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October 24-30, 2002 cover story City Life
Best place to get a haircut by a stylist who doesnt laugh at you behind your backThe Beehive Hair Salon is the least pretentious salon I have ever been to in Philadelphia -- and they give reasonably priced haircuts that make you look better than you deserve to. Another plus: co-owner Amy May's resident pooches, who are always on hand to offer up some cutting-edge fashion yips, er, tips. So, even if the haircut doesn't come out the way you want it, you can be comforted knowing you're not the only dog in the joint. JL 2319 Fairmount Ave., 215-235-4483 Most aggravating consequence of the war on terrorWe've adjusted to the fact that you can't fly with tweezers, and we've stopped being shocked (if not nauseated) every time a federal official cops dialogue from 1984. But please, oh please: Can't we have our Chestnut Street back? What possible purpose can closing the street on one side of Independence Hall have? Considering that you can cozy right up to the building on either side, blocking off the front hardly seems like protection at all, though it does represent an enormous pain in the ass for traffic of both the motor and foot variety. Doesn't the fact that Independence Hall is the only building in the city you're not free to walk by strike anyone as a bit, well -- oh, never mind. SA Goofiest example of post-9/11 hysteriaDo we take terrorists seriously here or don't we? Pennsylvania Ballet dancer Jonas Lundqvist and friend Bill Madeira, ballet patron, were taking pictures last June on the Passyunk Avenue Bridge, and by golly our ever-vigilant local law enforcement saw this suspicious activity and took them right into custody. You bet. By the way, Lundqvist, a tall blond guy from Finland (hey, at least we don't profile), gave up dancing because of an injury and intends to pursue a career in... photography. But not in the U.S.A. Shutter-happy tourists should be very, very careful. JA Best place to kick back with a beer and feel like your life is going nowhereIt's a wonder how the notorious, sign-less, dingy-as-hell Town Market (better known as The Cop Shop) manages to stay open amid all the luxurious Center City housing. But as long as they keep selling bottles of booze until 2 a.m., people will keep coming. One side of The Cop Shop is fenced off, featuring a handful of tables and chairs where you can sit and watch TV and order a pitcher of beer ($4 for Yuengling Lager or Miller Lite and $5 for Becks). Last call is at 12:30, and you have to be out by 1:30. Meanwhile, the lights are obnoxiously bright while a couple on-duty police officers are going at it on the golf arcade game right next to you. SO 13th and Lombard sts., 215-735-5898 Worst resurgent fashion trendHonestly, people. Weren't the ’80s dreadful enough the first time around? Must we really suffer through a comeback of hideously unflattering styles of the sort worn by Madonna before she was old enough to know better? A small sampling of fashion disasters recently spotted on the streets and runways: narrow-heeled cowboy boots with fringe; leather shirts in colors never seen on any cow; pointy-toed flat-heeled shoes; socks worn with ballet flats; wide belts worn over tunic tops; the mohawk; and the perpetually disgraceful mullet. And Urban Outfitters is gambling that some poor, deluded soul will spend her recession-threatened cash on a pair of thick wool diarrhea-brown leg-warmers adorned with small grey llamas. The damnable thing is, they're probably right. MB Best new dog run in Center CityDogs need to live in a place where they can run free for hours on end. But what's second best is having a nearby dog park where your hairy pet can get (at least some of) the exercise it needs. Thanks to the demands of devoted dog owners in the Washington Square West area, one of Center City's few (or only?) dog runs finally opened its gates -- connected to Seger Playground on 11th and Lombard streets. It's a pleasant, grassy hill consistently congested with playing dogs from the neighborhood. It's a bit small, but it certainly gets the job done. SO 11th and Lombard sts., dog park entrance on Random St. Best sledding hill in PhiladelphiaSteep, with two pretty good dips, the hill behind the Water Tower Recreation Center allows riders of sleds, tube, cardboard and all manner of snowy conveyances to fly through the air. Shoot for speed! Shoot for distance! Pray for snow! HA Hartwell and Ardleigh sts., Chestnut Hill Best therapist for your best friendNo, not the one who just broke up with the jerk, again . This therapist and trainer works with Man's Best Friend, in all of its various shapes, sizes