I still can't really believe this happened...

My mother, it should be noted, doesn't really use the internet, so has no idea why this is funny.

So my cat is walking dangerously close to the chocolate chip muffins she just made.

me: No, cat.
mom: She shouldn't be hungry. She had the rest of your dinner.
A pause as this sinks in.
me: She ate my cheeseburger? My cat ate a cheeseburger?
mom: Well, she was looking at it like she wanted it.Apparently, you can.

"You Americans are weird." "Yep."

One of my bosses is Canadian. He came into the office today and demanded to know why Americans use the phrases "Fourth of July" and "Independence Day" interchangeably, because we don't do this for any other holiday.

"You don't say, 'what are you doing for the 25th of December?' or 'Man, I can't wait for the parade on January 1st.'" He went on to point out that in Canada, July 1st was just "Independence Day," not the first of July.

So I looked it up, because that is an interesting question (I already came out as a nerd, remember?). The best answer I could come up with is that there are records of people celebrating the fourth of July as a holiday since 1777. But the first recorded use of the name Independence Day didn't occur until 1791. My theory was that because people had been used to saying "Let's celebrate the fourth of July!" for over a decade, referring to the day by the date slipped into the vernacular. Also, the day wasn't made into a holiday until 1870, so its also very possible that even though some states and areas were calling it Independence Day, the name didn't spread to the other areas of the country until the late 1800s, resulting in people being so used to saying "the fourth of July" that it stuck.

I'll admit, my theory is a little weak. If you have a better idea I'd love to hear it.

This question and conversation also led me to learn that every state in the Union has a state anthem except for New Jersey. New Jersey's unofficial anthem is "Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen, while all the other states' songs (in my opinion) kinda suck. So, in the ongoing battle to find out which is the best state in the Union, New Jersey could very well be winning the "coolest song" round, but choices not to even enter itself into that race. That's ballsy.

"Never take a wife till thou hast a house (and a fire) to put her in."

Benjamin Franklin and Betsy Ross are getting married tomorrow.

No, really. Ralph Archbold, one of the most famous Ben Franklins, is getting married to Linda Wilde, who portrays Betsy Ross. They will apparently "exchange rings engraved with a kite and key and stars and stripes, symbols representing the historic characters they play."

I find this marriage to be unbearably cute.

(Is "Ben Franklins" grammatically correct? I've been staring at that sentence for five minutes now trying to figure out another way to say it.)

If you're really (and I mean really) bored today...

The giant Eddie Murphy head, as seen in this article terrorizing Washington, DC, has made it to Philadelphia. It's in front of the Fox building on Market St. today.

Of all the days for me to not bring my camera to work.

Without me, its just Aweso.

I sent out a lot of resumes right after I graduated. One good thing about having found employment, is that it offsets the mind numbing depression that comes from opening the steady stream of rejection letters that have been coming in since May. Each one is more silly than the last. They all want me to know that I'm great, just...not great enough.

The Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau took it a step too far, I think. They want me to know that its not my fault they can't hire me, its theirs. They don't have a "position...available that would utilize [my] skills and experience."

Frankly, I'm just too awesome to work for them. And they need me to know that.

Lawn Chair Drive-in

I think this blog is helping me get through my post-graduation quarter life crisis (as seen in classic films like The Graduate and [the debatable classic] Garden State).

Anyway, while I still have absolutely nothing to do and am waiting for the work day to end, I'm going to plug my friend's event. Every Tuesday night at the park at 3rd and Poplar is the Lawn Chair Drive-in. Bring a blanket or a beach chair and claim a spot on the grass, and then watch old movies screened on a 16MM projector. Bonus: it's free. Added bonus: this is one of the few parks in the city where drinking alcohol in public is legal. The show starts at sunset, so figure out whenever that is whatever day you go (because you should).

More information, including upcoming movies, can be found here.

A lunch break journey through historical Philadelphia

It may not be clear from the fact that I readily admit that I am a lush, but I'm really a huge nerd. I admit this now, because its time we were honest with each other (all three people who read this), and because it explains this post, in which I explore historical Philadelphia in a half hour.

The time limit is because this half hour was my break from work. I sort-of-kind-of work in the entertainment industry (sorta. kinda.), so when there's nothing to promote there's nothing to do, and I spend 7 hours at a desk playing travian and annoying my boss by asking her for work every twenty minutes. I finally got frustrated, pretended I was going to Cosi's for some overpriced coffee (entertainment people love overpriced coffee), and went walking through the streets.

Franklin's Court happens to be less than a block from my office. This is my favorite spot in the city, and has been since I was a child. Unfortunately, it closes its gates before my work day ends, so I rarely get to go there even though I'm so close.

The Court is the former home of Ben Franklin. In 1812 his grandchildren sold it for some reason, and the original house and printing office were torn down to make way for row homes, which were then torn down when the city realized what a great tourist trap Franklin's house was. The property is a square featuring gardens and hollow outlines (pictured) of where the house and printing office once stood. Best of all, and the original reason my mother and I came here all the time, it houses an underground museum, which is free to the public and air conditioned. Air conditioning is very important.

I love the area because since its literally inside of the block, very few people know its there. Once tourist season ends the place is virtually deserted. Even now, smack dab in the middle of the annual "tourists attack the city" month (the week around July 4th, for obvious reasons, is unbearable for natives), there were maybe seven people wandering around the entire square. That's heaven.

I like cutting through back alleys and finding the lesser known historical areas of the city. I took a picture today (which I may upload later if I remember) of the window where my best friend swears he saw a ghost one night. His story is helped by the fact that that house is supposed to be the most haunted house in the city (its diagonal to Carpenter's Hall, south of it, on the corner of 2nd if you want to go ghost hunting).

Post 9-11 Philadelphia, unfortunately, is not the Philadelphia I grew up with. Once upon a time the park behind Independence Hall was my playground. Today, to get anywhere near the building you have to go through a metal detector, stand in a 2 hour line, and be forced to tour the entire building and liberty bell first. No thanks. I love the building, and I love this city, but some nights when I wander by it I'm afraid to linger too long, lest some Park Ranger think I'm plotting something.

I find it sad that Ben Franklin is the city's patron saint (not literally of course. He wasn't Catholic.), who warned us that "those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither," and this is what his former neighborhood has become. Obsessed with pretending to be safe when, really, what the hell is a tiny fence that comes up to an adult's waist going to do?

While we're on the subject of Independence Hall, the geography of Philadelphia in National Treasure is wrong. It's the wrongiest most wrong layout of the city ever. Please do not come here and expect to be able to walk from the Hall to South Street to Reading Terminal in five minutes. You will be laughed at, and then keel over and die from trying it.

As a final note: I did eventually go get my overpriced coffee from Cosi. As I walked into the store, the woman behind me turned to her friend and said "yeah, this is it for historical Philadelphia. It's just these few block." That lady is wrong, and may inspire a future entry. Maybe.