No 72 : February MMX

The Philadelphia Junto
No. 72 : February 2010
A Charvari of the Lit'ry Life

Edited by Richard Carreno
Meeting @ Philadelhia
The Philadelphia Junto Empowered by Writers Clearinghouse | S.P.Q.R.

Told You So

Times Ties in with
Non-profits for Regional News

'Why the Internet Heralds the New Newspaper,' (see sidebar at right) appeared in Junto at BroadStreet Review.com in late 2008.

The article included some predictions and recommendations concerning how local media might confron Internet competition (creation of down-sized weeklies) and how national newspapers, like The New York Times, might exploit regional news needs by creating regional zoned editions, eg. a Philadelphia edition.

The reaction was explosive. E-mails suggested that I was encouraging the demise of the local print media, eg. The Inquirer. Sure, I took some shots at the Inky, and I'd be happy to back them up today. But my points regarding how The Inquirer might be better off as a weekly and how The Times might fill a daily news vacuum in Philadelphia elicited the greatest fury -- from loyal Inky readers and from Inquirer editors.

Vernon Loeb, managing editor of something or another, fulminated in an e-mail and, in a coup de grace, he cancelled his Facebook 'friend ' affiliation with me. Ouch!

News Alert!
On 22 January, The Times reported that it's engaged with non-profits news organizations in San Francisco and Chicago to establish regional editions of the newspaper.

'Our aim is to roll out expanded local reports in several key markets around the country, working with local journalists and news organizations in a collaborative way,' The Times said.

Key market? Philadelphia?

Sorry, Vernon. Really missing you as a 'friend.'

-- Richard Carreno

Architecture

No. 10 Loses Points

David S. Traub, a Junto Staff Writer, thinks Inga Saffron of The Inquirer was 'very asute' in her recent appraisal of No. 10 Rittenhouse Square, a new high-rise apartment building on the Square.

But, he adds:

I disagree that the Allison Building that fronts Rittenhouse Square forms a base for 10 Rittenhouse. Yes, a classical building has a top, a middle and a base. However, 10 Rittenhouse seems to arise out of nowhere    behind the Allison Building. I have always thought 10 Rittenhouse is a building without a site, a true site.

   

The Allison Building, which houses Barnes & Noble, might have served more effectively as a base, if the brick on 10 Rittenhouse matched that of the Allison Building, and if the fenestration of 10 Rittenhouse was of the type with "punched openings" with "double hung windows" like the Allison and 250 S.18th Street, which you mention. With that type of window treatment, the Allison and 10 Rittenhouse would have fused together better visually.

Robert A.M. Stern, whose New York-based firm designed the building, didn't seize upon that possible device/solution to the detriment of the ensemble of buildings. Even had he taken that approach, 10 Rittenhouse sits so far behind the Allison, it is doubtful that the Allison would have read as a convincing base for 10 Rittenhouse.

You also do not indicate which new tenants, if any, have been found for the 18th Street frontage. Are the store fronts finished? They were not earlier this week.

Additionally, you do not discuss whether you think the setback and step down along 18th Street, in lieu of the four townhouses, works in relating that frontage in scale, rhythm and character to the small scale buildings on the West side of 18th Street, north of Sansom Street stretching to Chestnut Street.

Thanks for good coverage of an important new building on the skyline.

(David S. Traub is a Philadelphia architect).

Divorce Court

Punched and Judy-ied

By Richard Carreno
Junto Staff Writer
Let's get Judge Judy out of the courtroom. The divorce courtroom, that is.

Of course, ravenous, craven divorce lawyers, who feed the frenzy surrounding marital calamities, will oppose this sanity. So will lower court judges and their courthouse lackeys who would lose work -- and the coarse enjoyment they get from bullying defendants.

The winners? The rest of us.

Marriage, however defined, is a contract.

Some people might want to consider tying the knot as a sacrament, accompanied by white-gown ritual and religious mumbo jumbo. Pleasant. Nice. A good time. But not a legal, binding contract.

Marriage isn't even a civil contract. It's a free-will partnership, and as such it should be as binding as any school-yard, blood-brother oath. Let's cut wrists, why not?

Nuptials are a private agreement in which consenting adults agree to share and profit from a mutually shared risk. (However unwise that risk might be). Whether it's between man and woman, same sex partners, or amongst several persons, that contract is none of government's business.

What government hath not created, government cannot asunder.

Wise participants in the ritual, of course, will draft a mutually agreed-upon pre-nuptial agreements in the likelihood that their partnership is dissolved. That likelihood, of course, is likely, with 50 percent of all unions ending in divorce. And that's just the marriages that formally break up.

