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Nov
13
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If you haven’t been following along since last January, some local amateur historians have been attempting to find out if some old fort or burial ground or angel skeletons or ancient powerful civilization is under the site for the Sugarhouse Casino, so they can block it from going there. Or they’re just curious, whatever, the end result’s the same.
Anyway, Plan Philly earlier this week posted a story with the headline, “Big discovery at SugarHouse site? And here it is!
SugarHouse archaeologists, led by an amateur local historian, on Tuesday continued to unearth part of a foundation on the proposed casino site.
The historian, preservationist Torben Jenk, says the find is a portion of Batchelor’s Hall - a society whose members included many prominent 18th Century Philadelphians, and where the nation’s first botanical garden of medicinal plants was established in 1729.
“It’s a 279-year-old structure, and we found it using a 204-year old survey,” said an excited Jenk on Monday evening. “It’s the second oldest building that we can document to date in Fishtown.”
But casino spokeswoman Leigh Whitaker said the casino’s archaeologists, A.D. Marble, say what was found is much less historically significant, and from a different century, than the place where Pennsylvania Hospital founder and trustee Lloyd Zachary socialized and renowned botanist John Bartram may have tended the plants.
“We did not find Batchelor’s Hall,” Whitaker said. “We found a foundation of a residence or other building from the 19th Century.”
It’s nice everyone did all this work and then their opinions lined up exactly where everyone expected them to. However, I believe I have come up with a compromise (pictured above). They can call it “The Second Oldest Casino in Fishtown.”
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dmac | 5:05 PM | 1 Comment
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Jan
11
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It appears nature and the past are banding together to attempt to stop SugarHouse Casino from opening in Fishtown. The Bulletin reports environmental activists want to check if the red-belled turtle lives at the proposed casino site, because that’s a threatened species.
The paper talks to the Casino’s communications director, Leigh Whitaker: “We did an investigation during the turtles’ normal, natural nesting season. Our study found there was no evidence of turtles nesting or living on the site.” Oh. That’s not going to work. Let’s get to the other one, then.
Daniel Rubin reports American history could stop the casino from building on the site, as a bunch of history nerds think there was a British fort there and want to get a chance to excavate the site first. Nerds are always getting in the way.
Rubin, by the way, also reports this: “If a Revolutionary War fort can’t slow the SugarHouse casino, it surely can slow it.” Indeed it can.
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dmac | 11:51 AM | 1 Comment
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Apr
19
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• Eventually, we’re going to have a photographic record of every square inch of the city of Philadelphia online, and it will be good — and, okay, a little frightening. For now, though, there’s Fishtown, and that is all good. [phillyskyline.com]
• Much like McDonald’s “i’m lovin’ it.” campaign, a poster at Philly Future tries to hype up tonight’s Democratic primary Senate debate — 7 o’clock! PCN! If you can find that channel! — by writing in all lowercase. I dig; I dig. [Philly Future]
• John Marzano, eager to please the Philadelphia crowd, has decided that Bobby Abreu isn’t that good after all. (The Philadelphia Will Do Stance™ on Bobby Abreu is that the Phils can deal with his shoddy fielding if he hits well.)
• Tom Ferrick sums up the mayoral candidates in a few simple words. Nah, I think we can go shorter on this. [Ferrick's Poliblog 2006]
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dmac | 3:22 PM | 5 Comments
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Dec
20
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 I saw this post about hipsters on Craigslist in the morning and decided it started off okay, but then got silly by the end. In a way, it was like one of my own jokes. And I can’t show anyone that they’re not that hard to write. So I decided against linking it.
But then I got a bunch of people emailing it to me. No, really. More email than I’ve gotten on any other random topic people emailed me about. And that means it has to be linked, if only because of
An excerpt:
Between the women’s jeans they were wearing, and the foul stentch of body oder and insense wafting from the window, I knew these were not your everyday poser hipsters. They were super hipsters! They must be Hipster Leaders (H.L.) I thought! How exciting! I’d heard of the hipster leaders but knew they only surfaced for very special reasons - like blow-out cigarette sales or that one day a year you’re allowed to put out couches and big items on the curb for the trash. While pondering what could possibly have brought out the infamous H.L.s, I heard a shrill and piercing scream come from further down second street.
Jesus, I thought! What was that? A feral cat? Did a litle girl get hit by a bus? Concerned, I rushed that way and then I saw them! What the hell?! A group of skinny young girls was walking down the middle of Second St. and the leader was screaming at the top of her lungs. Wait, wait a minute. Those aren’t girls, they’re fully-grown hipsters wearing womens’ clothing. At that minute, a group of at least 25 hipsters poured out of the Standard Tap.
The two hipster gangs met at 2nd and Poplar and faced off. I heard whispers. It seems that the Fishtown Hipsters were sick of taking second billing to the N. Libs Hipsters and were making a stand. In a loud yet odly high-pitched voice, the leader of the Fishtown Hipsters said, “Today brothers we fight for Fishtown and for Johnny Brenda’s. I’m wearing size zero petite jeans and I’ve never in my life showered more than once a month! This proves we are the most EMO hipsters alive!!!!!”
And it goes on like that. The rest of it’s over at CL. Have fun!
Disclaimer: I had a hand in the hipster issue of PW. I don’t know how that reflects on this post.
Well it happened again - more hipster violence [CL Philly]
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dmac | 3:25 PM | 3 Comments
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