Longform
Will Wind Power Save the Shore, or Ruin It Forever?
There was a whale on the beach of Ocean City. Black and white, of average height and stocky build; its mouth was agape, revealing a […]
When Did Halloween Become an Endurance Test?
The best Halloween costume I ever made for either of my kids was the year Luke was three. We teased and sprayed his blond curls, […]
What the Hell Is Happening With the Mütter Museum?
In 1873, a year before retiring from the University of Vienna, Joseph Hyrtl composed a letter to a surgeon in Philadelphia named Thomas Hewson Bache. […]
Howie Roseman’s Unlikely Journey to Becoming the Best Exec in the NFL
Howie Roseman sat onstage at Villanova University’s Sports Law Symposium in March, just a few weeks removed from narrowly losing the Super Bowl. The Eagles […]
Psyched Up: Inside the Weird Minds of Eagles Fans
By now, the tales about us are legend. We boo Santa. We throw snowballs at opponents. Our head coach put bounties out to encourage maiming […]
How Much Turmoil Can Temple University Take?
It was a momentous day at Temple University. Jason Wingard, the first Black president in the school’s 138-year history, was being inaugurated. Owing to the […]
Why Are We So Obsessed With Wegmans?
What the hell is wrong with people, including me? A new supermarket is coming to Lower Makefield, and folks are losing their minds, like we […]
These Are the Golden Years? On Retirement and Chicken Piccata
My husband is cooking dinner in the kitchen — the kitchen that for the past three-plus years has also been my home office. He’s making […]
Gretchen Harrington, a Delco Pastor, and the End of Innocence
On Saturday, August 16, 1975, in the pre-dawn hours, a police sergeant in a suburb near Salt Lake City, Utah, pulled over a tan Volkswagen […]
Unlikely Affinity: The Beauty of Vacation Friends
Almost exactly one year ago, my husband took me on a surprise vacation for my 40th birthday: a four-day jaunt to Key West, Florida. We […]
The Battle for 76 Place: One Year Later, Where Things Stand With the Sixers’ Controversial Arena Project
“Holy shit, this is what I’m building.” David Adelman and I are walking around outside TD Garden before the May 9th Sixers-Celtics playoff game. The […]
Philadelphia and the Case of the Disappearing Neighborhood Bars
Wanda’s Lounge was a bar. There were many bars like it, but this one was a wee corner dive on a residential block of Kingsessing, […]
Leslie Richards’s Bold Vision for a Better SEPTA
On a pleasant morning in mid-May, SEPTA general manager Leslie Richards and I are standing on a train platform in Kensington, smack in the middle […]
Reviving the “Unsexy” Food of Pennsylvania’s Past
An archeologist recites a paean to shad before a couple dozen people who fill Elwood’s rowhouse dining room one Sunday afternoon in May. “Tender as […]
Why Are 30,000 People Studying Poetry Online With This Guy?
Last summer, bleary, disheartened, and often angry from more than two years of seemingly nonstop doomscrolling, I decided it was time for a big change. […]