Essays
1094 results
Page 98
Foggy media memories
The fog of media memory, or: What do FDR and Fred Astaire have in common?
Considering all the common points between politics and show biz, there's no excuse when misinformation about music is fed by officials and regurgitated by uncritical media, as happened often during Obama's inauguration festivities.
Essays
2 minute read
Obama's inaugural: I was there
On feeling American for the first time, or: Swept away by one day of national optimism
As an immigrant with dark skin and a strange name, I bonded with Barack Obama years ago. But I never felt truly American until I marched with the throngs on the National Mall at his inauguration.
Essays
6 minute read
Edgar Allan Poe: Ecstasy junkie
Appreciating Edgar Allan Poe (With a little help from D.H. Lawrence)
Poe was a man who, having known the ecstasy of intimate love (not to mention drugs and alcohol), couldn't tolerate its loss. That's his real-life horror tale.
Essays
3 minute read
Romero, baseball and the "unnatural'
Who you calling unnatural? Or: Baseball and weight-training drugs
Phillies pitcher J.C. Romero has been suspended for talking a legal over-the-counter weight-training drug. Major League Baseball explains that it wants to keep the game and its players “natural.” But is there anything more unnatural than a game of baseball?
Essays
5 minute read
Steve Poses and his "informal restaurant revolution'
Up from tuxedoes and canned peas: The forgotten father of informal dining
Steve Poses couldn't cook like Georges Perrier, but his places helped change the way we ate, ending an era of tuxedoed waiters and canned peas.
Essays
2 minute read
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In the bomb shelter: The brighter side of war
In the bomb shelter: The positive by-products of war
From an adult perspective, all those rockets fired into Israel seem very scary. But to a six-year old child who didn't understand anything, war was not only exciting news, it was great fun. My brother and I would cheer when sirens blew as my parents scrambled for the gas masks. We also spent more happy time with our parents and neighbors than we'd ever spent before.
Essays
6 minute read
Fuji: Philadelphia's best restaurant?
Is this Philadelphia's best restaurant?
What's the best restaurant in Philadelphia? How about a place with no wine list, no sign and a tiny kitchen with a fanatic inside?
Essays
5 minute read
A South Philly Christmas story
The passions of winter: A South Philly Christmas story
When a cop won the race for the hand of the loan shark's vivacious daughter, her rejected suitor morphed into an embittered and brutal hit man. But one who has been crossed in love should never breathe the Christmas odor of cloves of garlic. It stirs the memory to a dangerous degree.
Essays
13 minute read
Vidocq: Philadelphia's Sherlock Holmes
Corrupt but dedicated: Philadelphia's answer to Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan and Sam Spade are all legendary but fictitious private eyes. But Edgar Allan Poe and Victor Hugo were inspired by a real Philadelphia gumshoe of literary dimensions, as I discovered behind the door of the Vidocq Society in Center City.
Essays
5 minute read
Philadelphia Science Fiction Conference
Science fiction vs. science fantasy
I've been defending science fiction against various onslaughts ever since I started reading it. For me, it's a literary response to the knowledge that the future will be different from the present-- probably very different.
Essays
5 minute read