From criers hawking the paper in the street to getting your paper impersonally on Kindle, what we define as a daily newspaper has evolved and changed...and regressed.
On this blog, I have made no secret of my love for the perhaps quaint old-fashioned idea of the daily newspaper, but I have also made no secret of my scorn at times for current ownership. Why? Because they are all about them and their personal legacy of ill perceived greatness. I have never believed that why they own the paper is the same as why we read the paper: i.e. love of paper. Over there what's happening in those executive offices? Does that really have anything to do with the paper, reporters, or readership? I think if it did there would still be reporters left at the Inquirer and Daily News. Today, in a couple of hours, the Inquirer goes on the auction block. Perhaps the best thing that can happen to this paper, despite the cries and overspending of money supposedly not had to pay bills and salaries but to pay for retarded "keep it yocal" ads, is for the papers to be sold to outsiders. Not Canadians, not a Toll Consortium (if he's even still in it), not Ray or Ron Perelman - nothing to do with keeping current management and ownership. For the Philadelphia region to keep it's papers, I hope the creditors will out. Because I bet if the creditors will out, they will do the best thing to protect their investment.
Maybe if we all get lucky, then the paper will actually be consistent and the writers will write. Maybe delivery will improve to the point that they actually know where to deliver the paper, let alone deliver it.
Right now save for a handful of familiar names, on a daily basis, it's not worth buying the paper. I want to want to buy the paper every day. When the personality of ownership and management gets larger then the personality of the actual papers, can it be said it's time for them to go?
If creditors buy the papers, it won't be the end of the world for all of us in the Philadelphia region. It will only the end of the world for ownership and management, so don't buy the pre-hyped horror story.
Support your local papers, yes. But these fat cats who have run them into the ground? Maybe not so much.
In a day of dramatic twists and sharp exchanges in the Philadelphia Newspapers L.L.C. bankruptcy case, it was announced Monday that Raymond G. Perelman and Ronald O. Perelman, a Philadelphia father and son of wealth and renown, had joined the local investors bidding to own the newspaper company.
Hmmm is Perelman a Toll replacement perhaps? And if Candadians buy it, it is no longer an American paper, which would be an awful and pathetic irony for the paper born in the birthplace of American liberty.
A bankruptcy judge said on Monday that all three bids submitted for Philadelphia’s two newspapers were qualified to be included in Tuesday’s auction for the distressed company that owns them.
Of the three offers for the company that owns The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Daily News and Philly.com, the biggest surprise came from the one submitted by a local investment group, Joseph Plambeck reports for The New York Times.
Ronald W. Burkle, who lives in California, had stepped forward to help finance the group after some prodding from Gov. Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania.
But on Monday, Mr. Burkle stepped aside and was replaced by Raymond Perelman, a 92-year-old Philadelphia philanthropist, and his son, Ronald O. Perelman, according to Brian P. Tierney, the chief executive of the newspaper company. The local group includes other executives from the Philadelphia area.
A second bid is from the company’s lenders, including Alden Global Capital, Angelo, Gordon and Credit Suisse. A third bid came from the Canadian investment firm Stern Partners.
There's high drama in the newsrooms of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News: The papers are up for sale, three groups of potential buyers are ready for the auction, California billionaire Ron Burkle joins the action at the request of Governor Rendell. Story by ... the Associated Press? Seriously? You guys are running AP copy on your own sale? What exactly is Burkle thinking about buying? John Grogan's old desk? Trudy Rubin's frequent-flier miles?
Today's auction of the company that publishes The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News will determine who owns the city's major daily newspapers as they emerge from bankruptcy. It will also help determine whether - and in what form - one or both papers survive.
The idea that the nation's sixth-largest city could be without a daily newspaper would have been unthinkable a decade ago....Were this simply another consumer product, this would be just another example of the harsh realities of the marketplace. But it is not. As James Madison wrote, "popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps both."....Playwright Arthur Miller once said, "A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself." That's happening less in America, and it's bad for democracy. As the fate of the news media is debated, we also need to discuss the broader fate of "popular information," by which Madison meant information about important public issues that citizens can think about, talk about, and act on.
....This national conversation should include media executives and professional journalists, but it should extend to myriad other providers of popular information, including neighborhood papers; government, business, and higher education; cable and Internet companies; and nonprofits and community associations....It should include bloggers and other "citizen journalists."...it should include citizens themselves.
The above editorial is the perfect end-note for this post, but I have to point out that what we have seen out of the Inquirer since Tierney came to town is controlled journalism. Can it be said that stories he or his cronies don't want covered, usually don't get covered? And if they do and someone gets upset, the reporter is punished instead of telling whichever whiner to pull up the pampers?
Yes, the future of Philadelphia journalism is at stake. Here's hoping we get our papers back.
