ICYMI in September: The pope takes over Philly, the Eagles stumble out of the gate and a visit to the Gayborhood's 'House of Weird'
by PhillyVoice Staff
September was certainly a month to remember for the region.
Pope Francis captivated the city of Philadelphia but left us with a bad post-pope hangover. The Eagles opened what was thought to be a season of hope with consecutive losses before finally rebounding with a victory over the Jets. And we said hello to a mad scientist ... and goodbye to Tim Tebow.
Here are a handful of must-read stories from the just-completed month on PhillyVoice:
When Francis pontificates, he does not sound like a conventional pope. But he does sound exactly like a Jesuit. It’s just that we’re not used to hearing from a Jesuit pope, say local members of the nearly 500-year-old Society of Jesus - the Jesuits’ formal name.
Eagles running back DeMarco Murray has quite the comedic range. One day, we saw him demonstrate his more physical and improvisational side when a backdrop nearly fell on him during his session with the media. And the next day, Murray showed the dry and somewhat sarcastic side of his comedic game when he sat down with actor Ben Schwartz -- you may know him best as Jean-Ralphio Saperstein in NBC's "Parks and Rec," which sadly ended last year after seven hilarious seasons.
The "Franky's Foxes" drag troupe. From left to right: Maria TopCat, Ann Artist, Omyra Lynn, Iris Spectre, Lady Poison, Zsa Zsa St. James and Karma.
It's 9 p.m. on a Sunday, and a drag queen with dolls taped to her breasts is thrusting a wrecking ball at another queen dressed as Nicki Minaj -- both doing slow-mo drop kicks to the soundtrack of "Mortal Kombat." This, ladies and gentlemen, is a tame night upstairs at Franky Bradley's.
A 10-foot stone wall surrounds Girard College, secluding the 43-acre campus from its neighbors – Fairmount and Brewerytown. The historic boarding school behind that wall has offered thousands of orphaned children a free education since opening in 1848. But as the institution prepares to kick off another school year, its future remains in flux. Still, enrollment is climbing again after falling dramatically two years ago, when administrators first proposed controversial structural changes.
Tim Tebow at no time was ever on the Eagles' 53-man roster and, yet, PhillyVoice Eagles writer Jimmy Kempski says he probably got more emails about him than any other player he’d ever covered, DeSean Jackson aside. Here’s a sampling of those emails.
Walking into Adolphe Alexander's Kensington home is like entering a scene from "Back to the Future"; like Doc Brown's laboratory, each shelf is filled with tools and materials, projects both started and finished. Part scientist and part artist, Alexander is like any other high-energy, happy-go-lucky genius you've ever met.
K-9 Cody is on the mend and expected to return to service in Reading after becoming the first working dog taken via medevac to Penn Vet's Ryan Hospital in University City. (Photo: Friends of Reading Police)
Cody, the Reading police K-9 who suffered a life-threatening injury on Sept. 4 while on duty, is on the mend thanks to good luck – and good planning. The planning that saved the Belgian Malinois, who suffered internal abdominal bleeding after falling perhaps 20 feet, began six years ago. It culminated on the night of Sept. 4 with a medevac flight to Philadelphia.
As a grizzled veteran of Sixers Twitter, I’m fully confident in saying that very few people on my timeline are dispassionate. Never is this more apparent than down the stretch of the season, when people are live tweeting a random Miami-Detroit game in caps lock because two-time NBA champion Erik Spoelstra can’t figure out how to slow down Reggie F@&^!%& Jackson for the life of him. Look at what you’ve done, Sam Hinkie. This is what protected first-round picks do to sane people.
There are naked runners among us. They’re both extraordinary and totally normal at the same time. They are teachers and lawyers and medical professionals. They are men and women with mortgages, kids and pets. They are athletes who are so in tune with their bodies, they hardly think twice about doing something many of us wouldn’t dare consider in our wildest dreams: the naked 5K.
When Pope Francis gave his final blessing and his plane, Shepherd One, lifted off the tarmac on Sunday, Philadelphians may have breathed a sigh of relief that this hectic weekend was over – but that sigh was tinged with sadness, too. As much angst as the papal visit caused before it happened, with fears of overwhelming crowds and over-the-top security measures, the weekend itself was filled with wonder, excitement and joy. Several Philadelphians took to Twitter to lament that they had PFD – Post-Francis Depression.
By Jimmy Kempski’s count, Eagles offensive lineman Julian Vandervelde has been through 17 roster transactions, including being released seven times. On Sept. 29, the day he re-signed with the Eagles, he took us through how he felt emotionally at the time of each of those 17 roster transactions, through facial expressions.
In July, a group of hackers who called themselves “Impact Team” stole sensitive data from extramarital affair website Ashley Madison and threatened to leak the identities of its millions of users if the site was not immediately shut down. A week later, in a high-profile data dump on the dark web, the hackers exposed the names, email addresses, phone numbers and more of Ashley Madison customers. So why, with all the risks of humiliation and exposure, even outside of a mass data breach, do people cheat?
Falcons QB Matt Ryan grew up in Exton as a big Eagles fan. (Phelan M. Ebenhack / AP)
These occurrences always tend to get a little murky for Matt Ryan's parents, Mike and Bernie, and their extended family. Every once in a while, when “their” Atlanta Falcons play the Eagles, the Ryans, McGlincheys, Hartmans, Tarpeys, McCains and Lougherys — salt-of-the-earth people who are born and bred lifelong Eagles fans from the area — are yanked aside by blood ties. The sway happens when the hometown boy goes up against his hometown team, in this case Falcons starting quarterback Matt Ryan, the former Penn Charter and Boston College star who still vacations in Wildwood during the summer and carries his own bags through airports.
“Will pay for conversation,” a bald, 84-year-old man states with a laugh. His thick Brooklyn accent echoes through the foyer of the nursing home. Then he looks at me over the rim of his glasses and his tone turns serious. “Honestly, I’m so lonely living here. I daydream about standing outside with a sign reading: ‘Will pay for conversation.’” I remember his words whenever I drive past nursing homes or assisted living facilities. At times, it’s easy to forget the centers that house our elderly are full of more than sequestered sadness. Should we take the time to engage in conversation, the stories shared are remarkable, transformative and provide a direct link to history.