The Pen & Pencil Club has had more homes than Philadelphia had daily newspapers when it was founded in 1892. Its current and permanent home at 1522 Latimer Street is the Club’s 16th residence—a fitting end to more than a century of nomadic existence.

The Club’s journey began at 133 South 11th Street, where it occupied the second floor for two years before moving to Bohemian Hall in 1894. Bohemian Hall remained the Club’s longest home, housing it until 1926. Neither of these buildings exists today; Thomas Jefferson University’s hospital now occupies the 11th Street site, and its Scott Building has stood on the Bohemian Hall site since 1970.

The Club’s third home was its first owned property: a townhouse at 1023 Spruce Street, purchased in 1926 for $42,500. Unfortunately, the Club struggled financially during Prohibition and could not sustain mortgage payments, leading to foreclosure in 1936. The building was sold in the late 1930s for $11,500.

From there, the Club rented its next ten homes. Its fourth location was in the now-demolished Walton Hotel at 233-47 South Broad Street, which it occupied from 1937 to 1941. It then moved to 1522 Walnut Street, now home to Holt’s Cigar Company, where it remained through 1944.

In 1945, the Club moved to 1523 Locust Street. Tragically, a Christmas Day fire in 1946 destroyed much of the building and the Club’s records. By January 1947, the Club had relocated to 1615 Walnut Street, where it stayed for 16 months; a New Balance store now occupies this building.

The Club’s eighth home, from 1948 to 1954, was at 239-41 South 15th Street, which drew over 1,000 attendees, including Mayor Bernard Samuel and Governor James H. Duff, to its opening. The site was later demolished, and the Academy House condo tower now stands there.

Records indicate a brief and undocumented stay at 1305 Locust Street in 1954, followed by a move in 1955 to South Camac Street, a stretch once known as the “street of clubs.” This location, at 239-41 South Camac, was also the first home of the Poor Richard Club.

The Club’s next two homes are somewhat unclear. By February 1963, 216 South 16th Street was listed as its address, and it later appeared at 1709 Chestnut Street during the 1960s.

In 1967, the Club moved into its third-longest-lived home at 218 South 16th Street/1600 Chancellor Street, where it stayed for nearly two decades. In 1986, the Club purchased its second owned property at 563 North 15th Street, but financial struggles forced it to close this location in 1990.

The Club reopened later that year at 1623 Sansom Street, where it remained until 1995. This building has since been replaced by the structure housing Abe Fisher and Dizengoff restaurants.

Finally, on August 17, 1995, the Pen & Pencil Club purchased its current home at 1522 Latimer Street. This time, the Club found stability: its mortgage was paid off early, and the milestone was celebrated in 2015 when then-President Chris Brennan ceremonially burned the note.

After more than a century of relocations, the Pen & Pencil Club has firmly settled into its home—a testament to its resilience and enduring role as the nation’s oldest surviving press club.

It’s Christmastime in the city.

U.S. center cities of all shapes and sizes can expect a wave of traffic, from the exurbs, the suburbs, the neighborhoods and outside the region. They come for shopping and sightseeing and, really, the setting that your city will create, with lights, decorations, atmosphere, a tree and cheer.

So, on Christmas Eve, why not figure out how we can do it better.

Center City Philadelphia, downtown Chicago and midtown Manhattan are the densest urban business districts in the United States. So there can’t possibly be better places to take your family, significant other or holiday shopping list. Other cities and towns can learn from where they succeed and where they fail.

Philadelphia, where I live, lags behind the other two. The reason is people.

I have heard Philadelphia described as being either too big for its own good or the biggest small town in the world. One of the more popular urban self-descriptions is being a “city of neighborhoods.” Screw ’em. Philadelphia is a city of neighborhoods. So, those neighborhoods create their own identities and celebrations. The circle of power is small, and these other collections will quickly convince you this city of 1.5 million couldn’t have more than 8,000 residents.

Because of these small clusters, there isn’t the same push from within the city to Center City. Families from the Northeast, northwest, south, north and west need to be drawn in. The Center City Business Development Corporation, like any central location for a region or city, needs to be valued as a *thing people – families, couples, friends – do in the holiday season.

Where’s your hub?