and behavioral problems. Using only positive reinforcement techniques (no yelling, no rolled-up newspapers), Patricia Bentz can turn Cujo into Benji, and tell you why your pet is acting out. DA Patricia Bentz, 215-882-0243 Best place to get an inexpensive massageThanks to the Massage Arts School of Philadelphia, you can get a great muscle rubdown by one of the school's students for only $30 an hour. You'll quickly get over the clinical ambience (each massage "room" is divided only by a curtain) once the energetic students start working their hands over your aching body. At this price, it's pretty easy to let go. SM 1515 Locust Street, 2nd floor, Wed., Fri. and Sat., 215-985-0674. Best night view of the cityOffering a rare combination of proximity and perspective, a stroll across the Walnut Street Bridge at night has something for all the senses, from the twinkle of lights shimmering against the river to the smell of the river to the vibrations you feel when trucks cross over the bridge and trains rumble by underneath. Besides, from this angle, Center City really looks like a city. HA Best place to buy shoes for foot fetishists and streetwalkersIf you're into shoes, baby, this place is for you! The high-end sex shop, Forbidden Planett, is now fully stocked with new European stilettos and boots that will fulfill every foot desire. For the trendy female, Forbidden Planett carries high-end brands such as Gianni Bravo, Lorenzo Marco, Julian Belle, Sky and Planisphere. For those into fetish, the Taboo line features black patent leather stilettos that show some skin. Take a walk on the wild side. MP 239 Market St., 215-923-SEXY Best places to buy beads, baubles and fabulicious clothes (upscale and down)Adjoining its stately tonsorial manor along tony Washington Square, clothing/jewelry salon Pileggi Boutique is surprisingly packed without being overly ostentatious, stocking subtle shadings of Trina Turk (fine sweaters and coats), Diane Von Furstenberg dresses, How & When pants, Donna Karan shoes and oodles of Vivienne Tam. Blocks away in Old City, at the very back of an already super-fine Vagabond on North Third (see below), is Sodafine. Artist Erin Weckerle and designing women pals Rebekah Maysles and Emily Geddes run a small, affordable salon filled with everything from their choice of vexing vintage wear to their own handmade-ables like neato knitted yarn bags and loop-striped tube tops. ADA Pileggi Boutique, 715 Walnut St., 215-922-3526 Sodafine, 37 N. Third St., 215-574-9112
Favorite couples (out of town and local)
Not since the Captain and Mrs. Noah has this city been so enraptured by a famous flashy couple. Whether eating at Alma de Cuba, filming at Famous on Fourth Street or hanging around South Philly locations, Ben and J. Lo seemed comfortable with love and each other's fame. So too do the costumed couple of jewel magnate/party thrower Henri David and dancer/party planner Paul Struck. Whether bopping around in civilian wear (which is always still pretty designer-conscious) or spectacularly bedazzling at Halloween or some other garrulous holiday, no loveteam look more at ease with each other and their outrageous outerwear. ADA Clothing store that'll persuade you that you can wear anythingThe dress-up closet of our dreams, Vagabond stocks absolutely every kind of garment we've wanted to try on at least once: oversized cowl-neck sweaters to kilts, fringed tops to batwing sleeves. Besides bringing us countless hard-to-find designers, owners Mary Clark and Megan Murphy include pieces of vintage clothing which they pick from Antiquarian's Delight Antiques, and sprinkle their racks with their own handmade designs. All this explains why popping in to try on a floor-length fake-fur coat "just to see what this looks like" has become a local pastime. JF 37 N Third St., 267-671-0737 Best place for a cheap tuxA family-owned business that's been in the neighborhood for generations, Frank-Tux is a throwback in more ways than one, with '60s jazz concert posters adorning the walls, old-timey prices for tuxedo rentals and friendly, flexible service catering to your tuxedo needs. HA 6556 Germantown Ave., 215-844-2426 Best places to have sex in City Hall (from collected anecdotes)Private fifth floor bathroom during a New Year's party. City Hall Tower. Greta Greenberger, who runs tours of City Hall, has arranged for engagements and weddings to take place in the tower, but she's a little dubious about it as a location for sexual encounters. "It'd have to be a real quickie, because we bring up groups every 15 minutes." The bank of phones on the first floor, across from City Commissioner Joe Duda's office, where a woman named Betty calls up looking