Philadelphia High Rise Condos & The Plague

City Safari: At Home With The New Isolationists

Silent streets.

Wed, Apr 22, 2020

At night the streets in my neighborhood are quiet. Occasionally one sees a random walker, a couple walking a dog, a homeless person with knapsack or a drug-selling kid on a bicycle asking passersby, "What’s up tonight?”

         

These cool April nights are perfect for walks around the neighborhood but few people seem to be taking advantage of it. Walk among the row homes here and you’ll see houses ‘buttoned up’ like tight Victorian collars. But self-isolation—families barricaded inside their homes—breeds another kind of isolation: psychological estrangement. 

         

Imagine couples in bad marriages having to isolate together, having no place to run when one spouse breaks the rules of civility. Gone are the conventional escape routes-- bars, cafes, bookstores—so a quick walk around the block will have to suffice. One can always go to the local Rite Aid and walk the aisles but that is hardly a soothing compensation. Visiting a friend who lives nearby would be your best bet, but not if that friend lives in a Center City condo.  

         

I feel for my friends who live in high-rise Center City condos. That’s because the fear generated by this plague has caused most condo conglomerates to forbid residents from having outside guests. Some condo establishments, like the Academy House, have even instituted the draconian measure of "forbidding” in-house residents from socializing with other residents in the building. This far-reaching abuse of power apparently has met with little or no resistance from residents. One would hope, of course, that at least a minority of residents would stand up to the new rules, especially considering the money that these people paid to live there. 

         

Once considered the apex of Center City living, these swanky high-rise condos, many of which have been profiled in Philadelphia Styleand Philadelphia Magazine, have now been turned into high-rise prisons.   

         

When this plague winds down, I would hope that smart Center City condo owners rethink their living spaces. After all, when you have many people living in a single building, you get rules conjured up by a Board of Directors who often don’t know when to stop making new rules on top of rules until, Bingo, they tap into authoritarian measures in the name of safety.

         

Making rules for the "good of all” rarely means "good,” period.  

         

How much better are those Center City residents who own real houses instead of condos.

         

Plague or no plague, real homeowners can write their own rules. They can also have guests at any time. Their guests don’t have to deal with inquisitive desk clerks who ask for names, date and serial number. There’s no waiting for elevators, no citations for residential "misbehavior.”

         

More importantly, when you eliminate a person’s freedom by denying them access to guests, you are nothing better than a housing project in China.

         

Before the plague, the high-rise condo hype about fantastic views, excellent security and the convenience of Center City living held considerable weight, but this plague changes that.    

         

As has been proven in New York City, viruses like the present plague tend to hit congested cities in the worst way. New York is where people live on top of one another. It’s where there’s barely room to pass anyone on crowded sidewalks. It’s where people breathe on you in elevators.   

         

After this plague subsides, there could be a move to smaller cities or to relatively unpopulated states. Urban high culture—museums, lectures, opera, concerts, galleries and theater, etc., may be traded for safety in remote regions or the mountains. 

         

Another thing this pandemic is doing is causing many of us to look on our neighbor-- and in some cases our friends-- as walking disease vectors. For many of us, when someone walks by us on the street, the tendency is to think the worst.  

         

In my neighborhood there are many new 300k modern utility houses that appeal to millennial types. These homes resemble Bauhaus warehouses and are often out of scale with the rest of the neighborhood homes. These new structures generally have cheap front staircase railings that rattle in the wind, and a few of them under construction have been known to fall down during great windstorms. 

         

The pandemic has raised fear and paranoia to new levels. 

   

Say you are walking with a friend. Say you just came from the supermarket and you are walking down a narrow street where you come upon one of these new 300k homes. Imagine that the shopping bags you are carrying need rearranging. You put the bags on the stoop of the house in question. Just for a minute, mind you, just until you get the contents of the bags rearranged.  

         

As a Philadelphia row house owner for some time, I’ve had countless passers-by use my stoop to tie their shoelaces, catch their breath, rewrap their winter carves in freezing weather. This never bothered me. As long as these stoop visitors don’t camp there forever, pitch a tent, or begin to eat a multi-course Chinese dinner (this did occur on my stoop when I first moved to the neighborhood), I’m fine with it.

         

The plague that is causing many of us to look at our fellow human beings as disease vectors, is now working to do the worst psychological damage: the disruption of neighborhoods and communities in the name of public safety. It is even affecting eye contact, as if a virus could somehow jump from eyeball to eyeball via a passing glance. 

         

Let’s return to the grocery bags. Imagine you are rearranging the items in the bags then imagine that just before you finish the task, the homeowner appears and says to you, "Pardon me, but would you mind taking your task elsewhere, away from my steps. Thank you so much.”  (Then she slams the door). 

         

The person with the grocery bags happened to me. 

         

My first reaction was to immediately categorize the woman’s words as plague-driven paranoia and fear, unsubstantiated by science because I was wearing a mask and was obviously no threat.   

         

There was some consolation in the fact that I don’t think she was a Philadelphian, She was a ‘move-in’ from another state, probably New York, and her speaking manner was out of keeping with a true Philadelphian, meaning that "true” Philadelphians seem to have an innate understanding of row house stoop protocol, which is to never overstay a momentary "visit.”      

         

In conclusion, let me mention the End the Lockdown movement. The End the Lockdown movement is composed of mostly conservatives protesting the overreaching hands of government—the so-called Nanny State-- into all areas of our lives. Antifa activist brigades (the original mask wearers) have all but vanished from the urban scene, replaced by a new set of activists, conservatives protesting both reasonable and unreasonable lockdown restrictions, taking to the streets like the Vietnam War protestors, while old white liberals sit at home and obey like hypnotized Stepford Wives.