Where does a family’s holiday tour through your center city begin? In previous years, this is something Philadelphia struggled to develop.

Today is the end of the debut of the Christmas Village, a collection of small, outdoor shops next to City Hall that has been open daily since the day after Thanksgiving. In this economy, sales were unsurprisingly sparse, but if the German-themed village, which came at no cost to the city, can become an annual event, Philly might have its home.

This summer, word came that a huge grant came through for Center City development, some of which could be used to develop a skating rink next to the city’s municipal services building, across John F. Kennedy Blvd. from the current home of the Christmas Village, on often desolate Dilworth Plaza.

That is the beginning of a hub of holiday visits, which really helps develop that holiday spirit in a city.

What’s there to do?

I am a big believer in giving families something to do for free. They’re bound to spend money anyway, but then they feel like there’s reason for them to come. Families, in turn, give a sense of wholesome safety for other people. The more people, the more eyes on the street – to allude to Jane Jacobs – the safer your center city is.

Philadelphia has a long history of businesses following this model and another turned out this year.

On Thanksgiving Day at 10 a.m., in the lobby of the Comcast Tower, now the tallest building in the city, telecommunications giant Comcast debuted a 15-minute family holiday show. Say what you will about the Philadelphia-based company, but I saw the show, which runs through the end of 2008, and on the lobby’s enormous screen, the display is mesmerizing. What’s more, it’s free, and brings hundreds of families north of JFK, if barely, every hour on the hour. Someone tell me the last time any family has walked north of City Hall, not on the Franklin Parkway, on purpose.

Comcast joins legends of Philadelphia Christmas history.

Understand that in the middle of the 20th century, Philadelphia was the capital of U.S. retail via the new department-store trend and Market East was their proud promenade. While Strawbridge & Clothier, Lit Brothers, Wanamakers have all since shuttered, their famed Christmas displays live on.

Macy’s (admittedly a big New York City flag on Market East showing which city won the title of U.S. retail capital) now displays the Dickens Village of Strawbridge fame and the old holiday light show from Wanamaker’s Grand Court. Now, parts of the Enchanted Colonial Village from Lit Brothers is displayed in the Please Touch Museum.

These are traditions like seeing Santa or having tea at the Bellvue before seeing a performance of the Nutcracker at the Acadamy of Music (the oldest opera house in the country).

On Dec. 17, all of the Avenue of the Arts first launched the lighting of its famous South Broad Street strip – at no cost to the city. If City Hall – the country’s largest municipal building – could become a bit friendlier, like it seemed when lit two years ago, there would be a splendid nexus of holiday fun, my friends.

Of course, the city’s Christmas tree, this year appropriately placed back in the City Hall courtyard (after alternately tried at Love Park, as seen above, and on Dilworth Plaza), still isn’t the display it should be. Either more decorating, more people or otherwise more action needs to happen around it. If Christmas Village can expand and develop, perhaps have portions of it in the courtyard to keep traffic around it.

Conclusions

All the lights in the world won’t create a holiday environment that will bring families and other visitors. People and lights will. Wrangle corporate involvement into offering shows or displays – I’d like to see lots more in Philadelpha, in window displays and shows from every skyscraper in Center City. You should be able to answer what is the center of your city’s holiday environment?

Then, let them come, spend money and watch the entire cycle build on itself.

Merry Christmas.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A82Io4S97x8]

“Christmas in Philadelphia” produced by Emile D’Amico. Vocals by Jack McDade.

Top photo courtesy of Ronald C. Saari.

Google announced its hosting of 10 million Time-Life photographs last month.

The Google Life-magazine archive is a sign of more to come, but is pretty cool already. I’ve chosen five of the better images I found by checking “Philadelphia source: Life” in a Google image search. (hat tip to 10,000 words)

Right now, there are more than 200 items for Philadelphia, though the search seems to have some quirks. I couldn’t find items during one search, but if I used the same search terms ten minutes later, it might appear – other times, no Philadelphia images would register at all. Things that will be corrected I will imagine. Whether more items are to be added I don’t know, but for now, the oldest is a painting of a scene from the 1790s and the photos run to the 1980s.

See my ten favorites below, in chronological order.

