City Hall reconsidered

The Gilded Age died almost before its greatest extravagance was completed in 1901. Philadelphia’s City Hall has embarrassed Philadelphians ever since. Has the time come, finally, to appreciate it?

City Hall. Tours of the tower run every 15 minutes between 9:30 a.m and 4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. (215) 686-2840 or click here.

Be'eri Moalem

Mar 23, 2008 · Essays · 7 minute read

Hitler's snack bar

Travel notes from all over:
Welcome to Hitler’s Bavarian snack bar

The Eagles Nest at Berchtesgaden is now a tourist attraction where nobody laughs at the ridiculousness of the “Eva Braun Tearoom.” And I tried to work up my indignation. Really I did.

Lynn Hoffman

Mar 15, 2008 · Essays · 5 minute read

Hitler's snack bar

The Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden is now a tourist attraction where nobody laughs at the ridiculousness of the “Eva Braun Tearoom.” I tried to work up my indignation. Really I did.

Lynn Hoffman

Mar 15, 2008 · Essays · 5 minute read

The home as art

Americans spend fortunes on their homes. Why, then, do so many affluent homes look as if they were lifted from a magazine spread or a Ralph Lauren catalogue? Why not think of our homes as artistic expressions of ourselves?

Caroline Dunlop Millett

Mar 08, 2008 · Essays · 6 minute read

The case for the culinary arts

I’m shocked that a publication so fervently dedicated to refined appreciation and support of the arts shows such cultivated disdain for the culinary arts. Food and wine deserve a serious, respectful hearing at Broad Street Review. Here’s why.

Lynn Hoffman

Feb 23, 2008 · Essays · 7 minute read

The horror of globalization

What is a German discount food chain doing in Philadelphia, pampering its customers and employees alike and otherwise violating cherished local customs? Don’t these foreigners know what we Americans did to the Hessians the last time we got really angry?

Richard Carreño

Feb 16, 2008 · Essays · 4 minute read

Fighting Future Wars

President Bush is hiring private firms in Iraq for "security" purposes. Why not take this idea to its logical extreme by privatizing war altogether?

Andrew Kevorkian

Dec 29, 2007 · Essays · 3 minute read

Jamestown 1607, reconsidered

Why did America’s original 1607 Jamestown settlement fail? Not, as were taught in school, because the settlers sat around smoking and drinking.

Andrew Mangravite

Nov 20, 2007 · Essays · 4 minute read

Jewish basketball nostalgia

There was a time when short, angry Jewish players dominated basketball. They came from South Philadelphia, and they were determined to make anti-Semites respect them.

The First Basket. Film by David Vyorst. November 19, 2007 at Gershman YMHA, 401 S. Broad St. (215) 446-3033 or www.pjff.org. Also available on video.

Steve Cohen

Nov 17, 2007 · Essays · 3 minute read

"Undaunted: Five American Explorers'

Curator Sue Ann Prince’s choice show about five explorers deserves our attention, but it also deserves more imaginative design and flow. Five bold individuals share quarters the size of a row house living room; any one of them merits a room of his own.

“Undaunted: Five American Explorers, 1760-2007.” Through December 28, 2008 at Philosophical Hall, 104 S. Fifth St. (215) 440-3440 or www.apsmuseum.org

Lesley Valdes

Nov 13, 2007 · Essays · 4 minute read