Here’s another photograph of Philadelphia’s past, plucked from the photo archive at PhillyHistory.org. It’s a building that this still exists, although currently it sits empty and unused. I’ve driven by it many times, always wishing that it would be restored to it’s former beauty. Anyone have any thoughts as to where it might be?

I recently discussed the excellent customer service at Tiffany & Company. Their Walnut Street store is absolutely exceptional. I ordered extra links for my necklace and when the delivery date came it was not there. I was told to call back today and it still has not arrived in the store. The customer service representative apologized for the delay and stated that the fee for the service would be waived. Now that’s service, I get extra links added on for free. Hey, it won’t hurt to wait or day or so right?

Accordingly to the Philadelphia Metro, Mayor John Street has decided to fire two head honcho’s at DHS. Apparently from 2003 to 2005, 20 children whose families had direct contact with the organization died from abuse or neglect. So in the midst of all of Philly’s other major crime issues we have to worry about the children in out community being hurt by their own family members. This is just great; we are fighting gun violence and parental violence at the same time. And it only took three years to figure out that it needed to be a change.

We got digital cable a few weeks ago (which is why I now require this T-shirt), and we’re just beginning to discover all the electronic addictions now available to us.

Tonight, we stumbled across a network I never knew existed doing a special on our own Mutter Museum.* If you’re close to your TV and are more a nightowl than I, you can catch the rebroadcast at 11. Or, if you have DVR capability (can I say once again how much I need this T-shirt?), just record it for later enjoyment.

* Yeah, I should go one of these years. I fear I would be too loud in going Ewwwww! at certain artifacts—-not at all appriate for such a serious place of learning as I imagine the Mutter to be.

(Sherri here for a brief setup: I’m ceding the keyboard over to my Matt, soon to be Metroblogging Matt.)

“THANK YOU GOD!!!!!!!!!”

30 seconds later: “ARE YOU KIDDING ME??????”

I need to start with the bad news first. The Eagles have now given away three games. All were winnable and all were lost by dumb mistakes. I saw someone compare them to the 2005 Chargers on a message board and I have to say agree; the 2005 Chargers were 9-7 and lost 5 of them by 4 points or less. They just kept finding ways to lose.

Good news… what’s the point. It’s time to face reality, and reality’s name is 4-3.
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I work in the suburbs. This past week some colleagues planned a happy hour in the city for a change of venue. It was like pulling teeth trying to get the suburbanites to get into the city. This dichotomy of city versus suburban folk fascinates me. Sure, my view is skewed in favor the city. I can’t imagine why young people wouldn’t want to come into downtown, at least some of the time. I can understand the logistical challenges of a suburbanite coming into the city–where to park the car? So we suggested the train. It was as if we spoke with forked tongues. El tren? Never!

When first moving into the city after college, I realized that there are firm camps of “city folk” versus “suburban folk.” I will never really understand the suburbanites, and they will never really understand me. But, at least I’m not afraid of going out to the suburbs, for the love of God.

You will see reminders everywhere in the days that the mid-term elections are almost upon us. We’re at that wretched point where commercial breaks feature almost nothing other than campaign ads. And then there are the candidate mailings. I have realized something very interesting about these. My husband is, much to my chagrin, a registered…opposing party member, we’ll say. Our mailbox is filled with candidate junk mail, but it is all from one party. Nothing from the Democrats. I can’t figure out why this would be the case–are they falling apart that much? Are they targeting mailings to individuals who are less likely to vote in this election in an effort to get out as many people as possible? There has to be a method to this madness…or perhaps I will never know.

Well not witch really but Bob Clarke and not dead really but resigned. So I guess the music to the Wizard of Oz isn’t exactly appropriate here but its still fun and well this is a good day in Flyers history. At 10AM this morning the Philadelphia Flyers announced two major management changes, Bob Clarke general manager of the team for the last 12 years has resigned, Ken Hitchcock coach of the Flyers for the last three seasons has been fired. While I am not thrilled with the Hitchcock move it seems Flyers President Ed Snider feels the team has quit on him.

But the real news here is the end of an era. An era that has seen the Flyers grasping at the past for the past twelve years, attempting to relive the glory days of the Stanley Cup winning teams. An era that has seen some very good young, fast talent traded away for players that were past their expiration date a few years before we got them. Anyone remember Dainius Zubrus, Vaclav Prospal, or Justin Williams? An era that saw Bob Clarke publicly drag one of the best players to ever play in Philadelphia and his family through the mud because Clarke’s ego was so big and he couldn’t deal with this star player suffering from post-concussion syndrome.

It was an era of hanging slightly above mediocrity and currently a disaster of a start to the new season. It was an era of believing that we could run the game our way, when the rules were changed to prevent us from doing that. But now that era is over. Bob Clarke is gone. Assistant General Manager Paul Holmgren will replace Clarke on a interim basis until Snider can re-evaluate. John Stevens will replace Ken Hitchcock as head coach.

So will this reinvigorate the Flyers? Well the Flyers have five days to adjust before they take on Kari Lehtonen and the Atlanta Thrashers on Thursday night, so I guess we will have to wait until then to see the opening results of the new era in Flyers history.

Vox Populi, the nearly 20 year old non-profit artists collective, is being forced to move out of their current space due to the Convention Center expansion. They have hosted a vast array of art exhibits and music shows over the years and have played a pivotal role in Philadelphia’s living, breathing art scene.

They are having a party tonight, in order to try to raise some of the funds they will need to finance their move. It is this Sunday, October 22 at 5 p. All Ages are welcome, although you must be 21 or over to drink. Vox is at 1315 Cherry St., 4th floor. The cover is $10 but all proceeds go to the move.

The lineup includes: Plastic Little, the Yah Mos Def, Hi Soft, Golden Brown, Paper Napkin and DJ Nag Champa. Refreshments by Victory Brewing Co. and film and art by Vox members.

So many times, I’ve been hanging out with friends, trying to figure out where to go to eat and been totally stumped. Someone will offer up Vietnam Palace, only to be countered by someone else who saids, “Why not Vietnam instead?” Yet a third person will plead that we go someplace new. But that request for someplace new will be met with blank stares and the process starts over again. Well, there are two websites in town that might help us solve this problem.

DiningInfo.com offers a searchable listing of over 1,000 restaurants in the Philadelphia area. It’s great for those moments when you know there’s someplace new you’d like to try, but can only remember that it’s name starts with “Th.”

Penn grad David Friedman has come up with Cityjoints.com, which saves your picks and generates lists of restaurant names that you might like based on your past selections. It’s one of those websites that will get better over time, as more information is stored in it’s database.