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Archive: June, 2009
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| Christina M. Felice |
Back in 2002, we ran a cover story about silver fillings. That's what the dentists were calling them, anyway
No health organization will dispute that mercury is a toxin: It arguably ranks as the second-most-poisonous compound on earth, after plutonium. What Brockman and her husband, Dr. Vincent DiLorenzo, discovered, in the years spent running a practice near Chestnut Hill, was that mercury inside a dental office is treated squarely as an industrial material; yet dentistry, they argue, is one of the few industries that has not sought to eliminate mercury from its day-to-day procedures. While Mercurochrome is no longer used in hospitals to disinfect cuts, nor are thermometers filled with the metal, the same mercury is habitually mixed with other metals and placed inside the mouths of patients, in one of the most common dental treatments: a "silver" filling.
Scary, right? Thankfully, just last month, City Council approved a bill that forces dentists to give their patients brochures about "silver fillings" and have them sign waivers before putting the deadly compound in their mouths. It's a big step and Philadelphia is the first city to sign such a bill but anti-mercury activists still aren't happy. Dr. Hal Huggins, who's been speaking out against the fillings since the '80s, is coming to Philly this Saturday to address what still needs to be done eliminate the fillings altogether, he says. "What is the legal limit for mercury in fish? Point-five parts per million. A half of one part per million," says the doctor. "But in a filling, you have 500,000 parts per million and that's OK. Does this make sense?"
Sat., June 6, 1-3 p.m., free, The Philadelphian, 2401 Pennsylvania Ave., Social Room A, register by e-mailing aynomercury@aol.com.
Don't know what to do tonight? Don't worry, we've got you covered.
Just in case you haven't seen this fabulous man in drag, singing beautiful songs and wearing beautiful dresses yet see him tonight.
Thu., June 4, 8 p.m., $10, L'Etage, Sixth & Bainbridge streets, 215-592-0656, creperie-beaumonde.com.
Don't know what to do tonight? Don't worry, we've got you covered.
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| Topic Sites |
So, I'm a little obsessed with this 21st Century Abe thing the Rosenbach has going on. (If you're not familar, it's a collaborative project between artists, musicians and anyone else who's nerdy enough, which imagines what Lincoln would be like today/why he still provokes us 140-some years later/how he comes up in everyday modern life.)
Anyway, it's continuing today with a discussion from Lincoln know-it-all Douglas Wilson, who will talk about Lincoln's brilliant rhetoric. It's pretty topical subject, strangely enough Wilson argues that Lincoln's verbal facility was not some superfluous, tricky talent used to fool people into thinking he was smarter than he really was, but rather, it was what made him a great political leader.
Sound familiar?
Wed., June 3, 6 p.m., $5-$8, Rosenbach Museum, 2008 Delancey Place, 215-732-1600, rosenbach.org.
Don't know what to do tonight? Don't worry, we've got you covered.
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A lesser known fact about Grant Hart, the drummer and songwriter for Hüsker Dü: He created nearly all of the band's visual artwork, including the bit above. Long estranged from the occasionally dysfunctional hardcore group, Hart has dabbled in both other bands and solo work since, and is currently exploring the latter.
His music appeals the fans of Hüsker Dü's lighter, more pop-driven pieces, and he's rather multitalented: In addition to creating art and music, he writes and reads poetry. Though he usually compartmentalizes the three talents, perhaps we can convince him to be interdisciplinary tonight if we tell him he's better than Greg Norton?
Tue., June 2, 8 p.m., $10, Johnny Brenda's, Frankford & Girard aves., 215-739-9684, johnnybrendas.com.
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Perhaps you're familiar with the annoying, yet incredibly enticing ad pictured to the right the one that's been on every damn Philly Web site for the past week. (Full disclosure: It's on ours. In fact, it's probably right below this post.)
The ad mysteriously read "She's coming home to PHILLY!" but didn't disclose who she was, leaving some of us to believe that she was the butt of every single "that's what she said" joke, Hall and Oates if they were a woman, or maybe God herself. (Because God would totally be a woman. And a Philadelphian.)
Either way, it had me Googling "She's coming home" a billion times and lying awake in viral marketing wonder for nights on end. Which would have been fine, if the ad was for anyone except Pink. Do you even remember Pink? Does Pink even have appropriately colored hair anymore? No, and no. But to the ad team in charge: Nice job anyway. I will probably end up buying a ticket while sleepwalking later tonight. Just a quick question, though: Why didn't you include Pink's mean abs in the silhouette?
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Don't know what to do tonight? Don't worry, we've got you covered.
Admit it: You've wanted to prove a vegetarian wrong before. Shit, I was a vegetarian for five years and I still want to prove 'em wrong but we rarely do, because they're often better versed about their diet than the average omnivore is.
In The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice and Sustainability, Lierre Keith argues that, despite their good intentions, plant eaters are just as guilty of devastating forests, killing entire species and changing the climate as their meaty counterparts. Our reliance on grain is the chief reason for this, Keith says, and to make a true difference, we must upend the agricultural industry all together. Or, in her own words:
We are urban industrialists, and we dont know the origins of our food. This includes vegetarians, despite their claims to the truth. It included me, too, for twenty years. Anyone who ate meat was in denial; only I had faced the facts. Certainly, most people who consume factory-farmed meat have never asked what died and how it died. But frankly, neither have most vegetarians.
See! Vegetarians are just as bad as meat eaters! Told ya told ya told ya! I can finally prove them wrong!
Oh, wait. I suppose that means I'm guilty too, huh? Thankfully, Keith also outlines how exactly we're supposed to crawl out of this agricultural mess a mighty task that will require both in-denial omnivores and in-denial vegetarians to finally face the truth.
Mon., June 1, 7 p.m., free, Big Blue Marble Bookstore, 551 Carpenter Lane, 215-844-1870, bigbluemarblebooks.com.
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