(no subject)

[skygiants]

Aw man, I was SO CLOSE to having a perfect December-meme record (I'm counting the posts where I didn't actually manage to post them until one in the morning as part of my perfect record, dammit) until last night.

On the other hand, since my assigned post for the thirtieth was just genarti leaning over my shoulder and saying "Hey, since you're writing about NYC, you should use your open slot to write about Philadelphia!" I think writing it 12 hours late is only half a blot on my perfect record. STILL GOLD.

Anyway, I do want to write about Philadelphia in addition to NYC, because while New York is home for me, a lot of my loyalty still rests with Philadelphia.

I didn't grow up in Philadelphia proper, I should say, to begin with, but since we're all of fifteen minutes outside of the city I always say Philadelphia when people ask where I'm from; it takes four times longer to get to Manhattan from my apartment in Brooklyn than it does to get to Philly from my parent's house. The difference is significant, though, because as close as we are, it's still far enough away that navigating around Philadelphia was always something I did with other people -- my family, when I was young, and then with my high school friends later on. But it's not something I did by myself, and the fallout of that is that now, when people ask me how to get around Philadelphia and where they should go to eat or have a drink, I draw a blank. And I hate that. I want to know Philadelphia like I know New York.

And the thing is, Philadelphia deserves to be known. Philadelphia is amazing, and I get really defensive about it because I feel like it gets overlooked a lot -- if people are doing the East Coast tour, the go-to stops are New York and DC and probably Boston. And Philly's right there, guys! It's right there, it has an incredibly rich history, and it loves its history -- I mean, this is the city where a Ben Franklin impersonator and a Betsy Ross impersonator fell in love and got married in Center City for an audience of thousands. It has Reading Terminal Market and a museum that collects weird tumors and the Magic Gardens, which are basically like a leap into an alternate universe, and I defy anyone to look at the front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as you drive by along the riverbank, and not think it's the most beautiful museum in the country. Seriously. Just try it. YOU CAN'T DO IT.

And, I mean, Philly has its problems, no doubt about it, but the thing is, it's not this magical, mythical city in the American consciousness, like New York can sometimes be. It's a grounded city. It's an incredibly livable city, which I think a lot of people forget. I love New York, I love living in New York, New York feels like home. But ask me which city I'd back in a fight, and it's Philadelphia all the way.

Comments

[newredshoes]

!! Impersonators in love is amazing, why is there not a movie or a webseries or something about that????

[skygiants]

THERE SHOULD BE. You should write it! :D

[tree_and_leaf]

Yay Philly! (My husband grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs, though a lot further out than you. I don't know the city well, in fact I have spent more time in New York, but I've always liked it).

[skygiants]

YAY PHILLY. Philly's so great!

[ceitfianna]

Yes to everything you've said about Philly. I grew up twenty minutes away from it but don't know it the way I know Wellington, which is the closest I think of as my city. I completely agree on wishing more people visited Philly, I keep telling people to visit as I love it.

[skygiants]

Yes! EVERYONE SHOULD VISIT PHILLY. They just shouldn't rely on me for directions to do it...

[hokuton_punch]

Philly also has a thriving book trade! My former boss the rare book dealer was from there and he had some fascinating stories...

[skygiants]

Oh, wow, that I was not aware of! If you have any exceptional ones, you should share. :D

[hokuton_punch]

Regrettably I have forgotten most of them... /o\ But Charles Godfrey Leland who translated a lot of Heinrich Heine and wrote a tremendous number of books (most of which I catalogued) was a Philadelphian, and I believe so was Christopher Morley, who was a founder of the Baker Street Irregulars, and I'm pretty sure that my boss had bought his nice collection of 16th-17th century printed books with beautiful bindings from a binder who lived in Philly. (OH, THOSE BOOKS WERE SO BEAUTIFUL. One of the first ones I picked up actually had 13th-century manuscript pages covering the boards!)

[next_to_normal]

Haha, I noticed on one of your posts you mentioned going to Philadelphia! I also grew up in a Philly suburb, but on the New Jersey side, and I have that same feeling of coming up empty when people ask for recommendations. In my defense, growing up I didn't really go to the city ~socially - mostly just to visit family - so it's not like I was really out and about, except for the six months I worked in Center City.

a museum that collects weird tumors

AHAHAHAHAHA the Mutter Museum! It is the creepiest!

But ask me which city I'd back in a fight, and it's Philadelphia all the way.

Obviously. Philadelphians have a reputation to uphold, dammit.

[skygiants]

Yeah, it's sort of the same for me! I mean, I did go into the city socially, but mostly to a few very specific places, and mostly I was following other people there.

Philadelphians TOTALLY have a reputation to uphold.

[damselfish]

When I was a Bryn Mawr freshman, the "museum that collects weird tumors" was pretty much the first thing I needed to see! Seriously if you'd asked me before I went to Philly what's in Philly I'd be like "the liberty bell, history stuff, THE MUTTER MUSEUM!"

Oddly enough I rarely went into Philly after that, because it's also a place I only went with friends. And almost every time we have a story of the creepy subway system.

[skygiants]

Hahaha I NEVER took the Philly subway. It was always R5 to get into the city (or, in the other direction, to get to Ludington Library in Bryn Mawr) and then walk wherever I needed from there. NO MATTER HOW FAR THE WALK.

[damselfish]

Wait wait did we go to the same library? I feel like mine had a wacky welsh name though (it was near the college so two blocks from the R5 stop on the main line).

I took the Philly subway a fair number of times.

People talk about the NYC subway but it couldn't hold a candle to my trip on the Philly subway.

It took me forever to figure out SEPTA for some reason though. "I need to get out of the city on the R5. Is it Paoli or Thornton?" which in retrospect seems like a dumb problem but I had it repeatedly until I learned the terminal stops! Or it's because I grew up in a city with no public transport, one or the other.

[skygiants]

Yup, that was for sure Ludington Library! Best public lbrary on the Main Line -- it wasn't my local (I lived down the street from Narberth Library) but it had the most choices. It used to be kind of ugly and now the building is all glass and shiny and it really weirds me out!

[damselfish]

I just want to say that is ridiculously cool how small the world is!

Also you're right, I checked google image search and it just doesn't look right, but the map confirms it.