Editorials
529 results
Page 35
Sam Katz films the Rizzo years
Still fighting about Rizzo
The fourth installment of Sam Katz's Philadelphia history documentary takes us back to the nasty and divisive Rizzo years of the 1970s. What's lacking is a sense of perspective and context. Three separate historical/journalistic problems are to blame.
Editorials
6 minute read
When pop music confronted history
Don't know much about history: The accidental wisdom of pop songs
From Noel Coward to Jimmy Jones, history was once a major staple of popular songs for adolescents like me, who enjoyed ridiculing the material that our teachers crammed down our throats. Nowadays, pop songs are political rather than historical.
Editorials
4 minute read
Andrew Greeley, latter-day Erasmus
He did it his way
Like Erasmus of Rotterdam before him, the combative Catholic priest Andrew Greeley steadfastly refused to align himself with any institution or philosophy. How did he manage to survive and even flourish?
Editorials
4 minute read
Crisis at the Swim Club
Scourge of the dorks
Do you understand the difference between a jock, a geek and a dork? Your future membership at Center City's popular Pine Street Swim Club may depend on it.
Editorials
4 minute read
To follow your dream or play it safe?
We're Number Ten! (and other practical tips for dreamers)
When a teenager dreams of becoming a famous performer, how should a parent respond? Maybe that's the wrong question.
Editorials
5 minute read
Doctors vs. lawyers
Doctors and lawyers: Two trains running (in opposite directions)
Two centuries ago, doctors were bleeding their patients while lawyers were drafting the Constitution. Today, doctors stand on the cusp of eliminating disease altogether while lawyers are still stuck in the 18th Century. What happened?
Editorials
7 minute read
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Secrecy, enlightenment and the Masons
Mozart, the Masons and the wages of secrecy
How could Mozart— not to mention Washington and Ben Franklin— take a mystical secret society like the Masons seriously? Perhaps because, every few centuries, secrecy comes in handy, at least in the short run.
Editorials
8 minute read
Four notables who crossed my path
They touched my life
What did the mezzo-soprano Risë Stevens, the film critic Roger Ebert, the Countess of Bessborough and the placekicker Pat Summerall have in common? All crossed my path at some point over the past 60 years.
Editorials
9 minute read
Mike Rice: Scapegoat of the week
A method to their madness: A few kind words for abusive coaches
Rutgers University's basketball coach, Mike Rice, was fired this month for cursing his players and throwing basketballs at them. I think I know how anyone who was coached by Milt Breenberg at Camp Takajo in Maine would react to this uproar: “What a bunch of wusses!”
Editorials
less than a minute read
Herb Lipson's good old days
Through a glass darkly, with Philadelphia Magazine's chairman
For 50 years, Philadelphia Magazine's chief has been kvetching about the sad state of his city. Now he misses the city he used to kvetch about.
Editorials
6 minute read