About the Benjamins

Just a quick recap: I didn't actually do much in Philadelphia besides explore, mostly in the historical district. I visited Franklin Court (the site of Benjamin Franklin's old property, long ago razed by his grandchildren), Christ Church, Old City Hall, and Second Bank of the United States. I actually think, outside of the continued existence of the buildings themselves, these will be the least interesting places I'll visit. That in itself dgserves a complete write-up and discussion, which isn't going to happen, at least not until I get settled into something resembling a normal schedule.

Notes and other potential topics of discussion:

- There is a (straight) porn theater on the west end of the city, and I am going to patronize it and document my experience. That much I can promise.

- I came across some "9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB" bumper stickers slapped onto some lamp posts and ripped most of them down. Boiled my blood, it did.

- Philadelphia has lot of very interesting architecture, more than DC, which was something of a backwater until the beginning of the 20th century.

- Benjamin Franklin's old residence, like Shakespeare's Birthplace, was basically wiped clean; the former was torn down, the latter--if it even IS Shakespeare's birthplace--was stripped and even partially remodeled. Yet the two are markedly different in their approach. Franklin Court uses some white-painted metal beams to form the frame of what would have been the house, and the different rooms are merely indicated. Shakespeare's Birthplace tries to "recreate" an Elizabethan household to mostly embarrassing results. And, Franklin gets a much more detailed museum.

- In front of the Philadelphia Convention Center were representatives of some truly batshit crazy black supremacist Jewish(?!?) group, the Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge, whose attire of bright red and green fabrics with rindstone-studded leather makes them look like ninjas. It turns out they're pretty nasty folks, but based on what I saw I wondered if they were some kind of performance art, like what conservatives wonder about Fred Phelps. Check out the quotes of the day at the bottom to see why.



I know that tomorrow I'm going to the Philadelphia Art Museum. Everything beyond that is more or less improvisation.

Quotes of the day, courtesy of the crazy black supremacists:

"Why do they [white people] want to send the Mexkcans back? Because they want the black man back in the fields!"

"That transvestite, Lady Gaga. That's a man is who he is."

(on gays:) "They get it from Greece and Rome and those two faggots, Romulus and Remus!"

"God is without Valentine's Day. And Mother's Day? The white man won't tell me when to give a gift to my mother!"