What about children? What happens if their parents split?

Yes, a sticking point. Yes, a sticking point that will probably have to resolved, in many cases, by one or more parties suing in a lower civil court for shared child support and shared custody.

But even if a case winds up before civil court judge, guidelines for child support and custody should be simple, free of confusing legalese, and equitable.

In child support, each party's income and means should proportionately assigned in determining a support determination. Done! In custody -- unless reckless behavior by a parent is proven -- 50-50. Done!

Of course, the simplicity of proposal runs counter to everything that the legal establishment cherishes -- complication, expense, confusion, delay -- all fused with creating anger and, ta dah! -- lucrative monetary practices.

Divorce lawyers aren't adversarial. As most other courthouse cronies, their unstated blood-brother oath is simple: KICS (Keep It Complicated Stupid).

As long as lawyers and judges can keep public anger over self-serving divorce procedures down to a dim roar -- like a two-car collision -- they reckon nothing will change. They're right.

That's why we need to look at divorce with the same amount of national horror that we bestow upon plane crashes. After all, millions are involved. That is, millions of people.

Art

Life Imitating Art

Will the real George Stubbs Rear Up?

Architecture

Mount Pleasant
in Fairmount Park
______________________________

The Most Beautiful House In Philly
Junto Photos: Richard Carreño

Between the years 1762 and 1765, Captain John Macpherson, a Scot by birth, established by John Adams described as 'the most elegant seat in Pennsylvania.' This country estate overlooks the Schuykill River. (Then, as now, the 'right' river). It features classical architecture, stunning interiors and vistas, and the best craftsmanship of colonial Philadelphia.

Training Wheels

Spotting Trains of Thought

Architecture

White House Groupie By Richard Carreno Junto Staff Writer Washington. Thanks to my congressman, Chaka Fattah, I got to see the inside the White House this week. It wasn't easy. I called Fattah's office in October, requesting a public tour. You know, the one for tourists with checked shorts, baseball caps, and white sneakers. I understood that there could be up to a six-month waiting period, what with new screening and security procedures put in place after 9/11. No problem. What I didn't expect was the 'And how many in your group?'question I got from the Fattah aide in charge of tours. Three, I said. Not good enough, I was told. Had to be at least 10. Huh? 'Is it all right, then, if I bring my Boy Scout troop?' No, the aide said earnestly, her humor switch apparently powered off. I had to be a member of a 10-member group, or one that was even larger, she went on, without pause.  The aide surely wasn't making this easy. Well, she said finally -- though she could have said this initially, as well -- ''We can assign you to an already pre-existing group.' Sounded to me like a medical condition. *** Fattah's office called me last week. 'How's Tuesday?' this very same aide asked. 'Tuesday is good.' By e-mail, I received instructions. I need to meet my group a half-hour before the start of our tour at 11 AM. I can't carry an electric stun gun. Nor a pen. (Honest, this stuff is on the White House's list of proscribed items). And if I have any medications, they need to remain in the custody of a chaperone. Chaperone. I guess they're won't be any hand-holding on this tour. I showed up at 10:30 AM at the 15th Street gate (the same one that the Salahis crashed through, incidentally) with my photo ID, whilst stowing my electric stun gun, knitting needles, fireworks, martial arts devices, and hair brush (yes, among other listed items) safely back in the car. Oops! I was carrying a pen. I started looking for my chaperone. And my group. Something like a church knitting soldality, I figured. Without their knitting needles, of course. Presently, I offered my ID to the gate guard, a uniformed Secret Service officer, and he ushered me onto the grounds, leading to an additional checkpoint and, finally, to an East Wing entrance that faces the west side of Treasury and, as I saw out a door window, another of those fake Liberty Bells that dot the country. 'I'm awaiting my group,' I told another uniformed guard as I planted myself on a bench nearby the door. Five minutes. I gazed desultorily at huge photographs of President Obama, looking presidential, that hung on nearby walls. Fifteen minutes. Other tourists. Some couples. Some singles. Some trios. And I noticed they're already starting their tours.  It's already well past 11, and it became clear. Of course, there was no group. *** There was also no rush. The tour was leisurely self-guided, and relatively short, confined mostly to ceremonial rooms on a lower level and on the first floor. I helped myself in recognizing the art on the walls. For the most part, they're paintings of dead presidents, the portraits (some reproductions, in fact) that we see regularly on our paper money. As in Gilbert Stuart. I was thinking two thoughts, as well. First, the place was a lot smaller than I had reckoned. Not as grand as other national residences I've toured. Buckingham Palace and Versailles, for instance. Even some Robber Barons, in Newport and on Fifth Avenue, had some more glam cribs. Who shrunk the State Dining Room? Maximum seating, 142. If you use round tables. 'Everyone thinks the same thing,' another Secret Service guard, stationed in the dining room, told me. 'Everything seems larger on TV.' Still, I was impressed. Size isn't everything. For starters, try even getting into No. 10 Downing Street, or the Eylsee Palace. Built in the late 1790s, burned by the Brits in 1814, reconstructed during the Truman Administration, the White House remains the oldest public building in Washington and home to every President since Adams. And as for cachet, what could be a grander address in America than 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? My second thought? What happens if they catch me carrying a pen? And, yes, thanks Chaka. Really.

