Good Grief!

To me, the whole concept of “birds as pets” is disgusting. Ditto feeding birds out of your hand. Feed the birds? Tuppance, schmuppance. That shit is nasty, Mary Poppins.
This dislike of close-up birds stems from my high school job at Lititz’s General Sutter Inn. I name names only because the Inn now has new owners, […]

Someone turned an ugly portrait of the pope into a jigsaw puzzle and then displayed it next to a decorative, flashing-light moose plaque. This shocking exhibit is but a few steps away from the National Baseball Hall of Fame, an institution that embodies the national pastime and moral fabric of our great nation.
cooperstown […]

A long time ago, back when the Waffle House existed only below the Mason-Dixon line and had Queen of My Double-Wide Trailer on the jukebox, I drank too much and made a late-night visit to the Harrisonburg location of this fine franchise*. I ordered the customary blueberry waffle, which Ravenna, the best Waffle House […]

Frankly, I am shocked that no enterprising weblogger has taken on the project of documenting the life and times of Lititz, Pennsylvania. I’d do it myself, but I’m only there a few times a year. My current Lititz goal is to track down “shoe man,” a former state trooper who sits in his […]

The recently re-opened Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) is overwhelming. Not only is the place filled with sculpture, photos, drawings, paintings, and film, it’s filled with people. Lots and lots of people. Many of them are wearing questionable clothing. Is it art?
Exhibits A and B: a protest against the traditional […]

Because of some PGW love* that arrived in this week’s mail, I am feeling thrifty. Thrifty enough to brave the Saturday 7:00 AM Philadelphia to New York Chinatown bus, despite the warnings of Sassy J, Sam, and others.
So I am not sure what to make of Benny’s World: According to the Chinatown Bus, […]

The Gates. Pretty cool. I made the trip to NYC with Scott, who wanted to learn the SEPTA/NJ Transit ropes, and we were both impressed by the magnitude and span of Christo and Jeanne Claude’s latest work.
According to Scott, the pair originally wanted to show The Gates in conjunction with Central Park’s fall […]

Once or twice a year, I take the train to New York City and wander around for a day. Make that trains plural, since I’m too cheap to take Amtrak and instead make the perilous Trenton SEPTA/NJ Transit connection (though I’m not so cheap that I’ve tried the scary Chinese busses, which careen down […]

I was lucky enough to grow up in a town that smells like chocolate. Lititz, Pennsylvania is the home of Wilbur Chocolate, and I remember the sweet smell that would waft through the air as the neighborhood gang played ball or built forts or terrorized the old lady next door.
Though I’m not a chocolate […]

The day after putting up the Jesus Christmas light pictures, I got a rare e-mail from my friend J Bubbles, a reluctant resident of Kansas City:
Well. . . did you notice? I’ve read your blog 2 whole times now! Gee. . . do I sense some hostility towards the Show Me State??? […]