Dear Manayunk: I love you. I think you're adorable. I'm even entertaining the notion of moving closer to you. But I have to say, 'Yunk, you scare the hell outta me. Not because of your crime rate. (The only scary thing about that is how low it is compared with the rest of the city!) Not because of your topography. It's because of your roads. Annoying though it may be, Manayunk, you either need......

Dear Philadelphia: You are dubbed "The City of Brotherly Love" due to a very literal translation of your name, which comes from the Greek words philos (love) and adelphos (brother). When you were originally founded by William Penn, your state's namesake and the figure atop your City Hall, you were to serve as a beacon of hope to all those who had been persecuted for their religious beliefs in Europe. You're considered to be......

As frequent Southwest Airlines fliers, we are shocked to hear that in the past two years, 60,000 flights were operated in old planes with long overdue inspections. In response to this neglect, the FAA is threatening to slap the airline with its largest-ever fine: $10.2 million. Southwest’s blog tells anxious customers: “We assure you that this issue never compromised the safety of our fleet. Southwest has an excellent maintenance program, with more Boeing 737......

Dear Philadelphia: I have lived here now for nearly six years. I made it through four and a half without buying pepper spray, and only acquired one from a friend when a string of sexual assaults last fall were a little too close to home. It remains attached to my keychain, except for when it isn't: before shows at the Electric Factory or TLA, I make sure to detach it and leave it somewhere......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend My Kid Could Paint That - A documentary about child painter Marla Olmstead, and the questions about aesthetics that her story brings to the forefront. She and her family went on a rollercoaster ride of fame and infamy. Her paintings were hailed as great works of abstract expressionism by some, and started selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars. She appeared on many national news programs.......

A gunman attacked an armored car as it pulled up to service an ATM at a Wachovia Bank in Rhawnhurst early yesterday morning. He killed two guards, injured a third, and escaped with a bag of money. Surveillance cameras recorded the entire attack. The killer "is described as a black man, wearing a yellow baseball cap with a black logo, a black short-sleeved shirt, blue jeans and white sneakers. His car appeared to be......

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers market......

Irina Malinovskaya, a former University of Pennsylvania student, has already been on trial twice for the murder of the new girlfriend of her ex-boyfriend, but yesterday her third trial started because neither previous jury was able to come to a decision. A federal appeals court yesterday overturned a lower court's ruling and decided that Philadelphia police officers have immunity in the shooting of Jill Burella. Burella was shot by her husband, who then killed himself.......

More details on the murder of the millionaire with two wives! The Inquirer has a report on the accused wife turning herself in yesterday, as well as some backstory on the whole relationship. "Sherwood Forest" - which is actually "the concourse below 15th Street linking Suburban Station with tunnels to City Hall, the Municipal Services Building, and the Broad Street Subway" - is not always the most pleasant place to be. As the Inquirer puts......

Psst. Rumor is, Billy Penn will soon be enclosed in scaffolding again for waterproofing. It was announced yesterday that a company called Pacifica Ventures would be opening a $75 million "entertainment production facility" (read: film studio) in the Delaware Valley by the fall of 2008 - and it's all thanks to our new tax-incentive package for filmmakers. "Pacifica is looking at sites in Bucks, Delaware and Philadelphia Counties for a 500,000-square-foot facility." Yesterday the......

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......

Sometimes kids can be so frustrating that parents might want to throw them to the sharks. Well, on July 29th and 30th they'll get the chance to do just that. In celebration of Shark Week, the Adventure Aquarium is hosting a unique event at its Delaware Waterfront location. Breakfast With the Sharks serves up a hot buffet breakfast from 8:30 AM to 9:30 AM, followed by a scavenger hunt, a 'meet and greet' with aquarium......

We're just going to get right to the point this week. The Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville is hosting its annual showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show this Saturday at 10 PM. Tickets are on sale now, so get your fishnets and your best bustier ready to do the time warp. Again. As if that were not enough to convince you that the Colonial is a national treasure, consider this: they're also hosting a screening......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love Travelin' Dogs Now that we're into the swing of summer and so many people are hitting the road, I figured a basic post on traveling with pets would be fitting. I mean, so many people take their dogs on vacation now and even though basic pet traveling tips seem like common sense, we can get caught up in the excitement and forget......

From the tallest skyscraper in the City of Brotherly Love to Canadian tourism copywriting brilliance, here's what you should know from our -ist cities: This week, Phillyist took a gleeful listen to the White Stripes' exciting new release, watched in awe as their new tallest skyscraper was finally topped off, found a cheaper way to get to Gothamist, invented a tasty new dessert, and brought back their Craigslist Round-Up feature with a bang. Bostonist......

The city's eighth annual "Report Card on the Well-Being of Children and Youth in Philadelphia" has been released, and the news is not good. The city got its worst rating - 5 for "problematic" and "very troubling" - in the category of child safety. D'oh. The city will be spending $1.3 million dollars to fix a mistake made years ago that violates the contract with the firefighters union. The contract states, reasonably enough, that......

