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Man or woman? It was very confusing, back then.

A Mummer memory, circa 1950

High heels, a blue sequined gown, and hair on his chest

When I was a blue-collar kid growing up in Kensington, a contingent of Mummers would parade up Kensington Avenue each year just a few weeks after their New Year’s march up Broad Street. That’s where I got my first look at a cross-dressing man, up very, very close.

Joseph Franklin

Dec 28, 2013 Essays 4 minute read

A glittering currency, but what's its intrinsic value?

The bitcoin craze

If you say it’s money and I say it’s money….

What do bitcoins and tulips have in common? As the tulip was the fetish object of the 17th-Century Netherlands, so the bitcoin is of our digital age. But tulips, at least, were pleasing to the eye.

Robert Zaller

Dec 28, 2013 Essays 4 minute read

Should Snowden be silenced, or encouraged to speak up?

My person of the Year: Edward Snowden

The man who outed the dragon

Who changed the world in 2013? Time Magazine’s choice— Pope Francis— pales beside Edward Snowden, the man who blew the National Security Agency’s cover.

Robert Zaller

Dec 21, 2013 Essays 4 minute read

That miracle on the Hudson: Survivors' tales

I’m dying, and I didn’t make the bed!

How would you react if you knew your plane was about to crash? Thanks to the miraculous Hudson River landing of a disabled US Airways flight five years ago, we have some answers. As you might expect, they range from the ridiculous to the sublime.

Roz Warren

Dec 14, 2013 Essays 2 minute read

Millett's 'Gleaners' (1857): Better uses for their brains?

Too many people? (a reply)

Population growth: Quality trumps quantity

A simple increase in the number of brains in the world doesn’t do you any good if the owners of those brains are all working in the rice fields growing rice. One educated brain is worth several dozen illiterate subsistence farmers.

Tom Purdom

Dec 10, 2013 Essays 4 minute read

The man is dead. So why are you chuckling?

Paul Walker’s ironic demise

Give me the simple death

Paul Walker, the star of movies about fiery car crashes, just died in a fiery car crash. Death, always, sucks. But an ironic death? Even worse.

Roz Warren

Dec 07, 2013 Essays 2 minute read

Why destroy a harmless creature that might become your friend?

Fear of spiders, real and projected

The cobwebs of your mind

The real danger posed by the tarantula on my floor lay not with the spider or even with my husband. It lay in my persistent fear of the social and financial consequences of divorce. In the same way, all of us project our fears onto others so that we see threats that don’t exist.

Susan E. Washburn

Dec 03, 2013 Essays 4 minute read

Mel Gibson as Braveheart: Give me childcare or give me death?

Scotland flirts with independence

Calling Rob Roy: It’s time for your breath test

Scotland, the rugged land that gave the world capitalism and more inventions than you can shake a stick at, is now contemplating rugged independence, the better to achieve a welfare state.

David Woods

Dec 03, 2013 Essays 3 minute read

My medical team is ready to serve you, just as soon as you pick the plan that's right for you.

An entrepreneur solves Obamacare

Once and for all: Health care made easy

I am delighted to present PerryCare.gov, your one-stop shop for Obamacare. This is the first ever fully functional, 100% ready-to-use Affordable Care Act Information and Election Website, and it's yours exclusively as a reader of Broad Street Review.