         

Who would have thought! 

         

Like it or not, the conservative protesters are really part of a necessary checks and balance system, on guard against crazy mayors like Bill De Blasio of New York who has gone to extremes when he urged New Yorkers to snitch on fellow New Yorkers who break social distancing rules. 

   

Psychics Predict End of Covid-19

City Safari: The Psychic Path To Para-“Normalcy”

By Thom Nickels• Wed, Apr 15, 2020

Contributing Editor

What modern day prophets, psychics and astrologers say about this virus

The big question, in most minds, is when covid-19 will begin to ebb and when life will get back to "normal.”

            The word "normal” is important because, in many ways, life will never be quite the same as it was before this virus changed everything. By ‘normal’ most people mean when they will be able to revisit restaurants and bars, as well as gather with friends in public spaces, without social distancing rules. 

            Aside from the fearful predictions from some health experts, it is possible to turn to another realm for answers? What do so-called modern-day prophets, psychics and astrologers say about this virus? 

            I did a sort of survey to discover what the more metaphysically-minded among us have to say about our present condition. What I found is that most of the seers tend to agree on the timeline of this virus. That timeline seems to point to the month of May as a period of hope. In May we will begin to see different parts of the world (and the United States) begin to move in a more positive direction when it comes to fear and panic associated with covid-19. 

            Steve Judd, an affable UK astrologer with a keen sense of humor, produces coronavirus videos nearly twice a week. Judd is straightforward in his delivery. He points to May as the period when we will begin to see light at the end of the tunnel and to June as the time when that light will really begin to have a positive effect. Judd’s track record as an astrologer is impressive but he warns that once this crisis is past if the world goes back to its former ways without learning the earth lessons that covid-19 has taught us, there will be more pandemics far greater than covid-19 in the future. 

            Judd advises his listeners not to tap into the fear and paranoia being manufactured by media moguls who recite the number of covid-19 deaths with a kind of sensationalistic glee in their voice, as if they were mentally rubbing their hands together and thinking: Wow, one hundred thousand dead in a year’s time! Wow, maybe two hundred thousand in 13 months time… as if they wanted it to happen.

            Craig Hamilton-Parker, another psychic medium astrologer from the UK, agrees with Parker’s covid-19 timeline. He sees May as a time for healing and restructuring, when returning to "normal” will seem feasible. Parker likes to refer to the 10,000 year old Indian Naadi leaves that predicted the corona virus. On Parker’s page one can read that Naadi astrology comes from southern India. 

"The ancient Siddha yogis had superhuman clairvoyance and were able to foresee the destiny of anyone who is to read the naadi palm leaves. As well as the future of individuals, some naadi leaves contain the future of humanity. Craig has been studying Naadi astrology and has uncovered a number of texts that have foreseen the coronavirus pandemic.” 

            Other psychics like Joseph Tittel, originally from the Philadelphia area but currently a Sedona, Arizona resident, sees the diminishment of the virus by mid-May. He sees the 2020’s as being an especially life-changing decade, heralding Pope Francis as the last pope of the Roman Catholic Church and the Church itself being reduced to a remnant. He predicts that Islamic fundamentalists will take over Rome; the re-election of Donald Trump although, in the third year of his second term he predicts a health matter ending Trump’s presidency.

            Most of the psychics I surveyed foresee the reelection of Donald Trump. An astrologer, Joni Patryforesees a hugely tumultuous presidential election this November. She says that the events surrounding the election will rock the nation. She maintains that whoever is elected isn’t necessarily the one who will take the oath of office, and that whoever is finally named will wish that he had not been elected president.  

            A woman psychic medium named Utsavais, perhaps, the most controversial of all the seers I surveyed. Utsava maintains that the virus was manufactured in a lab (so does Tittel) and that the media and government sources are inflating the numbers of people infected with covid-19. "Don’t believe the media,” she urges. She predicts an end to the virus very soon and that the lockdown we are currently experiencing is a cover so that the forces of good can do battle and eliminate the so-called Deep State. Utsava, who has a huge following, sees a Trump victory in the fall (she was one of the very few psychics who predicted a Trump victory in 2016). 

            YouTube cannot be said to be a champion of free speech. The video empire has shut down Utsava’s account and it has caused Tittel to worry about some of what he broadcasts in his live feeds. You Tube’s penchant for censorship has caused Tittel to tell his audiences that he is reluctant to mention the virus by name because he fears retaliation, so he has taken to calling the virus ‘The Bug’ in order to beat the censors, Why would YouTube care about calling the virus by its real name? You Tube’s Orwellian censorship of Utsava’s commentary has only given her more fans since many people tend to equate suppression of information as the suppression of the truth. Let Utsava speak (and hang herself), even if you think she needs psychotherapy. 

            Some online psychics wax and wane endlessly about taking this lockdown cycle as a way to get in touch with your inner self and cultivate better relationships with spouses and family. Embrace the self isolation, they say; love it; dance to it; learn to see the beauty in it. "Develop your soul,” they advise, "plant a garden.” They talk about "personal reformatting” without making one prediction about the longevity of the virus or how we as a society will emerge after its duration. These are not psychic predictions at all but fumes from a New Age perfume machine. The purveyors of this rubbish tend to be late middle-aged women with short gray hair, piercing eyes and soothing voices. 