to have phone sex with police officers in the building. HA Best place to watch multiple fireworks displays at the same timeIf you like fireworks, I mean, really like fireworks, pull up alongside the Montgomery County quarry on Stenton Road. It's located atop one of the highest points in the region, smack in the middle of a number of communities, so on July 4 you can ooh and ahh at bursts of pyrotechnical wonderment emanating from several towns at once. HA Best dry cleanerAlways ready with a smile and willing to sew a button on in a pinch, the good folks at Olde City Cleaners may not know how to spell, but they sure know how to take care of your valuable threads at very reasonable prices. It used to be called Mr. Syes, but owner Sue Ko changed the name last month when she got too many invective-laden calls from people complaining about the service at the other Mr. Sye locations around the city, which are all now independently owned. HA 31 S. Second St., 215-925-9815 Hardest-working sports advocate for childrenTake a ride up Germantown Avenue and pull up to Mt. Airy Playground, across the street from the Acme. Take a walk out to the baseball fields and, more likely than not, you will see Gerry Givnish, former head of the Painted Bride Art Center, teaching kids how to pitch, seeding the outfield, raking the infield, watering the grass or fixing the pitching machine. Day and night. HA Best church to throw a fastball inUpstairs at Mt. Airy Presbyterian Church, in the gym, Mt. Airy Baseball conducts its annual winter clinics. The gym even has an indoor, retractable batting cage, where aging baseball coaches (like the author) toss hundreds of batting practice pitches to the next generation of baseball stars. HA Germantown and Mt. Pleasant aves., 215-247-1303 Most fabulous girl-centric boutique/best local T-shirt designer
Super-feminine with a modern feel is how proprietor Brigette Valenzano likes to describe Rescue 138. Enter the Old City clothing and accessory boutique and get bathed in girl-electricity from every direction, including muslin dressing-room curtains dyed eye-popping hot pink and the fluorescent, pink-orange Plexiglas shelves. But what sets Rescue apart from many other urban-chic boutiques is that much of the fly, fresh, flavorful clothing is the work of burgeoning female designers. Some of the stand-outs by locals are the woven, grosgrain ribbon belts by Johanna Clark and new must-have Kerizma T-shirts from Keri Jordan (pictured), which take ordinary men's tees and cut-and-paste them into flirtatious loveliness with added extras like brightly hued lace and/or denim edging. Other local woman-owned goodies are Charlie Baker's casual loungewear and lolo + gretch dahling clutch handbags. And make sure to prepare for the daily grind with Dirty Girl bath and body products and the Femme Arsenal makeup line. Ladies, use the force. HK 138 N. Third St., 215-873-0214 Best place to buy sneakersIt is simply not enough, when buying athletic footwear, for a sales clerk to fling a box at you and unball tissue from a prospective pair of Nikes. To be assured of the proper fit, you need a friendly expert, and Rittenhouse Sports Specialties has plenty of them. EL 1729 Chestnut St., 215-569-9957 Least valuable PhillieBatting either first or second in the lineup most of the season in front of sluggers Bobby Abreu (50 doubles) and Pat Burrell (37 home runs), Phillies centerfielder/Penn grad Doug Glanville scored a measly 49 runs in 138 games. Put the blame on his .292 on-base percentage, about 80 points below what you need from a leadoff batter. A Barry Bonds-caliber season wouldn't have put the Phils in the post-season by itself -- they still need a topflight starting pitcher -- but even a mediocre performance at the plate from #6 would have kept the Fightin's above the .500 mark. AM Biggest waste of a billion dollarsSo here's the standard route for sports fans heading to the two stadiums in South Philadelphia: Cross the Walt Whitman. Or buzz through on 76. Catch a game, then hop back on the highway, straight outta Fluffya. Couldn't anybody see what's wrong with this picture? HA Best place for tourists to see real live junkiesNo need to truck up to Third and Indiana to see hopped-up hep cats nodding out after shooting up. Addicts are flocking to the Independence National Historical Park, particularly the Visitors Center, according to a park source. One reason: It's safer and more comfortable than the streets. HA Sixth and Market sts. Best TV for keeping unwanted relatives out of townAfter the first few episodes of the grim, dim new teledrama Hack, you'd need to give out-of-towners a triple dose of thirtysomething before they'd ever consider