One Happy Philacusian

I was back in Upstate New York recently, and a lot of people asked me how I liked Philadelphia... which proves that they don't read this blog or else they'd know. But I'll tell you what I told most of them: it's a really nice city, especially when the buses and trains aren't on strike.

Okay, the transit strike only lasted six days, but it's amazing how quickly you become dependent on something and then you realize how much it screws up your life when it's not there. Also, there was a bad taste in everyone's mouth over the way the strike was called. In case you didn't read about it, I wrote a few weeks ago that the Transit Workers Union had agreed not to strike during the World Series, and they stuck to it. Literally. The moment Game 5 ended and the Philly portion of the Series was over, the union walked out of talks, and they went on strike at 3am. So everyone woke up the next morning to find mass transit choked off and everything screwed up. Now I do have a car and I could use said car to get back and forth to campus, which in fact I did do one day during the strike. Absolute mess. I got to see crazy local drivers up close, not to mention a New Jersey bus driver who decided without warning to move into City Hall traffic and veer across THREE lanes. The very misnamed Schuylkill Expressway must have been a MESS. It's bad enough trying to drive on that thing on a Friday or Saturday night, now add a bunch of inconvenienced commuters.

But the strike did end and everything went back to normal, and I can't speak too badly of the mass transit system here in Philly. The subways are very good, very safe, and very efficient. The buses occasionally remind me of the Centro buses back in Syracuse... either 10 minutes late or 5 minutes early... but for the most part, they get to your stop on time. I had the opportunity to try out the regional rail system a couple weekends ago, when I traveled to Doylestown to watch what turned out to be a total debacle of a football game for Susquehanna... but I digress. The trip was quite nice, albeit a long one. I'm sure I could have just as easily driven there, but sometimes it's nice to just look at the scenery, which was good once we left the city. North Philadelphia looks like a war zone in some places.

Another thing I've had the opportunity to sample in Philly is the food. Most of the things you want to do in this town have to do with food. I know this because when I spoke to friends about the city, they started listing off food-related things I need to do. Of course, that requires money, and as I still don't have a job, that's kinda difficult. So no, I haven't been to the Italian Market yet, I haven't been to Tony Luke's for cheesesteaks... but I have had Philly cheesesteaks. Not just from the many lunch trucks on campus, but from a place on South Street, where the hipsters congregate and every place you walk into touts the fact that some publication or other has named their steaks "the best on South Street". I have no basis for comparison having only eaten at Steaks On South, but the steaks there literally melt in your mouth; it's quite an experience, so I'll proudly proclaim that Steaks On South gets the official "THIS JUST IN" endorsement for best cheesesteaks on South Street. I have also had the famous crab fries at Chickie's & Pete's. As good as advertised. And I have become a big fan of that Philadelphia dietary staple known as soft pretzels. I've always liked them, always had them at ballgames, but here, the big advantage is they are CHEAP. Because they're everywhere. 50 cents for a nice filling snack sounds good to me. I've also decided that Dietz & Watson hot dogs beat Hoffmann's seven ways to Sunday.

I am able to say that because I ate one at my first Philadelphia Flyers hockey game. Now I've been to a game at Citizens Bank Park in Mets gear, so I know what it's like to be an enemy fan in Philly, but I was warned that Flyers fans are a completely different breed so I took that into account when I came to the Flyers/Sabres game in a Buffalo Sabres jersey. For the most part, it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. This despite the fact that the Flyers fans cheered loud and long for an opening montage on the Jumbotron that featured various Flyers through the team's history... beating the crap out of opposing players. There was a rather large Buffalo cheering section in the upper deck that got the brunt of the verbal abuse from Flyersfan. I was in the lower level behind the goal (taking advantage of a last-minute discount that I'm sure was designed to make the game a sellout). The first Flyers fan who sat next to me was actually pretty nice, and we spent quite a while chatting about our teams. Turns out it wasn't the guy's actual seats, so I spent the rest of the game next to other Flyers fans that I felt it was best not to speak to. Based on the increasingly agitated and vulgar nature of their comments as it got later in the game and Buffalo had the lead, I wasn't about to turn around and even make eye contact with the people behind me.

The only time I felt any tinge of concern was when a guy a couple rows behind me (who'd had a few) jumped up and started celebrating that his row had won some random in-game drawing. "I WON!" he yelled. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WON, BUT I WON SOMETHING!" Then he saw me chuckling about it, and started pointing at me and yelling, "BOO HIM! BOO HIM!!!" But in the end it was a fun experience, and Buffalo won so I got to enjoy that, albeit in very mute fashion so as not to provoke anyone.

So based on all these experiences I've had and enjoyed, I've started hearing accusations from a few people that I have assimilated nicely into Philly culture and have already tossed aside my Syracuse roots. Well no, not quite. If anything, I'm happy that Syracuse has adopted some helpful things from Philly, like the electronic route displays on the buses (now if they can only make them flash "Go Orange" like the ones down here read "Go Phillies" during the Series). They also added the crosswalk signals that actually count down how long you have to cross until the light changes. Not that people in Philly follow those anyway. So if anything, I've just combined the things I like about both cities. I've become Phila-cusian if you will.

Besides, most of the time I'm too busy with classes and work to really become totally immersed in being a resident of the City of Brotherly Love. Or much else for that matter. I had one experience this semester where I walked by the lounge/cafe area of the Communications building and saw a huge stage setup and folding chairs everywhere. Downstairs in the Ph. D office, we all mentioned it and wondered what it was. Later, I walked by and saw what it was all about... Matt Lauer was doing a Q&A session. My response? "Oh, it's Matt Lauer... eh." And I kept walking. Sorry, once you have seen the likes of Bob Costas and others making similar appearances at Syracuse, it becomes old hat. You'll have to do better than that, Philadelphia.

Actually, I think my Syracuse background could be beneficial for people around here. Take today for instance. We're getting a pretty big (for here) snowfall today, and I'm told the locals don't know how to handle snow at all. Incidentally, by the time this snow is over tonight, Philadelphia could have more snow so far this winter than Syracuse... excuse me? WTF? Anyway, I could easily show people how to deal with the white stuff... for a price, of course. After all, I still don't have a job.