  

Many psychics avoid talking about the coronavirus. Is this because they didn’t see it coming or because they are afraid to go on record with such a "do or die” prediction? These psychics tend to be the psychics most often invited on talk shows where they give celebrity predictions: When will Lady Gaga marry so-and-so; when will Jay Lo have a baby? Psychics like this trivialize the field. The Psychic Twins often fall into this category as does the famously flamboyant Hollywood psychic, Nikki, who looks like a cross between Mae West and a Barbie Doll with silicone stuffing.  

            In the most extraordinary irony ever, Christian evangelical "prophesying” preachers, both male and female, have had a lot to say about the coronavirus.

            During my search for covid-19 predictions, I came across many of these Bible sites that make prophecies about the virus, only of course they don’t call them psychic predictions. Traditionally, all things psychic—tarot cards, crystal balls—have fallen under the Satanic label in Christian circles. If you are a true Christian, you are not supposed to listen to occult sources because doing so puts you at risk for exposure to demonic elements. Psychics like to say that their information comes from ‘Spirit,’ a word the Bible "prophets” see as suspect because there are many spirits in the unseen world, many of them not of God. For the Bible-based seers, only the Holy Spirit will do.

            Listening to the Bible seers I found many of the predictions in alignment with the psychics.

            Chuck Pierce, of Glory Zion Ministries, for instance, said that "This Passover will be a true Passover.” Pierce is also on video in January of 2020 as saying that a "massive plague like invasion will test us until Passover.” Another Bible prophet, Shawn Bolz, in a video entitled Coronavirus Prophetic Works, relates how he received a message that after Passover the virus will begin to be brought under control. 

            A "prophet” named Tracey Cookeannounced that God told him that, "Warm weather and wind will eliminate the virus.” Another prophet, Jeremiah Johnson, announced in 2019 that the year 2020 would include: 

            The first four months would be for repentance.

            The second four months would be for recovery.

            The final four months would be for recompense.

            TheChristian Broadcasting Network, not known for its liberal tendencies, even showcased a South Carolina female pastor who had a vivid prophetic dream on March 23, 2019 about a virus- like flu pandemic that was going to hit the world. She claims she was told to tell people that the virus was coming because "My people have turned away from me.” 

            In all or most of these evangelical Christian prophecies the time line seems to gel with the predictions of the secular psychics. This I find to be the most ironic fact of all.  

WAWA

City Safari: Intrepid Ole’ WAWA Tests The Sands Of Time.

: Store of convenience.

By Thom Nickels• Wed, Apr 08, 2020

Contributing Editor

The little WAWA at the end of my street is a life lesson in survival. Built near a large chemical plant that produced things like paint coatings, sheeting, pipes, lead paint and a variety of other lead-related chemicals, the ground under the store’s foundation was really a pile of toxic dirt, cosmetically topped with landscaper’s soil, to "protect” the neighborhood from exposure to lead.

         

It was, as they say, a thin veneer of polish, hiding a multitude of sins. The Port Richmond Shopping Center, just a stone’s throw away, was built on the site of the mammoth Anzon Factory or the creator of all this toxic mess, sometime after 1997.   

         

I moved into the area in 2002 when one could still see the walls of smaller factories lining the small streets, shooting out from nearby Aramingo Avenue.  

         

The appearance of this WAWA in a heretofore forgotten ‘triangle’ on the edge of Port Richmond and Fishtown, was a cause for celebration among local residents. ‘Civilization’ had finally come to a remote neighborhood, where the only restaurant outlets were mom and pop luncheonettes and the bigger Polish establishments on Allegheny Avenue. Construction of the WAWA was swift and furious. The buried lead deposits under clean topsoil created a mountain of sorts that became known as Mount Wawa, where on snowy winter days bundled up kids, looking like characters out of Dickens, took their sleds and toboggans for semi-toxic joy rides. 

         

Looking back over the history of this little WAWA, I can say that it has survived the travails of many structural tragedies that parallel, in some respects, to what we humans are battling, with the COVID-19 crisis.

         

This little WAWA had a few good years after it was built. It employed mostly neighborhood people and was not yet a citywide attraction. It was rarely crowded; its parking lot was never full, and the gas station out front had a much more leisurely pace. There was even a free air pump for car and bicycle tires in a remote section of the parking lot. WAWA management thought of everything. 

         

Over time the lower rungs of humanity abused the air pump so that it was finally removed. The homeless discovered this WAWA as a safe haven for panhandling, holding doors for customers for that hoped-for small tip. It wasn’t long before the lower rungs of homeless started to abuse the doors and lash out at customers who wouldn’t give them money. WAWA’s portable outdoor cigarette butt containers provided access to discarded butts so in many ways this WAWA retained its status as an oasis for those without a home. 

         

Over the years I’ve seen a hundred or more managers pass through this WAWA. One manager became a friend of mine and we would often trade WAWA stories. He’d talk about the growing problem of shoplifting there, especially about desperate men who would steal cartons of Red Bull or candy bars. They say that you can always tell a good store by how many long-term employees it has. WAWA kept its employees; the turnover rate was very low. 

  Enter the first WAWA disaster, called the underground lead-in-the-soil plague.

         

It was this little WAWA’s waterloo or COVID-19 crisis. In 2017, The Philadelphia Inquirerreported, "The former brownfield is now an asphalt-covered retail hub with an Applebee’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Rite Aid, AutoZone, and Wawa. Rather than hauling away the toxic mound, the developer was allowed to cap it with a foot or more of clean dirt and plant grass.”

         

The gig was over; something had to be done.  