setting foot in our grimy burg. Episode one featured those staples of vigilante justice shows, arbitrarily violent black teenagers and child-napping pornographers. Episode two featured a homicidal teenage junkie and a double-dealing gambling addict (as well as some stunning footage of Boathouse Row!). Maybe it's a positive sign of the city's upticking fortunes (or just an acknowledgment of the advertising dollars at stake) that we've been deemed setting-worthy for TV drama two years in a row. Now can they stop making the city look like a god-forsaken scumhole? SA Best reason to watch TV weatherCecily Tynan. HA Best reason not to watch TV weatherWhenever she's not on. HA Best and cheapest way to get to New York City and backWhat is the best way to get to Manhattan without spending a fortune on trains or tolls? Dragon Coach Philadelphia. The Dragon Bus leaves from 10th and Race streets in Chinatown six times daily (with an extra 11 p.m. departure on weekends), arriving at 88 E. Broadway in Manhattan's Chinatown in less than two hours. It returns to Philly six times a day and twice in the evening on weekends. All for $10 round trip. No kidding. The bus is a clean, comfortable, tourist-style coach with a bathroom and a television (a good way to catch up on your favorite Chinese soaps). MP Dragon Coach Philadelphia, 1041 Race St. Best new weapon in the fight against cancerYou don't have to be an oncology expert to give cancer a thorough paddling. Fairmount Park has long been a hot spot for various benefit walks and runs, but this one's on the Schuylkill proper -- the Philadelphia Dragon Boat Festival. Forty-three teams of more than 20 people each took the crash course in synchronized canoeing this year, and while the final tally is not in yet, Executive Director Carol Lee Lindner was thrilled to report that the benefit for Fox Chase Cancer Center was an extraordinary success. Volunteers from the Philadelphia women's team, many of whom are breast cancer survivors, trained more than 1,000 paddlers for the event earlier this month. If you missed it, don't worry: This will be an annual event, and they're already looking for next year's volunteers. HT www.philadragonboatfestival.com Best daytime busDuring the day the No. 17, which runs from South Philadelphia to Penn's Landing via 19th and 20th streets, is the most accessible bus in the whole city. Starting at about six in the morning, this bus runs practically every five minutes, slipping to totally acceptable 10-minute intervals during the middle of the afternoon and again after about 5:30 p.m. If, however, by any unfortunate chance, you don't get back on the bus by 7 p.m. or so, you'll find yourself waiting for up to a half hour or longer. As the night gets later, the buses get fewer. The same scarcity can be found on the weekends. The message: We'll make sure you get here if you've come to do some work for us. But if you want to hang out and partake of the City of Brotherly Love, please do it in your own damn neighborhood. DBo Best cabbieWhen we hailed him outside the Kmart on Oregon Avenue, he immediately asked if we'd called for a cab. I told him we hadn't, to which he replied, "Good, I don't want to take someone else's fare." What's this, a cabbie who plays by the rules? Then he not only got out to help us with our bags, he engaged my 4-year-old son in conversation as if we'd known him for years. He drove the speed limit, stopped at every stop sign and chatted the whole way to our house -- mostly about South Philly and interesting friends of his -- and when he found out I work at City Paper, I thought he was going to let go of the wheel and hug me. Turns out Joe's Peking Duck House, which we raved about in "Lunch Bunch" a few months back, is his favorite restaurant. It was the most pleasant cab-riding experience I've had in this city. So if you find yourself in Phillip Cantor's cab (he drives for Old City), tell him I said hi. FL Worst transit ideaThat black stain? Where did it come from? Who left it? Maybe I should stand? These are questions commuters who already pay way too much to ride the subways in this town shouldn't have to ask themselves. But, thanks to cloth seats on the Market-Frankford line, most of which are marred with splats and splotches whose origin you really don't want to know, sitting is often the last thing you want to do. HA Best transit IdeaCheese steaks. Italian hoagies. Yuengling. Yeah, SEPTA, you're right. We need fatass seats for fatass Philadelphians. (And make 'em plastic, please.) HA Best cure for the ugliesThere's something about salon owner JC Mazza that keeps us flocking into Closet Fever for style rehab. Maybe it's because there's a DJ spinning