Politician William C. Bullitt standing in front of run down houses during his campaign for mayor of Philadelphia. (Photo by Bernard Hoffman, October 1943)

I really wish I could find the address of this building. Hell, it might still be standing, waiting onmotion from Licenses and Inspections.

There are a number of photos of Bullitt, so I imagine Life wrote a profile on his failed mayoral bid – the Democrat and future U.S. Ambassador to France and the Soviet Union lost to Bernard Samuel, Philadelphia’s last Republican chief executive. Another good one of Bullitt can be seen here, where he stands in front of a crumbling Carpenter’s Hall. It stands today and the Hall, built in 1790 and home of the oldest union in the country, was a central focus of the major rehabilitation of Indepenence Mall and Society Hill that didn’t come until the late 1960s.

Of course, the Naval Yard has been one of the most important Philly landmarks you’ll never visit. Check this cool shot of interesting art outside one of the landmarks you will visit.

Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie Mack (C) w. his team at ballpark during game vs. New York Yankees on day in his honor (Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1947)

The interior of Senator Paul Douglas’ campaign headquarters in Philadelphia at the John Bartram with “rent” sign in window, after Harry Truman won the Democratic Presidential nomination. (Francis Miller, July 1948)

There are about a billion cool shots of the Phillies, including this one, which is probably my actual favorite of them (and old timey shots like here and here). There are some of the Eagles, none of the Flyers, and a couple of Wilt Chamberlain on the 76ers that pained me not to include but you should check out here.

Rocky Marciano lands a left hook on “Jersey” Joe Walcott in this World Heavyweight championship bout in Philadelphia. (Y. Joel, Sept. 23, 1952)

This surprise victory for Marciano made him the only undefeated, undisputed world heavyweight champion in boxing history. This is a fantastic shot by Life, but, I have to say, I think they were beat by UPI.

Is that classic Big Five basketball in the Palestra?

I love photography portraits. There are a number of Auth, so I imagine Life did a profile of the Pulitzer Prize-winner. This is my favorite of the batch.

What are your favorites from Philadelphia or elsewhere? Let me know below.

There are many things in this world I cannot do.

One of those I am reminded of regularly is photography. I have the pleasure and curse of being surrounded by a host of genuinely talented young photogs.

But I have had some limited experience and even less training, so when compiling a collection of freelance services I could offer, as announced earlier this week, I listed photography.

At least one of my friends, among the more talented photographers of my talented contemporaries, took issue with this. For freelancers out there, it’s important to understand what and why you can and should offer potential clients.

I do not take photos like Neal Santos. Or Keith Morrison. Or like Max Levine. Or Colin Lenton, an example of whose work I’ve borrowed and used above.

These are just the more active of the professional photographers I first came to know working at The Temple News, the celebrated college newspaper of Temple University in Philadelphia.

So, in Philadelphia, where media jobs are shrinking, it might seem indecent for me to even suggest I could take photos, with so many better qualified, underemployed folks doing great work. (Seriously, if you’re not from Philadelphia, walk around town, you’re bound to trip over an award-winning photographer).

Is offering my admittedly lower caliber photography ability an insult to those folks who do it better? Like Rachel Playe, Bri Barry or Kevin Cook.

It may seem it, but I can’t help but disagree with my photog friend who questioned my self-promotion in this world of self promotion.

It’s about honesty. I have never, nor will I ever tell anyone I am a photographer of any note or celebrity. Really, the only abilities I am even offering are functioning motor skills, moderate vision and ownership of a computer and a (very) basic digital camera.

I am only doing what I am taught in the new age. A successful journalist is a multimedia journalist, someone who can manage  at least moderate gains in all media and show ownership of all the tools the in journalism tool box.

Believe me, photography isn’t the only example of this.

I am offering to help journalists set up a Web presence: a simple WordPress blog and sufficient social networking. Like this site, I would use a WordPress.com account and template. Of course, anyone with even vague knowledge of Web design knows that isn’t much at all. Really, I couldn’t offer much more if I wanted.

I flirted with HTML years ago but abandoned that along with any hopes (or really, sue me, any desire) to learn much about coding or real Web design.