         

The Inquirerrevealed that "Reporters recently tested a patch of bare soil at the apron of Mount Wawa. Its lead level came back at 2,904 ppm, more than seven times the allowable limit for areas where children play.”

         

The danger spread far beyond the confines of the store. Lead-soil contamination popped up all over the area. New homebuyers when they heard of the crisis opted out of sale agreements. As for WAWA, the store was masked or closed for a long period of time while the ground around the store was dug up and the contaminated soil underneath carted away in dump trucks. The reconstruction process took months. Rumors on the street had this WAWA at death’s door. Many said the store would close forever. When the dump trucks finally left the area, WAWA breathed freely again although it was hit by another wave shortly after that—all of the contaminated materials had not been removed--so the little store was put on a ventilator. 

         

"It’s dead this time,” many said. "No way can that store come back.” 

         

In the meantime, the old mom and pop stores in the area experienced a short rebirth but gentrification was moving in rapidly and taking out the quaint luncheonettes one by one. In their place one found out-of-scale 300-400k four story cheap construction utility houses.   

         

WAWA’s reopening was celebrated once again until another disaster struck.

         

This time the closure was due to much needed floor repairs. A new floor seemed like a good thing even if the relative young age of the store made one wonder what happened to make the old floor old.

         

Whatever the reason, WAWA reopened yet again. What followed was a boom in the store’s popularity. The heretofore relatively quiet WAWA was now an area magnet. People were driving there from other parts of the city as if this was the only WAWA in the city. What was going on? Cars piled up at the gas station. People were driving from Delaware and New Jersey. Many would sit in parked cars in the surrounding spacious parking lot. Here was urban life at its most mysterious: Drug dealers, drug buyers, cars of lost kids from surrounding states driving to this WAWA just to hang around the parking lot. It soon became known as WAWA Babylon with its own mountain nearby.    

         

It became necessary to employ security guards. WAWA suddenly had a new face. The guards would walk around the store all night long and check into all those black tinted window parked cars.  

         

Another structural COVID-19 crisis hit when that old WAWA floor mystery was finally revealed: the store had a water leakage problem. Water was apparently leaking up into the store near the kitchen where they made the take-out food. The store was closed, its reopening date "to be announced.”

         

Fake people in the fake news orbit said the problem was rats: rats running across the store, getting into the pre-wrapped chicken salad sandwiches, eating the soft pretzels or attempting to suck out soda from the soda bar.

         

Other fakes said the problem was raw sewage leaking up from a faulty plumbing system. Ironically, this was about the time when WAWA stopped selling toilet paper.  

         

The store was all but pronounced dead but the fact is the little store just wouldn’t die. It closed for one week to alleviate the problem, reopened for a day but closed again, reopened and closed again for a good two or more weeks. All seemed lost. Then it reopened for 3 days only to close again until finally the full crisis hit: it shut down for nearly a month so that the flooding problem could be brought under control.

         

The sewage and the rats and the molten lead fires in the WAWA kitchen!

         

The weight of the quarantine caused long-term employees—I’m especially thinking of a woman in a beehive hairdo who worked the lead register who became the face of the store---to quit her job. Employees began to come and go like people talking of Michelangelo. The poor WAWA had once again come within an inch of its life. 

         

When covid-19 hit, WAWA posted social distance signs and reconfigured its self-serve coffee bar so that only employees could dispense coffee. No more than ten people at a time were allowed in the store. Disaster struck again when an employee tested positive for COVID-19. This news hit the broadcast media like a bomb. WAWA was again put under wraps. The new order of things became ordering in advance on a WAWA phone app. The store was dead for days until, magically, it reopened, sans its full service fresh food service. 

         

Today this WAWA is less crowded. There are no tinted black window cars from Delaware or New Jersey, no lingering homeless asking for handouts, no groups of friends kibitzing out front with large frozen drinks. At the most you’ll see is a very bored looking security guard standing outside playing with his phone.

 New book (April 2020), Amazon, Kindle.  With Richard Edwards, co-author

Philadelphia's New Archbishop

Philadelphia’s Lovable Lot Of Quirky Catholics A Say Good-Bye To Chaput (Rhymes With “Slap You”) And Welcome Perez

Parez and Chaput

By Thom Nickels• Wed, Mar 18, 2020

A head shot of Bishop Nelson Perez of Cleveland, appointed by Pope Francis to head the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, reveals a charismatic smile and an ‘everybody’s favorite uncle’ look. It’s interesting to note that CatholicCitizen.org stated that the bishop’s former hobby was deep sea diving: "A deep sea diver not afraid to swim with the sharks.” 

Nelson Perez may have to learn to swim with sharks now that he’s in what used to be known as the Quaker City, now commonly referred to as the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection, at least until this year when it was renamed The City of Sisterly Love to commemorate the 19th amendment, giving women the right to vote. (The new marketing name will expire in 2021 although Philadelphia City Council will almost certainly devise further configurations). 

Philadelphia has become as politically correct as Bill de Blasio’s New York and London Breed’s San Francisco. Philadelphia is also one of the nation’s premier Sanctuary Cities, something of which the city’s 99th mayor, James Kenney, is very proud. 

Bishop Perez’s instillation as Archbishop of Philadelphia took place on Tuesday, February 18, 2020. The utilitarian, secular sounding word ‘installation’ is a far cry from the word ‘enthronement,’ which was commonly used prior to the revolution in Church rubrics in the 1960s and ‘70s. Perez replaces Archbishop Charles Chaput, who was Archbishop of Denver before his arrival in Philadelphia in 2011. 

