud mis u

Instead, go here and diagram a sentence. Encourage your kids/friends/illiterate neighbors to do the same.

Oh, and check out the preposition song, it's pretty sweet.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Philadelphia mom has been seriously busy

I know that these scammy Internet marketers want to grab my attention with something relevant, but honestly! I'd rather hear that "Philadelphia homeless man finds a mortgage" or "Philadelphia cheese shop owner discovers low-fat, delicious cheese." It seems Philadelphia mom has really gotten her life back on track, so I think it's time we start hearing about someone else.