Look, chains like Jiffy Lube have found a niche by doing something simple – oil changes and fluid checks – cheaply and efficiently. When I was younger I did those services on my own, but then $30 started seeming cheaper and I didn’t care to put the effort. If someone is fine with a templated Web site and an RSS feed to a Facebook page, are my cheaper rates and more basic service an insult to my friends who can more thoroughly design, like Santos, Sean Blanda, Brian James Kirk and Mike Korostelev?

Is my offering to write family or couple profiles as anniversary, wedding or birthday gifts an insult to Michael Vitez, the Pulitzer Prize, Philadelphia Inquirer features writer who offers just about the same service?

I don’t believe so. I think in this age of journalism, we all need to diversify our talents, but do so honestly. I am not going to make a pitch or close a deal with photography, and certainly not with Web design. But it can sweeten the deal. That is the difference.

Lead with what you know best, supplement with what you’ve learned or can manage.

Because you’ll always find folks who are better at what you do.

An addendum: If only for my own amazement at those damn photographers around me, it comes to mind that this print journalist can’t even take respite in those whose advice I seek. In addition to being one of my city’s best known filmmakers and having a work of his entered in the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, my old head (read, mentor) Eugene Martin happens to be one of the photographers I most revere.

George Miller, a fellow young (though far more accomplished) freelance journalist and assistant professor of journalism adjunct faculty member at Temple, whose advice I persistently request compliments his writing with an experienced camera-trigger finger. Also, I am one of many young reporters who know the professional details of Pulitzer Prize-winning multimedia journalist Jim MacMillan‘s career better than Chase Utley‘s.

All this kissing up serves a purpose. The artistic talent that is in close proximity to my Philadelphia circle isn’t lost on me.

I was fairly late in joining Youtube – one year ago today, the day after I launched this Web site.

My roommate first told me about the video sharing and hosting site in November 2005, a year after it launched and a year before Google purchased it. However, I didn’t even think to join it until last December, when I put this site up and realized it was decidedly 1999-like without any multimedia.

Video was a first go. One year later, I have some thoughts on Youtube’s use as a social networking tool, how it moves forward and what it will mean in the future.

I just updated my channel last month. Made my background gray, organized my videos, juggled my subscribers and friends. Before that I took all my episodes from my travel blogging and podcasting with NBC’s Junior year Abroad and put them in a playlist, so one might watch them all collectively.

Maybe that’s working. I have nine subscribers and 14 friends. While that is certainly not heavy numbers in even my own social networking experience, I joined Youtube more for its hosting than its viewing and sharing, yet these and others continue to find and watch my videos there, instead of here, on My Life To-do List, on my MySpace page, at WeDontSpeaktheLanguage.com or elsewhere I’ve posted them.

My Youtube page has been viewed more than 1,000 times in a year and my 40 videos have been seen nearly 8,000 times. Despite my own age – low 20s – and the perception of social networking as a youthful endeavor, a third of those views come from folks between 35 and 44, according to statistics provided by Youtube (see chart below). Of course, online ages are subject to volunteering that information, but it seems interesting, still. I also might add that, of course, the ladies like my material – 51 percent of my views.

So people have watched my videos. No startling numbers – my top watched video is at 1,800 views, but that has nothing more to do with me than being in my old neighborhood – though I wish views could be calculated from videos posted on foreign Web sites. That is, how many times has the video of me at the Eiffel Tower been viewed on my personal Web site.

The site does clearly offer a platform I wouldn’t have had in 2005.

In a year’s time, less than 50 people have clicked to my site from my Youtube channel, according to my WordPress statistics. Still, though that number is small relative to my overall page views, that is the single most traffic my site has received from a single profile of mine on a social networking site, other than my Facebook page.

But because I have quite a bit more content on Youtube than Facebook, it’s fair to say Youtube is better video hosting and sharing site than social utility. It does breach a wider demographic – it’s become a regular tool and diversion for older folks – and also at least one of my Youtube videos makes it to the first page of Web searches of my name, sometimes two or even three on some days. Having a presence in more than form of media is valuable indeed.

It’s what I learned about Facebook, and then decided about MySpace and others, it helps to, at the least, sign up and develop a profile. If you’re interested or involved in any media industry – anywhere that your name is your brand – then jam up those those Web searches of your name, be aggressive in determining what potential employers or clients or interviews will see and know about you.

