The Philadelphia Experiment
I am spending the summer in Philadelphia for the first time - ever, I think. I have been away most of the previous summers since I moved here. So I have been casting around for uniquely Philadelphia experiences. The Garden Court Victory Garden is one such experiment. On Sunday, daphnep andkemidra came over to help me weed my spastic little garden, and we ended up clearing an area about five times its size. On Wednesday we went to the barn with lxbean and brought back several containers of horse poop compost, which we dumped in anticipation of spreading this weekend. Julie ordered beans and squash and strawberries and melons and many other wonderful crops that will soon be planted there. Afterwards we had dinner Julie's with burritos, wine and Dan's amazing chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven.
On Tuesday I volunteered to be a poll worker at Penn's historic Houston Hall, site of the first student union in the United States. It was a long 6am-8:30pm day, ugh. It was a primary election where the most exciting office up for grabs was District Attorney, double ugh. The polling place was near the freshmen dorms at Penn - after the students had gone home for the summer, triple ugh. We had a total of NINE voters. Democracy in action.
On Monday I went to Washington, DC, to see a presentation on The Future of the News Industry at the Brookings Institute. I hopped the cheap-but-ooky Chinatown bus at 9am and arrived just in time for the presentation. They served lunch, which was very nice considering the economic climate in general, and the economic climate of newspapers in particular. Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) is proposing legislation that will allow newspapers to transition to a non-profit 501c3 status, former Time Magazine editor Walter Isaacson proposed a micropayment scheme for news, like iTunes, and Michael Kinsely proposed micro-economies of news not unlike micro economies that spring up around video games.
The panel at the Brookings Institute
Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), Walter Isaacson, Michael Kinsley and Darrell West were the presenters.
The Lincoln Memorial
I did a little sightseeing after the panel.
Another view of the Washington Monument
The Obama White House