on the house turntables while JC styles my hair. Maybe it's the slew of hand-picked vintage duds on display next to a row of old-school junior high lockers. Maybe because you go in feeling dog-ugly and come out feeling hot as hell. Whether it's a cut, color, wax or 'do, there's something about JC Mazza that makes you leave feeling a little funkier, a little cooler, ready to rock. RF Closet Fever, 707 N. Second St., 215-627-4600 Best pinch-me-to-prove-I'm-not-dreaming momentH&M on Chestnut! OK, so it's a chain. But for those of us who have outgrown thrift-store shopping but haven't moved into another tax bracket, H&M is it. The Swedish discount clothier succeeds where others fail -- they're ahead of the fashion curve, not latching on to last month's trends. Sexy hip-hugging pants, smart belts, silky shirts and more line the racks of this massive shop in the former Bailey Banks & Biddle, so you can glam it up to high heaven and still have money left for cosmetics at M.A.C, which opened a store right around the corner. LH 1530 Chestnut St., 215-561-6178, www.hm.com Best plumberA plumber who arrives exactly at the time promised? Gets the job out of the way in an hour and charges reasonably? Explains the work done and remains unfailingly friendly and courteous through the whole transaction? A dream, right? Nope. And recently, when I dealt with Robert Metzger Plumbing, they sent not just one but two plumbers and only charged for one. OK, that was a mistake -- one guy picked up the other's job order -- but all in all, the experience was so positive (and the repairs so effective) as to require a shift in my plumber paradigm. DW Robert Metzger Plumbing, 215-467-3335 Biggest waste of bronze
A few weeks ago, Councilman Wilson Goode Jr. convinced City Council to erect a slave memorial in Independence National Historic Park. A few weeks before that, A. Bruce Crawley & Co. implored black Philadelphians to boycott the Daily News because of a decidedly offensive mug-shot cover depicting only men of color. Looks like black empowerment in the "City of Brotherly Love" is on the rise. NOT. If black folks in Philly really want to feel like they're getting some respect, somebody ought to find a way to bring down that menacing statue of Frank Rizzo, former police commish and two-term mayor, from in front of the Municipal Services Building. The 2,000-pound, 10-foot bronze statue is a vicious reminder of an era of unprecedented police brutality imposed against the black men of Philadelphia. Who can forget the raids and beatdowns that made this city the place "not to be" for blacks for years and years? The only saving grace is that these days, from a distance, Frank L. Rizzo could easily be mistaken for a brother. DBo Most unnerving bathroomThe unisex bathroom in the basement of The Last Drop Coffee House. There's a broken mirror to disturb the ladies and Victorian dolls decked out with sun hats to gaze at the men as they heed nature's call. DBr 1300 Pine St., 215-893-9262 Hippest bathroom graffitiOn a bathroom wall in an area of the city that lives and dies by Fab Moretti's hairdo, we find a treatise on what it is to be hip: "Hi! I live in Northern Liberties and I'm hip because of it." It goes on from there, equating hipness with certain sexual... ahem... gifts. But the final word comes from someone with a sense of what's hip in all of us: "Hi! I am the part of your leg where it attaches to the rest of your body and I'm hip because of it." You can read the entire conversation at the Ministry of Information or, as the hip kids refer to it, W&J. RD 449 Poplar St., 215-925-0999 Best stop for a chop and shopYou're bored. You hate your hair. You hate your clothes. Even your furniture is beginning to look humdrum -- and those blank walls Fear not! American Mortals to the rescue! Kim and Dave Bond (with son Levi in tow) are there to save the day. Kim will style your coif while Dave fills the void in your interior world with retro-furniture and collectibles. Add trendy clothes and art -- why would you go anywhere else? (You can even add your autograph to the waiting-room wall.) DS 729 Walnut Street, 215-574-1234 Best place for minimalist housewares and clothingOn a block full of similarly small and appealing boutiques, Petulia’s Folly stands out with its beautiful, spare furnishings for both bodies and rooms -- beckoning the most tasteful of Rittenhouse Square shoppers and those who envy them. EL 1710-1712 Sansom St., 215-569-1344 Most dedicated housepainterFinding a housepainter who will do a good job is essential. Finding a housepainter who will do a good job for a reasonable price is rare. But finding a housepainter who will do a good job for a reasonable