Essays
1094 results
Page 95
One woman's quest for peace and quiet
Do I hear an urban symphony?
In Philadelphia I once heard a mockingbird sing outside my house on Brandywine Street. But only once. As my cross-country peregrinations have proven, peace and quiet are hard to find no matter where you live.
Essays
6 minute read
Down with minimalist design!
Down with purity, up with character: Radical (but sensible) home design tips
In contemporary minimalist homes, the best imagery is usually the view out the window. How can enlightened homeowners infuse color, chaos and character into their rooms? It's not difficult if you follow a few basic principles.
Essays
6 minute read
A summer construction job, 1959
How I spent my vacation: The pyramid builder, summer of '59
The summer of '59, when I was 17, I got a construction job putting up Hawthorne Square, a housing project at 12th and Fitzwater. It did me no visible good. I never worked that hard again. But the memory lingers on.
Wine on-line (Part 2): A quick shoppers' course
Wine on line: A quick course for adventurers
Shopping for wine on the Internet makes little sense for most of us right now. But that logic is changing as good liquor stores grow harder to find and small wine producers grow hungrier for customers. A few suggestions for Internet shoppers.
Essays
4 minute read
Ringling Brothers Circus at the Spectrum
See the elephants dance (while you still have the chance)
The sight of ten elephants standing on their hind legs and spinning around brings a smile to my face, and to my son's and virtually everyone else's at the Ringling brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus. If a lawsuit alleging cruelty to these animals succeeds, this may be our last opportunity to watch this stunt.
Essays
2 minute read
Urban oasis: The Lombard Swim Club
Summer camp for urban grownups
Summers in the city can be tough on the soul. But on a hot evening at the Lombard Swim Club, with the carnival lights flickering and Jimmy Buffet crooning, it's easy to believe you are not in Center City at all, but on a cruise ship.
Essays
3 minute read
"Wallander': Swedish noir on PBS
For whom Kurt Wallander's bell tolls
Kurt Wallander— complex, intuitive, sad and self-loathing— is the Swedish detective, created by Henning Mankell, whose saga is being presented by PBS in a three-piece series starring Kenneth Branagh. He's also a walking personification of the discontents of modern industrial democracies— Sweden's as well as our own.
Essays
4 minute read
Hanging out in the '50s
Rites of passage, 1958: What our parents didn't know
The thrill of hanging out in the '50s lay primarily in that word “out.” “Out” meant away from the family. It meant away from the confining, conformist, predominant 1950s cultural attitude that scorned all non-grade-bettering, non-money-earning, devil-courting idleness.
Growing up at the Palestra, 1958
The way it was (1958): Growing up and growing old at the Palestra
In the days of Montgomery bus boycotts and Little Rock desegregation, Temple University fielded more black basketball players than Philadelphia's other city schools combined. It also had the Jews. As a 15-year-old fan who rooted out of his own discomforts and hurts and shortcomings, my allegiance was cemented.
Shopping for wine on line (Part 1)
By the time I get to Chaddsford, or: The next big thing: Wine on line
Wine-buying on-line is still pretty much in its infancy. Part of the problem is the law. But technology is overcoming that obstacle as well as many others. And even if you don't shop on-line, you can learn plenty.
Essays
3 minute read