YES I saw that daughter of "It was a deer, wasn't it dear?" got married. Yawn.... they lost me at a Size 2 beauty who loves fashion magazines and totes her own shotgun - I mean lands sakes, is it the New York Times and a wedding announcement or an ad for Match.com and love notes from Cabela's in case it doesn't make it? I mean seriously?
Who wrote this crap? The wedding planner? Stick to place cards and doilies. What a crock of pure, unadulterated BULLSHIT on lace. (Even Gawker concurs)
Seriously? Who are they ALL trying to kid. Prattling on ad naseum about being refined, adoring Chinese porcelain, sailing and hunting? Give me that shotgun so I can pepper all of your asses with buck shot! Good lord.
Have these jackasses never heard of least said soonest mended? Did they forget that Grand Damn Suzanne plowed over a little kid not so many moons ago?
Let's see...Mommy Deerest (in the dearest sense of the word), runs over a child and leaves the scene? Then she had some Main Liney type bail her out. Then as I hear it, she kicks geriatric boy toy to the curb, and has she ever apologized to this kid she mowed down and left like road kill on the side of the road? I mean doesn't the New York Times look into these announcements anymore? The woman would prefer a butler yet she's still bombarding around the Main Line in that piece of crap pick-up? (When she hits the next person, will she just chuck 'em in the back and haul them away? Did the happy couple drive off in the pick-up witgh beer cans rattling behind, a "just-married" sign and a shot-gun hitched up in the cab of the truck?)
I am a huge fan of the Sunday Style Section of the Times, love reading about the weddings...but this? This is appalling. If Mama Deerest thinks things were a little cursed, mayhap it was her karma spilling over?
These people take the cake. I am appalled. Not trying to rain on the bride's parade, but seriously for people who seem to make much ado over everything manners, this whole thing was just ugly - as ugly as Sonja Morgan peddling her wares and proper name via marriage and divorce on RHNYC. Tacky, tacky, tacky.
BY age 12, Alexandra Victoria Lammers knew how to bake bread from scratch, braid a horse’s mane, pin a kilt and set a dinner table correctly.
She grew up in a big stone house in Villanova, Pa., in a refined environment full of opera, formal teas and trips to Europe. Her mother, Suzanne Kaiser Lammers, is so Old World that she recently said: “I do not have a computer. I much prefer having a butler.” ....So they started dating slowly, often taking long walks and discussing 18th-century Chinese porcelain (she collects it), sailing (he loves it), Philadelphia architecture and hunting (both love it). Though Ms. Lammers, a Size 2 beauty who loves fashion magazines, does not exactly seem like a typical hunter, at the end of the summer, Mr. Doyle invited her to spend the weekend shooting clay pigeons at his family’s farm in Maryland. “Alexandra actually came with her own gun,” said Mr. Hoyle...One of their first engagement parties took place at Ms. Lammers’s mother’s house. “I put card tables all over the lawn, with lovely antique cloths and flowers and candles,” the bride’s mother recalled. “It was so pretty until about five minutes before the party started. Then, the downpour.”
This winter, her bridesmaids scheduled a tea for the couple. It was canceled after a 36-inch snowfall. Their wedding consultant, Alix Jacobs, began consoling the couple by saying, “If everything goes right, there’s something wrong.”
Ms. Lammers did find the perfect wedding dress in a Philadelphia bridal shop, where it was hanging from a rack like a beautiful cocoon. Before buying it, she stepped outside to make a phone call. “I was gone 15 minutes, max,” she said. When she returned, the dress had vanished — sold to another bride.
She never lost her composure or impeccable manners, friends said
No, but the entire Main Line about lost their compuse when they read this...
And did anyone ever determine who was really driving that day, anyway?
So I haven't picked on the Real Housewives of New York City franchise for a while. They are, suffice it to say, ridiculous and bitch city this season. So much so that they are even more retarded to watch then the NJ franchise....but wait, there's more! I happened to catch the most recent episode where they introduced a new housewife: Sonja Morgan. The clothes might be designer, but when she opens that mouth she becomes Good Ol' American Trailer Trash.
This woman is utterly amazing she is so awful. Shameless self promotion, ok can't blame a girl there, but she is so incredibly tacky when she opens her mouth. I think she has managed to even embarass the other designer Barbies on set. OH MY! Talk about over exposure.....and Bravo is reaching when they now have her on their website as a "relationship expert"... Anyway, the clothes are awesome again, but these ladies are out to lunch. And I can't help but wonder how long Bravo is going to keep these shows running?
Now Sally is another one who needs a new head shot and a makeover. She's got the frumpy earth mama thing going on. One would think she would be perhaps more sympathetic, but appearances can be deceiving.
So the grist for her mill today involves the drama of Lower Merion School District and the kid who was spied on whose parents are suing, Blake Robbins.
I have no horse in this race, but find this big brother owns your ass attitude of Lower Merion School District somewhat appalling.