price and clean out your air conditioner filter just because he was upset at how dirty it was? Bob McCourt leaves no detail unfinished when he takes on a job. He's been known to throw in such extras as helping to organize a garage or cleaning up an antique table (he paints and restores furniture as well). And to paint my living room and an old table (not to mention that air filter), it cost me less than most of the estimates I'd gotten for just the table. Pretty rare indeed. DA R.F. McCourt Painting Co., 215-882-0243 Best urban farmGreensgrow, a real farm smack in the middle of Fishtown, offers its own succulent salad greens and other veggies, as well many additional products from other organic Pennsylvania farmers. There is also an abundant supply of plants and flowers highly suitable for city flower boxes (they're in mine). Visiting this oasis rimmed by smokestacks, taprooms and rowhouses constitutes an act of sublime urban poetry. PB 2501 E. Cumberland St., 215-427-2702 Best revitalization of a former flophouse districtSigh. The Gayborhood isn't the same without the familiar critical mass of transsexual prostitutes, porn stores and addicts selling dime bags of oregano to Jersey boys. Nowadays, the Gabe is ready for its close-up thanks to the megawatt revitalization efforts of Goldman Properties. After a year-plus of trucks, scaffolding and construction din, Washington Square West sports two uber-trendy martini bars, a haute makeup boutique, a haute clothing boutique, two squeaky-clean, shiny pizza places and a bunch of empty storefronts ready to go. There's no escaping it: Wash West is chic. MB Best addition to city streetsThe honor boxes of The Philadelphia Independent gave a long-overdue goosing to one of the more mundane aspects of the newspaper business. Commissioning such artists as Tim Gough and David Kessler to repaint the sidewalk mainstays (the faux wood finishing on the Second and Market box, the teal and black combo on 18th and Walnut, etc.) helped them stand out on Center City street corners -- and invited readers to taste the quirky quarterly itself, a literate and welcome addition to Philadelphia's publishing scene. AM Biggest myth since the Jersey devilThe Inky slants its Mid-East coverage. HA New hat looks good awardSome of the liveliest writing in the "New" Inquirer comes from unexpected sources deep inside the Broad Street offices: long-time Inky editors. And most especially, the venerable editor who has handled everything from Weekend to Travel, Howard Shapiro, who turns out to be a very funny writer, showing us all that there is such a thing as a witty obit. JA Stickiest public art
When strolling down South Street, be sure to take a closer look at our oxygen-providing pals. For some inexplicable reason, most of the trees that line the street are covered with strategically placed -- and aesthetically pleasing -- pieces of chewing gum. What could easily be chalked up as yet another example of urban blight is actually a beautiful representation of the power of community. For the price of a stick of gum, folks from all walks of life can contribute to this colorful display of public art. The next time you're on South and looking to discard that tired piece of Bubbalicious, instead of inconsiderately spitting it to the ground, plant it on a nearby tree instead. You'll be participating in a vital piece of Philadelphia's culture. CC Best example of West Africa outside of West AfricaBaltimore Avenue from 45th to 50th streets is Philadelphia's closest approximation of a thriving neighborhood of West African culture. In the five-block radius, you are at least two times more likely to hear French and/or Francophone dialects being spoken than English. Or spot a gleaming Senegalese woman, for example, covered from head to toe in regal embroidered garments with her baby tied to her back. And there are African businesses aplenty: everything from restaurants (Le Dakar, Le Calebasse) to music lounges (Third World) to specialty food markets (Amigo's, Baltimore African Market), as well as electronics stores, boutiques and hair-braiding salons. Vive L'Afrique! HK Best new idea on South StreetCranky’s wares are a curious combination. In Jaci (pronounced Jack-ee) Gottheim's whistle-clean, family-run shop, a staggering selection of magazines -- one that would do the most grizzled London news agent proud -- stands at attention before a fairly lavish assortment of handbags. Gottheim says of the delightful incongruity, "My husband thought I was crazy. But I said, "Some guy thought of putting chocolate and peanut butter together, and he made Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Why not handbags and magazines?'" A handbag