philly

This Philadelphia Weekly cover story by Steve Volk is a very, very good read.

According to the Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery, 4 to 6 percent of people who try gambling will become "problem" or "compulsive" gamblers, an estimate accepted by most researchers.

A problem gambler suffers serious disruption at home, in relationships or on the job; a compulsive gambler often loses control, betting in the face of mounting negative consequences.

"Problem gamblers have some of the highest rates of suicide and self-destructive behavior of any of the mental health disorders," says Keith Whyte of the National Council on Problem Gambling. "They're far more likely to commit suicide than the average population, and approximately 20 to 40 percent will file for bankruptcy."

A University of Chicago study found problem and pathological gamblers were about four times more likely to be fired than nongamblers and two and a half to five times more likely to file for bankruptcy. In addition, some 20 percent of problem gamblers attempt suicide.

A Creighton University study looked at bankruptcy rates in counties with and without casinos over a period of 12 years, and found bankruptcy rates had quadrupled in counties with casinos and tripled in those without. If the model holds true here, more than 200 additional people will declare bankruptcy in Philadelphia County yearly after casinos arrive.

The study also found bankruptcy rates in casino counties shoot up eight years after gambling is introduced, demonstrating how long it can take for problem gamblers to hit bottom.

The city's own task force, employing a formula developed at Harvard Medical School, estimates that some 31,000 Philadelphians are probable problem or pathological gamblers.

Casinos bad. Article good.

If it's Tuesday, it's Drinking Liberally

So the pic I took two weeks ago turned out like crap so this one is up once again. Drinking Liberally tonight for some $1 off drink specials and free wings from 6p – 9p or so over at Tangier [1801 Lombard St]. It may rain before DL is over this week once again, but what the hell..

There's also a Neighborhood Networks meeting a few blocks away at 7p about the upcoming U.S. Senate election. I'm gonna try to hit both up.

People are stupid. Just plain stupid. I understand this. People have to be smart enough to learn from their mistakes. Or, be eliminated through crude Darwinism. Case in point, this mini article / crime blotter expansion on some happenings in West Whiteland Township, about forty-five minutes ENE of Philly.

The 155 word story briefly touched on the idiocy of A) leaving your car unlocked and B) leaving valuables in your [unlocked] car. Doh! and double Doh!

One of the victims left a PIN with her debit card, and the thief, who showed up on the bank surveillance camera, made four cash withdrawals for a total of $600, Malloy said. He said the surveillance photos are being shared with authorities in West Goshen, where similar thefts have occurred. "If we are dealing with the same subject, he is responsible for dozens of cases so far," Malloy said.

Left a PIN with her debit card. Good god. The only excuse for this is that she had recently had her debit card stolen out of her [obviously] unlocked car and was just returning from her bank with her new card and new PIN. But then I thought, don't most banks mail out debit cards and PINs separately and not do it straight from the physical bank? In that case, this idiot couldn't remember her four-digit pin and had to carry around her PIN and compounded that idiocy by leaving her car unlocked. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume that she left her wallet/purse either on the dashboard or in the passenger-side seat. Open.

I would've ended the article with a different sentence:

If we are dealing with the same subject, she is responsible for encouraging dozens of cases so far.

I'm not saying stealing from stupid people is okay. But as Chris Rock likes to say, "But I understand…"

I can't wait until I read a 155 word story on a spate of stolen cars in West Whiteland Township. Cars stolen because the keys were left in them.

Now that I think about it some more, leaving your PIN with your debit card is akin to the kids in middle school / high school who would write the combination to their locks on their fucking locks.

So I read in the Inky that there's a big tiff over the Boy Scouts here in Philly. Why? They have a rather stupid no gays policy. Not that big of a deal I thought. They're a privately funded bunch of people with an increasingly conservative Christian right following. Let those fuckers send their kids down some horrible path if they choose, right? Well, they're doing it on my dime and that's different. The article didn't seem all that interesting until the fourth graph:

Late last week, Mayor Street called for the local Cradle of Liberty Council to denounce the national policy, pay fair-market-value rent, or vacate the stately building it occupies at 22d and Winter Streets, near the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

[P]ay fair-market-value rent! What they hell were they paying? It wasn't until deep in the story when I read:

Philadelphia rents space to more than 75 community organizations with $1 leases, including 14 other youth organizations and several religious groups.

Whaaa? They haven't been paying rent [$1 is not paying rent] at their 22nd & Winter Sts building [do they occupy the entire building?] and they're being a bunch of bigots? That'll get me pissed off. And on top of that, who is their legal counsel and spokesperson? Robert Bork Jr. As in the son of one Robert Bork, the freako [from Pittsburgh, ugh] Supreme Court nominee under Reagan who got shot down so bad his name is a verb. From a quick read of this Mother Jones article, I see that he's very much cut from the same cloth as daddy with his neo-Con leanings.

If you want to be assholes, be assholes. They've been allowed, by law, to be assholes since 2000 and they've been at 22nd & Winter Sts since 1928. With it's 87K members, this is the third largest chapter of the BSA. Why the city government has allowed them to be assholes and not pay rent, I dunno. They should've acted a long time ago. But they didn't. And they are now. It's one thing to provide a service which is open to [and hopefully benefits] all and get some [or in this case fully] subsidized rent. But to openly and seemingly proudly discriminate? Sorry fuckers.

And this could be a time for parents to get more involved with their kids too. Learn about camping out [what shape is poison ivy/oak!]. Learn how to build a fire from scratch, or nearly scratch with some modern tinderbox tools [I've seen those magnesium & flint tools in action]. Learn how to tie some knots [box knots are easy]. Learn how to properly dispose of a tattered American flag [you burn it]. Pull them out of BSA if they can. Not every parent can though.