Chaput, a New York Times best selling author, is a man of keen theological intellect. A stickler for Church doctrine, he has refused communion for Catholic politicians who support abortion and euthanasia and he roused the anger of the gay and lesbian community after his refusal to compromise on the issue of same sex marriage. 

Philadelphia Catholics are a loveable, quirky lot. They take their identity as Catholics seriously while generally going along with whatever the hierarchy advocates in the way of change, at least in liturgical matters. There was little opposition here after the Second Vatican Council when the Mass was reformatted and church architecture turned on its head. The Traditional Latin Mass community in the nation’s sixth largest city should be three times as big as it is but most Catholics here are just fine with the liturgical status quo. Philadelphia Catholics tend to "go along” to such a degree that if a new archbishop said that crosses must be turned upside down on all the altars, many Catholics would go along with the change, thinking the switch was divinely inspired. 

Chaput, as Archbishop of Philadelphia, inherited the financial disasters necessitating school and church closures not to mention a clergy abuse crisis so vast that it warranted a Federal investigation. Chaput has also had to deal with the merciless left-progressive-at-all-costs Philadelphia media, which had few good things to say about him since he became archbishop in 2011. 

The mainstream media’s message was that Chaput’s directness was polarizing. Now that Perez has been appointed to replace Chaput, the media guns are out in force: You, Chaput, did not have to be so adamant about Church doctrine. You should have referred to Church doctrine in a softer, more ambiguous way so that it didn’t sound so harsh. And mean. 

A charismatic smile mixed with winks and nods will not change the black and white directness of the Catholic Catechism but it goes a long way when it comes to approval ratings. 

Chaput has been demonized not only by The Philadelphia Inquirer but by a large number of the city’s weeklies, beginning with The Philadelphia Gay News, and The Philadelphia Weekly, where the editor there ran a column entitled, Chaput Your Mouth. 

The Philadelphia Gay News stated, "While we note Chaput’s hatred toward LGBT people, that is not what he will be remembered for. 

Chaput’s legacy will be that he enabled predator priests to molest and rape children. ” But Chaput, one might argue, has only been a Philadelphian since 2011. 

Does Chaput really hate LGBT people because he opposes same sex marriage? 

 

At the news of Pope Francis’ appointment of Perez to head the Philadelphia Archdiocese, the rejoicing in the progressive media was like the roar of excited Philadelphia hockey fans. 

The Guardian, while describing Chaput as an "ultra traditionalist,” went on to sing the praises of Perez. The Washington Post praised Perez as "a Cuban American moderate” while reminding readers that Chaput criticized Pope Francis as being "too liberal” and stating that "mass shootings are caused by a culture of sexual anarchy and perverted freedom.’ Chaput, of course, was being made out to sound like the Catholic version of Jerry Falwell or the Westboro Baptist Church. 

The Advocate headlined Philadelphia’s transition this way: "Anti-LGBTQ Archbishop Charles Chaput Fired in Philadelphia.” The fact is, Chaput was not "fired.” He turned in his resignation as every Catholic bishop is required to do when they hit age 75, and then it is up to the pope to accept or deny the resignation. The pope readily accepted Chaput’s resignation which does indicate that he was probably less than pleased with the prelate’s unambiguous points of view. Far left Catholics and over zealous secular reporters who know nothing about Catholicism (except that all popes wear white) managed to gain the insider Catholic view that since 2011, the pope never offered the reigning prelate of Philadelphia (a city usually headed by a a Cardinal), a red hat. 

"He never got the red hat.” Translated, that means: "Even the pope felt he was a bigot.”

The big irony is that Perez was not bishop of Cleveland long enough to amass a track record on LGBTQ issues. He has no real record on LGBTQ issues but you can bet that when those views surface, they will parallel Chaput’s—to a ‘T.’ 

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Mike Newall, who loves to showcase his more-radical-than-thou Catholic Worker-style Catholicism, wrote that Chaput always said the wrong thing in times of crisis, whereas "Perez talks about the church as it should be: universal. Chaput seemed at every opportunity to draw a line in the pews: These are the beliefs. You’re either with us or against us. Perez has said the diversity of the church is its greatest strength.” 

But, if you were to push both Chaput and Perez to the wall and ask them simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ questions about Church doctrine both would give the same answers. Perez would echo Chaput’s beliefs on same sex marriage. Like it or not, the two views would be identical. 

Perez may say them in a "nicer” way but his responses would parallel Chaput’s. The progressive media has the mistaken belief that when a representative of an institution like the Catholic Church says things in a ‘nicer way’ they are leaving the window open for radical change. 

The new archbishop of Philadelphia is his own brand of progressive social justice warrior when it comes to immigration, a subject on which he is far from silent. 

Chaput was criticized for commenting on social issues with a right of center point of view while the incoming Perez is being applauded for his left of center advocacy for "immigrants,” only immigrants in this case means the confusing conflating of illegal immigration with the legal kind, the latter being something that few good clergy persons would ever oppose.

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COVID-19 Hysteria

COVID-19 ACTIONS AND REACTIONS IN AND AROUND PHILADELPHIA

MARCH 29, 2020IRISH EDITION  LEAVE A COMMENT

From The Reporter’s Notebook

By Thom Nickels

Wild speculations and predictions suggest that it came from a biological lab in China or that it was a sinister “gift” to humanity from the so-called Deep State. The most scientifically sound answer is that it originated from the wicked and abnormal eating practices of people in a remote region of China.

