Essays
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Page 98
Steve Poses and his "informal restaurant revolution'
Up from tuxedoes and canned peas: The forgotten father of informal dining
Steve Poses couldn't cook like Georges Perrier, but his places helped change the way we ate, ending an era of tuxedoed waiters and canned peas.
Essays
2 minute read
In the bomb shelter: The brighter side of war
In the bomb shelter: The positive by-products of war
From an adult perspective, all those rockets fired into Israel seem very scary. But to a six-year old child who didn't understand anything, war was not only exciting news, it was great fun. My brother and I would cheer when sirens blew as my parents scrambled for the gas masks. We also spent more happy time with our parents and neighbors than we'd ever spent before.
Essays
6 minute read
Fuji: Philadelphia's best restaurant?
Is this Philadelphia's best restaurant?
What's the best restaurant in Philadelphia? How about a place with no wine list, no sign and a tiny kitchen with a fanatic inside?
Essays
5 minute read
A South Philly Christmas story
The passions of winter: A South Philly Christmas story
When a cop won the race for the hand of the loan shark's vivacious daughter, her rejected suitor morphed into an embittered and brutal hit man. But one who has been crossed in love should never breathe the Christmas odor of cloves of garlic. It stirs the memory to a dangerous degree.
Essays
13 minute read
Vidocq: Philadelphia's Sherlock Holmes
Corrupt but dedicated: Philadelphia's answer to Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan and Sam Spade are all legendary but fictitious private eyes. But Edgar Allan Poe and Victor Hugo were inspired by a real Philadelphia gumshoe of literary dimensions, as I discovered behind the door of the Vidocq Society in Center City.
Essays
5 minute read
Philadelphia Science Fiction Conference
Science fiction vs. science fantasy
I've been defending science fiction against various onslaughts ever since I started reading it. For me, it's a literary response to the knowledge that the future will be different from the present-- probably very different.
Essays
5 minute read
Félix Fénéon Teaches You How To Write
Give me three lines, and I'll give you the world
The art critic and anarchist Félix Fénéon was above all a man who understood that brevity is the soul of wit. His collection of three-line novels, circa 1906, is an exercise in style that belongs on every bookshelf.
Essays
4 minute read
An ad man makes his case
Confessions of an advertising man, or:
Why my mother took the subway to Macy's
Many people, filled with smug self-satisfaction, claim to be above it all. They tell us that they're just not influenced by ads or commercials. This is self-delusion.
Essays
3 minute read
Life imitates Hollywood
Stranger than fiction
A preposterous incident in the 1939 Howard Hawks film Only Angels Have Wings actually occurred this month. What, if any, are the implications for America’s incoming administration?
Essays
3 minute read
Satirizing a black president
Obama and Bush walk into a bar...
With Obama’s election, satirists must grapple with the unique problem of walking the tightrope between humor and racism. We all need some practice— not in recognizing satire, but in sorting it out from racism in satire’s clothing.
Essays
2 minute read