Today On DrugRoar.com

Yes, I’m blogging here every day, for the most part. Today, I write about the big drug bust today and the staunch rhetoric of public officials — ahem, Mr. Mayor — who should know better.

‘PW’ In The ‘NYT’!

Well, kinda.

Pennsylvanians go to the polls [New York Times]

Drug Roar

Look, this column is super-topical: Both Obama and Clinton aren’t progressive when it comes to drug law reform. Actually, they’re pretty much the same as Ronald Reagan. Ooh, goody!

Liveblogging The Debate Tonight

PW endorses Obama today in the paper in our political issue today; indeed, everybody is thinking about politics all over Philadelphia!

Why, tonight is the only debate before the Pennsylvania primary, and I will be liveblogging it along with PW’s Alli Katz. To celebrate my new drug column, I will also be doing several lines of hope and shots of change beforehand, and drinking bitter beer.

Drug Roar

This week’s Drug Roar column is up. It’s about low-arrest drug crackdowns. And we have a fun new logo on the front page, thanks to Alex Fine. And, yes, sadly, this is serious stuff again; it pains me to be so unfunny! Intentionally, I mean.

I’m also blogging at drugroar.com.

I Write Something Serious For Once

After 2 1/2 years (or so) of making stupid jokes for this website and for PW, the paper’s finally letting me write something serious! Okay, so I’ve done that in the past, but whatever, I couldn’t think of a better intro to let youse know about my new weekly column about drugs.

The first one’s about the recent “historic” cocaine bust in Philadelphia. Here’s an excerpt:

And if there is a short–term paucity of cocaine on the streets, it’s not just users who are harmed. The head of Atlanta’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force credits stronger policing against drugs for the city’s 2007 uptick in robberies, burglaries and auto thefts.

More murders, Jack Killorin told the Atlanta Journal Constitution March 9, could be on the way: ”If the market here gets unstable down to the street, then the streets will get bloody.”

Whoo! More murders! I can’t wait ’til those hit Philadelphia. The column is called Drug Roar, and I’m also going to be blogging at drugroar.com starting later this week. I’m not sure how many of you will be interested, but if I can’t shamelessly promote myself here, where can I?

Drug Roar [PW]

Win Free Quizzo Bowl IV Tickets!

This Saturday is Quizzo Bowl IV, the annual masters-of-quizzo competition hosted by none other than Johnny Goodtimes.

As part of a promotion for that, yours truly will be hosting a round of quizzo tonight on Philadelphia history at Bards (20th and Walnut) at 10 p.m. I’m pretty sure the Philadelphia Will Do readership pretty much overlaps with the quizzo-playing population, so come down and hear me stutter through a few questions about my favorite topics. (If you read this blog, you should get at least a couple of them easily.)

And the headliner of this year’s Quizzo Bowl is Black Elvis. Black Elvis! There’s no reason to miss this, except that my team is going to win so you’re not gonna.

And, hey, you can do it for free: After the jump, Johnny has graciously provided three free pairs of Quizzo Bowl tickets that you, the reader, can win, if you just answer a question.

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LOLita Read-A-Thon

Tomorrow is LOLita, the marathon reading of Nabakov’s Lolita at Kelly Writers House. It’s done in anniversary of the 50th anniversary of its American publishing. People have been whining that it should be banned ever since. And tomorrow, I’ll be reading from some of it. Take that!

The event starts at noon and goes ’til 11 or so. I go on around 7:20 p.m.

LOLita (a delirious read-a-thon)

See Your Editor Stutter Live And In-Person

For the third time, Penn’s esteemed Kelly Writers House has invited me to speak in front of a crowd there at an event. Yes, your self-deprecating editor will be speaking at a respected institution of writing once again; for me to be doing my third reading at Writers House not even four years out of college is mind-blowing. (I am certain it was this post that drove them to invite me this time.)

Monday’s Writers House event is called 7-Up on Rock, this year’s installment of the annual 7-Up series. Seven writers read for seven minutes about seven different topics loosely related to a theme; there’s a nice recap of last year’s even here. I will be reading about the great sport of rock paper scissors. It will be the second time I’ve read about RPS at Writers House; the other reading I did was basically five minutes of me whining about not having a girlfriend. I’ve also managed to curse at both readings I’ve done so far; expect no less this time.

I thought I had posted this Friday, so hooray for late notices. If any RPS players or blog readers come out we can head to a bar sometime afterward; if any of you actually come out I will probably blush. 6 p.m., Kelly Writers House, 3805 Locust Walk.

The full release is after the jump.

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Shameless Self-Promotion 11.14

There is a veritable onslaught of D-Mac writing in this week’s Philadelphia Weekly. No, really!

• This year’s holiday guide is all about cuteness, so naturally I wrote the little intro piece. If you need any justification for my qualifications to write about cuteness, simply check our my Flickr favorites.

• I also wrote about recent books about dogs, even the two new Marley & Me spinoffs. Yeah, I made fun of them. Oh, come on, what was I going to do?

• Continuing the dog-love theme — gaww! — I previewed the National Dog Show, this weekend at the Convention Center. Needless to say, I am super excited.

• Pop Rocks entry #4 here is about a comic Steven Wells found at Fat Jack’s titled A Love Letter to Pennsylvania City: The Unauthorized Biography of John Street. I don’t really need to say any more, do I?

• I also did my weekly Cultural Report Card feature, but it looks like it didn’t make it online. So, uh, go pick up the paper, you lazy bums!