Whatever the origin, the virus has succeeded in turning the world upside down. In Philadelphia, with bars and restaurants closed, there’s a ghost town feel to once vibrant Center City. The quiet is especially noticeable at night, especially with Mayor Kenney’s new ‘stay at home’ order. Everywhere you turn there is a feeling of desolation and fear. My brother, who lives in the Malvern-Exton suburbs, tells me that some people there have even taken to drinking Clorox to cleanse their throats and clear their nasal passages after spending time in public spaces.

A manager at a Rite Aid in my Fishtown neighborhood told me that while cashing out a long line of customers, he heard someone in line mention that the store sold a bug spray that was used as a sort of prophylactic when the West Nile virus first appeared in the United States in 1999. (The West Nile virus, if you remember, was spread by infected mosquitos). When the person in line indicated where the product was sold, half the line made a beeline to purchase the spray, “a spray,” as the clerk told me, “that has absolutely nothing to do with COVID-19.”

One week ago I heard reports that COVID-19 fear is highest on the east and west coasts but in America’s midland and in the South, people are behaving in a much less fearful fashion. This was certainly true when spring break millennials crowded Florida beaches in orgies of drink and revelry. When a local Florida reporter asked one party girl why she had little regard for covid-19 restrictions, she replied, “This is my time,” meaning of course that her youth trumped all social and medical concerns. As Jonathan Swift once observed, “No wise man ever wished to be younger.”

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings (Orlando, Florida) announced a 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, proving that the tables are turning in the once “less fearful” south. Just a few days ago families with young children were congregating in Liberty Lands park in Northern Liberties but such innocent gatherings are now history. Solitary walkers (a stroll around the block or walking the dog) are likely to be banned from city sidewalks, creating another sort of health hazard where dogs are concerned. Where will pet owners dispose of the poop? The mayor insists this is not martial law because people will not be arrested but be issued citations with fines.

The dangers of covid-19 cannot be minimized but sensationalistic overreactions like the stocking up on toilet paper, a pandemic within a pandemic, is a twisted act that’s done nothing but empty store shelves. Panic buying is uncontrolled narcissistic hoarding. This evaporation of common sense is what happens when people let fear grip them like an elliptic seizure. Filling three shopping carts with toilet paper should be a punishable offense.

As the Plague continues to peak (hopefully it will have reached its peak by April 9) the fear mongers among us might suggest we need to stock up on other necessities, like toothpaste or shaving cream. Perhaps a marketing genius will announce that Jello-0 is especially crucial to have during a plague. If the covid-19 crisis has taught us anything, it’s that “I can buy as much as I want” capitalism comes to a halt when a plague begins.

COVID-19 became serious business for Philadelphians when the City of Philadelphia announced that all non-essential businesses would be closed. The closure of restaurants and bars put scores of food service industry workers, most of them millennials, in the unemployment line. For a number of years now, self-styled “urban influencers” have been questioning whether Philadelphia has put too much emphasis on being a great restaurant town. What else does the city have to offer those seeking employment besides jobs in bistros and cafes? Waiting tables is something one used to do in high school or college. In the United States it was never (until now) a serious permanent profession on a par with going to medical or law school.

In mid-March it was announced that Pennsylvania Wine and Spirit stores would close. Wine and Spirits stores were declared “nonessential businesses” in Pennsylvania but in New York they were classified as “essential businesses.” Why the difference? I attribute this to the legacy of Pennsylvania’s old Blue Laws (the Blue Laws acting as a DNA-like imprint). Perhaps the old Quaker prohibitions against alcohol helped to form this policy. The decision to close the Philadelphia state stores came a day or two after the decision to close state stores in 5 surrounding Pennsylvania counties. City consumers had little time to make a bee line to their local state store to stock up before the closure. If there’s any common denominator about this virus, it’s that everything seems to be decided at the last minute. New decisions on how we are to behave change from hour to hour.

With that said, nobody should have to drink lemonade or Coca Cola during a mass extinction event.

The city’s arts and culture scene has been decimated like those toilet paper store shelves. The trickle started when small theater companies began announcing they were closing for the season. Larger companies followed. The Walnut Street Theater, which had been planning to revive Gore Vidal’s classic, The Best Man, canceled the play two days before the official press opening. This was probably the greatest theater disappointment of 2020. The Arden Theater and the Wilma also canceled live productions although many companies have reinvented themselves with the formation of virtual online events and workshops.

The Museum of the American Revolution announced its “Explore the Museum from Anywhere” virtual campaign where viewers can view the museum’s free digital resources without leaving home.

The much anticipated Philadelphia Travel and Adventure Show held annually at the Philadelphia Convention Center was also canceled. The show attracts exhibitors from all over the country and many parts of the world, including the Republic of Ireland.

The Philadelphia Flower Show’s 2020 presentation, Escape to the Riviera, managed to open and close before the COVID-19 guillotine had a chance to gut it. Churches throughout Center City shut their doors. Many parishioners, however, are able to attend virtual worship services via live streams on Facebook or You Tube. A friend of mine who is a member of Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church in Center City had to quit going to daily Mass but he learned to take comfort in being able to tap into daily virtual Mass. My own parish of Saint Michael the Archangel Russian Orthodox Church in Northern Liberties continues to hold private Great Lent services but only for clergy and designated assistants. Regular services will resume in early April, barring further crackdowns. 

For the nation’s Irish, the cancellation of the St. Patrick’s Day parade was a harsh reminder of covid-19.  After the cancellation of the parade in cities all over the world, the cancellation of other Irish festivities followed.