My Five Most-Viewed Videos on Youtube

1. Allegheny Subway Shooting (2/20/08)
   Views: 1,805| Comments: 2
2. Bill Clinton speaks at the University of Pennsylvania
   Views: 894 | Comments: 1
3. Christopher Wink’s “Mount Fuji” JYA Episode (6 of 13)
   Views: 695 | Comments: 3
4. Christopher Wink on Fox 29 Morning Show
   Views: 563 | Comments: 3
5. Christopher Wink’s “Japan Food” JYA Episode (9 of 13)
   Views: 521 | Comments: 0

Find me online elsewhere:

I was back in Philadelphia last month before leaving for Europe and inspired me to write a handful of posts, from my humble suggestions for the Philadelphia Inquirer to some lessons from an internship with the Philadelphia Business Journal – and the 10 Philadelphia books you have to read.

Here’s another, my missing the delicious food specialties of the original first city of America,

Philadelphia.

Yo, it’s a beautiful thing, food traditions. With the mixing and mashing of people and traditions, so much culture is going by the wayside. Cities – where so much American culture thrived – were killed and are no slowly being brought to life by young people – like me – who don’t know a damn thing about any of this cool shit.

It’s not only the best beer town, but Philadelphia is the best place to eat in the entire country. The food is good and more than anywhere else, this place has its own distinctions, tastes and smells. People actually ship this food across the country – figure it out.

Soft pretzels

Accept it, the American hot pretzel started in southeastern Pennsylvania and took off on the streets of Philadelphia. All those freakin kraut Germans brought the rough idea from their homeland, but it got over salted, smooshed into Philly’s traditional tighter eight shape (to fit more on the pan, see above photo) and made delicious.

Yo, Philadelphians eat 12 times as many pretzels in a given year than the rest of the country. That’s real, son. Buy a pretzel for less than a dollar from a cart off the street in Philly – but only if it has the above shape. Oh, and get some spicy, brown mustard if you know what’s good for you.

Irish Potatoes

As an article by Irish Philadelphia aptly began in 2007, “Irish potatoes aren’t Irish and they aren’t potatoes.” They are a distinctly Philadelphia candy made from cream cheese, butter, confectioners’ sugar, coconut, vanilla, a little milk or cream, rolled into potato shapes and covered in cinnamon.

Here’s a recipe for you and a half-assed column from the Bulletin clamboring about them.

Cream Cheese

In 1880, ‘Philadelphia’ was the first cream cheese brand name, after the city’s noteriety for highest quality food. Philadelphia is used by some as a generic term for cream cheese, and in Spanish it is translated as Queso Filadelfia.

Jimmies

Where I come from – North(west) Jersey – they’re called sprinkles. As a matter of fact, they are called sprinkles in much of the United States. Not when you’re talking to anyone from the Philadelphia region worth their salt. They’re rainbow jimmies or chocolate jimmies. They won’t even understand what the hell you mean when you ask for sprinkles on your ice cream cone.

To be fair, the term jimmies may have come from Bethlehem, Pa., but part of the region nonetheless and Philly gives the term its power, my friends.

Water Ice

Like the sprinke/jimmy debate, this is a split between the spheres of influence of Philadelphia and New York. I can remember being confused by the phrase ‘water ice.’ Why wouldn’t I? Water steam? Italian ice, which I grew up licking with a wooden spoon when it got hot in the summer, is a different animal but is an effective cousin to water ice. Still, like most food distinctions, this is a source of pride. Yo, you buy water ice in and around Philadelphia.

Water Ice is smoother and often served around pretzels. Hey, these guys will answer your ‘wooder ice’ questions.

Scrapple

I don’t know of another cultural institution so attached to a single region in the country as scrapple is to Philadelphia. In arguing just that about Philly’s pork mush product, someone mention grits to the Americna South, but for one, the south is too broad and, two, I have known others who ate grits. Not only do I doubt anyone eats scrapple who hasn’t lived in Philadelphia, I’d go as far as to say no one knows what scrapple is who hasn’t lived in Philly.