made of heavy-duty glossy? JC 234 South St., 215-923-5202 Worst airborne advertisementZooballoon. Is it a tourist attraction, a stealth billboard violating our anti-billboard regs or an eyesore? It's all three! A balloon to hover overhead and show off not just the zoo but an aerial view of the city is a great idea. But why is this one butt-ugly? No bright colors, just logo piled atop logo. It's a now-you-see-it-now-you-don't guerrilla ad infesting the otherwise green and lovely stretch of the River drives, promoting Channel 6, the zoo and who knows what next. MA Surliest service in a Philadelphia P.O.The Ben Franklin Post Office on Market Street between Third and Fourth streets gives tourists the true Philadelphia experience we're supposed to be shielding them from: our combination of Northern charm and Southern efficiency. Despite the fact that no one takes difficult postal transactions like registered mail and overnight delivery to the Franklin branch, the line still stretches out the lovely colonial wood door as postal clerks chat on the telephone instead of selling stamps or marking letters with the distinctive "B. Free Franklin" postmark. DBr 316 Market St., 215-592-1289 Best dentist to see when you have to get a root canalIt's depressing when your hygienist informs you that you need a root canal. The very thought of all that searing pain -- ouch! But if you have to get it done, the best endodontist to see for the procedure is Dr. Daniel Leung. His calm manner helps, but even better is the special pina-colada-tasting gel he smears inside your inner cheek before injecting you with the big needle that numbs the whole side of your head. The combination of the gel and Dr. Leung's technique makes the whole root canal experience rather painless. MP Medical Arts Building, Suite 1310, 16th and Walnut sts., 215-972-0181 Most liberating piece of public artThe “Freedom” sculpture in front of the GlaxoSmithKline building has undoubtedly prompted its share of double takes by commuters heading north on 16th Street or east on Vine. Created by Penn and PAFA grad Zenos Frudakis in 2000, the mammoth 7,000-pound bronze installation depicts four stages of, well, art imitating life. A full-size figurative fellow appears trapped mummy-style in the left side of the large metal rectangle, wrestles his head and shoulders free in the next section, then manages to force most of his torso out as a single leg touches the sidewalk and a hand reaches for Route 676. By the time we get to the far right, he is completely out of the wall and standing in the middle of the sidewalk with his arms thrown back in exuberance. If you look closely, Frudakis even carved the words "Stand Here" in the indentation where our subject once stood, inviting the public to become part of the work. JV GlaxoSmithKline, Franklin Plaza, 200 N. 16th St. Best comebackIt was almost poetically demoralizing: my all-time favorite store, military surplus and camping retailer The Original I. Goldberg, losing its lease because Thomas Jefferson University wanted to build a parking garage big enough to be seen from space. A city institution, a business so unique and eclectic it's a minor visitors' destination, evicted to make way for yet another lifeless concrete temple to the car gods. I was so ready to hate Philadelphia, the place that holds itself back. But then father and daughter co-owners Charles and Nana Goldberg found a new home just a few blocks away, at 1300 Chestnut, and hope to re-open in a matter of weeks. I'm so excited that I'm getting on Nana's nerves, what with my calling every two minutes to find out how construction is going. The new store will be smaller and somewhat less rustic. (I argued with Nana over this, contending that the peeling paint and musty smell were part of the Goldberg experience and screw those who don't get that, but she is wisely ignoring my advice.) But whatever the size and decor, it will still be the irreplaceable I. Goldberg, and Nana and Charles should be commended for not giving up on Philly. At a time when cities think salvation lies in becoming more like the suburbs and the 'burbs are thick with faux-urban chic, I. Goldberg keeps it real. FL Best stairway for imitating moves from FootlooseThe parking garage at Second and Walnut (next to the Ritz East) has by far the best stairs and banisters for drumming on and ricocheting off of -- you know, the way Kevin Bacon did when that oppressive smalltown minister tried to steal his groove. I would recommend that you do this when there is no else around but the people you came with. It's assumed they will still be with you when you're through. JL 
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