In Philadelphia, the 250th anniversary St. Patrick’s Day parade, with Michael Bradley Jr. as Grand Marshal, never saw the light of day. 

Other Irish event fatalities, such as The Villanova Center for Irish Studies March Heimbold Reading, had to be rescheduled. The Center sent the following message to subscribers:

In light of the unfolding events and precautions being taken to prevent the potential spread of the COVID-19, we have decided to reschedule tonight’s Heimbold Reading by Maurice Fitzpatrick. We hope to hold the celebration in a month’s time on April 15.

The Center for Irish Studies also sent out St. Patrick’s Day emails in addition to offering subscribers the opportunity to participate in a virtual St. Patrick’s celebration.

The Irish Heritage Theatre also issued a statement:

The Irish Heritage Theatre in association with Plays & Players have been closely monitoring the (COVID-19) situation, and for the safety of our staff, artists, and patrons, have decided to cancel the remaining performances of “The Steward of Christendom.”.

On the other hand, the Executive Board of the Philadelphia Irish Society gave a green light to its “Toast to St. Patrick” event from Noon to 3 PM on March 13 at Philadelphia FOP Lodge #5. The open bar, buffet and music- filled event was a light in an otherwise bleak social landscape.

There was understandable reluctance on Mayor Kenney’s part to shut down all non-essential businesses in the city.

On March 16, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that “Mayor Kenney is concerned that more stringent containment measures will disproportionately harm poor residents in Philadelphia. “

In early February, the mayor traveled to a Chinatown restaurant to demonstrate that eating in a Chinese restaurant was safe.

“Come back to Chinatown and eat — it’s great. Chinatown is safe. The city is safe. America is safe. Everybody should relax,” he said.

That, of course, was before the crisis imploded in mid-March. The mayor’s Chinese restaurant PR event was meant to call attention to alleged charges of anti-Chinese sentiment, such as attacks on Asian Americans.

COVID-19 is having a significant effect on large portions of Philadelphia’s workforce. Many white collar “elite” employees are now working from home, telecommunicating with laptops, a development that’s sure to change what it means to work and go to work. But this laptop crowd is only a small percentage of the workforce. If you’re a cook, chef or server in a restaurant, a laptop will do you no good. If you work in retail at Macy’s, Century 21, Brooks Brothers or the Burlington Coat Factory, that same laptop won’t earn you any money.

Septa ridership has dropped significantly since covid-19. Regional rail has seen a 60 to 80 percent drop, the Broad Street subway and the Market Frankford line stand at a 65 percent drop while many buses remain empty. Trains and buses are on a weekend schedule but how long before they will be shut down completely?

While riding Route 43 recently an old woman boarded the bus in Port Richmond. She was overweight and wearing a surgical mask and she was breathing with great difficulty. A fellow rider asked her if she was okay since she looked severely distressed. “Do you have asthma?” the man asked, at which point the woman produced an asthmatic pump spray which she inserted under her face mask. Despite the fact that she clearly had asthma, I witnessed two passengers move as far away from her as possible. The woman noticed these moves and seemed pained by them but there was nothing she could do.

When the pandemic is over (some have predicted it could disappear as abruptly as it appeared and end sometime in early summer), the workplace changes set in motion by the virus will define the future. People may discover that they are not as dependent as they thought they were on other things in life, like taking the Broad Street subway or the Market-Frankford El.

With Easter approaching, and with Pope Francis—as America magazine reported recently—asking God to free the world from COVID-19—we can, with faith and certainty, one day remember all this as a very bad dream. In the meantime, the effect worldwide has been devastating, from Seville’s cancelled Holy Week processions to closed airports in Norway and to New York City becoming a ‘shelter in place’ space forcing people to remain where they are, in quarantine, until further notice.

What’s worse than the plague, of course, is the fear that the plague is generating. Fear in many instances does more damage than the virus itself. An example that many have used are the toilet paper wars and the irrational stupidity that many people have been showing when it comes to greed and fear.

Only in the vaguest sense is this “a war” because viruses never completely go away, they disappear for a while and over time we learn to deal with them.

Deirdre Bair and the University of Pennsylvania

City Safari: The “PENNtrification” Of Deirdre Bair

The author of the just released ‘Parisian Lives, Samuel Beckett, Simone De Beauvoir and Me, was a Penn undergrad who later became a tenured Penn professor.

By Thom Nickels• Wed, Apr 01, 2020

When biographer Deirdre Bair was introduced at a speaker’s forum at the Central Branch of the Free Library, her last name was mispronounced twice, something that Bair says she’s used to because over the years so many people, even publishers, have gotten both the spelling and pronunciation of her last name wrong, with most calling her "Blair” or giving her a different first name like "Dee Dee.” 

Bair, the author of the just released ‘Parisian Lives, Samuel Beckett, Simone De Beauvoir and Me, was a Penn undergrad who later became a tenured Penn professor. She started out wanting to be a reporter and for a time worked for Newsweek. From Newsweek the trajectory of her life catapulted her into the world of biography. Her first biography on Al Capone paved the way for biographies of Saul Steinberg, Carl Jung, the diarist Anais Nin, Samuel Beckett and Simone De Beauvoir. 

