I saw a number of the mysterious Toynbee tiles in the streets of Philadelphia last week. The tiles began appearing in the early 1980s and have since been spotted in cities around the world. Most have become worn or have disappeared as streets get repaved. NPR ran a story about the tiles a couple of months ago. One of these days I'll have to go back and take pictures of the known tiles in better light. This guy seems to be obsessed with the tiles.
Devil Burger at Devil's Alley, Philadelphia
I'm back from Philadelphia were there were plenty of good friends, good food and good times. Not too much time for wandering and taking photos. Tonight I am relaxing, really relaxing, at home for the first time in several weeks. Sloth is good!
There's a photo, taken in better light, of the Devil Burger in the Philadelphia Weekly. The bowl on the right in my photo contained melted cheese. Would you pour the cheese on the burger or dip the burger into the cheese? I poured.
Unrelated: Interesting economic facts from today's New York Times:
In an article about politicians and plastic surgery, "With Americans spending $12 billion a year getting injected, stapled and snipped, cosmetic surgery long ago went mainstream."
From a story about the expansion of premium ice cream chain stores, "Americans spend about $21 billion on ice cream, according to the International Dairy Foods Association. That amounts to... 21.5 quarts a person a year."
Nice. Did they name themselves after the World Trade Center site or the point over which an atomic weapon explodes?
When I did the cheesesteak comparison back in February I drove through this little commercial district along Passyunk Ave. in South Philadelphia. I didn't have time to stop on that trip so I made sure to pay a visit this time.
The fourth photo "Toynbee Idea..." is of a tile embedded in a street that had just been graded for resurfacing. I hadn't seen one before, have you? Apparently there are bunch of them embedded in streets all over the world. Nobody has ever seen them being installed and nobody really knows what they mean or who installed them.
Queen Village
In Living Memory: Those of Us Alive
Larry Fine
Spend even a few minutes wandering around Philadelphia and you'll see lots of great murals. The murals are part of the city's Mural Arts Program, which began in 1984 as part of an anti-graffiti effort and is now part of the city Department of Recreation.
I've got mixed feelings about the murals. On the one hand they are very interesting and I enjoy looking at them. On the other hand, large parts of Philadelphia look like a bombed-out war zone. The In Living Memory... mural above is across the street from the collapsed building, next to an abandoned community garden, and one block from a fortress-like state university (Temple). Instead of painting a mural maybe the city and state ought to put some effort into addressing the neighborhood's problems.
Murals from last year's visit, and one from when I passed through in February. And a mural database from the University of Pennsylvania.
I went to a conference in Philadelphia earlier this week. I had a bit of spare time before driving home Thursday evening so I went up to the Wagner Free Institute of Science. The Wagner is a 19th Century era museum. The displays are pretty much unchanged since 1890. The handwritten description of the spiny lobster said it was a flavourful creature but the lack of meaty claws was a definite drawback. There are many seashells and stuffed birds.
The best I can say for the conference is that it was held in the Marriott, across the street from the Reading Terminal Market. I practiced some restraint but the Amish cheesecake with a layer of cream cheese on top was too tempting. New York needs a market like that.
Philadelphia is an interesting city. I only had a few hours to look around but I took enough pictures for a few posts. I think, though, with all these photos it is time I get myself an account on Flickr.
Dollar hoagies, South Philadelphia. I didn't try it as I was worried that eating one might cause me to:
I saw several of these Lose or Gain Serious Weight signs around town. This particular one was in North Philadelphia, a couple of blocks from Temple University, not too far from:
North Philadelphia is grim. The blocks are half-empty. Half the buildings standing have boarded up or no windows. I saw several buildings with huge holes in their sides. The collapsed building above is a block from the Wagner Institute. It's an extreme, but not necessarily uncommon, example of decaying North Philly. The building looks like it had collapsed and a chain link fence was put up around the pile of bricks.
Here I am Thursday evening in the mirror of a little Middle Eastern place on Third St. just south of South St. I wanted something quick and fairly healthy to eat before driving back. I ordered a falafel sandwich and a cup of chai. They were not busy. More precisely I was the only customer. It took 15 minutes to make the $3 chai and half an hour to make the $5.50 sandwich. Both were delicious. How do they stay in business? How slow would they be if two customers came in at the same time?
More later.
Pat's Whiz Wit
Rear view of Pat's. Because of the sun angle there was no way to get a good picture of the front.
Geno's Steaks
Geno's Whiz Wit
Top: Frankie Avalon, Chubby Checker, and Jerry Blavat
Bottom: Fabian, Bobby Rydel, Al Martino, Eddie Fisher.
While in Philadelphia last year I led some friends to Jim's Steaks for a Philly cheese steak dinner. I had been to Jim's a couple of times before and the sandwiches were pretty good. That visit -not so good.
On the drive down to Washington last week I decided to try either Pat's or Geno's to prove to myself that there are good cheese steaks in Philly. The two restaurants sit across the street from each other at the intersection of Passyunk Ave, Wharton, and 9th Streets.
Geno's looked more tourist-oriented so I went to Pat's. I had the "Whiz Wit", a cheese steak with Cheese Whiz and onions. Pat's really slops on the Whiz. It was delicious if you like Cheese Whiz. If you're looking for a complex interplay of ingredients look elsewhere. Skip the fries.
Did I mention it was cold? Oh, man, it was freezing and Pat's doesn't have indoor seating. You can see the cheese solidifying in the top photo.
After polishing off a sandwich and a few fries before they became inedibly cold, I walked across the street to get a better angle for a photo of Geno's. As I got closer it occurred to me that I was still hungry and... wouldn't it be nice to compare Geno's sandwich to Pat's. Geno's has indoor seating but I stayed outside to equalize the eating experience.
Geno's was far skimpier than Pat's on the Whiz. I could even taste the steak and onions! The steak seemed to me to be a different, lesser, cut of beef than at Pat's. I don't what it was about the bread but it was far superior to Pat's.
As I got back on I-95 I debated which was better. After a bit of thought I realized that that was the wrong question. Both were really good but in different ways. I'd go back for both, but probably not at the same time.
Next door to Pat's and Geno's was this new mural of Philadelphia singers. Philadelphia has great murals all over town. From his absence in this mural I assume Mario Lanza must have one of his own.
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