The dangers of not reading the competition

I haven’t really explored this too much on this site, but Northeast Philly is a two-paper town. And, unlike the entire City of Philadelphia, the two Northeast Philly papers are actually owned by two different companies. (Knight-Ridder owns the Northeast Times; the other paper, the News Gleaner is owned by Journal-Register.)

The two papers don’t do much New York Post/New York Daily News namecalling, which is a shame. I used to freelance for the News Gleaner the summer after my freshman year of college — my shining moment was an article about kids playing new video games at Franklin Mills — and nobody there really had any animosity toward the other paper.

Anyway, sometimes funny things happen with the two papers. For example, take a look at this op-ed in last week’s News Gleaner:

Men are from Mars, women are from Venus. Girls are made from sugar and spice and everything nice, and boys are made from some concoction using puppy dog tails and other strange ingredients.

My point is that there are great differences in men and women that society has acknowledged for years. Under the law we are all equal and that is how it should be. In marriage I know my wife Joanne is always right and that’s, again, how it should be.

But on the sports field there is a great difference particularly in team sports.

And, a letter in today’s Northeast Times:

Men are from Mars, women are from Venus, girls are made from sugar and spice and everything nice, and boys are made from some concoction using puppy dog tails and other strange ingredients.

My point is that there are great differences in men and women that society has acknowledged for years. Under the law we are all equal, and that is how it should be. In marriage I know my wife Joanne is always right, and that’s how that should be. But on the sports field there is a great difference, particularly in team sports.

Oh, yes, and this letter/column about why boys shouldn’t be allowed to play field hockey was written by former U.S. House of Representatives candidate Al Taubenberger. Have you guessed already that he’s president of the Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce?

Changes needed to save field hockey [News Gleaner]
Boys playing field hockey? Readers calling foul play [Northeast Times]