[Photo by JONATHAN VALANIA] BY JEFF DEENEY “Today I saw…” is a series of nonfiction shorts based on my experiences as a caseworker serving formerly homeless families now living in North and West Philadelphia. I decided not long after starting the job that I was seeing so many fascinating and disturbing things in the city’s poorest neighborhoods that I needed to start cataloging them. I hope this bi-weekly column serves as a record of a side of the city that many Philadelphians don’t come in contact with on a daily basis. I want to capture moments not frequently covered by […]
Main Line Nanny Basher Is The New Face Of Evil
According to the criminal complaint in the first incident, [banking heiress Susan Tabas] Tepper threw all the food on the floor, told the nanny to clean it up and then struck her in the chest with a bag of carrots. The complaint said Tepper [NOT pictured] then attacked the woman by pushing her into the refrigerator and striking her on the head with a telephone handset. Tepper then pulled Salinas’ hair, scratched her face, broke her glasses and tried to push her down the stairs, it said, and then yanked Salinas’ pocketbook away from her and took about $800, believed […]
MEDIA MAN: A Guide To Un-Fucking The Fourth Estate
EXCERPT: “Sometime in the early 2000s, it was clear that the building of American journalism was on fire, and yet we all stood outside on the sidewalk like it was some kind of drill…chatting about last night’s “American Idol” or the Phillies’ inept bullpen. In 2007, we’re finally starting talking about calling the fire department, grabbing some extinguishers and searching for the dead and the missing. But the flames are climbing here into the night. And we are still out there on the sidewalk?talking about it.” ATTYTOOD: If You Can Read This, The Newspaper Business Is Already THIS Fucked
ARCHAEOLOGY: Ye Olde Head Shop Excavated
INDEPENDENCE MALL — The excavation of the President’s House, across from Independence Hall, continues to uncover treasures from the past. Archaeologists have unearthed several foundations over the past few weeks. They are now focusing on the wells and privy pits, and are also finding tobacco pipes from a store that was on the site after the President’s House was demolished in 1832. The dig’s field director is Douglas Mooney: “It was typical for Philadelphia in the late 1800s, when people went onto public water and public sewers, that they filled in their old wells and privies. And when they did that, […]
VIET NOW: This Is An I.E.D.
WARNING: Loud noise, strong language, G.I.s voicing anti-war sentiments BAGHDAD – Nine U.S. soldiers and Marines were killed in Iraq on Tuesday, U.S. officials said yesterday, and the military reportedly identified the body of a man found in the Euphrates River early yesterday as that of an American soldier abducted during a deadly ambush south of Baghdad almost two weeks ago. Also yesterday, about 100 Iraqis were killed and 130 injured in mortar strikes, suicide attacks, car bombings, drive-by shootings and other violence nationwide, according to law-enforcement authorities and news-agency accounts. [via WASHINGTON POST] ASSOCIATED PRESS: In the soldiers’ hometowns, […]
FIGHT CITY HALL: Key Cog In The Democratic Machine Pleads Guilty To Charge Of Bribing A.C. Councilmen
BY GEORGE ANASTASIA INQUIRER STAFF WRITER A high-profile North Philadelphia Democratic Party ward leader pleaded guilty to a bribery charge yesterday, admitting he paid at least $12,100 to two corrupt city councilmen in Atlantic City in exchange for their help in setting up business deals there.Carlos Matos, who married into one of the most politically active families in Philadelphia, entered the plea during a hearing in Camden before U.S. District Court Judge Robert B. Kugler. Matos, 58, is the son-in-law of City Commissioner Marge Tartaglione. His wife, Renee, is a chief deputy city commissioner. Matos has worked in the office of […]
TOMORROW: The Return Of Grumpy Old Men
MEET YOUR MAKER: Bill Giles, The P.T. Barnum Of The Phillies, And The Creature He Brought To Life “Bill Giles came to the public eye in the Philadelphia sports scene as the Master of Fun and Games, fearlessly orchestrating wacky promotions that pied-pipered sell-out crowds into the then-state-of-the-art Veterans Stadium. Following the franchise’s lone World Championship and the sudden sale of the Phillies to a group put together by Giles, he briefly enjoyed acclaim as caretaker of the Phillies’ most glorious era, before one too many lineups scribbled on cocktail napkins branded him as Bumbling Leader of the infamous Gang […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
RADIO TIMES Hour 1 Immigration overhaul 101. A plan introduced last week in the U.S. Senate is the starting point for what will likely be the first major overhaul of the U.S. immigration system since 1986. The plan now being debated in Congress would created a temporary immigrant based workforce and open the door to legal citizenship to the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants now in the U.S. To discuss this in detail, we’ll talk with MARK KRIKORIAN the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, and FRANK SHARRY the executive director of the National Immigration Forum. Hour 2 The […]
TODAY I SAW…
[photo by JONATHAN VALANIA] BY JEFF DEENEY “Today I saw…” is a series of nonfiction shorts based on my experiences as a caseworker serving formerly homeless families now living in North and West Philadelphia. I decided not long after starting the job that I was seeing so many fascinating and disturbing things in the city’s poorest neighborhoods that I needed to start cataloging them. I hope this bi-weekly column serves as a record of a side of the city that many Philadelphians don’t come in contact with on a daily basis. I want to capture moments not frequently covered by […]
EARLY WORD: Rumble In The Jungle!
[via MARRIED TO THE SEA]
KILLADELPHIA: 1 More Dead Since You Went To Bed
A triple shooting left one man dead in Germantown last night. Police said a gunman opened fire on Henley Street near West Manheim shortly after 8 p.m. A 29-year-old man, whose name was not released, was hit multiple times and died at Albert Einstein Medical Center at 8:38 p.m. Two unidentified men — one 21 years old and the other 29 — were wounded. Both men were listed in stable condition at area hospitals. DAILY NEWS: One Less German In Germantown OVERHEARD: “This is a lot more about community, about the lack of any centering force within the black community, […]