The illadelph

I used to subscribe to a New York Times podcast called "Only In New York". A short (usually about 4 minute) audio podcast that came out once or twice a week, supposedly about things that "could only happen in New York". I romanticize about New York, and about living there one day, which I plan to do. I like to think that I know NYC as well as anyone who has never lived there can. I have also been known to mention that I feel like (and I sort of jokingly attribute this to being a Jew), whenever I'm in NYC, I immediately feel strangely at-home. That being said, screw all of you guys who think that your city is so much better than anywhere else, and that nothing could ever compare to it. It certainly is a very unique place, but while I've seldom been abroad, I've been darn-near everywhere in this great big country, and I can tell you that anything that you can see there, you can see anywhere else too. It's usually just a lot easier to see it in New York (there's a lot more folks there doing stuff).

Anyway, I stopped listening to that particular podcast, because it was dissapointing and lame. I thought it would be reminiscint of some of the more fun things and examples of wacky stuff that I like to romanticize about NYC. Instead it was stories of old mayors and their uninteresting coincidences with how things are named or something, I don't even know. It just wasn't interesting, and truly felt like they couldn't have taken place just as easily in Cleveland or San Ysidro.

I remember just before I moved to Philly (now over six years ago), I was at a friend's wedding and met a guy who had just moved from Philly. "You're going to have to be an Eagles fan" he said to me. "Well, duh" I thought to myself (hopefully didn't say it like that outloud). I mean, that's the home team and fans are always nuts about their teams, and certainly about football (a sport I'm not a fan of, in part because of how much hype it gets). But I did not know what I was getting into. Philly sports fans are nuts, and often, quite frankly, assholes. They (we...though I don't think I'm an asshole, at least not about sports) are well aware of it, but they also don't have a problem with. Partly because it's all they know, and partly because they feel they're entitled. I've had plenty of good moods spoiled (and of course that one story about almost getting beat-up for not going to an Eagles game), by uber-obnoxious Eagles fans. And I've had no shame about occasionally quoting the Dude "Look, I've had a really bad day, and I hate the fuckin' Eagles". Side note, there is a much-larger-than-you'd-think contingent of people here in Philly who hate the Eagles just as much as I do, and for the same reason...the fans.

I am a Phillies fan. I didn't feel anything special for the Orioles growing up, and when the Nationals came to DC, I had been in Philly long enough to feel conflicted about it, but I have been to a bunch of Phillies games, and love my Philly-fan friends, and am proud to be a Phillies fan.

I'm especially proud now, because on Weds, the Phillies won the city our first Major Championship in 25 years, and our first World Series win since 1980. It turns out the curse of William Penn was real, but that's another story. The pandemonium was immediate, and is still going on now. Broad St and Market St, the two main drags through Center City, not to mention 5-Points (yes, we have our own, New York) and Germantown Ave and a number of other places, were scenes to thousands of people drinking, cheering, honking horns, and crying while donned in a sea of grey but mostly red shirts, till the breaka'-breaka'. Today, the parade took over the city, and while I wish I could explain the Mummers to you, I don't think that any explanation of what generations of South Philly blue-collar bud-drinking italian men end up doing for only the most special of choreagraphed occasions.

We're love to make fun of ourselves here. We know that we've been on the top of the lists for the country's worst roads, fattest people, the meanest fans. These past couple of days have been one of, honestly, many, many times that I've experienced in this city, where you know you can just walk down the street, day or night, see any man, woman, child of any age or ethnicity, and upon offering, get an honest, smiling handshake, hug or pound. This week every homeless person has more change in their hat, every bartender has more cash in their till, every other car that passes honks it's horn at passing pedestrians in a sign of unity. Philly sports fans are so used to being angry and upset, but we're not fair-weather fans, and we never lose faith. Well we did it, and we earned it. Only in Philly.