This section is literally a hidden space in Philly. Its a tunnel under the Reading Viaduct, a rail line that used to feed into Reading terminal but now is a truncated and abandoned platform. I think a victorian-era train platform still exists on Spring Garden street. Its corpse winds through a 15 or so block of the city between Vine Street and Fairmount Avenue. Inevitably it’ll be torn down, but right now it is something of a beautiful ruin.
I think it could just use a good cleaning, so I’d imagine this site will be useful (thanks to its author). I called a local repair shop, one of three I found listings for in the Philadelphia area — and the only one who picked up a phone, and their typewriter repair guy only works occasionally throughout the year and charges just to look at machines. The way I see it, any chance that I significantly screw up the restoration is mitigated by the steep repair costs. If he’s going to charge me an arm and a leg to fix it, I might as well see to it that it is good and broke first.
I’ve been looking with much envy at some of the classic letterheads of yore, such as Tesla’s or Steve McQueen‘s, and I think it might be fun to come up with my own. If the spirit moves me, I think I might also persuade myself to type out a few notes from time to time. Like most folks nowadays, my handwriting is atrocious, and physical representations of correspondence are rare and beautiful things nowadays.
Of course, this restoration may never happen while the kids are still in underfoot and, by the time they’re done, mechanotelepathy will have made all other forms of communication obsolete.
Speaking of which, I registered for the opportunity of a sliver of hope for the drawing of a chance to purchase tickets to see the final launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery on Nov. 1. That might be worth taking a week off to see.
His name is Max.
Max Arrow, Private Eye.
There are a thousand stories in the Naked Borough, and this is his.
Really. That’s his name, Max Arrow, Private Eye. He’s a regular on our block and, if I remember correctly, a rescue pup, although obviously greying a bit now. In keeping with the P.I. spirit, there are four things we can deduce about his owner…if you’d care to click the picture to enlarge:
Nice fellow.
We were marching up to the town square in the hopes that ice cream could be found there. Fortunately, the new place, 709 West Avenue Cafe was open an hour past its posted closing time. There Ben and Julia each ate a bowl of ice cream larger than their heads. I had the coffee.
The Cafe, not to be confused with the West Avenue Grill across the street, opened a few months back and seems to be getting decent word-of-mouth. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, the Cafe is in the same spot where the Grill started out almost a decade ago. Between the Cafe and Old Man Al’s Questionable Burgers, there’s something of an uptick in local eateries, which is great since Jenkintown Java’s preserved corpse is still sitting there off the square, waiting for a new tenant to step in and get the pots boiling again.
Jenkintown doesn’t need another vacant store, but I’ve always wondered why we needed so many frame shops.
Senator’s Daughter Found – Mrs. Hallowell Irwin, daughter of the late Senator Thomas B. Harper, who mysteriously disappeared from her home in Jenkintown, several weeks ago, was found in a hotel in New York and brought back to home at Jenkintown on Saturday. Although no reason is ascribed for Mrs. Irwin’s absence, which kept her relatives worried for some time, it is believed that she became despondent immediately after her father’s death and wandered away.
Two sentences, but a whole world of mystery.
Also, unrelated but in the same article:
Boy Dies of Lockjaw – Valek Dranaka, aged 17 years, of Bridgeport, died on Saturday in the Norristown Hospital of lockjaw, which developed from blood poisoning, following a wound on the leg near the ankle, the result of having been struck with the iron point of a bobbin while at work in Loes’ mill, Bridgeport.
Just a reminder that life was harder, death more frequent. This young boy, who should have been in high school, but was working in a mill, killed because his nicked ankle became infected. Think about that the next time you hear someone cranking on about modern medicine.
…and when I get one, it’ll have this:
Hokey smokes!
Don’t be fooled by the enormous golden retriever, Abby, here. She’s not just a sleepy older pooch on the, erm, husky side.
She’s like a trapdoor spider, waiting for two year-olds to lick. I believe her tongue was big enough to get all the spaghetti sauce off Ben’s face in one go. You see, there’s a reason we do this after dinner.
This pup, on the other paw, truly was sedentary.
Lastly, Cocoa was a sweet older beagle that we’ve seen a few times, but never has been captured, until now. I like this pic.
An Iggles fan, even in the off season.
All pictures courtesy of Julia, click ‘em to embiggen.
I can draw a direct line between this interest and the fact that both times my parents took me to Walt Disney World as a kid (at age 5 and again at 10), we stayed at the Polynesian Resort. Something about the combination of indoor fountains and air conditioning still gets to me. (I can draw a similar line to my love of monorails.)
That’s why I loved this quick review of the “Boutiki” shop at the resort. I won’t steal any of Shawn Slater’s images, so you’ll have to click the link yourself.
WikiAnswers: What are the advantages of a saltwater swimming pool? I had my first saltwater pool swim this weekend. My god, it is a thing of beauty.
Kayak.com’s Explore feature: One good reason to have tactical pants is traveling. I mean, really, why look like a chump when traveling? This is a nice feature for midafternoon daydreaming.