In a nutshell it seems she is advocating for a don't ask/don't tell approach? But I bet if her kid was getting spied on or whatever, it would be a different story.
Her opinion speaks volumes of her ignorance and my general wonderment and surprise that Philadelphia Magazine seems to have nothing else to talk about BUT the Main Line? And these "bloggers"? Pshaw, they should stick to their Harlequin Romances and maybe talk about where they live, and in particular with this babe, Pottstown. I hear Pottstown has lots of issues that need a good airing.
Maybe Blake Robbins' parents are total shits. I don't care. There are scads of tacky and obnoxious people on the Main Line. But what they brought to our attention whether we live in the area or not is how out of control school districts are no matter where you live. That school district has cooked it's own goose over this and other current events and I hope they see judgement day, but they might not since those folks are all in Rendell Country.
I understand the outrage of Lower Merion parents whose kids’ school-district-issued laptops were equipped with secret cameras that apparently snapped photos in those kids’ homes.....But I had damned well better not hear the kids themselves whining about lost privacy....text while at the dinner table. They tweet their every movement. They live-blog weddings, births and suicides. Privacy? Come on. They’re never alone.
Speaking of which, did it bother anybody else that Blake Robbins’s parents complained about the violation of his privacy by making public a photo of him, sleeping, taken by the camera they claim invaded his privacy?
....And now the invaded families are taking the district to court for a big ol’ lawsuit that will spill everybody’s secrets out in the open. When I was a kid, there was a saying: Don’t air your dirty laundry in public.
A young Irish girl new to the U.S., uprooted due to some sort of family move.
You see, mean girls and bullies aren't the lore of made for T.V. drama - they are real.
I am posting this because we see it on the Main Line every single damn day from the halls of our public schools to the more expensive private schools.
This behavior is inherent in too many kids and in some of the private schools, especially where boys are concerned, it is not taken seriously enough. "Man up" and the like. I find the "man up" interesting since when it happened to a friend of mine's kid he was like 7 years old.
I have had friends who have had kids picked on in the elementary and middle school level, and I am not saying what school district as that is immaterial. So the school reluctantly did it's job, but the fall out? Adult mean girl treatment towards the mom by the moms of these little assholes.
We see bullies on the Main Line in every stage of life and one of the things I find most ironic is how many of the bullies are municipal employees or civil servants like commissioners and supervisors. And they are just playing it forward - some of them were not necessarily bullies in high school but were bullied themselves.
I see it out in the real world. There is someone I have come across who is a literal and emotional cripple. You don't see the physical issue right away, but wow is this person just mean. And ironically hyper-critical of those who pick on others.
I see it on these lovely volunteer committees or at the haute clubs. Ever been a guest to a member-guest golf tournament at some of these Main Line Clubs? And we all know while the boys are out doing their thing, often towards the end, the ladies will assemble and join them for a reception. Very caveman waiting for the big one to come home from the hunt with the kill. Anyway, some of those women who belong to whichever club you may be visiting can often be not exactly welcoming. As a matter of fact they can be downright rude and back to the school yard. I watched a bunch at one club one year tear some poor woman to shreds who obviously arrived alone. My friends and I were next to these women, and to her credit, one of my gals approached this poor solo and rescued her.
One of my favorite haunts for mean girls is the Saturday Club in Wayne. Those babes are brutal. Or the supposed Church Ladies. Prayer groups, bible study, and bitching. You have the really lovely people who are honest and good, and then there are the rest.
I know some mean girls who even speak ill of the dead - and these were friends of theirs!
So these kids are learning this behavior from adults in their world. Pay attention. Take stock.
Kelly Rowell, Get Thee Back To Canada. Seriously, if you want to live on the Main Line understand it ain't Shangrila no matter what you thought from watching The Philadelphia Story or High Society or The Young Philadelphians.
Are the grocery stores perfect? Hell no. But quit your bitching about unimportant minutia. There is a Wegmans in Collegeville and a larger Whole Foods in Devon and a Genuardis in St. David's and another huge ACME in Devon. If you go to the grocery store a little farther west, no worries, you are still on the Main Line. (Given you are a Canuck, I thought I would point that out). There are also other little markets here and there and farmers markets - try Wayne's.
But seriously between your dithering on patting yourself on the back because you are turning 40 without a crisis (even if your blog tells the world you are having a major identity crisis), dissing the trash men, embarrassing your mom or complaining about dress codes at all you can stuff buffets, and now grocery shopping, can I ask what DO you like?
So Kelly if you can't play in the school yard with the rest of the kids, go back to Canada. But stop your outsider dying to be an insider Main Line dithering. LOL I hope you join the Saturday Club or Junior League and they eat you alive. And honey, there is only one justsnarky.
