Dear Mr. McNabb, My name is Stu Pidass, attorney and agent for Mr. William Hayes. I’m writing you today, on behalf of Mr. Hayes, for one reason and one reason only: to apologize. Mr. Hayes regrets that he cannot be the man to write this piece, but he has dispatched me in his stead because of three factors. First of all, he is physically incapable of admitting when he is wrong. Just ask his wife,......

Sorry there was no Eagles Diary last week. I turned on the channel the game was supposed to be on, saw a team in a blue-and-yellow get up that a Division Nine college football team wouldn’t wear and assumed that the game got canceled. But anyway, I was wrong. The game took place and the Eagles actually scored 56 points and obliterated the Detroit Lions. So I had high hopes for the Eagles latest square-off......

The six people killed in the city over the weekend puts us at 233 for the year, which means we're on pace to see the highest number of homicides in a decade. The Inquirer has started a fascinating series about a woman who hunts terrorists online. Check out part one, and part two. SEPTA finally has dedicated funding, but that means local citizens and lawmakers are expecting more and better services. Some private schools......

What with Paris Hilton's release earlier this week and the upcoming celebration of American Independence (sorry, Londonist!), we've been thinking a lot about freedom. Freedom to vote, freedom to choose, and most importantly, freedom to blog. Here are a few things we're happy we've been free to blog about this week. Being the nation's capital, DCist felt especially proud to let freedom ring this week by exposing the really important issues, like how sad they......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend (and next week). Opening Today Sicko - In the long-awaited follow-up to Fahrenheit 9/11, controversial filmmaker Michael Moore takes on the American healthcare system. Moore is infuriating to some and a champion to others, but his films, even if they are not always entirely factually accurate, do tend, at the very least, to move their audiences to strong emotions. We expect this one will be alternately......

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......

At the POPPED! opening night party this Monday, I got the pleasure of visiting the upstairs ladies' room at Johnny Brenda's. This may be one of the prettiest bathrooms I've seen in town. Yup, that's right: the decor in this restroom is simplistically beautiful. The sign outside of the door is made of red glass and has black writing. It always makes me feel like I've magically left the country and stumbled upon the only......

Films: Monkey Warfare, Red Road, The Boss of It All, 12:08 East of Bucharest Future Screenings: None My second day out and sitting through that many movies can be an overload. After a while, I must admit, I wanted to get up and run! I got to speak to other movie goers and heard a lot of buzz about some other movies: Life Can Be So Wonderful, The Cats of Mikikitani and Day Night Day......

This Monday morning, I was at the ticket counter in Market East, preparing for some quality Regional Rail time. There's a Men’s bathroom to the left of the ticket window. Now, I did not enter this restroom, but I can tell you that it had just been cleaned, as there were two station employees walking out of it with garbage bags and cleaning supplies. I can also tell you that if you're ever in stall......

Is it First Friday again already? We had so much fun at the last one that we're not sure what time we finally got home. We do remember drinking plenty of wine and eating plenty of cheese. We even remember making some impulse purchases. Oh, and fawning over an artist that we've always admired, thereby probably frightening her a good deal. This month, we're going to try schmoozing first, drinking later, and see how that......

While everyone else was writing about this yesterday, I was too busy working [read: getting a tattoo of Barbaro on my shoulder while listening to Bad Brains]. What does one think when one sits down to write a piece of garbage like this? “Hmm. You know, I was at a [fill in latest indie band] show the other day, and I saw two black people! They were dressed like me and seemed to be really......

Surprisingly, its not the usual bouquet of aged urine, fecal matter, and assorted garbage left to ferment. The Subway actually smells nice. In the last week and a half, I've seen crews at work at 30th, 11th, and 8th street stations actually mopping. Other times I've come across a slowly drying non-urine film accompanied by yellow signs telling me "Caution Wet Floor" and something or other in Spanish. Yes, they were mopping the subway.......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. Driving Lessons - This looks like sort of a combination of Harold and Maude and Sunset Boulevard, starring Ronald Weasley. Well, okay, the actor's name is Rupert Grint, but when we saw him in the trailer, we just said, "Holy crap, it's Ron!" We have a feeling most people say that when they see him. Anyway, in this movie he plays a shy kid with an......

The Daily News tried to track down the people behind some T-shirts they'd seen that seem to glorify crime and violence. They didn't have much luck. We're personally a fan of the one that looks like the Warner Brothers logo, except it's been altered to read "If you see the cops coming...Warn a Brother." Besides freedom and democracy, we're also bringing soccer to the Iraqi people. A Marine who grew up in the Philly......

Breaking the law, breaking the law. We -ist folks love us some crime, and no misdemeanor is too petty for a post on any of our sites. This week, join us for a rogues' gallery of miscreants major, minor, and alleged. Gothamist gets us started with "Law & Order", muppet style. Oh, you know what isn't a crime? Taking pictures on the MTA. So, why are cops stopping photographers? In other Gotham crime, a......

Although I could make this a big gender issue, I won't. The fact of the matter is that men are usually stronger than women, but not always. I actually have plenty of female friends fully capable of carrying much heavier loads than several of my male friends. So the following, very brief, "Monday Manners" post is meant to be a universal plea for kindness: If you see someone carrying something heavy or unweildy, and that......

Dear Philadelphia Sanitation Workers: Every Monday night, we put our trash out on the curb, just like we’re supposed to do. We put our bags neatly on the curb, or in trash cans that you can easily dump into your truck without any problem. We’re doing our best to make your job easy for you. So what we’re trying to figure out is why you – the people who are in charge of making sure......