To be fair, I have been called out on it being a singularly Philly treat, but – as anyone who knows will tell you – it is strictly Philly today. Check this research from the Culinary Slueth:

Unless you live in the Middle Atlantic states, you may have never had the dubious pleasure of breakfasting on scrapple—a fried slice of pork-mush. Often erroneously called Philadelphia Scrapple, it’s really a dish that originated in the Eastern Pennsylvania farmlands of German born settlers—far from the city of Brotherly Love.

It’s dictionary defined as “cornmeal mush made with the meat and broth of pork, seasoned with onions, spices and herbs and shaped into loaves for slicing and frying.” The word, scrapple originates from “scrap” or “scrappy” meaning made up of odds and ends for that’s exactly what it is—boiled, ground leftover pig scraps with cornmeal and spices thrown in. Scrapple lovers think of it as food for the gods. Anti-scrapplers consider it a culinary abomination.

Scrapple is the unique creation of the Pennsylvania Dutch, and therefore only quasi-American as the immigrants combined their German heritage with New World ingredients. The term “Pennsylvania Dutch” is a corrupted form of Pennsylvania Deutsche, mostly transplanted Rhineland farmers who worked hard and ate heartily. They are frugal people and many of their dishes make imaginative use of every part of the butchered hog’s anatomy. Scrapple is one of them.

Still, as I said, it’s Philly now. I still haven’t brought myself to be able to eat it. …A dozen times I have stared at a plastic container of it at the supermarket or on Ninth Street. I could never bring myself to buy it. Yet, few things made me happier than being out for breakfast with a buddy from South Philly and watching him – in the seriousness of an early morning hangover in a sterile diner – order and devour scrapple. Food is one tradition still holding on with globalizaiton. Hell, scrapple is a freakin’ blog about the Eagles.

So, if you’re into brands, they tell me – not that I know – Habbersette Scrapple is the way to go.

Hoagies

Yo it isn’t a long sandwich, a hero or a zep or a po’ boy like in New Orleans. I grew up calling cold cuts and cheese and lettuce on a roll sliced like a hot dog bun a sub, like submarine sandwich, I guess. …Oh how foolish I was. It’s a hoagie, my friend.

In Philly, it’s a hoagie. Lots of debate over why.

Whether it actually was born in Philly or nearby Chester, Pa. – which owes its existence to Philly – is yet another source of contention, but, like other arguments, in my mind, they are silenced because we’re talking regionalism, and Philadelphia gives all of this food mystery flight.

Today, in my experience, the defining characteristics of a real hoagie, a Philly hoagie, is a round shape, like seen above, rounded because its so god damned stuffed with cold cuts, cheeses, lettuce and other goodness, drenched in oil, vinegar and heaven. If it’s ovaled or – worse – flat, rectangular, boxy, anything else, it’s an imposter, I say. Oh, and you’re probably supposed to have it on a fresh Amoroso hoagie roll.

The Cheesesteak

But, in the end, this is what you come to eat in Philadelphia. Hey, I can’t freakin’ blame you. I haven’t met a steak I don’t like in my half-decade in Philly. It is this city’s last prominently associated, international representative.

Pat’s and Geno’s are enduring classics. Tony Luke’s and John’s Roast Pork fight for the insider’s title of best of the big names, but, the dirty little secret is that they’re all delicious. It’s in the fresh rolls and the ground beef and in the mythology that surrounds it. There is something good and right about a steak in Philadelphia – like so many other treats special to particular locales. You make it as good as you want it to be.

The only real dilemma I have is deciding whether its two words or one: cheesesteak or cheese steak. I can’t decide! On second reference it’s just steak, so does that mean two words? Help!

Other

You got pepper strips and sliced cherry peppers for sandwiches and Philly pizza. Then you have those smaller companies that don’t go far beyond a region – for whatever reasion – they are always primal ground for a regional food identity. Philly has OTC Oyster Crackers and Frank`s Black Cherry Wishniak, Goldenberg`s Peanut Chews and Sweetzels Spiced Wafers. Ninth Street is full of independent butchers and cheese shops that I haven’t begun to explore in depth.

Outside Philly

Of course, Philadelphia’s eating has extended outside the city limits. Its water ice history set the foundation for Rita’s, the popular chain known for its Philly suburban roots. Similarly, Wawa, the conveinence store with a cult-like following, was born just outside Philadelphia in Delaware County.