I was gonna post this photo yesterday, but never got around to it and today, it fits in better after reading this article from the NYT that Scott linked to. It's a quick look at the history of City Hall and a peek into the conservational efforts going on right now.

The article guesstimates a price tag of well over $2 Billion for the building on 2006 dollars citing the costs of the intricate stonework as "beyond calculation" – now that's expensive. It's a lovely structure. Hard to really embrace with it's cold stone, but the cleaning of the surface and replacing the rusted over spots and renewing the interior should warm the place up a bit.

The shot above is a crop of this shot taken over the weekend from the island on Broad/Spruce Sts. It was with my 80-200mm f/2.8 telephoto and my D70. I have a slightly wider shot, but that's at 80mm, so not too wide, from a few seconds earlier, but I haven't posted that one; it's similar to the shot accompanying the article. And I also have this shot of the Clothespin and the western side of City Hall. It's one of the first shots I took with my then brand spankin new D70 nineteen months ago. You can see how dirty the top chunk of the 548' tower was. We have an 11" x 14" print of the old shot hanging splendidly in our living room.

And I also have this shot from NW of City Hall at night.

Our second bedroom a.k.a. Lady's Fortress of Studytude flooded for the second time in the last forty-five days or so after the crazy thunderstorm on Saturday afternoon. The landlord was in the courtyard talking to the landlord of the building next to ours. I went outside and told him we were flooded and worse than the last time around. He came inside and took a look.

He thinks it is the building next door's overflow of some sort messing shit up for us as he's installed a backflow preventer or something which keeps the overflow from the always clogged sewers out of the building. Who knows. I have no idea.

He went home to get some stuff and came back to clean up the mess and then hit the tiles with a shot of mildew remover for good measure. He also took the rug which Lady loves to the cleaners for us. This has been the best response [for lack of a better word] we've had from him in the year we've been living there.

He told me that ultimately, it's the City's fault for having a super shitty sewer system. Apparently, the City has the funds for an overhaul of a main line underneath Lombard St, but there are problems involving the PECO transfer station around 8th St or so with all of their underground stuff. It's supposed to be three years down the line. We won't be in this apartment three years down the line.

Lady and I took a stroll over to Rittenhouse Square to the Rittenhouse Farmer's Market on Saturday. It runs from 10a – 3p every Saturday on the south side of Walnut St through November 18th. There were stands selling tomatoes, bell peppers, various greens, cucumbers, peaches, apricots, bread, braids of garlic and soups!

We picked up some tomatoes, jalapeños, peaches and three cans of soups from Captain Marriner's. I couldn't resist trying the lobster bisque and I couldn't resist buying two cans of them afterwards. I was told to simply combine the contents with a half can of milk and enjoy. Lady opted for the potato and cheddar chowder pictured below.

The three cans came in at $12, not bad for six hearty servings of really good soup. I was so hungry I had a full can of the bisque when we got home. It was a little overkill, but I really couldn't stop myself. No bread or crackers necessary, it is just that good. Lady liked her chowder too, but she wisely had a proper serving. While stirring her pan of chowder, I took a couple licks off of the spoon I was using to stir and I'll definitely be picking up some more cans of that one too next time around. No photos of the soups themselves though, smelled too good to stop and set up a shot.

Buying local is always good and I think I'll be making the early afternoon walk over to the farmer's market each Saturday until it closes, weather permitting.

My new favorite stickerart piece is this one found on Spruce/Broad on the SE corner [I'm pretty sure it was Spruce]. The artist goes by "nose" and this character is usually not wearing clothes and without arms and legs. I burst out laughing when I saw it on the back of the street sign. I guess it doesn't take too much to amuse me.

More nose in my flickr stream.

Two Sundays in a row of 11 v 11 soccer. It really doesn't get much better than that for me. There's nothing I'd rather be doing than playing with two full sides on a full field. It would be nice if everyone were at a similar skill level and if the field didn't have a solid ten-foot incline from goal to goal, but hey.

I think I evened out my farmer's tan a bit as our side played as skins to their shirts, but still fairly pale halfway up the arms. The late day sun is still pretty hot and stayed up a good while after we were done at about 7.30p.

I even managed to put one in the back of the net [well, if there was a net] beating the keeper on a breakaway. Slowly my touch on the ball is coming back. But I definitely injured myself a bit in my right leg. I went back on the field on the left side and heavily favored my left. Had to come off the field after I could barely run anymore. Pushing off using my right side is still a pain right now. But for some reason, biking doesn't hurt much at all. The four or five mile bike ride home from the field is really nice. It's a great stretch after running around for two hours. A good way to get all that anaerobic acid out of the muscles with a relaxing, mostly downhill, ride.

A lot more faces from last summer were out this time around too, good to see them after a year layoff.

I was contacted by a rep from TurnHere.com which is a video guidebook to various cities across America. They profile various parts of the cities they list. Laura, the rep, highlighted a few which were already completed [they're periodically putting up new stuff] and I just got a chance to watch a handful of them. They're short films about 2m30s to 4m long or so from the ones I've watched so far and all the Philly ones can be found here.

I watched this one on Old City, this one on South Street and this one on the Italian Market. Looking forward to more and definitely worth a look if planning a trip somewhere to get a look at the place via video. I even learned a few things about the neighborhoods as well. Now I know where to get me some fresh pasta over in the Italian Market, sweet.

Surely they're not perfect, but I think that they do a good job. It's a cool niche they're filling in the guidebook area. I think we're all very familiar with the traditional physical books we've lugged to various places. More recently, the photo-based guides. And now, video! Technology is great.