Liberty Bell

If You've Seen One,
You've Seen Them All

Washington.
Never in the course of human events -- or iconic worship --have so many come to see so little. The Liberty Bell, of course. 

I've seen replicas in Cheyenne, Wyoming; Montgomery, Alabama; Denver, Colorado; and, now, on the west side of the Department of Treasury (along East Executive Avenue), viewed from the East Wing of the White House.

Thankfully, it's a bell. Today, it might be cell phone, set to wake-up call. Of course, with a crack.
---RDC

Security

Full-Foot Scan?

By
Richard Carreno
Junto Staff Writer
Washington.
If we get a full-body scan, does that include feet?

Will this new technology eliminate the need for airline passengers to remove their shoes in the name of travel security?

Interestingly, I haven't heard anything about this. Odd this, in that shoe removal has to be the biggest complaint passengers lodge as they line up, for the most part, compliantly in areoport security queues.

Everyone believes in airline security -- and is willing support most measures, as long as they're necessary, appropriate, and undertaken respectfully. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has gone a long way in accomplishing this mission. With the exception of the shoe sham, that is. Security stagecraft at its worst.

Visiting the White House yesterday, I got the full monty. No gate-crashing this.

My name was on the list, and they were checking it twice. I got ticked at the 15th Street gate, and then again as I entered the East Wing. I emptied my pockets, went through a metal detector and, as is the case at aeroports, my artificial left knee set off the alarm, necessitating a wanding.

The process was respectful, efficient, and thorough. In fact, I was told by a person who knows about these things that anyone that is, anyone, who enters the White gets a security check that amounts to a 'Secret' clearance. That's why you need to submit your personal details before showing up.

(Does this mean I can now get fast-tracked at areoports? I don't think so).

Of course, the list of no-nos is hysterical. If you've any doubts how literal Americans are, all you have to do is consult one of the banned-item lists you find here, at the Capitol, at the White House. The White House bans, in its long list, handbags, tabacco, combs, knitting needles, pens (oops, I carried one in), mace, knives, martial arts items, fireworks, guns and ammunition,and, my personal favourite, electric stun guns. Just beautiful! Where else but in America would there be an explicit prohibition against electric stun guns?

The good news, even though somewhat contradictory: We were allowed cell phones, umbrellas (blunt tips?), wallets, and car keys (rubber?)

'Please power off your cell phone,' I was told as I entered by the 15th Street gate.

When I got into the East Wing, the person I was waiting for hadn't arrived yet. I feared that there might have been a mix-up. I asked a guard if I might use my cell.

'Sure,' he said.

I powered on my phone, and made the calls I needed to.

Yet no removal of shoes.

A few years ago, at Hartsfield in Atlanta, I experienced my first body scan. Actually, it was a foot scan. Instead of removing my shoes, I inserted by shod feet in a device that scanned them. An X-ray? Who knows? Maybe it was something like those infernal machines in some shoe stores when I was a kid. They were supposed to size your feet. (Actually, I think they were responsible for the bunions I have now).

Obviously, these Atlanta-based feet machines went nowhere.

Even the White House security official I spoke to yesterday had never heard of the device.

What about feet getting scanned if we submit to body scanning? He was stumped.

'Anyway, don't expect those full-body scanners anytime soon,' he said.  

     

In Philadelphia

Toynbee Tiles

From NPR
September 2006
As an urban mystery, the Toynbee tiles have fascinated fans of street art for more than 25 years. Tending to be about the size of license plates, the tiles are embedded in the streets of various cities, including New York, Washington, Chicago -- even Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires.

The cement-bound messages take on various forms, but usually bear some variation of the following text: "Toynbee Idea: In Kubrick's 2001, Resurrect Dead on Planet Jupiter." But no one is certain what the messages mean, or who may have planted them. They seem to be made of linoleum, presumably stuck to the street in the middle of the night.