But not all of Philly’s corporate eateries are suburbanites. Tastykake is one of those great corporate citizens. It is a Philadelphia institution – gooey and tasty and cakey – and never leaving this god damned city. Its CEO is a power broker of his own accord. Dietz & Watson brings its meats and cheeses around the country and they’re based in Bridesburg on Tacony St.

Outside Philly, it’s not just Pennsylvania, either. My native New Jersey outside Philadelphia has held its own.

For the Philadelphia Business Journal, I wrote about a South Philly Italian food company with long ties in deliciousness.

Ever heard of Taylor ham? Yeah, well that’s a Jersey thang because, seriously, that cut of tubed ham was developed in the 19th century by some cat named John Taylor in Trenton, N.J. In Philly that sausage-like pork product made from coarsely ground pork shoulder is called pork roll, which I think sounds a little gross, but, hey, that’s tradition for you.

There also was a time when Camden, N.J. wasn’t just the country’s largest crack den. That’s where panzarottis first came to the United States from Italy. Because of the Camden’s proximity to Philadelphia, they became a South Philly treat – though South Jersey sure might fight that. The original panzarotti store is still in operation, at the corner of Marlton Avenue and Midvale Street in East Camden.

Oh, and let’s not forget Campbell’s. which made soup a regular part of the American diet in the 19th century. They never sold out. The mega corporation is still based in Camden – I love them for that.

Indeed, Philadelphia – the best place to eat in the country – doesn’t need any help with its home grown treats, but for sure, the entire region is rich in tasty-ness.

Any foods I’m missing?

Photo from Day in the Life.

Are you ready to be your biggest fan?

If you want to succeed in media or any other venue where your name is your brand – comedy, acting and more – then you better be ready. Retain that humility in person-to-person interaction, but forget about it when you near the professional realm.

In the spring, I was proud to be named among the 100 most promising young journalists in the country by UWire – how thorough the list was and whether I truly deserved the honor are for another discussion entirely.

I tell this story because the lesson it taught me about self-promtion. Because, after first catching wind of UWire’s hopes to find the best young reporters from a college media blog, the process turned into a competition about who would scream the loudest about their accomplishments.

I filled out a nomination form, though friend Sean Blanda – who also earned the honor – and I were lucky enough to do this for each other to avoid complete self-involvement. What’s more, in addition to recommendations and references, the process involved additional nominations.

An e-mail from a product manager at UWire made me cringe.

The more nominations, the better his or her chance is of getting chosen.

Now beyond just being nominated, you have to get your Aunt to do so, too? Is this Prom King voting? I decided against soliciting supporters, so perhaps I made it just out of luck – or maybe others in the running found it distasteful. The point is that you have to figure out how far you will go to promote yourself because this is a world and we are competing in industries full of self-promoters.

My alma mater Temple University is trying to add a flair of noteriety to their annual Diamond Awards, which I have proudly won twice, each time I was available and eligible. I was nominated by professors, but then I had to track down others to recommend me. Where does professional persistence end and self-congratulation begin?

A professor suggested I pursue a post as commencement speaker for my graduate in May. I thought I could do a fairly respectable job, so I applied and was awarded the great honor, but the process involved bothers me – pursuing the support of others, forcing them to write, speak or stand on my behalf.

It’s something I grappled with often in college and will likely do more in the professional world.

Understand, no one who knows me will say anything less than that I am sure of what I can do, but I don’t believe it would be accurate to suggest I am a lover of self-promotion.

This very Web site, this blog, it was a conscious choice of the benefits it could offer me professionally outweighing the seeming self-involvement of it all. I hope it’s working.

Anyone else?

Politicians, journalists and over-opinionated guy talking on the street, comparing what is happening on WALL STREET with what is happning on MAIN STREET is no longer clever.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAIxlK8EPA8&eurl=http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=main%20street%20and%20wall%20street&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp7sLYwqI9w]

Here…Here…Why not here. Oh and here.

We get it. It’s clever; Wall Street is a euphemism for U.S. stock markets and Main Street for the average American. …But in two weeks time it has been more overused than any other phrase… ever? Stop.

Image courtesy of ThunkDifferent.