Oh, You Never Knew It! Wimple and Bing, the City’s fifth-most-famous intersection, was almost known as Wimple and Porkpie! In 1903, due to inattentive aldermen, street-naming honors had devolved to the rascals of the Bottling District. A Mr. Elliott Lamb…
Author: Editor
The City’s Most-Storied Piece of Property
Folks often wonder whatever became of Wet-Foot Field, the stamping ground of the city’s first Ethnic-League baseball team, the Blue Stockings. Well, appropriately enough, it was excavated, lined with concrete and turned into the world-famous Swimporium public indoor swimming pools…
Friday Facts: He did not stumble while he was here
:: President Gerald R. Ford visited here nine times, none of which were during his presidency. :: This year’s ceremonial New Year’s baby will be Peter Alan Hargroves, age one and a half, son of Rose and Michael Hargroves. He…
Out you two pixies go- through the door, or out the window
Salon: All hail Pottersville! In Capra’s Tale of Two Cities, Pottersville is the Bad Place. It’s the demonic foil to Bedford Falls, the sweet, Norman Rockwell-like town in which George grows up. Named after the evil Mr. Potter, Pottersville is…
Boxing Day, with Industrial Solvents
In many modern urban centers Boxing Day has devolved into little more than the first opportunity for recipients of unwanted or ill-sized gifts to put them back into boxes for exchange or store credit. But at the Paulson Solvent Company…
Friday Facts: Buford, Fruitcakes, Sting was Busy
Hello, everyone. Due to the upcoming holiday week, posting will be rather light. So, we leave you with a holiday-oriented Friday Facts and hope that all of you have a relaxing and happy holiday, with your friends and family. ::…
True things
The audiobook version of John Hodgman’s The Areas of My Expertise is available for free from the iTunes store. It is an excellent book and I can assure you that it is every bit as accurate and true as the…
New Years for the Three Hoboes
It’s eleven days until New Year’s Eve, which means downtown visitors can expect to see the familiar figures of regional holiday characters Little Paul, Manuel the Turk and John Portuguese wandering the Central Corridor, Downtown, Boardwalk, South Factoryville and Daisyland…
More Christmastime in the City
:: Friday night saw the lighting of the annual Energonistics (formerly Municipal Gas Works) “Eternaflame” menorah, a ten-foot tall structure which consists of a stainless steel set of nine candles, each topped with what will be a constantly burning gas…
Friday Facts: Arby’s, Old Sparky, Pope Pius Ate Here
:: The city’s first legal execution was in 1843. The last was in 1922. :: For a few years, after the West Side Prison was decommissioned in 1953 and turned into a community center, the old electric chair was used…