The tiles seem to originate in Philadelphia, where artist Justin Duerr is working on a documentary film about them. He theorizes that the messages refer to late British historian Arnold J. Toynbee, while Kubrick of course refers to Stanley Kubrick and his film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

"Resurrecting the dead could potentially mean resurrecting a dead civilization, or a dead idea, or concept," Duerr says. "Because that's something Toynbee talks about."

Toynbee tiles first appeared in the early 1980s, around the same time playwright David Mamet published the one-act play 4 AM. Mamet's play centers on a radio host and a strange caller who wants to talk about his plan to -- yes, resurrect the dead on Jupiter.

Mamet says he made the caller up; but in 1983, a real caller identifying himself as a city social worker rang Clark DeLeon at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

DeLeon, who was writing a daily column for the Inquirer at the time, recalls: "He had this idea about people living, or being resurrected from the planet Jupiter. Something about the molecules. It was just so wacky and out there. I believe my headline on it was, 'You wanna run that by me again?'"

The caller said his name was James Morasco, and there was a Philadelphia social worker by that name. Morasco died several years ago, and his widow insists he didn't have anything to do with the tiles.

In some cases, the Toynbee tiles branch out beyond their core message about Jupiter. A few carry instructions such as "you must make and glue tiles" and "you as media is" [sic]. DeLeon says the tiler seems to have a special vendetta against John S. Knight, founder of the Knight Ridder newspaper chain that used to own the Inquirer. A few tiles refer to Knight as a "Helion Jew" and even a Soviet Spy.

"It's rife with paranoia, everything these tiles say, and yet they're so bizarre," DeLeon says. "They catch your eye. And once you see them, you start noticing them everywhere."

By the late 1990s, many of the older tiles had been paved over. Then, about four years ago, Justin Duerr started seeing new ones.

Duerr and other experts think the new tiles are the work of a copycat. There are slight, but telling, differences: For example, instead of saying "resurrect dead," the new tiles say "raise dead." Whoever it is, the current tiler has clearly been busy. Dozens of new tiles have appeared in and around Philadelphia, a few in just the last month. They've even been spotted in the breakdown lane of a busy interstate.

At this point, Duerr thinks he does have a pretty good guess about who the original tiler was. But he's not telling.

"It's a form of art," Duerr says. "But it's not something put down with the idea this person is thinking they'll be in art gallery, or try to make money off it. It's sincere in what it's trying to conve

Shipping News

SS United States Mothballed

Junto Photos: Richard Carreno
Once the grand dame of luxury ocean-liners -- actually the fastest passenger ship across the Atlantic -- the SS United States today languishes as a rotting hulk, moored in the Delaware River at pier off Delaware Avenue in Philadelphia. Several groups are trying to save the ship, or, like Saves Our Sites, a local preservation group, at least call attention to the ship's unfortunate state. The United States is famous as the preferred mode of transportation for the 'jet set' before there was a 'jet set.' The Duke and Duchess of Windsor used to wallow in the ship's splendour. Dem were the days....
---RDC

Media

The Times Downsizes
From This ..... To This

Of course, like other newspapers, The New York Times isn't immune to the vagaries of changing market realities, and the need to adjust to them. Apparently, without much notice, The Times has moved from its immense office tower on Sixth Avenue to smaller digs in The Village.

Good News/Bad News

Free Attendance, But Nowhere to Go Salve, The New Year has some nice surprises in store for The Philadelphia Italian Connection:   1) We are going to Italy ! I'm organizing a tour for anyone who wants to join me in Florence , and take a class on Italian language or on Italian film that I will teach in the summer. I will post more information on this on our Meetup group's Web pages; 2) All local events are free until December 31, 2010. There will be no event fees, so you will only pay for what you order.   On a sadder note, we can't have any social events at the moment because no one has volunteered to host them. Without a host we cannot organize any social events.  So if you'd like to get involved and organize or host one or more events, please contact me at the Email address below.   Grazie e Buon Anno!   Walter The Philadelphia Italian Connection Web: http://www.meetup.com/italian-philadelphia/ Email: thatswalter@yahoo.com

Art Exhibition: Profusion: Opening Night Artist's Reception

No. 71: January 2010

The Philadelphia Junto

No. 71: January 2010

'A  Charvari of the Lit'ry Life'

Edited by

Richard Carreno

Meeting @ Philadelphia

Philadelphia

Massimilano Mucchia Di Cioggiola, an artist in Paris, has just kindly informed me that the above drawings and photo  are his creations. Massimilano asked that I credit him, and do so happily! He's a brilliant artist. Massimilano, merci mille fois! Multi grazie, aussi! Votre travail est superb, et c'est un honneur vous avoir dans mon feuilleton Junto. Richard.