Looking for some outdoor fun this weekend? If AccuWeather is to be believed, it won't be raining, so you'll be able to join the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia for their Freedom Valley Ride. There will be five routes to choose from, all incorporating stretches of the Schuylkill River Trail, which proceeds from previous Rides helped build. Those routes range from an eight-mile "easy" ride to a 68-mile journey that will take you all the......

Haven't heard of it? From the same form of racial profiling that results in people getting pulled over for Driving While Black, basically, if you're black and travelling by plane, the odds of having your luggage (or self) searched are significantly higher than the odds white travellers operate with. In 1999, Mos Def rapped about it on his album Black on Both Sides: Some folks get on a plane, go where they please, but......

To the Bus Driver Who Took Me to My Joke of a Job Interview in Cherry Hill: When we stopped at a red light and I walked up to the front of the bus to ask you a question, it didn't exactly reassure me of my safety when I saw that you were sending a text message. A simple Google search tells me that from April 2002 to July 2004, 456 drivers over the age......

A tall, icy glass of our favorite internet junk, just for you. Here at Whiz, we're concerned about your safety. That's why we bring you this handy guide, from an expert in the field, on how to protect yourself against attacks from Velociraptors. You know, just in case. (Turns out you're going to want to carry around a supersoaker full of grape juice 24/7.) We've posted a picture of one of Henry Lim's LEGO sculptures......

When I was eleven years old, my parents and I started spending a week every summer in Topsail, North Carolina, with my best friend, “Zoe” and her family. Our parents had an extra special knack for taking us places where nothing was going on and there was no one under the age of 60 within a seventy mile radius. This, however, did not stop us from wondering whether or not we’d meet guys in our......

How about a little local celebrity gossip? WPVI's Monica Malpass is being sued by her former fiance (auto-parts entrepreneur Stephen Thorne) because she won't give him back the engagement ring, even though she supposedly agreed to do so, and he has requested her to numerous times. The casinos are apparently sending attorneys and private investigators to harrass people who signed those anti-casino petitions. Smooth, guys. Smooth. Meanwhile, a Bucks County judge has been appointed......

It's our travel season right now, and having spent more time in and around Philadelphia International Airport than we'd like, we've been struck by the number of creepy dudes that can afford to fly the friendly skies. So we weren't that surprised when we read about a recent airplane-related arrest wherein an off-duty flight attendant ejaculated onto a passenger. Here's what we've determined he was thinking as the working flight attendant gave the safety......

No, this isn’t a post about The Shins. Though we are loving that new album like a fat kid loves cake. This post is actually about coining a new phrase. You see, we were stuck in a long line (quelle surprise) at the Philadelphia airport earlier this week. We were silently simmering when we heard an older guy say to his wife, “This is the price we pay for safety.” His solemn saying belonged on......

Oh look! Despite all evidence to the contrary, winter actually came to Philadelphia. Those of you with cars might not have noticed. Sure, it's cold when you first get in, but then your heater and/or heated seats kick in, and you're good to go. What you don't realize is that a lot of people don't have cars. Especially in a town that's ordinarily so great for pedestrians, like Philadelphia is. Those people do not have......

The Philly Inquirer reports on the trademark/name battle amongst the Olivieris, the city's famous cheesesteak family. Just who is the King of Steaks? Apparently, only the court can decide. Peco and PSE&G both hire crews, as a safety measure, to trim back trees that grow around electrical wires, but often they do a real butcher job, leaving hideously hacked trees in their wake. Many people are angry about this, but the electric companies say......

This is what the skyline looks like to someone viewing it with unemployed eyes: bleak, daunting, and uninviting. I am still actively hunting that wascally job, and things are not going quite as I would have hoped. My last interview was last Friday. It was short and sweet and I thought it went well. And you know what, I bet the interviewer thought it went well, too. So I called her up today to......

Due in large part to a long and nasty freeze in California, citrus fruits and leafy vegetables will be scarce, and thus their prices will be going way, way up, even in the Philly area. The Inquirer has a creepy, and perhaps too detailed, article about the Philly Zoo's attempts to get two tigers to mate. The tigers did in fact mate multiple times, and if all goes well, there may be tiger cubs......

That ramp at the Linc was swaying again, and this time the movement was even caught on tape. But engineers still insist the ramp is safe and sound. Regardless, it sounds like during the off-season they're going to try to find a way to make it not sway, so fans don't get so freaked out all the time. Fighting crime is clearly going to be the big issue in the 2008 mayoral race, so......

On Christmas Day, I was skiing at Ruidoso, New Mexico's Ski Apache ski area. So this column isn't Philadelphia-centric—but your manners as a skier matter whether you're in the Rockies or the Poconos. I've been skiing for twenty years—since I was three years old. Longer, if you count riding down the slopes in a baby backpack attached to my father. I grew up in a family of skiers who always stressed the importance of being......