Essays
1090 results
Page 84
Society Hill's revival: A memoir
Urban renaissance up close: A Society Hill pioneer remembered
In 1960 I took one look at Spike Stapleford's decrepit block in Society Hill and realized: This street seemed to possess the potential for all the elements of the neighborhood I'd grown up in. And so it did.
Essays
6 minute read
LeBron James makes his decision
Not just another superjock: The intuitive wisdom of LeBron James
No one outside Miami seems happy that the basketball superstar LeBron James has contracted to play for the Miami Heat. Yet a look at his decision suggests that this brilliant athlete and marketing engine made a decision based on personal values that celebrate the spirit of a game whose future development may rest in his enormous hands.
Essays
6 minute read
A Caribbean cruise from hell
Are we having fun yet? Reflections on an ocean cruise
I'd never taken a cruise before. In fact I'd always derided cruises as an artificial form of travel. Then I took a ten-day cruise to the Caribbean and discovered I'd been right all along.
Essays
8 minute read
Test scores: A teacher's tale
The worst, or the best? A school teacher's tale
As the school year ended, I was summoned to see the principal. Our preliminary PSSA scores have come out, and my class did terribly, and so I am to blame. It doesn't matter if your kids have learning issues or attendance issues. All that matters is their scores.
Essays
5 minute read
Laura Bennett's "Didn't I Feed You Yesterday?'
Note to supermom: Your hemline is showing
In Didn't I Feed You Yesterday, Laura Bennett sends a sassy, irreverent look at motherhood down the runway. If that sounds familiar, it should: Most of her material is recycled from somewhere else.
Essays
4 minute read
Fear and integration in Wynnefield, c. 1970
You've got to be carefully taught: Wynnefield before the whites fled
To a kid growing up there, Wynnefield was a far more interesting, vital neighborhood in the years after integration and before our parents' panic ended that all too brief era.
Essays
4 minute read
On saving the U.S.S. 'Olympia'
Almost gone, and already forgotten
The U.S. Olympia, Admiral Dewey's flagship and long a prime Philadelphia attraction, seems headed for the scrap heap. But it was saved from that heap at least once before, as I can attest from firsthand experience.
Essays
6 minute read
SEPTA: The tragedy and the prevarication
Slouching toward Albania: SEPTA confronts an emergency
SEPTA had a tragedy when a woman was killed on the tracks at the Bryn Mawr station. It compounded it by leaving stranded passengers to fend for themselves, and then lying about the mess it left them in.
Essays
3 minute read
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On not pitying Palestinians
Anti-Semitism turned inside out: On not pitying Palestinians
Nothing on earth seems more politically correct than pitying Palestinians. I have done my own share of it, but no more. Among stateless or secessionist peoples, they are the least deserving of sympathy, and if we actually want to do them good, we should tell them so.
Essays
7 minute read
Martha Nussbaum's ivory tower
Do as I say, not as I do: Martha Nussbaum defends the humanities
Professor Martha Nussbaum deplores the decline of liberal arts education, which she sees as the engine of democracy. And she champions Socratic dialogue as the stimulant for the liberal arts. So why was her recent Free Library appearance more monologue than dialogue?
Essays
4 minute read