‘Parisian Lives’ is the dramatic story of the many years Bair spent talking with and interviewing Beckett and De Beauvoir. Bair experienced considerable obstacles in writing these biographies. Although Samuel Beckett promised Bair his full cooperation—"My word is my bond. I will neither help nor hinder your work.”-- Bair found that among Beckett’s fans were groups of back biting people she termed ‘The Becketteers.” The ‘Becketteers,’ or friends of the playwright’s who were in competition for his love, stopped at nothing to make sure that Bair’s project took a nosedive. The situation got so bad that some Becketteers went out of their way to contact Bair claiming to be supportive of her work, offering information on Beckett when their real purpose was to trick Bair into saying something that they could then reconfigure so that the end result amounted to a lie, masquerading as truth. Some of these manufactured lies found their way to Beckett but fortunately Beckett had a sixth sense about such things, so the‘Becketteers’ never quite accomplished their goal of destroying Bair’s credibility. 

During the writing of the Simone De Beauvoir biography, Bair was the target of competitors who set out to tarnish her reputation or cause her embarrassment. The meanness and nastiness she experienced had its parallel in her experiences at Penn as a full professor, where fellow professors and administrators went public with the notion that a professor in the English Department (Bair) had no business writing about a French legend. 

"What makes you think you can write this book?” more than one of her colleagues asked. Sadly, every stereotype linked to the cutthroat competitive world of academia caught Bair in its snare. Bair’s retelling of what she experienced at Penn is disheartening. While I did not attend the author’s lecture at the Free Library, the author’s talk can easily be found on YouTube. Bair did not mention Penn during her Free Library talk but what she wrote about the university in Parisian Lives is devastating despite the fact that many good Penn higher ups offered her their unconditional support 

Some of Bair’s Penn digs:

1.Being in Paris and away from Penn had relieved me of that other thorn in my side—snide colleagues, tenure battles, etc.

2.Although Penn’s English Department recommended Bair for tenure, Bair writes: "My few allies among the full professors told me that the official letter recommending me put ‘scholar’ in quotes because my colleagues were not sure what to make of me.” Bair’s first application for tenure was rejected (that later changed) because two full professors wrote damaging letters to be placed in her file. "The full professor in the English Department, a man who enjoyed a reputation in the world of literature, had gone before the dean’s committee in person to argue that ‘she is not a scholar; she is only a biographer.’” 

3."I went through all the motions of getting through the days at Penn, letting all the continuing sarcasm, backbiting, and general bitchiness wash right over me.” 

 Bair has few good things to say about Philadelphia. "We moved to Philadelphia in September 1980, when my husband took a position at Penn’s University Museum. It was an unhappy move for me, having to give up my beloved house in Woodbridge, Connecticut, and my unhappiness was accompanied by back spasms that kept me confined to bed and on medical leave that semester…” 

It’s not at all likely that Bair’s alma mater will be inviting her to lecture on her books in the Irvine Auditorium. Like it or not, Bair just didn’t resonate with the city. Even the weather here gave her a headache. She writes about Philadelphia as being insufferable with humidity in summer and complains about the cramped living spaces she had to tolerate while living here. Her spirits only seemed to pick up when she escaped to Boston or Connecticut for long weekends away. 

Parisian Lives is quite honest in its exploration of Beckett’s sexuality (Bair states that Beckett was sometimes receptive to sexual advances from men). De Beauvoir’s sexuality also comes under Bair’s microscope. De Beauvoir denied being a lesbian and in fact found the word distasteful although as she would tell Bair, she never completed the sexual act with a woman because she never went "down there,” but stuck to cuddling, kissing and fondling above the waist. That was not lesbianism, she insisted. 

Bair was not afraid to ask De Beauvoir tough questions. Regarding the legendary French condemnation of lesbianism, Bair asked if she realized that she was speaking dismissively of lesbians because, despite her status as a feminist icon, she still retained "some of the prejudices of her conservative Catholic upbringing.” 

Bair recalls her first meeting with De Beauvoir: 

"I also noticed how she was dressed in what looked like a shabby red bathrobe over a nightdress. How strange, I thought, that she would be dressed this way on the evening of her birthday. This robe became familiar, as she wore it for many of our conversations during the next five years. She also wore a turban, which I unkindly came to call ‘the ubiquitous rag.’” 

Bair’s patience and meticulousness as a biographer is admirable. Parisian Lives is filled with the hardships and insults she had to endure while working on Beckett and De Beauvoir. Yet despite the many insults she had to endure, Bair was a master at holding her tongue, allowing the insults to whiz by her although hours after they occurred she records how she would fume with rage. 

In the end, her self-control paid off. In a devastating paragraph about English theatre critic Kenneth Tynan, she recalls how the pompous, full-of-himself man-diva demanded money from her for some information he had on Beckett. 

The Beauvoir-Sartre relationship also comes under scrutiny, especially De Beauvoir’s "campaign” to get young attractive girls to sleep with the old philosopher despite the fact that he was ill and did not smell good. The girls, under De Beauvoir’s direction, went obediently to Sartre’s bedside where they performed their duty. 

The video of Bair’s lecture at the Free Library shows a good-natured woman who smiles a lot. At first glance, Bair doesn’t look like the intellectual she is. She has the air of a whimsical popular writer along the lines of a Nora Ephron Eiphorn ("A Wallflower at the Orgy”). Behind the microphone, Bair doesn’t pick her teeth, sneer or throw her hair back in the assertive way that Susan Sontag used to do. She doesn’t interrupt or appear impatient at what some may consider ‘stupid audience questions.’ If anything, she appears to be too nice. But this mask is deceptive. They say that writers who write well are generally not the best of talkers. This is true of Bair although her talk at the Free Library was not deficient in the least. Her appearing too nice is what made so many people, from the Becketteers to Penn, dismiss her as a clay pigeon, an easy mark and as someone who really doesn’t count.