Also Kelly? If you want to live near a sea of big box chain stores move near them. (Maybe you are a route 422 kind of gal?) Because here on the Main Line, I think we kind of like our assortment of markets just because they all aren't big box land. Or better yet, get Brian O'Neill to get that Wegman's or whatever finished on Lancaster Ave in Malvern. But enough of the Canuck-Does-Main-Line-Does-Desperate-Housewife.
Gin and Tonics are also not part of the Main Line social fabric. They are just a drink and we're adventurous now - we even try martinis and mojitos once in a while and our wine no longer comes out of the jug.
Good lord are you really that limited? Main Line parochial mentality? LOL the harpies will make you pay and pay and pay again for that comment. You see, when you belong, you can mock. You are merely a disgruntled outsider looking in who wants to belong, but who doesn't quite fit. Pull up your big girl panties sweetie pie and quit trying so hard! (And get a new head shot - that one is awful.)
I’ve just returned from grocery shopping, and I’m totally worn out. Why? Because food shopping on the Main Line usually requires stopping at no less than five different stores to fulfill a single shopping list.... drive all over the place on grocery day. I go all the way to an abysmal big-box chain in Wynnewood for things like paper products and cleaning supplies. (Love their PA system with its announcements of every single phone call the store receives.) Then I hit a few other places, including a farmers’ market, and finally brave the Whole Foods for odds and ends. It turns shopping into a major chore. And let’s take this opportunity to mention the obscene prices. A field trip to Broomall is all you need to see that we’re being gouged. When my mother from Canada (no bargains to be found up there) finds our prices high, you know something is wrong.
If we only had a Wegmans, or one really good modern supermarket, it would be such a massive success....I rant about this to my friends. I can’t believe an area with so much going for it settles for such low quality in basic services. One friend suggests it’s the Main Line parochial mentality. “That’s the way it’s always been, so that’s the way it should remain.”
Well this is unbelievable: In Lower Merion They Are Even Rotten To Chickens!
Seriously, Radnor is a mess but in Lower Merion residents are abused, students are spied on and even the damn chickens can't get no respect.
Now wait a minute, chickens?? Isn't there an ordinance against chickens? Unless of course they are sporting designer duds from Tory Burch and driving a Rover or Cayenne? Isn't this animal abuse? Will the officer be sent for sensitivity training? Have to do community service at a chicken farm? Was a big old policeman scared of a chicken???? Man, they have uproars over bow hunting with deer, but with chicken it's just one big fricassee???? Err, what a chicken that guy must be....ohhh wait, this is the township with the crazy cat police ordinance too, ain't it? Wonder how they are with guinea pigs?
I am just clucking uncontrollably over this one :<}
When two of Lauren Steltzer's pet chickens went missing last week, she put out a Facebook message to her Lower Merion neighbors.
The subject line: "Chickens on the lam."
But at least one Lower Merion Township police officer didn't see the message or the "Lost Chickens" posters Steltzer put up throughout the neighborhood.
When the cop responded to a call for a "large, orange chicken running at large" in a residential lawn, he got his fireman friend to skewer Connie the chicken with a bow and arrow, police said.
"The department's opinion is that the officer could have used much better judgment in the resolution of this issue," said Lower Merion Lt. Christopher Polo.
Steltzer's chicken woes began in mid-March, when a bloodthirsty raccoon broke in to her coop and killed three of her four chickens, she said.
She adopted two more to keep the lone survivor company.
"You can't have one chicken by itself; you need a little flock," Steltzer said.
But on March 29, the two new chickens flew the coop and Steltzer, 48, took to social media and missing posters to find them.
One of the chickens was apprehended in a neighbor's yard. Steltzer said it took her and five others to corral the chicken and coax it back home.
"There was no sign of the other chicken anywhere," she said, "which is odd, because chickens don't hide; they putter around."
It wasn't until the next day, when a neighbor with knowledge of the incident saw Steltzer's Facebook posting and told her of the foul fate of her dear fowl.....Polo said police had received a call between noon and 1 p.m. March 29 that there was a "large, orange chicken running at large," but did not know that the animal was an escapee.
"When the officer located it, he felt that it was a threat to other domestic animals," Polo said. "He decided that the animal needed to be dispatched."...
FRIENDLY DISCLAIMER: I believe in the First Amendment, and will exercise my personal rights as I see fit. However, that being said, I will feel free as blog owner to exercise my better judgement when it comes to comment moderation. In other words: my blog, my rules. Get over yourselves and on with life.
This blog may contain information that is unsuitable for overly sensitive persons with low self-esteem, no sense of humor or irrational religious beliefs, and no animals were harmed in the transmission of this blog. Those of you with an overwhelming fear of the unknown will also be gratified to learn that there is no hidden message revealed by reading this warning backwards.
In other words: my blog, my rules. Get over yourselves and on with life. Ultimately, the truth is the best defense. Thanks and enjoy your visit.
Posts
